http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com National Review Online’s Phi Beta Cons blog offers viewers the RIGHT take on higher education. This blog is written by conservative professors, students, and analysts who are dedicated to rebalancing the political scales both in the classroom and on the campus. en-us © National Review Online 2009. All Rights Reserved webmaster@nationalreview.com (NRO Webmaster) Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:20:19 -0500 Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:20:19 -0500 NRO RSS Generator v1.0 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 5 http://www2.nationalreview.com/images/nro_rsslogo.jpg http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com 144 80 National Review Online webmaster@nationalreview.com (George Leef) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZDVmMjFhYTRlMTNjZjQzYmI4ZTY4YWE3MTY2Njc3OWM= That's the conclusion to be drawn from a <a href="http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/2009/11/03/degree-disaster-behind-the-great-wall/">Cato post</a> by Neal McCluskey.</p> <p>One of the common justifications for continuing the foolish policy of trying to get everybody through college in the U.S. is that if we don't, other countries, especially China, will "get ahead of us." The fact is that credentializing everyone doesn't make a nation any more productive. If anything, by squandering resources on the bloated and inefficient education sector, it gets in the way of productivity.</p> <p>I wonder: With the Chinese, was it simply the "error of imitation" (that is, the tendency among people in less developed nations to believe that the path to success is to copy what the U.S. does) or rent-seeking by a politically connected education establishment that led to the overexpansion of higher education?</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZDVmMjFhYTRlMTNjZjQzYmI4ZTY4YWE3MTY2Njc3OWM= Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:19:49 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (George Leef) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NWU4YmU3NTcxYWMzZmZjYzQzZTNkODU2MTYyNGQyMzk= I'm posting this week's Pope Center <em><a href="http://www.popecenter.org/clarion_call/article.html?id=2254">Clarion Call</a></em> a couple of days late because I was down in South Carolina giving an address I entitled "The Conventional Wisdom on Higher Education: Not Just Wrong, but Harmful" at the Economics Club of Columbia and the Bastiat Society in Charleston. Southern hospitality lives!</p> <p>The subject of the piece is academic freedom and in it, I take issue with the rather alarmist position of Matthew Finkin and Robert Post, authors of <em>For the Common Good: Principles of American Academic Freedom.</em> What they regard as ominous, threatening developments (such as complaints from taxpayers that state universities are wasting their money) I see as normal and democratically healthy friction at the edges of academic freedom. The authors evidently regard academic freedom as a fragile glass figurine that might easily be crushed. I think it's much tougher than that.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NWU4YmU3NTcxYWMzZmZjYzQzZTNkODU2MTYyNGQyMzk= Fri, 06 Nov 2009 09:01:56 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Roger Clegg) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NzFiNGQ4YWVlMjNiMzZhMWM3OGNiNWZhMTA4MTVmYjE= <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="New Roman; "><span>In today’s <em><span style="font-style: italic;">Federal Register</span></em>, there is <a href="http://frwebgate1.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/TEXTgate.cgi?WAISdocID=439360135636+0+1+0&WAISaction=retrieve">a notice</a> by the State Department announcing competition for two grants to be spent on summer institutes for youth from various countries. The “Purpose” section says, “Through these institutes, diverse but intellectually curious students aged 16 to 18 will participate in an intensive, three- to four-week exchange program in the </span></span>United States.”</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="New Roman; "><span>Now, what interests me in that sentence is the phrase, “diverse but intellectually curious” and, in particular, the word “but.” We are always told by the diversiphiles that diversity and intellectual curiosity go together like ham and eggs, but here the mask seems to have slipped, with an acknowledgment that the relationship between the two is often more like oil and water.</span></span></p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NzFiNGQ4YWVlMjNiMzZhMWM3OGNiNWZhMTA4MTVmYjE= Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:26:46 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Candace de Russy) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MmEzYTY2ZjdkNTlkYTM3MWY3ZDExZTY0ZDNiZTdlMjQ= Yale's cowardly decision to remove the Mohammad cartoons from a book about the Mohammad cartoons was widely condemned as an offense against free speech.</p> <p>But Yale's action also bespoke a more profound and, in the end, disturbing level of surrender. As the <em>New Criterion</em> <a href="http://www.newcriterion.com/articleprint.cfm/Yale---the-veil-4326">points out</a>, it amounted to caving in "to the insidious pressure of Islamification -- the pressure, that is, to define the debate in terms dictated by Islam."</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MmEzYTY2ZjdkNTlkYTM3MWY3ZDExZTY0ZDNiZTdlMjQ= Thu, 05 Nov 2009 13:55:45 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Fred Schwarz) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NDljZjgyODZkNThjODQ0OTBiNzYyMmU1NzZjOTM0ZmY= <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; "><span style="font-family: ">David Klinghoffer, an <em>NRO</em> contributor and occasional </span><a href="http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NzkzMzk3OGJkNjJkM2YyZjJjYjlkMzM5NjBjY2FmZDQ="><span style="font-family: ">Derbyshire antagonist</span></a><span style="font-family: ">, writes about how </span><a href="http://www.brownalumnimagazine.com/content/view/1893/40/"><span style="font-family: ">attending Brown University</span></a><span style="font-family: "> turned him from a secular liberal into an Orthodox Jewish conservative.