By Colleen Flaherty. From dramatic funding cuts to dismissive political rhetoric, the U.S. hasn’t been particularly hospitable to the humanities in recent years. Yet the humanities remain fundamentally American and full of promise to Anna Deavere Smith. The noted actress and playwright delivered the National Endowment for the Humanities’s annual Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities here Monday evening, at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Read more...
By Colleen Flaherty. Brown University made a bold promise at its inaugural National Diversity Summit last month: to double its proportion of underrepresented minority faculty by 2025. The announcement, to which the faculty was already privy, drew praise on campus and off, but also questions about how Brown would achieve such a goal. Read more...
By Michael Stratford. The Obama administration is proposing to make it easier for colleges with high loan default rates but few students taking out loans to avoid losing their eligibility for federal student aid.
Officials last week unveiled a draft plan to expand the circumstances under which a college can appeal a high default rate on the basis that a low percentage of its students borrow money through the federal loan program. Read more...
By Brian Mathews. While the paper is directed at library leaders, it was meant to help others as well. I’ve encountered many librarians and staff who “want to try new things” but are stifled by bosses who just want to maintain the status quo. I use to tell people to “just do it” – but this essay was an attempt to provide a little more structure. More...
By Brian Mathews. Shortly after that we introduced a Multipurpose Room. While this technically is not a classroom, we do use it occasionally to host large class sessions as well as course project showcases, guest lectures, and related events that support the learning enterprise. More...
By Erick Sierra. In one of the first courses I took as an undergraduate, the English professor walked into class one morning invoking the name of Faulkner as if it were a sacred incantation: “Today, ladies and gentleman, we are going to read Faulkner.” We students shivered at the sublimity of the name. Read more...By Steven Ward. This short and easy-to-use field guide is designed to help both academics and lay audiences quickly identify some of the important species and subspecies that now occupy the higher-education landscape in the United States. Recognizing these various species, many of which are new to this environment, has become particularly important in this period of drastic university climate change and species migration. Read more...
By Anne Curzan. This week, I was at a dinner party with a dozen or so accomplished journalists. There are many things I enjoy about hanging out with journalists, including (but in no way limited to): (a) they ask interesting and surprising questions, and (b) they really care about language. More...
By Geoffrey Pullum. I have a correspondent I call Faxman who is a professor of accounting. He has the laudable desire to improve his M.B.A. students’ ability to write clear prose. This is a worthy endeavor, and I was rather shocked to learn that his efforts have led to (can you believe this?) complaints from students and a warning from his dean. More...
By Lucy Ferriss. Reasons abound for why I’m glad I don’t have a teenager prepping for the SAT at the moment. But the latest word, from the pop star Taylor Swift, on the Princeton Review’s practice test tripled my relief at having passed that hurdle. More...
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