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.

10. Just Say No to Racial Preferences
April 28, 2008 By Tom Wood
Tom Wood asks the relevant question about racial preferences and contextualizes diversity research at the time of the Gratz and Grutter cases.

Update on Georgia Curriculum
April 22, 2008
A conversation with a UGA academic advisor

Miscarriage of Academic Freedom?
April 22, 2008 By Ashley Thorne
A Yale student's senior project raises questions about higher education's approach to art.

After the Manifestos: Building a New Reform Movement in Higher Education
April 22, 2008 By Peter Wood
NAS Executive Director Peter Wood addressed the annual meeting of NAS affiliate, the Minnesota Association of Scholars on April 19. He offered an overview of the various reform initiatives in higher education and proposed a way to gather many of them into a more broadly-based movement. This is his text.
1 comment - Last on 12/02/2008

The Problem with Wikipedia
April 21, 2008
Wikipedia and Higher Education Online Forum

Stick 'Em Up!
April 16, 2008
NAS's newest member brings our attention to a legislative shootout between two education bills in California.

Always Watching: The Argus Project
April 16, 2008
A call for volunteers
3 comments - Last on 07/02/2008

Austrians in Vegas
April 16, 2008 By Peter Wood
An anthropologist investigates

Buck Up
April 15, 2008
Wikipedia: peers, puppets, and dirty plates.

Getting at the Core
April 14, 2008 By Ashley Thorne and Peter Wood
Georgia may be headed for a new "core" curriculum.

Quack Quack!
April 07, 2008 By Peter Wood
An NAS member aims to defend the integrity of science, which is being undermined by a focus on "Integrative Medicine."

By No Means: Michigan Judge Turns Tables on Advocacy Groups Determined to Derail Civil Rights Initiative
April 07, 2008 By Terry Pell
Terry Pell gives the first public analysis of the recent court decision ending (for now) the legal challenges to the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative.

Street Knowledge
April 02, 2008
Wikipedia and Higher Education

Working Out a Deal
April 01, 2008
Could Harvard be accommodating Muslim women's request for women-only gym time as an obligation to Saudi Arabian Prince Alwaleed? Read more...

Know It Alls
April 01, 2008 By Ashley Thorne
An invitation to an NAS online symposium on "Wikipedia and Higher Education"

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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