Two recent stories from the Associated Press and the Chronicle of Higher Education report a disturbing consequence of race-oriented college admissions. More and more Asian American high school students believe that the admissions process is geared against them, and as a result an increasing number do not record their race as “Asian” on the application form. Both pieces begin with […]
Read More
Professor Jonathan Zimmerman has sent Minding the Campus a brief response to Ronald Radosh’s critique of his recent Christian Science Monitor op-ed on “affirmative action for conservative professors.” Here it is: I’m grateful for Ron Radosh’s kind words, but I’m also confused by his argument. He takes history professors to task for their ideological blinders, […]
Read More
By Ronald Radosh Last week, Professor Jonathan Zimmerman of New York University wrote a surprising op-ed in The Christian Science Monitor, “US Colleges Need Affirmative Action for conservative professors.” Describing himself as a “devout Democrat” as well as a “frequent O’Reilly critic, ‘ he found himself agreeing with the Fox News channel’s host that “Universities […]
Read More
A team headed by former North Carolina governor (and Davidson professor) James Martin has released its long-awaited report regarding academic misconduct in the UNC Department of African and African-American Studies. Heavy on euphemism and delicate language, the reports sidesteps troubling questions about both the role of athletics at UNC and how an academic department at a […]
Read More
Adolph Reed, who professes political science at Penn, has a snarky OpEd in the New York Times today, “The Puzzle of Black Republicans.” Professor Reed is puzzled why any blacks would vote for Republicans, and why anyone thinks it’s newsworthy that a “token” black has just been appointed to the Senate from South Carolina, “the […]
Read More
People reading Frank Macchiarola’s obituary today will, no doubt, be struck at the variety of his achievements. Frank, who wrote for this site, was widely regarded as the most successful New York Schools Chancellor, but he was also a success as a Law School Dean, Chair of Charter Commissions, CEO of the NYC Partnership and […]
Read More
As Abby Thernstrom once remarked, our colleges and universities “are islands of repression in a sea of liberty,” so we always look forward to the annual report of FIRE to see what all those busy college repressers are up to. FIRE has good news and bad. Good news: For the fifth year in a row, the […]
Read More
The left cannot get enough of the late Howard Zinn. The radical professor’s A People’s History of the United States consistently holds a place in the top 15 of the 100 bestselling political books on Amazon‘s “blue,” liberal side. The million mark in sales has long been passed, an outstanding figure for a work of […]
Read More
I’ve written previously about the controversy regarding CUNY’s Pathways plan, the common-sense proposal of the administration to set a common general education curriculum at all CUNY campuses–so as to ensure minimum standards, and to allow students to easily transfer from one campus to any other. The proposal has generated strong opposition. Some has come in […]
Read More
The Michigan legislature has just passed a Right to Work bill. That will allow unionized workers in the state, including teachers and professors, to stop paying dues to the union representing them and not be fired – as would have previously been the case. Unions almost always bargain for and get contract clauses stipulating that […]
Read More
Inside Higher Ed reports on a new study that analyzes what its abstract calls “gender bias” in the top ranks of STEM fields. It found that one explanation — that women publish less — is true but suggests “that women may be publishing less than men because departments are not providing them with the same resources.” The study found […]
Read More
During Chanukah, two students defaced a Menorah at Northeastern University, and Northeastern’s Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) led an ugly anti-Israel/pro-Hamas rally in Copley Square. One observer noted “the virulence of the chants and messages on the placards… suggest that more sinister hatreds and feelings… were simmering slightly below the surface.” Such sentiments suggest […]
Read More
The College Fix’s Nathan Harden has a great piece on the future of American higher ed in next month’s The American Interest. Here’s an excerpt: In fifty years, if not much sooner, half of the roughly 4,500 colleges and universities now operating in the United States will have ceased to exist. The technology driving this change is already […]
Read More
Toward the end of Phaedrus–Plato’s masterful dialogue on rhetoric and erotic love–Socrates introduces an interesting argument with implications for us centuries later. The argument is that the written word promotes superficial understanding because reading erodes discussion and the habit of discourse. People will come to believe they know much, but “for the most part they […]
Read More
Cross Posted From Open Market I’ve written before about perverse federal financial aid policies that encourage colleges to jack up tuition. Recently, the Obama administration came up with something even worse. It announced a new financial aid policy that will effectively bail out low-quality, high-tuition colleges and especially law schools at taxpayer expense, and encourage […]
