Day: February 21, 2013

Stop Using the “Critical Mass” Theory

Those who advocate admissions preferences for “diverse” students say that colleges will be better learning environments if the student body isn’t all “the same.” Former Harvard president Derek Bok famously said, “It just wouldn’t do to have an all-white university.” In its 2003 decision in Grutter v. Bollinger, a majority of the Supreme Court echoed […]

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Too Many Scientists?

Readers of Minding the Campus are familiar with the argument that universities produce far too many graduates in “impractical” humanities majors. This point applies especially to graduate education in the liberal arts, where today’s students are welcomed into a leftist fellowship with poor job prospects. Jordan Weissmann of the Atlantic claims to upend this narrative […]

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The MLA and the Crisis of the Humanities

Past MLA President Michael Berube’s speech to the Council of Graduate Schools, a version of which was published this week at the Chronicle of Higher Education, offers a sober account of the terrible condition of the humanities circa 2013.  Professor Berube mentions the job market, which “has been in a state of more or less […]

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