Why Would Anyone Want to Be a College President?
Although the average tenure of a college president is the shortest it has ever been and the turnover rate the highest, the position still attracts candidates. These men and women…
UNC-Chapel Hill’s Matter of Honor
Honor is usually considered a good thing. Given that fact, should we be worried that UNC-Chapel Hill recently discontinued its longstanding student-run Honor Court? On July 17, 2024, Provost Christopher…
Indiana’s Worthwhile Academic Experiment
Despite being an avid watcher of the K-12 sector and its various internecine dramas, I confess I did not have “high-school diplomas” on my bingo card of likely 2024 controversies.…
How Would Project 2025 Impact Higher Ed?
Candidate Trump has disavowed the document (seriously or not). The former president may well lose the election. Nevertheless, the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 is a serious outline for governance in…
VCU’s New Protest Policy Makes Sense
In the wake of last year’s pro-Hamas campus protests, universities around the country are revising their facilities-use policies, as well as other “time, place, and manner” restrictions on campus protests.…
No to Rushed Renamings
Self-reflection is a necessary trait for any healthy society or institution. Grappling with the past empowers us to contextualize our lives, make positive change, and avoid repeating the mistakes of…
What Did We Learn from the Pro-Hamas Protests?
Last fall, having drunk deeply of the Left’s cocktail of antisemitism, post-colonialism, and general nuisance-making, a small but virulent minority of American college students began “protesting” for “Palestine.” Inaugurated mere…
College Officials Are Whistling Past the Graveyard
A combination of falling demand and higher costs created a “tough year” for colleges in fiscal 2023. Recent reports by S&P Global Ratings found that median full-time-equivalent enrollment fell 0.8…
Academic Freedom Doesn’t Mean Grandstanding
Earlier this summer, Harvard dean Lawrence Bobo wrote an essay for the Harvard Crimson that provoked a chorus of criticism, much of it justified. Reflecting on the post-October 7 turmoil…
Harvard’s Former President Responds to Attacks on Elite Colleges
Derek Bok has served as president of Harvard twice, from 1971 to 1991 and again from 2006-07. He has written much about higher education and is by no means a…