Read More
“How, for example, is it possible that universities dare to designate only a specific area on campus as a ‘free speech zone,’ indicating that all other areas are not? How can a student be expelled for reading a book with a cover that someone else finds offensive? How can a professor have his job threatened […]
Read More
Major university presidents, supported by their governing boards that typically they have wrapped around their fingers, behave often like Marie Antoinette (“Let them eat cake”) or Leona Helmsley (“only little people pay taxes.”) The most recent outrage is the revelation by Jack Stripling of the Chronicle of Higher Education that 25 of the 50 highest […]
Read More
What is the meaning of this new logo?: 1. Don’t forget to flush before leaving. 2. It’s fun to finger-paint the letter “C.” 3. The coat of arms of Stephen Colbert 4. Halley’s Comet is in a black hole 5. A new symbol for the University of California 6. Cover art for a book about […]
Read More
When Isaac Newton went to the University of Cambridge several centuries ago, he studied seven days a week, at least ten hours a day, and actively avoided the revelry that some Cambridge undergraduates engaged in even then. No one expects American undergraduates to work as hard as Isaac Newton or as medieval monks. However, […]
Read More
By Eric Pianin and Brianna Ehley Cross-posted and adapted from The Fiscal Times With at least $16 billion in federal funds and grants at stake next year if the government goes over the fiscal cliff, the nation’s universities and primary and secondary education systems are waging an unprecedented lobbying effort of more than $67 million […]
Read More
It may be moral preening, but some students are trying to launch a campaign against colleges with endowment money invested in fossil fuels. The New York Times recently reported on one such effort by Swarthmore students. The Times seems to have thrown its weight behind the protesters by puffing them up as “the vanguard of […]
Read More
By J.M. Anderson MOOCs are all the rage. Not a day goes by without someone extolling how they will transform and rescue higher education: they will democratize it; they will revolutionize it; they will make it more affordable. In an essay here yesterday, Richard Vedder outlined their promise of positive impact. At the same time, […]
Read More
A new report from the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education, Black Male Student-Athletes and Racial Inequities in NCAA Division I College Sports, points with horror at the “racial inequities” in big-time college sports, finding it “shocking” and “astonishing” that college leaders, the NCAA, and the public at large have “accepted as normal the […]
Read More
By Richard Vedder Although difficult to measure, it is unlikely that higher education has had any productivity advance in the 50 years since I finished college. Economists like Princeton’s William Baumol have argued that rising college costs are inevitable, given inherent limitations on reducing the cost of disseminating knowledge -only so many people can fit […]
Read More
As a professional historian at Hamilton College, I teach my students that the United States was founded on the principles of limited government, voluntary exchange, respect for private property, and civil freedom. Does any sane parent believe that more than a tiny fraction of students graduate from college these days with a deep and abiding […]
Read More
My City University of New York colleague David Gordon has penned a convincing analysis about the current state of history in higher education. I share, and fully endorse, his critique about the direction of the field, with the vise-grip of the race/class/gender trinity “distort[ing] historical enquiry.” Stressing above all else victimization and oppression poorly serves […]
Read More
The evolution of the historical profession in the United States in the last fifty years provides much reason for celebration. It provides even more reason for unhappiness and dread. Never before has the profession seemed so intellectually vibrant. An unprecedented amount of scholarship and teaching is being devoted to regions outside of the traditional American […]
Read More
Increasing the likelihood that innocent college students in the future will instead be branded rapists is a legacy of which few government officials can boast. Yet this was the prime accomplishment of Russlynn Ali, who announced late last week that she would be stepping down as director of the Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights. […]
Read More
Conventional wisdom states that the future of higher education lies online. However, few studies tell us whether this is necessarily a good thing. Indeed, both the detractors and supporters of online education tend to rely on anecdotes rather than data. So a recent report by William Bowen, Matthew Chingos, Kelly Lack, and Thomas Nygren of […]
Read More
Central Connecticut State University is doing its part for international diplomacy. The campus newspaper, The Central Reporter, tells us that in late September CCSU professor of political science Ghassan El-Eid brought a dozen CCSC students “to attend a dinner with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the president of Iran,” who was in New York for a meeting of […]
Read More