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"Higher education today is big business. Subsidized by tuition and taxpayers' dollars, universities have become giant corporations in which bloated administrations scrounge for funds and professors are "hustlers" in search of perks and grants. What suffers most of all is education. Teaching is merely what low-ranked professors and graduate students do - when they aren't researching and publishing books and articles that will raise them to the ranks where they no longer have to teach." "In this report from the front lines, two award-winning professors offer a simple - and radical - prescription for today's universities: Make teaching the top priority once again. The Solomons' no-nonsense and controversial proposals include abolishing tenure, slashing administration, and reevaluating research." "In a series of short, incisive chapters, they examine grades, lectures, academic journals, and college presidents - and outline suggestions for mandatory public service before college, education parents about education, and putting sports into perspective. They insist on taking teaching seriously, not merely talking about it." "Finally, here is a book about tearing down the walls, eliminating the red tape, putting an end to money grubbing, and creating a real relationship between the university and the community. Enough of the ivory tower, say the Solomons, focusing their discussion not on the prestigious eastern colleges but on large state campuses and community schools throughout the entire country. Filled with practical solutions, Up the University is a must-read for anyone who cares about the future of our democracy."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

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Library Journal Review

In this controversial book, the authors propose no-nonsense solutions to America's higher education problem. Robert, author of A Passion for Justice ( LJ 10/15/90) and Jon (classics, Univ. of Arizona) suggest that universities should abolish tenure, slash administrations, and deemphasize and redefine research. Regarding the financial crises in today's universities, the authors strongly believe in cutting bureaucratic waste and putting more dollars into education itself. The cliche ``publish or perish'' is not appropriate for today's higher education, they maintain. Instead, universities should emphasize their original mission: teaching basics. Readers may disagree with the Solomons's viewpoint, but all educators and parents stand to gain much by reading this book. Recommended for academic and public libraries.-- Samuel T. Huang, Northern Illinois Univ. Libs., DeKalb (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publishers Weekly Review

The central point of this freewheeling critique is that the marketplace has become the model for American higher education. But the Solomon brothers--Robert is a University of Texas philosophy professor and Jon a University of Arizona classics professor--wander far afield, with mixed results. They score hits in calling for a less regulated, more communal academic setting with fewer required courses and fewer administrators, but they include so many recommendations that one often contradicts another. They favor open admissions, for example, speculating that the practice would not lower standards since poor grades would force many students out; yet elsewhere they argue for de-emphasizing grades. Their zeal for reform also takes some peculiar turns, as when they unconvincingly propose that the concept of ``academic freedom'' is redundant in a democracy. Other suggestions include abolishing tenure and asserting the primacy of teaching over research. (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Booklist Review

The brothers Solomon, professors both, affirm the "enormous success" of the American university while setting out this point-by-point analysis of its strengths and weaknesses and insisting on certain changes to prosper this institution in a diverse and democratic society. This book is useful for its accessibility and its sense. Laid out in brief, numbered chapters grouped under broader headings (e.g., "The Mission of the University" and "Teaching as if Education Counts"), Up is written in lively, nonpedantic language. The main message is to stop modeling the university after a corporation and to respect it for the inefficient, open, nonauthoritarian, creative community it is--or should be. Unfortunately, this message is repeated and unnecessarily elaborated again and again. It is frustrating when the authors do not expand an insightful concept ("The university has always been a professional training ground. It is the professions, not the mission . . . that have changed"), but instead repeat, in slightly different terms, a previous point. This frustration aside, the reader can easily browse through the topics. Recommended as a valuable addition in the continual debate on what education should be. ~--Angus Trimnell