BY AARON BARLOW Retraction Watch, one of my all-time favorite blogs, posted an interview today with psychologist John Antonakis, who had identified the five diseases of academic publishing, significosis, neophilia, theorrhea, arigorium and disjunctivitis. I was immediately struck by the first: Significosis is the incessant focus on producing statistically significant results, a well-known problem but one…
BY JOERG TIEDE If teachers do not stand fighting in the front rank for freedom of intelligence, the cause of the latter is well-nigh hopeless, and we are in for that period of intimidation, oppression, and suppression that goes, and goes rightly, by the name of Fascism and Nazi-ism. — John Dewey, 1935 The American Association of…
BY HANK REICHMAN This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Joint Statement on Rights and Freedoms of Students, issued by the AAUP and other organizations. That statement spelled out clear guarantees of freedom of association for students. Those rights were called into question in December when Fordham University refused to permit students to create…
POSTED BY HANK REICHMAN The following letter by forty-eight US university presidents and chancellors was sent to President Trump on February 2. President Donald J. Trump The White House United States of AmericaDear President Trump: We write as presidents of leading American colleges and universities to urge you to rectify or rescind the recent executive…
BY ANTON FORD Yesterday, John K. Wilson posted a critique about those opposed to having former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski speak at the University of Chicago. Wilson asked Anton Ford if he wished to respond. Below is his email, and below that is the letter that was sent to the Institute of Politics. Dear…
POSTED BY HANK REICHMAN The following letter was sent to Iowa legislators debating a bill to slash collective bargaining rights of public employees by a former Iowa state senator and current school superintendent in neighboring Minnesota:
BY HANK REICHMAN A bit more than a year ago then-Secretary of Education John King ruled that the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC), which accredits all of California’s 112 community colleges, had a year to come into compliance with two Department of Education regulations. Of particular importance was Regulation 34 C.F.R. §…
BY HANK REICHMAN I usually try to limit my posts to this blog to topics more or less directly related to higher education. However, given the many questions swirling around President Trump’s relations with Russia and Vladimir Putin and the importance to higher education of how Trump’s presidency develops, I thought I would share some…
BY JOHN K. WILSON In a few minutes, former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski will be speaking at the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics (IOP). A group of student organizations wrote to the University of Chicago calling for Lewandowski to be banned from campus. I think they are deeply misguided. They argue, “Nothing about…
In college communities affected by closures, the economic impact of a college’s business operations suddenly becomes important.