politicization Archives — The James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal

Tribal Politics Is Turning Us Against Each Other—and Science

May 10, 2017 · Clay Routledge · 12 Comments

If you’ve spent much time on a college campus you’ve probably heard the claim that conservatives are anti-science. If you’re a liberal who doesn’t interact with many conservatives, you might have believed it. If you’re conservative, you probably felt frustrated and misrepresented. This view of conservatives as anti-science has been broadcast beyond the college campus. … Continue reading “Tribal Politics Is Turning Us Against Each Other—and Science”

Perverse Incentives in Science: 21st Century Funding for 20th Century Research Jun 21, 2017
The Paradigm Shift Not long ago I was working with my occasional co-author, an associate dean in the school of economic, political and policy sciences at the University of Texas at Dallas, on creating a campus research institute focused on spontaneous orders. That is a field that attempts to explain how social order emerges from … Continue reading “Perverse Incentives in Science: 21st Century Funding for 20th Century Research”
A New Era: The James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal Jan 3, 2017
Last year, the Pope Center’s Board of Directors decided that there was too much confusion between the Center and the John W. Pope Foundation, a private grant-making foundation in Raleigh, North Carolina. It concluded that a name change was in order. The name chosen was the James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal. James G. Martin is the former governor … Continue reading “A New Era: The James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal”
The Novel A Theory of Nothing Says Something Dec 9, 2016
The college novel is a staple of Anglosphere literature; academia is an especially target-rich environment for social critics and satirists. Yet, the best-selling college novels usually aim at a relatively small subset of that environment. Most merely use the campus as a backdrop for stories that could take place almost anywhere: coming of age stories, … Continue reading “The Novel A Theory of Nothing Says Something”

My State Struggles With the Perils of Legislating Higher Education Reform Oct 20, 2017
Universities have by and large rendered themselves unable to be policed—sometimes quite literally—and that has not gone unnoticed by the legislators who fund them. Wisconsin’s Campus Free Speech Act is just the latest attempt by states to impose some order on institutions by compelling their colleges and universities to take free speech seriously. Thus far, … Continue reading “My State Struggles With the Perils of Legislating Higher Education Reform”
David Horowitz’s Insight About the Academic Left Oct 18, 2017
For a few years in the mid-2000s, David Horowitz was one of the most prominent figures on the campus scene. He didn’t have a PhD and he didn’t belong to any discipline or department. He was, instead, a hard left activist in the 1960s and part of Black Panther leader Huey Newton’s inner circle. Then, … Continue reading “David Horowitz’s Insight About the Academic Left”
Should All University Property Be Tax-Exempt? Oct 16, 2017
Connecticut legislators made headlines last year when they introduced a bill to tax revenue-generating college and university property. The bill was crafted to help New Haven, where Yale University is located, remain solvent. The bill specifies that any commercial property that is owned and operated by a university and that generates more than $6,000 in … Continue reading “Should All University Property Be Tax-Exempt?”