Beyond the Ivory Tower

Social Responsibilities of the Modern University

ISBN 9780674068988

Publication date: 01/01/1984

Derek Bok examines the complex ethical and social issues facing modern universities today, and suggests approaches that will allow the academic institution both to serve society and to continue its primary mission of teaching and research.

Praise

[Bok] brings to the task a keenly analytical mind and an acute sensitivity to the configurations of institutional power and conflict.

—New York Times Book Review
Derek Bok presents an extremely well written, thoughtful, and cogent analysis of some of the most complex and emotional issues before higher education today.

—Washington Post Book World
An important treatise, the first serious attempt since Clark Kerr’s 1963 The Uses of the University to analyze the role of the university in modern society… The book serves as a starting point for what is likely to be the most important university debate in the decade ahead.

—Los Angeles Times Book Review
Discerning and informative…this book speaks also to the tax-payers, parents and philanthropists who pay for schooling, and the corporations and consumers who have a growing stake in university-based research.

—Philadelphia Inquirer
A reasoned, compassionate and ultimately conservative view of the university’s moral foundation and responsibility to society… [Bok] expresses his radical belief in the necessity of academic freedom while noting the strings that are attached to that freedom… As a rough roadmap of one way universities can proceed…this book is a catalyst and a success.

—San Francisco Chronicle