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…

Please Sign Petitions Supporting the Voting Rights of College Students in Ohio and North Carolina

Recently, I wrote a post titled “Suppress the vote, 2013-2014—on Campus” (https://academeblog.org/2013/04/28/suppress-the-vote-2013-2014-versions-on-campus/). In the post, I describe the efforts of the Republican majorities in the North Carolina and the Ohio legislature to create penalties that will effectively reduce the numbers of college students voting in both states. In North Carolina, parents will now lose the…

Who Needs A Liberal Education These Days?

This is a re-post from the “On the Issues” blog of the Campaign for the Future of Higher Education [http://futureofhighered.org/on-the-issues/] Anyone who wants a job, it seems.  According to a recent survey of employers by the Association of American Colleges and Universities reported in It Takes More Than a Major: Employer Priorities for College Learning…

Fat Men, Spiders, and Vultures

Chris Christie and I probably do not have a great deal in common beyond the fact that we are both obese and sometimes unapologetically obnoxious, but when I read that he had “smushed” a spider during a visit to an elementary classroom, I immediately “heard” my wife saying to me, “Please use a paper towel…

Review of Unlearning Liberty

By Steve Macek, Speech Communication, North Central College Review of Greg Lukianoff, Unlearning Liberty: Campus Censorship and the End of American Debate (Encounter Books, 2012) A student expelled for a Facebook post criticizing the construction of a new parking ramp at his college, a faculty member reported to a “threat assessment team” for posting a…

The Cold Facts about Higher Education and Contingent Faculty Appointments

This is a re-post from the “On the Issues” blog of the Campaign for the Future of Higher Education [http://futureofhighered.org/on-the-issues/] Although the details are shameful, it’s good to see the mainstream press publicizing the facts about higher education faculty appointments and compensation.  A recent NBC report highlights these facts from the most recent annual survey…

Review of The Last Professors: The Corporate University and the Fate of the Humanities

Reviews of Recent Books Concerning Current Issues in Higher Ed: No. 6 Donoghue, Frank. The Last Professors: The Corporate University and the Fate of the Humanities. New York: Fordham U P, 2008. In this seminal work of the corporatization of American universities, Frank Donoghue offers a much longer historical view than most other authors focusing…