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Show Copyright © 2001. All rights reserved. Weingartner, Rudolph H. The Moral Dimensions of Academic Administration. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 1999. Pp. 187. $29.95 (paper). This book contains "no ethical theorizing ... nor are there metaethical discussions" (p. xii). Weingartner outlines what he takes to be the obligations of academic administrators, with the aim of convincing the reader that his perceptions are accurate. His experience as an academic administrator gives him a good overview of the challenges facing higher education and its academic administrators. The appendices contain well-chosen samples of working documents on the topic. It is unfortunate that Weingartner's experience is only at research universities. At certain points he misses differences in other types of institutions (see, e.g., 670 Ethics April 2001 the discussion of the role of research and the obligations pertaining thereto, chap. 5); at others, his remarks seem condescending (see, e.g., the discussion of what he terms pedagogical research, chap. 5). The most disappointing aspect of the book, however, lies in Weingartner's sidestepping of some of the greatest challenges facing academic administrators today (consumerism, for-profit institutions, the corporate model, unionization). He holds that if carried too far, these trends reduce educational institutions to businesses, properly treated in texts on business ethics. This is too quick, ignoring the hard issues facing academic administrators striving to maintain the educational character of their enterprise, while dealing with realities they cannot escape. P. L. H. |
