This post is a piece by Boaz Barak that was recently published as a guest essay in the New York Times. Here's a link to the original. In it he explores what I consider to be an important issue about how higher education has in some ways contributed to the declining faith that the public has … Continue reading Boaz Barak: How About We Don’t Bring Our Whole Selves to the Classroom
This post is a speech that Stanford's former provost, John Etchemendy, recently gave to the university's board of trustees. Right now, the threats to universities are coming fast and furious from the outside, with the new administration canceling research grants, threatening to cut indirect cost reimbursement, and to tax endowment income. But in this speech … Continue reading John Etchemendy — The Threat from Within
This post is an op-ed by Jon Zimmerman that was recently published in the Wall Street Journal. Here's a link to the original. A Trump Voter Walks Into My Office It’s no joke—universities impoverish themselves by suppressing conservatives. By Jonathan Zimmerman Despite what you might have read about left-wing monoculture in academia, we really do … Continue reading Jon Zimmerman — A Trump Voter Walks Into My Office
This post is an essay by Amna Khalid and Jeffrey Aaron Snyder that recently appeared in the Chronicle of Higher Education Review. Here's a link to the original. I fully agree with the argument they make here -- about how higher education institutions have increasingly been failing to treat their own students as adults. I … Continue reading Khalid and Snyder: Stop Treating Students Like Babies
This post is an essay by Len Gutkin that was recently published in the Chronicle Review. Here's a link to the original. The essay does a great job of capturing the essence of a new form of discourse on American university campuses he calls the "hyperbolic style" -- which he characterizes as "breathless, declaratory, at … Continue reading Len Gutkin — The Hyperbolic Style in American Academe
This post is an essay by Blake Smith that first appeared in Tablet. Here's a link to the original. It's about a phenomenon I started noticing a few years ago in the peculiar process of admissions to elite universities. In this process it's not enough to present yourself to the admissions committee as the ultimate … Continue reading Blake Smith — The Woke Meritocracy
This post is a lovely essay by Michael Lind, which was recently published in Tablet magazine. Here's a link to the original. In this piece, Lind provides a rich analysis of the history of the American elite. The key to this story is that the elite used to be plural -- a set of local … Continue reading Michael Lind — The New American Elite
This post is a transcription of a piece by Sam Harris, published in his podcast Making Sense on the day before the election. It's the most stunning analysis I have seen about the key to Trump's appeal. I've seen some good things about the way he has tapped into the resentments of middle and working … Continue reading Harris — The Key to Trump’s Appeal
David Labaree on Schooling, History, and Writing 