Dartblog

In the latest New Criterion, Bob Paquette, professor of history, tells the whole story of the Alexander Hamilton Center at Hamilton College.

A specially relevant extract:

Truth be known, I work on a beautiful campus with a critical mass of colleagues who are truly outstanding teachers and scholars. As an insider, I told a friend recently, whose high-school-age daughter was considering college, I could shepherd the student through an educational experience hard to beat anywhere else since I know the players and would insist that she take courses by professor, not by subject. That said, however, the story of the rise, fall, and rebirth of the AHC as the independent Alexander Hamilton Institute for the Study of Western Civilization (AHI) should serve as a cautionary tale for those seeking to sanitize the dark precincts and arcane corridors of the academy. Most trustees understand them dimly. They spend little time on campus. They visit perhaps three or four times a year. They have tight schedules and shepherded experiences that leave little room for information-gathering on their own. Detachment and arrogance tend not to breed discriminating judgment. Since successful businessmen predominate on most boards, crises tend to become a managerial problem resolved by thickening layers of the bureaucracy and by resort to public relations departments with little platoons of information managers who, along with some trustees, sincerely believe that image is reality.