Shaping Souls to Stay Afloat
Artificial Intelligence (AI) looks to upend higher education—all education—in no end of ways. The advantage it gives to cheaters by itself is upending the practice of teaching. But AI poses…
Articles by David Randall
“No” to Killing the Department of Education
Federal statutes require the United States Department of Education (ED) to fund race discrimination at postsecondary institutions through laws such as § 1059e. Predominantly Black Institutions, § 1059g. Asian American and Native…
Don’t Dismiss Early-College Options
The College Board has dumbed down its Advanced Placement (AP) examinations. That’s the message from Steven Mintz, professor of history at the University of Texas at Austin, in a letter…
How Would Project 2025 Impact Higher Ed?
Candidate Trump has disavowed the document (seriously or not). The former president may well lose the election. Nevertheless, the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 is a serious outline for governance in…
To Address the Irreproducibility Crisis, Invest in Digital Archiving
“Millions of Scholarly Articles Are Not Being Archived,” says the article title, and the initial impulse is to roll one’s eyes and think cynical thoughts. Given the quality of scholarship…
How the AHA Killed Viewpoint-Neutral Teaching
The October 7 Hamas mass-murder of Israelis highlighted the academics around the world who have a soft spot for Jew-killers, as well as how their bigotry’s gotten into everything they…
Duke Doesn’t Need “Economic Diversity”
The New York Times is on a tear about “economic diversity.” It’s got a naughty-and-nice list, defined by the number of students with Pell Grants, and it’s stapled a scarlet…
Model Legislation: General Education Act
American universities always have recognized citizens’ authority to shape the educational mission of public universities, particularly with respect to “general education”—courses prerequisite to graduation. Appointed or elected university trustees usually…
What “Collegiality” Means
What is “collegiality,” and what do universities need to do to establish it? Radical academics and administrators in higher education are now using “lack of collegiality” as a pretext to…
Now Is the Time to Renew History Departments
In 2022, Jon Lauck published The Good Country: A History of the American Midwest, 1800-1900. His book describes a wonderful range of things to love about the 19th-century Midwest: its…