Another Confucius Institute Closes
North Carolina State University is one of the latest universities to announce plans to close its Confucius Institute. Eleven American colleges and universities have parted ways with these Chinese government-funded…
The Professor Who Was Harassed for Pointing Out the Truth
That famous line from the movie A Few Good Men—“You can’t handle the truth!”—applies more and more to the world of higher education. If you doubt that, consider the case…
Blackmail Added to Mob Rule on UNC Activists’ Resumes
The proper term for the actions of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill graduate student assistants and instructors threatening to withhold grades unless Silent Sam—a statue of a…
From Diverse Professors to Professors of Diversity
Ever since Justice Powell’s lone opinion in Bakke allowed the camel’s nose of “diversity” under the anti-discrimination tent, controversy has raged over preferential treatment awarded to college applicants of certain…
The Four Perspectives of Higher Education Policy Explained
Explaining higher education policy is never easy (even to people who are involved in it). Over the years, while training young writers for the Martin Center, I have come up…
A Tale of Two Alumni Associations
An important voice is missing in today’s colleges and universities: that of their alumni. Their absence does a disservice to both students and the general public because, in many ways,…
What the Hoax Papers Tell Us about the Decline of Academic Standards
By now, most followers of the higher education press have heard of the “grievance studies” or Sokal Squared hoax. In this incident, a team of three researchers successfully published several…
Why Shouldn’t College Students Have the Equivalent of Miranda Rights?
Colleges and universities need rules defining unacceptable behavior and how students accused of infractions of those rules will be treated. Because determinations of guilt can have serious, long-lasting consequences, schools…
The Rise of Engineering’s Social Justice Warriors
In 2015, Colorado School of Mines writing instructor Dr. Jon Leydens delivered a TED talk titled “engineering and social justice.” According to Leydens, in the mid-2000s students started asking him…
Time to Break the Mold for UNC Presidents
The sudden departure of Margaret Spellings from the presidency of the University of North Carolina system presents a unique opportunity to address academia’s most serious problem. The problem is intellectual,…