| Gone for Good: Tales of University Life After the Golden Age Contributor(s): Rojstaczer, Stuart (Author) |
|
 |
ISBN: 0195126823 ISBN-13: 9780195126822 Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA OUR PRICE: $57.00 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: September 1999 Annotation: This entertaining inside view of American universities argues that the disappearance of the glory days of government funding is a blessing in disguise. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Education | Higher - Education | Student Life & Student Affairs - Education | Educational Policy & Reform |
| Dewey: 378.73 |
| LCCN: 98-45609 |
| Lexile Measure: 1150 |
| Physical Information: 0.74" H x 6.18" W x 9.42" (1.09 lbs) 208 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: 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. |