“At Berkeley” is not “At College”

Here is the pre-review I posted on the New York Times movie site. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/08/movies/at-berkeley-a-documentary-by-frederick-wiseman.html?ref=movies&_r=0#preview

“I’m a former math professor. I worry that viewers of “At Berkeley” will leave with an impression of colleges and universities.  That would be a big mistake.  It is not true that “a college is a college is a college”.  I only wish that “At Berkeley” had a “caveat emptor” epilogue that filmed the Chairman of a Department at an “elite” university laughing while telling me that if he wanted to impart mathematical knowledge to students he wouldn’t start with a course that MIT calls fundamental to engineers and scientists, or a Dean of Academic Integrity replying to my email that included that many students were cheating by telling me that retention is important.

So when you see “At Berkeley”, remember that it is “At Berkeley”.  If the audiences don’t do that, it will just become easier for unscrupulous professors and administrators..

(Anyone who wants to read about the incident I talked about can go to A Tale Out of School – A Case Study in Higher Education on my blog inside-higher-ed.com)”