| Despite this quibble, I agree that the academy is a very conservative institution. Conservatives are, of course, those who have something to conserve. Professors seek to preserve their virtual monopoly on the generation of new knowledge and the transmission of significant old knowledge. Priests resisted print because it threatened their position as middlemen between God and their parishioners. That's what the Protestants were protesting about. When Martin Luther nailed his theses to the church door, the medium was part of the message. The knowledge monopoly passed from priests to professors, who are in turn resisting video- and computer-based media which threaten their privileged position. Our best hope for reform is to embrace video- and computer-based media so that we do not go the way of the priests who initially resisted print. In his limited focus on new media as delivery techniques for distance education (Pages 220-221), the author dismisses it too easily.
This is a tough-love plea for reform. Wilfred Cude has spent his life-time in and out of the institution and is obviously fond of it. He has acquired all the tools and mastered all the skills of the scholar. The sound you hear as you read his book is not the hammering of yet another nail into our coffin. He's one of us. It's a wake-up call, a heads-up message to ostriches in a very vulnerable position. We would do well to heed it.
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