One Hundred Semesters: My Adventures as Student, Professor, and University President, and What I Learned along the Way

365 Pages·2006·0.92 MB·English

by  William M. Chace

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WILLIAM M. CHACE
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS
PRINCETON AND OXFORD
Copyright © 2006 by Princeton University Press
Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540
In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press,
3 Market Place, Woodstock, Oxfordshire OX20 ISY
All Rights Reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Chace, William M.
One hundred semesters : my adventures as student, professor, and university
president, and what I learned along the way / William M. Chace.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-691-12725-5 (hardcover : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-691-12725-5
1. Education, Higher—United States. 2. Universities and colleges—
United States. I. Title.
LA227.3.C455 2007
378.73—dc22
2006000727
British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available
This book has been composed in 11/14 Sabon
Printed on acid-free paper. ∞
pup.princeton.edu
Printed in the United States of America
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
To
Grace Murdough Chace
Who, with Love, Taught Me the Best Questions
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CONTENTS
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
1.I Knew Exactly What I Was Doing 6
2. Haverford—the Guilty Reminder 11
3. And All Will Be Well 22
4. The Readiness Is All 35
5. Berkeley: Thoroughly Unready 47
6. The Discipline of Literature 57
7. A New Kind of Proletariat 69
8. Going South 77
9. Reading in Jail 88
10. Poetry and Politics 97
11. The Storehouse of Knowledge 110
12. Unfolding the Origami of Teaching 121
13. Tenure and Its Discontents 134
14. Tenure Tested 143
15. Teaching and Its Discontents 153
16. The English Department in Disarray 165
17. Why Join the Administration? 177
18. Exchanging Reflection for Action 188
19. Diversity University 198
20. Marching to a Different Drummer 208
viii Contents
21. The Puzzle of Leadership 222
22. Looking at Success; Looking at Failure 240
23. Learning and Then Leaving 252
24. A School with Aspirations 270
25. Being a Proprietor 287
26. Real Power and Imaginary Power 306
27. “A King of Infinite Space” 327
Index 339
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Here I thank many people who helped me with this book. Not one
of them is responsible for any of its errors or missteps:
The invaluable Murray Sperber, who said I could do it; Bill
Wyman, who said I should do it; David M. Kennedy and Luke
Johnson, who said I had done it.
At Haverford College: Tom Tritton, Diana Peterson, Robert Kieft,
Tom Tredway, and John Douglas. At the University of California at
Berkeley: Carol Soc, Judy Siu, and Lee Parsons. At Stillman College:
Robert Heath. At Stanford University: Margaret J. Kimball and
Paddy McGowan. At Wesleyan University: Nathanael Greene,
Stewart Gillmor, Suzy Taraba, Dianna S. Hyland, and Greg
Waldron. At Emory University: Gary Hauk, Daniel Teodorescu,
Nancy Reinhold, Julia Perreault, Frank Stout, and Linda Kesselring.
And: Joanne Creighton at Mount Holyoke College, William
Adams at Colby College, Merrill Schwartz at the Association of
Governing Boards, Judith McLaughlin at the Graduate School of
Education at Harvard University, Robert Birnbaum at the
University of Maryland, Amy Elizabeth Schmidt at the College
Board, and Aurora D’Amico at the United States Department of
Education.
I know I could never have written what is here without the
counsel, encouragement, and bracing wisdom and love of my
wife—JoAn.