Universities & Colleges

Journalist Will Bunch says instead of opening the door to a better life, college leaves many students deep in debt and unable to find well-paying jobs. His new book is After the Ivory Tower Falls.

As colleges and universities across the country report an explosion of mental health problems, a new book argues that college life may be more stressful than ever. Dr. Anthony Rostain, co-author of The Stressed Years of Their Lives, notes that today's college students are experiencing an "inordinate amount of anxiety" — much of it centered on "surviving college and doing well."

Blurred Lines author Vanessa Grigoriadis says female college students were once told to protect themselves from sexual assault by learning self defense. Now, the focus is on changing men's behavior.

McCauley's novel, My Ex-Life, is a comedy about a couple whose marriage ended years ago when the husband came out as gay. "All relationships evolve — even for people who stay together," he says.

New Yorker staff writer Elif Batuman's new novel, The Idiot, follows a young woman's first year at Harvard University, and how she finds love through email.

Teddy Wayne's new novel begins as a sharply observed novel of manners, but quickly mutates into a classic tale of obsession. Critic Maureen Corrigan calls Loner a powerful suspense story.

A lot of parents start worrying about paying for college education soon after their child is born. After that, there's the stressful process of applying to colleges, and then, for those lucky enough to get admitted into a good college, there's college debt.

Journalist David Kirkpatrick covers Congress for The New York Times. As part of a series on class issues for the paper, he co-authored a story on the increase of evangelical Christians on Ivy League campuses. The article was published in the Sunday, May 22, edition.

Matt Bennett is the founder of Christian Union, an organization of evangelicals at Ivy League schools whose goal is to reach those who will go on to become part of America's academic elite. The group operates ministry centers at Brown, Cornell and Princeton universities. Bennett, a graduate of Cornell, founded the organization in 2002. Rachel Blair is a student at Princeton and is a member of Christian Union.

His new book is Universities in the Marketplace: The Commercialization of Higher Education. Among the commercial activities at many universities and colleges these days are: drug companies giving money to medical schools, industry buying the rights to scientific discoveries and industry-endowed faculty chairs. Bok is critical of such ventures.

Journalist and College Professor Anne Matthews talks about why college tuition is skyrocketing, and how campus culture and student expectations have changed over the years. Her new book is called "Bright College Years."

Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews the imaginative author's comic novel, Moo.

Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead fills in for Stephen Schiff and reviews two new movie releases--"With Honors" with Joe Pesci and "PCU" with David Spade. They're both campus comedies.

Commentator Maureen Corrigan talks about going back to school.

We discuss free speech on college campuses with ACLU counsel Ed Chen, Nat Hentoff, University of Wisconsin legal counsel Pat Hodulik, and Brown University President Vartan Gregorian.

Russell Jacoby, whose new book, The Last Intellectuals, American Culture in the Age of Academe, contends that American culture is not producing the intellectuals it did during the 40s and 50s.

Fresh Air book critic John Leonard reviews a new book by Robin W. Winks, which tells the story of the OSS and CIA's recruitment of scholars at Yale University.