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It happened in the mid-1980s, but many of his experiences will sound familiar to Phi Beta Cons readers:</span></p> <blockquote> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; "><span class="s3"><span style="font-family: ">I became the lone and reviled conservative columnist for the </span></span><em><span style="font-family: ">Brown Daily Herald</span></em><span class="s3"><span style="font-family: ">. In my inaugural column, I wrote about an experience I’d had at the Third World Center. One afternoon, Tamara and I had wandered in and discovered that President Howard Swearer was in the building, about to have a meeting with students. We ambled down the hall to the entrance of the room where the meeting would take place, only to be stopped by a young woman. She looked us up and down. “Sorry, you can’t come in,” she said, adding that because Tamara and I were not “Third World” students, we were not welcome. We were barred from entering a university facility because we were white. . . . <br /><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: ">After the article appeared in the <em>Herald</em>, I returned to my room in Andrews Hall to find obscene graffiti on my door: F**K YOUR RACIST A**. Students poured forth enraged letters to the editor, almost every one condemning me. Because I was a resident counselor for a group of freshmen living in the basement of Andrews, the dean in charge of first-year students called me into her office to chastise me. As I understood it, I stood accused of racism for protesting racism. Subsequently, the dean appointed a student committee to oversee my counseling. The last name of the undergraduate who headed the committee was Kafka, proof that God, or possibly the dean of first-year students, had a wicked sense of humor. </span></p> </blockquote> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; "><span style="font-family: ">(The article is from Brown’s alumni magazine; it appeared last year, which I didn’t notice until I had finished writing this.)</span></p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NDljZjgyODZkNThjODQ0OTBiNzYyMmU1NzZjOTM0ZmY= Thu, 05 Nov 2009 12:32:10 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (John J. Miller) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NWY0YzRiZDY3ZWM0ODBkMDk3YmI1MjNiYWUwNTMwMDc= Young America's Foundations comemorates <a href="http://www.yaf.org/twentiethanniversaryofberlinwall.aspx">the fall of the Berlin Wall</a>.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NWY0YzRiZDY3ZWM0ODBkMDk3YmI1MjNiYWUwNTMwMDc= Thu, 05 Nov 2009 12:09:19 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Candace de Russy) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MzI3YzFmMmQxZDBjZWQwNjNlNzI5MGJhYmNiNGUxMTk= <div>To Peter Katopes's probing <a href="http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2009/10/30/katopes">question</a>, I respond: The truly wise ones always did and always will.</div><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MzI3YzFmMmQxZDBjZWQwNjNlNzI5MGJhYmNiNGUxMTk= Thu, 05 Nov 2009 11:30:11 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (John J. Miller) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MjhlYjgyMjNhZDc5MmNhNjBmNTFjMzEwYjNhMmQ4OTE= <a href="http://www.ethics.harvard.edu/news-and-events/lectures-and-events">Eliot Spitzer will deliver a Harvard lecture on ethics</a>. Hat tip: <a href="http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MWFhYWFhNWNiNzgwOWU2MDAyODFlYWNjNDgyZDBmNjQ=">K Lo</a>.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MjhlYjgyMjNhZDc5MmNhNjBmNTFjMzEwYjNhMmQ4OTE= Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:01:53 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Candace de Russy) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZTA3ZjIwZWMzNmJiY2RiYmNkNjBkYTk1N2Y0YTY1YjY= <div>I agree with Paul Greenberg, who <a href="http://townhall.com/columnists/PaulGreenberg/2009/10/27/teacher_miseducation">writes at Townhall</a> that the nation's new secretary of education, Arne Duncan, displays an impressive understanding of our educational woes, for example, in his explanations of why we need charter schools and better teachers.</div> <div><br /></div> <div>But to what avail his wisdom if his boss, President Obama, continues to take such actions as eliminating a voucher program for those most in need of it in D.C.?</div><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZTA3ZjIwZWMzNmJiY2RiYmNkNjBkYTk1N2Y0YTY1YjY= Wed, 04 Nov 2009 13:01:05 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (David French) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MzRkYWNmYjdkNzg1NTkxMDExZWZjM2RlNzExM2U5NDg= Is there any better example of the yawning gulf between the academic and mainstream cultures than the same-sex-marriage debate? Out in the "real world," the people <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/11/03/gay-marriage-vote-close-maine/">have spoken</a> about as clearly as citizens of a democracy can speak. The Associated Press reported Maine's results this way:</p> <blockquote> <p>Voters in the northeastern state of Maine repealed a state law that would have allowed same-sex couples to wed, dealing the gay rights movement a heartbreaking defeat in the corner of the country most supportive of gay marriage.</p> <p>Gay marriage has now lost in every single state -- 31 in all -- in which it has been put to a popular vote. Gay-rights activists had hoped to buck that trend in Maine -- known for its moderate, independent-minded electorate -- and mounted an energetic, well-financed campaign.</p> </blockquote> <p>But in academia, support for traditional values is viewed, well, differently. In Los Angeles, <a href="http://www.alliancedefensefund.org/news/pressrelease.aspx?cid=4823">a student is shouted down by his own professor</a> and threatened with expulsion for quoting a dictionary definition of marriage. In Michigan, a counseling student is literally <a href="http://www.alliancedefensefund.org/news/pressrelease.aspx?cid=4899">thrown out of her program</a> when she is unwilling to morally affirm same-sex relationships. In Missouri, a social-work student was <a href="http://www.alliancedefensefund.org/news/pressrelease.aspx?cid=3904">ordered to change her values</a> when she refused to write a state representative in support of homosexual adoption. In Georgia, a public university <a href="http://www.alliancedefensefund.org/news/pressrelease.aspx?cid=4492">violated the Establishment Clause</a> by literally teaching its students that those who have moral objections to same-sex sexual behavior are comparable to those who used the Bible to justify slavery.  </p> <p>In other words, academia -- allegedly a haven for civilized debate on the great moral and cultural issues of our time -- has decided who's right and who's wrong and is enforcing its decision with greater zeal than most churches and political parties. As academics survey the political landscape, will they grow more tolerant of opposing views, or less? I'm guessing less -- as they will view the results in Maine (and everywhere else) as a clarion call to redouble their efforts rather than reconsider their dogma.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MzRkYWNmYjdkNzg1NTkxMDExZWZjM2RlNzExM2U5NDg= Wed, 04 Nov 2009 12:48:09 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Candace de Russy) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MjgwODllNjM2NDQ4N2M2YTQxNDg2NGQ4ZWUxZmE3YWM= Professor Mark Kingwell <a href="http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2009/10/20/kingwell">answers</a> in the affirmative, blaming self-reproducing senior faculty and calling the process "conservative."