In One Hundred Semesters, William Chace mixes incisive analysis with
memoir to create an illuminating picture of the evolution of American
higher education over the past half century. Chace follows his own
journey from undergraduate education at Haverford College to teaching at
Stillman, a traditionally African-American college in Alabama, in the
1960s, to his days as a professor at Stanford and his appointment as
president of two very different institutions--Wesleyan University and
Emory University.
Chace takes us with him through his decades in education--his expulsion
from college, his boredom and confusion as a graduate student during the
Free Speech movement at Berkeley, and his involvement in three
contentious cases at Stanford: on tenure, curriculum, and academic
freedom. When readers follow Chace on his trip to jail after he joins
Stillman students in a civil rights protest, it is clear that the ideas
he presents are born of experience, not preached from an ivory tower.
The book brings the reader into both the classroom and the
administrative office, portraying the unique importance of the former
and the peculiar rituals, rewards, and difficulties of the latter.
Although Chace sees much to lament about American higher
education--spiraling costs, increased consumerism, overly aggressive
institutional self-promotion and marketing, the corruption of
intercollegiate sports, and the melancholy state of the humanities--he
finds more to praise. He points in particular to its strength and
vitality, suggesting that this can be sustained if higher education
remains true to its purpose: providing a humane and necessary education,
inside the classroom and out, for America's future generations.