Ivory Tower Blues: A University System in Crisis

by James Cote

The present state of the university is a difficult issue to comprehend for anyone outside of the education system. If we are to believe common government reports that changes in policy are somehow making life easier for university graduates, we cannot help but believe that things are going right and are getting better in our universities. Ivory Tower Blues gives a decidedly different picture, examining this optimistic attitude as it impacts upon professors, students, and administrators in charge of the education system. Ivory Tower Blues is a frank account of the contemporary university, drawing on the authors’ own research and personal experiences, as well as on input from students, colleagues, and administrators. James E. Côté and Anton L. Allahar offer an insider’s account of the university system, an accurate, alternative view to that overwhelmingly presented to the general public. Throughout, the authors argue that fewer and fewer students are experiencing their university education in ways expected by their parents and the public. The majority of students are hampered by insufficient preparation at the secondary school level, lack of personal motivation, and disillusionment. Contrary to popular opinion, there is no administrative or governmental procedure in place to maintain standards of education. Ivory Tower Blues is an in-depth look at the crisis facing Canadian and American universities, the factors that are precipitating the situation, and the long-term impact this crisis will have on the quality of higher education.

Genres: Nonfiction

Paperback

First published May 26, 2007

Reviews

[Chrissy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fascinating facts, terrible presentation. Cote and Allahair do a good job of outlining exactly what is broken about the university system, but they do such a poor job of laying out cause and effect in attention-capturing and non-redundant ways that much of the message gets lost. At the very least, readers may find themselves thinking "haven't they already said this?" more times than should be the case in a fact-driven essay. The problem is that the authors fail to differentiate clearly between the different scales, measures, and demographics to which their statistics variously refer, ultimately robbing them of their weight and meaning.

I hope that someday another social scientist tackles these issues in a tighter, more concise package. It's so incredibly important for those within the university system to understand what is and is not its function, and for those in power to get a handle on how it must be run if it wishes to fulfill its function. The current trends are bad news for university students, bad news for non-students, bad news for employers, bad news for parents, and bad news for the country in the broader educational game. But, sadly, this book and its bare statistics are not going to fix it without help from a more engaging source.