Adam Kissel is a Life Member of the National Association of Scholars.
This morning, the Louisiana State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education voted to let high school students graduate if they do not file the Federal Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). This smart move redresses a tragic reality: artificially increasing college access has meant that young people who ought not go to college are going […]
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Florida is in a novel situation: A national organization has allegedly committed a felony and explicitly said that its student chapters are part of the felony. What should happen in this case? According to an October 24 letter to presidents of the State University System (SUS) of Florida penned by SUS Chancellor Ray Rodrigues, the […]
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The age-old struggle between the individual and society is not merely a question for political philosophy. This struggle results in a personal virtue, civility, the mean between regarding oneself too much and regarding others too much. This virtue is the subject of Alexandra Hudson’s new book from St. Martin’s Press, The Soul of Civility: Timeless […]
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In a free society, there would be no strings attached to government funding for higher education because there would be no such funding in the first place. The reality, however, is that federal student loans will not be privatized anytime soon, and since almost every college in America uses them, such schools will continue to […]
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For years, some colleges assigned new students roommates from different regions, races or classes. The idea, not very controversial, was to broaden the horizons of freshmen. Now a more intrusive version of that plan has turned up via the University of Denver, where the chancellor believes a bit of social engineering will push students toward […]
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You should formulate your response to the case of Steven Salaita cautiously. Salaita, a professor at the University of Illinois, was unhired following public outcry over his declamations against Israel, Jews, and defenders of Israel on Twitter. If you don’t defend him, you can’t defend right-wingers who express themselves in similarly strong language. “No individual loses […]
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Five years ago, I told the sad tale of curricular decline at the University of Chicago, whose core curriculum changes had met widespread national criticism ten years earlier. I am disappointed to report that the university’s offerings have declined further since 2009. The University of Chicago’s Core was once the gold standard in higher education. Though it went through many changes, when it […]
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A college commencement is a splendid time to celebrate student achievement. But it’s “disinvitation season” again, as the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education observes: the time when intolerant students and faculty advocate against their school’s choice of commencement speaker, sometimes causing the speaker to be disinvited. These power-hungry protesters demonstrate how little they have learned […]
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Champlain College in Vermont has been receiving national accolades for its thoughtful curriculum. For many of those unhappy with the vagaries of more famous colleges and universities, Champlain is starting to pop up in parental discussions, right after the question, “Then where would you be willing to send your son or daughter?” The college combines a decent core curriculum with career-oriented […]
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After pushing freshmen to “pledge” to official Harvard values last year, this year the college is training students that there is One Right Ethical Way to Live Here at Harvard. “We did not have [freshmen] sign pledges,” Dean of Freshmen Thomas A. Dingman told The Harvard Crimson for a Sept. 7 article, “but we pushed every bit as hard on how […]
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The University of Chicago met widespread national opposition ten years ago after it instituted a new, less demanding core curriculum to make way for more electives. It was part of a plan to make the curriculum significantly less demanding (more “fun”) to attract more students and improve the school’s bottom line. Instead of 21 required […]
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[Read John K. Wilson’s defense of Delaware ResLife here] The University of Delaware Office of Residence Life has tricked another outsider, John K. Wilson, into believing that its proposal to run a highly politicized indoctrination program for over 7,000 students in the school’s residence halls is actually just a free exploration of diverse views in […]
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