Survivor College: Best Practices of Traditional and For-Profit Colleges.

By David Harpool, Aventine Press LLC, 2003, 119 pp., $12.95

For those looking to improve the operations of a university, David Harpool recommends hiring a bunch of clowns--but not to staff the faculty or administrative suites, mind you. Harpool advises IHEs to throw an annual family picnic, complete with entertainment, to boost the goodwill that employees feel toward their institution. This is just one of the practices in Survivor College, which examines ways to boost university effectiveness--for faculty and upper-level administration, even strategic planning. In an era that's seen more than its share of college closings and failures, one could do worse than to send in the clowns. The self-published book is available through most online booksellers.

--Jennifer Patterson

Lorenzetti