Where Do All the Savings Go?
Higher education’s gains from productivity should be put to better use. As it stands now, amazing innovations in teaching and education delivery are benefiting the system instead of the student. Universities should take advantage of the efficiencies that exist by decreasing administrative staff and insisting that faculty teach more. Only then will students benefit from the recent innovations in higher education.
Finally, a Sober Appraisal of North Carolina’s Public Universities
The Pope Center’s latest report, The State of the State University 2015: Critical Facts about the University of North Carolina System, is a must-read for students, parents, taxpayers, and policymakers who want the UNC system to achieve its highest potential—and its peak efficiency. Here’s hoping that, in 2016, North Carolina leaders, instead of sugarcoating the shortcomings identified in this report, choose instead to address them head on.
What a Year! Ten Trends in Higher Ed in 2015
Looking back at all that happened in higher education this year is enough to make your head spin. One minute, state politicians are finally making good policies; the next, university officials are caving to irrational demands. At the other end of the spectrum, politicians are promoting policies of monumental stupidity, while the courts are making surprisingly good decisions (but not always). A majority of students favor putting extreme limits for political correctness on free speech, while an opposition is coalescing around protecting the First Amendment and due legal processes. And on and on it goes. To try to capture the spirit of 2015, the Pope Center staff identified ten of the year’s major trends and events.
Faculty Salaries Reflect Reality, Not Politics
The absence of a state-mandated across-the-board salary increase does not mean that UNC system faculty members are not receiving increases. There are quite a few programs and procedures for raising faculty wages. One thing that may be angering the more strident faculty voices is that many of the means for raising salaries are merit-based rather than automatic.
The High but Hidden Cost of College Sports
A barrage of articles in the popular press points out the escalating cost of higher education, rising student debt levels, and the financial struggles many colleges and universities face. Although many factors are at play, we maintain that expenditures of college athletics are a significant factor that are often overlooked, in particular for small schools, especially those with big-time athletic programs.
Don’t Feed Academia’s Wasteful Practices
The truth is most college donations make very little impact, at best. On occasion, they are used to produce a bad impact. But that doesn’t mean giving to higher education is necessarily bad or irrelevant. In fact, if done properly, it can be exceedingly valuable.
Keeping Free Speech Alive on Campus
I urge all North Carolinians to make a commitment to preserving individual rights on college campuses. Currently, my organization, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, is working nationally on a campaign to encourage universities to adopt the University of Chicago’s new free speech policy statement. This statement promises “all members of the University community the broadest possible latitude to speak, write, listen, challenge, and learn,” and recognizes that “it is not the proper role of the University to attempt to shield individuals from ideas and opinions they find unwelcome, disagreeable, or even deeply offensive.”
No Conservatives Need Apply
My career at West Liberty University came to a screeching halt this fall. My department has been terminated and I’m looking for a new job. The reason why this occurred boils down to nothing more than political animosity.
Sociology Needs More Diversity – Intellectual Diversity, That Is
It seems to me that as a discipline, we sociologists have lost sight of the difference between hypotheses to be researched and conclusions to be defended. We tend to confuse identity politics with social theory, and mistake partisan advocacy for serious scientific analysis.
In Fisher II, the Supreme Court Should Look at Reality, Not Pretense
On December 9, the Supreme Court heard arguments on a crucial case dealing with racial preferences in college admissions, Fisher v. University of Texas. It would be ideal if the Court would recognize that the University of Texas has been unable to show any legitimate academic justification for its racial preference regime. Its “educational benefits” claims are empty.