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

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Articles and Archives

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

Irresolute
December 31, 2008 By Peter Wood and Ashley Thorne
Peter Wood and Ashley Thorne ponder how NAS should ring in the new year.
2 comments - Last on 01/05/2009

A Prodigal Field
December 30, 2008 By Peter Wood
NAS visits UMass Amherst one last time for 2008.
1 comment - Last on 01/05/2009

Rescue: The New Captivity of Hans Staden
December 24, 2008 By Peter Wood
A centuries-old tale of life among native cannibals can't be allowed to stand as a captivating narrative. It must be sanitized in one way or another by PC revisionists.
1 comment - Last on 12/30/2008

The Battle of Bunker Hill, Round II: Why Doubling the Size of American Higher Education is a Bad Idea
December 23, 2008 By Peter Wood
There is a move afoot to use economic bailout money to enroll ill-prepared students in numbers that would overwhelm our system. It rightly deserves the criticism we give it.

Asking a Lot
December 22, 2008 By Peter Wood
A broadly advertised appeal for higher education's share of the bailout falls apart upon close examination.
1 comment - Last on 12/26/2008

Letter from Jakarta
December 22, 2008 By Saera Fernandez
The observations of a young anthropology student in Indonesia are relevent for several reasons to the contemporary American experience.
1 comment - Last on 12/23/2008

Is the B.A. degree meaningless?
December 19, 2008 By Tom Wood
There's new evidence that B.A. degrees have economic, non-economic, and even educational value.

Social Changelings
December 18, 2008 By Ashley Thorne
Little PC men are coming after the hard sciences.
1 comment - Last on 12/19/2008

Send Me In, COACHE!
December 17, 2008 By Peter Wood
Dreary and discontented faculty members won't keep us away from playing in the snow.
1 comment - Last on 12/19/2008

Strange New Respect for Abe’s VP
December 16, 2008 By Peter Wood
Was the seventeenth U.S. president one of the worst?
1 comment - Last on 12/16/2008

Cold Brine: The College Board Loses Its Senses
December 15, 2008 By Peter Wood and Ashley Thorne
The College Board recently unveiled a new goal for America - that by the year 2025, 55% of Americans should have a college degree. But is that achievement the right solution to save America's place in international competition?
7 comments - Last on 12/15/2008

Reality Checks
December 10, 2008 By Peter Wood
Make 'em payable to NAS.

Happy Birthday John Milton!
December 09, 2008 By Ashley Thorne
The poet who brought us Paradise Lost turns 400 today.

Sailing Past Byzantium
December 09, 2008 By Peter Wood
Peter Wood channels his inner William Butler Yeats
1 comment - Last on 12/09/2008

Critical Thoughtlessness
December 08, 2008 By Peter Wood
Stephen Zelnick refutes the cult of "critical thinking" now used as a substitute for a real curriculum.

Voluntyranny
December 05, 2008 By Ashley Thorne
Forced community service kind of defeats the purpose.
3 comments - Last on 12/08/2008

NAS Confers, Hell Stirs
December 04, 2008 By Peter Wood
As the time for our conference approaches(Washington, DC, Jan. 9-11), some may hear of it and tremble...

Peer at the Rear
December 04, 2008 By Ashley Thorne
Satire on the professor-student relationship
1 comment - Last on 12/08/2008

Rocket Science
December 03, 2008 By Peter Wood
NAS pays homage to an inventor
1 comment - Last on 12/04/2008

Holiday Conquest
December 02, 2008 By Ashley Thorne
Lessons from the "educational" board game
3 comments - Last on 12/03/2008

The College Backgrounds of America’s Leading Syndicated Columnists
December 01, 2008 By Tom Wood
Journalism's roots in higher education remind us of the university's role in public society.

Extra-Curricular Updike
December 01, 2008 By Peter Wood
Should college students read novels by contemporary author John Updike?
1 comment - Last on 12/02/2008

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Take Back the Classroom from PowerPoint
September 02, 2010 By Jason Fertig
Restrict PowerPoint use in teaching to pictures and videos, writes Jason Fertig. Too much PowerPoint usurps professors' authority and accustoms students to lazy thinking.

