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.

"Big Argus" Meets the Playground Bullies
July 31, 2008 By Peter Wood
Yesterday's IHE article, which framed the Argus project as a Big Brother operation, set the dervishes of the Left in motion. NAS executive director Peter Wood takes time to separate spin from fact.
5 comments - Last on 08/01/2008

The Diverse University: The Victory of the Adjective Over the Noun?
July 30, 2008 By Tom Martin
NAS member Tom Martin ponders, "What does it mean to be 'committed to a diverse university community'?"

Some Social Science that Fails to Score
July 28, 2008 By Steve Balch
NAS president Steve Balch finds that a new study supposedly challenging prevalent assumptions about political correctness isn't all it's hyped up to be.

Pullups: Outgrowing the dorm diapers and doing the real world workout
July 28, 2008 By Peter Wood
If students need a grown-up university, why are colleges feeding them baby food?
1 comment - Last on 08/25/2008

Out of the Valley of the Shadow: The AALE Reprieved
July 27, 2008 By Steve Balch
Liberal arts accreditor AALE recently survived a narrow scrape with organizational demise. NAS president Steve Balch draws some conclusions from AALE's trip to the brink and back.
2 comments - Last on 07/26/2008

National Association of Scowlers
July 26, 2008 By Peter Wood
Introducing the other NAS: a disgruntled membership association of fist-shakers working to thwart new ideas and to sustain the tradition of grim solemnity and cranky curmudgeonhood in America’s colleges and universities. Membership now open.

Hand It Over III
July 25, 2008 By Dean Chin
Stop the spin: inside the financial aid numbers at Stanford
2 comments - Last on 07/25/2008

The Communitarian ResLife Movement
July 18, 2008 By Tom Wood
What exactly is the ideology underlying res life programs today? Sustainability? Communitariansim? Social Justice? Oh my.
1 comment - Last on 07/21/2008

Gone, Daddy, Gone
July 17, 2008 By Adrianna Groth
College Students get little encouragement to esteem the traditional family from the redefined-family curriculum and "hooking-up" dorm culture.
1 comment - Last on 07/24/2008

If I Ran the Zoo XIII
July 16, 2008
The zoo runs on, with Ammon Allred's Seussian verse on what matters in higher education.

Rebuilding Campus Community:
The Wrong Imperative
July 16, 2008
A Statement of the National Association of Scholars
23 comments - Last on 07/16/2008

If I Ran the Zoo XII
July 15, 2008
By blogger "anotherpanacea," a professor of philosophy in the Washington, D.C. area

If I Ran the Zoo XI
July 14, 2008 By Harvey Silverglate
Harvey Silverglate ponders “Let’s Kill All the Lawyers.” He urges the academy to resist lawyerly tendencies to prosecute harassment to the detriment of freedom. Silverglate calls the university to open the cages that have bound free speech, and return to its historic duty to protect the heart of the academic enterprise: the pursuit of truth and learning.
1 comment - Last on 07/15/2008

Backstage Acting
July 07, 2008 By Ashley Thorne
NAS welcomes In Character, a journal about everyday virtues. In seeking to restore higher education to its "higher" quality, we must pursue the moral uplift of the university. This thoughtful journal takes steps toward that goal; by looking at virtue through the lens of public policy, the humanities, religion, and the sciences, In Character holds up the standard of integrity.

Hand It Over II
July 02, 2008 By Dean Chin
Colleges Collect on Students' Summer Jobs

Never Bored
July 02, 2008 By Peter Wood
Games! Prizes! Listimania!

If I Ran the Zoo X
July 01, 2008 By Roger Kimball
Roger Kimball summons us to call the "spade" a spade, and to seek truth free of "theory."

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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.