</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MjgwODllNjM2NDQ4N2M2YTQxNDg2NGQ4ZWUxZmE3YWM= Wed, 04 Nov 2009 11:47:53 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Candace de Russy) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MjE2YjY4N2JjYTgwY2JkNjY4YWYzN2MxYmZlNjNiOTY= <div class="smallTxt140" style="margin: 15px 0pt;">In a move that would be the first of its kind at a European university, <a href="http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1256799075128&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull">reports</a> the <em>Jerusalem Press</em>, the governing board of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) will vote next week on a proposal to boycott all Israeli academic institutions and their representatives. </div> <p>Among those protesting the proposed boycott are NTNU professor Bjørn Alsberg, who argues that it it not "the role of the university . . . to make political statements on behalf of everybody [at the institution]" and that if the university wields a "boycott as a weapon . . . [it] would also have to be critical towards other countries violating human rights."</p> <p>University of Haifa's Rector, Prof. Yossi Ben-Artzi, states that "academic boycotts serve only to harm academic freedom, impede intellectual advancement, and offend universal values."</p> <p>And, in a letter to the president of NTNU's Board of Directors, the Simon Wiesenthal Center's director for international relations, Dr. Shimon Samuels, writes -- judiciously: "Never since [Vidkun] Quisling [a Norwegian army officer and politician who collaborated with Nazi forces in Norway] has there been such academic prejudice in Norway, and never since Hitler has any University rector in Europe granted it his personal blessing."</p> <p>The Board should reject this boycott.</p> <p>Hat tip: Winfield Myers.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MjE2YjY4N2JjYTgwY2JkNjY4YWYzN2MxYmZlNjNiOTY= Tue, 03 Nov 2009 15:23:38 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (George Leef) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ODhmMDcyOTM4MjliZmNjNjc2YzNhMThmOWVkMThkYWM= I haven't read the book yet either (another pro-diversity book recently landed on my desk: <em>Diversity's Promise</em> <em>for Higher Education</em> by Daryl Smith; it's hard to keep up), but what I wish the people who keep demanding racial preferences at elite schools would explain is what 's so darned important about going to one of those "elite" schools. The courses aren't taught better just because the faculty is loaded with "academic stars." If anything, it goes the other way. Students at schools where the professors actually handle most of the teaching are likely to get more out of a course than at schools where the profs are mainly preoccupied with their publications.</p> <p>I don't think the mania for admissions preferences is really about the students. Rather, it's about the academic administrators. It makes them feel good about themselves to believe that their social engineering matters a lot. When mean people like Roger Clegg say that they ought to drop racial preferences, that's like telling them to stop playing make believe and grow up.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ODhmMDcyOTM4MjliZmNjNjc2YzNhMThmOWVkMThkYWM= Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:11:40 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Candace de Russy) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NWJlZmVlNjI1N2VkZjQxZjA5NmEwMjcxNmUyODhjMmY= <em><a title="http://www.mindingthecampus.com/" href="http://www.mindingthecampus.com/">Minding the Campus</a></em> has just posted a forum on the future of academic freedom in which I participate, along with Peter Sacks, Erin O'Connor, Maurice Black, and John K. Wilson. We respond to University of Chicago president Richard Zimmer’s 10/21 speech “What is Academic Freedom For?” here: "<a title="http://www.mindingthecampus.com/originals/2009/11/post_9.html" href="http://www.mindingthecampus.com/originals/2009/11/post_9.html">Is Academic Freedom In Trouble?</a>"</p> <h3><strong><strong></strong></strong></h3><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NWJlZmVlNjI1N2VkZjQxZjA5NmEwMjcxNmUyODhjMmY= Tue, 03 Nov 2009 13:22:17 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (David French) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZjQ2NTU3ZDA2OTI5NzQwNzFmYzQxODU0YWM4MDFhYzg= For many years now, I've become increasingly aware of -- and agitated by -- what is best termed "disparate bureaucratic impact." Simply put, it's the common university practice of using the bureaucratic process to help leftist students fund their message while placing miles of red tape between conservatives and university funds. </p> <p><span style=", Verdana, Helvetica, Arial;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times;">In response to <a href="http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZmU1Mjk4OWFhNjE3ZWI1MTI5YzM3ZTlmOTZhNmQ5YWU=">my recent post</a> on the unconstitutional student-fee system at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, I received the following from a Michigan alum:</span></span></p> <blockquote> <p><span style=", Verdana, Helvetica, Arial;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times;"> <span style="-small;"><span style=", Verdana, Helvetica, Arial;"><span>When I was in grad school at the University of Michigan, I was elected to serve on Rackham Student Government, the graduate school student government. Pretty much all we did was hand out money (from “student activity fees”) to student groups. </span></span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style=", Verdana, Helvetica, Arial;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times;"><span style="-small;"><span style=", Verdana, Helvetica, Arial;"><span>. . .<br />  <br /> I noticed that when some wacky, off-the-wall, lefty group came to Rackham Student Government to ask for money, it was a pretty much rubber-stamped “yes.” When certain other groups did, namely, conservative groups, Jewish groups, Christian groups, they were made to jump through ALL the hoops. They HAD to show that a certain percentage of the people who would benefit from the event for which money was being sought were Rackham (graduate) Students. They HAD to show where the rest of their funding was coming. They HAD to show their budget. (Whenever Jewish organizations asked for money, the discussion ALWAYS devolved to “Well, the Jewish Community in Ann Arbor already has a lot of money; they can get it from them . . .”)