John William Pope Center Guest Editorial
The university system in the United States has accomplished a great deal of good, but we believe that higher education in the United States, including North Carolina, has strayed from its chief goals of scholarly inquiry and responsible teaching.
All too often, universities allow teaching to become shallow and trendy, failing to challenge students intellectually and disparaging traditional principles of justice, ethics, and liberal education. Students know little about the history of their country or the institutions that led to this nation’s prosperity and liberty. Students can get by without taking rigorous courses, and non-academic activities overshadow scholarship. As a result, many college graduates have poor skills in computation, communication, and logical analysis. Faculty are allowed excessive latitude in what they teach and often get away with little teaching at all, because research is emphasized. Taxpayers as well as students and their families pay hefty prices to support a system that often appears to provide little educational value.
To address these and other problems, the Pope Center conducts studies in areas such as governance, curriculum, financing, access, accountability, faculty research, and administrative policies. We explore ways to increase the accountability of trustees, administrators, faculty, and students. And we engage in the broader dialogue about how to improve higher education around the nation.
In these endeavors, we are motivated by the principles that have traditionally guided public policy in the United States: limits on government; freedom to pursue goals through voluntary means, both for-profit and nonprofit; accountability through private property rights; and the belief that competition is an excellent regulating force.
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The state of North Carolina's Customized Training Program (CTP), run by the state's community colleges, has come under fire lately, and with good reason. The program is--at least in part--a wasteful way to promote economic development in the...
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The state of North Carolina's Customized Training Program (CTP), run by the state's community colleges, has come under fire lately, and with good reason. The program is--at least in part--a wasteful way to promote economic development in the...
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What can be done about the ideological tilt at colleges and universities? At times, it seems as though the Ivory Tower will be forever lost in a fog of political correctness and collectivist dogma.
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What can be done about the ideological tilt at colleges and universities? At times, it seems as though the Ivory Tower will be forever lost in a fog of political correctness and collectivist dogma.
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Would enrolling more out-of-state students help finance our state's university system, raise its national reputation, and spur the economy? Or would it be a slap in the face to state...
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Would enrolling more out-of-state students help finance our state's university system, raise its national reputation, and spur the economy? Or would it be a slap in the face to state...
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Philanthropic foundations usually do not bear the costs when the ideas they promote turn out to be wrong. Unlike business capital, which can be lost when executives back bad products, foundations lose nothing when their executives back bad ideas.
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Philanthropic foundations usually do not bear the costs when the ideas they promote turn out to be wrong. Unlike business capital, which can be lost when executives back bad products, foundations lose nothing when their executives back bad ideas.
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When does a crisis become the status quo? It's been 57 years since the landmark study "Why Johnny Can't Read" sounded a clarion call to correct the failures of our poor public education system.
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When does a crisis become the status quo? It's been 57 years since the landmark study "Why Johnny Can't Read" sounded a clarion call to correct the failures of our poor public education system.
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The replacement of Julius Nyang'oro, the disgraced chairman of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's African and African American Studies department, by the department's number two administrator, Eunice Sahle, was...
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The replacement of Julius Nyang'oro, the disgraced chairman of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's African and African American Studies department, by the department's number two administrator, Eunice Sahle, was...
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As the fall semester came to an end, I was reminded of the importance of teaching politics through primary sources. While grading my finals I received one of those gratifying emails from a student who had just completed my Principles of American Government course.
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As the fall semester came to an end, I was reminded of the importance of teaching politics through primary sources. While grading my finals I received one of those gratifying emails from a student who had just completed my Principles of American Government course.
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Two committees headed by UNC officials have signed off on a strategic plan that is better than past plans.
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Two committees headed by UNC officials have signed off on a strategic plan that is better than past plans.
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Gov. Pat McCrory was caught a bit off guard when he discussed higher education on Bill Bennett's radio show Tuesday. Some people are saying McCrory made a gaffe (or, less politely "stepped into it.")
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Gov. Pat McCrory was caught a bit off guard when he discussed higher education on Bill Bennett's radio show Tuesday. Some people are saying McCrory made a gaffe (or, less politely "stepped into it.")
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In response to the recent publication of an article on the Pope Center website we as a group of former students of Dr. Eunice Sahle have decided it is necessary to record our experiences as her students and to share a few of them with you.
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In response to the recent publication of an article on the Pope Center website we as a group of former students of Dr. Eunice Sahle have decided it is necessary to record our experiences as her students and to share a few of them with you.
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I am not surprised that Dr. Sahle has a circle of devoted students and ex-students to passionately defend her.
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I am not surprised that Dr. Sahle has a circle of devoted students and ex-students to passionately defend her.
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About once a decade, the Emory faculty revisits its liberal arts curriculum and asks what undergraduate students ought to know.
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About once a decade, the Emory faculty revisits its liberal arts curriculum and asks what undergraduate students ought to know.
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Students are often exasperated by professors who waste their time with boring, rambling, irrelevant lectures. The problem is that tenured faculty members often just don't care any longer.
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Students are often exasperated by professors who waste their time with boring, rambling, irrelevant lectures. The problem is that tenured faculty members often just don't care any longer.
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On September 13, 2011, Roger Clegg, president of the Center for Equal Opportunity (CEO), was in Madison to reveal the findings of his organization's study of racial preferences in admissions at the University of Wisconsin.
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On September 13, 2011, Roger Clegg, president of the Center for Equal Opportunity (CEO), was in Madison to reveal the findings of his organization's study of racial preferences in admissions at the University of Wisconsin.
