If College Students Are Hungry, Should Uncle Sam Feed Them?
Since the federal government feeds students in K-12 schools via the National School Lunch Program, it should similarly feed college students who are “food insecure,” argues a new policy brief published last month by the Wisconsin HOPE Lab.
Community Colleges in the Spotlight
Lawmakers returned to Raleigh at the end of April to attend this year’s “short session.” On the agenda are adjustments to the state budget and a few policies left unresolved when legislators adjourned last year. Many of those policies focus on community colleges.
Online Education Revolution? College Bubble? Not So Fast.
There are limits to technology’s influence on higher education, just as there are limits to the “disruptive innovation” theory generally. And although some colleges have lived beyond their means in recent years, there are compelling reasons to believe that most of them will find ways to adapt and become solvent. The higher education sector is vibrant, and its resiliency precludes apocalypse.
Clinton’s Higher Education Proposal Only Makes Our Problems Worse
Hillary Clinton’s higher education proposals will not solve the cost and value problems in our higher education system, but will instead make them worse.
2016 Commencement Season Relatively Calm, But Lacks Viewpoint Diversity
It’s possible that the relatively calm season is the result of well-publicized controversy in previous years, as universities appear to overwhelming exclude conservative speakers from commencement ceremonies. A 2015 study from the Young America Foundation found that, of the top 50 universities ranked by US News and World Report, the ratio of liberal to conservative speakers was nine to one. That trend holds at North Carolina universities.
Title IX: How a Good Idea Became Higher Education’s Worst Nightmare
What started out as a law to give women more opportunities in higher education has morphed into a bureaucratic monster that destroys due process of law, sets students against each other, and encourages bureaucrats to search for new ways to expand their authority.
At Marquette, Honesty, Free Speech, and Tenure No Match for Political Correctness
No case better illustrates the degree to which American universities are in the thrall of political correctness than the fight that erupted back in 2014 at Marquette, and continues to this day.
Will the UNC System Rise Above Higher Education’s Status Quo?
UNC System leaders are overhauling their 2013 strategic planning initiative. Whether that will result in sound reform ideas, however, is up in the air. North Carolina’s university system is a powerful force in the state—armed with its own lobbying team, almost 50,000 employees, and a $9.5 billion annual budget. It is a machine with a tendency to aggrandize. Curbing its appetite for expansion and self-serving policies won’t be easy.
In (Limited) Praise of Trigger Warnings
One should wish to “do no harm.” Reason must prevail. Professors should take steps to protect the truly damaged, but students who think they are emotionally triggered by imaginary, supernatural beings with magical powers would be better served by paying a visit to the campus health center.
Grades Just Keep on Inflating; Why Does It Matter?
The real harm of grade inflation is that it is a fraud on students who are misled into thinking that they are more competent than they really are.