Did You Know? The States Doing the Most to Protect Student Rights
The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education was founded in 1999 by University of Pennsylvania professor Alan Charles Kors and Boston civil liberties attorney Harvey Silverglate. One of the country’s…
The Intellectual and Moral Decline in Academic Research
For most of the past century, the United States was the pre-eminent nation in science and technology. The evidence for that is beyond dispute: Since 1901, American researchers have won…
The New American Academy: Break Out the Crayons and Play-Doh
The idea of a campus “safe space”—a university-sanctioned oasis where students can go to destress and feel at ease—has had its share of ridicule. And it’s not hard to see…
Did You Know? Confucius Institutes Disappearing from American Campuses
After years of expansion, Communist Party-funded Confucius Institutes have seen the tide turn against them at American colleges. The Institutes, controlled by the Chinese government, were created to teach Chinese…
Social Justice Revisionism Comes for Washington and Lee
In the fall of 2018, the trustees of Washington and Lee University voted to paper over parts of the university’s history. On the recommendations of Washington and Lee’s “Commission on…
Emerson’s Vision of the American Scholar
Editor’s Note: This is an abridged version of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s The American Scholar, a lecture he gave to Harvard’s Phi Beta Kappa Society in 1837. This is the third…
A Path Forward for Reforming College Sports
As we move into 2020, it is important to assess where we are with the uniquely American phenomenon of elite, commercialized college sports. Often, what is claimed about college sports…
Russell Kirk on Higher Education
Russell Kirk isn’t known as a policy wonk. The Great Books, not the mathematical or statistical models of economic technicians, were his organon of choice. He devoted essays to broad,…
Sky-High Athletics: UNC Spends $125,000 on Private Planes for Recruiting
To reach far-flung towns, private planes can be indispensable. The University of North Carolina system, for instance, has an air fleet to shuttle doctors around the state. UNC Air Operations…
Our Hopes for Higher Ed Reform in 2020
As priorities shift in the minds of higher education leaders and students, it’s important to take stock of recent changes on the local and national levels. At the Martin Center,…