Synopses & Reviews
Fresh out of graduate school and desperate to pay off her student loans, Nicole Adams joins the faculty at Higher State U, a small university with a dubious past located in the middle of the Midwest. On her second day of classes as a new assistant professor of philosophy, still flustered and disoriented, Nicole is plunged into a campus-wide mystery. Someone has ransacked the office she shares with the ill-tempered R. Reynolds Raskin, the department's senior professor, and he has since disappeared. Two weeks later, with Raskin still missing, Nicole receives a threatening phone call . . .Read one way, this is an entertaining parody of an academic mystery and a humorous take on academic life. Turning the book upside down reveals another purpose. Each chapter is constructed as an informal case study/discussion story, as is made manifest by a series of discussion questions intended for faculty development, new faculty orientation, and conversations among faculty, administrators, and academic staff. As the mystery unfolds, each chapter finds Nicole encountering challenging situations-such as, the first day of class, student incivility, teaching evaluations, peer observation, academic assessment, the scholarship of teaching and learning, faculty and student rights and responsibilities, core curricula, and tenure standards. This little book can be read and used both ways: as pure entertainment and as a series of informal case studies, spiced with humor, to help break down academic barriers and promote spirited discussions
Synopsis
With more than a few misgivings but desperate to pay off her loans, Nicole Adams, a newly minted Ph.D. in philosophy, accepts an assistant professorship at Higher State, a small state university in the middle of the Midwest. Little does she suspect that on just her second day, still flustered and disoriented in new her surroundings, she'll be plunged into a mystery. Crusty R. Reynolds Raskin, with whom she uneasily shares an office, disappears after his desk and files have been ransacked. The police are called. Two weeks later, with Raskin still missing, Nicole receives a threatening phone call... Read one way up, this is an entertaining parody of an academic mystery that satirizes the ways of academe. Turning the book upside down reveals another purpose: each chapter is in fact a case study, as is revealed by a series of discussion questions intended for faculty orientation and development. As the mystery unfolds, each chapter shows Nicole encountering testing situations such as student incivility and sexual harassment, problems with her first day of class, dilemmas concerning teaching evaluation and peer observation and issues related to assessment, classroom technology and the rights of faculty and students, among others. This little book can be read and used both ways: as pure entertainment or as a series of cases whose humorous presentation will break down academic barriers and promote spirited discussion.
Synopsis
Read one way up, this is an entertaining parody of an academic mystery and a humorous take on academic life. Turning the book upside down reveals another purpose. Each chapter is constructed as an informal case study/discussion story, as is made manifest by a series of discussion questions intended for faculty development, new faculty orientation, and conversations among faculty, administrators, and academic staff.