To Rise Above Principle

Writing under a pseudonym, the dean of an American universityalso unidentifiedhere recounts good and bad experiences as an administrator in the groves of academe. Martin candidly admits that he finds it ""exhilarating to be a dean'' after being a professor: to be involved in the bustling activity of hiring and firing faculty, to deal with tenure problems and, perhaps primarily, to hone his skill for taking on the concerns of staff, students and their parents. What he describes, in a lighthearted way, is his on-the-job training to become a dean, which requires spending much time ``with difficult people, in circumstances where no really satisfactory solution is in the cards.'' Martin ridicules shibboleths rampant in large American universities as he exemplifies the commonsense and practicality that, he concludes, are at a premium for deans. (May)