Here is a taste of Wendy Fischman and Howard Gardner‘s piece at The Chronicle of Higher Education: In our 1,000 hour-long conversations with students, we found that nearly half of them miss the point of college. They don’t see value...
higher education
David Bromwich on the state of the university
Over at The Chronicle of Higher Education, Len Gutkin interviews Yale English professor David Bromwich on the state of higher education. The interview comes on the thirtieth anniversary of Bromwich’s Politics by Other Means: Higher Education and Group Thinking. Bromwich...
Johann Neem “walks among the ruins” of the modern university
Some of you may recall our conversation with Johann Neem in Episode 54 of The Way of Improvement Leads Home Podcast. In that episode we talked with the Western Washington University historian about his book What’s the Point of College....
Grove City College update
We originally covered this story here. Colleen Flaherty gets us up to speed at Inside Higher Education. Grove City College’s Board of Trustees recently said that it had formed a committee to investigate allegations of “mission drift” on campus and...
Episode 95: “The Lost Promise of American Universities”
American universities entered the 1960s with the hope of bringing a high-quality system of universal higher education to all comers. But by the early 1970s hope turned to despair as universities gave way to neoliberalism, corporatism, and a powerful conservative...
“A university that is only good at STEM education is nothing more than a trade school.”
Avi Kak came to Purdue to work in a university, and not in a trade school. In a letter to the editor of the Purdue Exponent he says that the Purdue English Department deserves more respect. Here is a taste:...
The Author’s Corner with Andrew O’Shaughnessy
Andrew O’Shaughnessy is Vice President of The Thomas Jefferson Foundation and Saunders Director of the Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies. This interview is based on his new book, The Illimitable Freedom of the Human Mind: Thomas Jefferson’s...
Robert Zimmer and Steven Pinker resign from the University of Austin’s Advisory Board
See my commentary on this new university here and here. Zimmer is chancellor of the University of Chicago. Pinker is the Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology at Harvard. Here is Zimmer’s statement: I was asked to serve in an advisory...
What is going on (again) at Southwest Baptist University?
We did a post on this Baptist college back in May. At that time we wrote about Dwayne Walker, a social work professor, who was denied tenure for his failure to affirm creationism and his views on homosexuality. Now Brian...
Critics of the University of Austin prove why such an institution may be necessary
Yesterday I wrote about the University of Austin, a new university founded by intellectuals concerned with academic freedom in the larger academy. I am not familiar with all of the people behind this venture, but any initiative that includes Niall...
What is going on at North Park University?
North Park is a Christian college in Chicago. Here is Colleen Flaherty at Inside Higher Ed: North Park University’s faculty voted no confidence in President Mary Surridge this week, 55 to 26. According to information from North Park’s Faculty Senate,...
George Will: “There are a lot of people on campus nowadays who just don’t belong there — they shouldn’t be teachers; they should be political activists”
Over at Politico, Zack Stanton asks George Will if “conservatism” means anything anymore. Here is a taste of his interview with the conservative columnist: In your book, you write that “America’s most dispiriting intellectual phenomenon is the degradation of higher...
What are incoming first-year college students reading this summer?
As part of its first-year experience program, incoming first-year students at Messiah University are reading Rebecca Skloot’s The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. They will not be alone. Here is Audrey Williams June and Jacquelyn Elias at The Chronicle of...
Judson College closes
Judson College, an Alabama Baptist women’s college and a member of the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities, has closed. Here is Inside Higher Ed: After teetering on the edge of closure for months, Judson College’s Board of Trustees voted...
Howard University students protest the loss of the classics department
Last week we called your attention to Howard University’s decision to drop its classics department. Cornel West called it a “spiritual catastrophe.” We now learn that Howard students are not happy about the decision. Here is a taste of Allyson...
Are Catholic universities losing their Catholic identities?
Over at Commonweal, Massimo Faggioli wonders if Catholic universities are “positioning and marketing themselves as part of the mainstream liberal-progressive realm of higher education.” Here is a taste of his piece: …Student enrollment is trending down, for a variety of reasons—from...
When the KKK came to Harvard
This is an excellent piece of undergraduate historical research and reporting. Here is a taste of Simon J. Levien’s piece at The Harvard Crimson: This article is my attempt to do “good history.” It represents a year’s worth of archival...
Can we “reopen the American mind?”
Jon Baskin and Anastasia Berg are humanists and co-editors of The Point. Today at The New York Times they join the chorus of thinkers and intellectuals concerned about the fate of the humanities in American life. They are optimistic: …the […]
Rod Dreher defends the “Little Hitler” philosophy professor at Taylor University
In my post on the firing of Taylor University philosophy professor Jim Spiegel, I wrote: Should he be fired for “Little Hitler”? I can’t answer that question. I would need to know more about the local culture on campus at...
Was Liberty University a school or Jerry Falwell Jr.’s personal business?
Aram Roston and Joshua Schneyer of Reuters are uncovering things. Here is a taste of their recent piece: Falwell, who took over as president of Liberty in 2007 after years as a lawyer handling its real estate interests, intertwined his...