Reforming Higher Ed in 2021
The year 2020 brought changes that colleges would have never made by choice. Enrollment declines, remote classes, and dramatic employee cuts (for faculty and some staff alike) were unthinkable a…
Did You Know? In 2020, Students Stopped Transferring
Students listened to public health advice for 2020: stay at home. A report from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center found that transfer students fell by 8.1 percent compared to…
Money for Nothing: The Worst of Student Loan Debt Hits College Dropouts
I can’t remember a single alternative to college proposed to me, for me, my entire school-age life. That I would go to college after high school was presented by adults…
Leaving the Blight of Higher Education: Part I–Farewell, Students
Editor’s note: This is the first of a two-part series. In May of 2020, my wife and I took our retirement after more than 30 years of teaching college, the…
NC State’s Quixotic Foreign Language Requirement
For decades, universities have required students to fulfill a foreign language requirement. However, some research has shown that two semesters of a foreign language appears to have no meaningful effect…
Did You Know? COVID-19 Cleaning Means Millions in Extra Spending for NC State, App State
Although most universities have moved classes online since the spring, hundreds of thousands of dollars have been spent to ensure that the campus facilities still open are kept clean and…
Students Aren’t Learning Life Skills; Colleges Need to Teach Them
When students think back to their college days, they may remember a philosophy class that made them question their life or an art class they thought would be easy, but…
Can the President Cancel Student Debt? Should He?
Many people and groups are pressuring Joe Biden to issue an executive order that would cancel some or all federal student debts shortly after he takes office. During the campaign,…
Did You Know? NC Subsidies for Colleges Top 5 Nationally
North Carolina spends more on its university students than most other states. Recent data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System show that universities in only three other states and…
Why Do UNC Schools Spend Money on Diversity Training That Doesn’t Work?
Higher ed leaders love committees and training sessions. The technocratic mind that rules campus sees a problem and usually decides that the solution is more resources and education. Once the…