On the Cover

There’s a certain disdain among academics for administration, whether referred to as “bean counting” or rendered an enemy with the addition of the word the. But as Peter N. Miller argues in this month’s cover story, the history of academic administration must include its capacity to shape intellectual productivity, even entire fields. Individual administrators have brought scholars together, preserved archives and libraries, and stabilized institutions. A largely untapped history thus lies in the files of administration. Photo: Sailko/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 3.0.