Section three includes essays written by and/or about academic administrators at various levels of the institution. They address the multiple challenges and contradictions faced by those charged with leading their universities and working with multiple constituencies in the changing academic climate.

Yesterday and Today:
Universities and the Growth of the Market Model by Howard Woodhouse, Higher Education Theorist and Policy Analyst, University of Saskatchewan.

Some university presidents today are well aware of the dangers to universities posed by the value program of the market model. They recognize the importance of interests other than their own, or of big business, and support the idea of universities sharing knowledge for the common good. Their arguments against the privatization of undergraduate education and the commercialization of research provide hope for an alternative direction in which universities are freed from the overriding demands of the market's value program.

A Postcard from the Belly of the Beast
by Janice Ristock Women's and Gender Studies Scholar, University of Manitoba.

If research funding is made available only to support the mandate of government agencies, we will lose the deeply critical, curiosity-driven research undertaken by individual researchers. In some disciplines, research funding is being used as the strongest indicator of success for promotion and tenure. How much money would Judith Butler's research cost, or bell hooks's, or Michel Foucault's, for that matter? How do we ensure that we value the scholar who has never received a grant, but who might be making a significant contribution to knowledge and establishing an international reputation?

How Can One Be Persian in the Canadian Academy?
by Nasrin Rahimieh, Humanist, McMaster University/University of California at Irvine.

During my three years as dean, I saw myself hailed at once as a visionary and a villain. I came to view this polarity as reflective of the changing times and I continued to adhere to my belief that I could serve my Faculty of Humanities without abandoning its most cherished ideals of university education. I did not always succeed in translating this vision to all my colleagues. Some would continue to regard me with suspicion, and I, in turn, learned to accept their need for distance. Needless to say, such moments were the most difficult for me to negotiate and made me feel an isolation that threatened to erode my sense of belonging to the community of scholars I had imagined I would serve. The fact that shrinking resources forced me to make difficult choices could hardly endear me to my fellow academics. Being one of them, I could understand their frustration, but I would hold onto the belief that evaluation, ranking, and benchmarking were at the very core of the educational enterprise.

The Paradoxes of Academic Administration
by Mary Ellen Purkis, Nurse and Social Practice Theorist, University of Victoria.

... it is also possible that, while I deny any interest in playing this game of internal competition, I am well aware that there is a certain pride that attains to those deans who are acknowledged, at the end of the term, as having met their targets. And this is not an unsubstantial recognition. Budget requests submitted on the heels of a successful period of enrolment are met much more positively than when one has to make the case, for perhaps the third year in a row, that, with just a small increase in base budget, a struggling academic unit could flourish-trust me!