Now that Newt Gingrich has seized the lead in the Republican presidential race, everyone will start going back to scrutinize his words. And there’s a lot of words. I wrote an entire book about Gingrich, and that was 15 years ago. Since then, Gingrich has said a lot of dumb things, but the most relevant…
Rarely have I read anything on the Chronicle of Higher Education website quite so repulsive as the blog by Diane Auer Jones demanding the firing of New York University professor Andrew Ross on grounds of “educational malpractice” for encouraging students to join the Occupy Student Loan movement. Incredibly, the video of Ross at Occupy Wall…
On November 23, the United States Government Accountability Office released a report titled “Experiences of Undercover Students Enrolled in Online Classes at Selected Colleges.” It’s a behind-the-scenes look at a few for-profit schools, and the lengths to which they will go to keep students enrolled. This week, I’m going to explain the context for the…
Back in October, I was speaking at the University of Illinois in the early weeks of Occupy Wall Street, and one thing I recommended to students was creating registered student organizations to turn the energy of the 99% Movement into a permanent force on campuses. Apparently some students at the University of Chicago had the…
On November 14, the Institute of International Education (IIE), a group which advocates for and collects data about international student and scholarly travel, released this year’s “Open Doors” data at an event at the National Press Club in Washington DC. The data tracks how many students from around the world come to the United States…
The following guest post is by Johann Neem, associate professor of history at Western Washington University: A recent paper by Emory University English professor Mark Bauerlein argues that since many papers in literature are rarely cited, colleges and universities should reallocate their priorities in order to make better use of literature professors’ time. Prof. Bauerlein…
The rise of China’s influence in the world includes its connections with American universities. And the Chinese government’s attacks on free speech make this a troubling development for academic freedom. Bloomberg reports on how China is funding Confucius Institutes in America, and seeking to limit academic freedom. When China demanded that a Stanford professorship it…
In the new issue of Academe, Bruce Burgett argues that for public universities in states like Washington, the temptation to privatize is becoming overwhelming. He writes: Given the rise of market-based models in educational policy circles, the threat of the current moment is that the economic stress public institutions are experiencing will lead them to…
On November 20, the national Council of the AAUP passed the following resolution: Statement in Support of Free Expression in the University of California On November 9, police officers dispatched by the administration of the University of California, Berkeley violently assaulted students and faculty who were peacefully protesting. The assaults are clearly documented in video…
It’s tough to be a man. That’s the message of male conservatives who worry about how terribly oppressed men are on college campuses facing the evil feminist conspiracy. Even though the people who run universities—presidents, trustees, coaches, even tenured faculty—are overwhelmingly male, we keep getting told this myth about the victimization of men. This week…