Duke Divinity School’s Race to the Bottom
The chickens have come home to roost at Duke’s Divinity School. Protesting students claim the school is insufficiently diverse. More needs to be done, they say, to combat racism, transphobia,…
Defining Faculty Roles: Scholarship First, Activism Second
Editor’s note: This is the first of a three-part series on faculty roles in higher education. Part II by Jay Schalin is here and Part III by John Wilson is…
Why Literary Scholarship Matters
A recent book by Thomas L. Martin and Duke Pesta, The Renaissance and the Postmodern: A Study in Comparative Critical Values represents something of a critical cat among the contemporary…
Are Black Male Athletes Failing to Graduate Because of Racism?
The relationship between participation in sports and academic performance has many faces. Most of them are happy; for instance, many studies show that high school athletes outperform non-athletes academically by…
How to Stop Student Aid from Driving Up Tuition
The Department of Education’s method for awarding college students financial aid has many perverse effects. It contributes to rising tuition, keeps students in the dark about their aid eligibility for…
Why Can’t This Public University Stay Out of Court?
Located just north of Atlanta, Kennesaw State University is a school enrolling some 35,000 students. Arguably, the most noteworthy thing about it is the fact that its officials keep making…
The Skills Gap: Employers Expect More Than What College Grads Offer
National surveys have consistently found that businesses have difficulty finding employees with the right skills. Even among college graduates searching for work, employers have found them lacking employable skills. Research…
North Carolina’s Universities Are Affordable—But There’s Room for Improvement
Each year, higher education seems to become less and less affordable: As tuition prices continue to rise, an increasing number of students leave college with crippling amounts of student loan…
Bad Language Gets a Tenured Female Professor Fired for ‘Sexual Harassment’
Tenure used to provide faculty members with solid protection against all but criminal behavior. But now it is proving no match for weak excuses for firing professors who administrators want…
A Dreamer of the Golden Dream: Jerry Brown’s Future for Higher Education
The title of this article alludes to Joan Didion’s famous essay about “love and death in the golden land,” a cautionary tale about the wreckage left behind when dreams collide…