By Tracy Mitrano. This summer I am teaching “Digital Media Culture” at John Cabot University in Rome. Two of my favorite things in life: teaching and Italy!  I am very grateful.
My students are mainly from the United States, some matriculated at John Cabot, some here for their summer sojourn abroad.  Two students are Italians.  One is from the Ukraine, another from Egypt.  I take note that when I talk about U.S. history, it would appear that the students who are not from the United States know more about it than the ones who are. Read more...

By Tracy Mitrano. I have always been intrigued by this phrase, uttered by Thomas Jefferson in his elder years when he heard of the Missouri Compromise. As a younger man, slave and plantation owner, statesman, and most importantly, the author of the Declaration of Independence, he was of the belief that slavery was a “peculiar institution” and would fade away of its own accord. Those thoughts occurred to him in the early years of the republic, when drafters of the Constitution sought to smooth over differences about slavery to protect and preserve the new nation. Jefferson was not a signer of the Constitution. He was in France at the time. But as the third person to serve in the executive branch that the Constitution created, one can assume that he believed in it. Read more...

By Paul Kniest. The NTEU has produced a fact sheet outlining the case against the government funding private, non-university higher education providers (NUHEPs).
The research was compiled in response to changes outlined in the 2014-15 Federal Budget, specifically the decision to extend funding for Commonwealth supported places (CSPs) to non-university public and private providers, including for-profit provides. More...