With the recent news that Emory University hospital would be accepting yet another patient infected with the Ebola virus [https://time.com/3306305/emory-university-hospital-will-receive-another-ebola-patient/], the lunatic fringe of the Far Right went into overdrive to generate hysteria about the potential of Ebola to decimate the U.S. population. World Net Daily, the news source for those who think that National…
It is hard to say exactly what the long-term impact of the Occupy Wall Street movement will turn out to be. Will it seem in retrospect a very impassioned but transient response to a very serious economic crisis caused largely by the unprincipled marketing of mortgage-backed securities of very dubious value? Or will it be…
It is hardly surprising that as colleges and universities have struggled to maintain their finances in response to the deep reductions in state support and the sometimes volatile fluctuations in enrollment caused by the Great Recession, those institutions have allocated far fewer resources to maintaining their existing buildings and to the construction of new buildings.…
Capps, Benjamin. The Trail to Ogallala. New York: Duell, Sloan, and Pearce, 1964. The Trail to Ogallala is Capps’s most acclaimed novel, receiving the Spur Award of Western Writers of America, for best western novel of 1964, the Levi Strauss Golden Saddleman Award, for best western writing of 1964, and a citation by National Association…
The ongoing media concentration on cases of domestic abuse perpetrated by NFL players against their spouses and children has, for the moment, pushed the issue of sexual assaults on our college campuses largely to the margins of our national attention. Our ability to solve problems seems to be diminishing in proportion to the ability—or willingness–of…
Christopher Kennedy, chair of the University of Illinois Board of Trustees has never responded to my request for him to debate me when I speak on Monday in Urbana (Sept. 22, 7pm, Allen Hall, 1005 W. Gregory), but he has spoken to the Chicago Tribune and now the Champaign-Urbana News-Gazette about his decision. His interview…
Here we go again. And there’s more. Corinthian Colleges, after having dashed any academic hopes of its students, is now also accused of predatory lending. That the wake and fiasco continue should come as no surprise, as online education continues to be the equivalent of fast food in many instances–too convenient and advertised with the…
In a recent opinion piece by William J. Bennett in the Wall Street Journal, “The Conservative Case for a Common Core,” with an unfortunate double-entendre title that misfires, one statement makes good sense: “Nearly all Americans agree that to prepare a child for civic responsibility and competition in the modern economy, he or she must be…
This is a guest post by Simeon Dreyfuss, a contributor to the recent September-October issue of Academe. Dreyfuss is chair of interdisciplinary studies and president of the AAUP advocacy chapter at Marylhurst University. He also served for fifteen years as director of Marylhurst’s liberal arts core program. The best that might be said about the effect Marylhurst University’s new…
On September 17, 2011, three years ago today, protesters gathered in downtown Manhattan intending to Occupy Wall Street (OWS). They ended up in nearby Zucotti Park, where they remained until forcibly evicted by police two months later. The Wall Street action inspired similar Occupy movements in dozens of cities across the country, including on some…