A Defense of the “Ungrading” Movement
In his April piece for the Martin Center, Adam Ellwanger critiqued “contract grading” as a symptom of “the war against academic excellence” and the broader societal movement toward “some fetishized…
Articles
Articles
UNC’s Free-Expression Survey Elicits Both Fear and Hope
North Carolina’s public universities have a problem with free expression, and it mostly doesn’t come from censorious administrators or biased faculty members. Instead, it’s the students themselves who muzzle free…
A Popular Fiction Genre is Unreadable Garbage. Blame Colleges.
Over the last several years, a burgeoning new genre has put the book-watching world on notice. “New Adult,” a coinage first used by St. Martin’s Press in 2009, refers to…
Did You Know? Department of Education Extends FAFSA-Verification Waiver
Citing the continuing impact of COVID-19, the Department of Education extended its Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) verification waiver on May 18, 2022. Each academic year, millions of…
The Origins and Impact of Racially Divisive Curricula
In the fall of 2021, it appeared that Virginia’s Democratic gubernatorial candidate, Terry McAuliffe, would rather easily defeat his Republican challenger, Glenn Youngkin. But the election turned dramatically once a…
UNC System Coaches’ Salaries: An Intentional Mystery?
College sports are a lifestyle for many people and an indispensable business opportunity for colleges and universities. Many UNC System schools are perhaps better known for their sports teams than…
Liberty Institute’s failure to launch
To the editor: How disappointing to have read Professor Lowery’s article on the abject failure of UT leadership. As the saying goes: “no good deed goes unpunished…”. In this case…
How UT-Austin Administrators Destroyed an Intellectual Diversity Initiative
By now, only the most dishonest or intentionally ignorant observers deny the existential crisis facing higher education. Universities no longer even maintain the pretense of dispassionate rational and free inquiry,…
Did You Know? Student Loan “Pauses” Help Those Who Can Afford to Pay
At the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, policymakers implemented sweeping relief programs to offset the economic shock of lockdowns, layoffs, and shifts in consumer behavior. Among these actions was a…
Tenure’s False Promise
Although tenure has been hotly debated over the years, it is still widely misunderstood as guaranteeing a professor a lifetime position. What happened in May to Joshua Katz, a classics…