A few years ago, my friend Sheila recounted an incident of alleged racism she experienced at a café in California. While waiting in line to order a coffee, a barista took the order of an older white woman first. The barista didn’t refuse service to Sheila and was polite when she finally took her order. … Continue reading “Motte-and-Bailey: The Academic Threat from ‘Lived Experience’”
As a public institution, it’s vital that the University of North Carolina system is transparent with how it spends its money. As a form of accountability, the system is required by state law to provide publicly accessible financial data. In fiscal year 2020, the UNC system spent $9.7 billion, a total that excludes expenditures by … Continue reading “Did You Know? How the UNC System Spends $10 Billion”
The loss of public trust in universities that has risen to front page news did not suddenly emerge in 2020. In 2018 the non-partisan Gallup organization found that, for the first time, less than half of Americans have “a lot of confidence” in higher education. Even more pointedly, Gallup reported that “No other institution has … Continue reading “Why Liberal Arts Colleges Are Failing and How to Revive Them”
Editor’s note: This is part of a series of articles. Part I can be found here and Part II is here. As was shown in the first article in this series, “diversity, equity, and inclusion” is a misleading term, indicating a radical political agenda rather than a set of ethical principles. The second article analyzed … Continue reading “UNC System Adopting Political Litmus Tests for Employment and Attendance”
“I may disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” While Voltaire apparently did not say exactly that (the phrase seems to have come from a biographer), it is still a perfect description of the mindset of a rational human. Of course people will disagree, but … Continue reading “Campus Cancel Culture–Pernicious and Widespread”
As a lecturer in the humanities, I have had the privilege and challenge of moderating discussions of controversial topics, often based on literary texts. Over the past two years, the number of students self-censoring or not speaking when a topic is seen as “not for them” has increased dramatically. Instead, many of them visit during … Continue reading “Addressing Masculinity in Higher Ed”
Editor’s note: This is part of a series of articles. Part I can be found here. The phrase “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” is a loaded one; it does not signify noncontroversial principles, as might be assumed, but instead describes a radical political agenda. Throughout academia, programs and standards based on DEI are proliferating at a … Continue reading “Advancing the Radical Agenda at UNC-Chapel Hill with Sneaky Language”
With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, experts within the higher education policy space were projecting that four-year colleges could face a loss of up to 20 percent in fall enrollment. While these predictions never materialized, the political infatuation with college enrollment figures is not a new phenomenon. Barack Obama proclaimed the orthodox view of … Continue reading “Reassessing the College Wage Premium Payoff”
The overall success of online education is being hindered by the fact that some classes just aren’t meant for online instruction. If higher ed leaders can adjust online classes for the future, they may be able to build a collection of online course offerings that don’t make students dread them. For example, Logyn Welborn, a … Continue reading “Did You Know? The Future of Online Learning”
The nation’s cultural elites have been gripped by an intense wave of moral panic since the January 6 riot at the United States Capitol. That panic has found expression in higher education in renewed efforts to curtail the speech rights and academic freedoms of the already near-extinct members of the campus community who dissent against … Continue reading “Silenced by the Sheep: Academia’s New Censorship”