Closer contact with active investigation has enriched educational programs, graduate and undergraduate. There's been a stronger coupling between university research and societal need. But this very success has produced some second-order problems. The postwar research surge has altered the balance between undergraduate and graduate education, and between research and teaching. Despite students' expanded opportunity for supervised research, the faculty's absorption in their own work has weakened the undergraduate experience.
Students spend far more time with para-faculty and teaching assistants and less with senior faculty.
Graduate students, too, are squeezed between an expanded research enterprise and a contracting job market. The growth of research assistantships and the lengthening of time required to complete the doctorate reflect the need for graduate students as labor. We do little to prepare doctoral candidates to pursue alternative careers, to be more effective teachers, or even to confront the professional and personal challenges of academic life. Finally, the legacy of the Endless Frontier has altered life irreversibly for faculty. The new order has augmented their productive capacity but attenuated their institutional loyalty.