Why the Worst Get on Top in Academia
In Chapter 10 (“Why the Worst Get on Top”) of The Road to Serfdom, F. A. Hayek argued that centralized political authority tends to elevate the worst people in society. Goons…
Posts tagged with
“research”
A Little-Known Lawsuit May Weaken University Ethics Boards
For 45 years, research at American universities has been supervised by Institutional Review Boards (IRBs), which are committees that ensure scientific research is conducted ethically. At most universities, faculty, students,…
Higher Ed’s New Human-Subjects Problem
Intellectual rot within universities has become increasingly obvious. It stems from the widespread adoption of critical, feminist, and queer theories in academic work. The result has been a constant stream…
The Great (Campus) Divorce
Over the past year, a number of common tactics have emerged from the opposition to what is widely referred to as the Trump administration’s “defunding” of education. One of these…
Peer Review Is Broken. Here’s How to Fix It.
Within academia, there seems to be a growing consensus that the peer-review system—once the backbone of academic scholarship—is broken. But is it irreparably so? Perhaps. At the very least, the…
Trump, Harvard, and Federal Research Funding
President Trump continues to ramp up the pressure on Harvard: The university has lost $2.7 billion in funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation…
Community Colleges and Trump II
It’s axiomatic that elections have policy consequences. The shift in emphases and priorities for taxpayer funding is central to many such policy changes. Thus, it should come as no surprise…
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…
Stop Overregulating Research
The newly inaugurated second Trump administration has arrived, and among the changes that the president and his allies have proposed is large-scale simplification and elimination of government regulations. President Trump…