National Association of Scholars, a non-profit organization of higher education faculty, administrators, and graduate students

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

Chocolate Rage
November 26, 2008 By Ashley Thorne
New anger in America sets cultural trends, writes NAS Executive Director Peter Wood.

NAS Renews Its Call to Make Accreditation Contingent on Fair Hiring
November 26, 2008
Today NAS urged ACCJC once again to take action to ensure that Santa Rosa Junior College is not violating Proposition 209.
3 comments - Last on 12/02/2008

Recommendations for NASW
November 25, 2008
A letter to the key social work organization calls upon its new president to make changes to protect students.
2 comments - Last on 01/05/2009

The College Backgrounds of America’s Leading Newspaper Opinion Columnists
November 21, 2008 By Tom Wood
A look at how higher education has influenced the analysts and inscribers of American public opinion.

Beehive Whacking
November 20, 2008 By Peter Wood and Ashley Thorne
A professor who publicized names of plagiarizing students in his course was fired from Texas A&M International University. Many see the incident as a discouragement to faculty to report academic dishonesty.
4 comments - Last on 11/26/2008

Good Sports
November 19, 2008 By Peter Wood
How the college sports industry undermines higher education

Highlights from our Fall Semester
November 19, 2008 By Ashley Thorne
Wondering what NAS has been up to recently? Click here for a one-stop index of some of our favorite articles this fall.

What Ails College Teaching?
November 18, 2008 By Peter Wood
Is it the division of labor between tenured scholars and "teaching specialists"?
1 comment - Last on 11/19/2008

You Too Can Write Like Toni Morrison!
November 17, 2008 By Peter Wood
It's not for nothing that Toni Morrison is the most assigned author in college today. Her revamping of written English gives a new model for fiction. As a service, NAS's executive director has distilled certain rules that we might adopt to emulate Ms. Morrison's colorful style.
2 comments - Last on 06/08/2009

Feminizing Science: The Alchemy of Title IX
November 17, 2008 By Patricia Hausman - Academic Questions
Will gender balancing come to dominate science? The following article is a preview from the forthcoming issue of Academic Questions.
3 comments - Last on 11/20/2008

Bruce Cole: A Tribute
November 14, 2008 By Steve Balch
Chairman Cole will depart the National Endowment for the Humanities with a record of striking sucess in rekindling the appreciation for this country's founding and heritage.

Political Correctness Run Amuck
November 14, 2008
Candace de Russy tells the story of a professor fired for voicing political views outside the classroom.

Ask a Scholar: Seatbelts on School Buses
November 13, 2008
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! Today, a rather unpretentious inquiry important to parents: Why don't school buses have seatbelts?
1 comment - Last on 11/18/2008

Educating the Rich and Powerful: The College Backgrounds of America's Richest and Its Top CEOs
November 12, 2008 By Tom Wood
How higher education has influenced the business world Open DOC file ( 88.58KB) . . .

Stop the Hate and Celebrate: The University of Arizona Purges
November 11, 2008 By Peter Wood and Ashley Thorne
After a controversial comic was published in the student newspaper, the campus will "regroup."
2 comments - Last on 03/05/2009

Undowments: Higher Education Goes for Broke
November 10, 2008 By Peter Wood
Is college really an "investment"?

My Degree in Diversity
November 06, 2008 By Ashley Thorne
I just completed an online course on how to lead diversity education workshops. Guess what I learned?
3 comments - Last on 11/10/2008

Election 2008: The University’s Long Shadow
November 05, 2008 By Peter Wood
The polity and academy are joined at the hip.
1 comment - Last on 11/11/2008

Closed Minds
November 05, 2008 By Glenn Ricketts
A recently published book seeks to debunk the belief that professors politically indoctrinate their students.
1 comment - Last on 11/14/2008

Congratulations President-Elect Obama
November 05, 2008 By Steve Balch
We wish our nation's next leader every success in the service of America.
2 comments - Last on 11/07/2008

Evolving
November 04, 2008 By Peter Wood
The endless injunction in schools and colleges to “celebrate diversity” is a call to ignore our profound commonality in favor of superficial difference.

Election Eve
November 03, 2008 By Peter Wood
When tempted to fret over the election, read world history...
2 comments - Last on 11/04/2008

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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