How Our University Reacted to an Exposé of its Grade Inflation Problem
In a 2011 Pope Center article entitled “Too Many Rhinestones,” Professors T. Norman Van Cott and the late Clarence Deitsch examined Ball State University’s (BSU) grade inflation problem. After comparing…
College Sports: Isn’t it Time to De-escalate the Arms Race?
With college football season upon us, this is a good time to consider again the allure that fielding winning teams in the big-money sports (football and basketball) has for many…
Online Course Exchanges: Models of Efficiency
Small classes and programs are often praised for offering students more personal attention and one-on-one time with professors. But when programs are too small, students and universities suffer. Students find…
Political Science Needs More Viewpoint Diversity
Would academic political science benefit from more viewpoint diversity? Let’s start with the good news, which is that political science isn’t nearly the worst-off discipline on campus. This is not…
Student Learning Outcomes and the Decline of American Education
Educational fads always come with a shelf life; the implacable resistance of reality eventually makes them expire. Usually, the promised educational miracle has done more harm than good. The wreckage…
The Freshman Experience: Social Justice Indoctrination and Academic Handholding
It took less than a week into the 2016-2017 academic year for several outrageous stories to surface on college campuses. At the University of Texas at Austin, thousands of students…
UnFree My Campus
Freedom of speech has been under siege at many American colleges and universities. Sometimes the attack comes from aggressive students who can’t stand having others say things they disagree with,…
Are Professors Going Too Fast?
I doubt that many people think of college professors as harried and overburdened to the point where they’re putting their very health at risk, but two Canadian English professors, Maggie…
Skills Without Frills: The Rise of Coding Academies
The basement of a once–abandoned tobacco factory may seem to be an odd place to teach the most cutting edge computer technology, but that’s where The Iron Yard, a computer…
A College Scrimps on Citizenship Education While it “Invests” in Luxury
College officials should be praised when they curtail wasteful spending, but when they cut the budget by eliminating core educational programs, they deserve public scorn. That scorn should be heightened…