Keys to the Asylum A Dean, a Medical School, and Academic Politics

9780970102201

0970102208

Keys to the Asylum is the gripping story of one man's struggle to establish a 4 year medical school on the Urbana-Champaign campus of the University of Illinois. It reveals the dynamic tension between Dean Bloomfield & a host of ambivalent, at best, bureaucratic keepers of the asylum; i.e. university presidents, vice-presidents & provosts; chancellors, vice-chancellors, deans & executive deans etc. Armed with a 1969 Board of Trustees resolution which called for the university to develop a 4 year school when circumstances permitted, he found more antipathy to a complete medical school on the university's flagship campus than he could have imagined. Overcoming each of the many obstacles & stumbling blocks generated by senior administrators & others who, for largely fiscal reasons opposed the project, makes fascinating reading. The book's well written pages are replete with high drama that makes it a page turner of "The Perils of Pauline" variety affirming once again truth to be stranger than fiction. "A memoire of extraordinary interest which reads like a first rate suspense novel." "Riveting." A must-read for administrators in general & medical education by an author who has been called "The General Robert E. Lee of medical education." "A perfect title for an incredible journey." "A good read indeed. I couldn't put it down & finished it in about a day a half; all 488 pages of it." Available thru amazon.com, Pages for all Ages book store & New Medical Press, 2403 Lyndhurst Dr. Champaign, IL 61820. Telephone 217-351-9009; e-mail ; 488 pages, soft cover. ISBN 0-9701022-0-8. Retail $24.95 plus S&H $4.