<br />  <br /> Most members of the RSG were looking for reasons to say “NO” to certain student groups (i.e., the Christi[an], Jewish and conservative groups). For other student groups (the wacky, off-the-wall, lefty groups), most members of RSG didn’t want to hear a reason to say, “NO.” So even though not a single member of a student dance troupe was in the graduate school, and the group had no well-thought-out plan on funding or any sort of budget, the vote was to give them money to them for a trip to Cuba. (“Because when they come back, grad student might benefit from attending a performance.”) But when grad students were fully 15 percent of a Jewish group that was seeking funding to send some students to an AIPAC conference, the answer was “NO” because “it wouldn’t provide a sufficient benefit to graduate students at the University of Michigan.” </span></span></span> </span></span></p> </blockquote> <blockquote> <p><span style=", Verdana, Helvetica, Arial;"><span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times;"> </span></span></span></p> </blockquote> <p>What should conservative students take from tales like this? First, be persistent. When you (eventually) jump through all the bureaucratic hoops, the university will face a decision on the merits. At that point, you can't lose: You'll either get your program funded or you'll have a gift-wrapped First Amendment challenge.  </p> <p>Second, document everything. And that means paying attention to the scrutiny (or lack thereof) given to other groups. Student governments may enjoy rubber stamping liberal applications now, but those rubber stamps are much less enjoyable later, when they're asked about double standards under oath.  </p> <p>Finally, don't be discouraged. The establishment's bureaucratic guardians count on you giving up and moving on. You have to outlast and outwork them, and that sometimes means creating institutions (<a href="http://www.collegiatenetwork.org/">like student newspapers</a>) that will live on long after you're gone.</p> <p>The law mandates viewpoint neutrality. Students can't let administrations reverse through red tape rights that have been won through litigation.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZjQ2NTU3ZDA2OTI5NzQwNzFmYzQxODU0YWM4MDFhYzg= Tue, 03 Nov 2009 12:39:03 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Roger Clegg) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=OGE1ZWFmMDdhNjMzYTRiMTA3OGViMDU4ZWI0ZGFkNjg= <span><span style="New Roman;">T</span></span><span style="New Roman; "><span>hat’s the title of <a href="http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/11/03/elite">a long article</a> today in <em><span style="font-style: italic;">Inside Higher Ed</span></em>, which discusses a new book, <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/redirect/amazon.p?j=0691141606"><em><span style="font-style: italic;">No Longer Separate, Not Yet Equal: Race and Class in </span></em></a></span></span><a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/redirect/amazon.p?j=0691141606"><em><span style="font-style: italic;">Elite</span></em><em><span style="font-style: italic;"> </span></em><em><span style="font-style: italic;">College</span></em><em><span style="font-style: italic;"> Admission and Campus Life</span></em></a>, by Thomas J. Espenshade and Alexandria Walton Radford. Doesn’t sound to me like there’s a lot of new ground covered in the book, though it sounds less knee-jerk-left than is usual, and the new data in the book show what the old data in other books and studies have shown. So here’s the comment I posted (“Racial discrimination is just not worth it”):</p> <blockquote> <p>There are two forests here that should not be obscured by the trees:  First, there is a lot of racial discrimination in admissions taking place; and, second, the purported beneficiaries of such discrimination perform significantly worse academically than other students.  The justification for such discrimination is the supposed educational benefits of a racially diverse student body.  Those benefits are dubious, but even if they exist, they are simply not worth the costs of racial discrimination, namely:  It is personally unfair, passes over better qualified students, and sets a disturbing legal, political, and moral precedent in allowing racial discrimination; it creates resentment; it stigmatizes the so-called beneficiaries in the eyes of their classmates, teachers, and themselves, as well as future employers, clients, and patients; it fosters a victim mindset, removes the incentive for academic excellence, and encourages separatism; it compromises the academic mission of the university and lowers the overall academic quality of the student body; it creates pressure to discriminate in grading and graduation; it breeds hypocrisy within the school; it encourages a scofflaw attitude among college officials; it mismatches students and institutions, guaranteeing failure or academic underperformance for many of the former; it papers over the real social problem of why so many African Americans and Latinos are academically uncompetitive; and it gets states and schools involved in unsavory activities like deciding which racial and ethnic minorities will be favored and which ones not, and how much blood is needed to establish group membership.</p> </blockquote><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=OGE1ZWFmMDdhNjMzYTRiMTA3OGViMDU4ZWI0ZGFkNjg= Tue, 03 Nov 2009 11:12:53 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (John J. Miller) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NzQxMDdhM2MyZTY1OWI4NzA4MTNmNjYwMTUyZDZhZTI= Please pardon this interruption, which has nothing to do with higher ed. My novel, <em>The First Assassin</em>, is now available. It's a historical thriller. Here's what Vince Flynn says: "An excellent book--it's like <em>The Day of the Jackal </em>set in 1861 Washington." We're still in a "soft launch" phase, so it's not listed on Amazon.com yet. But it's available for order and books are shipping right now. <a href="http://www.heymiller.com/?page_id=668">More information is here</a>, on my personal website.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NzQxMDdhM2MyZTY1OWI4NzA4MTNmNjYwMTUyZDZhZTI= Tue, 03 Nov 2009 11:07:59 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (George Leef) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=OWU4YTdmNzI5NjkxOWI1YjNjOGI4MzhjZDMzNDMwOWE= A hat tip to Tom Shuford for sending me <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIcfMMVcYZg&feature=email <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIcfMMVcYZg&feature=email> ">this video</a>, in which Peter Schiff, a prospective rival for the Senate seat now held by Connecticut Democrat Chris Dodd, discusses the impact of governmental subsidies for college attendance.</p> <p>Schiff gets it right: The reason college now costs significantly more than it did in the days before the federal government started to "help" students afford it is that college administrators are eager to reel in as much money as they can.</p> <p>He also has a skeptical view on the G.I. Bill, which is often crediting with "creating the middle class." That's not even remotely true. There was a large and growing American middle class prior to World War II, and the country did not lack for talented professionals. The difference was that nearly all of them learned their fields without going to college. Doing a B.A. prior to starting to learn an occupation doesn't make you any better at it; it merely adds considerably to the cost.