College and Research Libraries


Recent Publications 
BOOK REVIEWS 

Bok, Derek. Higher Learning. Cambridge, 
Mass.: Harvard Univ. Pr., 1986. 206p. 
$15 (ISBN 0-674-39175-6). LC 86-9876. 
Derek Bok, president of Harvard Uni-

. versity since 1971, has written a book that 
should be read by academic librarians and 
by those aspiring to be. It is for the most 
part not a memoir, but a series of reflec-
tions and suggestions about teaching stu-
dents. 

Bok' s first chapter provides an overview 
of this country's higher education system, 
which he thinks differs from European in-
stitutions in three important respects. The 
first of these is the relative freedom from 
government control that our colleges and 
universities have enjoyed, public as well 
as private. In West Germany, for instance, 
the government can and sometimes does 
reject the university's choice for faculty 
appointments. The second distinguishing 
characteristic, and one receiving much 
emphasis throughout the book, is the ex-
tent of competition among American uni-
versities and colleges for faculty members, 
students, and funds, as well as in ath-
letics. Such competition leads to well-
publicized rankings of institutions, in-
cluding "even libraries" (p .15). An 
interesting point is that, apart from ath-
letics, the rankings of universities and 
professional schools have changed sur-
prisingly little over the years, because in a 
large university power is dispersed 
among many semiautonomous units, and 
consequently it is not easy for the relative 
position of the institution as a whole to fall 

or rise sharply. The third distinguishing 
characteristic of American universities is 
their responsiveness to a number of im-
portant constituencies-to faculty, 
alumni, students, prospective students, 
foundations, corporations, government 
agencies, and local community groups. In 
contrast, European constituent groups of-
ten ignore university administrators to 
take their cases to politicians and bureau-
crats. Bok finds the advantages of Ameri-
ca's decentralized and competitive system 
outweighing the disadvantages, although 
he is troubled that one significant result of 
our system is ''the willingness to tolerate 

. institutions of low quality" (p.28). 
Most of the author's best observations 

are directed at undergraduate education. 
Bok provides an excellent overview of the 
major positions in the recurring debates 
over the shape of the liberal arts curricu-
lum during the past century. Even better, 
he provides the astute and extremely rare 
critique of the curricular debates as largely 
irrelevant, because they give far too much 
attention to what students should learn 
and no attention to how they should learn. 
Faculty are among the most autonomous 
of professionals, and while they are will-
ing to discuss what should be taught, they 
are much less hospitable to suggestions 
about how to teach and evaluate their stu-
dents. "Hence, the fascination with cur-
riculum, so typical of American under-
graduate education, protects traditional 
faculty prerogatives at the cost of divert-
ing attention away from the kinds of in-

173 



174 College & Research Libraries 

quiry and discussion that are most likely 
to improve the process of learning'' 
(p.71). Especially troubling to Bok is the 
fact that colleges and universities pres-
ently have no adequate tools to evaluate 
the effects of undergraduate education or 
of particular instructional methods. ''The 
most basic need," he writes, "is to de-
velop serviceable methods for measuring 
students' progress toward common edu-
cational goals" (p.67). 

The book ignores graduate education, 
but a chapter is devoted to an interesting 
discussion of professional schools in law, 
medicine, and business. (Bok was dean at 
Harvard Law before he ascended to the 
presidency). Librarians will observe that 
some of the generalizations apply to li-
brary education as well. The subsequent 
chapter on "New Developments" focuses 
on continuing education, education for 
public service (with both of these themes 
being tied to professional education), and 
the "computer revolution." The greatest 
educational benefit of the new technol-
ogy, Bok believes, is that as more teachers 
begin to use it, they are bound to think 
more carefully about the teaching/learn-
ing process. (Certainly in many libraries, 
the imminent arrival of automation has 
prompted an examination of basic as-
sumptions about current procedures.) 

In ''Prospects for Change,'' his conclud-
ing chapter, Bok considers several devel-
opments in the social environment that 
help shape the agenda for higher educa-
tion. Among these is the vast and rapid 
growth of knowledge, illustrated by Har-
vard taking almost 275 years to obtain its 
first million books and only five years to 
acquire its last million. As a result of the 
knowledge explosion, there must be 
greater emphasis on continuous learning, 
more active forms of instruction, and 
more thought-provoking examinations 
and written assignments. Most important 
of all, ''universities need to make a sus-
tained effort to investigate the process of 
teaching and learning and to evaluate its 
effects on students" (p.176). The book's 
last section examines the process of educa-
tional reform. Bok contends that reform of 
higher education is not going to come sig-
nificantly from competition, from external 

March 1988 

pressure, or from the faculty, who tend to 
agree with the proposition that ''nothing · 
should ever be done for the first time" 
(p.186). Instead, we need to rely on strong 
deans, provosts, and presidents, working 
with "a willing faculty" (p.197). Ironi-
cally, academics become deans and presi-
dents and then have little time to pursue 
an intellectual agenda. "Instead, they 
must devote almost all their energies to 
the very administrative tasks for which 
they are so notably unprepared" (p.195). 

Unfortunately, Higher Learning has few 
footnotes and no bibliography or "Sug-
gestions for Further Reading''; it ignores 
research and graduate education entirely; 
it is not nearly so well organized as a 
whole as it is within its smaller units; and r 
it is never clear about why reforms need to 
be undertaken, other than the obvious 
point that things could always be better. 
"In sum," Bok both observes and admits, 
''American universities do not face a crisis 
or a utopia (p.200). Nevertheless, the book 
is sufficiently insightful in its parts, and 
particularly so regarding our infatuation 
with curriculum, to make it an important 
item on the reading lists of all workers in 
the higher education industry.-Richard 
Hume Werking, Elizabeth Coates Maddux Li-
brary, Trinity University, San Antonio, 
Texas. 

Newman, Frank. Choosing Quality: Reduc-
ing Conflict between the State and the Uni-
versity. Denver, Colo.: Education Com-
mission of the States, 1987, 121p. 
$10.50. 
Longtime leader and observer of higher 

education, Frank Newman, president of 
the Education Commission of the States, 
has in this brief work tackled the big and 
elusive problem of the pursuit of quality in 
the university. Rather than focusing solely 
on the university itself, Newman's thesis 
is that ultimately the achievement of qual-
ity depends upon a constructive relation-
ship between state government and the 
state university and the intermediary 
structures such as the multicampus sys-
tem office, the governing board, and the 
coordinating board. 

The quality that interests Newman per-
tains to overall university performance-