SAINTS AND SCAMPS: Ethics in Academia

An eminently sane and sagacious discussion of university life, the art of teaching and the standards that should prevail for staff and students alike. Cahn outlines the preferred behavior of teachers and students in all the main sectors of college life. He demands adherence to high professional and personal ethics from everyone, but his idealism is rooted in practical experience and leavened with considerable wisdom. His saints are professors like one he describes who, though an outstanding scholar, was also an impeccable teacher, a colleague who was responsive and responsible in shouldering the tasks that keep an institution viable. And the scamps? Well, they take all forms. The reader has probably had some of them. They don't care, come late to class, are unprepared and try to duck every possible assignment outside of the classroom. Often their tenure gives them immunity to the strictures placed on ordinary mortals. Begrudging a day's work for a day's pay, they are a burden on the university and the bane of student and colleague alike. The author's bias--if indeed, it can be called that--is that he believes a professor should be a guide and a mentor who demands of himself an adherence to excellence. Much good sense in a handy package.