Over the past couple of months there has been growing evidence of a looming turf battle between The University of Texas at Austin (UT) and the University of Houston (UH) over particular projects recently announced by each institution that figure to have implications for Texas higher education governance going forward. First, UH announced that it […]
Bold New Vision for the UT System
The University of Texas System Chancellor William McRaven has just laid out to the Board of Regents a bold new vision for the UT system, including a new mission statement draft, the operating concept, and decision process that encompasses eight elements including: • Texas Prospect Initiative—increased active engagement with leaders in PreK-12 beyond anything yet […]
More Good News for Western Civilization in Texas
Previously I have written about the breakthrough at The University of Texas at Austin when the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Core Texts and Ideas, a great books and Western Civilization studies program on whose advisory board I serve, received 500 applications for fewer than 100 slots in its Jefferson Scholars program for entering freshmen. […]
Affirmative Action in College Admissions and Its Conflict With High Achieving Students
Recently Jason Riley of the Wall Street Journal gave us a somewhat different take on the perverse arguments for affirmative action in higher education admissions with his very provocative essay, “The New Jews of Harvard Admissions”. A new take because, unlike the experience of other minorities, it is a perspective from the point of view […]
Are College Students Customers?
I was struck and conflicted by an insightful article by Larry Hubbell, Director of the Institute of Public Service at Seattle University, in the current edition of Academic Questions, entitled “Students Aren’t Consumers”. In it, he makes some very penetrating points that seem to be of the “wedge” variety in the ongoing discussion on the […]
A Bad Report Card for American Millennials
The Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC), a project of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), in March released a report produced by the Educational Testing Service on the assessment of educational competency of the age group known as the “millennials”, those young adults born after 1980 who were 16-34 […]
A Worthy Proposal for Reform of Federal Higher Education Grants
Paul Peterson of Harvard’s Kennedy School has a very simple and common sense proposal to jump start the conversation on reform of the federal higher education grant system—we should require students who apply for financial aid through programs like Pell Grants to demonstrate that they are ready for postsecondary work by passing a state exam […]
The NAS “Beach Books” Survey: No Surprises Here
Last month, the National Association of Scholars released its annual comprehensive survey of books assigned to entering college freshmen (Beach Books 2013-2014: What Do Colleges Want Students to Read Outside Class?) and it was true to form. This year the survey reached 341 colleges and universities, including 51 ranked among the top 100 National Universities […]
Short-Changing a Lot of Bright Kids
A recent article by Harold Levy, executive director of Jack Kent Cooke Foundation, highlighted what seems to me to be a glaring oversight. A study by his foundation using data from the Department of Education to track talented students found that only 59% of smart children from low-income households, defined as those who scored in […]
The Mess at UT-Austin
I have restrained myself in commenting on the controversies at The University of Texas at Austin over the past several years because I have not been close enough to the facts to be entirely credible in my opinions. Even now I am not to be considered an insider, but I have gathered enough intelligence in […]