Description
Book SynopsisIs the university a dinosaur: huge, lumbering, endearing in its own way, yet unsuited to today's world? Is it a thing of the past, unnecessary in an age of the Internet and online learning? In a book likely to provoke people who are loyal to the ideal...
Trade ReviewThe inadequacies of the academic advisory system are just one of the many university shortfalls that Rhodes chronicles... He picks a wide range of targets for his critique... For instance, he condemns the ever-increasing size of research universities for eroding a sense of community... Rhodes calls this a 'catastrophe.'... I feel I received a fine education at UConn. But like that of most research universities, where students often play second or third fiddle, it could have been better... Rhodes is a saint for pointing this out.
-- Jason Zalinger * The Washington Monthly *
There is much to learn from this book, which will be a valuable read for all those involved in the enterprise of higher education, from presidents to students.... The book is a look into the soul of the modern American University, and as such, will leave the reader challenged and thoughtful.
* Virginia Quarterly Review *
When it comes to universities, Frank Rhodes has pretty much seen it all. His vast experience covers the academic basis: professor, dean, academic vice president, long-time president of Cornell University. Rhodes knows the good, but he knows the bad and the different as well.... Rhodes provides a road map of the challenges that face universities now and for the foreseeable future. Significant change in the direction that he lays out (assuming such a course is possible) could risk the approval of universities' political and financial patrons... But such changes may be hastened by the contributions of more statesmen like Frank Rhodes, who can remind us of the better angels of our natures.
-- Robert M. Rosenzweig * Science *
