University Press Week – Testimonials

University presses have a broad influence in society, and their value is recognized by scholars, writers, booksellers, policy shapers, and public intellectuals of all kinds. The following testimonials show that recognition in these individuals’ own words.

“University presses cover it all, and all of us benefit from their work.” —Dr. Robert A. Gates, former Secretary of Defense, former CIA director, and former president of Texas A&M University

“What words to describe the university press? Patient, ambitious, demanding, sustaining, generous, utterly essential. Serious thinking is unimaginable without it.” —William Germano, Dean of Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the Cooper Union

“The role of the university press in the life of book publishing—indeed the life of the mind—has never been more crucial.” —Harold Holzer, Senior Vice President, External Affairs, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

“May the university presses long be sustained in their important imprint, their calling, and their accomplishments.” —Steven Isenberg, Executive Director, PEN American Center

“University presses keep serious intellectual discourse alive in a nation where the profit motive holds greater and greater sway.” —Mark D. Naison, Professor of African American Studies and History, Fordham University, and Principal Investigator, Bronx African American History Project

“University Presses have a unique and sustaining value in shaping, representing, and communicating the best of academic research to a broad public. All academics have a stake in their success.” —James J. O’Donnell, Provost, Georgetown University

“If we are to have a life of the mind, we need carriers of this life. University presses perform that essential function.” —Jay Parini, poet, novelist, and biographer

“University presses serve an invaluable function in bringing titles to the public that have a small but intense readership.” —Edmund White, novelist

For full quotes and a complete list of testimonials, go to http://www.aaupnet.org/events-a-conferences/university-press-week/university-press-week-2012/testimonials. For more information on University Press Week, visit www.universitypressweek.org.