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“Campus Culture” AQ Issue in Print

How do messages of feminism, habits of partying, and training in social activism shape the minds and character of the next generation? The summer issue (vol. 23, no. 2) of our quarterly journal Academic Questions, now online and in print, investigates. This issue, centered on the theme “Campus Culture,” takes the pulse of life on campus and considers how the attitudes formed in college affect broader American culture.  

NAS members have already received printed copies of this issue in the mail. If you are a member and would like to read journal articles online, email nasonweb@nas.org with “AQ access” in the subject line. We’ll email you a unique link which you can use to set up your online AQ account. If you are not a member of NAS, please join us! We welcome everyone who agrees with our principles. Membership is renewable annually and includes a one-year subscription to Academic Questions in print and online.  
 
Our special spring issue on “Sustainability” is still available FREE online. Many of the articles from our fall issue are already available online, and the print version is scheduled for publication in September.
 
Here are the featured articles from the “Campus Culture” issue. The first two are available free at www.nas.org.
 
Eight student editors who are members of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute Collegiate Network and come from a variety of secular and religious, public and private institutions describe their college experiences. Taken together, these essays create a surprising picture of what students enjoy, endorse, and endure on the contemporary American campus.
 
Karin L. Agness, Network of enlightened Women
The influence of contemporary feminism in the classroom and on campus is widespread, and student clubs, women’s centers, and women’s studies departments often exclude women who hold traditional views. Karin L. Agness, a recent law school graduate and founder of the Network of enlightened Women, takes a look at how this influence evolved and describes the very successful actions she took as a student to challenge it.
 
Diminuendo: Classical Music and the Academy
Postscript: A Brief Modern Classical Music Reading and Listening List
Daniel Asia, University of Arizona
Classical music “is about ideas expressed in sound.” And those sounds have been swallowed up by jazz, pop, rock, and other lesser forms of music on campus, mirroring what has happened in the wider culture. Daniel Asia, one of today’s premier classical music composers and University of Arizona professor of music, examines how the role of Western classical music and musicians in the Academy has been marginalized.
 
Desperately Seeking Everett: Some Thoughts on Hermeneutic Reading
David Solway
Using his own classroom experience as an example, David Solway, Canada’s decorated poet and essayist, offers some thoughts on teaching students to read books with the perseverance and comprehension that is a prerequisite for reading the world itself—something all young people must eventually learn how to do.
 
Beating the Apple Tree: How the University Coerces Activism
Ashley Thorne, National Association of Scholars
From tip to root, professors and administrators at American colleges and universities increasingly view themselves as social missionaries rather than educators, and this has dramatically changed curricula, policies, and the spirit on campus. Ashley Thorne, communications director of the NAS, explains how making activism the central purpose of the university leaves students with an upside-down view of the world in which wisdom matters less than current thinking.
 
Raising Cain: The University Student and the Politics of Protest
John Hundscheid, The King’s College
Student protests are nothing new, but today’s students—under a complicit faculty and administration—put themselves at the center of every grand campus battle waged. John Hundscheid, a junior at The King’s College, examines the narcissistic motives and tactics of student activists on both left and right and concludes that when the pursuit of knowledge and truth has been abandoned, what remains is hollow political success.
 
Decadence, Scorn, and the Decline of Christian Practice on Campus
David French, Alliance Defense Fund
The numbers are in: college students are on a quest for meaning, but the practice of their religious faith on campus, particularly among Christians, is in serious decline. David French, senior counsel at the Alliance Defense Fund, relates how an atmosphere of stigma and dissipation has eroded the habits of traditional believers and reveals how endangered campus groups keep such students from sinking.

 

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2010 Summer Highlights

Happy fall! Here's a roundup of our top articles from June, July, and August.

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?

 

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