The internal politics of colleges and the influence of a current emphasis on efficiency on the traditional independence of the academician are analyzed. It is suggested that the academician does not work in the same differentiated, and therefore interdependent, way as someone in industry or a bureaucracy. Academic activity is segmented, which removes the practitioner from many organizational operations because the academician's daily routine is not bound to that of others. This need for personal autonomy affects the attitude of the academician toward the university. Attention is directed to the following issues: the burden of comparing/evaluating teachers, teachers' preferences in the use of their time, means employed to allocate resources, scarce resources and time, policy and authority in the university, collegiality, program structure, small group theory applied to the department, faculty-administration tensions, the influence/power of the faculty, administrative structure and style, rational politics, the problem of pluralistic concepts, governing the college, collective bargaining and faculty unions, faculty contracts, academic freedom, employment practices, demands on the academician's time, and university authority. The analysis is based in part on 11 collective bargaining contracts. (SW)