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Articles of Interest This Week

I was out of town earlier this week visiting family and have since been getting caught up on the latest happenings in higher ed. In case you were on spring break too, I thought I'd share some of my findings. While I was playing golf in Texas, George Leef and Richard Vedder were debating Margaret Spellings on whether we need more college graduates; the group By Any Means Necessary was campaigning to reverse California's ban on racial preferences; David Horowitz was sitting in class at UMass Amherst investigating classroom indoctrination; and Anne Neal and others were asking Arne Duncan to address credit transfer problems.

So for your perusal, here are this week's must-reads: 

Airy Rhetoric Versus Gritty Reality, George Leef, PopeCenter
PopeCenter president George Leef and Center for College Affordability and Productivity President Richard Vedder took part in a PBS televised debate last week over the question, “Does the United States need more college graduates to remain a world economic power?” Former Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings and Michael Lomax, president of the United Negro College Fund, argued the affirmative side and were challenged by Leef and Vedder. In this article, Leef summarizes the arguments on both sides and explains why putting more students through college is a bad idea. 

Saving the Life of the Mind [subscription required], Goldie Blumenstyk, Chronicle of Higher Education
An introduction to the Chronicle’s special report on the future of the liberal arts: “As pressure mounts to produce skilled workers, colleges try to promote intellectual values.”
 

Philosophy, for Profit [subscription required], Marc Parry, Chronicle of Higher Education
This article is part of the special liberal arts report. It profiles the American Public University System’s online, for-profit, marketed-to-soldiers, liberal arts model, where the provost says, “I want online
Oxford.” 

What Will Replace Behemoth State University? Robert C. Koons, Public Discourse
New technological developments and pressing national needs suggest that the future of higher education may be friendlier to the classical tradition of liberal education, writes Koons, president of NAS’s
Texas affiliate. 

How Bad is the Indoctrination in Our Colleges? David Horowitz, FrontPageMag.com
David Horowitz visits a class at the
University of Massachusetts, Amherst and witnesses firsthand how professors supply students with ready-made conclusions. 

The Tortured Logic of BAMN, Mark Bauerlein, Minding the Campus
The Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration, and Immigrant Rights and Fight for Equality by Any Means Necessary (or BAMN for short) is on a campaign to strike down Proposition 209, which bans racial preferences in the state of
California, by attacking Ward Connerly. Two years ago, BAMN also tried to strike down Michigan’s ban on racial preferences; see Terry Pell’s NAS article on the group’s failed attempt to reinstate affirmative action. 

Higher Ed Experts Urge Secretary of Education to Tackle Transfer Policies, Press Release, American Council of Trustees and Alumni
Five higher education experts—
Anne Neal, Kevin Carey, Frederick M. Hess, Richard Vedder, and Mark Schneider—urge Education Secretary Arne Duncan to work on improving credit transferability in order to increase graduation rates. 

 

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Take Back the Classroom from PowerPoint

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

Student journalists examine topics from presidential speeches to campus smoking bans.

Will You Promote Diversity? Virginia Tech Tests Faculty Candidates’ Commitment

A major public university has fashioned a “diversity” litmus test for faculty hiring

FIRE Educates for Free Speech on Campus

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

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

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

Is Brooklyn College using freshman reading for ideological goals?

Question of the Week: How Many Colleges Should You Apply To?

To answer, leave a comment on this article, email us, or respond via Facebook or Twitter (no more than 140 characters).

Atlas Black Shrugs

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

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

How the attacks on for-profit higher ed are squashing needed competition.

New Excellent Programs: Tocqueville Program and Center for Statesmanship

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

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

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?

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

Professor Paquette responds to the controversy generated this summer after Hamilton College sought to censor his NAS article.

Real Ethics Education

Ethics courses should make moral decisions personal, argues Jason Fertig.

Collegiate Press Roundup 8-18-10

Student journalists tackle gay marriage, weird psycholgy studies and state liquor regulations.

5 Consequences of Administrative Bloat

What happens to higher education when universities are dominated by administrators?

Ravitch Repentant

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.

 

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