The Coming Wave of Freshman Failure
A columnist covering K-12 education, I come to you, dear reader, with a warning: There’s a coming wave of college-freshman failure that will stress the institutions and systems of our…
Are Teaching Evaluations Sexist?
In August, the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) filed an amicus brief alongside the faculty union of Nevada public universities in support of the gender-discrimination claims of Alice Wieland,…
Why Research Fraud Is Getting Worse
Once a rarity, research fraud is on the rise at some of the nation’s most prestigious universities. What is most disturbing is that the fraud in question too often involves…
Undergraduate Enrollment Is Finally Growing
It’s no secret that enrollment in higher education has been inconsistent over the past few years, due in part to the Covid pandemic. The pandemic upturned the college experience in…
“White Logic” and “Jew Physics”
When we think of “Newspeak,” the fictional language invented by George Orwell for his dystopian novel 1984, we typically think of powerful authoritarian governments manipulating language for the advancement of…
Are Essay Requirements Holding College Applicants Back?
According to a working paper released two months ago by the Annenberg Institute, nearly 25 percent of students who applied to college during the 2018-19 application cycle started but never…
Is College a Cult?
Higher education is in a bad way these days. One encounters many metaphors for its current state. It’s a bubble, about to burst. It’s a pyramid scheme. A college degree…
Blueprint for Reform: Academic Transparency
Blueprint for Reform: Academic Transparency is a roadmap designed for state legislators and university trustees, emphasizing the necessity of academic transparency in higher education to enhance student decision-making and public…
An Open Letter to UVA President James E. Ryan
The University of Virginia is facing a choice of historic significance: namely, whether to embrace admissions policies based on our colorblind Constitution or to engage in mass resistance to the…
Just Pass Everyone
All political lives end in failure,” said British politician Enoch Powell, a proposition amply corroborated by his own career. Scholars are vulnerable to a similar fate. To paraphrase anthropologist Marshall…