A knowledgeable and experienced educator deftly shares the story of leading a university through challenging times.
A college administrator reflects on his life and career, using his experiences as a road map for other leaders.
In this debut memoir, Muller focuses primarily on his role as president of Bellevue University, which he ran for more than two decades. The book traces Bellevue’s path from its founding in the 1960s by earnest academics determined to bring a strong liberal arts culture to a small Nebraska city, through a period of dysfunction and financial mismanagement, to a re-evaluation of its mission and success as one of the leading providers of online and corporate education. Muller explains the thinking that went into his leadership and decision-making, offering Bellevue’s story as an object lesson for other executives struggling to reinvent their organizations and as “a Midwestern cultural success story,” with location a key element of the school’s development. He demonstrates how the school was able to thrive by understanding that adult learners were its core constituency. The college focused on them rather than accommodating the needs of recent high school graduates, designing programs that allowed these older students to combine academics with their workplace experience. At the same time, Muller’s skepticism about Bellevue’s evolution since his retirement also allows the book to serve as a cautionary tale, demonstrating the challenges of moving forward after the departure of a single committed leader. Although the book is occasionally repetitive, particularly when it comes to reminding the reader that the goal of Bellevue’s founders was to create a “blue collar Harvard,” Muller displays a talent for pithy descriptions, like his first look at the utilitarian campus: “I thought I had arrived at the back end of a supermarket.” The result is a concise narrative that is both readable and practicable, offering insights into one of the less glamorous aspects of higher education while presenting strategies for change that can be applied to industries far removed from the world of academia.
A knowledgeable and experienced educator deftly shares the story of leading a university through challenging times.Pub Date: March 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4575-3740-0
Page Count: 168
Publisher: Dog Ear
Review Posted Online: May 24, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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