Every semester during my thirteen years of teaching at a liberal arts college, several senior year students would approach me and ask if I “knew of any jobs out there.” The issue went deeper than the angst of seniors about their employment prospects, however. I found that the school often failed to thoroughly inform students … Continue reading “Welcome to Freshman Orientation, Now Meet Your Career Counselor!”
Businesses sometimes charge different customers different prices as a way to maximize revenue. Airlines, for example, usually charge more for seats reserved on short notice, on the theory that the traveler probably doesn’t have good alternatives and will therefore pay a high price. (Economists call it price discrimination.) Similarly, colleges and universities sometimes also charge … Continue reading “Does “Merit Aid” Make Sense?”
Following a particularly tumultuous year, Duke University has issued a lengthy report to address “bias and hate” on campus. The controversy began with reports that a noose was found hanging from a tree in April 2015. Students were disappointed by the administration, and demanded stronger responses from campus authorities to actions they claimed were motivated … Continue reading “In Addressing Campus Bias, Duke Threatens Free Speech”
Several years ago, the La Voz de Aztlan, a radical left-wing supplement to Fresno State University’s student newspaper, published a poem steeped in anti-American sentiment. It referred to America as “the land robbed by the white savage,” the “land of the biggest genocide,” the “place of greed and slavery,” the “rapist of the earth,” and … Continue reading “Vague Campus Rules Undermine Students’ Due Process and Free Speech Rights”
In a few months, I will retire as president of the Pope Center for Higher Education Policy. I know that my successor, whoever it is, will continue the Pope Center’s commitment to improving higher education.
The UNC System’s enrollment funding formula needs an overhaul.
We cover the success of the enactment by the Texas legislature of a requirement to post course syllabi. We question the role of the UNC Board of Governors’ Committee on Public Affairs. We report on what university presidents think of their boards.
How does a freshman cope with the sudden death of a parent?
Here are a few techniques to control student loan debt (and some reasons to do so).
In my review of Higher Education? by Andrew Hacker and Claudia Dreifus, I suggested that the similarities between the thinking of that book’s politically left authors and my own (libertarians are often but misleadingly placed on the political right) indicated the possibility of a convergence. The waste and inefficiency of our higher education system is now so manifest that … Continue reading “Three Cheers for Half a Book!”
