Free Republic

An empirical study of what is being taught and learned in university sociology courses around the country would be challenging to carry out. But American sociology provides a convenient site for observing how the discipline is taught in the form of a research journal produced by the American Sociological Association (ASA). Teaching Sociology has existed since 1973 and advertises itself on the ASA website as “advanc[ing] the quality of sociology instruction.” I admit having never looked at it during the entirety of my quarter-century in the discipline until writing this essay. I came to graduate school under the influence of...

Larry Chavis is clinical professor of strategy and entrepreneurship at the Kenan-Flagler Business School at UNC. He has taught there for 18 years on a renewable contract. He has now been told that his contract will not be renewed this year. The university has apparently acted in a totally legal way, but Chavis and his supporters are upset: Because of his long service, which seemed to promise some job security. Because a few of his lectures were apparently recorded, by built-in security camera. This arrangement is also apparently legal, though it seems tacky. As far as I know, the faculty...

Only about 900,000 persons claim permanent residence in South Dakota, yet its 28 colleges and universities rank it third best in the nation for universities per capita, and its 50,000+ students make its higher-ed student-to-population ratio 5.76 percent, higher than North Carolina’s, Ohio’s, Pennsylvania’s, Texas’s, and Wisconsin’s, among other reputed higher-education meccas. Small as it is, if South Dakota applies lessons from its own history to the current crises in higher education, it could become an even more important force. If you think that South Dakota is just a Great Plains version of Saudi Arabia, read a book (preferably my...

In its first year, the Biden administration launched a fast-track Scientific Integrity Task Force, intended to “lift up the voices of Federal scientists of many perspectives and backgrounds” and put scientific integrity “paramount in Federal governance for years to come.” The task force took a “whole-of-government” approach to ensuring the scientific integrity of federally funded research and included representatives from the 21 federal agencies that maintain scientific-research programs. For those with a high pain threshold, the final report may be seen here. Prominent among the move’s critics have been the Council on Governmental Relations (a consortium of research universities) and...

Young people, women, and Democrats reported the largest drops.Confidence in higher education has plummeted to its lowest level ever according to the results of two new national polls commissioned by FIRE and conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago. In two AmeriSpeak panels representative of the U.S. household population, we asked Americans: “How much confidence, if any, do you have in U.S. colleges and universities?” This question was first asked in February and then again in May, and its wording is similar to a question posed by Gallup in Summer 2023 when Americans were asked about their confidence in...

Remember when everyone would tell you once you had a degree, you’d be set for life? Turns out, they meant you’d be set for a lifetime of disappointment instead. Back in 2009, over 70% of recent high school grads attended college. Today, enrollment is down over 15% from its peak, with more students opting for trade jobs over office gigs. Not even cringey TikToks from the Big Four accounting firms can convince them otherwise…Career detour: In a recent survey, over half of Americans said they believe a college degree isn’t worth it. Many young people are taking their high school...

We learned about the complexities and mysteries of artificial intelligence, the uses of innovative statistical analyses that could improve policing, and the Confucian roots of Xi’s totalitarianism. We discussed the early modern origins of ideological movements, Milton’s translation of Homeric epic into a Christian drama of rebellion and salvation, and Moby Dick’s critical analysis of corporatism. We explored the religious roots of modern politics and the influence of Hebraic constitutionalism on the Founding Fathers. We reflected on Shakespeare’s dialectical examination of politics in his Roman dramas. This was no academic conference. It was a job interview. Faculty searches often take...

Leigh made a 34 on the ACT. Bill made a 23. Which of the two do you want attending your academically selective college? According to a traditional or merit-based admissions standard, the answer is almost certainly Leigh, whose aptitude and prior learning mark her as the stronger candidate by far. Yet, following the logic of Landscape, the College Board’s quietly insidious “contextualization” resource, admissions officers may find themselves shunting Leigh aside in Bill’s favor. Developed in 2018 and broadly available since 2020, Landscape is a free admissions dashboard that allows decisionmakers to “consider each student within the context of where...

President Donald Trump’s campaign team is rewriting his Thursday night promise to grant green cards to any foreign graduates of four-year universities and two-year community colleges. President Trump believes “we ought to keep the most skilled graduates who can make significant contributions to America … who would never undercut American wages or workers,” said the statement from spokeswoman Katherine Leavitt.

Former President Donald Trump has floated green cards for all foreign students who graduate from US universities and junior colleges in a podcast interview — prompting hardline immigration advocacy groups to lash out at what they called a “cockamamie proposal.” “You graduate from a college, I think you should get automatically, as part of your diploma, a green card to be able to stay in this country, and that includes junior colleges too,” Trump, 78, told “The All-In Podcast.” Jason Calacanis, one of several Silicon Valley tech investors who hosts the podcast, prompted the response when asking whether the 45th...

