Cult of Expertise

The book also attacks Harvard's tenure process, which Trumpbour says is "remarkably closed off to other groups" in the decision making process.

"The book is a critique against the cult of expertise [in the administration] that tells people you can't get involved because these people know more than you do," he says. "But there is no lord-serf mentality, students can get involved."

Trumpbour says that the university would prefer for everybody to be passive and complacent, and he says that the thought that universities in general do breed the "assembly line" mentality that urges students to "punch into class and not challenge things." The goal of the essays is to provide students and other interested people a critical analysis into the University, and to spark activism and raise questions about policy.

Already one of the essays by Eugene Rivers '83 has sparked a minor controversy. Evans' article charges that the University never gave Dean of Students Archie C. Epps III a fair opportunity to be promoted to Dean of the College. Instead of Epps, who is Black, the University promoted former Dean of Admissions L. Fred Jewett '57 to the post.

A Black undergraduate group asked Bok to look into the charges. He refused, suggesting instead that the group speak to the administrators directly involved in the decision.

While Trumpbour says that he thinks the book will receive much enthusiasm and support from students and the community, he predicts that the University will try to denounce it.

"They will develop the typical forms of dismissal that they always do, calling a work 'unrigorous' or 'unscholarly' or saying that 'its goals are utopian', but the community will not ignore the significance of the work," he says.