This post has been written by Jeff Kolnick. a professor of history at Southwest Minnesota State University. _______________ The fall semester is an exciting time to be a college professor. The spring semester has its charms with the promise of summer and the thrill of graduation, but for me, the start of the school year is…
This guest post was written by Michael DeCesare, a Sociologist at Merrimack College. With the new academic year waiting around the corner, I’m reminded of a popular motto from the 1980s: “Just Say No.” The story of the saying’s origin goes like this: At a meeting with schoolchildren in Oakland, then-First Lady Nancy Reagan was…
This seems to be the day for infographics. What follows has just been released by the White House: Although President Obama may be very well-intentioned in his continuing determination to forge some sort of bi-partisan agreements, this plan simply incorporates the major features of the proposals being put forward by those most interested in gutting…
Note: On Monday of this week I posted an article about plans to cut 40 jobs, including 22 faculty members at Clarion University of Pennsylvania. Earlier today, I posted another article on the situation at Clarion on Raging Chicken Press. This article features an interview with the President of the Clarion chapter of the faculty…
Over the past six months or so, I have saved the following headlines. I think that they justify the title of this post. _______________ 1,000 California Foster Care Homes Match Sex Offender Addresses Are We Going to Become Allies of al-Qaeda “Bea Arthur Naked,” John Currin Painting, Auctioned for $1.8 Million Body Slamming Piglets to…
Let me begin with a broad observation. When Republican politicians are caught up in sexual scandals, the emphasis in the resulting commentary is typically on their hypocrisy. In contrast, when Democrats are caught up in such scandals, the emphasis is usually on the salaciousness of their behavior. This may seem like a distinction without a…
It’s summer. The college road trip experience has begun in earnest for many high school students. The approach to this search by students and their families varies widely. It often depends upon a number of factors including a family’s connection to an institution, the recommendation of guidance counselors, peer pressure, and social and print media…
In academia, as elsewhere, there are all sorts of ostensibly significant distinctions between past achievements, current projects, and planning. The ubiquity of the planning is probably more than just as administrative obsession, more than just a salient illustration of the corporate influence on higher education. For one would be hard-pressed to find another arena of…
It Might Be Coincidental to Your Hatred of Him That He Is Black. But All of the Following Expressions of Hatred of Him Are Clearly Racist—and If You Don’t Think So, You Are Either a Racist or the Word “Racist” Has Lost All Meaning The recent controversy surrounding the caricaturing of President Obama by a…