Standing Athwart Social Justice Protests
Today’s protest-ridden climate on college campuses might lead one to suspect that they are hotbeds of political disruption controlled by social justice warriors. All over the country, speakers are shouted…
Articles
Articles
Dual-Enrollment: a Head Start on College or Empty Credentialing?
Shortly after I moved to North Carolina in 2015, I learned about a dual-enrollment program for students to attend high school and Wake Technical Community College simultaneously. At the time,…
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…
Free Speech on Campus and Academic Freedom Under Attack in Arkansas
The state of Arkansas is facing an existential threat to academic freedom. That threat, however, is of a type that normally doesn’t receive public attention. The press typically writes about speech…
Regional Accreditors: Kings of the Academic Jungle–or Paper Tigers?
For many people, the topic of college accreditation is dry and arcane. But for faculty seeking to block actions they don’t like, accreditation is their last hope. By threatening its…
Encouraging Diverse Policy Viewpoints on Campus
In the last few years, higher education has suffered an embarrassing series of well-publicized incidents of overt censorship by members of the academic community. The instances are geographically widespread and…
The Good and the Bad for Higher Ed in the Republican Tax Proposal
On November 2, House Republican leaders unveiled their tax reform plan. A number of its provisions affect higher education. While this is only a proposal, it’s worth looking into those…
Opportunity Lost: UNC’s Board of Governors Rejects a Helpful Innovation
Wise decision making depends on knowledge of the full range of options and information, not with rhetoric designed to push a specific agenda. And leadership that seeks out only one…
Notes from the Free Speech Underground
In October, I attended the first-ever FIRE Faculty Conference. If you’re not familiar with FIRE (the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education), you should be—assuming you support free speech, open inquiry,…
Liberal Arts Education Is Not (Necessarily) a Waste of Time
Harvard history professor Jill LePore tells this story. She was hosting an event in her home for new students, promoting the university’s history and literature program. One of the students…