Free Republic

Go Forth & Multiply Malcolm A. Kline, June 8, 2010 With the decline of basic math skills that they helped to bring about, about the only place that the political Left can multiply is on college campuses. We can see the multiplication process at work in graduation exercises as the political and media elite use their frequent flyer miles to reach students one more time before they leave the academic nest. Indeed, a random selection of 33 colleges shows that one-third of the speakers chosen by these institutions of higher learning to inspire seniors are conservative, Republican or independent. The...

Living On A Prayer Malcolm A. Kline, May 21, 2010 One of the great modern ironies is that the world’s largest consumer of books—academia—increasingly tries to sever its ties with the one volume even hotels find indispensable—the Bible. “Many institutions have lost their way, like politicians who have tried to stand for everything but end up standing for nothing because they didn’t have convictions strong enough to stay afloat on stormy seas,” David Rathburn, chairman of the board of trustees at Grove City College said at a lunch there. “They did what they thought would be popular, or expedient, or...

Transfer Tax? Bethany Stotts, May 21, 2010 Alleging waste and a “transfer tax” in higher education, Peter P. Smith argues in the most recent Education Outlook that America should establish a “National, ‘Student-Facing’ Course Database and Transfer Information System” for postsecondary transfer students, and “Automate” the “Processing and Evaluation of Transfer Credits” in order to decrease the number of students who get sidetracked from graduating. In addition to these two reforms, Smith also suggests that higher education should “Create agreements among Colleges that Streamline the Transfer Process,” “Improve the Management and Quality of Postsecondary Data for the Administration of Credit...

Backward Progressives Malcolm A. Kline, May 10, 2010 A couple of decades ago, syndicated columnist and Democratic Party strategist Mark Shields told a joke that went like this: When two liberals came upon a man who had been mugged, the first liberal looked at the second and said, “We must find the person who did this. He needs help.” The bit still works 20 years later because it is indicative of the frequently backward way in which the Left views the world, which is on full display politically and journalistically but most of all academically. Consider: * “Two Mexican universities...

Racing to the Top Malcolm A. Kline, April 27, 2010 The White House is having a competition to give out awards to educators to promote its race to the top program. Maybe they should open it up to College financial aid offices and development officers. Just a few miles from the U. S. Capitol, where Congress recently voted to increase student aid, George Washington University is staging the annual ballet performed by college administrators as they orchestrate their tuition hikes that coincide remarkably with the federal/taxpayer-funded largesse. The late Christopher T. Warden, himself a veteran journalist and educator and the...

Feds Fund Academic Bias Malcolm A. Kline, April 7, 2010 For years I have been telling congressional staffers that they have it within their power to bring balance to institutions of higher learning. All they have to do is cut federal spending on education. Yet and still, as a great man said, “There are simple answers, just not easy ones.” Don’t scratch your heads over the source of that quote: It was Ronald Reagan. Now, from inside the academy, comes affirmation. “We have reached the point where for many institutions of higher education, the amount of revenue that they derive...

p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:normal;tab-stops:436.5pt">Congressional Democrats have added President Obama’s takeover of the student loan industry to the health care reconciliation bill. It is a troubling development, but not because of the finances.  The trouble comes from the specter of federal control of American higher education.  “Obama loans” may seem benign but they threaten academic freedom and may compromise the quality of academic programs. The move by the Democrats forestalls a debate we need to have over who controls this key institution. Since 1965, the federal government has subsidized colleges and universities by guaranteeing loans that students take from private lenders. Obama’s...

Remedial Rules for Radicals Malcolm A. Kline, March 8, 2010 Campus Progress is bent out of shape over the mere prospect of federal and state budget cuts in higher education programs. “Today students are taking bold action to highlight the crisis in college affordability and access,” Pedro de la Torre III, Campus Progress’s Advocacy Senior Associate, stated on March 4, 2010. “We can no longer afford to ignore our shortcomings in these areas: the average student debt for graduates has reached more than $23,000, and at least 37 states are slashing higher education budgets which will lead to increasing tuition...

An Inconvenient Koala Bethany Stotts, March 5, 2010 Students at the University of California at San Diego decided to launch a “ghetto-themed ‘Compton Cookout’’’ which satirizes black culture in celebration of Black History Month, according a February Los Angeles Times article. “Promising a taste of ‘life in the ghetto,’ the [party’s] Facebook invitation contained many racist stereotypes,” reported Larry Gordon. “For example, it urged women to dress as ‘ghetto chicks’ who ‘usually have gold teeth, start fights and drama, and wear cheep clothes.’ It said the menu would include chicken and watermelon.” UC Irvine’s New University newspaper notes that “This...

Ethics & the College Malcolm A. Kline, March 5, 2010 Here’s a new twist on that old cliché “Those who can’t do, teach.” “Last night, former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich returned to his alma mater, Northwestern University, and to a crowd as skeptical as it was curious to hear how he would defend his legacy in a panel discussion dedicated to ethics in politics,” David Vognar reported on The Huffington Post. “The result for both Blagojevich and the audience was more talk, talk, talk.” “The students, alumni and Evanston residents treated the event as the sideshow his appearances have become.”...

