Teaching American Democracy in the UNC System
I would like to say something you don’t often hear from UNC-System faculty these days: I agree with the Board of Governors. At its February 28 meeting, the Board’s Committee…
Why Plagiarism Matters
Over the past few years, numerous plagiarism scandals have rocked the world of higher education. Prominent public intellectuals and university scholars have been caught improperly citing passages or even straight-up…
UNC’s School of Civic Life and Leadership Is Up and Running
Only 14 months after the UNC-Chapel Hill Board of Trustees voted to accelerate the creation of the School of Civic Life and Leadership, SCiLL has made significant progress. “The idea…
In Praise of F’s
On January 5, 2024, Western Oregon University (WOU) announced a bold change to its grading regime: “The letter grades of D- and F” have been axed in favor of a…
A High-School Student Critiques Dual Enrollment
As a student in the North Carolina public-school system, I have seen the negative impact that badly designed dual-enrollment policies can have on students’ personal and professional development. Indeed, it…
Try Humble, Positive Modeling, Not Neutrality
The kerfuffle over the relative merit of forcing “viewpoint neutrality” in history classrooms puzzles me. No wonder: Although an historian by Ph.D., I have taught mostly economics for almost three…
The Collegiate War Against Merit
A story in Inside Higher Ed last week revealed that two more Ivy League schools, Cornell and the University of Pennsylvania, have stopped publishing “dean’s lists” that recognize high levels…
The Emptiness of College Rankings
Inputs are out, and outcomes are in. So goes the current thinking about the methodology used to create college rankings. The publications that tell us which colleges are best, next…
Don’t Save the Canary, Fix the Coal Mine
Quite a few scholars have written in favor of developing new institutions of higher education, since most of our current ones have been captured by ideological activists. For example, in…
Public Perception of Online College Is Improving
The journey through higher education ought to be one in which students face novel and exceptional cognitive challenges to master learning and critical thinking. However, while academic rigor yields capable…