The most consequential—and I think harmful—economist of the 20th century, John Maynard Keynes, uttered the expression headlining this article. Keynes believed public policy should concentrate on immediate, short-run problems. With that in mind, I have been part of American higher education for over six decades, and this is easily the most significant year in terms […]
Read MoreDavid Eltis’s Atlantic Cataclysm: Rethinking the Atlantic Slave Trades is a necessary and sobering work that should be read by every college student seeking to understand slavery not as an American peculiarity, but as a global institution embedded deep within human history. Drawing on decades of archival research, statistical data, and newly analyzed ship records, […]
Read MoreIn April, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy (RFK) Jr. announced his plans to notify medical schools that they will lose federal funding if they do not offer nutrition courses aimed at teaching students how to provide holistic treatment for patients. According to Kennedy, nutrition education is lacking in America’s medical schools, and as a result, […]
Read MoreHow should one begin to understand why the modern left mischaracterizes the constitutionally vested Electoral College system as a setback to democracy, or why they paint parental efforts to curate age-appropriate school library contents as “book burning?” Such ad hominem attacks, distasteful indeed, are standard operating procedures to deflect from their own illiberal impulses. But […]
Read MoreEditor’s Note: The following article was originally published by the Observatory of University Ethics on June 18, 2025. The Observatory translated it into English from French. I have edited it, to the best of my ability, to align with Minding the Campus’s style guidelines. It is crossposted here with permission. Although the founder of La Tribune de […]
Read MoreMuch has been written about how places like Harvard have failed to protect Jewish students from anti-Semitism. The coverage is both shocking and, sadly, predictable. But what’s really struck me lately is just how willing Harvard can be to take action on anti-Semitism, so long as it means going after Jews. Harvard researcher of gender […]
Read MoreAuthor’s Note: This article is from my weekly “Top of Mind” email, sent to subscribers every Thursday. For more content like this and to receive the full newsletter each week, enter your name and email under “SIGN UP FOR OUR WEEKLY NEWSLETTER, ‘TOP OF MIND,’” located on the right-hand side of the site. For decades, weather […]
Read MoreDaren Bakst and Marlo Lewis have edited a series of science policy recommendations for reforming the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that literally put the irreproducibility crisis of modern science first. In the first chapter of Modernizing the EPA, Marlo Lewis argues that the EPA’s policy mistakes derive from permitting and fostering practices associated with the […]
Read MoreThere is much discussion these days about the need for “regime change” in certain countries. I don’t generally like the phrase because it can be misunderstood. It implies that a legitimate administration is in charge of a country or institution, and that illegitimate methods will displace it. Much of the world, however, actually needs regime […]
Read MoreYesterday, two nonprofits, Fair for All and Join Our America, filed a federal civil rights complaint with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, alleging the University of the District of Columbia (UDC) violated Title VI and the First Amendment. On May 21st, 2025, the Our America Foundation reached out to the University […]
Read MoreIt is undeniable that universities across America have resisted the burgeoning trend of artificial intelligence (AI). The mere thought of unbridled access to resources like ChatGPT, which makes academic dishonesty difficult to detect, has produced tremors of resistance in professors and administrators alike. It seems that just over the last year, the boundaries of AI […]
Read MorePresident Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act into law on July 4th. This law is the most consequential legislation affecting higher education for the past couple of decades. Like any legislation, it was a product of compromise, but overall, as I predict, it will move higher education and the country in the right […]
Read MoreWhile most media focused on escalating global tensions, American higher education may have just experienced its biggest shakeup in decades. Last week in Boca Raton, Florida, six public university systems unveiled the Commission for Public Higher Education (CPHE), a new accreditor designed to serve public universities with a focus on academic excellence, student outcomes, and […]
Read MoreUniversity systems in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas are launching a new accreditor, dubbed the Commission for Public Higher Education. Why are accreditors important? Accreditors are semi-private organizations that function as gatekeepers for federal financial aid. Only students at colleges that have accreditor approval can receive Pell Grants, student loans, and […]
Read MoreIn a sweeping move that could reshape job training opportunities for young Americans, the Department of Labor (DOL) announced on May 29 an immediate halt to operations at all contractor-run Job Corps centers nationwide. All closures were said to be finalized by June 30, but the administration is facing legal pushback. The decision to close […]
Read MoreEditor’s Note: This op-ed is a response from a Cornell alumnus, bewildered by the university’s recent race-based hiring practices, exposed in the America First Policy Institute’s legal filing and Christopher Rufo’s City Journalarticle, “Cornell Hired Based on Race, Internal Documents Show.” Perhaps Cornell’s sprawling “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) bureaucracy and senior administrators didn’t intend […]
Read MoreEditor’s Note: The following is an article originally published on Sutherland Institute on July 02, 2025. With edits to match Minding the Campus’s style guidelines, it is crossposted here with permission. In his recent piece in Education Next, my American Enterprise Institute (AEI) colleague Frederick Hess offers a crucial corrective to the prevailing winds in civic education. He calls […]
Read MoreFor years, it has been common knowledge that a humanities degree will screw you over. Compare, for instance, the median earnings of a Computer Science (CS) major from five years after graduating from Columbia University ($204,000) to that of an English major graduating from the same school ($74,000). Enrollment statistics paint a similar picture, with […]
Read MoreOn July 6, 1775, the Continental Congress issued a declaration—not of independence, but of necessity. With British troops already marching and colonial blood already spilled, Congress laid out its reasons for taking up arms. The declaration’s title was as direct as its purpose: A Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms. It […]
Read MoreOne might think that if Concord and Lexington left room for doubt that the American colonies were rebelling against Britain, the June 17 affair at Bunker Hill would have settled the question. American farmers inflicting more than a thousand casualties on Britain’s troops was a pretty strong signal of discontent. Moreover, the decision of the […]
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