Joseph Warta uses a Martin Center column to revisit key themes from a milestone book in the history of higher education reform.
The year 2000 saw the publication of Beer and Circus, the notable book by former Indiana University professor Murray Sperber. It was a big step forward for the analysis of higher education, offering considerable insight into the sociology of college students, faculty research, and poor academic standards for colleges.
Though its subtitle prepared the reader for How Big-Time College Sports is Crippling Undergraduate Education, it is surprisingly lacking in sports analysis. Instead, Sperber railed against prestige-hungry administrators and professors cranking out research and developing graduate students for future roles in academia while forgetting undergraduate students in the process.
While reading all of Sperber’s complaints, I had a hard time relating to them. I certainly knew of the problems Sperber spoke of, but as a recent graduate of Wake Technical Community College, I hadn’t experienced them. And I realized that he unintentionally made an excellent case for getting an undergraduate education by attending a community college.
Sperber was no friend to stuffing undergraduate students into huge lecture halls to be taught by a graduate student or overworked adjunct faculty. As depicted by Sperber, only the “exceptional” students received small class sizes and one-on-one faculty attention in honors programs; the “regular” students got the raw end of the deal. The regular students, instead of demanding better academic preparation for their futures, accepted the “beer and circus” of parties and collegiate sports.
In Sperber’s view, college sports distracted students and weakened a university’s dedication to its academic mission. In this way, college sports kept students happy, gave alumni a connection to their alma mater, and conferred prestige on a college president.
