Andrew Delbanco, writing in The New York Review of Books, looks over the state of American universities, noting the promise they once represented but writing that: Today this story is stalled. At the top of the prestige pyramid, in highly selective colleges like those of the Ivy League, students from the bottom income quartile in our…
By 1970, almost everyone who had worked to create “programmed instruction” during the 1950s and 1960s had moved away from the idea of teaching machines as the centerpiece of education. These tools, they had realized, were only widely effective when in the hands of master craftspeople—that is, trained teachers who understood both the limits and…
Dr Steven Salaita, denied academic freedom for his tweets on the Israeli operation in Gaza last year, has been the subject of a national conversation on free speech, academic freedom and academic due process. I was present during the vote and spoke on behalf of Illinois Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure that responded…
Executive Summary This report has been prepared to serve as public comment regarding the 2015 revision of Florida State University’s Gift Acceptance and Counting Policy, otherwise known as FSU Policy 81. This gift policy determines the conditions by which the FSU Foundation accepts private donations, and as such, it is the only policy…
The Campaign to Stop Fresh College Thinking The Koch Foundation gives money to encourage debate on campus. Activists want to silence that debate. by John Hardin May 26, 2015 College should be a place where students encounter a diversity of ideas—just ask many of the more than 1.8 million students who are graduating this year.…
This week, Politico published an article by Matt Valentine titled “Texas Just Made College Less Safe: University Leaders Have Thought That Guns on Campus Are a Bad Idea since 1824. So Why Do States Keep Allowing It”—a very provocative title and slant for Politico. Here are the opening paragraphs: “When the founding fathers wrote that…
In 1928, Horatio Alger: A Biography Without a Hero by Herbert R. Mayes appeared. For over 40 years, it was the “go to” source for information about the iconic boys’ writer. Mayes parlayed the success of his book into an editing career crowned, in the sixties, with a term as president of McCall Corporation, publisher…
Guest blogger Arianne Shahvisi is an assistant professor of philosophy at the American University of Beirut, and has recently written commentary for the New Statesman, Jacobin, Open Democracy, and Truthout, centered on issues surrounding race, class, gender, and borders. Last month, Saida Grundy, an incoming sociology faculty member at Boston University, tweeted a set of remarks…
On May 5 at the PEN Literary Gala, the magazine Charlie Hebdo will be awarded the PEN/Toni and James C. Goodale Freedom of Expression Courage Award. At least 204 PEN members have signed a letter objecting to the honor, complaining that Charlie Hebdo offended Muslims and therefore is unworthy of any award. The anti-Charlie Hebdo…
