The Benefits of DEI? Not So Much
The Trump administration is, for the first time since the emergence of the full-blown DEI regime in higher education, looking closely at what that movement has produced and where it…
Articles by Alexander Riley
Teaching Sociology Is an Ideological Nightmare
An empirical study of what is being taught and learned in university sociology courses around the country would be challenging to carry out. But American sociology provides a convenient site…
A Professor Gave a Woke Course and Nobody Came
One of the seldom discussed aspects of the ongoing revolution in contemporary higher education is the problem institutions are having filling courses that are designed to impart the DEI message…
How Woke Transformation Grinds Forward in Higher Education
Institutional change typically happens slowly and in ways that are difficult to see from a distance. Over the past several decades, institutions of higher education have been steadily adopting more…
Social-Justice Restrictions on Research Harm All of Us
Recently, one of the departments on my campus invited an academic “expert,” who, among other specializations, “advise[s] on the ethical aspects of telescope siting,” to give a talk entitled “How…
Colleges Helped Cause the Enrollment Crash
There is considerable talk these days about the enrollment crash in higher education, especially in liberal-arts education. The Chronicle of Higher Education has been expressing worry about this crisis for…
The DIE Revolution Will Transform Tenure
There is much discussion in academia at present about the future of tenure. Critics of this protection from political or moral pressure against freedom of inquiry include both left-progressives, who…
The Origins of the Cruel Ritual of Diversity Training
Diversity training is now in force at many institutions of higher education. In the typical scenario, students, staff, and faculty submit themselves to the mercies of hectoring lectures and demeaning…
The BlackLivesMattering of Higher Ed: Some Notes from the Field
When the University of Chicago English Department announced over the summer that, in response to the protests after the death of George Floyd, they would only admit graduate students willing…