Sep 11, 2026

Michigan Thinks Grades Are the Problem

The University of Michigan will hide first-semester grades from transcripts, but evidence from other colleges suggests the policy may reduce student effort.

The University of Michigan plans to exclude first-semester letter grades from students’ transcripts to “curb the mental health crisis.” What would seem like a mundane university-level grading change has become…

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Sep 10, 2026

Conservatives Need Not Apply?

While I was in graduate school, I regularly participated in a research program that paid students to taste test food. Many social science disciplines conduct research this way. While these…

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Sep 9, 2026

Foreign Languages Are a National Interest

Ever since Benjamin Franklin wielded his fluent French to persuade Parisian elites to support the War of Independence, foreign language knowledge has enabled American diplomats and representatives—not to mention spies—to…

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Sep 8, 2026

What Biology Can Teach Us About History

Stephen H. Balch’s Naturalizing History: A Biocultural Theory of Human Progress (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2026) is a grand synthesis of biology and history that articulates many of the concerns of…

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Sep 7, 2026

The Pirates Are Pillaging Their Own Campus

East Carolina University is going through a bad stretch.  Sexual assaults. Hazing reports. Drunken student behavior. Religious-property vandalism. A dorm peeping case. Alleged drug and alcohol use among prospective members…

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Sep 4, 2026

A PhD Built for the Real World

In late July, the White House and National Science Foundation announced in the right-leaning tech publication, Pirate Wires, that, beginning this fall, they would be establishing a $47 million program…

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Sep 3, 2026

The Need to Reclaim Liberal Education

Peter Berkowitz is one of those rare public intellectuals who doesn’t mind being on the “wrong” side of hot controversies—which is to say, he’s willing to clash with the “progressive”…

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Sep 2, 2026

UT-Austin Puts the “Core” Back in Core Curriculum

For decades, the American university has been drifting away from its most important purpose: giving students a common education in the knowledge and principles they need to become educated citizens.…

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Sep 1, 2026

Not All Graduate Degrees Pay Off

Higher education has long included graduate degrees in the United States. But over the last decade or so, the number of students seeking degrees after earning their bachelors has been…

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