Why Is It Such a Struggle to Reform Our Colleges?
Former Harvard University president Derek Bok can’t stop thinking and writing about higher education. Ten years ago, he wrote Our Underachieving Colleges, in which he lamented that on the whole,…
Articles by George Leef
The Campus Free Speech Problem Worsens and Washington Finally Acts
The turnabout in federal policy towards higher education has been dramatic. Back on September 7, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos announced that her department was rescinding the 2011 “Dear Colleague”…
The Chinese Don’t Like Academic Freedom, So American Schools Should Avoid Their Confucius Institutes
Academic freedom has long been a guiding principle for American colleges and universities: Neither faculty nor students should be told what to say or punished for saying whatever they think.…
Secretary DeVos Begins to Rectify the Title IX Mistake
It is very rare for a federal agency to admit having made a mistake and rarer still for the secretary of a cabinet department to announce a U-turn in policy…
What’s the Alternative to a Mountain of College Debt?
Meet Sarah, a very bright student in her junior year in high school. She excels in math and science and thinks that an engineering career of some kind would be…
No, Professor, Words Are Not Violence
The excuse we have often heard for raucous campus protests over the last few years is that they are justified as a way of countering the “violence” of speakers like…
Student Free Speech Suffers a Defeat
Since launching its Stand Up for Free Speech project in 2014, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) has had a great deal of success in defeating college officials…
Professors Should Write Books That Seek Truth, Not Inflame Passions
The academic enterprise is supposed to be about truth. Those who are entrusted to teach are expected to convey knowledge to their students, not their opinions. And when academics write…
Meet the Professor Who Has Been Punished for Denouncing Tenure
For most professors, the quest for tenure is an all-consuming obsession. It confers security against job loss and cements your position at the college or university. With tenure, you’ve “made…
Duke Assails Free Speech So It Can “Protect and Value Diverse Perspectives”
American college campuses are becoming more and more like the old communist states where people enjoyed freedom of speech—but only so long as they didn’t question some aspect of the…