Traditional educational models provide rigid pathways for students to follow. Classrooms teach students to solve problems conventionally and focus on achieving a standard outcome rather than emphasizing innovative methods. Furthermore, students are encouraged to focus on getting the answer right rather than exploring how critical thinking and problem-solving evolve the process. This leads to a […]
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Editor’s Note: The following is an article originally published by RealClear Education on December 3, 2025. It is crossposted here with permission. Higher education provides more stories that deserve public attention than Aesop had fables. But like Aesop’s accounts of loquacious animals, the incidents on campus often have a pungent moral. I have written from time to time […]
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At this time a couple of years ago, it looked as if one of the Biden administration’s most dangerous student-loan forgiveness schemes was unstoppable. The Supreme Court had struck down an earlier attempt, but the Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) plan appeared to rest on firmer legal ground. Now, with the recent reconciliation bill […]
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Editor’s Note: On November 10th, the Phoenix, the student newspaper of Sarah Lawrence College (SLC), published an open letter signed by more than a dozen Jewish faculty and staff. The letter, dated November 2nd, responds to the federal scrutiny SLC and other campuses have faced over anti-Semitism following the events of October 7 and the […]
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Editor’s Note: The following is an article originally published by the College Fix on December 5, 2025. It is crossposted here with permission. Federal law enforcement deported a Chinese University of Michigan researcher who pleaded guilty to her role in bringing in a crop fungus to the United States. “Yunqing Jian, a citizen of the People’s Republic of China, […]
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Fall 2025 brought big news in the small world of Arkansas academia, taking up many inches of newsprint in the Arkansas Democrat Gazette (ADG) and other outlets. The University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UALR) terminated a newly hired law professor who reacted to Charlie Kirk’s assassination by declaring that she would “not pull back […]
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Each year, the College Board releases a Trends in College Pricing and Student Aid report, an invaluable resource for analysts and policymakers. Here are highlights from this year’s report, with an emphasis on findings that run counter to the conventional wisdom. There were some large changes in federal aid over the past year. In particular: […]
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Hundreds of volunteer hours, prestigious internships, and groundbreaking cancer research. For decades, this was what it seemed high school students needed in addition to straight A’s and high test scores to be accepted to good colleges and universities. But the tide is changing as the number of applicants declines, with many institutions lightening the admissions […]
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In September, political activist and Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk was assassinated on Utah Valley University’s (UVU) campus while debating students. His death drew widespread media attention, with many offering condolences to his family, while others reacted with open hostility. Among leftist extremists, his killing was celebrated as a “deserved” consequence of his conservative, […]
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New York University (NYU) School of Law reportedly reinstated a previously cancelled Federalist Society event focused on free speech, following criticism from right-leaning groups. The event, featuring Jewish constitutional scholar Ilya Shapiro, was originally set to occur on October 7, 2025, in commemoration of the genocidal attacks on Israel by Hamas two years prior. Shapiro […]
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Immediately after Charlie Kirk’s assassination at the hands of a deranged LGBTQ cult member, college professors across the country came out of the woodwork to mock Kirk’s death, accuse him of “hate speech,” and suggest he had it coming. Many were fired for their social media posts and public rants. Now dozens of those fired […]
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I recently stumbled across a LinkedIn meme that perfectly captures how students today inflate even the smallest accomplishments with corporate jargon. In it, a young man proudly announces he’s gotten his driver’s license—but on LinkedIn, of course, he rebrands it as the most respected exam evaluating one’s operational mastery of “fuel-based transportation systems.” It’s a […]
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Author’s Note: This article originally appeared in my weekly Top of Mind newsletter, which goes out to subscribers every Thursday. Sign up to receive it directly in your inbox. I am back from Mexico—and grateful to be home. I spent my final days there miserably sick and am still not fully recovered. So, again, I’m not […]
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The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) has released new polling data that offers one of the clearest snapshots yet of how students think about speech after the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Between October 3 and 31, 2025—just weeks after Kirk was shot and killed while speaking at Utah Valley University—FIRE surveyed […]
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Editor’s Note: The following is an article originally published on the Virginian-Pilot on November 20, 2025. With edits to match Minding the Campus’s style guidelines, it is crossposted here with permission. The University of Virginia (UVA) is being executed by a circular firing squad. On Nov. 12, Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger wrote the rector and vice rector […]
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Many within higher education have been watching the advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) models with amazement. And fear. Some fears are existential: AI will kill us all. Some are academic: AI will facilitate student cheating. And some are financial: AI will displace well-paid and, until now, secure tenured jobs for faculty by rendering faculty and […]
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Author’s Note: This article originally appeared in my weekly Top of Mind newsletter, which goes out to subscribers every Thursday. Sign up to receive it directly in your inbox. I write to you this week from the Sierra Madre Occidental mountain range. The air is cold here, but the scenes are spectacular. I’m without my usual […]
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Thanksgiving is a time for celebrating traditions, sharing a meal with friends and family, and—if you’re on the left—reciting somber land acknowledgements about “Indigenous Peoples” before passing the mashed potatoes. American universities have been issuing land acknowledgements for more than a decade. These statements, meant to recognize the supposed ancestral claims of “Indigenous Peoples” displaced […]
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Our American Revolution series now has its own home on Substack. What began as a special project of the National Association of Scholars—hosted on Minding the Campus—has grown into a full-fledged historical series worthy of its own platform. The new Substack will serve as a dedicated archive, collecting all past essays and providing a permanent […]
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Harvard wants the world to know it is taking open inquiry seriously again. Last week, the Harvard Gazette ran a glowing report announcing that the university is “building momentum on open inquiry.” It showcased new workshops, training sessions for teaching fellows, dialogue exercises for first-year students, and online modules imported from the Constructive Dialogue Institute—all […]
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As the education system has failed to impart even basic financial literacy to young Americans, the financial-trading company Robinhood is promising to fill the gap. In September, Robinhood launched its new Money Drills initiative, aimed at bringing financial education to college students. The program was designed “with student athletes” in mind, targeting young athletes who […]
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While students on America’s college campuses are locked in intense debates over gender-neutral pronouns and inclusive bathrooms, they seem far less attuned to the national crises that will define their futures: the soaring national debt and a collapsing social safety net. The national debt continues to grow largely unnoticed by students. The U.S. debt now […]
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