Notes from the Free Speech Underground
In October, I attended the first-ever FIRE Faculty Conference. If you’re not familiar with FIRE (the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education), you should be—assuming you support free speech, open inquiry,…
Liberal Arts Education Is Not (Necessarily) a Waste of Time
Harvard history professor Jill LePore tells this story. She was hosting an event in her home for new students, promoting the university’s history and literature program. One of the students…
Somewhere Between a Jeremiad and a Eulogy
Half of me is reluctant to write something harshly critical about higher education in the United States because I’m such a true-blue believer in, beneficiary of, and insider to the…
The NCAA’s UNC Decision: Nothing to See Here, Move Along
UNC-Chapel Hill’s infamous athletics-academic scandal has officially been swept under the rug. On October 13th, the NCAA’s Committee on Infractions announced that UNC-Chapel Hill will not be punished for the…
Why Is It Such a Struggle to Reform Our Colleges?
Former Harvard University president Derek Bok can’t stop thinking and writing about higher education. Ten years ago, he wrote Our Underachieving Colleges, in which he lamented that on the whole,…
David Horowitz’s Insight About the Academic Left
For a few years in the mid-2000s, David Horowitz was one of the most prominent figures on the campus scene. He didn’t have a PhD and he didn’t belong to…
An Innovative Guide Through the Higher Ed Landscape
Increasingly, the old model of earning a college degree by simply choosing a school, paying cash to cover room, board, and tuition, and graduating within four years (with summers off)…
Classroom Diversity and Its Mentality of Taboo
Anyone who applies for an executive or upper management position at a university these days must demonstrate a “strong commitment to diversity.” That’s because diversity, according to campus dogma, provides…
Are Students Addicted to Distraction?
A few years ago, something changed in class. I customarily taught classes where my students read multiple books, wrote thoughtful reflective essays, and came to class prepared to engage in…
The Chinese Don’t Like Academic Freedom, So American Schools Should Avoid Their Confucius Institutes
Academic freedom has long been a guiding principle for American colleges and universities: Neither faculty nor students should be told what to say or punished for saying whatever they think.…