On the whole, U.S. colleges and universities don't get everything right. They're overpriced, operationally hidebound, and ideologically stagnant. But American higher education does some things very well-well enough that students from around the world still choose to come to the United States to...
Published: Saturday, December 13th, 2014 @ 8:43 pm
By: John William Pope Center
|
Reporter Lynn Bonner and the News and Observer showed us once again why people have stopped buying newspapers: Reporters keep trying to make the news, not report it.
Published: Saturday, December 6th, 2014 @ 4:12 pm
By: Civitas Insitute
|
For a long time, those of us who argue that higher education’s standards are eroding had to point to anecdotes to support our case.
Published: Monday, October 20th, 2014 @ 6:29 pm
By: John William Pope Center
|
When legislators and officials of the University of North Carolina and legislators consider costs, they prefer to focus on minor operational functions - such as heating bills. But that is mere nibbling around the edges.
Published: Thursday, September 4th, 2014 @ 9:35 am
By: John William Pope Center
|
Two professors in the ECU Thomas Harriot College of Arts and Sciences were inducted as distinguished professors at the college's annual faculty convocation Aug. 25.
Published: Monday, August 25th, 2014 @ 9:55 pm
By: ECU News Services
|
Three East Carolina University professors begin their terms as officers for the university’s Faculty Senate on July 1.
Published: Friday, June 27th, 2014 @ 8:45 am
By: ECU News Services
|
A lot of dollars are riding on how many courses professors in the University of North Carolina system teach (or how many they are perceived to teach). Roughly half of the UNC budget consists of professors' salaries.
Published: Wednesday, June 18th, 2014 @ 8:51 am
By: John William Pope Center
|
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
|
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
|
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
|
"Universities for a very long time have been based on trust." So said the provost of the University of North Carolina, commenting on a report that a course taken mostly by intercollegiate athletes had never actually met. Dozens of other courses may have been similarly fraudulent, and a criminal...
Published: Sunday, January 19th, 2014 @ 9:46 am
By: John William Pope Center
|
Perhaps the most glaring weakness among American college students is their writing. Many enter college lacking the ability to put together even a single good paragraph - and graduate without much improvement. It has been that way for a long time.
Published: Monday, December 30th, 2013 @ 6:33 pm
By: John William Pope Center
|
As the old saying goes, "What's good for the goose is good for the gander." But some North Carolina professors have decided that they are neither goose nor gander.
Published: Wednesday, December 18th, 2013 @ 6:58 pm
By: Civitas Insitute
|
Every two years, the General Assembly appropriates money to the schools in the UNC system to cover the cost of instruction - primarily professors' salaries and benefits. But the formula used to determine how much money the system requests is outdated, opaque, and creates the wrong incentives for...
Published: Saturday, November 2nd, 2013 @ 1:54 pm
By: John William Pope Center
|
The labor market for college professors has long been distorted. Tenure is a major factor; another is the presence of a massive labor supply glut, in the form of too many aspiring faculty members for too few full-time jobs. In some ways, the faculty labor market now resembles the market for...
Published: Thursday, September 5th, 2013 @ 1:24 am
By: John William Pope Center
|
If Neil Gross's analysis of the "why are professors liberal?" question is weak (as I argued here), his analysis of the "why do conservatives care?" question is appalling.
Published: Thursday, June 13th, 2013 @ 12:59 am
By: John William Pope Center
|
Why is it that the great majority of college professors are liberal (i.e., hold mostly to "progressive," pro-state ideas about politics and economics) and why should conservatives be concerned that they are?
Published: Thursday, June 6th, 2013 @ 4:48 pm
By: John William Pope Center
|
The humanities, once the core of higher education, have fallen on hard times. Today's emphasis on education for jobs combined with humanities professors' rejection of their own foundations are chasing students from the study of the liberal...
Published: Thursday, March 14th, 2013 @ 10:00 pm
By: Jane Shaw
|
Two East Carolina University faculty members may not be walking the red carpet at the Academy Awards on Feb. 24, but they will be on Hollywood Boulevard studying the stars as they arrive and specifically the brands presented there.
Published: Thursday, February 21st, 2013 @ 1:50 pm
By: ECU News Services
|
I am not surprised that Dr. Sahle has a circle of devoted students and ex-students to passionately defend her.
Published: Saturday, February 2nd, 2013 @ 3:35 pm
By: Jay Schalin
|
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.
Published: Thursday, January 31st, 2013 @ 12:57 pm
By: Robert Weissberg
|