Over the past several weeks, I’ve penned several posts examining the transformation of how U.S. history is taught, and studied, in higher education. The two clear patterns: (1) a decline in U.S. historians who study topics deemed “traditional”; and (2) a “re-visioning” of many of those who continue to study “traditional” topics to make their […]
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The Book of Genesis alludes to seven years of plenty followed by seven lean years of want. For American higher education, the last forty years (roughly) have been years of plenty, but it is becoming increasingly apparent that many lean years lie ahead. Perhaps there won’t be any more fat years. The latest piece of […]
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Ron Unz’s cover story in the December American Conservative — “The Myth of American Meritocracy” — has generated an extraordinary level of commentary in popular magazines, op-ed pages and Internet blogs. The article deals with the many non-meritocratic practices in the admissions policies of America’s most elite universities, especially the eight Ivy League institutions. The […]
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Today’s Wall Street Journal has an excellent article by Father John I. Jenkins, president of the University of Notre Dame, entitled “Persuasion as the Cure for Incivility.” In it, he argues that Americans need to get out of the terrible habit of “arguing” with people who disagree with them by demonizing and vilifying them. He’s […]
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Just when you thought it safe to read about higher education without encountering more toxic fallout from the University of Virginia Board of Visitors’ firing and forced rehiring of President Teresa Sullivan last June, there is now more such fallout. In early December, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC), dissatisfied […]
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The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that a faculty grievance committee at the University of Southern California has called for the reconsideration of a recent decision to deny tenure to Mai’a K. Davis Cross, an assistant professor of international relations whom the Chronicle states “is of Native Hawaiian and Asian ancestry.” She claims her denial […]
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Since the early years of the 20th century, America has boasted the world’s finest universities, but that rosy picture is fading. The lower quality of American college graduates, the shift of foreign students to Asian and European schools and the slippage in the global rankings of American universities signal a serious decline — this at […]
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As 2012 wound down, one piece of higher-ed news drew attention to a subject that matters to many college students: unpaid internships. On December 20, Charlie Rose’s production team agreed to pay a maximum of $250,000 to settle a class-action lawsuit brought by former interns. Led by Wesleyan alumna Lucy Bickerton, the group claimed that Rose […]
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In the January 2013 issue of First Things, Professor Patrick Deneen contends that the decline in the study of great books is to be found in the very arguments within the great books themselves. While these arguments do exist, their role and the extent of their influence, is difficult to assess. Admittedly the reflexive use of […]
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Almost every day you’ll find new evidence that the United States has vastly oversold higher education. The evidence du jour is in the Wall Street Journal of January 3, a piece by a young lawyer named Chris Fletcher. In it, Fletcher points out that, according to an estimate by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the […]
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The Modern Language Association reports a depressing statistic: the estimated number of jobs offered this year for professors of English will drop 3.6 percent from last year. The main issue here is that for the first time in 20 years foreign language openings will exceed those in English, but the actual decline of English jobs is […]
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In July, relying on the findings of the university’s own report penned by former FBI director Louis Freeh, the NCAA imposed sanctions against Penn State, citing senior administrators’ mishandling of the allegations against former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky and the football culture that caused these administrators to look the other way. At the time, […]
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The Common Core has many flaws, but its writing standards stand out as an intellectual impossibility for average middle grade students. Their architects didn’t link them to appropriate reading benchmarks. Last November I saw the results of NYC teachers’ attempts to address these writing standards. Their students had clearly tried to figure out how to […]
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As American higher education begins its 378th year, we can rejoice that our universities have several strengths, but lament their growing number of weaknesses. The beginning of a new year is a good time to reassess the system. Let us begin with the strengths: A large portion of adult Americans have had higher education experiences, giving the […]
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Members of the academy usually display their anti-American sentiment by promoting multiculturalism. Rarely, however, does their critique involve the Constitution itself. To be sure, one can reasonably argue that Supreme Court justices have overstepped their authority or mistaken various clauses. However, Georgetown University professor Louis Michael Seidman wonders whether we should obey the Constitution at […]
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