Anthony Paletta is a freelance writer.
The New York Sun reports that Mercy College is creating an “instant, on-the-spot evaluation that allows students to learn whether they have been admitted 24 hours after showing their high school transcripts.” Where to find such impatient prospects? Admissions officers will also be canvassing local beaches and malls in the five boroughs and Westchester in […]
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The New York Times ran a piece Monday on Berea college, which, judging from the article’s comment section and blog responses, appears to have hit a raw nerve. At a point when Congress is about to publish a list of the worst tuition-increase offenders, and yearly college price-tags are climbing nearer $50,000 a year, it’s […]
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Laura Ingalls Wilder as a proto-Reaganite? Surprisingly, the book (Little House, Long Shadow: Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Impact On American Culture) didn’t appear until now. When Ronald Reagan became president in 1981, Fellman saw how deeply his individualist rhetoric resonated with average Americans and was reminded of her own emotional reaction to Wilder’s stories of prairie […]
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Bob Weissberg brought our attention to this job opening, at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Italics mine: The Department of Community Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz, invites applications for a full-time tenured scholar focused on the theory and practice of social movements, civil society institutions and/or the third sector within neoliberalism. […]
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President Bush has nominated Robert Paquette, of the Alexander Hamilton Center (once nearly an institution at Hamilton College) to the National Council on the Humanities. All luck with his confirmation.
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– The chancellor of the Washington D.C. public school system is considering a dual-track system of employment – one with lower pay and traditional job protections, and one with higher pay, fewer protections, and greater chances for raises. Richard Vedder suggests the same for universities: ..You can either go for job security or for higher […]
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Busy? We’ll deliver the highlights of Minding The Campus to your inbox. The newsletter provides a round-up of notable recent work, from articles to blog posts, as well as announcements of upcoming features and events. And all you need to do is check your email. Sign up now for MTC email alerts – just fill […]
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The New York Times noted the work of our VERITAS Fund in last week’s “The ’60s Begin to Fade as Liberal Professors Retire.” With previous battles already settled, like the creation of women’s and ethnic studies departments, moderation can be found at both ends of the political spectrum. David DesRosiers, executive director of the Veritas […]
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At its annual meeting, the American Association of University Professors declined to vote to criticize Israel, yet voted to condemn Iran. In December, the MLA rejected a statement defending critics of Israel and replaced it with a much-milder statement defending contentious Middle East research. They also resisted condemning Ward Churchill’s firing, and instead only objected […]
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Madonna Constantine, Columbia’s Plagiarist, has been fired. How have some reported on this? “Victim of Hate Incident Fired From Columbia University” – The Daily Voice “Victim of Noose Incident, Columbia U. Professor Is Fired Amid Plagiarism Charges” – Diverse Issues In Higher Education Remember, the plagiarism was proven, the noose charge wasn’t. In case you […]
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The last two weeks have seen academic conferences on The Sopranos and Buffy The Vampire Slayer at Fordham University and Henderson State University respectively. What did they have to offer? The Fordham conference featured papers on “Carmela Soprano as Emma Bovary: European Culture, Taste, and Class in The Sopranos“, “A ‘Finook’ in the Crew: Vito […]
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In the midst of a profoundly boring commencement season, there have been only a few graduation speeches worth noticing: – Craig Newmark, Craigslist founder, delivered commencement addresses at Case Western Reserve and UC Berkeley. He doesn’t seem to have, well, written the latter speech. Descriptions of the “improvisatory” speech involved terms such as “off the […]
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The student who pied Thomas Friedman at Brown has been suspended for the fall semester. Disrupting college speakers carries consequences? Who would have thought?
