How College Sports Turned into a Corrupt Mega-Business
College sports are a gigantic entertainment business that have nothing to do with the missions of the schools. Frequently, the highest-paid employee of a school is the football or basketball…
Articles
Articles
In Wilmington, the Decline of Community College Leadership
Something is rotten in the County of New Hanover. Cape Fear Community College, the fifth-largest in the state, is experiencing very public governance issues. Faculty and staff have accused CFCC…
Some MBA Programs Are an Overpriced Credential, but Others Give Real Value
Once a hot degree, the MBA is now being questioned by more and more people. Wall Street Journal columnist Andy Kessler, for example, recently wrote that “the cost is prohibitive.”…
Did You Know? What Colleges Can Do to Defend Free Expression
As political polarization is growing, colleges must figure out how to ensure that political discussions on campus are constructive. For that to happen, schools need to take the lead in…
American Higher Education: Beset with Problems, but Solutions Exist
Editor’s note: This is an abridged transcript of a speech Richard Vedder gave at a Martin Center luncheon on January 30, 2020. I will concentrate today on the economics of…
The Ever-growing Costs of Mandatory Student Fees
North Carolina public universities are more than just institutions of higher learning. They are each small cities of young adults with Olympic-level athletic franchises, massive dining and fitness clubs, and…
The Brutal and Beautiful Art of Education
Tara Westover and her family lived off the grid on Buck’s Peak, a mountainside in Idaho so remote that life there was anchored in “circles of perpetual change that, when…
Did You Know? At UNC-Chapel Hill, About 19% of Liberals and 3% of Moderates and Conservatives Would Block Controversial Speaker
In the spring of 2019, three professors at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill conducted a study to understand free speech and constructive dialogue on campus. The study invited UNC…
College Climate Surveys Needed to Understand Free Expression on Campus
In yet another window into the country’s polarized political environment, in 2017 the Pew Research Center surveyed Americans regarding their views of major civic institutions. While there were divisions in…
A New Chapter in UNC Board Governance
It’s been a couple of months since Randy Ramsey became the chairman of the University of North Carolina System Board of Governors. Since his appointment in October, Ramsey’s tenure has…