In this morning’s e-mail, I found the following two items, one right after the other: first, from University Business, their daily newsletter with this header, “Four Shot at Seattle Pacific University,” and then from Sen. Patrick Leahy, writing for Stand with Students, “Give students a fair shot: join Elizabeth Warren and me in supporting student…
Gilman, Dorothy. The Amazing Mrs. Pollifax. New York: Doubleday, 1970. Under her full name, Dorothy Gilman Butters wrote a dozen well-received novels for young adults from 1949 to 1963. Then, in her mid-forties, she shifted gears considerably, developing a series of adult suspense stories around the quiet adventures of an unlikely intelligence operative. Published under…
Henry Giroux, in his new book Neoliberalism’s War on Higher Education, defines “organized irresponsibility” as “a practice that underlies the economic Darwinism and civic corruption at the heart of American politics.” The culture this has engendered is going off the rails, as the sauntering gangs of “open carry” proponents, among so many other things, demonstrate. Unfortunately, it…
‘Oh, I shouldn’t try to teach them anything, not just yet, anyway. Just keep them quiet.’ So says one of Evelyn Waugh’s characters in his hysterical novel Decline and Fall. That was 86 years ago. Today, the line wouldn’t elicit even a giggle, of course, so far have our conceptions of education declined. Education, as we see it now,…
This kind of headline or link would likely get quite a few clicks as members of academe browse the virtual newsstand. Some purists, or are they Puritans, no doubt frown at the Internet habits of successful professionals, but is it really any better to author or consume articles with colons? Are they more serious, even…
So many stupid things are written about higher education that it’s refreshing when one man’s idiocy on the topic rises to new heights. I bring you Rick Karlgaard in Forbes: “In May 2014 several American universities and colleges appeared on the verge of French-like suicide. Student hissy fits at Brandeis, Haverford, Rutgers and Smith caused…
I am certain some of us have found ourselves in this dilemma, especially if we have served in some administrative capacity. Someone “higher up” or “very high up,” for those of us who have worked in a culture that fosters hierarchical behavior, asks us to write a letter of recommendation on his or her behalf…
Although the more overtly political spending of the Koch brothers has received much more attention, the Walton Family Foundation has, not surprisingly, been one of the major supporters of right-wing think tanks and public-policy experiments. Long a major donor to the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research and the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, the…
Cooper, James Fenimore. The Spy. 1821. James Fenimore Cooper produced novels that became prototypes for several genres of popular fiction. In fact, his significance as an influence in this regard has a great deal to do with the resurgence in broader critical interest in his work. The Spy is the first notable American novel to…
I am posting the following letter to this blog for three reasons: (1) it illustrates the types of complex and specialized issues that state conference leaders are frequently asked to address; (2) in some instances, such as this one, the conference leadership may take the position that there simply was not enough faculty input into…