Decay of Ivy

A professor at a state university in Florida having been denied tenure and fed up with the declining quality of higher education takes drastic action to try and bring constructive change to the educational system. He kidnaps his university president and holds him hostage demanding that Florida’s deteriorating state university system implement a series of changes to raise its level of quality. He reveals his views and proposals in a series of video tapes which are televised by a metropolitan TV station. A strict deadline for passage of reform legislation is a dramatic element in the story as the professor threatens to “execute” his hostage if his proposals are not carried out...immediately.The state’s university control board the legislature and the governor willfully delay proceedings as the fateful deadline nears. Combined law enforcement efforts reveal nothing of the whereabouts of the professor or his hostage. They are stymied as the climax arrives.The book unveils the reality of the nation’s higher education system as it sinks gradually but surely into a bureaucratic morass of self-serving obeisance to political correctness and over-emphasized affirmative action.Solutions to the situation are suggested by the professor as he tries to curb his frustration at so much waste of human talent by people in the system who care little or nothing for true educational excellence...a term that has become meaningless. The days of George Orwell’s doublespeak as portrayed in his 1984 novel have indeed arrived and are thriving in the universities of the land.The story’s conclusion is shockingly dramatic and in general totally unexpected. The book is a thoughtful narrative told by a long time university professor who uses reality-based fiction to provide this wake-up call for all Americans...to heed or to ignore at their peril.