Paula Dean, the Voting Rights Act, the Affirmative Action Rulings, and Changes in American Attitudes towards Racist Language and Race

If your response to the title of this post is that this seems too broad a range of topics to tackle in a single blog post, give me a chance. I will try to be more succinct than I sometimes am. The one thing that Paula Dean has said during her weepy apology tour of…

Talking Points, No. 2

I recently came across a January 2013 article posted by PolitiFact. It opens: “State Sen. Nicholas D. Kettle wants Rhode Island to become the first ‘right-to-work’ state in the Northeast–a place where workers in union jobs could choose to opt out of union membership and paying dues. “The freshman Republican from Coventry has introduced one piece of…

Daring and Foolishness

Earlier this week, I was one of the 13 million American television viewers—along with uncounted millions of viewers in 200+ other countries–who tuned in to the Discovery Channel to watch Nik Wallenda walk across a gorge of the Grand Canyon on a two-inch steel cable. He carried a 30-foot-long balancing pole that weighed a little…

Letter from the CFHE Steering Committee to the Committee on Institutional Cooperation

From: info@futureofhighered.org [mailto:info@futureofhighered.org] Sent: Monday, June 24, 2013 10:50 AM To: cic@staff.cic.net Subject: Letter from Campaign for the Future of Higher Education June 24, 2013 Dear Members of the Committee on Institutional Cooperation: We read with interest your recent paper, “CIC Online Learning Collaboration: A Vision and Framework [http://www.cic.net/docs/default-source/reports/cic-online-learning-collaboration.pdf?sfvrsn=2],” and the Inside Higher Ed coverage of it [http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/06/19/big-10-provosts-question-partnerships-ed-tech-companies#.UcGeqhW1_FY.email.].…

College Educators from across U.S. Take on Ways Online Classes Can Help or Wreck a Student’s Hopes for a Good Education

COLUMBUS, OHIO—Faculty and staff members from colleges and universities across the U.S. met in Ohio over the weekend to address the some of the toughest issues facing student success in America’s higher education system. The rapid drive to move students’ classes from campuses to online and the Gold Rush mentality behind many entrepreneurs pushing the…

Guns on Campus, Discouraging News

Although guns may not be allowed on Montana campuses (See “Several Indications of Common Sense on Guns on Campus,” https://academeblog.org/2013/05/13/several-indications-of-common-sense-related-to-guns-on-campus/#more-3089), five state universities in Pennsylvania are now allowing guns to be carried on their campuses. The five universities are Edinboro University, Kutztown University, Millersville  University, Shippensburg University, and Slippery Rock University. One wonders what statistics…