Topic: Academics

The Chinese Don’t Like Academic Freedom, So American Schools Should Avoid Their Confucius Institutes

Sep 20, 2017 · · 8 Comments on The Chinese Don’t Like Academic Freedom, So American Schools Should Avoid Their Confucius Institutes

Academic freedom has long been a guiding principle for American colleges and universities: Neither faculty nor students should be told what to say or punished for saying whatever they think. That principle has been under attack in recent years as militants try to drive out those who dissent from their beliefs, but for the most … Continue reading “The Chinese Don’t Like Academic Freedom, So American Schools Should Avoid Their Confucius Institutes”

The Uncertain Future of Coding Boot Camps

Sep 18, 2017 · · 1 Comment on The Uncertain Future of Coding Boot Camps

Students are enrolling in coding “boot camps” at record rates, with the number of graduates increasing from about 2,200 in 2013 to an estimated 23,000 in 2017. However, the booming popularity of coding schools was not enough to prevent two prominent ones, Dev Bootcamp and The Iron Yard, from closing down recently. Coding boot camps … Continue reading “The Uncertain Future of Coding Boot Camps”

Grade Inflation Just Got Respectable: The New Eligibility Rule Governing Georgia’s HOPE Scholarship

Sep 15, 2017 · · 7 Comments on Grade Inflation Just Got Respectable: The New Eligibility Rule Governing Georgia’s HOPE Scholarship

Georgia’s HOPE Scholarship is now in its twenty-fourth year of existence. Originally the brainchild of then Governor Zell Miller, since 1993 this merit-based scholarship program has distributed in excess of $9 billion in lottery proceeds to about 1.7 million qualifying recipients. In order to be eligible for HOPE, which covers about 80% of tuition at … Continue reading “Grade Inflation Just Got Respectable: The New Eligibility Rule Governing Georgia’s HOPE Scholarship”

Closing the Gap at North Carolina’s Historically Black Universities

Sep 11, 2017 · · 10 Comments on Closing the Gap at North Carolina’s Historically Black Universities

Earlier this month, the Triangle Business Journal revealed that graduates from North Carolina’s Historically Black College and Universities (HBCUs) are lagging their peers in terms of median salary after graduation. As the state bolsters its efforts to attract more students to its public HBCUs, it’s especially important to discover the cause of such disparities and … Continue reading “Closing the Gap at North Carolina’s Historically Black Universities”

Contra the “McDonaldization” of Higher Education

Sep 8, 2017 · · 10 Comments on Contra the “McDonaldization” of Higher Education

The term “McDonaldization” was coined by sociology professor George Ritzer in 1993. He meant for it to describe “the industrial process of rationalization that [was] expanding beyond industry into the cultural and educational spheres.” Ritzer’s term caught on and in 2002, Dennis Hayes and Robin Wynyard applied it to higher education in a book they … Continue reading “Contra the “McDonaldization” of Higher Education”

Segregated Student Housing: Exclusion in the Name of Inclusion

Sep 4, 2017 · · 6 Comments on Segregated Student Housing: Exclusion in the Name of Inclusion

Irwin Holmes was in his living room, a laptop computer in front of him, a pile of reading materials stacked next to him, and his wife seated nearby when he heard the news. North Carolina State University might create segregated student housing for African American women. When he learned his alma mater already had exclusive … Continue reading “Segregated Student Housing: Exclusion in the Name of Inclusion”

How Higher Education “Studies” Men

Aug 30, 2017 · · 60 Comments on How Higher Education “Studies” Men

In 2013, Stony Brook University (part of the SUNY system) revealed plans for a new “Center for the Study of Men and Masculinities.” Since I’m a Stony Brook grad, I was quite interested in this development. Would the new Center do anything to enhance the school’s reputation for scholarship? I didn’t think it would, but … Continue reading “How Higher Education “Studies” Men”

Higher Education’s Diversity Obsession: A Bad Bargain

Aug 25, 2017 · · 5 Comments on Higher Education’s Diversity Obsession: A Bad Bargain

The obsession with diversity is so widespread among American colleges that it has become a normal part of campus life. Just what “normal” looks like is revealed in a new book based on extensive interviews with “whites” and “students of color” at Harvard University and Brown University, The Diversity Bargain: And Other Dilemmas of Race, … Continue reading “Higher Education’s Diversity Obsession: A Bad Bargain”

How to Fight the ABA’s Anticompetitive and Discriminatory Practices

Aug 23, 2017 · · 12 Comments on How to Fight the ABA’s Anticompetitive and Discriminatory Practices

Recently I urged top law schools to stand up to the excesses and abuses occasioned by the ministrations of the American Bar Association (ABA). These schools could band together and follow the lead of the journalism schools at Northwestern and Berkeley, which dropped their accreditor, the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, … Continue reading “How to Fight the ABA’s Anticompetitive and Discriminatory Practices”

When College Sports Lean Pro, Students and the Public Pay

Aug 21, 2017 · · 9 Comments on When College Sports Lean Pro, Students and the Public Pay

Last week marked the latest chapter in the biggest college sports scandal in history. Administrators and athletics officials from UNC-Chapel Hill appeared before the NCAA’s Committee on Infractions in Nashville, Tennessee. At issue was whether the bogus classes UNC athletes took between 1993 and 2011 should be considered “impermissible benefits.” The Committee is expected to … Continue reading “When College Sports Lean Pro, Students and the Public Pay”