</p> <p>Apparently, Schiff's rivals are saying that he's "anti-education" and hoping to make that smear stick with clueless voters. I think Schiff is sharp enough to turn the tables on them, but he could do that better if he'd read my "<a href="http://www.popecenter.org/inquiry_papers/article.html?id=1725">Overselling of Higher Education</a>" paper and check out Phi Beta Cons regularly.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=OWU4YTdmNzI5NjkxOWI1YjNjOGI4MzhjZDMzNDMwOWE= Tue, 03 Nov 2009 10:36:30 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Candace de Russy) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YTkwYzU5Y2EwNTEzYTU5NTQxMzZmMWVkODIyMmU2OGY= . . . necessary, as John Adams said.</p> <p>Many moons ago, while a trustee at the State University of New York, I extolled the benefits of  requiring that SUNY's professors post their syllabi for all to see. This did not sit well with  SUNY's "shareholders," including my fellow board members.</p> <p>Good for Texas to have required such posting, as George <a href="http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MTNmOTZlMGQ1NDJjYTIzN2FlM2NmMmQ0NjMzYmY3NTU=">notes</a>, but too bad such transparency has to be mandated by law rather than provided voluntarily.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YTkwYzU5Y2EwNTEzYTU5NTQxMzZmMWVkODIyMmU2OGY= Tue, 03 Nov 2009 09:39:26 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (John J. Miller) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NmExMjFlZGY4MmMwZTg2YzcxOTQ2YmM5NzMxNzQ5ODI= Did you know that apart from the service academies, Harvard has produced more Medal of Honor recipients than any other college or university? Neither did I, before reading <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703932904574511910510146196.html">Bill McGurn's column</a> this morning. What a remarkable tradition. Unfortunately, Harvard hasn't allowed ROTC on campus for more than a generation.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NmExMjFlZGY4MmMwZTg2YzcxOTQ2YmM5NzMxNzQ5ODI= Tue, 03 Nov 2009 04:37:44 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (John J. Miller) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=OWY1MDg2MDc2YzZkMDRmNGI5NjU1YjZjZjdhMDJjZjc= A reply to <a href="http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NGI3MmI2NjRkYjA5NWJlYjQzZjg1ZDg4MzBiZjBlM2I=">last night's article posting</a> about conservative professors:</p> <blockquote> <p>I'm an adjunct at a large state university ...  I teach a media law course to communications undergraduates.  I gave them the link to the <a href="http://www.thefire.org/">FIRE website</a>, and now I have students showing up to class on a daily basis wanting to talk about the latest atrocity at XYZ university.  <br /><br />Last week, a student had a question about the castle doctrine and gun rights, and the discussion that followed was so mature and articulate, I could not have been more proud.  In a scary academic world, there are moments, I promise.  And I'm doing everything I can to at least introduce scholarly concervative thought into the mix.<br /><br />It's scary to think of the academic environment on the whole.  I'm an attorney for my "day job" and cringe at the thought of trying to make it as a full-time professor.  Practicing law?  No big deal.  Academia?  Now that's cutthroat.</p> </blockquote><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=OWY1MDg2MDc2YzZkMDRmNGI5NjU1YjZjZjdhMDJjZjc= Mon, 02 Nov 2009 15:02:03 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Candace de Russy) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NTI4MTVlMTE3NzQ4ZWZhZTg4NjU0YzhiZTBjMjc2NzU= Left Coast Conservative <a href="http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/blog/id.3612/blog_detail.asp">revisits</a> behavior on U.S. campuses in the 1930s and finds more of the same today:</p> <blockquote> <p>The simple lesson from examining the behavior on American universities in the 1930s is that that the appeasement, the support for totalitarian aggression and terror, the academic bigotry, and the anti-Semitism that today fill so many American universities were all predominant forces on many campuses in the 1930s, especially at America’s elite schools, including on much of the Ivy League. The Chomskies, Coles, Beinins and Massads of today could easily be fit into the campus atmosphere of the 1930s.</p> </blockquote><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NTI4MTVlMTE3NzQ4ZWZhZTg4NjU0YzhiZTBjMjc2NzU= Mon, 02 Nov 2009 11:59:41 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (George Leef) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=OWQyNmIyYzVkNDYzYjM0NGIyYmNlN2RkZWY1OTY3MDg= My Pope Center colleague Jay Schalin writes <a href="http://www.popecenter.org/commentaries/article.html?id=2253">here</a> about the difficulties that very small colleges face, but also about their successes at finding niches in the huge educational marketplace and thriving.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=OWQyNmIyYzVkNDYzYjM0NGIyYmNlN2RkZWY1OTY3MDg= Mon, 02 Nov 2009 10:58:56 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Candace de Russy) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NGRkYTdmODk2ZTQ3OGU1NmNiOWNmMGMxYTlkNDYzOTA= In an <a href="http://www.cfr.org/publication/20561/tragedy_of_palestinian_divisions.html">interview</a> sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations, Rashid Khalidi, Edward Said professor of modern Arab studies at Columbia University, out-and-out declares it "unsatisfactory" that Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist organization, is "too weak" to have fired a rocket in almost nine months since the end of Israel's attack on Gaza in January.</p> <p>Herewith yet another example of our elite universities evenhandedly at work.</p> <p>Hat tip: Winfield Myers.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NGRkYTdmODk2ZTQ3OGU1NmNiOWNmMGMxYTlkNDYzOTA= Mon, 02 Nov 2009 09:38:17 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (John J. Miller) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NGI3MmI2NjRkYjA5NWJlYjQzZjg1ZDg4MzBiZjBlM2I= Four years ago, I wrote an article for <em>National Review</em> on the plight of conservative professors, complete with horror stories from DePaul, the University of Colorado, Smith College, Columbia, UNLV, and Elizabethtown College. <a href="http://www.heymiller.com/?p=720">It's now posted on my personal website</a>. Read it and weep.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NGI3MmI2NjRkYjA5NWJlYjQzZjg1ZDg4MzBiZjBlM2I= Sun, 01 Nov 2009 21:00:29 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Robert VerBruggen) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ODczYTVlNmM3Y2NiYzY5N2FmNTk2YTdiZGRhYTkzZTU= On the homepage, Stephen Spruiell <a href="http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZThmNjk1ZWVmN2Y2YWVlNjYyYzA5ZmYyMDVhMTVhZDk=">takes on</a> the Obama administration's plan to strong-arm private lenders.