Topic: Academics

Administrative Bloat: Where Does It Come From and What Is It Doing?

Jun 19, 2019 · · No Comments on Administrative Bloat: Where Does It Come From and What Is It Doing?

Philip Hamburger recently published a piece in the Wall Street Journal arguing that Congress should control administrative bloat by limiting student loan funds given to colleges with too many administrators. He is dead right about the vast increase in non-faculty bureaucracy in recent decades and the need to reduce it. But the sources of the … Continue reading “Administrative Bloat: Where Does It Come From and What Is It Doing?”

Why Is UNC Funding a ‘Hub for Social Justice?’

Jun 17, 2019 · · No Comments on Why Is UNC Funding a ‘Hub for Social Justice?’

Campus protests started in the 1960s, but protests on today’s college campuses have a different vibe. While protests in the past pitted students against university leadership, protests in the present are supported and accommodated by presidents and administrators. At the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, for example, college officials waste resources on political … Continue reading “Why Is UNC Funding a ‘Hub for Social Justice?’”

A Book Full of Advice for High School and College Grads

Jun 14, 2019 · · No Comments on A Book Full of Advice for High School and College Grads

America’s education establishment beams out a message to young people like a pulsar: Go to college! A high percentage of them do. Once the students are enrolled, however, the schools pretty much leave them alone. To a large degree, students decide what courses they’ll take. What they do in and out of class is up … Continue reading “A Book Full of Advice for High School and College Grads”

Alumni Want More Free Speech and Influence at Davidson College

Jun 10, 2019 · · No Comments on Alumni Want More Free Speech and Influence at Davidson College

Davidson College has an impressive academic reputation. It has a student-faculty ratio of 10:1. Nearly 90 percent of its courses have fewer than 30 students each. Its six-year graduation rate is 91 percent. And it has matriculated 23 Rhodes Scholars. It also has one of the worst track records for free speech in North Carolina. … Continue reading “Alumni Want More Free Speech and Influence at Davidson College”

A Witch Hunt Comes for a Nonconformist Professor

Jun 7, 2019 · · No Comments on A Witch Hunt Comes for a Nonconformist Professor

On 30 April 2019, St. Edmunds College, University of Cambridge, rescinded a fellowship to the outstanding young researcher Noah Carl, who self-identifies as a conservative. The rescinding was unjust, and it came after a sustained and equally unjust campaign of leftist protest and demonstration against Dr. Carl. The campaign was unjustly supported by leftist press … Continue reading “A Witch Hunt Comes for a Nonconformist Professor”

Repairing Academia’s Crisis of Meaning

Jun 5, 2019 · · No Comments on Repairing Academia’s Crisis of Meaning

Traditionally, higher education introduced students to life’s most fundamental questions: “What is good?”; “What is true?”; “Do our lives have meaning beyond the material?”; and so on. The focus used to be on developing the whole person: To lift students morally and ethically, to pique their curiosity in all things, and to instill, as Cardinal … Continue reading “Repairing Academia’s Crisis of Meaning”

Our Accreditation System Has Bennett College Struggling for Life

Jun 3, 2019 · · No Comments on Our Accreditation System Has Bennett College Struggling for Life

Founded in 1873 in Greensboro, North Carolina, Bennett College is one only two of historically black colleges just for women. It has been a four-year college since 1926, but in recent years it has, like so many other small, private colleges, found survival increasingly difficult. The school’s enrollment fell from 780 students in 2010 to … Continue reading “Our Accreditation System Has Bennett College Struggling for Life”

What We’re Reading: A Defense of the University, Governance Guidebooks, and a Higher Ed Satire

May 31, 2019 · · No Comments on What We’re Reading: A Defense of the University, Governance Guidebooks, and a Higher Ed Satire

Jenna A. Robinson, President In March, Helen Pluckrose and James A. Lindsay penned “A Principled Defense of the University” for Areo. Coming from two of the authors of the “Sokal Squared” publishing scandal, it’s an important disclaimer: Grievance studies are not representative of the whole university. In the essay, the authors explain why they believe … Continue reading “What We’re Reading: A Defense of the University, Governance Guidebooks, and a Higher Ed Satire”

Commencements Show the UNC System’s Struggles with Political Neutrality

May 27, 2019 · · No Comments on Commencements Show the UNC System’s Struggles with Political Neutrality

In 2017, the North Carolina legislature passed House Bill 527 (now State Law 2017-196) to foster open inquiry in the state’s public colleges and universities. One of the provisions ordered the University of North Carolina system Board of Governors to produce an annual report on two categories of intellectual freedom: free speech and institutional neutrality. … Continue reading “Commencements Show the UNC System’s Struggles with Political Neutrality”

Politicized Art Schools Are Losing Students to the Atelier Movement

May 22, 2019 · · No Comments on Politicized Art Schools Are Losing Students to the Atelier Movement

A series of disasters face art colleges and the art departments of American universities. Their campuses are closing, their freshmen numbers are dwindling, and their graduates are struggling. Getting more students into an art program is a hard sell. To restore their appeal, art schools would do well to de-politicize their programs and focus on … Continue reading “Politicized Art Schools Are Losing Students to the Atelier Movement”