By E. Gordon Gee. The issue of sexual violence on college and university campuses has been a metaphorical bomb dropped on the reputation of American higher education. A bomb that has been ticking and counting down for decades, and has now reached the point of explosion and complete catastrophe. Read more...

By Scott McLemee. During a late and tense scene in Hitchcock (2012) -- the biopic with Anthony Hopkins in the title role, centering on the troubled making of Psycho -- we see the director’s agent suggest one way to avert the disaster of being stuck with a film that neither the studio nor the censor will approve: edit it to run as a two-part episode of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents," his successful and lucrative television series. Read more...

By Judith S. Eaton. With all the extensive consultation about the Postsecondary Institutions Ratings System during the past 18 months, all the meetings and the many conversations, we know almost nothing about its likely impact on accreditation, our all-important effort by colleges, universities and accrediting organizations working together to define, judge and improve academic quality. Read more...

By Gary S. May. The last few years have brought a call from some quarters to update the STEM acronym -- for science, technology, engineering and mathematics -- to STEAM, with the A standing for arts. On the surface, such a move seems harmless. What’s another letter, right? But in my view, STEM should stay just as it is, because education policy has yet to fully embrace the concept it represents -- and that concept is more important than ever. Read more...

By Jake New. After first trying to keep the deal a secret, the University of Houston admitted this week that it is paying Matthew McConaughey $135,000 -- plus travel and a fee to a booking agent -- to speak at its May commencement. Read more...

By Carl Straumsheim. If massive open online course offerings from Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology could be described as a city, then computer science would be its vibrant downtown core, surrounded by less densely populated but no less characteristic neighborhoods of STEM, humanities and social sciences courses. Read more...

By Colleen Flaherty. As adjuncts and their tenure-track allies struggle to create more full-time positions, some of them have leverage: contracts or state laws that govern the percentage of courses that must be taught by full-time faculty members. But attempts to enforce limits on colleges’ employment of part-time adjuncts prove difficult, as an ongoing legal battle in Massachusetts illustrates. Read more...