Full-Time Non-Tenured Faculty Represent Innovation, Not Aberration
The increased use of non-tenure track (NTT) faculty by universities has drawn condemnation from many entrenched in the seniority system. But critics may be ignoring the more complex realities of modern higher education. They may also be ignoring the rise of full-time NTT faculty, which recent evidence suggests has significantly benefited schools and students. Fortunately, officials at Western Carolina University, NC State University, and other schools in North Carolina and elsewhere are recognizing that the NTT is not a monolith, and are taking steps to establish better faculty hiring systems.
Cutting Costs Is Possible. These Schools Did It.
As the stock market gyrates and talk of a new recession begins, many universities have reason to worry. The cost of college education hasn’t stopped rising, students are fearful of being burdened by debt, and political pressure is beginning to weigh in. Congress is entertaining a bill that would require 25 percent of a school’s endowment spending to go toward student financial aid, and several presidential candidates have unveiled plans to solve the student debt crisis. At the state level, the return of state support to its pre-recession levels may be in jeopardy. But a few universities have chosen to take a different route. In addition to looking for more state revenues, they’ve found ways to reduce their expenditures and to ease the financial burden on students.
Post-Protest Mizzou: Adverse Consequences of the Capitulation
Nearly three months have passed since student protests upended the institution where I teach law, the University of Missouri (Mizzou). There have been several changes on the Columbia campus. We now have a highly regarded African-American interim president, Michael Middleton, who has a long history at the university. Our interim chancellor seems far more attuned to the campus climate and hosts weekly “chats with the chancellor” to foster a more open atmosphere. On the surface, things seem to have returned to normal or perhaps even improved. Recent trends, however, suggest that the protesters’ “success” may prove ephemeral.
Universities’ Credit Ratings Indicate the Need for Bold Reform
North Carolina’s higher education market is, for the most part, vibrant. The state is home to more than 50 four-year universities as well as 60 community colleges. And online education, certificate programs, and non-traditional job training initiatives have given prospective students even more options. Nevertheless, some institutions are experiencing significant financial woes. Unaddressed, such problems could result in campus closings or, worse, perpetual taxpayer bailouts of ineptly-managed universities.
Governance Newsletter – Winter 2016
We’ve dedicated this issue of Governance to looking at ways to decrease the costs of higher education for students, parents, and taxpayers in North Carolina.
Academia UK: A Dictatorship of the Righteous
In Great Britain, as in the United States, a growing moral consensus and a lack of political diversity among faculty and administrators is moving higher education away from the pursuit and transmission of knowledge in favour of the promotion of politically correct values. Bad as that problem is in the U.S., it is at least as bad on this side of the Atlantic; perhaps worse. While in America there is strong pushback against those who want to change universities from places of open inquiry into places that tell students what they should think, there is less of that in Britain.
The Campus Sustainability Movement: A Threat to the Marketplace of Ideas
An especially pernicious brand of environmentalism—”sustainability”—is on the verge of becoming an unstated, but very real, part of North Carolina State University’s mission. University leaders are developing an aggressive public relations campaign and curriculum change that could create a system in which students are inculcated in social justice, environmental justice, and progressivism—all of which are tenets of sustainability. Left unchecked, this seemingly harmless movement (which has a strong presence at other North Carolina universities, too) could sow the seeds of social upheaval by turning hearts and minds away from the principles of a free society.
Concussions: The Latest Reason to Question College Athletics
The multi-billion dollar college athletics industry is under attack. While there is no shortage of reports on academic and financial abuses, a new problem is emerging: evidence of long-term neurological effects caused by high-impact head trauma in football. This problem has gained notoriety from a new movie, Concussion, which tells the story of a doctor trying to link previous head trauma to uncommon deaths in professional football players.
Ed School Students Must Become Social Justice Warriors to Gain Licensure
According to the University of North Carolina at Greensboro catalog, the course “ELC 381, The Institution of Education” is “required of students seeking student licensure.” Unfortunately, the course often goes far beyond what is politically acceptable for an education course at a public university. When one looks at the section of ELC 381 taught by Revital Zilonka in the Spring of 2016, it becomes clear that the degree of politicization completely violates the spirit of free inquiry that is supposed to govern our schools.
A Million Dollars More? Only for Some
We’ve all heard the refrain: “college graduates make a million dollars more in their lifetimes than high school graduates.” The “college premium,” as it is called, is used to justify a wide variety of personal and policy decisions. But the real college premium is an exceedingly complex concept that cannot be captured by a single number. As Margaret Spellings takes the leadership role in the University of North Carolina system, let us hope that she does not fall for the simplistic rhetoric concerning the benefits of college attendance that has led her predecessors to push for expanded enrollment—and that she has at times fallen for as well.