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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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 […]
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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, […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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“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 […]
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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 […]
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