All diversity, all the time, everybody, right now
Diversity proponents are pushing an extreme agenda that will go far beyond academia’s already major commitment to the concept. An event at UNC-Chapel Hill illlustrates just how far they intend to go.
10 ways the Ivory Tower is eroding American values
Students are not actually trained to think for themselves. And radical professors and administrators simply replace one dogma with another instead of creating open-minded critical thinkers. In other words, professors spend their time tearing down American values only to replace them with alternate campus values.
Two conflicting visions of higher education, Part II
Higher education policy must begin with a vision and a sense of purpose, without which it becomes an incoherent jumble that contradicts itself and pulls in conflicting directions. One problem facing academia today is that it has long been largely subject to one vision, and now a very different, competing vision is emerging that seeks grand reforms.
Two conflicting visions of higher education, Part I
Higher education policy must begin with a vision and a sense of purpose, without which it becomes an incoherent jumble that contradicts itself and pulls in conflicting directions. One problem facing academia today is that it has long been largely subject to one vision, and now a very different, competing vision is emerging that seeks grand reforms.
Accountability first at East Carolina University’s Brody School of Medicine
It is highly likely that the fiscal woes of ECU’s Brody School of Medicine can be stabilized without adding more challenges to State taxpayers. Sixteen million dollars is a lot to hand over without attempting to solve obvious problems first.
Sustainability: A new college fad with fangs
There is a new fad rampaging across the college landscape—sustainability. For the last ten years, this mania has been gathering momentum because, like identity studies, sustainability pushes the hot buttons for leftist academics: environmentalism, anti-capitalism, salvation through liberal activism, and the chance to hector all those wrong-thinking people. It’s almost irresistible.
UNC-Chapel Hill nudges students into a conversation about race
UNC-Chapel Hill has launched Carolina Conversations, an initiative designed to provide forums for students to discuss sensitive topics. UNC-CH will do this in three ways: sponsor regular large-scale town-hall-style forums called My Carolina Voice, smaller gatherings called Carolina Pulse, and My Chance, a process whereby students can apply for school funding for “grassroots interactions.”
The police, not universities, should be handling rape accusations
Campuses are not adept at handling sexual assault issues because they lack experience, resources, and an unbiased agenda. Due process is immediately thrown out the window when we rely on the campus to punish the accused; injustice is built into the system. The customary standard, “innocent until proven guilty,” is reversed when we call on colleges to adjudicate rape.
Universities in Islamic nations make the same mistakes we do—but worse
Universities are great inventions, and they have a role everywhere, in areas rich and poor, Christian, Islamic, and even atheist. But the Law of Diminishing Returns applies: universities in small doses can disseminate and advance knowledge in welfare-inducing ways, but if expanded too fast, they produce dismal results at the margin. In the Middle East/North African region, this problem is aggravated by over-centralization.
NLRB’s pro-union ruling attacks private higher education
American labor unions are in serious decline and the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has become nothing more than a legal enforcer for panicked union bosses. A recent example is the December 2014 decision in Pacific Lutheran University that may force more private-sector higher education faculty to accept unionism if they want to work.