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ODczYTVlNmM3Y2NiYzY5N2FmNTk2YTdiZGRhYTkzZTU= Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:10:43 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (George Leef) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MTNmOTZlMGQ1NDJjYTIzN2FlM2NmMmQ0NjMzYmY3NTU= In the Pope Center's Friday <a href="http://www.popecenter.org/news/article.html?id=2252">piece</a>, my colleague David Koon discusses a new law in Texas that requires professors to post their syllabi before students register for classes. The purpose of the law is to prevent students from experiencing the unhappy surprise of ending up in a course whose title sounded good but is actually about things the student doesn't want to waste time on.</p> <p>Too bad that some profs aren't really forthcoming about the content of their courses and need this push.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MTNmOTZlMGQ1NDJjYTIzN2FlM2NmMmQ0NjMzYmY3NTU= Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:50:21 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (George Leef) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ODczYjUxZmFmMTliZTNmMGQzYTQzYjU5MmEyODY2ZGI= One day last April, most of the copies of the UNC conservative publication <em>Carolina Journal</em> were stolen. Who dunnit? No evidence was at hand and the matter was forgotten -- until the school's Students for a Democratic Society chapter posted some photos on its Facebook page showing beyond any doubt where the copies of <em>Carolina Journal</em> had gone. They were on the floor of the house of the SDS chapter's president, evidently serving in place of a dropcloth during painting.</p> <p>Here is a <a href="http://crdaily.com/2009/10/sds-president-dth-columnist-and-candidate-for-chapel-hill-mayor-implicated-in-theft-of-the-carolina-review/">post</a> about the incident, with the pictures (since taken down from the SDS page, I understand).</p> <p>Maybe the SDS punks don't mind this at all. It might help them land jobs in the Obama regime's dissent-suppression (oops -- "fairness") initiative.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ODczYjUxZmFmMTliZTNmMGQzYTQzYjU5MmEyODY2ZGI= Fri, 30 Oct 2009 13:18:08 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Robert VerBruggen) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NTFhMGEwMTBlZWYyNWNhMDBmNzdmNzU4MDgxZDZkMDk= The organization sums up the state of public higher ed in the Land of Lincoln <a href="https://www.goacta.org/publications/PDFs/ForthePeopleExecSum.pdf">here</a>.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NTFhMGEwMTBlZWYyNWNhMDBmNzdmNzU4MDgxZDZkMDk= Thu, 29 Oct 2009 11:44:07 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Robert VerBruggen) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MDJlZDVlN2I4Y2U4NGU0MzNhYzgxNjc5NDY4ZGE1MTg= Read Todd Zywicki's piece from <em>National Review</em>'s education issue (no longer on newsstands). It's now <a href="http://nrd.nationalreview.com/article/?q=ZWI4N2JmMjMyNzAzMGM5OTNhMzg0Njc0Yzk2NDMyNDM=">online</a> for free, and subscribers can read the whole issue <a href="http://nrd.nationalreview.com/?q=MjAwOTEwMDU=">here</a>.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MDJlZDVlN2I4Y2U4NGU0MzNhYzgxNjc5NDY4ZGE1MTg= Wed, 28 Oct 2009 17:04:07 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Robert VerBruggen) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YTBjOTE1Yzk0NmM5OWNiMjI1YzQwMDYzOWMzMTNlNGI= Detroit talk-radio host Frank Beckmann was kind enough to feature me as a guest this morning. We spoke about the idea of sending fewer kids to college, and you can listen to or download the conversation <a href="http://www.wjr.net/Article.asp?id=%201565747&spid=6525">here</a>.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YTBjOTE1Yzk0NmM5OWNiMjI1YzQwMDYzOWMzMTNlNGI= Wed, 28 Oct 2009 16:34:20 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (George Leef) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MzJhY2JhNjEyNWQyNjBkYWRhMjZkZDFiODgwMTFhZWY= I just came across an article by Arnold Kling and John Merrifield, "<a href="http://www.aier.org/ejw/archive/comments/doc_view/4019-ejw-200901?tmpl=component&format=raw">Goldin and Katz and Education Policy Failings in Historical Perspective</a>," published last January in <em>Econ Journal Watch</em>. (Hat tip to Dan Klein!)</p> <p>The book has been widely cited as showing a need for the U.S. to push for increasing college attendance and graduation rates. Kling and Merrifield give it some rough treatment. They point out, <em>inter alia</em>, that Goldin and Katz are much to eager to blame a slowdown in college-graduation rates for increasing income inequality when the deterioration in basic education is a much better explanation.</p> <p>Also, the authors cast doubt on the implicit assumption G and K make that simply going through college does much to increase a student's human capital. As I have been arguing, the degradation of rigor in many college programs (a.k.a. dumbing down) to keep mediocre to weak students happy and enrolled means that those students can get through their college "studies" without having to improve upon the human capital they had at the end of high school.</p> <p>Golden and Katz completely miss the harmful changes that governmentalization (as Kling and Merrifield put it) has brought to education -- and yet they prescribe more governmentalization.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MzJhY2JhNjEyNWQyNjBkYWRhMjZkZDFiODgwMTFhZWY= Wed, 28 Oct 2009 16:06:10 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Jane S. Shaw) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MjZjYWQ1Njc3ODQzOGI5Yzg5N2Q3ODFlMWEzNTViY2I= <p class="MsoNormal">In an important <a href="http://www.mindingthecampus.com/originals/2009/10/rescuing_the_university.html">two-part essay</a> at <em>Minding the Campus</em>, Robert Weissberg offers a plan for countering the leftist dominance of universities. His essay is well worth reading, although he somewhat undercuts his points by the nomenclature he chooses, and he is a bit divisive when he criticizes other approaches and complains about lack of support for his. But perhaps I cavil.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">In a nutshell, Weissberg recommends what he calls a “covert CIA approach” which “takes its inspiration from the agency's work to undermine post-WW II European communism.” (The difficulty here is his choice of words -- the CIA is a government agency, but Weissberg is talking about philanthropy, not government -- and, really, many individuals, forces, and entities contributed to the downfall of European Communism. But don’t be too distracted by that.)</p> <p class="MsoNormal">The content is this: To be successful, academic scholars must publish, and today’s universities promote, subsidize, and nurture mostly leftist, statist, and nonsensical scholarship. He asks philanthropists to support conservative/free-market research by: supporting individual scholars (the Earhart Foundation is an example, but it is “sunsetting”), subsidizing books and journals, funding academic conferences, and networking through a central website that includes links to many opportunities for the conservative or free-market scholar. “It is a familiar sports farm team model: cultivate young talent, often on the cheap,” says Weissberg.