By Jennifer Lundquist and Joya Misra. Social theorist Talcott Parsons once said that tenure in the American university is like marriage. The institution places a high degree of trust in the tenured professor, for better or for worse, in sickness and in health -- forever. Read more...

By Kerry Ann Rockquemore. Do you have any suggestions for motivating graduate students to meet their dissertation-writing deadlines? I'm working with several bright and energetic students, but they all have difficulty meeting writing deadlines. Read more...

By Kerry Ann Rockquemore. I just read your article on mentoring, as I have been feverishly searching the Internet for help. I am in my first year of a two-year postdoc, and I have been assigned two mentors. One is internal to my department, and the other is an external mentor. Read more...

By Leonard Cassuto. I had just finished teaching my freshman composition class one day not long ago when I learned that I was an enemy of my own work. In a recent article for Inside Higher Ed, Marc Bousquet accuses me of dismissing teaching-intensive positions, or “low-caste teaching,” as something that no graduate student really wants. Read more...

By Peter McDonough and Lorelle L. Espinosa. Today the U.S. Supreme Court again hears oral arguments in Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin. It is a case about one institution’s limited use of race in its rather unique admissions process, but what may be hanging in the balance is the ability of colleges and universities across America to ensure a racially diverse student body and, just as critically, build a diverse faculty. Read more...

By Roger Clegg. Loyal readers of Inside Higher Ed, and especially those who read the comments after its diversity-related articles, know that I don’t like racial preferences. They can -- and should -- read here and here and here how I’ve urged the Supreme Court to rule in Fisher v. University of Texas. Read more...

By Christine Helwick. Recently, as violent attacks and tragic deaths occurred at colleges in Alabama, Arizona, Oregon, Tennessee and Texas, a California Court of Appeal ruled that public colleges and universities have no general legal obligation to protect adult students from the criminal acts of other students. Read more...

By Terri Taylor. On Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear legal arguments concerning Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin for the second time. This week also marks the end of a challenging semester with student demonstrations about the racial climate happening on campuses across the country. Read more...

By Scott McLemee. Let’s not let the sideshow in Tennessee -- where, pretty much on cue, politicians have been waxing indignant over the call for “inclusive holiday celebrations” at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville -- distract us from the real war on Christmas: the one nobody at Fox News wants discussed. Read more...