An “On the Issues” Post from the Campaign for the Future of Higher Education [http://futureofhighered.org] _______________ The enormous ramifications—personal, national, social, and economic—of the college loan crisis are just now being widely and fully discussed. The consequences are serious for us all, whether or not we are paying back college loans for ourselves or our…
Today’s New York Times includes an editorial entitled “A Teachout Moment: Gov. Cuomo Should Welcome Zephyr Teachout.” Cuomo’s campaign has been trying to remove his challenger from the Democratic primary. Cuomo, with money and incumbency, will clearly win but, as the Times says: he should not dismiss Ms. Teachout and her growing number of followers as irritants. Her criticisms are mostly…
Although the number of administrators and of administrative staff, as well as the levels of administrative compensation, have continued to increase inexorably, those are hardly the only elements of administrative bloat. Paradoxically, although one would think that, at some point, there would be enough administrators to cover almost any administrative need, the “need” to contract…
Several months ago, I posted this brief item: Snarkiest Headline on the Torturously Slow Winding Down of the Afghanistan War I receive a number of e-mailed newsletters from political blogs, and this was the headline of the daily newsletter from HuffPost Hill: How Do You Ask a Drone to Be the Last Drone to Crash…
Students come to the college experience through a variety of doors. Nearly half of them begin at two-year institutions. Millions more do not fall into the traditional pool of 18-22 year old first-time freshman. Large numbers also earn degrees on line or in some blended learning format. But when most Americans think about students entering…
MarYam G. Hamidani (Stanford University), Nicole Stephens (Northwestern University), and Mesmin Destin (Northwestern University) are co-authors on a 2014 report in Psychological Science that looks at factors that affect the college success of first-generation students. Hamidani, a psychologist and associate director of Stanford’s Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity, spoke about the paper…
The Far-Right in North Carolina has received much national attention for passing blatantly anti-progressive legislation–most notably, more restrictive voting laws and dramatic reductions in funding for social safety-net programs. But, beyond the legislation that has generated the greatest controversy across the state and beyond, the Far Right legislature and governor—and the governor’s many appointees—have been…
Marquand, John P. Stopover Tokyo. Boston: Little, Brown, 1957. John P. Marquand was one of the most highly regarded social realists of his generation, winning the Pulitzer Prize in 1938 for The Late George Appley. His novels were widely reviewed and widely read. But his reputation has faded somewhat over the past half-century, and he…
Today’s InsideHigherEd includes dueling essays on the Salaita firing by me and by Cary Nelson. You can read my comment on Nelson’s essay here. Nelson’s assertion that “I believe this was an academic, not a political, decision” strains all credulity. No one can seriously believe that the political consequences of hiring a controversial professor had no…
The following is the text of a letter sent to University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) Chancellor Phyllis Wise by Michael Bérubé regarding the university’s apparent decision to revoke a job offer to Professor Steven Salaita. Michael Bérubé is Edwin Earl Sparks Professor of Literature at Pennsylvania State University, a former president of the Modern Language…