cover image The University: An Owner's Manual

The University: An Owner's Manual

Henry Rosovsky. W. W. Norton & Company, $19.95 (309pp) ISBN 978-0-393-02782-2

This manual by a Harvard economics professor and former campus administrator is an uneasy mix of self-congratulatory personal memoir, college admissions guide for students and parents, and vigorous defense of American higher educaton. Rosovsky reaffirms the value of a liberal arts education, judging U.S. universities to be more democratic than their Japanese or European counterparts, and arguing that more than two-thirds of the world's best colleges are in the U.S. He discusses the hazards and rewards of teaching, advocates a core curriculum, outlines guiding principles for administrators and defends the tenure system as a ``social contract'' ensuring high-quality faculty. He is eloquent when upholding the mission of the university as keeper of the cultural flame. (Mar.)