Articles

Most recent posting below. See other articles in the column to the right.

NAS Wall of Secrets
October 31, 2008 By Peter Wood
Tell us your secrets!
1 comment - Last on 11/03/2008

Secrets, Secrets Are No Fun
October 31, 2008 By Ashley Thorne
The college-driven trend to divulge says something about higher education's vision of itself as therapeutic.
2 comments - Last on 11/03/2008

Dinner with Dick and Jane
October 30, 2008 By Peter Wood
Reading instruction has come a long way (or is it far gone?) since We Come and Go.
1 comment - Last on 03/23/2009

Ichabod Rides Again: A Halloween Fable
October 29, 2008 By Peter Wood
What happenned to the teacher from Sleepy Hollow who longed to see the "whole child."

The College Backgrounds of America's Talking Heads
October 28, 2008 By Tom Wood
Have the liberal arts influenced our nation's leading political analysts?
1 comment - Last on 11/21/2008

NAS to APA: Stop Digging
October 27, 2008 By Peter Wood and Ashley Thorne
The APA proposes changes to its accreditation requirements on diversity - and digs itself further into the hole of double standards. Open DOC file ( 33.28KB) . . .
3 comments - Last on 10/28/2008

Monotone Lullabies
October 24, 2008 By Ashley Thorne
What to make of a university that appears an island of relative sanity?
1 comment - Last on 10/26/2008

Unpacking
October 23, 2008 By Peter Wood
After disputations about the nature of the family, reading Raggedy Ann is a welcome escape into childhood.

Ask a Scholar
October 22, 2008 By Peter Wood and Glenn Ricketts
Have you ever wondered whether science fiction is literature? Or whether Russia is part of 'the West'? Now is your chance to ask a scholar!
1 comment - Last on 10/23/2008

Harassed by Harassment Codes?
October 22, 2008 By Glenn Ricketts
Sexual harassment codes - codes that often infringe on faculty rights and that poison collegiality on campus - are making a comeback.

Beyond the Politics: Making the Case for the Liberal Arts
October 22, 2008 By Tom Wood
Students must possess cultural literacy in order to realize true academic literacy.

New NAS Affiliate in Arkansas
October 17, 2008
The National Association of Scholars is proud to announce the inception of a new affiliate for the state of Arkansas.

Tunnel Vision
October 16, 2008 By Ashley Thorne
This week, while haunted houses thrilled some, dark tunnels of oppression channeled others through “the dirtiest, ugliest, bloodiest issues.”
1 comment - Last on 10/17/2008

Weighing the Evidence: New Studies on Racial Preferences at Three Universities
October 16, 2008 By Glenn Ricketts
NAS affiliates helped the Center for Equal Opportunity document discrimination in law school admissions.

Deactivated
October 15, 2008 By Peter Wood and Ashley Thorne
A professor at Carroll University is disappointed when she tries to teach students to be activists.
1 comment - Last on 10/20/2008

Hypergelasts
October 14, 2008 By Peter Wood
Are you ever hangry? Do you ever blamestorm? Then expiscate some new words with us.
1 comment - Last on 11/11/2008

Hiring Discrimination and Quotas at OSU?
October 10, 2008 By George W. Dent Jr.
A statement from the Ohio Association of Scholars about the "Comprehensive Equity" program at OSU, which seeks to increase the number of women appointed to faculty positions in the sciences.

LSU Campaign Retreats to its “Safe Space”
October 10, 2008 By Ashley Thorne
What's with the purple stickers on faculty members' office doors?
7 comments - Last on 10/14/2008

Making Allowances
October 09, 2008 By Ashley Thorne
Want to keep students on the track to academic success? Pay them!
1 comment - Last on 10/15/2008

Circling Arizona: Mission Creep at a State University
October 09, 2008 By Steven Anderson
An ASU-sponsored research center studies minority health disparities.
1 comment - Last on 10/09/2008

Williams Chokes Up
October 07, 2008 By Peter Wood
Should bias in higher education be reported?

UPDATE: CAUT's Empty Accusations
October 06, 2008 By Peter Wood and Ashley Thorne
The AAUP Canadian counterpart tried some unoriginal smears on Argus and NAS; we set the record straight.

Debates on Campus
October 02, 2008 By Ashley Thorne
Part of NAS's mission is to "sustain the tradition of civil debate in America’s colleges and universities." What about the presidential debates?

The Cave
October 02, 2008 By Peter Wood
It's October - time to pay attention to recent and upcoming trends in higher education, like the student loan crisis, the rise of distance learning, the therapeutic campus, and sustainability.

