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An Obama Administration appointee admits there have been “few net jobs created” over the past decade but thinks increased spending on education will solve the problem. At the Center for American Progress, the White House Deputy Director of the Domestic Policy Council, James Kvaal, said, “The overriding goal of his second term in office is rebuilding the strength of the middle class and after recovering from the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression.” He claimed, “We now have an economy that is growing again; ten million new jobs have been created.” Americans now see “rising middle class standards” under...

This week Americans honor military veterans. On America’s college campuses, the attitude towards them is more ambivalent, at least when their presence on them is compared to their visibility in the rest of America. For one thing, not every campus is closed for Veterans Day. To be sure, many businesses stay open upon that day as well. Moreover, as the Veteran’s Administration web site notes, “there is no legal requirement that schools close on Veterans Day.” Nevertheless, veterans on campus are few and far between. With the possible exception of Troy University, you will find few colleges and universities on...

Earlier this week, the U.S. Department of Education wrapped up its investigation of Princeton University's sexual harassment and assault policies. The findings were unsurprising, though still striking: the government essentially accused the university of violating federal anti-discrimination law by extending too much due process to accused students. Princeton had been one of the last hold-outs on the standard of proof in college rape trials. The university required adjudicators to obtain "clear and convincing" proof that a student was guilty of sexual assault before convicting him. That's too tough, said DOE. As part of its settlement, Princeton is required to lower...

Running out of funds and ideas, colleges want more public funding to help keep them afloat. During a recent panel discussion at the liberal think tank Center for American Progress, speakers praised President Barack Obama’s higher education push for performance-based pay and incentives for colleges and universities. Ted Mitchell, , U.S. Department of Education undersecretary, complained about today’s higher education funding environment, telling the audience, “There has been systematic disinvestment by states throughout the Great Recession in higher education,” adding that it “really does disadvantage students” from low-income neighborhoods and backgrounds. He felt the state governments, by not funding state...

LAS CRUCES, N.M. (AP) -- Oklahoma State University is suing New Mexico State University over the use of a pistol-packing mascot that it says is "confusingly similar" to the Cowboys' own Pistol Pete. Oklahoma State, which filed suit Monday in U.S. District Court in Oklahoma, wants NMSU to stop using the mascot, sometimes referred to in Las Cruces as "Classic Aggie."

When the reasons mount for rethinking cherished academic practices, academia doubles down on those procedures. For example, as the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) and others have shown, there is no shortage of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) majors to fill available jobs requiring those skills. Yet and still, academics proclaim that the need is so acute that they need to import STEM majors from abroad. It turns out that, on top of that misconception, some of these foreign students may actually be, well, spies. “The Chinese regime can work spies recruited in college into positions in research, government...

When we reach the end of high school, we approach the next life, the university life, in the manner of children writing letters to Santa. Oh, we promise to be so very good. We open our hearts to the beloved institution. We get good grades. We do our best on standardized tests. We earnestly list our first, second, third choices. We tell them what we want to be when we grow up. We confide our wishes. We stare at the stock photos of smiling students, we visit the campus, and we find, always, that it is so very beautiful. And...

Due to numerous lewd calls from artists and Oregon residents about stark naked art models at the University of Oregon, the college decided to nix a figure drawing class to protect the models from a slew of seemingly pervy artisans. Known as the Saturday Figure Drawing Group, the free class offered to local artists and residents would meet once a week to workshop drawings of live nude models. But after a few weeks of potential students calling the school asking apparently bawdy questions about the models, the university canceled the classes, according to an official university letter forwarded to The...

PHILADELPHIA, Sept. 17, 2014—In a national certified mailing sent today, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) warns the leaders of more than 300 of our nation’s largest and most prestigious public colleges and universities that they risk First Amendment lawsuits by continuing to maintain speech codes that violate student and faculty rights. The letters are being mailed from the main post office near Independence Hall in Philadelphia today to mark the 227th anniversary of the signing of the U.S. Constitution. liberty bell “58 percent of our nation’s public colleges and universities restrict student and faculty speech with blatantly...

Ironically, liberal college professors are now feeling the increasing weight and burden that is from ObamaCare, or its official name “The Affordable Care Act.” A study released by the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources found that an increasing number of college and university professors are paying more for their health insurance. obamacare forum The study, “2014 Employee Healthcare and Other Benefits in Higher Education Survey,” covered health benefits, four types of healthcare plans (HMO, PPO, POS and high deductible plans), “formal wellness programs,” dental plans and other healthcare basics. The questionnaire itself can be viewed here. The...

Kerry Cronin, who teaches a philosophy class at Boston College, was shocked some years ago during a class on student hookup culture, when a student inquired, “How would you ask someone on a date?” “It’s easy to hook up with someone you’ve just met in a dark room after having a few drinks,” said freshman Frank DiMartino, who took the class. “But asking someone out on a date in broad daylight, when you actually have to know their name, can be really scary.” Other schools are apparently taking notice of the need to explain the socialization/dating procedure, according to The...

