What do you think?
Rate this book
Up the University: Re-Creating Higher Education in America
Higher education today is big business. Subsidized by tuition and taxpayers' dollars, universities have become giant corporations in which bloated administrations scrounge for funds and professors are "hustlers" in search of perks and grants. What suffers most of all is education. Teaching is merely what low-ranked professors and graduate students do - when they aren't researching and publishing books and articles that will raise them to the ranks where they no longer have to teach. In this report from the front lines, two award-winning professors offer a simple - and radical - prescription for today's universities: Make teaching the top priority once again. The Solomons' no-nonsense and controversial proposals include abolishing tenure, slashing administration, and reevaluating research. In a series of short, incisive chapters, they examine grades, lectures, academic journals, and college presidents - and outline suggestions for mandatory public service before college, education parents about education, and putting sports into perspective. They insist on taking teaching seriously, not merely talking about it. Finally, here is a book about tearing down the walls, eliminating the red tape, putting an end to money grubbing, and creating a real relationship between the university and the community. Enough of the ivory tower, say the Solomons, focusing their discussion not on the prestigious eastern colleges but on large state campuses and community schools throughout the entire country. Filled with practical solutions, Up the University is a must-read for anyone who cares about the future of our democracy.
- GenresEducation
336 pages, Paperback
First published February 1, 1993
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
January 23, 2023
“Universities … ought to be earthly form of heaven” opine the authors. I happen to agree, so much so, I never left one. However, so much is wrong today. Professors are told to become experts in some tiny territories. They don’t treat teaching seriously compared to “research”. And for humanities and the like, research is really about critical and speculative argumentation, not about discovery of useful knowledge. Students don’t know what to do in college but are forced by their parents to study Business major in order to get a cushy job. Administrators would skimp on useful infrastructure yet splash in hiring art firms to design a new logo while they have 100s of students and faculty members in fine art department.
In short, so much about universities is wrong today — or some 30 years ago when the authors wrote the book. Everything still rings true today. Indeed, the only tell-tale sign the book was written 30 years ago is that the authors complain university administrators earn an obscene salary of $200K! For reference, a few years ago, when my university’s president stepped down amid an administrative scandal, he was paid $1.6M/yr, plus lots of allowances including a rent-free presidential mansion.
It’s actually interesting to read a book a generation later to discover things haven’t changed a bit — that is except the math. The authors mentioned that presidents were paid 3x more than a highly paid professor. Today, they are paid about 7-10x more. The trick is what Einstein calls the most amazing thing in the universe - compounding. A little quick math showed that 8x in 30 years is about 6%/yr compound growth. Not too obscene per se to attract notice. But it gets worse if you factor in the inflation of the size of their entourage: try Assistant Vice this, Associate Deputy that. I have trouble in my own university fingering out which dean reports to which other dean. And that goes a long way to explain tuition inflation. At my university (or many similar private universities), the long-term inflation is about 4.4%/yr. Over my 20 years here, assistant professor salary inflated at about 2.6%/yr, barely beating CPI inflation at 2.5%/yr. Will anybody do anything about it? Unlikely. Sitting in your office reading, thinking, and writing; every now and then, explaining some nerdy ideas to a class of students (while getting paid enough to survive) — like I said, I agree it’s earthly form of heaven.
In short, so much about universities is wrong today — or some 30 years ago when the authors wrote the book. Everything still rings true today. Indeed, the only tell-tale sign the book was written 30 years ago is that the authors complain university administrators earn an obscene salary of $200K! For reference, a few years ago, when my university’s president stepped down amid an administrative scandal, he was paid $1.6M/yr, plus lots of allowances including a rent-free presidential mansion.
It’s actually interesting to read a book a generation later to discover things haven’t changed a bit — that is except the math. The authors mentioned that presidents were paid 3x more than a highly paid professor. Today, they are paid about 7-10x more. The trick is what Einstein calls the most amazing thing in the universe - compounding. A little quick math showed that 8x in 30 years is about 6%/yr compound growth. Not too obscene per se to attract notice. But it gets worse if you factor in the inflation of the size of their entourage: try Assistant Vice this, Associate Deputy that. I have trouble in my own university fingering out which dean reports to which other dean. And that goes a long way to explain tuition inflation. At my university (or many similar private universities), the long-term inflation is about 4.4%/yr. Over my 20 years here, assistant professor salary inflated at about 2.6%/yr, barely beating CPI inflation at 2.5%/yr. Will anybody do anything about it? Unlikely. Sitting in your office reading, thinking, and writing; every now and then, explaining some nerdy ideas to a class of students (while getting paid enough to survive) — like I said, I agree it’s earthly form of heaven.
Displaying 1 of 1 review