Toward a More Perfect University

November 15, 2015
A distinguished Columbia University sociology professor and former provost examines how American universities must evolve to maintain their global pre-eminence. By most accounts, the United States has the best system of higher education in the world, with "roughly 80 percent of the top twenty universities." However, as Cole (The Great American University: Its Rise to Preeminence, Its Indispensable National Role, Why It Must Be Protected, 2010, etc.) argues, that system faces many difficult challenges. Funding from federal, state, and private sources, for example, is decreasing every year. K-12 schools are teaching students to pass standardized competency tests rather than helping them to expand their "creativity and curiosity." Furthermore, college educations at selective schools are becoming too expensive--and of questionable relevance--for students who come from middle- or working-class backgrounds. Drawing on his many years as both a high-ranking university administrator and research professor, Cole methodically examines the ways that universities can remake themselves in coming decades. He argues that those involved with traditional liberal arts programs must rethink how to best use what those disciplines teach to young people to succeed in a world dominated by science, technology, and commerce. Professional schools should look more closely at how their programs and curricula prepare students and open themselves up to "cross-fertilization" with arts and sciences divisions at both their home and similar outside institutions. The government must work in tandem with universities to rebuild what the author sees as a "compact" that has been damaged by mutual distrust. All schools, especially those without large endowments, should actively work to curb administrative costs, reduce reliance on adjunct faculty, and collaborate with like universities. Eminently well-informed and pragmatic, Cole's work not only offers a cleareyed analysis of the current state of higher education in the U.S. It also provides a detailed starting point for dialogues about the function and shape of the great American universities of the future. An ambitious and visionary examination of American universities and "how to develop them still further so that they may maximize their full potential."

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December 1, 2015

Cole (John Mitchell Mason Professor of the Univ., provost & dean of faculties emeritus, Columbia Univ.) is part of a long line of university leaders who are outspoken about their thoughts on higher education. In his first book, The Great American University, Cole's questions were historical and ethical; he even established a set of core values that should guide leaders in academia. This time around, the author walks the reader through the major issues affecting the contemporary institution, dispensing plenty of provocative policy advice along the way. Skeptical of the value of many professional degrees, Cole urges a series of independent reviews similar to the 1910 Carnegie Foundation report that transformed U.S. medical education. Hoping to provide more opportunities for junior scholars, he believes Congress should impose a mandatory retirement age of 75 for all faculty members, and deeply concerned about the runaway costs of funding a college education, he calls for a substantial increase in support for federal Pell Grants. Cole knows higher education inside and out, but he tends to illustrate his points with examples from top-flight Ivy League institutions. He claims, without giving any evidence, that the way these great universities operate has a "substantial influence" on lesser-known, underresourced schools. VERDICT Readers who want to hear more about public institutions would do well to pair Cole's book with Designing the New American University, coauthored by Michael M. Crow and William B. Dabars. Despite some deficiency, Cole's book deserves a wide readership. Recommended for academic libraries.--Seth Kershner, Northwestern Connecticut Community Coll. Lib., Winsted

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December 15, 2015
In this sequel to his The Great American University (2012), Cole scrutinizes the nation's top 120 research universities. Even to maintain current strengths, Cole stresses, these universities must surmount serious problems (many identified in his earlier book)waning government funding, waxing government regulation, skyrocketing tuition, bloated administrative bureaucracies and athletic departments, and intellectually depleted curricula short on the humanities. Himself a Columbia University professor and former provost, Cole challenges colleagues to surmount these problems as they build twenty-first-century institutions embodying our highest academic ideals. That task means major reforms: securing a new infusion of government money; demanding that senior faculty teach more; suspending admissions-distorting athletic recruiting; opening new doors for poor, middle-class, and minority students; and restructuring the university to fully harness new technologies and build stronger connections to industry. Aware of the unpopularity of some of his proposals (Stanford and Michigan scale back their athletic recruiting?), Cole hopes for social and cultural changes that will multiply supporters. The future of the nation's elite universities depends in part on the debate this book will spark.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)