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 07/29/2008

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 08/01/2008

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 07/17/2008

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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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