This book is an expanded version of the Clark Kerr Lectures of 2012, delivered by Neil Smelser at the University of California at Berkeley in January and February of that year. The initial exposition is of a theory of change-labeled structural accretion-that has characterized the history of American higher education, mainly (but not exclusively) of universities. The essence of the theory is that institutions of higher education progressively add functions, structures, and constituencies as they grow, but seldom shed them, yielding increasingly complex structures. The first two lectures trace the multiple ramifications of this principle into other arenas, including the essence of complexity in the academic setting, the solidification of academic disciplines and departments, changes in faculty roles and the academic community, the growth of political constituencies, academic administration and governance, and academic stratification by prestige. In closing, Smelser analyzes a number of contemporary trends and problems that are superimposed on the already-complex structures of higher education, such as the diminishing public support without alterations of governance and accountability, the increasing pattern of commercialization in higher education, the growth of distance-learning and for-profit institutions, and the spectacular growth of temporary and part-time faculty.

Acknowledgments Chapter I: Dynamics of American Universities Apologia What Kind of Creature is Higher Education? Functions The Problematic Status of "Functions" Moral Embeddedness Structural Changes Accompanying Growth Increasing the Size of Units Segmentation of Units Differentiation Proliferation Coordination A Peculiar Case in Higher Education: Structural Accretion A Historical Sketch of the Process The Discipline-based Academic Department: So Strong and Yet So Frail The Organized Research Unit as Distraction from Departments Reactions and Conflicts Endemic in the Process of Accretion Conditions Producing the Endemic Pattern Two Long-term Consequences of Accretion The Structuring of Faculty Activities Implications for Academic Community Chapter 2: The Dynamics Ramify: Academic Politics, Conflict, and Inequality Instabilities Imposed on Inertial Stability Of Pythons and Goats Economic Fluctuations Competitors for Resources Relevance to Accretion Accretion and the Growth of Political Constituencies Internal Constituencies External Constituencies Accretion, Revenues, and Costs Accretion, Academic Administration, and Higher Education Politics Management as Science and Art Administration as Threat to Academic Culture Administration as Parkinsonian The Structural Alternative Implications for Shared Governance Accretion and Academic Stratification Institutional Prestige Multicampus Systems and Stratification Prestige Among Disciplines Chapter 3: Contemporary Trends: Diagnoses and Conditional Predictions An Unprecedented Perfect Storm Unproductive Paradoxes: Starvation, Accountability, and Governance General Consequences of Shifts in Support and Costs Accountability, Governance, and Support. The Many Faces of Commercialization The Language and Imagery of Corporatism and Its Consequences Consumerism Economizing as a Way of Life University-Industry Relations On-line Distance Instruction and the Rise of the For-profits Non-tenured and Part-time Faculty Implications for Tenure Excursus on Academic Freedom Coda References