Editor’s note: This is part 2 of a two-part series of articles. Part 1 can be found here. What are the boundaries of the “fitness” standard for faculty employment in regard to the extramural comments of faculty? (These are comments made about the world beyond the campus.) Some argue that there are none, that professors … Continue reading “Placing Limits on Faculty Speech”
Editor’s note: This is part 1 of a two-part series of articles. Part 2 can be found here. Does academic freedom protect faculty members who promote such activities as genocide, pedophilia, the murder of random innocents for political purposes, and slavery? While it is of paramount importance to ensure that an open intellectual dialogue occurs … Continue reading “On Academic Freedom, Public Comments, and the “Fitness” of Faculty”
Students can survive by cheating unless their professors enforce academic integrity standards. We presume such enforcement exists, but my personal experience suggests otherwise. Let’s be honest: professors face unpleasant consequences if they resist cheating, but no consequences if they look the other way. Professors respond to their incentive structure like other living beings. I was … Continue reading “Cheaters Never Prosper—Or Do They?”
One of the stories in my new book, The Dumbest Generation Grows Up: From Stupefied Youth to Dangerous Adults is that of the changed status of undergraduates and professors. They don’t relate to one another the way they used to. If you wandered the hallways at State U in 1980, you’d sense an ordinary relationship … Continue reading “The Professors Made Their Bed”
Americans’ trust in higher education is wavering. Back in 2018, a Pew Research Center survey found that about 61 percent of Americans think that the higher education system is going in the wrong direction. And a Gallup poll from the same year revealed that only 48 percent of Americans have a “great deal” or “quite … Continue reading “Did You Know? Americans’ Views of College Professors”
We have reached a critical juncture in our nation’s history. As once hallowed institutions decay before our eyes, parallel structures struggle to arise. Cryptocurrencies, Fintechs, and private equity funds hedge against financial system collapse. Private security continues to grow in the face of police defunding crusades. And in K-12 education, charter, parochial, and private schools … Continue reading “Getting Serious About a Parallel University System”
With “cancel culture” running rampant on social media, in politics, and in the classroom, professors who put forth the effort to help students think critically and challenge their beliefs are needed more than ever. Over the last 15 years at Central Michigan University, journalism professor Timothy Boudreau championed those practices in his classroom, to the … Continue reading “When Universities Don’t Step Up, Good Professors Are Forced to Step Down”
It only took a global pandemic to force public and private universities to cut their spending. The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated that about 650,000 jobs were cut in the higher ed sector—a 14 percent decline. An analysis from The Chronicle of Higher Education on the budgets of about 100 top colleges pegged their losses … Continue reading “Did You Know? COVID-19 Budget Cuts Hit Students and Profs, Not Admins”
The syllabus is such a basic document that most of us tend not to think much about what goes into making one. What are its necessary ingredients? A listing of the required study and reading materials, obviously. Dates of important milestones, like term papers and exams, as well. Lecture schedules, weekly assignments, and a rubric … Continue reading “What’s in a Syllabus? The Keys to Undoing Academic Freedom, If We’re Not Careful “
Editor’s note: This is the first of a two-part series. In May of 2020, my wife and I took our retirement after more than 30 years of teaching college, the last 20 years of which we spent at what I will call Upstate Consolation University, a mid-tier state college somewhere in the Northeast. My wife … Continue reading “Leaving the Blight of Higher Education: Part I–Farewell, Students”