THE GREAT RIP-OFF IN AMERICAN EDUCATION: Undergrads Underserved

Are we, as the title suggests, about to discover the academic equivalent of the Enron scandal? Not exactly. This repetitive, somewhat disjointed indictment of undergraduate teaching offers little of substance in terms of radically rethinking the mission, purpose and form of college learning. Scarlett, president emeritus of Middle Tennessee State University, here addresses, in a simplified way, well-known problems in undergraduate education. His arguments—that undergraduate teaching could be improved significantly with better-prepared professors; that classes taught in huge lecture halls do not represent meaningful learning; that too many full-time tenured professors spend more time doing research than teaching; and that universities' reward systems need to be altered to acknowledge excellent teaching—are sound. But the book is rife with contradictions. For example, the author critiques the use of graduate students as teaching assistants, while elsewhere noting that future professors (who are current graduate students) need supervised internships. He also says colleges must become more efficient and cost effective, but stop using adjuncts and part-time teachers (who cost much less). Scarlett, also a former professor and dean, has clearly thought at length about how to improve the undergraduate experience, and there's much food for thought in these pages. And with tuition costs constantly rising, the time is probably ripe for a national conversation about the state of higher education. But Scarlett's presentation is too plodding and systematic to grab the attention of many other than trustees and higher education administrators. (Feb.)