colleges and universities

The Next Culture War Battle? College Accreditation

by Jeffrey Sachs and Jeremy C. Young

Officials in Florida and elsewhere are seeking to overthrow established relationships with accrediting bodies because those organizations help to shield universities against political censorship and interference with teaching and learning. 

SCOTUS's Affirmative Action Decision Caps a Decades-Long Backlash

by Jerome Karabel

A scholar of university admissions says that the decision will be a "monumental setback for racial justice" that is rooted in myths about the policy that have surfaced through decades of opposition to affirmative action. 

Turning Universities Red

by Steve Fraser

American colleges were built to serve the children of elites and maintain the social order they dominated. Despite fears of liberal indoctrination on campus, growing labor movements including all workers are the only way that colleges will really make a more egalitarian society. 

Amid Anti-Woke Panic, Interdisciplinary Programs Inherently Vulnerable

by Timothy Messer-Kruse

Because standards of academic freedom like those of the AAUP tie that freedom to expertise within recognized professional communities of scholars, those doing interdisciplinary work and working in programs like ethnic studies have less institutional protection against charges that they are engaged in politics rather than scholarship. 

A Proponent of Technified, Skills-Based Higher Ed is Out, but His Soulless Vision Lives On

by François Furstenberg

Jason Wingard's presidency at Temple is over, but his vision of higher education shaped by the skills needs of business and the diminishment of the value of subject experts has enough backing among moneyed interests in tech and education reform to remain dangerous. 

If Universities are a Culture War Battleground, it's Time for University Workers to Fight Together

by Jeff Kolnick

"If higher education loses out in the culture wars, so too will American democracy. Our only hope is to enter the fray with our own culture in mind, and to insist on respect. If we stay on the sideline, we will lose."

Is the Loss of Collegiality about Manners or Workloads?

by Paula Marantz Cohen

If the campus conversation is a lost art for both professors and students, a big part of the solution must be restoring the time – and security – to talk. 

North Dakota Prof: Tenure Reform Bill is About Silencing Whistleblowers

by Eric Grabowsky

A professor says that, aside from academic freedom implications, a bill proposed to reduce tenure protections is aimed at intimidating critics of the university system's management. 

Descendants of Slaveholder Donor Denounce Law School Name Change

T.C. Williams donated a considerable sum to the University of Richmond's law school. He also relied on slave labor in his tobacco and manufacturing businesses. The university's new policy requires them to remove his name from a building. Descendants call this hypocritical and ungrateful and demanded an inflation-adjusted refund with interest of $3.4 billion.

The Lost Promise of College for All

by Jack Schneider and Jennifer C. Berkshire

The expansion of college education—and the encouragement directed at all Americans to pursue a degree—was driven by bipartisan agreement that education could increase prosperity and alleviate inequality. Unfortunately, without a commitment to public provision, the price has been massive individual debt. 

When the Public University is a Corporate Landlord

by Charmaine Chua, Desiree Fields and David Stein

During negotiations with graduate student workers, UCLA administrators claimed that increasing stipends would effectively subsidize local landlords through higher rents and squeeze the poor in the Los Angeles housing market. The reality is that the university is an investor in a huge real estate trust that is hiking rents itself. 

HBCUs and the 1950s Red Scare

by Candace Cunningham

South Carolina officials were able to use the purse strings to coerce public HBCU administrators to expel student activists. When private HBCUs became centers of sit-in organizing, state legislators turned to accusations of Communism. 

If Affirmative Action is Banned, Colleges Need to Do Wealth-Based Admissions Right

by Peter Dreier, Richard D. Kahlenberg and Melvin L. Oliver

Omitting family wealth from admissions decisions harms educational equity twice over, because wealth is so influential over opportunity and because it correlates so strongly with race. 

Colleges are Vulnerable to Political Attacks Because They've Abandoned their Roots

by Christine Adams

"Despite the persistence of conservative campaigns against higher education, American colleges and universities have never really hit on an adequate response to these attacks."

Affirmative Action Cases May Force Colleges to Rethink Everything

Some experts warn of a possible lost generation of college students from underrepresented backgrounds if race-conscious admissions are prohibited. 

Council of Christian Colleges and Universities Gets Court Win on Exemptions to Discrimination Law

A judge dismissed a lawsuit by LGBTQ students that challenged the faith-based exemptions that Christian colleges can claim from enforcement of antidiscrimination laws. 

Beyond Yale and Stanford, Colleges are Dropping the Ball on Student Mental Health

by David M. Perry

If two high profile incidents are any indication, many colleges seek to move students with mental health concerns off campus as quickly and quietly as possible, putting their own liability and reputation ahead of the needs of students for supportive community. 

Can Universities Protect Diverse Admissions and Excellence?

by John Thelin

The vastly improved technology available to college admissions officers means that a handful of selective institutions can serve the interest of both nominal diversity and elite reproduction, while exacerbating the divide in elementary and secondary educational quality in the nation. 

Demographics and the Shrinking Future of College

As the number of students promises to contract in coming years, the workforces and communities that depend on small colleges and regional public universities face dire prospects. 

Should We Burst the Campus "Bubble"—Or Balance It?

by Elizabeth Stice

"It is fine for a university to be unusual compared to other environments. That does not make it inherently incapable of preparing people for the real world."