Poll: What Should Trump’s Education Department Do to Reform Higher Ed?
Now that the election has ended, Donald Trump faces new challenges. He must assemble a team, choose a direction, and begin to govern. During his long campaign, he gave a…
Hot Tubs and Luxury Dorms and Climbing Walls, Oh, My!
All is not well on higher education’s financial front. At many colleges, tuition prices have reached record highs, enrollment is stagnant, revenues have flattened or declined, budgets are constricted, and…
Athletics Reform Is Possible Without the NCAA
In the past two decades, North Carolina higher education leaders have tried to address problems related to college athletics. But whether they’ve focused on the increasing pressure to admit academically ill-prepared…
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…
How Would Trump Change Higher Education Policy?
Last month I looked at Hillary Clinton’s higher education proposals in this Clarion Call, and found nothing to praise in them. They merely deepen the already ruinous federal involvement in…
Two Key Lawsuits Lead Counterattack Against Title IX Overreach
Hyper-aggressive federal officials have taken the vague language in Title IX of the 1972 Education Act Amendments and treated it as if it gave them plenary authority to control anything…
College Isn’t a Good Learning Environment, Says a Veteran Professor
What is needed is for students and parents to realize that swallowing the education that’s given to them isn’t the best way. They’ll have to change things from the bottom by seeking out schools and online programs where student progress comes first.
Title IX: How a Good Idea Became Higher Education’s Worst Nightmare
What started out as a law to give women more opportunities in higher education has morphed into a bureaucratic monster that destroys due process of law, sets students against each other, and encourages bureaucrats to search for new ways to expand their authority.
Will the UNC System Rise Above Higher Education’s Status Quo?
UNC System leaders are overhauling their 2013 strategic planning initiative. Whether that will result in sound reform ideas, however, is up in the air. North Carolina’s university system is a powerful force in the state—armed with its own lobbying team, almost 50,000 employees, and a $9.5 billion annual budget. It is a machine with a tendency to aggrandize. Curbing its appetite for expansion and self-serving policies won’t be easy.
Five Ways You Can Improve Higher Education
At the Pope Center we spend a lot of time recommending changes to higher education policy. It’s in our name. But there are ways you—as a citizen, parent, student, or employer—can pressure higher education to change.