Crisis in the Academy: Rethinking Higher Education in America

Not since student turmoil and unrest wreaked havoc on the nation's campuses three decades ago has American higher education been the subject of so much controversy and popular criticism. Vital issues confronting today's institutions of higher learnin... Read more

Not since student turmoil and unrest wreaked havoc on the nation's campuses three decades ago has American higher education been the subject of so much controversy and popular criticism. Vital issues confronting today's institutions of higher learning include: admissions, student enrollment management, curricular fragmentation, declining academic standards, the apparent erosion of liberal learning within academe, neglect of undergraduate education in favor of academic research, unprecedented financial woes, shifting campus priorities, faculty tenure, the "publish or perish" syndrome, and renewed demands for accountability. Confusion over fundamental priorities and purposes, the author argues, lies at the heart of the dilemma facing end-of-the-century higher education. Having failed in its attempt to be all things to all people, the academy must now reinvent itself to meet the challenges of the millennium ahead. Thoughtful and timely, Crisis in the Academy offers a wide-ranging analysis of contemporary higher education and makes an important contribution to the ongoing public debate over the future of America's beleaguered and diverse institutions of higher learning. Less