When news broke that UNC-Chapel Hill had plans to create a new School of Civic Life and Leadership, it was inevitable that there would be some confusion. But nearly two … Continue reading “The Media Take On the UNC Board”
As a college professor from the Midwest, I usually shy away from commenting on higher-education policy issues in other parts of the country. But North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper’s November … Continue reading “Who Should Own the University of North Carolina?”
Conservative thinkers are mostly united on the need for reforming the American college system, but they’re divided on how to do it. It can be hard to pin down, exactly, … Continue reading “Renewing the University: A Pro/Con of Proposals”
An ill wind has buffeted higher education in the year of the plague. Workers have been laid off, the ranks of the professoriate have shrunk, and enrollment declines across the … Continue reading “Did You Know? The Higher Ed Bureaucracy Won the Pandemic”
Members of the media and faculty erupted into histrionics at the recent appointment of Darrell Allison to the chancellorship of Fayetteville State University. It is a great scandal, they claimed; … Continue reading “Perpetual Scandal-Mongering as a Political Tool”
Virginia’s top public universities are largely stratified by socioeconomic status. Consider the following statistics that appear in the new book by James V. Koch and Richard J. Cebula, Runaway College … Continue reading “The Problem of Higher Ed and Economic Mobility”
The Chronicle of Higher Education recently released a report decrying the politicization of public higher education governance, entitled The New Order: How the Nation’s Partisan Divisions Consumed Public-College Boards and … Continue reading “America Wants Its Public Colleges Back and The Chronicle Isn’t Happy About It”
Academia is a troubled institution plagued by financial problems, falling academic standards, and poor educational outcomes. Especially concerning is its politicization; it increasingly sows racial discord, advocates for anti-American and … Continue reading “Can Higher Education Be Saved? The Hope for Governance Reform”
From the Executive Summary of Bolstering the Board: Trustees Are Academia’s Best Hope for Reform: Two conditions are needed to effect large-scale reforms in academia: a hierarchical, top- down system … Continue reading “Bolstering the Board: Trustees Are Academia’s Best Hope for Reform”
Suffering from self-inflicted wounds, the University of Tulsa is sick and getting sicker. This is a case study in how “progressive” academic leadership can wreck a once-excellent university. Last April … Continue reading “How Tulsa University Was Turned into Toxic University”