Crisis on Campus: A Bold Plan for Reforming Our Colleges and Universities Book

I would say this is probably the most comprehensive and articulate summation of the many problems increasingly plaguing institutions of higher education in this country that I've ever read. That being said, I haven't read much at all about it and am only slightly tied into to that realm myself, but it's a good read if you're exposed to or have a good sense of these various issues. Personally I'd rather read about football bowl games or salt.

But, to predictably prattle on, I would note the seeming contradiction between his defenses of the more traditional liberal arts schooling in the face of increased specialization, yet he also expressed the desire for academia to become more relevant. His educational proposals and experiences are increasingly focused on integrating the Internet and other advanced communications networks to break down the Ivory Tower walls somewhat and, despite the fact that I find Harvard trying to make a dime off continuing education courses in a city with nothing but colleges and universities a bit ridiculous, I think this is sensible in many scenarios. Thus I can see that as increasing the relevancy of any given university's engagement with its community. However, much of this is also based on an increasing connectivity with private industry and, what makes most private corporations tick? Specialization! Other than some Google types, I highly doubt that most companies are going for the globally attuned-yet-majorless 22 year old Brown grad over someone with three or four years steeped in business or engineering or whatever studies. Perhaps I'm wrong - and there are always exceptions - but I doubt it.

Though sensible and probably inevitable, I do have some ambivalence about his enthusiastic embrace of the web as an indispensible vehicle for academic coursework and dialogue in the future. It sort of strikes me as an equivalent to reading Marshall McLuhan's 1960's embrace of television as the "thing" - the base of future knowledge, communications, world outlook, and other such claptrap - as one flips through 1084 channels and the best thing on is Roller Skating With Hollywood Reprobates or Three's Company reruns.

Nonetheless, this is well written and does attempt to touch on many issues. His call for, and justification for, terminating tenureship is especially provocative. The ridiculous tuition inflation in recent decades - and his sense that it cant possibly continue - is covered and positioned in relation to both public financial support (even for the "private universities") and the aforementioned corporate collaborations. And there's much more, so this is certainly recommended for those mired in troublesome tenure-track positions or administrative roles. The rest of us might do better to simply read Mockingjay, the "thrill-packed final installment of Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games trilogy" that I accidentally gave five stars to yesterday without either reading it or knowing whether Suzanne Collins was one of the blonds on Three's Company.