The University of Pennsylvania Faculty: A Study in American Higher Education

Excellence in the University of Pennsylvania, as in other universities, exists or can be attained only by virtue of excellence in its faculties. Policies and procedures which improve the quality of the faculties are therefore vital to the well-being of the institution; and this conclusion - though a seeming truism - must be central to all thinking about the University\u27s future. The present study deals with this essential theme, which for the sake of brevity may be termed the faculty program. The subject relates to all the major purposes of the University, since these must be carried out - ultimately - by the academic staff. Moreover, it transcends the interests of particular schools or areas of learning, and cuts across the resulting boundaries of institutional structures and functions. Under these circumstances, a faculty program may seem so all-embracing as to be almost the equivalent of university policy as a whole. Yet faculties must admit, with becoming modesty, that they alone do not constitute the University of Pennsylvania. Studies of other essential elements in this or any similar institution - as of administrators or of students - will also ramify in all directions. Delimitation of themes here is a matter of focus and emphasis. The present study concentrates on the academic staff and considers other categories only in so far as they enter the resulting picture