In 2022, Jon Lauck published The Good Country: A History of the American Midwest, 1800-1900. His book describes a wonderful range of things to love about the 19th-century Midwest: its … Continue reading “Now Is the Time to Renew History Departments”
The latest fresh hell is citational justice. Which is quotas for footnotes. Now we’re supposed to track the group identity of the authors we cite and make sure there are … Continue reading “The Strange World of “Citational Justice””
The Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) revolution doesn’t just affect colleges and universities. It’s already begun to extend itself into America’s professions, by way of professional licensing requirements. The American … Continue reading “Wokeness Is Creeping into Continuing Legal Education”
In September 2022, three researchers published the provocatively titled article, “Do Introductory Courses Disproportionately Drive Minoritized Students Out of STEM Pathways?” That article got loads of social media publicity for … Continue reading “Why the Left Relies on Statistical Illiteracy”
What is the state of academic history? Take a look at the latest issue of the American Historical Review, the flagship journal of the academic discipline. It doesn’t publish bread-and-butter … Continue reading “Peer-Reviewed History is Dying of Wokeness”
The Chronicle of Higher Education has just published the latest assault on academic standards, Jordynn Jack and Viji Sathy’s “It’s Time to Cancel the Word ‘Rigor’.” Jack teaches rhetoric and … Continue reading “Don’t Cancel Rigor”
Editor’s note: This article is adapted from a December 6 speech at an event hosted by the National Association of Scholars and the Martin Center on social justice and identity … Continue reading “The Continual Creep of Social Justice into Higher Education”
A college common reading should be a book for adults, not a warmed-over book for high-school students. It should be written beautifully. It should introduce students to human beings stranger and more distant than their 25-year-old peers. It should draw students to enter into the broad world of the human mind and spirit, and not just that narrow corner that satisfies the dogmas of progressive piety and uplift.
Accreditation is like the pancreas: not very interesting, but a source of serious problems if it malfunctions. The pancreas of higher education just said “ouch.” An accrediting agency, licensed by the federal government to keep colleges in good order, just got a (temporarily suspended) death sentence.