December 20, 2024
1 min read
Jonathan Chait
The Atlantic
Excerpt: A decade ago, cultural norms in elite American institutions took a sharply illiberal turn. Professors would get disciplined, journalists fired, ordinary people harassed by social-media mobs, over some decontextualized phrase or weaponized misunderstanding. Every so often, I would write about these events or the debates that they set off.
But I haven’t written about this phenomenon in a long time, and I recently realized why: because it isn’t happening any more. Left-wing outrage mobs might still form here or there, but liberal America has built up enough antibodies that they no longer have much effect. My old articles now feel like dispatches from a distant era.
Read More December 19, 2024
1 min read
Johanna Alonso
Inside Higher Ed
Excerpt: After an unprecedented spring of pro-Palestinian protests on campuses across the United States, the fall semester has been comparatively quiet. The total number of protest actions declined by more than 64 percent, from 3,220 to 1,151, according to data from the Crowd Counting Consortium, a project by Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and the University of Connecticut that collects data on protests.
Read More December 19, 2024
1 min read
Ryan Quinn
Inside Higher Ed
Excerpt: The firing of a University of Michigan official has raised questions about who was involved in the decision as well as why exactly the diversity, equity and inclusion leader was shown the door.
Many media outlets reported within the past few days that the university fired Rachel Dawson, who led the Office of Academic Multicultural Initiatives, after she allegedly made antisemitic comments at a conference in March. University officials initially declined to fire Dawson but reversed course after facing pressure from at least one member of the Board of Regents, The New York Times reported.
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James R. Wells, '46
February 20, 2024
Can’t understand why the Federal Government doesn’t just cease all funding (taxpayer money, after all) to higher education and stop providing student loans (again using taxpayer money). Let Universities operate like businesses and compete on their own for students (customers). I suspect colleges would suddenly become competitive and cut back on unnecessary costs (like hundreds of useless deans) and they might even start teaching useful courses – perhaps even courses that would help students get jobs and eventually be useful and productive citizens.
JRW