The Missing Professor: An Academic Mystery,
Thomas B. Jones: Stylus Publishing, 2006.
Reviewed by Susan J. Marnell Weaver, Director of Teaching and Learning, University of the Cumberlands

R. Reynolds Raskin, an irascible tenured professor, disappears leaving his new colleague and office mate, philosophy professor Nicole Adams, to unlock the mysteries of his whereabouts while she negotiates the mysteries of survival at Higher State University. No one else seems to care so she is left to her own initiative.

Nicole is a gutsy woman who fearlessly explores the secret and sometimes sordid past of key players in the university so that she can get to the bottom of things. She is equally gutsy in finding ways to control her career as she decides how to deal with the long list of pressures that new faculty typically face such as committee work, student demands, chilly climate, campus politics, and so forth. She also has pressure from her mentor who cannot appreciate that there is great competition for few available faculty positions and she needs to find a job so that she can repay her student loans. Nicole's most realistic option is to settle for less than she deserves. All of this is complicated by her apparent desire to have a personal life, too.

This story reveals a world of past and present deception within the campus of Higher State University. One has to wonder what happened to the ideals that gave rise to the institution in the 1960's as the university succumbs to new millennium politics, values, and individualism. With this convention, the

author challenges readers to contrast the historical roots with the current realities of higher education. Jones is a former history professor who makes the reader aware that knowledge of the past provides a heightened awareness of issues and inconsistencies in higher education today. Furthermore, a description of Jones on the Center for Teaching and Learning at the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities web page (http://www.ctl.mnscu.edu/events/regsems/ners/speakers.html) reveals that he is committed to involving people in creating their own definitions, visions, and goals. A similar expectation is conveyed through this book as the story and discussion prompts help the readers to understand the trends and unwritten rules as well as their roles in shaping higher education.

In addition to figurative machinations, one can literally read this book in several ways. If you begin at the front cover then you find a light mystery with embedded academic conundrums. If you turn it upside down and begin at the back, you find specific text references to use as case studies as well as discussion prompts that cover a range of issues such as student incivility, faculty governance, power vacuums, admission standards, etc. Readers can even critique sample faculty evaluation forms associated with Higher State University's "Push the Pedagogy" initiative. There are also prompts that provide impetus to discuss bigger issues such as the relevance of education in the twenty-first century as well as personal issues relating to values, expectations, and goals.

Thomas B. Jones, wrote this book as an outgrowth of case studies that he used in a series of faculty seminars. This book provides an ideal vehicle for faculty development because it is a fun read that involves timely issues. Unlike the book that he co-authored with Chet Meyers, Promoting Active Learning: Strategies For the College Classroom (1993, Josey-Bass), this book offers questions rather than solutions. He draws on his 35 years in higher education as a professor, faculty developer, education consultant, and administrator to help the reader understand deep implications of common situations. He then leaves it to the reader to negotiate the quest.

On the back cover of this book, Ed Nuhfer, Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning at Idaho State University, indicates that this book is ideal for an inclusive discussion with faculty, staff and administrators. I think that it would be interesting to include students in the discussions, too. It provides insights to professors' expectations through statements like "While no errors glared from the first page of "Brianna Brooks' essay, she hadn't built a reasoned argument using the reading sources and lectures" (p. 72). Students can read this book and learn how faculty really react when they learn that half of the class has not purchased a book required for a major assignment a week before the assignment is due.

Personally, I liked the story but felt most challenged by the issues raised. This book took me through a thought provoking journey laced with metaphors created by romance, costume parties, an attack cat, and a hijacked stolen auto. Anyone in higher education would enjoy hours in discussion groups talking about the many facets of the text and subtext. They will also pick up on the need to support, sustain and motivate professors.

So what happened to Dr. Raskin?  You will need to solve many mysteries in order to find out.