If you are not familiar with it, The Philanthropy Roundtable is a non-profit organization based in Washington, D. C. which provides a setting for networking and discussion among a significant number of the country’s major grant-making foundations. It also sponsors for its members enlightening conferences and site visits involving a wide range of projects being […]

The recently revealed nationwide college admissions fraud seems to me the result of a confluence of three threads that have metastasized in higher education from other aspects of our culture over the past couple of decades.  One, a sense of entitlement in our elites, who expect certain preferential treatment regardless of merit; two, an always […]

I was pleased to learn that Texas A&M University was one of only 45 American institutions of higher education to receive the highest rating for protecting free speech by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE).  This so-called “green light” award goes to those schools that have no policies that violate the First Amendment.  […]

As a member of the National Association of Scholars (NAS) and avid reader, I look forward to the annual survey conducted by the NAS called Beach Books: What Do Colleges Want Students to Read Outside Class?  The recent release of their eighth annual survey covering assigned outside reading for 2017-18 was notable for its consistency […]

From several directions, mainly out of the Department of Education and from efforts of the National Association of Scholars (NAS), and very quietly, there are some positive developments underway in American higher education, primarily in the form of repair work on laws, regulations, previous administrative edicts, and even some elements of foreign policy.  Here are […]

I was very pleased with the recent announcement of the new Humanities Center at the U. S. Military Academy, to be located prominently on Trophy Hill at West Point, which will provide collaborative spaces for academics and cadets and serve as a hub for interdisciplinary work that brings insights from the liberal arts and humanities […]

The tax bill approved by Congress and signed into law by President Trump last December included a precedent-setting provision that deserves much more attention outside higher education circles, even though it initially has direct impact on only 32 institutions.  The bill includes a 1.4% excise tax on investment income at private colleges with an enrollment […]

At the beginning of the year, the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA) released its ninth annual survey and guide for college academic standards ratings known as What Will They Learn?  ACTA analyzed publicly-available course catalogs of over 1,100 public and private four-year institutions to survey which of these put a well-designed core curriculum […]

The leadership of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, an organization that represents 47 Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), is coming into contact with reality and it isn’t pretty.  The push for “diversity” in college admissions, led by the failed policy of affirmative action, is resulting in the cannibalization of the admission pools of these […]

Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos found a couple of ways to meaningfully step forward over the past few weeks.  First, and most important for correcting bad policy, she struck a blow for due process by withdrawing the lawless Obama administration directive about how colleges should adjudicate sexual assault accusations on campus.  The 2011 directive will […]