Restoring a Right at Risk
Universities play—or should play—a critical role helping the next generation of teachers, legislators, judges, and voters understand how to live together in our constitutional republic. For many students, they represent…
Rewriting the Rules of Accreditation
Shortly before Donald Trump’s second inauguration, I summarized for the Martin Center the possible reforms to collegiate accreditation his administration might adopt. I divided these conservative reforms into three broad…
Will UNCW’s Medical School Solve the Doctor Shortage?
The University of North Carolina Wilmington has initiated an ambitious project to establish a medical school intended to alleviate a severe shortage of physicians in rural and underserved areas of…
Back to School, Decades Later
Imagine walking into an undergraduate philosophy class and finding an 85-year-old retiree debating an 18-year-old freshman. As colleges try to reverse enrollment declines, Goucher College has turned to a surprising…
Readying UNC for Another 250 Years of Civic Life
I have always found it inspiring that the University of North Carolina was chartered in 1789—during the same legislative session that ratified the American Constitution. The demands of citizenship were…
What Public Policy Schools Should Teach
Governing is hard, serious work. Even when we dislike the agenda of the party in power, we should prefer savvy professionalism to bumbling amateurism. When officials seek to shift international…
NC’s Direct Admissions Program Must Proceed With Caution
Last year, the UNC System rolled out NC College Connect, a direct college admissions program for North Carolinian public high school students. While the program clearly streamlines admissions by mailing…
North Carolina’s Talent Gap
North Carolina enjoys a healthy, growing economy. Unemployment rates are low. Job growth is robust. And people continue to move to North Carolina at staggering rates. But new data from…
What Would a Pro-Family Academia Look Like?
My most recent Martin Center column highlighted the irony, considering higher education’s formative influence on America’s prevailing anti-natalist culture, of the industry’s anxiety over declining birthrates. “Where,” I asked, “are…
Medicine, Moral Formation, and the Recovery of Discourse
In recent years, it has become something of a commonplace to say that American institutions are losing their sense of purpose. Universities, once understood as places for the disciplined pursuit…