Projected Job Growth, by Occupation, 2014-2024

POSTED BY MARTIN KICH   This chart is from the Bureau of Labor Statistics: The list is surprising in the following ways: Of the 30 occupations on the list, 22 are what are traditionally considered “blue-collar” occupations. Of those 22 “blue-collar” occupations, all have been major sources of employment for decades: 7 are in general…

Modeling Condescension to Students

BY HANK REICHMAN Yesterday the following statement signed by fifteen professors from Harvard, Yale, and Princeton universities appeared on the website of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton: We are scholars and teachers at Princeton, Harvard, and Yale who have some thoughts to share and advice to offer students who…

smiling woman at graduation

Post-Graduation Outcomes are Where Rubber Meets the Road

BY BRIAN C. MITCHELL Almost 21 million people attend some variation of a college or university in the United States. For some, the purpose is obvious – to improve their skills, increase their wages, and enhance their marketability in the workforce. But for many – especially those in the traditional 18-22 year cohort – the…

“On Many Sides?” Not in Academia!

BY HANK REICHMAN Blowhard-in-chief Donald Trump’s condemnation of “hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides, on many sides” in the wake of this weekend’s events in Charlottesville, home of the University of Virginia (UVA), has been criticized so extensively and justifiably, even by members of his own party — many of whom themselves bear responsibility…

‘Just Ask’

BY PAT BOWNE David Brooks apparently hit a nerve with his sandwich column. My friends’ reactions on social media ranged from stories about their own discomfort in fancy restaurants to comments about food snobbery to accusing me of wanting the right-wing PC police to stop us all from eating kale. Perhaps the commonest remark I…

Western Michigan Student Facing Execution in Saudi Arabia: Join the Protest

POSTED BY HANK REICHMAN The following was posted on the blog of the Western Michigan University AAUP chapter: We join our colleagues at AFT-Michigan, along with our AFT-affiliated colleagues here at WMU, the Professional Instructors Organization (PIO) and Teaching Assistants Union (TAU), in condemning in the strongest possible terms the death sentence of admitted WMU student Mujtaba’a…

On Stars and What They Eat

BY AARON BARLOW The other day, in a post on student agency, I complained again about the erzatz meritocracy of our star system of education. I tend to focus my attention in this area more on the classroom itself, where the best students get the most attention and support, though I do mention that the…