higher education

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• SOURCE: Chronicle of Higher Education
  5/30/2023
  

  The Hypocrisy (and Futility) of English-Only "Decolonization"

  by Eric Adler

  The peril the liberal arts face today is exemplified by calls to dislodge the centrality of "dead white men" from the curriculum; universities are happy to accept this as a cheap way to pander to diversity as they gut language requirements and departments that would enable students to have a deeper engagement with world cultures.

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• SOURCE: The Atlantic
  6/1/2023
  

  Richard Rothstein: The Problem with Class-Based Affirmative Action

  While Black Americans are disproportionately poor, argues a scholar of discriminatory policy, the larger numbers of poor whites make it likely that class-based admissions preferences will fail to address racial disparities, including concentrated poverty in Black communities. 

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• SOURCE: Chronicle of Higher Education
  5/26/2023
  

  Jeremi Suri: Texas Higher Ed Conflict "Doesn't Have to Be This Way"

  The UT-Austin historian previously worked in Wisconsin when Governor Scott Walker went to war with the university system. He discusses the similarities and differences a decade later in Texas. 

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• SOURCE: Chronicle of Higher Education
  5/16/2023
  

  Reject the Bombastic Optimism of College Presidents

  by Joshua Doležal

  When the rhetoric of university presidents—transformative this, vision that—resembles that of prosperity gospel televangelists, it may be time for some healthy skepticism. 

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• SOURCE: Chronicle of Higher Education
  5/5/2023
  

  The Labor of Teaching and Administrative Hysteria

  by Elise Archias and Blake Stimson

  Although diversity and cultural sensitivity administrators often embrace (and arguably encourage) student complaints about ideas presented in the classroom, students are more harmed when administrators use those complaints to undercut the expertise and autonomy of faculty who have effective ways of teaching difficult material.

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• SOURCE: Academe
  5/8/2023
  

  Faculty and Librarians Must be Allies in the Fight to Save Higher Ed

  by Emily Drabinski

  "A robust defense of free expression requires an equally vociferous defense of the institutions where that speech is most widely celebrated. The fight for higher education must be a fight for the library as well."

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• SOURCE: Chronicle of Higher Education
  5/4/2023
  

  Higher Ed Institutions Push Diversity to Avoid Dealing with Justice

  by Ariana González Stokas

  "Beginning with Regents of the University of California v. Bakke in 1978, diversity became a proxy for the real work of remedying persistent and entrenched exclusions based on race and gender."

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• SOURCE: Inside Higher Ed
  5/8/2023
  

  How an Accreditor Became a Political Target

  The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools used to keep a low profile while verifying the academic integrity of schools in their region. But their region includes Texas and Florida. 

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• SOURCE: Chronicle of Higher Education
  5/5/2023
  

  Statehouse Assaults on Tenure and Diversity are Impacting Hiring at State Universities

  "In Florida, some candidates’ concerns are so profound that they’re turning down job offers in the state — despite not having other offers, said Andrew Gothard, president of the United Faculty of Florida, a union representing faculty at all 12 of the state’s public universities, a private one, and community colleges."

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• SOURCE: Chronicle of Higher Education
  5/3/2023
  

  Controversy Dogs Another Florida Campus Presidential Search

  by Francie Diep

  The elevation of Henry Mack III, a senior leader at the state education department, to the final tier of candidates for the presidency of Florida Gulf Coast University has raised questions whether academic experience or political considerations are the driving factor. 

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  4/21/2023
  

  Brown President: States, not Students, are Threatening Speech on Campus

  by Christina Paxson

  "It is ludicrous to claim that state-sponsored censorship — which carries the full force of the government and can even entail criminal penalties — is justified by student misconduct or peer pressure."

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  

  Once an Alumnus Critical of Diversity at UVa, Now He Sits on the Board

  Bert Ellis has been appointed to the University of Virginia's governing board by Governor Glenn Youngkin, having worked as the leader of a conservative alumni group demanding and end to diversity programs he sees as conflicting with the university's heritage. 

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• SOURCE: The Nation
  4/19/2023
  

  Rutgers Strikers Ran the Table; Is This the Way out of Higher Ed's Crisis?

  by Jonathan David

  Three Rutgers unions, representing instructors in different professional positions, won by modeling the kind of solidarity that university workers need to fight back against the privatization and corporatization of public higher education. 

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• SOURCE: Inside Higher Ed
  4/17/2023
  

  Rutgers Unions Suspend Strike after Big Gains

  Although unions representing graduate workers, lecturers, and full-time faculty must approve them, a framework for agreement has been reached that would deliver significant gains in wages and other demands. 

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• SOURCE: Chronicle of Higher Education
  4/17/2023
  

  Another Consequence of Gun Culture: Fake Emergency Calls

  Although campus communities are thankful when they don't experience gun violence, shootings have spawned another disruptive phenomenon: the mass shooting hoax. A campus security expert discusses how colleges can respond. 

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• SOURCE: Chronicle of Higher Education
  4/13/2023
  

  Anti-DEI Bills are Already Changing Higher Ed

  Even though many state-level bills banning diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs have not yet taken effect, many campus administrations appear to have begun complying with the political pressure to roll back existing initiatives. 

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• SOURCE: Texas Tribune
  4/11/2023
  

  Greg Abbott Claims to Boost Texas Universities. Why Is He Attacking Tenure?

  Attacks on tenure and diversity programs would threaten the improvements Texas politicians say they want to make in higher education in the state, say faculty advocates. 

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• SOURCE: Inside Higher Ed
  4/10/2023
  

  A Scholar Revisits Study of Campus Diversity 2 Decades Later

  "Higher education has an extremely important role to play in helping people see things differently and in potentially helping to reduce racial inequality. But this requires cross-race interaction."

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• SOURCE: Chronicle of Higher Education
  4/6/2023
  

  The Inexcusable Silence of Florida's College Presidents

  by Brian Rosenberg

  Florida's public college presidents have made it clear that they intend to keep out of sight as the governor attacks the independence of the state's higher education system, even as the very idea of the universities they run is being undermined. 

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• SOURCE: Chronicle of Higher Education
  4/7/2023
  

  A Proponent of Technified, Skills-Based Higher Ed is Out, but His Soulless Vision Lives On

  by François Furstenberg

  Jason Wingard's presidency at Temple is over, but his vision of higher education shaped by the skills needs of business and the diminishment of the value of subject experts has enough backing among moneyed interests in tech and education reform to remain dangerous.