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Every time a new study comes out regarding the "payoff" from college, I wonder: Will this finally be the one that takes note of widespread underemployment among recent grads and comprehends the impact of credential inflation?
Published: Saturday, April 19th, 2014 @ 6:48 pm
By: John William Pope Center
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A surprising number of college and university presidents depart unexpectedly or face turmoil that nearly ends their tenure as president. Within the past six months, leaders of Illinois State, St. Augustine's, the University of Wyoming, Tuskegee University, Howard University, and SUNY-Upstate...
Published: Friday, April 18th, 2014 @ 3:27 pm
By: John William Pope Center
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There is a growing trend on American college campuses, a trend that augurs badly for free speech and robust debate. I refer to the way various groups of people use expressions of hurt feelings to trump speakers they disagree with. The most recent manifestation of this was at Brandeis University.
Published: Thursday, April 17th, 2014 @ 3:30 pm
By: John William Pope Center
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I recently spoke with a philosophy professor at an Ivy League university. We discussed some issues in higher education, including such depressing topics as the increasing rejection of long-accepted standards of objectivity and a growing contempt for traditional perspectives.
Published: Wednesday, April 16th, 2014 @ 7:18 pm
By: John William Pope Center
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From its title, the casual reader might expect The Value of the Humanities to be a love letter to art, music, and literature. However, this book is not for the casual reader. It is written by a specialist, Oxford professor of English Helen Small, for other specialists who are trying to stay...
Published: Tuesday, April 15th, 2014 @ 3:21 pm
By: John William Pope Center
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Should prisoners have access to higher education while incarcerated? If so, should that access be funded by taxpayers? Those questions were raised after New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced in February that he wanted to create a state-run college program for prison inmates.
Published: Thursday, April 10th, 2014 @ 12:38 pm
By: John William Pope Center
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There is an impossibly tough question that all universities must answer, from a legal if not moral perspective. How much of our limited resources should we spend to ensure that the next victim of a sex crime is given the treatment he or she deserves? The University of North Carolina at...
Published: Sunday, April 6th, 2014 @ 2:14 am
By: John William Pope Center
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North Carolina Central University's College of Behavioral and Social Sciences held its second annual "Great Debate" last week in front of a packed audience of students, professors, and administrators. "HBCUs: Can They Survive?" was the topic of this year's debate, which featured student teams...
Published: Wednesday, April 2nd, 2014 @ 8:47 pm
By: John William Pope Center
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The philosophy department at the University of Colorado at Boulder is in hot water. CU-Boulder's administration replaced the department chair, suspended graduate admissions for a year, and sent everyone to sensitivity training. What caused such draconian punishment?
Published: Monday, March 31st, 2014 @ 5:32 pm
By: John William Pope Center
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Paul Gottfried's recent Pope Center essay The Academy Now and Then raises important issues regarding whether today's campus permits the expression of unpopular ideas. He argues that campus life was far more open when he began his academic career in the 1960s than it is in today's PC-dominated world.
Published: Sunday, March 30th, 2014 @ 10:29 am
By: John William Pope Center
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The U.S. Department of Education released its latest draft of new gainful employment regulations on March 14. Gainful employment is the term used for the department's standards for vocational programs at for-profit institutions and community colleges. Under the new rules, schools at which a large...
Published: Saturday, March 29th, 2014 @ 8:05 am
By: John William Pope Center
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A new faculty promotion system at one of North Carolina's largest community colleges could increase the school's focus on education. On the other hand, it could be a sign of "mission creep," as the college joins a recent trend of community colleges striving to look and act like universities.
Published: Wednesday, March 26th, 2014 @ 11:38 pm
By: John William Pope Center
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One year ago, the UNC system's general administration and Board of Governors published an ambitious set of plans for the state's 17 public universities called Our Time, Our Future: The UNC Compact with North Carolina. One of those plans aims to revamp general education curricula. It seeks to...
Published: Sunday, March 23rd, 2014 @ 9:07 am
By: John William Pope Center
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In his 1955 paper "The Role of Government in Education," Milton Friedman suggested the idea of equity contracts to finance college education. Friedman thought that loans were not the appropriate means of financing education. He argued that the better way was to advance the needed funds for...
Published: Friday, March 21st, 2014 @ 8:21 pm
By: John William Pope Center
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Next month, the UNC Board of Governors Committee on Budget and Finance will vote on UNC-Chapel Hill's health services fee. The committee has already approved health fees for the other campuses but stopped short at Carolina's $436-per-year fee after learning that UNC-Chapel Hill is spending some...
Published: Tuesday, March 18th, 2014 @ 2:27 am
By: John William Pope Center
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A widely held view in the national press and certainly among academics is that we've come a long way in overcoming prejudice. Presumably we're now more open to a wider variety of opinions than ever before.
