University open-access policies as mandates
June 30th, 2009
“You can always tell a Harvard man…
but you can’t tell him much.”
— Source unknown
In the abecedary Harvard A to Z, in the entry under “Deans”, the story is told that “a president of the University of Virginia once received a letter requesting a university speaker for an alumni club meeting. To the club’s request that he not designate anyone lower than a dean, the president is alleged to have replied that there was no one lower than a dean.”
Why do deans get no respect? The reason, of course, is that the deanship is by reputation the quintessential position of responsibility without authority. You are in charge of a faculty who do what they will, not what you would have them. The phenomenon is sometimes referred to as “academic freedom”.
I bring this up in the context of questions about “open-access mandates”.
