States Should Lead on Higher-Ed Reform
In recent years, federal policymakers have pursued sweeping higher-education reforms. Yet these efforts are often slow, legally contested, and subject to reversal. For example, during both of his terms of…
“Yes” to Cameras in the Classroom
News recently came out of Chapel Hill that the flagship campus of the University of North Carolina had adopted a new policy that allowed administrators to record class proceedings at…
Transparency Requires More Than Half a Syllabus
The UNC System’s new policy requiring public posting of faculty syllabi is grounded in a sound principle: Taxpayers deserve to know what is being taught at their public universities. Greater…
A Liberal Professor’s Case for the UNC Syllabus Policy
In January, a change to UNC System policy that might appear to be merely administrative reopened a longstanding debate about the political oversight of academic knowledge. The issue concerns public access…
Who Will Control the Virginia Military Institute?
Recent legislative developments in the Virginia General Assembly have placed the future governance and military character of the Virginia Military Institute (VMI) at the center of an intensifying state-federal debate.…
State Law Must Supersede Accreditor Requirements
Members of the North Carolina General Assembly have spent years pursuing higher-education reform and reclaiming authority over the state’s university system. Legislators in other states have done likewise. Yet another…
When Dad Says No, Ask Mom
Referred to as “the university of the people” by alumnus Charles Kuralt in his iconic 1993 bicentennial address, UNC has a governance structure designed to ensure accountability to North Carolina’s…
The Wisconsin Higher-Ed Reform Model
Provisions in a budget passed in the Badger State this previous summer require that faculty at Wisconsin’s two flagship universities—UW-Madison and UW-Milwaukee—now teach at least one course per semester and…
Chief Diversity Officers Are Sad
The National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education (NADOHE) has published its second “State of the Chief Diversity Officer” (CDO) report. Following up on the 2023 survey, the 2025…
The Exhilarating and the Dull
Sir Roger Scruton wrote in How to Be a Conservative that “the work of destruction is quick, easy and exhilarating; the work of creation slow, laborious and dull.” Conservative higher-education…