Humorless, intolerant leftist academics are a force to be reckoned with on many college campuses, and a new case at the University of North Texas (UNT) pushes the envelope. After earning his PhD in mathematics from Baylor University in spring 2019, Nathaniel Hiers found employment at UNT. He began teaching full-time as an adjunct faculty … Continue reading “Math Professor Mocks a Leftist Belief and Gets Fired”
In March 2018, the University of Arkansas Board of Trustees adopted new rules that fatally undermine academic freedom. We authored this piece for the Martin Center explaining the damage the amendments would inflict on higher education in the state. Unfortunately, the Board of Trustees ignored our warning, a warning reiterated by numerous other faculty and … Continue reading “Professors Fight to Save Free Speech on Campus and Academic Freedom in Arkansas”
As more students have headed to college and a degree is seen as a way to shape students as workers and as citizens, higher education’s mission has become more important. Its leaders, and their personal beliefs, have become more contentious, too. In recent months, many conservative thinkers have publicly debated how to reform higher education—or, … Continue reading “Reforming Higher Education: A Reading List”
On 30 April 2019, St. Edmunds College, University of Cambridge, rescinded a fellowship to the outstanding young researcher Noah Carl, who self-identifies as a conservative. The rescinding was unjust, and it came after a sustained and equally unjust campaign of leftist protest and demonstration against Dr. Carl. The campaign was unjustly supported by leftist press … Continue reading “A Witch Hunt Comes for a Nonconformist Professor”
How far has the United States gone down the road of punishing people for uttering politically incorrect thoughts? Very far indeed, as an incident at the University of Louisville shows. Yes, we know that faculty in the “soft” fields of the social sciences endanger their careers if they happen to say something that upsets someone … Continue reading “Caveat Magister: Even Medical Professors Must Not Say Politically Incorrect Things”
North Carolina is widely respected for institutions such as the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke University, both research-intensive and high-prestige schools. But it’s less known for a radically experimental college that was tucked away in the Appalachian mountains more than half a century ago. Just east of Asheville, Black Mountain College … Continue reading “The Radical Experimental College in the Blue Ridge Mountains”
Attacks by academics and the media on the University of North Carolina system’s Board of Governors have become a major part of the state’s political landscape in recent years, and such attacks may be intensifying. The board is described at times as inept, divisive, “partisan,” “anti-intellectual,” and mean-spirited; unless they are “reined in,” North Carolina’s … Continue reading “The Board Ain’t Broke, So It Don’t Need “Fixin’””
North Carolina State University is one of the latest universities to announce plans to close its Confucius Institute. Eleven American colleges and universities have parted ways with these Chinese government-funded centers, eight of them in the last 14 months. The Chinese government funds some 500 Confucius Institutes at colleges and universities around the world, and … Continue reading “Another Confucius Institute Closes”
The James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal returns to the City Club Raleigh for its Third Annual Policy Banquet. The banquet, featuring Roger Ream of The Fund for American Studies, will be held on Tuesday, October 23 from 5:30pm-8pm. Keynote speaker Roger Ream is the president of The Fund for American Studies (TFAS), a nonprofit dedicated to changing the world by developing leaders for … Continue reading “Third Annual Policy Banquet”
In a recent essay published in The Chronicle of Higher Education, Yale philosophy professor Jason Stanley is haunted by a spectre—the spectre of American universities aiding the rise of fascism. (The essay, “Fascism and the University” is subscriber-only content, unfortunately.) He says that “patterns have emerged that suggest the resurgence of fascist politics globally” and … Continue reading “Higher Education and the Threat of Fascism”