Clintonians, despite not being able to cheer Hillary Clinton on as secretary of state, should still find themselves mollified by the sheer number of public appearances Clinton has made recently. hillary clinton hard choices Likely due in part to her preparation for a probable presidential run for 2016, Clinton has selectively inserted herself into the public domain not only via speaking engagements, but also through the publication of her recent autobiography. She has chosen Wall Street banks, industry conventions, and universities as some of her main hubs for oratory. Needless to say, patrons of such spectacles are willing to pay...

An academic sets out to expose “The Great Accreditation Farce” but his efforts border on the farcical. “By awarding accreditation to religious colleges, the process confers legitimacy on institutions that systematically undermine the most fundamental purposes of higher education,” Peter Conn wrote in The Chronicle of Higher Education. “Skeptical and unfettered inquiry is the hallmark of American teaching and research.” “However, such inquiry cannot flourish—in many cases, cannot even survive—inside institutions that erect religious tests for truth.” Conn is an English professor at Penn. “This, in my view, can only be described as a scandal,” Conn avers. “Providing accreditation to...

For academics, diversity is the answer, no matter what the question is. “Making news this past May was the release of employee diversity information at large tech firms, including Google, LinkedIn and Yahoo, which indicated, not that surprisingly, that these Silicon Valley companies employed primarily men (60-70%),” Walter Breau writes on the Academe blog . “The news was more discouraging when the data was disaggregated into tech-related and leadership positions, with the percentage of women dropping even lower.” yahoo tumblr mashable icon “For example, at Yahoo, only 15% of technology and 23% of leadership positions were held by women.” The...

Convention has mandated that once a student completes his/her high school studies, one must enroll at a four-year college or university; to begin study at an ivory-tower institution of higher learning marks for many Americans the culmination of a long educational career. To some, such as Michael Roth (current President of Wesleyan University) a liberal arts college experience provides the best assurance that the person who enters Wesleyan (or a similar liberal arts atmosphere) will leave with a completely different modality of perception and belief construction. To Roth, who has espoused the merits of a liberal education for years, the...

They were among the biggest cheerleaders for Obamacare: Now they are learning, the hard way, that the predictions of the law’s naysayers are largely coming true. For example, Obamacare’s enthusiasts mostly dismissed the warnings of analysts who predicted skyrocketing health care costs once the law went into effect. Flash forward. “Faculty leaders will push the Board of Trustees to add at least $1 million to the University’s budget to cover more employee health care costs after two years of skyrocketing out-of-pocket payments,” Mary Ellen McIntire reported in the GW Hatchet on May 12, 2014. “The Faculty Senate blasted administrators for...

Employment rates for college graduates are dismal. Aggregate student debt is staggering. But university administrative salaries are soaring. The campus climate of tolerance has utterly disappeared. Only the hard sciences and graduate schools have salvaged American universities' international reputations. For over two centuries, our superb system of American public and private higher education kept pace with radically changing times and so ensured our prosperity and reinforced democratic pluralism. But a funny thing has happened on the way to the 21st century. Colleges that were once our most enlightened and tolerant institutions became America's dinosaurs. Start with ossified institutions. Tenure...

Academia is doubling down on diversity and on anyone who comes near it offering diverse thoughts. condoleezza rice A special supplement of The Chronicle of Higher Education features articles entitled: “First-Generation at Georgetown—A broad support system helps students succeed among wealthier—and worldlier—classmates;” “Undocumented at Berkeley—A special program at Berkeley gives young immigrants a pathway;” “Navigating the Fafsa Wilderness—A U. of Buffalo professor’s project to help students fill out the complicated aid forms has helped more go to college;” and “Helping Hispanic Students Beat the Odds.” Worthy goals to be sure, at least those that don’t skirt U.S. immigration law. Nevertheless,...

It’s hard to know whether to laugh or cry over the demand by U.S. college students for “trigger warnings” to alert them that something they’re about to read or see in one of their classes might traumatize them—apparently a new trend, according to the New York Times. Ditto for off-beat campus sculptures, placards displayed by protesters and more. Poor dears. These are the same kids who would riot in the streets if their colleges asserted any form of in loco parentis when it comes to such old-fashioned concerns as inebriation and fornication. God forbid they should be treated as responsible,...

As soon as an African American student at San Jose State University who was racially harassed and bullied by his dormitory roommates came forward, university, county, and state officials began an investigation. Within days, prosecutors labeled it a hate crime, battery charges were filed against three of the roommates, and the university had suspended them. Within weeks, California State Assembly Speaker John Perez announced the creation of a Select Committee on Campus Climate, and its first task was to look into this incident and find a way to prevent others like it. When a white male threw a beer at...