Rating: 
Summary: How universities cheat undergrads
Review: This latest effort by Prof. Murray Sperber, who made himself almost famous recently by taking the semester off from Indiana University to avoid the Bobby Knight cauldron, should be read by every concerned layman, university president, trustee, faculty member and investigative journalist. Sperber's larger theme -- that universities have abandoned undergraduate education for research while pushing the college kids toward beer-and-circus seven-day weekends -- is well illustrated. He also notes how university administrations have sharpened their accounting methods to make it harder and harder for anyone to keep track of how much XXXX money --- I almost said beer -- they actually pour into their intercollegiate programs. Reviews in major publications have run from warm to enthusiastic. Sperber's one-semester sabbatical from IU seemed to me like overkill a few months ago, but now that the IU president himself has sought off-campus shelter I don't think Sperber was off the mark at all. His book is a bull's-eye. His earlier seminal work -- College Sports, Inc. -- could have been titled The Emperor's New Clothes. It's worth reading today. I understand he has another book in the works. If enough people read what he says and then talk to each other then perhaps the system could be shamed into the radical change it needs. That includes a return to needs-based scholarships and the end of the one-year athletic scholarship that is plainly a salary for work.
Rating: 
Summary: I don't know if I'd recommend reading the whole thing...
Review: While I did enjoy the use of surveys to create this book, it does seem that Dr. Sperber mentioned only the survey answers that fit his agenda. I'm left with many questions. Like one another reviewer already mentioned, why does Dr. Sperber teach at a Big Time State U?The book was very repetitive, seems like there was a page # quota that needed to be met. While I'm glad I read the book, it definitely could have been shorter, and I probably would have enjoyed it more if it was.
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