The findings and impressions of a study conducted by a journalist examining college life in the 1970's are presented. The Ivy League campuses, plus those of Michigan, California, Stanford, and the University of Chicago were involved in the study. Case histories and more than 650 interviews with students, teachers, administrators, and parents led to the conclusions of the report. Chapters discuss: what went wrong in the 1970's; lost civility; crime at the gates; racial distrust; sexual anarchy; careerism; grades; cheating; casualties of the environment; ethics; retrenchment; and ways to remedy the problems. It is suggested that the unrest and turmoil of the 1960's has been replaced in the 1970's by a mood of disillusion, racial antagonisms, crime, sexual tensions, and a general loss of civility. Results of this transformation are seen as rampant careerism, cheating, emotional instability, cynicism, and a flouting of ethics. In conclusion, several possible remedies are offered, such as: committed teaching should be rewarded as a matter of policy; inequities in grading should be reduced, and inflated grades made a punishable offense; the core curriculum should be made solid; and serious efforts should be made to defuse racial tension. A bibliography and an index are provided. (LC)