Fears Surrounding the Privatization of Campus Services Are Unfounded

Jul 11, 2016 · Martin Center Staff · No Comments

Last semester at my school, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, students protested the privatization of the campus bookstore through rallies and social media uproar. Such backlash seemed due to fear of change—change for the workers at the store and change for the Chapel Hill community. For many protestors, the bookstore represented a … Continue reading “Fears Surrounding the Privatization of Campus Services Are Unfounded”

Did You Know? An Anti-Poverty Program Sent Funds to 33 Well-Off College Towns Oct 17, 2019
“Opportunity zones,” defined by a 2017 law, are poor areas targeted by the federal government for economic investment. In a study by the Brookings Institution, researchers discovered that money intended for economically struggling areas was funneled to college towns instead. Though college towns have many unemployed, poor adults—known as students—they don’t tend to be economically … Continue reading “Did You Know? An Anti-Poverty Program Sent Funds to 33 Well-Off College Towns”
Without Financial Transparency, Colleges Mislabel Research Spending as Instructional Oct 7, 2019
Public colleges spend public money, but college officials are reluctant to make information about their budgets easy to understand. That aversion to transparency makes it easier to pass non-instructional expenses along to students. Many experts have discussed the problem. But without transparency, it can be hard to show just how much so-called instruction is actually … Continue reading “Without Financial Transparency, Colleges Mislabel Research Spending as Instructional”
The True Cost of a PhD: Giving Up a Family for Academia Oct 4, 2019
In 2012, CBS noted the bleak future that awaited PhD graduates. From 2005 to 2009, American universities graduated 100,000 new PhDs but only created 16,000 new professorships. The average PhD student spends 8 years in graduate school and turns 33 years old before they graduate. Unfortunately, the outlook for PhDs hasn’t improved since 2012. More … Continue reading “The True Cost of a PhD: Giving Up a Family for Academia”

Can Independent Christian Study Centers Restore the Soul of Higher Education? Oct 9, 2019
In The Soul of the American University published in 1994, the historian George Marsden gave a powerful account of how once-great pillars and trend-setters of American higher education have abandoned even a residual commitment to the Christian foundations on which they were founded. The cultural, political, social and economic upheavals of the 20th century moved … Continue reading “Can Independent Christian Study Centers Restore the Soul of Higher Education?”
The Free Online Courses that Cultivate the Mind Sep 27, 2019
The task of learning never ends for those who want to grow in wisdom. But in a world of eight- or ten-hour workdays, traffic jams, and daily responsibilities, it can be easy to put the life of the mind on the back burner. Besides time constraints, another difficulty is that education is expensive. For those … Continue reading “The Free Online Courses that Cultivate the Mind”
Which Country’s Higher Education System Is Best? Sep 18, 2019
Many Americans crow that our higher education system is “the envy of the world,” even though it’s nearly impossible to point to any proof of that. In truth, however, some Americans look down on our system, saying that it is clearly inferior to that of other nations, such as Japan and Finland. A recent study … Continue reading “Which Country’s Higher Education System Is Best?”

The Idea of a University: When Trustees Turn a College into a Commodity Oct 18, 2019
Editor’s Note: This article by Randolph Bourne, a writer and public intellectual, was originally published as “The Idea of a University” in The Dial on November 22, 1917. This is the second of a Martin Center “History of Higher Ed” series where the Center will republish overlooked writings that shaped American higher education. In September 1917, … Continue reading “The Idea of a University: When Trustees Turn a College into a Commodity”
Did You Know? An Anti-Poverty Program Sent Funds to 33 Well-Off College Towns Oct 17, 2019
“Opportunity zones,” defined by a 2017 law, are poor areas targeted by the federal government for economic investment. In a study by the Brookings Institution, researchers discovered that money intended for economically struggling areas was funneled to college towns instead. Though college towns have many unemployed, poor adults—known as students—they don’t tend to be economically … Continue reading “Did You Know? An Anti-Poverty Program Sent Funds to 33 Well-Off College Towns”
Round One—Harvard Beats Asian Americans Oct 16, 2019
In a long-awaited decision, federal trial judge Allison Burroughs has ruled that, while Harvard does consider a student’s race in determining who gets in and who doesn’t (“the use of race in and of itself is admitted”), nonetheless Harvard is not breaking the law. That outcome was not surprising, and the judge’s opinion is unlikely to … Continue reading “Round One—Harvard Beats Asian Americans”