Academically Adrift Summary

In their book, Academically adrift, Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa ask a simple, yet provocative question: are our colleges and universities in the United States really educating our undergraduates. Arum and Roksa make it clear that they believe that the answer is a resounding “no”. Throughout the book, they argue that the foundational pillars on which our Universities supposedly stand (critical thinking, complex reasoning, and writing) are no longer being passed on to our students at the same rate in which they once were generations ago. Furthermore, Arum and Roksa believe this crumbling of the pillars has even more severe implications for our students to become economically productive and democratically impactful members of our citizenry.
One of the shifts is directly related to the priorities of professors in and out of the classroom. Arum and Roksa suggest that professors, in recent decades, are dedicating less time to preparation for class and lectures and are, instead, dedicating more time to their own scholarship achievement and advancements (e.g. writing/publishing books in order to obtain tenure). Furthermore, the authors point to the amount of significance placed in students’ evaluations of their instructors. They, the authors, argue that these evaluations have forced a shift in the environment and priorities of professors in the classroom; the changes being that whereas professors had once emphasized critical thought and rigorous work in their classes, many have opted for a more entertaining and lighthearted approach in order to win over their students and their