Topic: Commentary

Did You Know? The Campus COVID-19 Plan That Worked

Mar 25, 2021 · · Comments Off on Did You Know? The Campus COVID-19 Plan That Worked

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign earned a reputation for having a remarkably effective COVID-19 mitigation plan. Its experience is one that other colleges should pay attention to. As mentioned in a previous Martin Center article, the success of the university’s COVID-19 plan was applauded for strategically reopening in fall 2020. Urbana-Champaign kept case counts … Continue reading “Did You Know? The Campus COVID-19 Plan That Worked”

Did You Know? The Ever-Increasing Sticker Price of College Tuition

Aug 27, 2020 · · Comments Off on Did You Know? The Ever-Increasing Sticker Price of College Tuition

College tuition increases across the country have shown no sign of slowing down. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the sticker price of tuition (before discounts and student aid) for all institutions was $4,885 in 1985; by 2018, it was $23,835, a 387 percent increase. That’s a dramatic increase over a few decades. … Continue reading “Did You Know? The Ever-Increasing Sticker Price of College Tuition”

Did You Know? The Partisan Split in Re-opening Colleges

Jul 16, 2020 · · Comments Off on Did You Know? The Partisan Split in Re-opening Colleges

About 67 percent of four-year colleges plan to re-open in the fall for in-person classes, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education. Those re-openings tend to be in states with Republican governors, who have been more willing to reopen their states. Although 26 states have a Republican governor, only 41 percent of colleges and universities … Continue reading “Did You Know? The Partisan Split in Re-opening Colleges”

Did You Know? Student Lawsuits and De Facto Refunds

Jun 4, 2020 · · Comments Off on Did You Know? Student Lawsuits and De Facto Refunds

Students from about 100 universities brought class-action lawsuits against colleges that have refused to give tuition refunds after COVID-19 shut down campuses. So far, the only aid students have received has come through the federal CARES Act. Those universities facing lawsuits include large, nationally known schools such as Drexel University, the University of Miami, and … Continue reading “Did You Know? Student Lawsuits and De Facto Refunds”

Free Speech at UNC 2018

Aug 27, 2018 · · Comments Off on Free Speech at UNC 2018

In 2017, the North Carolina legislature passed House Bill 527 (now State Law 2017-196) in order to foster free, open inquiry in the state’s colleges and universities. One of the provisions ordered the University of North Carolina system Board of Governors to produce an annual report on two major categories of intellectual freedom: free speech … Continue reading “Free Speech at UNC 2018”

C.S. Lewis Was Right About Education

Nov 24, 2017 · · Comments Off on C.S. Lewis Was Right About Education

Postmodern academia no longer searches for truth. Except in the physical sciences, objectivity is too often replaced with moral relativism, “critical theory,” and the “lived experience” of individual scholars. But none of this is new. It is an outgrowth of the cultural problems C.S. Lewis observed 75 years ago in one of his shortest and … Continue reading “C.S. Lewis Was Right About Education”

Perverse Incentives in Science: 21st Century Funding for 20th Century Research

Jun 21, 2017 · · Comments Off on Perverse Incentives in Science: 21st Century Funding for 20th Century Research

The Paradigm Shift Not long ago I was working with my occasional co-author, an associate dean in the school of economic, political and policy sciences at the University of Texas at Dallas, on creating a campus research institute focused on spontaneous orders. That is a field that attempts to explain how social order emerges from … Continue reading “Perverse Incentives in Science: 21st Century Funding for 20th Century Research”

A New Era: The James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal

Jan 3, 2017 · · Comments Off on A New Era: The James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal

Last year, the Pope Center’s Board of Directors decided that there was too much confusion between the Center and the John W. Pope Foundation, a private grant-making foundation in Raleigh, North Carolina. It concluded that a name change was in order. The name chosen was the James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal. James G. Martin is the former governor … Continue reading “A New Era: The James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal”