Banning Ag Research at Iowa State

Michael Gartner has an excellent op-ed in the Des Moines Register today about the serious threat to academic freedom posed by Iowa State president Steve Leath, who has banned the Harkin Institute from conducting research on agriculture without getting the approval of another research institute on campus, the Center for Agricultural Research and Development (CARD).…

Changing Higher Education

Stanley Fish’s offering “Higher Education’s Future: Discuss!” in today’s New York Times doesn’t provide anything new–but that’s not his fault. He writes about a panel discussion among four college presidents, ending: Not that I have anything more scintillating to offer. I’ll just wait for the next panel discussion and hope to hear the good news. He…

“Who,” Yes, But “How” May Be the Real Question

In “Who Will Hold Colleges Accountable?”, Kevin Carey of the New America Foundation writes in The New York Times: I suspect those courses that will be most valued will be those where students actually learn. Of course. Most of us who teach don’t just suspect that–we know it (as does Carey, I am sure… he’s deliberately understating the obvious).…

Student Debt, By the Numbers: Part 4: Factors—Changes in Student Financial Aid

Source: National Center for Education Statistics Percentage of those enrolled in public four-year institutions who received financial aid in 2009:  79%. Percentage of those enrolled in private not-for-profit four-year institutions who received financial aid in 2009:  87%. Percentage of those enrolled in private for-profit four-year institutions who received financial aid in 2009:  86%. Percent of…

Student Debt, By the Numbers: Part 3: Factors—Increases in Tuition

Sources: National Center for Education Statistics, Goldwater Institute, New Republic Average annual tuition at public four-year institutions in the U.S. in 2010:  $7,605. Average annual tuition at private four-year institutions in the U.S. in 2009:  $27,293. Average annual tuition at public two-year institutions in the U.S. in 2009:  $2,713. Percentage increase in tuition and room-and-board…

Student Debt, By the Numbers: Part 2: Factors–Increases in Higher Ed Enrollment

Source: National Center for Education Statistics Total number of degree-granting colleges and universities in the United States in 2009:  4,495 Post-secondary enrollment in 2009:  20.4 million Percentage of the total U.S. population enrolled in 2009:  5.7% Enrollment by percentage in four-year institutions in 2009:  62% Enrollment by percentage in two-year institutions in 2009:  38%

“The Fate of the Reformer”

I’ve been re-reading parts of Richard Hofstadter’s Anti-Intellectualism in American Life, a book I love even where I disagree–looking yesterday at the chapter “The Fate of the Reformer.” What Hofstadter presents is an interesting contrast to the “reform” movements in education today, particularly when he is dealing with civil-service reform in the 1880s. The government reformers…

Student Debt, By the Numbers: Part 1, The Scope of the Problem

Sources: National Center for Education Statistics, New Deal 2.0, Nation of Change Total student loan debt in the U.S. in 2012: $1 trillion. Total student loan debt in the U.S. in 2011: $830 billion. Total credit-card debt in the U.S. in 2011: $826.5 billion. Total value of the federal student loans taken in 2010:  $100…