The modern university is sustained by academic freedom; it guarantees higher education's independence, its quality, and its success in educating students. The need to uphold those values would seem obvious. Yet the university is presently under siege from all corners; workers are being exploited with paltry salaries for full-time work, politics and profit rather than intellectual freedom govern decision-making, and professors are being monitored for the topics they teach. This book offers a comprehensive account of the social, political, and cultural forces undermining academic freedom. It con ... More

The modern university is sustained by academic freedom; it guarantees higher education's independence, its quality, and its success in educating students. The need to uphold those values would seem obvious. Yet the university is presently under siege from all corners; workers are being exploited with paltry salaries for full-time work, politics and profit rather than intellectual freedom govern decision-making, and professors are being monitored for the topics they teach. This book offers a comprehensive account of the social, political, and cultural forces undermining academic freedom. It confronts these threats with frankness, and offers a prescription for higher education's renewal. In an insider's account of how the primary organization for faculty members nationwide has fought the culture wars, the book unveils struggles over governance and unionization and the increasing corporatization of higher education. The book calls on higher education's advocates of both the Left and the Right to temper conviction with tolerance and focus on higher education's real injustices. The book demands we stop denying teachers, student workers, and other employees a living wage and basic rights. It urges unions to take up the larger cause of justice, and challenges academic organizations to embrace greater democracy.