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Great ideas. Philanthropists are already doing some of them, and others are worth exploring. I don't see why this policy has to be covert, though. Perhaps someone will tell me.  <span style="font-style: normal;"> </span></p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MjZjYWQ1Njc3ODQzOGI5Yzg5N2Q3ODFlMWEzNTViY2I= Wed, 28 Oct 2009 15:34:58 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (George Leef) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MjgzNTM4MTQ2MGUxMzM0ZmU3MjhmODM0MmI2MzVkNjU= Writing at Cato's <a href="http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/2009/10/27/the-constitution-not-that-old-thing/">At Liberty blog</a>, Neal McCluskey dives into the question of the proper role for the federal government to play in higher education. He cuts the Gordian Knot: Under the Constitution, no branch of the federal government is empowered to do anything with respect to education. He gives the best refutation to the idea that the "General Welfare" clause was intended to allow the government plenty of latitude to do whatever it deems necessary for our supposed good. As Madison wrote, there would have been no point in putting in all of the restrictions on government power if one clause was meant to say to the politicians, "Do what you think is good."</p> <p>That argument settles it for me.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MjgzNTM4MTQ2MGUxMzM0ZmU3MjhmODM0MmI2MzVkNjU= Wed, 28 Oct 2009 15:02:39 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (David French) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=OWMxMjU4NDJlODQyMmI0ODhkOWNmM2FlMDVjMTBlMjY= Yesterday, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals <a href="http://chronicle.com/blogPost/Federal-Court-Dismisses-Appeal/8617/">dismissed an appeal</a> and <a href="http://www.ca11.uscourts.gov/opinions/ops/200813332ord.pdf">ordered</a> the dismissal of a lawsuit filed by Brothers Under Christ, a Christian fraternity that had sued officials at the University of Florida after the university refused to recognize the fraternity because it "discriminated" on the basis of religion. This "discrimination" of course was nothing more than the desire of a Christian fraternity to have, well, Christian members.</p> <p>In this case, the District Court denied the fraternity's request for an injunction, and the fraternity appealed. The Eleventh Circuit granted an injunction pending appeal (which permitted the group to operate on campus) and then set the case for oral arguments. <em>After oral argument</em> (an argument in which the court seemed skeptical of the university's position), the university changed its policy, recognized the fraternity, and asked that the case be dismissed as moot. Yesterday, the court granted the university's motion, stating (essentially) there was no further need for litigation after the university recognized the group.  </p> <p>It is becoming increasingly common for universities to defend unconstitutional policies (sometimes for years), make changes at the last possible moment, and then seek dismissal of a case. Just last week, ADF Center for Academic Freedom attorneys argued a case against Arizona State University (retired Justice Sandra Day O'Connor <a href="http://speakupmovement.wordpress.com/2009/10/13/asu-students-for-life-case-draws-hon-sandra-day-oconnor/">presided</a>) in which the university changed its policies (for the second time) <em>after ASU Students for Life filed their appellate brief </em>and now seek dismissal for mootness.  </p> <p>In 2007, Temple University sought to moot Christian DeJohn's speech code challenge by changing policies on the eve of the court-imposed summary judgment deadline. Fortunately, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals <a href="http://www.telladf.org/UserDocs/DeJohnDecision.pdf">recognized the obvious</a>: Policies "voluntarily" changed can be changed back -- especially when the university won't concede to the illegality of the old policy.</p> <p>Federal judges sometimes seem to take at face value the completely non-binding assurances of counsel that policy changes, once made, won't be "un-made." Yet one doesn't have to reach far back into history to find examples of colleges not just reinstating policies but actually breaching <a href="http://www.alliancedefensefund.org/news/search/SearchResults.aspx?mid=860&words=shippensburg">settlement</a> <a href="http://www.alliancedefensefund.org/news/pressrelease.aspx?cid=4238">agreements</a> to do so. While I have seen universities violate even settlement agreements, I have yet to see them defy federal injunctions.</p> <p>Further, when a case is mooted, students' constitutional rights depend almost entirely on institutional memory and good faith. What happens six years from now, when an activist asks the University of Florida why they recognize "discriminatory Christian groups"? Will the university -- which has never conceded the unconstitutionality of its original policy -- test the waters again? History suggests they will, and that they'll be willing to drag their students through years of litigation before "voluntarily" complying with the Constitution.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=OWMxMjU4NDJlODQyMmI0ODhkOWNmM2FlMDVjMTBlMjY= Wed, 28 Oct 2009 14:28:09 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (George Leef) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=M2ViOTJjZTM0YjkxYzcyMWZjODYxZjIzZGNjMzMwMDc= In this week's Pope Center <a href="http://www.popecenter.org/clarion_call/article.html?id=2251"><em>Clarion Call</em>,</a> Virginia Association of Scholars president Carey Stronach writes about the push by administrators at Virginia Tech to make conformity to their "diversity religion" a key element in the promotion of faculty members. Anyone who doesn't display "diversity accomplishments" is apt to be looked upon with disfavor.</p> <p>Would any Virginia Tech professor be so bold as to criticize the diversity mania, saying perhaps that it's a foolish distraction from the real business of education? Doing so would be a dangerous move.</p> <p>Whether professors have any "diversity accomplishments" or not should be as irrelevant as whether they have "religious accomplishments" or "chess accomplishments" or "gardening accomplishments." If the administrators involved cannot see that subordinating real academic work to their "diversity" crusade is inappropriate, they should be summarily replaced.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=M2ViOTJjZTM0YjkxYzcyMWZjODYxZjIzZGNjMzMwMDc= Wed, 28 Oct 2009 13:57:15 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (David French) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=OTNlNjY4ZmUxYTMyZjRiMWZkYWU5YTdiZjliYTMwMjQ= Prof. <a href="http://vi.uh.edu/faculty/horne_g.asp">Gerald Horne</a> of the University of Houston <a href="http://chronicle.com/article/Stalin-Was-No-Worse-Than-the/48889/?key=Sz0mLVgxbSlOZnJlKCUWcyBSYCtwIk1xaSMSNygaZ1lT">writes</a> in the <em>Chronicle of Higher Education</em>:</p> <blockquote> <p>Jonathan Brent expresses surprise -- if not shock and disgust -- at what he sees as the rehabilitation of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin in contemporary Russia ("<a href="http://chronicle.com/article/Postmodern-Stalinism/48426/">Postmodern Stalinism,</a>" <em>The Chronicle Review,</em> September 25).