Publisher's Synopsis
A university campus is a remarkable place. It is a place of learning, scholarship, collegiality, inventiveness, and creation of knowledge that moves civilization forward. These coexist side by side with egotism, pettiness, petulance and personal rivalries. At the time I am speaking of, many a university was run by a scholar lacking experience or training to administer it, yet the institution continued to exist and function from day to day and from one year to the next, turning out graduates and publications at the steady rhythm of a metronome ceaselessly marking time. These two faces of a university campus are seen through the eyes of one who served as academic administrator under a succession of administrations. The campus of this novel cannot be found in listings of colleges and universities or on any map, because it does not exist. Neither does the mosaic of events described in this novel. Some might have happened at one time or another at some American university, but any similarity to actual events is purely coincidental. The characters depicted are completely fictitious, constructed with flesh and bones and endowed with features and character traits to fit their role in the unfolding drama. Any resemblance to living persons is fortuitous.
