Community colleges are notorious for embracing pedagogical fads—what faculty members sometimes refer to derisively as “the flavor of the month.” A decade ago that “flavor” was critical thinking. We attended workshops and seminars, listened to keynotes and consultants, all so we could help students learn to think critically. Then the fervor died down as the next fad swept in.

On the one hand, a forceful budget of bad news at a time rife with negatives about higher education. On the other, the stubborn hope that we will do better. Those who believe higher education can do a better job—and I am one—will acknowledge the force of Academically Adrift as wake-up call. Although that call is not new, the rhetorical effects of this book are powerful.

College professors have long bemoaned the fact that they view the product or outcome of higher education differently from their students. Ask a professor what the goal of a college education is, and the answer you’re likely to hear is wisdom, knowledge, insight, understanding, or some variant of these. Ask the same question of a student (or that student’s parents), and you’re likely to hear an answer like a diploma, a job, or lots of money. That difference in perspective is certainly not new and, although some generations of college students are more idealistic or socially engaged than others, it’s certainly not surprising that American families tend to make college decisions in terms of return on investment; that’s how they make most of their other decisions, too, at least when the question involves how they should spend their money.