Accountability first at East Carolina University’s Brody School of Medicine
It is highly likely that the fiscal woes of ECU’s Brody School of Medicine can be stabilized without adding more challenges to State taxpayers. Sixteen million dollars is a lot to hand over without attempting to solve obvious problems first.
Academic folly: When taxpayers subsidize ill-considered degree programs
Each year, UNC officials pitch new degree programs to the system’s Board of Governors. More often than not, the programs are approved, even though a casual observer—especially a non-academic—might snicker or guffaw upon hearing some of their descriptions.
Sustainability: A new college fad with fangs
There is a new fad rampaging across the college landscape—sustainability. For the last ten years, this mania has been gathering momentum because, like identity studies, sustainability pushes the hot buttons for leftist academics: environmentalism, anti-capitalism, salvation through liberal activism, and the chance to hector all those wrong-thinking people. It’s almost irresistible.
Tenure has its purpose, but shouldn’t last a lifetime
Tenure entrenches academics in their jobs. While it’s a bulwark of academic freedom, tenure also shields those who are not currently earning their keep, as well as many who never did. The current system stymies innovation, most clearly in the area of hiring new faculty. I call for changing it.
Cheated turns over a rock, fully exposing UNC’s “student-athlete” scandal
Although UNC has tried to maintain an image of running squeaky clean sports programs that ensure student-athletes a high quality education, for decades it has actually been recruiting players who shouldn’t have gotten out of high school, then ushering them through a “curriculum” consisting largely of easy courses with negligible educational value.
A liberal arts college tries a new strategy on student debt
Indebtedness due to student loans is one of the most pressing issues in higher education today. I believe strongly that we must face this issue head on, and my institution, Adrian College, has developed a plan to do that.
UNC-Chapel Hill nudges students into a conversation about race
UNC-Chapel Hill has launched Carolina Conversations, an initiative designed to provide forums for students to discuss sensitive topics. UNC-CH will do this in three ways: sponsor regular large-scale town-hall-style forums called My Carolina Voice, smaller gatherings called Carolina Pulse, and My Chance, a process whereby students can apply for school funding for “grassroots interactions.”
A UNC program designed to help academically weak students has not delivered
The state is spending millions of dollars on a program that each year drives roughly 300 low-performing students into a four-year university, where they tend to earn poor grades, drop out, or otherwise fail to graduate within a reasonable period of time. That’s wasting taxpayer money and the time, effort, and resources of the students, faculty, and staff involved with the program.
The impending surge for the University of Everywhere
The U.S. (make that the world) is on the brink of the greatest educational change since Gutenberg invented printing. That is the argument Kevin Carey presents in his new book The End of College.
The police, not universities, should be handling rape accusations
Campuses are not adept at handling sexual assault issues because they lack experience, resources, and an unbiased agenda. Due process is immediately thrown out the window when we rely on the campus to punish the accused; injustice is built into the system. The customary standard, “innocent until proven guilty,” is reversed when we call on colleges to adjudicate rape.