1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910451337703321

Autore

Rojstaczer Stuart

Titolo

Gone for good [[electronic resource] ] : tales of university life after the golden age / / Stuart Rojstaczer

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Oxford ; ; New York, : Oxford University Press, 1999

ISBN

1-280-53034-0

0-19-535205-X

1-4294-0469-8

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (200 p.)

Disciplina

378.73

Soggetti

Education, Higher - United States

College teaching - United States

Electronic books.

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di contenuto

Contents; Preface; 1 Introduction: why no one seems to know, even my mother, what I do at work; SECTION ONE: Undergraduate Life; 2 Lowering the Bar: why we have such low intellectual expectations for students even though they could easily do more; 3 The Prestige Business: what services the university provides students and why we charge so much for tuition; 4 Shortening the Yellow Brick Road: why we have made college easier, yet no one seems to mind or care; 5 The Sports Machine: how universities entertain their students and alumni and why and how we've crossed the line of good judgment

SECTION TWO: Research and Graduate Education6 Heart and Soul: why graduate students are often more important than professors; 7 Grants or Goodbye: why we spend so much time writing our grant proposals; 8 Why Research?: what professors do when they don't teach and why they do it; SECTION THREE: Campus Politics; 9 Matchmaking: how we hire and why we move to other universities; 10 The End of the Golden Age: why the era of exponential growth has ended and why it's a good thing that it's over

11 Shaking the Tree: why universities are increasingly turning to alumni, foundations and corporations, and what they will and will not



do in exchange for money12 You've Got to Believe: why we blindly follow the latest trends in academic fashion even though it makes us look ridiculous; 13 The Fifty Percent Solution: why there are so few female professors, and why there aren't likely to be more in the foreseeable future; 14 Making Adjustments: how to adapt to the life of a professor without getting too crazy

15 Getting Tenure: what it takes to get tenure, why standards have risen, and why they will continue to rise16 Rolling the Dice: why the American university is still valuable even though it looks to be in such a mess

Sommario/riassunto

As a series of engaging essays, this book is laced with personal anecdotes about what it means to be a professor, a science professor in particular, and how the American university has changed now that the era of exponential growth in federal funding is over. Its central purpose is to try to stimulate discussion and challenge the status quo.