Title IX & Sexual Harassment Sheila Archambault, March 5, 2010 Most commonly known for its athletic gender equity requirements, Title IX is becoming extremely relevant in sexual misconduct law suits on college campuses across the country, a paper by a law firm focusing on higher education said. In sexual misconduct cases, it is apparent “that we are in ‘Three Little Bears’ territory … we cannot be too hot or too cold, or the courts will rapidly remind us we are off course. We have to be just right,” said a paper entitled, Gamechangers: Reshaping Campus Sexual Misconduct Through Litigation, by...

Inside Temples of Tolerance Malcolm A. Kline, March 3, 2010 While academics lecture the rest of us about diversity, all is not well in their own temples of tolerance. “There has been a recent upsurge of public attacks upon, and disruptions of, Israeli diplomats and scholars, as they seek to present their views in the ‘marketplace of ideas’ and at institutions traditionally committed to the preservation of free speech,” PR newswire reports. “Recent events at the University of California-Irvine, University of California-Los Angeles, Oxford University, and Cambridge University have targeted these speakers in the most racist and hostile terms, and...

Still Stuck on Stupid Malcolm A. Kline, March 3, 2010 With literacy on all levels (i.e., without adjectives or with—scientific, historical, civic, etc.) on the wane, public officials everywhere scratch their heads over what to do about it while concocting schemes such as the one devised by the school board in the city Tony Bennett sings about. “San Francisco high school students, just months out of middle school, can start earning San Francisco State college credit this fall through a ninth-grade ethnic studies course,” Jill Tucker reported in the San Francisco Chronicle on March 1, 2010. “Currently, five ethnic studies...

Recession-Proof Higher Ed Malcolm A. Kline, February 17, 2010 Could the problem with the unemployment rate in the United States be that it affects the wrong people? “Despite the economic recession, the total number of jobs in higher education continues to follow regular historical patterns and has been characterized as ‘stable,’ according to the latest Higher Education Employment Report from HigherEdJobs.com,” PR Newswire reports. “Following historical patterns, the number of jobs in higher education continued to rise during the fourth quarter of 2009, albeit at a slightly lower rate than in the recent past.” “In Q4 2009, the number of...

PETA Pressures Neumann Alumni Bethany Stotts, February 9, 2010 PETA, the radical animal rights group, has convinced the Neumann University Alumni Association to stop offering discounted tickets to a Barnum & Bailey’s Circus event, reported CNS News yesterday. “The Alumni Association was offering discounted tickets to the Ringling Bros. Barnum and Bailey’s Circus FUNundrum show, which was headed to Philadelphia’s Wachovia Center on Feb. 27,” states CNS News. “The Alumni Association summarily ended its sponsorship of the event, which Neumann University spokesman Steve Bell said was already in the works.” Neumann U has a Franciscan and Catholic heritage, and their...

GWU Goes For It Malcolm A. Kline, February 5, 2010 Apparently George Washington University thinks it is too anonymous. On February 4, 2010, Drew Spence reported in the GW Hatchet Online that “Five new staff members have been hired to GW’s Office of Media Relations over the last six months in hopes of increasing the amount of media coverage the University receives.” Well, we’ve been doing our part. Accuracy in Academia has been profiling GWU for years. Spence goes on to report that “Two new media relations specialists, as well as new associate and executive directors for media relations and...

Student Readers Go Rogue Malcolm A. Kline, February 3, 2010 Sarah Palin’s memoir, Going Rogue: An American Life, is number 4 on the Chronicle of Higher Education’s What They’re Reading on College Campuses bestseller list. This could produce the biggest shock wave to hit faculty lounges since Reagan captured the youth vote, you betcha’. Of course, Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, is at number 2 and their sequel, SuperFreakonomics, is at number 6. Freakonomics, be it remembered, is the magnum opus of University of Chicago economist Levitt,...

Mickey Gets a Mickey Malcolm A. Kline, February 3, 2010 Apparently, the federal government is employing more than one use of the word “stimulated” when it doles out grants to colleges and universities. “Researchers at Florida Atlantic University received $8.408 in stimulus funds to study whether mice become disoriented when they consume alcohol,” the Washington Examiner reported on February 2, 2010. “Researchers might consider studying whether government’s continuous waste of taxpayer money disillusions voters.”...

Collegial Collusion Bethany Stotts, January 26, 2010 The Chronicle of Higher Education reported yesterday that the University of Maryland University College (UMUC) has decided to cancel an online Ph.D. program for community college administrators because it competes with Morgan State University, a public, historically black institution which offers a similar Ph.D. program. Chronicle writer Marc Parry explains, Last week, 25 new students began training at University of Maryland University College to become community-college administrators. But none of them live in Maryland. In fact, the university has been barred from offering this online doctoral degree to state residents. The bizarre situation...

Hopeless Higher Ed Change by: Bethany Stotts, September 29, 2009 This July, President Barack Obama called for America to “once again have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world” by 2020. At the Education Sector’s forum on “what the Obama administration’s new focus on higher education means for the future of American colleges and universities,” at George Washington University (GWU), a university official reacted with surprisingly candid skepticism over whether this would occur. Panelist and Southern New Hampshire University President Paul LeBlanc noted that he thought the “bigger impediment” to increasing the number of college graduates “is...