↑ back to the top

Is ‘Good President’ Redundant?
November 20, 2009 By Ashley Thorne
Time magazine recently published a list of the 10 best college presidents. But what makes a president "good"? Are there good college presidents, or are they all just silly people in silly jobs?

NAS President’s Report
November 18, 2009 By Peter Wood
President Peter Wood tells what's next for the National Association of Scholars and gives five ways new members can help our work.

What Makes College Worth the Cost?
November 17, 2009 By Ashley Thorne
Expected future earnings? A rigorous and complete education?

SustainaReligion
November 16, 2009 By Ashley Thorne
Climate change faith has been ruled a protected “philosophical belief” in the UK.

My Degree in Diversity
November 13, 2009 By Ashley Thorne
After completing an online course on how to lead diversity education workshops, guess what I learned?
2 comments - Last on 11/16/2009

Election 2008: The University's Long Shadow
November 12, 2009 By Peter Wood
How the 2008 election illustrates the reigning narratives that guide higher education.

Sir Hugh Lloyd-Jones (1922-2009)
November 12, 2009 By Ashley Thorne
The National Association of Scholars mourns the passing of Sir Hugh Lloyd-Jones (1922-2009), who served as a member of our Board of Advisors along with his wife Mary Lefkowitz.

Blue Blastoff
November 10, 2009 By Ashley Thorne
A school in lower Manhattan created by the Blue Man Group believes we can't teach kids facts anymore...but we can teach them to "build a harmonious and sustainable world."
1 comment - Last on 11/12/2009

Should Everyone Go?
November 09, 2009 By Ashley Thorne
President Obama's goal - that by 2020 America would have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world - will require a huge expansion of higher education. But is that wise?

The Chico Romance
November 06, 2009 By Ashley Thorne
A sustainability conference at CSU-Chico prompts a concerned letter. NAS spots some good reasons for concern.
1 comment - Last on 11/16/2009

Response to Mitchell
November 06, 2009 By Jonathan Smith
After NAS posted Academic Questions article "Remapping Geography," Don Mitchell offered a response to the authors, Jonathan M. Smith and Jim Norwine. Here Professor Smith responds to Mitchell.
1 comment - Last on 11/09/2009

Message to Ed Schools: Practice What You Teach
November 06, 2009 By Ashley Thorne
Teachers-in-training should learn something before they begin teaching. But they should not learn just anything.

Response to Smith and Norwine on Remapping Geography
November 05, 2009 By Don Mitchell
Dr. Don Mitchell, author of Cultural Geography: A Critical Introduction who was mentioned in Professors Smith and Norwine's Academic Questions article "Remapping Geography," offers a response to their article.
1 comment - Last on 11/09/2009

Academic Freedom Forum
November 05, 2009 By Peter Wood - Minding the Campus
This article, originally posted at MindingtheCampus.com, is a response, added to those of others, to University of Chicago president Robert Zimmer's recent speech on academic freedom.

George Lakoff’s New Happiness: Politics after Rationality
November 04, 2009 By John B. Parrott
This article by John B. Parrott on the ideas and contemporary influence of Berkeley professor George Lakoff will appear in a forthcoming issue of Academic Questions (vol. 22, no. 4).
1 comment - Last on 11/05/2009

LEAPs and Bounds
November 03, 2009 By Ashley Thorne
An initiative spawned of the outcomes assessment movement, Liberal Education & America's Promise (LEAP), sounds boring enough. But what is really going on when the lords of of education go a-LEAP-ing? NAS investigates.
1 comment - Last on 11/09/2009

Remapping Geography
November 02, 2009 By Jonathan M. Smith and Jim Norwine
This article by Jonathan M. Smith and Jim Norwine on the state of academic geography will appear in a forthcoming issue of Academic Questions (vol. 22, no. 4).

"An Unsuccessful Education Can Ruin You"
October 30, 2009 By Ashley Thorne
A CUNY graduate professor teaches education ethics; his students discuss the meaning of academic freedom and the question of university neutrality. Now if only all faculty members and administrators took this course...
2 comments - Last on 11/04/2009

Responding to Weissberg
October 29, 2009 By Peter Wood
NAS president Peter Wood has published a response to Robert Weissberg's "Rescuing the University." His response may be found at Minding the Campus.

Intellectual Diversity or Nonsense?
October 28, 2009 By Ashley Thorne
"Our classroom has become an arena for the free exchange of ideas in which everyone's opinion is welcomed and respected." But should everyone's opinion be welcomed and respected? Is that what intellectual diversity means?
2 comments - Last on 11/04/2009