Stuart Rojstaczer is Associate Professor of Geology, Environment and Engineering, and Director, Center for Hydrologic Science at Duke University. He lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

• 1: Introduction why no one seems to know, even my mother, what I do at work: Section One: Undergraduate Life 2: Lowering the Bar why we have such low intellectual expectations for students even though they could easily do more: 3: The Prestige Business what services the university provides students and why we charge so much for tuition: 4: Shortening the Yellow Brick Road why we have made college easier, yet no one seems to mind or care: 5: The Sports Machine how universities entertain their students and alumni and why and how we've crossed the line of good judgment: Section Two: Research and Graduate Education 6: Heart & Soul why graduate students are often more important than professors: 7: Grants or Goodbye why we spend so much time writing grant proposals: 8: Why Research? what professors do when they don't teach and why they do it: Section Three: Campus Politics 9: Matchmaking how we hire and why we move to other universities: 10: The End of the Golden Age why the era of exponential growth has ended and why it's a good thing that it's over: 11: Shaking the Tree why universities are increasingly turning to alumni, foundations and corporations, and what they will and will not do in exchange for money: 12: You've Got to Believe why we blindly follow the latest trends in academic fashion even though it makes us look ridiculous: 13: The Fifty Percent Solution why there are so few female professors, and why there aren't likely to be more in the foreseeable future: 14: Making Adjustments how to adapt to the life of a professor without getting too crazy: 15: Getting Tenure what it takes to get tenure, why standards have risen, and why they will continue to rise: 16: Rolling the Dice why the American university is still valuable even though it looks to be in such a mess:

"Donald Kennedy and Henry Rosovsky have recently given us views of the modern university as seen from the top down. Rojstaczer tells us what it looks like from the inside out. His description is usually entertaining, occasionally depressing, and always deadly accurate. If you care at all about academic life in America, you'll have trouble putting this book down."--David Goodstein, Vice Provost, Cal Tech University