Crisis in the Academy: Rethinking Higher Education in America
Few readers want another book that merely catalogs the ills of American higher education. Fortunately, Lucas has done much more than collect academic horror stories; he has probed deeply into the history and causes of campus confusion. As he traces the evolution of the nation's modern institutions of higher learning, he describes a perplexing metamorphosis. For while growing in size and influence, the university has lost its sense of mission. Rejecting the elitist pretensions of the traditional university, modern administrators have opened their doors to a much more inclusive student body, even as many top faculty have fled the classroom for the library, leaving behind colleagues interested only in catechizing students in the slogans of political correctness. Not surprisingly, assessing the returns on the phenomenal sums spent on higher education has grown ever harder--and public confidence in the university has waned. Regaining that confidence, Lucas concludes, will require the university community to repudiate its self-serving myths and to rekindle an authentic intellectual vision for the future. A provocative analysis.Bryce Christensen--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.