By Linda Hall. When I heard that Skidmore College, where I teach, had assigned Alan Lightman’s Einstein’s Dreams to its incoming first-year students, I couldn’t help marveling at our originality. Summer reading programs tend to choose the same old books, or rather the same nearly new ones. Read more...
'Bright Future' Layoffs
By Kellie Woodhouse. After Ashland University on Friday laid off 23 instructors -- many of them tenured -- and eliminated another nine teaching positions, President Carlos Campo described the future at the financially troubled university as "bright."
The move is a drastic one. Read more...
Not Just Research
By Colleen Flaherty. It’s no secret that science courses, particularly at the first- and second-year levels, can be dry. The classes are big, the content is wide but typically shallow, and professors often resort to lectures. Read more...
Please Forward!
By Carl Straumsheim. When political campaigns enlist college and university employees to spread the word to colleagues and students, they may inadvertently be asking their supporters to break institutional policy -- or state law. Read more...
Extracurricular Activities
By Scott Jaschik. The hack of the Ashley Madison website, where those seeking extramarital affairs could theoretically communicate privately, has led to much analysis of the 36 million names of registrants now publicly available. Read more...
What Freshmen Know ... and Don't Know
By Scott Jaschik. Each August since 1998, Beloit College has released its "mind-set list" to help faculty and administrators understand what a new class of freshmen have experienced and not experienced. Read more...
Ban on Sagging Pants
By Jake New. Officials at Henderson State University on Friday defended the university’s decision to ban “sagging pants” on campus, amid concerns from students that the ban targeted black students. Read more...
Weekend Reading: Almost Back Edition
Why We Need to Resurrect Our Souls
By Mark Edmundson. It is no secret: Culture in the West has become progressively more practical, materially oriented, and skeptical. When I look out at my students, I see people who are in the process of choosing a way to make money and succeed, a strategy for getting on in life. More...