More By James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal | Eastern NC Now
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North Carolina just added a new layer of meaning to its motto, First in Flight. This time the state is the first in the nation to get campus free speech off the runway
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No cliché is more ubiquitous at teacher protests than signs that read, "if you can read this sign, thank a teacher." That is, unless you disregard variations on the theme of "pay us more."
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First, I want to express my gratitude to Lieutenant Governor Dan Forest and his staff, the General Assembly, and the people of the state for the passage of House Bill 527
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Increasing teacher pay to improve teaching quality has grabbed media attention for months
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The world of law school and the legal profession is in turmoil. This is because there are not only many market distortions at play, but because the economy is undergoing transitions
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Using Advanced Placement (AP) courses to fulfill college requirements has long helped college students save both time and money
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Academia has a long history of ignoring original minds who push their fields forward
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In 1965, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Higher Education Act into law, inserting the federal government irrevocably into the inner workings of America's colleges and universities
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Should we allow scholars to be activists? Fabio Rojas (“Scholarship First, Activism Second”) and Jay Schalin (“Scholarship Only, Activism on Your Own Time”) have offered various degrees of attack on activist-scholars
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A recent book by Thomas L. Martin and Duke Pesta, The Renaissance and the Postmodern: A Study in Comparative Critical Values represents something of a critical cat among the contemporary theoretical pigeons
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The Raleigh News & Observer recently published a contentious exchange between the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s history professor Jay Smith and vice chancellor of communications Joel Curran concerning Smith’s course “Big-Time College Sports and the Rights of Athletes, 1956-Present.”
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Clearly, NC State is well regarded by its peers for its writing program. Pamela Flash, co-director of the University of Minnesota's Center for Writing and the director of their Writing-Enriched Curriculum program, called the work done at NC State "very formative"
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The movement to reform higher education is finally entering prime time
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In his recent book The Case Against Education, Professor Bryan Caplan argues that most Americans derive little benefit from their years of schooling in terms of skill and knowledge
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The millennial generation is taking a lot of heat lately, with even some of its members a bit shame-faced about their values, habits, and much else
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The #MeToo movement began with accusations against movie mogul Harvey Weinstein but rapidly became a rallying call for women everywhere to tell their own stories of sexual harassment
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The chickens have come home to roost at Duke’s Divinity School. Protesting students claim the school is insufficiently diverse. More needs to be done, they say, to combat racism, transphobia, homophobia, and associated evils.
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The supposedly academic discipline of Women's Studies is "an arm of the women's movement," according to philosopher Christina Hoff Sommers. And that movement is political; political activism is at least as fundamental to women's studies as its academic components
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Let's imagine that you felt a lump in your body and went to the doctor
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Higher education does not produce many flashy, innovating entrepreneurs like Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs, Peter Thiel, or Elon Musk
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Students in the United States have unprecedented options for postsecondary education: from brick-and-mortar liberal arts institutions and research-intensive doctoral universities to dual-enrollment high schools and online-only degree programs
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It might have been drilled into your head from a young age that the only way to be successful in life is to get a college degree
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Too often, universities use studies about themselves as marketing opportunities rather than a chance to understand reality. This is especially true with "economic impact" studies that purport to examine a university's effect on a local economy
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A major in English was once a serious endeavor masquerading as a frivolous one
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On Valentine’s Day, The University of North Carolina System released “Leading on Literacy: Challenges and Opportunities in Teacher Preparation Across the University of North Carolina System.” For me, it was not love at first sight.
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Legislators in New Mexico are pushing a bill that would make students apply to at least one college while they are still juniors in high school. This legislation reflects the powerful belief that college should be the norm for students after they graduate from high school
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Rape is an appalling crime. Its perpetrators deserve criminal prosecution and lengthy imprisonment upon conviction
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Each year, higher education seems to become less and less affordable: As tuition prices continue to rise, an increasing number of students leave college with crippling amounts of student loan debt
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The title of this article alludes to Joan Didion’s famous essay about “love and death in the golden land,” a cautionary tale about the wreckage left behind when dreams collide with reality
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The relationship between participation in sports and academic performance has many faces
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The Department of Education's method for awarding college students financial aid has many perverse effects
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Located just north of Atlanta, Kennesaw State University is a school enrolling some 35,000 students. Arguably, the most noteworthy thing about it is the fact that its officials keep making decisions that land it in court
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Last year, Duke University History Professor Nancy MacLean became one of the country's best-known academics for her book Democracy in Chains
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By now, most Americans are aware of the widespread waste and decadence at many private and public universities. From lazy rivers to exorbitant chancellors' salaries, examples abound
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