A Perennial Question: What Makes a Good College Teacher?
Each generation returns the same complaints: college teachers drone, college teachers lack creativity and spark, nay, they often lack even rudimentary pedagogical awareness. And since the ascendance of what William…
Renewing the University: A Pro/Con of Proposals
Conservative thinkers are mostly united on the need for reforming the American college system, but they’re divided on how to do it. It can be hard to pin down, exactly,…
An Innovative Solution to the Failures of Peer Review
Academics are growing wary of the peer review process amid mounting evidence that it is compromised by ideological biases and that it does not effectively or reliably ensure the quality…
Did you Know? A Comprehensive “1776 Curriculum” is Released
Hillsdale College has published a gigantic collection of reading materials and curriculum of nearly 2,500 pages, which it has termed the 1776 curriculum collection. It is available and free for…
Progressivism Surges Through America’s Law Schools
Law schools in the U.S. used to be run by no-nonsense individuals who, whatever their personal politics, thought that their institutions existed to teach students about the law, not to…
Academic Freedom Doesn’t Shield Universities From Oversight
State legislatures are taking up higher education reform. Sometimes higher education reform consists of attempts to regulate what happens on college campuses, such as laws that prohibit universities from requiring…
Is Our Obsession with College Fueling a Mental Health Crisis?
Long before Covid, mental health experts declared a different sort of pandemic—a precipitous decline in mental health on college campuses. One 2019 survey by the American College Health Association found…
Beauty and Wisdom: Renew the Culture by Restoring the Liberal Arts
Universities are in dire need of reform. They are too expensive; the classwork is too easy; the curriculum too unfocused. Too many students drop out or don’t care. Indeed, many…
Safe Spaces: Balancing Academic Freedom and Wokeness
The following is adapted from an address given at a Martin Center luncheon on July 15, 2021. Finally, I come to my main argument: Safe spaces. I want to come…
Did You Know? The Negative Effects of Racial Preferences on Minority Students
Racial preferences in university admissions aim to increase the representation of minorities in higher education. Some, however, have objected to these policies and argue students should be admitted based on…