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9780195126822

Gone for Good Tales of University Life after the Golden Age

by
  • ISBN13:

    9780195126822

  • ISBN10:

    0195126823

  • Format: Hardcover
  • Copyright: 1999-09-02
  • Publisher: Oxford University Press

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Summary

Amid the clamorous debates on political correctness, the Western canon, and alcohol abuse on campus, many observers have failed to notice the most radical change in the American University: the Golden Age of massive government funding is gone. And, as Stuart Rojstaczer points out in this incisive look at higher education, the consequences are affecting virtually every aspect of university life. Laced with humorous and insightful anecdotes, Gone for Good is a highly personal tour of the university system as it has evolved from the glory days of phenomenal post-WWII growth to the financial stresses that now beset it. Stuart Rojstaczer, professor of Hydrology at Duke, shows how almost unlimited funding during the Cold War years encouraged universities to become unwieldy behemoths--with ever-enlarging faculties and administrative staffs, an explosion of new buildings that are proving costly to maintain, and a parade of programs designed largely to impress other universities. Rojstaczer asserts that despite the scarcity of new funding sources, universities continue to strive for unlimited growth--with disastrous results: skyrocketing tuition (well over $20,000 per year at top tier schools); desperate attempts to increase enrollments (lower standards, inflated grades, and new majors in some rather implausible areas of study); and increasing pressure on faculty who already spend more time researching than teaching to raise more money through research grants. The time has come, Rojstaczer argues, to abandon an outmoded idea of growth and create a leaner university system more beneficial to both students and society. For parents, students, and anyone interested higher education, Gone for Good offers a vivid account of the crossroads where universities now stand--and a compelling argument about which path they should take.

Author Biography

Stuart Rojstaczer is Associate Professor of Geology, Environment and Engineering, and Director, Center for Hydrologic Science at Duke University.

Table of Contents

Prefacep. ix
Introduction: why no one seems to know, even my mother, what I do at workp. 1
Undergraduate Life
Lowering the Bar: why we have such low intellectual expectations for students even though they could easily do morep. 13
The Prestige Business: what services the university provides students and why we charge so much for tuitionp. 27
Shortening the Yellow Brick Road: why we have made college easier, yet no one seems to mind or carep. 37
The Sports Machine: how universities entertain their students and alumni and why and how we've crossed the line of good judgmentp. 47
Research and Graduate Education
Heart and Soul: why graduate students are often more important than professorsp. 61
Grants or Goodbye: why we spend so much time writing our grant proposalsp. 72
Why Research?: what professors do when they don't teach and why they do itp. 84
Campus Politics
Matchmaking: how we hire and why we move to other universitiesp. 95
The End of the Golden Age: why the era of exponential growth has ended and why it's a good thing that it's overp. 106
Shaking the Tree: why universities are increasingly turning to alumni, foundations and corporations, and what they will and will not do in exchange for moneyp. 119
You've Got to Believe: why we blindly follow the latest trends in academic fashion even though it makes us look ridiculousp. 129
The Fifty Percent Solution: why there are so few female professors, and why there aren't likely to be more in the foreseeable futurep. 140
Making Adjustments: how to adapt to the life of a professor without getting too crazyp. 152
Getting Tenure: what it takes to get tenure, why standards have risen, and why they will continue to risep. 163
Rolling the Dice: why the American university is still valuable even though it looks to be in such a messp. 178
Table of Contents provided by Syndetics. All Rights Reserved.

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