Public Matters: A Response to Kevin Carey
Back in the 90’s, there was a brief flurry of interest around the demise of the “public intellectual,” who was informally understood to be the sort of person who wrote about Big Ideas in accessible language for general readers. Read more...
Bridging the Gap: Theory and Practice
Broadening Out the Free Range Movement
By Laura Tropp. Recently I had the chance to check out clips from Lenore Skenazy’s television program World’s Worst Mom. Skenazy is the leader of the Free Range Kids Movement, which encourages people to give up helicopter parenting and allow their children to have more freedom and independence in their everyday activities. She counters the public perception that we live in a dangerous world with a more balanced reality and works with parents to relax and back off from their hovering. Read more...
Reflections on Advising Graduate Students
By David H. Monk. I have some vivid memories of advising graduate students in my early days as a university faculty member. I had just completed my Ph.D. program and had arrived at a new institution. One day I was a graduate student finishing up my dissertation; the next I was advising graduate students. I received no formal guidance about how to make the transition. Read more...
Off the Rails
By Karla P. Zepeda. My first on-campus interview felt much like a chapter from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. It was a bit improper here, a bit of a tangle there and with much indecorous happenings everywhere. One could presumably blame it on the havoc caused by the winter storm that interrupted my flight. It was not fun at all being stranded halfway there. But I was safely grounded -- rather, the plane was -- and staying at the Westin Detroit wasn’t much of a chore at all. Read more...
Campus Carry vs. Faculty Rights
By Firmin DeBrabander. Against vociferous opposition from the state's own university system, a Florida Senate panel last month approved a bill allowing students, faculty and staff with appropriate permits to carry guns on public college campuses. This brings to 10 the number of states that are poised to consider so-called campus carry legislation this year. Nine currently allow it in some form or another. Read more...
Crossing State Lines
By Ry Rivard. The system is launching a new program that guarantees students admission to nine HBCUs if they graduate with an associate degree. The deal allows a student with 60 community college credits to enter the historically black colleges as a junior. Read more...
Questions on Money, Influence and Competence
By Kaitlin Mulhere. Students at Brown University are raising questions about an investigation and hearings involving a reported drugging and sexual assault on campus last fall. Read more...
Crossing a Line?
By Kaitlin Mulhere. A freshman at Reed College ignited a fast-spreading free speech debate with a story about his removal from a class discussion because his comments -- especially those about rape -- made other students uncomfortable. Yet others at Reed said the student was making it difficult for class discussions to take place for reasons far removed from his views. Read more...