The Campus Free Speech Problem Worsens and Washington Finally Acts
The turnabout in federal policy towards higher education has been dramatic. Back on September 7, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos announced that her department was rescinding the 2011 “Dear Colleague”…
Public Universities as Commercial Landlords: Where Do We Draw the Line?
Late last year, NC State University purchased two small office buildings on Oberlin Road, near the university’s East campus, for the price of $3.1 million. Their location, situated between NC…
Are Students Addicted to Distraction?
A few years ago, something changed in class. I customarily taught classes where my students read multiple books, wrote thoughtful reflective essays, and came to class prepared to engage in…
Everyone is Innocent Until Proven Guilty, Except College Students
When it comes to defending themselves against accusations, college students are fighting an uphill battle. Today, students accused of misconduct are often subjected to long and invasive investigation processes without…
How Not to Recover from a Crisis, Mizzou Edition
The University of Missouri, where I teach and which I dearly love, is in crisis. Freshman enrollment at the university’s Columbia campus (Mizzou) is down by a whopping 35% from…
The Chinese Don’t Like Academic Freedom, So American Schools Should Avoid Their Confucius Institutes
Academic freedom has long been a guiding principle for American colleges and universities: Neither faculty nor students should be told what to say or punished for saying whatever they think.…
Grade Inflation Just Got Respectable: The New Eligibility Rule Governing Georgia’s HOPE Scholarship
Georgia’s HOPE Scholarship is now in its twenty-fourth year of existence. Originally the brainchild of then Governor Zell Miller, since 1993 this merit-based scholarship program has distributed in excess of…
Secretary DeVos Begins to Rectify the Title IX Mistake
It is very rare for a federal agency to admit having made a mistake and rarer still for the secretary of a cabinet department to announce a U-turn in policy…
Closing the Gap at North Carolina’s Historically Black Universities
Earlier this month, the Triangle Business Journal revealed that graduates from North Carolina’s Historically Black College and Universities (HBCUs) are lagging their peers in terms of median salary after graduation.…
Contra the “McDonaldization” of Higher Education
The term “McDonaldization” was coined by sociology professor George Ritzer in 1993. He meant for it to describe “the industrial process of rationalization that [was] expanding beyond industry into the…