Book Review: Cracks in the Ivory Tower - Jason Brennan & Phillip Magness
It is no secret that higher education is wrought with problems. Unmet expectations, high costs, and low faculty salaries: these are just a few of the many complaints rendered by students, parents, and employees. Jason Brennan and Phillip Magness addressed these issues and more in their 2019 book, Cracks in the Ivory Tower: The Moral Mess of Higher Education, published by Oxford University Press. In Cracks in the Ivory Tower, Brennan and Magness offer an argument, based on economic principles, that many of the issues facing higher education today can be explained by bad incentives which, in turn, makes those involved in academia engage in poor behavior. In each chapter, the authors explore a specific issue in higher education, including the bad incentives, relevant economic theories, and an occasional suggested remedy.
Brennan and Magness open Cracks in the Ivory Tower by explaining that the people in higher education are not directly to blame for the abundance of issues; rather, a self-perpetuating system of incentivizing self-interest has created a culture of advocating for oneself at the cost of another. The authors highlight seven economic insights that also apply to higher education, thus priming readers for the remainder of the book. In Chapter Two, Brennan and Magness describe what they believe faculty, students, and administrators really want. Faculty want a job, knowledge, academic and scheduling freedom, more colleagues to split responsibilities, less teaching, outsourced administration, and money, fame and status. Students want credentials upon graduating, low costs, and more leisure time. Administrators want a promotion, security, and money, prestige, and power. Student affairs staff are casually lumped in with administrators but are largely excluded from this discussion.
In Chapter Three, Brennan and Magness highlight the negligent practices of college marketing. Colleges advertise lofty goals that can hardly be quantified, such as the power of a liberal arts education or the supposedly guaranteed transformative experience. Colleges bear the burden of proof in upholding these claims, though few actually test the proposed outcomes. Brennan and Magness also explore selection and treatment effects, suggesting that perhaps the reason college graduates appear to be better off in the world has more to do with who enters college than who graduates. A key concept to remember when studying college data is that correlation is not the same as causation.
The next two chapters are devoted to faulty assessment tools. In Chapter Four, the authors argue against student evaluations of teaching performance by providing evidence that evaluations are correlated with instructor personality rather than skill. Yet, their use persists so that administrators can believe they have power over faculty and can say they are doing their due diligence. In Chapter Five, Brennan and Magness address the uselessness of GPA. Calculations are hardly standard within departments, much less across a campus or between schools. Additionally, the erroneous belief that grades have been inflated in recent decades harms students; they are compelled to achieve more because “the value of the GPA depends, in part, on what others think of it” (132). Instead, instructors ought to use GPA as a ranking tool or provide brief qualitative remarks about performance.
In Chapters Six and Seven, Brennan and Magness reveal how self-interest is rampant in academia. Chapter Six focuses on moral language; even individuals who believe they are working towards the common good are still motivated by personal desires for security, more pay, and other ideals described in Chapter Two. The authors argue against tenure, citing data that show a decrease in research productivity upon receiving tenure. Brennan and Magness also demonstrate to readers that adjuncts are paid reasonably well since they have fewer responsibilities compared to full-time faculty. In Chapter Seven, Brennan and Magness highlight the self-interest plight within the system of general education. They suggest that, in order to remain viable, departments engage in academic rent-seeking, or a political self-preservation process that comes at the expense of others. In the case of general education requirements, students lose money and university budgeting is forced to accommodate a certain department. At this point, much has been invested into the current system, so faculty and administrators would rather add even more requirements to fix the symptoms rather than addressing the root problems.
The next two chapters focus on students. In Chapter Eight, Brennan and Magness suggest that universities are offering too many PhDs in the humanities because there are not enough academic jobs for these graduates to fill. Yet, graduate programs are added more quickly than discontinued because students, faculty, and administrators all benefit. Chapter Nine takes a superficial look at academic dishonesty, particularly from the perspective of game theory; students believe that if others cheat, the only adequate response is for them to cheat too.
Brennan and Magness conclude Cracks in the Ivory Tower by reviewing three myths about current issues in higher education and how leaders should respond to questions about financing. In Chapter Ten, Brennan and Magness debunk three myths: “(1) the corporatization of higher ed; (2) neoliberal ideology; (3) the threat of impending technological disruption” (229). The authors again cite bad incentives as being the culprit rather than bad people. In Chapter Eleven, Brennan and Magness share eight potential purposes of universities that follow, in part, from discussions earlier in the book. The key takeaway is that a college “better provide an output of greater value than the value of the inputs it consumes” (272). Brennan and Magness argue that the government is plagued by many of the same issues as higher education, as seen by the need to rationalize why one entity is more deserving of funding than another. They conclude by reiterating once again that in order to fix higher education, incentives need to be changed, and that appears to be a hopeless task.
Cracks in the Ivory Tower has many strengths. This book is well-researched, with each point backed by numerical data, studies, or anecdotes. Additionally, Brennan and Magness take care to separate the people from the actions; in academia, many of our choices are motivated by external incentives. It is disheartening to read about the cycle we have no control over yet also encouraging to know that we did nothing wrong when forced to make difficult decisions. Brennan and Magness also devote considerable attention to defining who bears the burden of proof for certain outcomes of higher education. Most of the time, the authors conclude colleges must prove how their claims are true (e.g., improved skills in writing or critical thinking). This furthers their point that higher education is full of issues that are hard to resolve from our current stance.
Brennan and Magness write provocatively, often using extreme metaphors that do not always align well with their argument. For example, they write that allowing university administrators to use student evaluations of teachers is like giving a toddler a gun and trusting the child to handle it properly. Readers can understand their point but might also be turned off by the analogies. Although, perhaps we need such extreme language. If these problems have been prevalent as long as Brennan and Magness describe, then their shocking language might shake readers enough to critically evaluate systems at work in higher education and what their role is within and to change the system.
Brennan and Magness write with an obvious bias as they dissect the issues rampant in academia. The book ends with an ominous, gloomy, and resigned statement as the authors sarcastically wish readers luck as they attempt to fix higher education. There are few suggestions for how to resolve any of the issues proposed in the book. A few possible remedies to cheating and GPA usage were suggested, but the book is largely a chronicle of what ails colleges and universities.
Furthermore, based on my own reading and research in higher education, I have arrived at some conclusions that differ from those drawn by Brennan and Magness. For example, Chambliss and Takacs argue that college does improve soft skills[1]. Other authors argue for the intrinsic value of higher education, especially general education courses. It seems that Brennan and Magness might be ignoring some data in order to strengthen their arguments. Brennan and Magness might not provide readers with all the information necessary to draw their own informed conclusions about the state of higher education and the nature of the issues facing academia today. This is risky for readers who are less informed or unwilling to do their own research after finishing Cracks in the Ivory Tower.
Cracks in the Ivory Tower is an insightful read for anyone seeking an introduction to the issues within higher education, including administrators and new PhD graduates. College offices for marketing, communications, and admissions might consider reading the marketing chapter as a tool for evaluating what they promote and why. In order to remain competitive, colleges must keep up with their peers which, in this case, means making grandiose claims. Marketing officials might not have the power to change their strategies, but they can certainly be more intentional in designing their advertisements. Brennan and Magness wisely identified many of the issues in higher education to be systemic, meaning no single entity can solve them. Perhaps, on a small scale, one department can make a positive change, assess its impact, and slowly cause a wave throughout their institution. With time, others might catch on, and we will see a slow reform unfold.
[1] Daniel F. Chambliss and Christopher G. Takacs, How College Works (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2014), 104-133
