100 Semesters:
My Adventures as Student, Professor, and University President, and What I
Learned Along the Way. William M. Chace. Princeton, NJ: Prince-ton
University Press, 2006. Pp. 368. $24.95, hardcover. ISBN: 0-691-12725-5. TEL:
609-258-5714 l FAX: 609-258-1335
Following a rocky start at Haverford College—William Chace was expelled
for “borrowing” silverware and readmitted only after completing
a year of manual labor—he joined the graduate program at University
of California-Berkeley during the time of the Free Speech movement. As a young
professor at Stillman College (1963-64), he spent a night in jail following
a civil rights protest. He participated in several contentious, high-profile
cases that hinged on issues of tenure, curriculum, and academic freedom while
he was an Associate Dean at Stanford University (1968-88).
His presidency at Wesleyan University (1988-94) was tested by racial tensions
that culminated in the firebombing of his offices. And as president of Emory
University (1994-2003), he waded through the charged waters of corporate donations
and fiscal responsibility at a time when researchers were increasingly being
pressured to work on income-generating projects.
This book is a strong critique of the current state of higher education. Chace
examines such questions as: How should sports integrate into campus life?
How does the business of education affect the purpose of education? And how
does campus life reflect what’s happening in the greater world?
Chace sees much to lament about American higher education—spiraling
costs, consumerism, institutional self-promotion, corruption of intercollegiate
sports, the melancholy state of the humanities—but finds even more to
praise in its strength and vitality
Click below to buy this book