The college is partly blaming the declining numbers on negative press from the pro-Palestinian demonstrations and arrests.. Following an enrollment decline, Emerson College, in an email sent to faculty and staff Tuesday, announced that it will lay off staff and not fill some vacant positions in fiscal year 2025, according to The Boston Globe. The college is blaming the enrollment decline in part on “negative press and social media” from the pro-Palestinian demonstrations and subsequent arrests. ... President Jay Bernhardt wrote that he expects the enrollment decline to last only one year, but the effects will ripple through the budget...

As a history professor with over 30 years of teaching experience at the community-college level, I have spent most of my career secure in the idea that the values I have been teaching my students, such as natural rights, freedom of speech, and the right to self-expression, were the bedrock of Western Civilization, American history, and academic institutions like mine. These values were almost universally accepted by faculty, staff, and students alike. Yes, there was always the lunatic fringe, espousing ideologies that emphasized conformity, mediocrity, and the “greater good” of some utopia. But they usually attracted only the youngest and...

Results from the recent report from California Commission on the Status of Women and Girls show that the abortions taking place on college campuses are rising, thanks to California’s initiative to promote abortion pill access to college students. According to the report, a total of 427 abortions were performed across California’s public and private campuses last year. In 2019, legislation to make this a reality was signed by Governor Gavin Newsom and went into effect in 2023. Senate Bill 24 (SB24) requires that the Commission on the Status of Women and Girls administer “readiness” protocols to efficiently use the College...

American presidents have long abused their authority in order to harm their opponents, for instance by having the IRS pursue targeted tax audits against them or having the FCC threaten the licenses of broadcasters who air too much criticism. Often, the mere threat of a federal “investigation” is sufficient to achieve the desired end, and, if not, the cost of the ensuing legal process is tantamount to punishment. Those tactics are supposed to be illegal, but presidents have difficulty resisting them. They are eager to, as Richard Nixon put it, “maximize the incumbency” and don’t foresee any adverse consequences in...

The student unrest that roiled the nation’s campuses in the first half of this year was most often associated with the “encampment,” a visible tent-manifestation of scruffy, keffiyeh-swaddled support for the governing of Gaza by the terrorist group Hamas, as well as many other expressions of rank anti-Semitism. But was it really “student” unrest? niversity administrators might be surprised (or perhaps not) that much of today’s campus chaos originates, as it always has, with the employees. Both faculty and staff have for decades mobilized students for protest, activism, and, at times, illegal activity. Today’s pro-Hamas student movement, as with so...

When accepting the Heritage Foundation’s 2024 Salvatori Prize on May 22, Chris Rufo remarked that state legislatures in red states such as Oklahoma need to start exercising oversight of their public universities. He’s right. “There is an endemic rot of indoctrination, politicization, and intellectual intimidation,” Joel Gardner observed on this website in 2020, “that is eviscerating the historical purpose and nature of our institutions of higher learning.” This remains true today and not just in elite institutions. The rot is widespread even in public universities in Oklahoma, one of the reddest states in the nation. Fortunately, with Republicans in possession...

Stanford University police arrested 13 pro-Palestinian protesters Wednesday who entered the president’s office early in the morning and, the university said, caused extensive damage in the building and injured one of the officers trying to clear the building. Outside, protesters graffitied the stone walls with swear words and death threats against police, America and Israel. On the last day of spring instruction at Stanford, university officials then wasted no time in dismantling a pro-Palestinian encampment on nearby White Plaza, removing tents that had been up since April. They also removed an adjacent pro-Israel display featuring chairs with the names of...

Student debt in the U.S. has ballooned to over $1.7 trillion, burdening millions of Americans with financial stress. Rising tuition costs and stagnating wages are considered to be the major drivers of this issue.To gain insight into how this is affecting students, Visual Capitalist's Marcus Lu visualized the results of WalletHub’s Student Money Survey.This survey was conducted in 2024 with a nationally representative sample of 210 students. Results were normalized by gender and income.Data and Key FindingsStudent wealth surveys can provide unique insights into the financial preparedness of younger Americans.Starting with post-grad fears, it appears that the majority of students...

Higher-education administrators remain in a tight spot regarding the recent spate of antisemitism on campuses. They have allowed, and in some cases encouraged, a system that has an untenable moral tension where the treatment of Jews is concerned. The war in Palestine has brought this tension to light. Students and faculty on elite campuses tend to see the world in terms of opposing groups: us and them, black and white, good and evil, and, most importantly, oppressor and oppressed. The oppressed can be identified among the poor, black, female, homosexual, etc. The oppressors fall into the opposite groups: the rich,...

Most of the general public, particularly those who know students in college or university, are aware of the sharp increases in the cost of higher education over the last several decades. Such increases have strained the budgets of students and their families and have led to significant increases in student debt. Included in these sharp price increases is the cost of textbooks and online materials that students need for their courses. A commonly cited estimate is that the cost of these materials may average around $1,200 per year per student (or $150 per course for eight courses during an academic...