THE NAKED UNIVERSITY ©
How the age of Transparency Will Revolutionize Universities and Education
A Future OurTrent publication

If you have to be naked, you had better be buff. We are entering an extraordinary age of transparency, where businesses and universities must for the first time make themselves clearly visible to shareholders, customers, employees, partners, stakeholders, donors, faculty, students, parents, governments and society. Financial data, employee grievances, internal memos, environmental disasters, product weaknesses, international protests, scandals and policies, good news and bad; all can be seen by anyone who knows where to look. Welcome to the world of the Naked University ©!

Transparency is revolutionizing every aspect of our economy and our industries, and forcing firms to rethink their fundamental values. It is only a matter of time before universities and educators will similarly be forced to rethink the fundamentals of the management of universities, from the responsibilities of each member of the Board of Governors through to all levels of management. After all, universities are the training ground for our future leaders.

Don Tapscott, best selling author of The Naked Corporation and one of the most sought after strategists and speakers in the business world, is famous for seeing into the future and pointing out both its forest and its trees. Tapscott is the favorite son of his alma mater Trent University. His wife, Ana Lopes, who is on the board of Trent University provided "valuable ideas and advice" to The Naked Corporation. David Ticoll, co-author of The Naked Corporation, visionary researcher, columnist, and consultant, has identified countless breakthrough trends at the intersection of technology and business strategy.

Ken Brown, who has first hand experience on the "firing line" and in the essential roll of Information Technology in the future of the university and education, will invite Tapscott, Lopes and Tricoll (among others, including Joel Bakan) to contribute to a proposed future publication: "The Naked University ©". The Naked University © will explain how the new transparency is causing a power shift toward students, parents, employees, faculty, alumni and other stakeholders, as well as why university Boards and managers are so threatened by transparency, accountability and public scrutiny. It will explain how and where information has exploded; and how some leading universities have seized on transparency not as a challenge but as an opportunity. The Naked University © might be considered a natural sequel to Joel Bakan's "The Corporation" as well as Tapscott and Tricoll's The Naked Corporation

Drawing on such examples as fall of Enron, the Canadian Federal Sponsorship scandal, the shadow of Adelphi (and Lionel Lewis' publication When Power Corrupts), the Canadian Charities Act, the Conrad Black/Hollinger saga, the financial and legal woes that plague Trent University, and other matters of law and ethics, including encouragement and legal protection for whistleblowers, Freedom of Information legislation, the role and obligations of members of Boards of Governors, "The Naked University" © offer invaluable advice on how to lead educational institutions in the new age, rather than simply react to it. The Naked University © will demonstrate that embracing transparency and accountability in the management of universities is within the interests of the institution and the public. It will show definitively that it is within the best interests of the institution to immediately terminate the employment of those individual managers (including presidents) who are threatened by having to be accountable, or cannot in fact live up to accountability standards.

The Naked University © is a book for students, parents, employees, faculty, alumni and other stakeholders and anyone who cares about the future of the university and society. A new age is upon us, and you can either work with it and thrive, or fight it and die.

This text was adapted from Tapscott's "The Naked Corporation" publicity material.