McPherson College in McPherson, Kansas: has 811 undegraduate students. The $1 billion came from an anonymous donor. The Wikipedia page lists billionaire Harry Stine as an alumnus. Could there be another “anonymous” donor with these kind of resources and a […]
higher education
The Kings College is still open
Faculty are leaving and others are getting cut, but it looks like the The Kings College is still alive. Here is Meagan Saliashvili at Religion News Service: The last remaining evangelical Christian college in New York City, The King’s College, […]
John McWhorter on affirmative action
Reading McWhorter’s piece today at The New York Times reminds me of the first time I read Richard Rodriguez’s Hunger of Memory twenty years ago. The only difference is that McWhorter took the Ivy League job and Rodriguez turned it […]
Elite college prof: “affirmative action — though necessary — has inadvertently helped create a warped and race-obsessed American university culture”
Here is a taste of Tyler Austin Harper’s New York Times piece: “I Teach at an Elite College. Here’s a Look Inside the Racial Gaming of Admission.” Harper is a professor of environmental studies at Bates College. When I was […]
David Brooks makes an argument for class-based college admissions
Here is The New York Times columnist in the wake of the Supreme Court ending affirmative action today: We’ve been debating affirmative action since I was in diapers, and increasingly the Supreme Court has gotten into this issue, and now […]
Cabrini University will close next year
The Catholic university in the Philadelphia suburbs is closing its doors. Cabrini University, which was founded in 1957 by the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, is named after Mother Francis Cabrini, the first U.S. citizen (naturalized) to […]
Seattle Pacific University will make huge cuts to its academic budget
Another Christian college is in financial trouble. Here is Nina Shapiro at The Seattle Times: Seattle Pacific University is cutting its budget for academic programs by 40% — mostly through steep faculty layoffs, effective in a year. The announcement by […]
The Kings College loses its accreditation
Here is Josh Moody at Inside Higher Ed: Already facing severe financial pressures, the King’s College was dealt another blow last week when the Middle States Commission on Higher Education withdrew its accreditation. In an announcement posted to the MSCHE website, the […]
Ideas in Progress: Julie Durbin on vocation, mission, teaching, and the creative life (Part II)
In part I of this interview, you told the fascinating story of the many hats you have worn and currently wear—missionary and traveler, writer and musician, and of course, professor. So, let’s pick up now with this last one, in […]
Can a Catholic college maintain its Catholic identity without nuns?
Here is an interesting Inside Higher Ed piece on Notre Dame College in Cleveland, Ohio: Notre Dame College in Ohio is on the brink of losing its formal ties to a religious order that allows the institution to call itself […]
The American Association of University Professors on academic freedom in Florida
Today the American Association of University Professors released the “Preliminary Report of the Special Committee on Academic Freedom and Florida.” You can read it here. Here is the opening paragraph: In January 2023, the AAUP announced the establishment of a […]
Academically Adrift: thirteen years later
As we just finished another academic year (congrats!), what did we learn? For some college students around the country, the answer may be… nothing. But, as it happens, this problem is nothing new. Thirteen years ago, a provocative book was […]
What if students WANT the humanities in their college curriculum?
Most of the time, the well-merited jeremiads about the state of the humanities in American universities come from scholars. At the same time, most of the attacks themselves come from university administrators or system-level administrators (for state universities). But last […]
More than meets the eye: Emma Green’s profile of Hillsdale College this week in the New Yorker
Earlier this week, Emma Green had an in-depth profile of Hillsdale College in the New Yorker. Intriguingly titled “The Christian Liberal Arts School at the Heart of the Culture Wars,” the profile emphasized Hillsdale’s connections to the Republic Party. But […]
What is the purpose of college? Recent articles and a book in progress
Yesterday at The Way of Improvement, John Fea had posted about Bret Devereaux’s New York Times Opinion article from this weekend. Devereaux’s article is in today’s print version of the New York Times, continuing this important conversation. But what is […]
Can liberal professors save the GOP by teaching the best of the conservative tradition?
Check out Claremont-McKenna College political scientist Jon Shields New York Times piece on conservative thought in American colleges and universities. A taste: Every year I ask my students, most of whom are quite liberal, to read books in this conservative […]
Why some conservatives hate college
A Current Affairs piece by Matt McManus and Nathan J. Robinson begins with a quote from right-wing MAGA pundit Charlie Kirk’s book The College Scam: “Where did Anthony Fauci acquire the medical authority and credibility to impose a lockdown on […]
A defender of liberalism and academic freedom opposes Ron DeSantis’s “anti-woke” agenda
Here is a clip from the end of Florida governor Ron DeSantis’s “State of the State” yesterday: I’ll let writer and political scientist Yascha Mounk, a defender of liberal values and academic freedom, take it from here. His recent piece […]
Two new articles from Elizabeth Stice on higher education crises
Elizabeth Stice, whose blog posts you can read every Monday here, has two essays elsewhere this week that highlight two separate crises in higher education. The first piece ran at History News Network on Sunday. A few excerpts as a […]
Everything in season: why you will love and likely sometimes hate your alma mater
College is an interesting time. You get constant social approval for Chili’s and Taco Bell. Staying up all night to read Beowulf isn’t all that weird. You worry about “printer money” and parking and what you’re doing for spring break. […]