Professor John Ellis has served on college faculties since 1963 and is now an emeritus professor at the University of California-Santa Cruz. He has witnessed enormous changes in higher education over his years and he finds those changes to be deplorable. In his new book The Breakdown of Higher Education, Ellis explains how our system … Continue reading “A Scholar’s Lament”
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 11, the university’s administration rolled out “True Commitment,” a radical restructuring that gutted the liberal arts, raised course loads, dissolved academic departments, and effectively turned … Continue reading “How Tulsa University Was Turned into Toxic University”
The coronavirus pandemic has injected uncertainty into nearly every aspect of society—and higher education is no exception. As North Carolina’s leaders grapple with the challenges posed by curbing the virus’ spread, dramatic policy decisions are being made on a daily, and sometimes hourly, basis. The following is a summary of what higher education leaders in … Continue reading “How North Carolina Colleges Are Responding to COVID-19”
Elizabeth Loftus is perhaps one of the world’s most renowned cognitive psychologists. She is a distinguished professor of psychology at the University of California-Irvine where she lectures about the cognitive sciences and in the law school. She has influenced the field with decades of research focusing on the malleability of memory. She has written 23 … Continue reading “After Renowned Psychologist Testifies at Weinstein Trial, NYU Revokes Invitation”
Timely graduation rates reveal a lot about how well colleges are fulfilling their academic mission. If, for example, the majority of students don’t graduate in the traditional four-year period—or even in five years—a fundamental question must be raised: Are colleges accepting students who are truly academically prepared? For some University of North Carolina institutions, the … Continue reading “Did You Know? UNC Graduation Rates Have Increased, Many Still Very Low”
What do conservatives want to conserve? Clearly, conservatives everywhere desire the preservation and maintenance of the good things belonging to their various cultures that have been passed down from previous generations to their present time. That desire also implies conservatives wish to continue their cultural inheritance by passing these benefits on to their children and … Continue reading “Why Art Matters”
In the span of a few days, coronavirus has upended American higher education. More than 400 colleges have canceled classes or moved them online to slow the virus’s spread. While some schools hope that the shift will be temporary, others have confirmed that in-person classes and events will be canceled for the rest of the … Continue reading “To Tamp Down the Coronavirus, Traditional Higher Ed Goes Online”
Education has lost one its most important disruptors: Clayton Christensen, PhD and distinguished professor at Harvard Business School. After a successful career as the CEO of CPS Technologies, Christensen returned to school at age 40 to earn his PhD in business from Harvard University. He became a well-known scholar, particularly for his key contributions to … Continue reading “American Education Just Lost a Great Champion of Innovation”
As the number of confirmed cases of coronavirus quickly rises in America, colleges have started to take action. Scores of them have extended their spring breaks, shut down campuses, moved classes online, and a few have even canceled spring semester. While the college-aged haven’t died in large numbers from coronavirus, they could transmit it to … Continue reading “Did You Know? College Shutdowns from Coronavirus at 400+ and Counting”
College sports are a gigantic entertainment business that have nothing to do with the missions of the schools. Frequently, the highest-paid employee of a school is the football or basketball coach, and the athletics budget is hugely subsidized by fees paid by financially strapped students. Players who read and write at a middle-school level (if … Continue reading “How College Sports Turned into a Corrupt Mega-Business”