The Academic Apocalypse

A recent Chronicle of Higher Education article seems to support a nagging post-apocalyptic thought that I've been having about the future of higher education.  I can see the professoriate dividing into two tiers, with one group being a highly paid cadre of free-agent rock star-like faculty who can command enormous salaries because they come with federal, foundation or corporate money behind their research programs and attract attention and fame to the university (at least while they are there).  The other tier is a gritty group of (mostly) teachers who grunt it out doing most of the teaching and advising on campuses across the country.  The first group is mobile, always for sale to the highest bidder, and the second group is overworked and fixed in place, anchored to their relatively low-paying jobs.  The first group will no doubt be in fields such as medicine, law, engineering, business, and the physical sciences, while the second tier will span the gamut of disciplines (all need teachers), but will be primarily from the social sciences and the humanities.

Just when I had almost convinced myself that this surreal vision is the result of too many long flights and too little sleep, along comes the article in the Chronicle sounding a similiar, if not as extreme, tone.  Surely there is another way for us to go.