Published: Monday, March 17th, 2014 @ 12:58 am
By: John William Pope Center
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In the Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne describes one of the characters at the Custom House who is well suited to government work. He is the Inspector, an epicurean so devoid of imagination, feeling, and soul that he is likened to "the beasts of the field." His mental capacities are limited to...
Published: Friday, March 14th, 2014 @ 7:39 pm
By: John William Pope Center
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Finally! After a long, brutal winter, North Carolina is seeing a sure sign of spring - the annual tussle over the UNC system budget.
Published: Tuesday, March 11th, 2014 @ 6:42 pm
By: John William Pope Center
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Public universities have stability that private colleges do not. Cushioned by state appropriations, they don't rely on tuition the way private colleges do and their lower tuition makes them competitive.
Published: Monday, March 10th, 2014 @ 5:49 pm
By: John William Pope Center
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A hearing at Winston-Salem State University to investigate a professor's alleged misconduct raised more questions about the administration than it answered about the professor.
Published: Sunday, March 9th, 2014 @ 12:23 am
By: John William Pope Center
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Almost as much awaited as the yearly U.S. News & World Report college rankings is the annual Princeton Review ranking of the top "party schools." By Princeton Review's analysis, the top party school this year is (drumroll)...the University of Iowa. Congratulations, Hawkeyes. You beat out the Univers
Published: Friday, March 7th, 2014 @ 2:34 am
By: John William Pope Center
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Late last year, UNC-Chapel Hill learning specialist Mary Willingham alleged that many Carolina athletes weren't academically prepared for college-level work. That research has been stopped by the administration of UNC-Chapel Hill.
Published: Wednesday, March 5th, 2014 @ 11:52 pm
By: John William Pope Center
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When it comes to higher education, most politicians are cheerleaders. They're content to speak the usual pieties about the importance of college and never do anything that could upset the status quo.
Published: Saturday, March 1st, 2014 @ 4:36 am
By: John William Pope Center
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Public universities in North Carolina recognize a wide diversity of student groups, including those that have religious or other belief-based missions. This recognition enables student organizations to access university facilities and (sometimes) apply for funding.
Published: Saturday, February 22nd, 2014 @ 8:55 am
By: John William Pope Center
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In a recent piece published by American Enterprise Institute, "Let's Not Underestimate Undermatch," author Awilda Rodriguez outlines what she views as a serious problem, undermatching. She describes it as "the phenomenon where students do not attend a college or university that they could have gaine
Published: Thursday, February 20th, 2014 @ 5:44 pm
By: John William Pope Center
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In many respects, the last few months have been dazzling ones for North Carolina State University. On January 15, President Obama traveled to Raleigh to announce that the university will be the headquarters for a $140 million public-private partnership that develops the "next generation" of...
Published: Tuesday, February 18th, 2014 @ 4:12 pm
By: John William Pope Center
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Like many of you, I am concerned about the state of our beloved university. Among its many prominent problems are the alleged fraud by a former academic department chairman concerning "no-show" classes that gave academic credits to athletes and the report by an academic adviser, disputed by universi
Published: Sunday, February 16th, 2014 @ 2:09 am
By: John William Pope Center
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In his first address to Congress President Obama argued that the United States needs to put far more people through college so that our economy will remain competitive with those of other nations. He set forth a goal of again having "the highest proportion of college graduates in the world."
Published: Thursday, February 13th, 2014 @ 12:07 am
By: John William Pope Center
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If it is really a kind of aggression to correct student grammar, composition teachers are unnecessary.
Published: Sunday, February 9th, 2014 @ 12:31 pm
By: John William Pope Center
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It happens at the end of every semester. As final grades are computed and entered, faculty all across the United States hear those inner demons talking. Some expound quite loudly; others merely whisper.
Published: Friday, February 7th, 2014 @ 11:13 pm
By: John William Pope Center
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Growing up in the 1960s, Freeman Hrabowski was an unlikely candidate for protesting at a civil rights march. The chunky "nerd" - as he now describes his childhood demeanor - was more interested in solving math problems and eating M&Ms than in effecting social change.
Published: Thursday, February 6th, 2014 @ 9:27 am
By: John William Pope Center
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Thankfully, much is being made of Heather Mac Donald's recent piece, "The Humanities and Us," in the City Journal. She illustrates the decline of college English departments, where "gender, sexuality, race, and class" have taken over Chaucer, Milton, and Shakespeare. The radicals of the...
Published: Saturday, February 1st, 2014 @ 1:21 am
By: John William Pope Center
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Please send money. Sadly, that is the message of "The Heart of the Matter," the 2013 paper published by the American Academy of Arts & Sciences in defense of the humanities and social sciences. I read the report recently because it will be the subject of a public discussion at...
Published: Wednesday, January 29th, 2014 @ 5:20 pm
By: John William Pope Center
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