Here are the opening paragraphs of an article written by Steph Solis for USA Today: “California suffered one of its driest years in 2015. And last year the state hit its driest four-year period on record. “But Donald Trump isn’t sold. The presumptive GOP nominee told supporters in Fresno, California, on Friday night that no such dry spell exists. “Trump…
After a successful two-day walkout of faculty across the United Kingdom led by the University and College Union, more than 1,000 scholars have resigned from their roles as external examiners, who are contracted to sit on exam boards at other universities to review students’ work and sign off final grades. A UCU spokesperson told The…
This is an addendum to Hank Reichman’s post on Ken Starr. Here is a news item from Vanity Fair news writer Emily Jane Fox that succinctly synthesizes the recent news coverage related to Ken Starr—specifically the coverage of Starr’s comments about Bill Clinton and his investigation of the then-President’s sexual indiscretions and the coverage of…
BY KELLY HAND Parents and teens worry a great deal about what it takes to get into college, but as they prioritize advanced courses, SAT prep, and extracurricular activities, it’s easy to forget about what it takes to succeed in college. In his new online May–June Academe article, “An Open Letter to High School Students…
BY HANK REICHMAN Did that headline grab you? I had intended to title this post “The Ironies of Ken Starr,” but someone tweeted something like the above and I couldn’t resist stealing the idea for my title. It’s out of date anyway, because today Baylor University announced that Starr will resign as university president while…
BY KELLY HAND Kelly Wilz, author of the May–June Academe article “A Day in the Life of a Public University Professor in Wisconsin,” recently won the 2015–16 Teacher Excellence Award given by the student body of the University of Wisconsin-Marshfield/Wood County. Becoming an award-winning teacher is never easy, but as Wilz’s article demonstrates, it has…
BY HANK REICHMAN Last December, in response to the wave of student protests about racial injustice on campus, some of which advanced demands that could threaten academic freedom, I published an essay “On Student Academic Freedom.” In that essay, I wrote that student protesters have made and will again make mistakes. They will offend others…
BY KELLY HAND “Can social media cause revolution?” Adeline Koh asks this question in her May–June Academe article, “Imagined Communities, Social Media, and the Faculty.” Countering critics who see online engagement with politics and social issues as a form of ineffectual “slacktivism,” she provides a theoretical framework for understanding the potential of social media to…
BY AARON BARLOW Maybe we can blame it all on Sputnik. Sixty years ago, next year, the Russians panicked the Americans via satellite… literally. Suddenly, research had to be sped up in new ways, and consolidated. Suddenly, the centers of the scholarly world were physicists and others whose thought could have practical application for military…
BY HANK REICHMAN College and university faculty in the United Kingdom began a two-day strike today against the Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA). Members of the University and College Union (UCU) are taking action after talks to resolve a dispute over a 1.1% pay offer collapsed last week. The UCU said the value…