Collegiate Press Roundup 9-2-10
September 02, 2010 By Glenn Ricketts
Student journalists examine topics from presidential speeches to campus smoking bans.

Will You Promote Diversity? Virginia Tech Tests Faculty Candidates’ Commitment
September 01, 2010 By Peter Wood and Ashley Thorne
A major public university has fashioned a “diversity” litmus test for faculty hiring

FIRE Educates for Free Speech on Campus
August 31, 2010 By Glenn Ricketts
FIRE will offer a Free Speech Seminar in NYC on September 14.

University Speaker Series: Arab Feminism, Black Feminism, and "A Southern Queer Love Story"...No Comment
August 30, 2010 By Ashley Thorne
A program on gender and diversity at the University of Richmond will explore "emancipatory ideas of social justice" this fall.

How Scholarships Morphed into Financial Aid
August 30, 2010 By Jackson Toby
This excerpt from Jackson Toby's latest book, The Lowering of Higher Education in America: Why Financial Aid Should Be Based on Student Performance, will appear in the forthcoming fall issue of Academic Questions (vol. 23, no. 3).

Common Reading Controversy at Brooklyn College
August 27, 2010 By Ashley Thorne
Is Brooklyn College using freshman reading for ideological goals?

Question of the Week: How Many Colleges Should You Apply To?
August 27, 2010 By Ashley Thorne
To answer, leave a comment on this article, email us, or respond via Facebook or Twitter (no more than 140 characters).

Atlas Black Shrugs
August 26, 2010 By Jason Fertig
The first comic book textbook combines management jargon and theories and packages them into a story about a slacker student's attempt to become an entrepreneur.
1 comment - Last on 08/27/2010

Collegiate Press Roundup 8-26-10
August 26, 2010 By Glenn Ricketts
Student journalists have a look at the Ground Zero mosque controversy, reducing your carbon footprint and the pitfalls of "sexting."

A Regulatory Assault on For-Profit Higher Education
August 25, 2010 By Richard J. Bishirjian
How the attacks on for-profit higher ed are squashing needed competition.

New Excellent Programs: Tocqueville Program and Center for Statesmanship
August 24, 2010 By Ashley Thorne
Check out our list of excellent programs as we add new ones at Indiana and Richmond.

The Glut of Academic Publishing: A Call for a New Culture
August 23, 2010 By Stanley W. Trimble, Wayne W. Grody, Bill McKelvey, and Mohamed Gad-el-Hak
This article will appear in the forthcoming fall issue of Academic Questions (vol. 23, no. 3). A short version of this paper appeared under the title “We Must Stop the Avalanche of Low-Quality Research” in the June 13, 2010 Chronicle of Higher Education.
1 comment - Last on 08/25/2010

Building a 21st Century Syllabus
August 20, 2010 By David Clemens
Professors these days have to cover their backs when writing syllabi, writes David Clemens.
2 comments - Last on 08/20/2010

Question of the Week: Why Did You Choose Your College?
August 20, 2010 By Ashley Thorne
We're starting a new "Question of the Week" series. We'll have a new higher-education-related question every week. To answer, leave a comment on this article, email us, or respond via Facebook or Twitter (no more than 140 characters).
2 comments - Last on 08/20/2010

Dictatorships and Double Standards, Part II
August 19, 2010 By Robert L. Paquette
Professor Paquette responds to the controversy generated this summer after Hamilton College sought to censor his NAS article.

Real Ethics Education
August 19, 2010 By Jason Fertig
Ethics courses should make moral decisions personal, argues Jason Fertig.

Collegiate Press Roundup 8-18-10
August 18, 2010 By Glenn Ricketts
Student journalists tackle gay marriage, weird psycholgy studies and state liquor regulations.

5 Consequences of Administrative Bloat
August 18, 2010 By Ashley Thorne
What happens to higher education when universities are dominated by administrators?

Ravitch Repentant
August 17, 2010 By Peter Cohee
Peter Cohee reviews Diane Ravitch's book, a partial volte-face, The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education.