Duke University Press Stays Woke
I recently came across an alarming 2014 article on academic freedom in the Harvard Crimson. “Let’s give up on academic freedom in favor of justice” was the subtitle. The author…
Articles by John Staddon
Is Trump Destroying Science or Saving It?
Apparently, some 75 percent of U.S. scientists are planning to emigrate to Canada and Europe “in light of President Donald Trump’s sweeping changes to federal science policy.” Is this a…
How to Judge a Basic-Research Proposal
Tech megastar Peter Thiel, in a recent interview, said that he no longer trusts science. Lesser luminaries and no small segment of the public have said much the same. The…
Grading and Moral Hazard
As political pressures for equity—equality of outcome—have grown in recent years, traditional methods of evaluating college students have come under threat. As the proportion of the population going to college…
Larry Chavis and the Decay of the Academy
Larry Chavis is clinical professor of strategy and entrepreneurship at the Kenan-Flagler Business School at UNC. He has taught there for 18 years on a renewable contract. He has now…
Is a New Campus Speech Initiative For Real?
Thirteen college presidents, including those of Duke, Cornell, and Rutgers, have signed on to the “Campus Call for Free Expression” (CCFE), a project organized by a low-profile Princeton-and-Woodrow-Wilson-related group called…
Science Needs Honesty, Not Affirmative Action
Holden Thorp is a very clever fellow. With a PhD in chemistry from Caltech and after some business ventures and a spell teaching at the University of North Carolina at…
Credo Quia Absurdum: Education and the Cult of Anti-Racism
The notion of antiracism now dominates at all levels of education, from infant to university. In a previous piece, I described how the 2017 President of American Educational Research Association…
Math Teachers are Taught that Elementary Math Education is a “Struggle for Justice”
Does the average person have any idea what is now considered “normal” in the field of K-12 education? I already had some misgivings after reading Jay Schalin’s devastating review of…
Diversity Über Alles: Science Is Threatened by Identity Politics
I have worked in academic science my entire life and I have never seen any sign of racism, systemic or otherwise. On the contrary, I have seen people go to…