This book views the modern university as a dichotomous institution. On the one hand, it is a distinguished and noble institution, dedicated to preserving and advancing civilization; on the other, it is amoral, hungering for power, and exploitative of the weak and powerless, with faculty and administrators caught in the conflict between the goals of the institution and the needs of students and the public. Beginning in the 1960s, a sudden and rapid increase in federal research funding redefined universities as research centers rather than as education centers, with the result that student services such as housing and food service were rationed, student power and influence diminished, and student issues became secondary. Chapters address such topics as: the origins of the university, administrative convenience and institutional efficiency, institutional patriotism, destruction of the student community, "in loco parentis" academic counseling, out-of-control growth, faculty and student alienation, "buying" of graduate students and famous faculty, the preference for research over teaching, the grading system, specialization, the hidden costs of federal research, the medical health center, the tracking system, sex and race, trustees and governance, the German university system, and why institutions fail. Appended are 10 published op-ed editorials and a bibliography of op-ed articles. (Contains approximately 225 references.) (CH)