The Spread of “New Civics” Is Cause for Alarm
One of the ways the college curriculum has changed for the worse in recent decades is the rise of what David Randall terms “the New Civics” in a hefty report…
No Lessons Learned: Campus Intolerance Intensifies in the Trump Era
At this year’s Association of American Colleges and Universities meeting, held in late January in San Francisco, a sense of misgiving filled the conference hall. Panelists raised, implicitly, the question…
Academics and the Reproduction of Cultural Hegemony
Much as Martin Center readers may disparage Marxism, there is one author who deserves our attention. Antonio Gramsci was an Italian Marxist who lived and wrote around the turn of…
The Accelerating Pace of Change in Higher Education
Judging from recent books, articles, and editorials, higher education is poised for a cataclysmic collapse. There is a considerable body of opinion that systemic problems such as runaway tuition, student…
Starving the Beast Prompts Choleric Call to Fatten a Sacred Cow
Listening to University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill law professor Gene Nichol’s radical riff ripping trustees and the UNC system’s Board of Governors as cowards, and Republican lawmakers as…
The Campus Free Speech Act: A Way to Restore the Marketplace of Ideas
Between the rise of safe spaces, trigger warnings, speaker disinvitations, and the often illiberal conduct of campus demonstrators over the past few years, it’s clear that the core constitutional value…
Bigger’s Better? In Higher Ed’s Amenities Arms Race, Bigger’s Just Bigger!
Testifying before the U.S. Senate in 2013, University of Wisconsin professor Sara Goldrick-Rab described college campuses as “glorified summer camps.” She said administrators were “engaging in an arms race to…
A Letter to Conservatives: You Need College and College Definitely Needs You
Dear conservative parents and students, First, I would like to address conservative parents. Lately, I hear many of you questioning whether you should send your kids to college. Maybe they…
Hillary Clinton Lost, But Her “Free” College Idea Lives On
During last week’s hearings on President Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos, Senator Bernie Sanders asked her, “Will you work with me and others to make public colleges…
The MBA Needs to Be Reinvented
I have spent 35 of the past 40 years studying in and teaching in business schools and have concluded that they are in need of reform. Their main product, the…