Indiana’s Worthwhile Academic Experiment
Despite being an avid watcher of the K-12 sector and its various internecine dramas, I confess I did not have “high-school diplomas” on my bingo card of likely 2024 controversies.…
Posts tagged with
“Massachusetts”
Admissions standards at M.I.T
To the editor: M.I.T. requires all freshmen, regardless of their intended major, to take 2 semesters of calculus, 2 semesters of physics (and if you don’t pass the calculus, you…
Rescuing “Virtue and Talents” Amidst the War on Tests
On March 28, 2022, Stuart Schmill, Dean of Admissions and Student Financial Services at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) announced the school’s plan to restore the consideration of standardized…
The Appalling Smith College Case—Race Tramples on Truth and Justice
An unfolding case at Smith College shows how the obsession with race can blind administrators to facts and lead them to act in ways that harm innocent people. In 2018,…
Addressing Masculinity in Higher Ed
As a lecturer in the humanities, I have had the privilege and challenge of moderating discussions of controversial topics, often based on literary texts. Over the past two years, the…
COVID-19 Campus Changes: Testing and Sequestering Students
Colleges have been trying to stop COVID-19 from spreading on campus, and after a year of experimentation, failure, and success, officials may have found their way. Campuses are combining widespread…
Students Aren’t Learning Life Skills; Colleges Need to Teach Them
When students think back to their college days, they may remember a philosophy class that made them question their life or an art class they thought would be easy, but…
Credential Inflation: What’s Causing It and What Can We Do About It?
Credential inflation refers to an increase in the education credentials required for a job—for example, a job that used to be done by high school graduates but now requires new…
As Budgets Tighten, Colleges Still Vulnerable to Ransomware
Colleges and universities around the country are proving to be easy prey to hackers with ransom demands. In Massachusetts, Cape Cod Community College was defrauded of $800,000 last year, while…
Faculty Vetoes: Powerful and Impotent
Universities reveal the "tragedy of the anticommons."