Duke Divinity School’s Race to the Bottom
The chickens have come home to roost at Duke’s Divinity School. Protesting students claim the school is insufficiently diverse. More needs to be done, they say, to combat racism, transphobia,…
Defining Faculty Roles: Scholarship First, Activism Second
Editor’s note: This is the first of a three-part series on faculty roles in higher education. Part II by Jay Schalin is here and Part III by John Wilson is…
Why Literary Scholarship Matters
A recent book by Thomas L. Martin and Duke Pesta, The Renaissance and the Postmodern: A Study in Comparative Critical Values represents something of a critical cat among the contemporary…
The Skills Gap: Employers Expect More Than What College Grads Offer
National surveys have consistently found that businesses have difficulty finding employees with the right skills. Even among college graduates searching for work, employers have found them lacking employable skills. Research…
Bad Language Gets a Tenured Female Professor Fired for ‘Sexual Harassment’
Tenure used to provide faculty members with solid protection against all but criminal behavior. But now it is proving no match for weak excuses for firing professors who administrators want…
A Dreamer of the Golden Dream: Jerry Brown’s Future for Higher Education
The title of this article alludes to Joan Didion’s famous essay about “love and death in the golden land,” a cautionary tale about the wreckage left behind when dreams collide…
Nancy MacLean Continues to Embarrass Duke, but Exposes its Double Standards
Last year, Duke University History Professor Nancy MacLean became one of the country’s best-known academics for her book Democracy in Chains. That is not, however, to say that her book…
Three Ways Declining English Departments Can Be Relevant Again
A major in English was once a serious endeavor masquerading as a frivolous one. Despite the occasional “do you want fries with that?” condescension from business or science students, the…
Is the UNC System Serious about Teacher Training Reform?
On Valentine’s Day, The University of North Carolina System released “Leading on Literacy: Challenges and Opportunities in Teacher Preparation Across the University of North Carolina System.” For me, it was not love…
Forcing Students to Apply to College Is a Bad Idea
Legislators in New Mexico are pushing a bill that would make students apply to at least one college while they are still juniors in high school. This legislation reflects the…