This University President Can’t Take a Joke
A university president recently addressed his campus community about an incident that had shaken his Wisconsin school. “The last few days have been painful ones for many members of our…
Everyone’s Offended: Campus Intolerance Can Come from Liberals and Conservatives
From Evergreen State College in Washington to Yale University in Connecticut, campaigns to punish or fire professors accused of thinking or saying things outside the bounds of political correctness seem…
Paranoia and Paternalism Fuel the Fight Against “Rape Culture”
For several years, colleges have been battling an alleged campus “rape culture.” Before taking their first class, almost half a million students are taught that 1 in 5 women will…
Engineering Education: Social Engineering Rather than Actual Engineering
We engineers like to solve technical problems. That’s the way we think, that’s why we chose our major, that’s why we got into and stayed in engineering. There are several…
Study Only What You Want? Not If You Want to Be Successful
Recently, a general education course at UNC-Chapel Hill, “Big-Time College Sports,” was canceled. This sparked controversy after the course’s professor, Jay Smith, argued that the class, which he had taught…
Student Free Speech Suffers a Defeat
Since launching its Stand Up for Free Speech project in 2014, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) has had a great deal of success in defeating college officials…
My University Treated Me Like a Criminal Over a Joke
For the past six years, I have taught an undergraduate course on international economics at Johns Hopkins University. Most of my students thought it was a very good course. So…
Student Governments Can Help to Restore Faith in Higher Education
Higher education has a public relations problem on its hands. The results of a new Pew Research survey show that almost 60 percent of Republicans believe higher education has a…
Professors Should Write Books That Seek Truth, Not Inflame Passions
The academic enterprise is supposed to be about truth. Those who are entrusted to teach are expected to convey knowledge to their students, not their opinions. And when academics write…
An Inside Perspective on Radicals’ Treatment of Wake Forest’s Eudaimonia Institute
Last fall Wake Forest University announced a $4.2 million donation to fund “the study of human flourishing” at the university’s newest institute—the Eudaimonia Institute (EI). Although it took people a…