By Michele S. Moses. The measured compromises coming out of the affirmative action rulings over the past decades exemplify the strength of our democracy, writes Michele S. Moses. Read more...

By George A. Nation III. Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy’s decision in Fisher v. University of Texas significantly undermines the very goals the court hopes to achieve, argues George A. Nation III. Read more...

By Carolyn Betensky. Tenured faculty must get vocally involved at every level of governance in the ways that our institutions hire, compensate and retain educators, argues Carolyn Betensky. Read more...

By Scott McLemee. The story is told of how, during an interview at a film festival in the 1960s, someone asked the avant-garde director Jean-Luc Godard, “But you must at least admit that a film has to have a beginning, a middle and an end?” To which Godard replied, “Yes, but not necessarily in that order.”
Touché! Creative tampering with established patterns of storytelling (or with audience expectations, which is roughly the same thing) is among the basic prerogatives of artistic expression -- one to be exercised at whatever risk of ticket buyers demanding their money back. Read more...

By Alexander Holt. The Democratic presidential candidate’s new student loan forgiveness proposals are unnecessary and would help wealthy Americans over everyone else, Alexander Holt argues. Read more...

By Mary Ellen Petrisko and John Etchemendy. Everyone complains about not getting reliable data on student success, but no one does anything about it. Until now, write Mary Ellen Petrisko and John Etchemendy. Read more...

By Jerry A. Jacobs. Are editors manipulating citation scores in order to inflate the status of their publications? Are they corrupting the rankings of scholarly journals?
While any allegations about cheating or other academic chicanery are cause for concern, journal rankings to date continue to offer one rough but useful source of information to a wide variety of audiences.
Journal rankings help authors to answer the omnipresent question “Where to publish?” Tenure review committees also use rankings as evidence for visibility, recognition and even quality in the academic review process, especially for junior candidates. Read more...

By Nancy Zimpher. While a well-intentioned concept, it falls substantially short of what today's students really need, argues Nancy Zimpher. Read more...

By Robert Matz. The old joke that consigns people who graduate with English degrees to a permanent life in food service says less about them and more about our culture, writes Robert Matz. Read more...