For the past several months I have been working with the American Council of Trustees and Alumni on their objective of improving the generally poor status of free speech on the campuses of our colleges and universities.  As I have previously noted, the gold standard for policy in this area is generally considered to be […]

Some years ago I led an essay with this opening: “We continue to be besieged by commentary in the battle over the humanities in higher education–do we need more emphasis?, do we need less?, is it all about jobs?, is it all about competency in a skill set?, what about critical thinking?, what about making […]

When I picked up this book by Richard Vedder, Restoring the Promise: Higher Education in America, I generally knew what to expect because I had read much of his work in op/eds and essays over the years and we had met and exchanged views when we both were contributors for several years to the blog SeeThruEdu […]

The madness that comes regularly from higher education used to surprise me, but no more; I’ve learned to expect it.  Here are a few of the most recent examples:  As reported by two faculty members in an article in the Wall Street Journal, in a new attempt to monitor its faculty for signs of bias, […]

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 […]