Baby/bathwater proposal, or a much-needed revolutionary idea?

As an interesting follow up to Friday’s post, in which I talked about publishing as one of those industries going through major shifts right now, Mark C. Taylor’s op-ed from Sunday’s New York Times, “End the University as We Know It,” proposes a BIG shake-up for universities in general.

Taylor, chair of the religion department at Columbia, offers six big ideas for revamping universities for the 21st century. He touches on several issues of particular interest to university presses – including the publication of dissertations – and proposes major reforms for graduate curricula and professional development, department structures, inter-institutional collaboration, and, the real zinger at the end: the abolition of tenure.

Worth reading and talking about.

–ellen