What follows are the lead paragraphs of a lengthy story written by an investigative reporting class at the University of Cincinnati for City Beat. The student reporters included Morgan Batanian, Katie Coburn, Fernanda Crescente, Taylor Jackson, Tyler Kuhnash and Camri Nelson. Research was contributed by Taylor Hayden, Talis Linauts, Kayleigh Murch, Matt Nichols, Malia Pitts and…
Over this past year, there has been some major turnover among television talk show hosts. Some of them are moving on to “other projects,” “other Interests,” or “new challenges” (most notably Jon Stewart and Craig Ferguson) and some are simply switching venues (most notably Stephen Colbert, who is presumably also switching personas). But David Letterman’s…
Last year, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan presented the following commencement address at Arizona State University. Like most previous Secretaries of Education, Duncan has neither been a teacher nor a school administrator. Worse, I believe that he is the only member of President Obama’s Cabinet who does not have a graduate degree. So, it should…
The think-tank Demos has done a report on the causes of soaring tuition costs and debt levels for students enrolled at public colleges and universities, and the report is getting some national attention. Here is an excerpt from an article on the CBS News site MoneyWatch: “Thanks to rapidly rising tuition costs, America has a…
Writing for the Indianapolis Business Journal, J. K. Wall has reported: “Indiana’s public colleges and universities, spurred by pressure from state lawmakers, are pumping out more graduates than ever. “But in spite of a 20-percent increase in degrees granted since 2010, the education level of Indiana’s younger adults has barely budged, for reasons that aren’t…
Since 1992 the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression at the University of Virginia has celebrated the birth and ideals of its namesake by calling attention each year to those who would censor free expression. Announced on or near April 13—the anniversary of the birth of Thomas Jefferson—the Jefferson Muzzles are awarded as…
The administrative superstructure that characterizes American higher education is coming under increased scrutiny. Yet administrators keep multiplying anyway, as do the “managerial pathologies” that Benjamin Ginsburg vividly described in his recent book The Fall of the Faculty. It seems like a good time, then, for someone to try to provide guidance to the growing number of faculty who are…
Item 1 Marking the National Rifle Association’s 2015 Freedom Festival in Nashville To direct school staff on how to respond to a visitor who is carrying a visible firearm, a school district in Michigan has distributed the following flow chart: I would like to be able to say that one cannot help but feel…