Last November, Business Insider published a list of the 18 metro areas in the U.S. with the highest levels of income inequality. The rankings were based on the following methodology: “The Census Bureau makes annual estimates of a standard measure of inequality for US metropolitan areas. The Gini index is a measure, ranging between 0…
In my review for the current issue of Academe of Bill Ferster’s new book , Teaching Machines: Learning from the Intersection of Technology and Education, I write, “Ferster presents three great but distinct advantages to technology in education: increased accessibility (starting with the use of the mail for correspondence courses), potentially lowered costs, and improved classroom efficiency. He also illustrates its greatest danger: belief that…
It may sound very far-fetched, but unfortunately it is not as far-fetched as you might assume. Today the Chronicle of Higher Education ran a story on Noel Ignatiev, a faculty member at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. Ignatiev is the author of How the Irish Became White, and he publishes the journal Race…
On Tuesday, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) introduced The College for All Act, legislation that would eliminate undergraduate tuition at public colleges and expand work-study programs to help students at private universities. The bill also calls for a reduction in interest rates on federal student loans to stop the government from profiting off of lending to young…
This week the Board of Trustees of the California State University (CSU) met in Long Beach and, as is the custom, they were addressed by, among others, the Chair of the CSU system Academic Senate, Steven Filling, an accounting professor at CSU, Stanislaus and a member of AAUP and the California Faculty Association. Earlier the…
Earlier today on this blog, Arianne Shahvisi has offered a very cogent analysis of why the criticism of Saida Grundy has served a very entrenched political and cultural perspective and why the administrative response to it represents an egregious exercise in silencing what is legitimate criticism of that perspective and, worse, even an implicit endorsement…
Earlier this month, two items appeared on the same day on the Chronicle of Higher Education’s website. The first article was written by Charles Huckabee and concerns the decision by Smith College to consider and admit transgender applicants who identify as female. Several years ago, Smith had generated controversy first by rejecting a transgender applicant…
The New York Times has run a follow-up to its investigative report on the business practices of Axact, a Pakistani corporation that has advertised itself as the “largest software exporter” in the country but that has generated millions in annual revenues by selling diplomas and degrees from several hundred elite-sounding secondary schools and postsecondary institutions…
About a week ago, the Chronicle of Higher Education’s Wired Campus blog included a short post by Casey Fabris titled “A MOOC Hopes to Sink Its Teeth Into a New Audience: TV Fans.” The post focuses on a four-week MOOC based on the FX television series The Strain, which follows the spread of a disease with the…
This is a guest post by John McNay, a contributor to the May–June issue of Academe. McNay is a professor of history at the University of Cincinnati–Blue Ash. A specialist on the Cold War, he has published books and articles on that period, but his most recent book is Collective Bargaining and the Battle of Ohio: The…