Hiroshima at 70 and Salaita at One
The most recent issue of Academe displays on its cover a Bob Dylan lyric: “I’ll Tell It and Think It and Speak It and Breathe It.” An image appears at the upper left-hand corner of this webpage. Its provenance is the epic protest song, “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall.” Editor Aaron Barlow deftly situates the song on the cusp of the…
The American Way of Punishment
This week the Chronicle of Higher Education has published a series of articles from the Chronicle Review under the above heading that explore the issue of mass incarceration in America from academic perspectives. No one, including myself, will agree with everything in the five articles that have appeared, but all are thoughtful, informative, eye-opening and…
Will This Actually Help Make the Case for Study Abroad—Never Mind for Scientific Inquiry or for Higher Education?
Researchers at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, CA, are reportedly studying student brain scans in order to determine how study abroad impacts brain function. According to an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education [http://chronicle.com/article/One-College-s-Method-to/230661/], the researchers have scanned the brains of 30 freshmen and will re-scan their brains when they are juniors and just after…
A Student Review of the Florida State University Gift Acceptance Policy: Undue Influence and Charles Koch Foundation
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…
How the Koch Foundation Is Spinning Their “Gifts,” Which Promote Ideological Conformity over Open Inquiry
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.…
Federal Research Funding 2011-2015
Gov. John Kasich Is Wrong to Denigrate Ohio Universities’ Innovation Capabilities
What follows is an op-ed by John T. McNay, chair of the department of history, philosophy and political science at the University of Cincinnati’s Blue Ash campus and president of the Ohio Conference of AAUP. This op-ed originally appeared at Cleveland.com: http://www.cleveland.com/opinion/index.ssf/2015/05/gov_john_kasich_is_wrong_to_de.html#incart_river _________________________ Gov. John Kasich, while making the rounds in Washington, D.C., on his…
You Cannot Cite Data That Does Not Exist
This past week, Bill O’Reilly cited, for the second time, statistics that supposedly show that more Whites than African-Americans are killed by police. Although he framed the discussion of these statistics by stating that he was in no way condoning the recent police shooting of an unarmed African-American man in North Charleston, South Carolina, he…
Teach or Perish
If the dateline on this story had been a day later, I would not believe it (hat tip to Diane Ravitch for linking to it): “Bill would require all UNC professors to teach heavy course load.” Apparently, a state senator named Tom McInnis from Richmond, NC has introduced a bill to that effect: “There is no…