Culture, Intricacies, and Obsessions in Academia

John J. Hampton is a Professor of Business at St. Peter’s University in New Jersey and a principal in the Princeton Consulting Group. He was dean of the schools of business at Seton Hall and Connecticut State universities, and provost of the College of Insurance and SUNY Maritime College in New York City.

• ForewordPart 1. Welcome to the AcademyChapter 1. Do We Hear the Tolling of the Bell for Higher Education?Subtitle: “Are we Talking about Graves, Worms, and Epitaphs?Chapter 2. What’s All the Commotion About Culture, Professors, And Tenure?Subtitle: If We Change the System, Do We Change the World?Chapter 3. Would Anyone Care About my Own Stumbling Path into the Academy?Subtitle: Is my Truth Everybody’s Truth?Chapter 4. What Do Professors Believe and Why Do They Obsess About It?Subtitle: Who Says there’s a Difference Between my Beliefs and Madness?Chapter 5. Why does Controversy Swirl Around the Traditional Lecture?Subtitle: Can We Restore Confidence in an Old Fashioned Classroom?Chapter 6. What is your Problem with Students Sleeping in Class?Subtitle: Would it bother you if a Student asked you to Keep it Down?Part 2. The Professoriate.Chapter 7. What Is the Failure of Academic Formation?Subtitle: Did You Learn the Right Skills or Waste Your Time?Chapter 8. Why Do We Allow Intelligence Quotient to Crush Emotional Quotient?Subtitle: If We’re So Smart, Why do We Have To Be Nice?Chapter 9. Why Do Colleges and Universities Pay Professors?Subtitle: Do They Pay Me What I’m Worth?Chapter 10. Professor, Can you ever be Wrong?Subtitle: Do you Understand what Happens if you don’t Agree with me?Chapter 11. Who do you want in front of the Classroom?Subtitle: Are Professors Perfect In Every Way?Chapter 12. Why do Students Fail to Learn what I Fail to Teach?Subtitle: Why did Nobody Tell me Nothing about Teaching?Chapter 13. Why Would Anyone Agree To Be Department Chair?Subtitle: Does Agony, Stress, Conflict, and a Small Stipend Create Happiness?Part 3. Obstacles Litter the Pathway.Chapter 14. What Is the Conundrum of the Doctoral Dissertation?Subtitle: Even If You Get It Right, do You Get It Wrong?Chapter 15. Is It Worth All the Grief To Complete a Doctoral Dissertation?Subtitle: What Is The Link Between Dissertation Value And Degree Value?Chapter 16. Would Anyone Respect a Tripartite Dissertation?Subtitle: Can we Change Seven Centuries of Tradition?Chapter 17. Should You Do Whatever It Takes To Get Tenure?Subtitle: Should You Tell the Dentist Not to Use Novocain?Part 4. Help is on the Way.Chapter 18. Should We Bring in The Jesuits?Subtitle: What Do We Think About this Suggestion?Chapter 19. Is It Wartime or Peacetime for Colleges and Universities?Subtitle: Should We Praise The Lord And Pass The Ammunition?Chapter 20. Ph.D, Superstar, Do You Think You’re What You Say You Are?Subtitle: Is There Anything you Can’t do??Chapter 21. Why Don’t We Just Reform the Professoriate?Subtitle: “Couldn’t We Get So Much More Done if we didn’t have to Bother With Students?Chapter 22. Why does Reform Depend upon Liberals and Conservatives in the Academy?Subtitle: Conservatives don’t like Liberals but who Does?

John Hampton’s book perceptively identifies key issues that interfere with the ability of colleges to achieve their mission, maximize faculty effectiveness, and make student learning their priority. The author examines and critiques the conventional way faculty are trained, selected, and evaluated in departmental structures that are often dysfunctional. The book uses a question, analysis, and suggestion format that turns negative impressions toward positive solutions. Especially satisfying is the concluding section that illustrates how a “5 star” college could and should operate. Hampton’s book is filled with numerous stories from his own experience and insights drawn from sources not usually consulted when writing about education. The stories and insights make one laugh and think, a remarkable combination.