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At Wheaton college, employees who are divorcing are required to confer with the university to determine if their divorce meets biblical standards. Kent Gramm, an English professor, notified the university of his divorce, but refused to discuss it. The college found this unacceptable. Gramm is resigning. Many have criticized the college’s actions. Bill McGurn, writing […]
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– Ilya Somin at Volokh Conspiracy wonders why some prominent universities don’t have law schools – Princeton, Brown, Johns Hopkins, Rice, and Tufts are law-school-less. As is Brandeis, ironic as he notes, “for a prominent university named after a Supreme Court justice.” He’s surprised they haven’t made the leap. Take a look. – Harvard’s new […]
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KC Johnson continues to pay indefatigable attention to the Group of 88 at Durham-in-Wonderland. We missed a post two weeks ago, but it’s certainly worth a look: Waheena Lubiano, the famously prolific Duke professor, recently co-authored a piece in Social Text (along with fellow group member Michael Hardt, and another professor) on the trials of […]
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– Richard Vedder marvels at the obdurate defense of embattled University Presidents – something much like a defacto system of Giving Presidents Tenure – Jay Greene offers an analysis of gifts to U.S. Universities originating in Middle Eastern states. They’re massive, as you might imagine. As Greene comments: To put the magnitude of those gifts […]
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Look to the latest New Criterion, focused on liberal education, for some incisive writing on the modern academy and its afflictions: Our own Jim Piereson, reviewing Education’s End, in “Liberalism vs. humanism” Alan Charles Kors’ fascinating and depressing account of his long experiences in the academy in “On the sadness of higher education” Charles Murray […]
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Jay Greene has compiled a list of political donations from the employees of the top ten U.S. News and World report universities. What did he find? The most “balanced” university in terms of donations was Duke, where 84% of donations and 81% of the overall dollar value went to Democratic candidates. How about the fabled […]
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Another vital chance to opine on the Dartmouth trustee-packing scheme has arisen. The Dartmouth Association of Alumni is now holding elections for their Executive Committee. The contest revolves centrally around the Alumni Association’s ongoing suit against Dartmouth’s alteration of the college’s board. Two slates of candidates are competing: one, Dartmouth Undying, which vows to end […]
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One of the curiosities that bored college editors survey every few years is the topic of men pursuing women’s studies. Three such pieces appeared in the last month, in the Chicago Maroon today, in the Duke Chronicle yesterday, and in the Yale Daily News on April 2; all stressed the accessibility and relevance of women’s […]
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A Wall Street Journal Editorial today draws attention to the Olin Foundation’s final bequest, to our very own VERITAS fund. Here’s the Journal’s description: ..Using as a model Princeton’s James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions, Veritas looks for professors with ideas for bringing intellectual diversity to campus. Veritas has already disbursed $2.5 million […]
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The Wall Street Journal reports on college savings plans. Take a look, save (more).
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Feminists Say The Darndest Things, Mike Adams, Sentinel, February 2008 Mike Adams, Professor of Criminology at the University of North Carolina – Wilmington, is nothing if not a provocateur; few other impulses can explain a book entitled Feminists Say The Darndest Things. Adams, as the title amply demonstrates, has an eristic disposition massively ill-suited for the […]
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Advertising for last Friday’s conference on feminism at Harvard, organized by Harvey Mansfield’s Program on Constitutional Government, was hilariously provocative. The flyer proclaimed “The Conference the Radcliffe Institute didn’t want to host!” and “A genuine Debate with DIVERSITY of views on THE LEGACY AND FUTURE OF FEMINISM” not to mention “Ladies Receive an Additional 50% […]
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The Chronicle of Higher Education began a recent report on perceptions of politics in the academy “the older Americans are, and the less time they have spent on a college campus, the more likely they are to believe that professors are politically biased.” This framing minimized the subsequent revelation that 29 percent of respondents aged […]
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The Moving Picture Institute and MindingTheCampus.com invite you to a public screening of Indoctrinate U on Monday April 14, 2008 from 6:00-8:00 PM. The screening will be held at the Directors Guild of America Theater and will be followed by a discussion featuring MindingTheCampus.com editor John Leo and David DesRosiers, executive director of the VERITAS […]
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The Rutgers Daily Targum, an expertly edited publication, offered a story on yesterday’s New Brunswick anti-war event, “U. professors cancel class in support of ralley” [sic]. Copy editing’s not their evident strength; this seems little surprise when you see what one of their Journalism professors thinks about holding classes. Bruce Reynolds and several other professors […]
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The Harvard Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid, William Fitzsimmons, spoke out for SAT II tests at a recent panel at Harvard. The utility of the examinations has come into question as the University of California mulls dropping their SAT II application requirements. The Crimson reports on Fitzsimmons’ surprisingly spirited defense: “The SAT IIs have […]
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