</p> <p>Pray tell: Is there an analytical difference between the phenomenon he perceives and the glorification and hagiography that bedeck the slaveholding "founding fathers" of his own United States (not to mention those that founded the settler colonies upon which this slaveholding republic was based)? Or is the difference that in this latter case, after all, we are discussing the brutalization of only Africans, and in the former case, non-Africans -- and we all know that the lives of one are worth more than the lives of the other? Or is the difference that Stalin's rule lasted 30-odd years while North American enslavement was a process that stretched over centuries?</p> </blockquote> <p>Yes, the Founding Fathers are no better (and perhaps worse) than Joseph Stalin. Citizens of Texas, I present . . . your tax dollars at work.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=OTNlNjY4ZmUxYTMyZjRiMWZkYWU5YTdiZjliYTMwMjQ= Wed, 28 Oct 2009 12:46:48 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (George Leef) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=OTYyMDEwNDk5ZmRjODdlZGIzZjc1NWE4ZDg0Y2UzZWU= That sums up the attitude of the hard-Left professoriate and administrators at many American colleges and universities. A good case in point is the treatment of Prof. Walter Block for having offended the dogmatic feminists at Loyola. For having questioned one of the core beliefs of feminism, that the "earnings gap" is due to discrimination, Block is being treated like a war criminal. Prof. Tom DiLorenzo writes about the tumult <a href="http://ruleofreason.blogspot.com/2009/10/mainstream-smearing-of-ayn-rand.htm">here</a>.</p> <p>Larry Summers was hounded out of the presidency of Harvard for the same offense. Universities are supposed to be places where the search for truth is paramount, but the vicious attacks on those who question whether certain beliefs are true belies that idea.</p> <p>Incidentally, DiLorenzo refers to a very important book written at the dawn of the PC era: Hayek's <em><a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/redirect/amazon.p?j=0226320839">The Mirage of Social Justice</a></em>.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=OTYyMDEwNDk5ZmRjODdlZGIzZjc1NWE4ZDg0Y2UzZWU= Wed, 28 Oct 2009 12:01:27 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (George Leef) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MDM4ZTI1NTkyZDk4OTZlNDg0MmNhZDE2NjIwMTdlZTY= George Soros plans to spend a bundle to start a new institute devoted to crushing the "failed" ideas of the free-market camp. Read about it <a href="http://www.ednews.org/articles/george-soros-launches-a-50-million-effort-to-purge-economics-of-its-free-market-zeal.html">here</a>.</p> <p>The premises behind this are simply laughable. First, it isn't the case that most of the academic world embraces "free market fundamentalism" -- a term that is itself ludicrous because every economist I know who thinks that markets do a whole lot better than coercive regulation by government officials holds that belief on the basis of reason, not faith. As Thomas Sowell said long ago, "I don't have faith in markets. I have evidence about markets."</p> <p>Second, while there are some islands of strong free-market research and teaching to be found among American colleges and universities, more of the economics profession remains rooted in the (I think discredited) interventionist views of the Keynesians.</p> <p>Finally, you have to be wilfully blind to say that the financial meltdown we've experienced is due to the failure of the free market. Government meddling in housing and credit was massive and distorting. That's your culprit.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MDM4ZTI1NTkyZDk4OTZlNDg0MmNhZDE2NjIwMTdlZTY= Wed, 28 Oct 2009 09:25:55 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Robert VerBruggen) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=M2I0ZDRiODNiYmIwNmU0YjFkZTU4MGUwMjI3NTQyYjI= I'll be on WJR Radio (Detroit) talking about why fewer kids should go to college later this morning -- a little after 11 a.m. Eastern. You can listen online <a href="http://www.wjr.net">here</a>.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=M2I0ZDRiODNiYmIwNmU0YjFkZTU4MGUwMjI3NTQyYjI= Wed, 28 Oct 2009 08:43:19 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (John J. Miller) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZTBjNDQyM2E0Yzk1YjU2MGM0NGJjNGJkN2YwZjg2ZWQ= <a href="http://freethend88.org/">Website</a>:</p> <blockquote> <p>It is our fervent hope that the University of Notre Dame will decide to drop the criminal trespass charges that have been pending against the eighty-eight defendants who “dared” to venture onto Notre Dame’s campus last Spring , to bear peaceful, prayerful witness to the sanctity of all human life, from conception to natural death on the day President Obama spoke at the 2009 Notre Dame Commencement and was awarded an honorary degree by the University.</p> </blockquote><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZTBjNDQyM2E0Yzk1YjU2MGM0NGJjNGJkN2YwZjg2ZWQ= Tue, 27 Oct 2009 17:55:04 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (David French) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZmU1Mjk4OWFhNjE3ZWI1MTI5YzM3ZTlmOTZhNmQ5YWU= As I type this post, my colleagues at the Alliance Defense Fund Center for Academic Freedom are <a href="http://www.alliancedefensefund.org/news/story.aspx?cid=5102">arguing a critical case</a> before the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago. The subject: the use and abuse of mandatory student activity fees at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.</p> <p>For at least the last 22 years, UW-Madison has been requiring each and every student to pay large sums of money to fund student expression. For at least the last 22 years, the university has channeled hundreds of thousands of dollars per year into various leftist organizations -- like Ralph Nader-inspired <a href="http://www.wispirgstudents.org/madison">WISPIRG</a> or (Hugh Hefner inspired?) <a href="http://www.sexoutloud.com/">Sex Out Loud</a> -- while fighting an ongoing, rear-guard battle against equal funding of conservative and religious organizations.  </p> <p>In recent years, UW students have started to lose patience with the bias and blatant viewpoint discrimination, filing <a href="http://www.alliancedefensefund.org/news/pressrelease.aspx?cid=3915">three</a><a href="http://www.alliancedefensefund.org/news/pressrelease.aspx?cid=4238"> federal</a> <a href="http://www.alliancedefensefund.org/news/pressrelease.aspx?cid=5040">lawsuits</a> in three years. Today, the Seventh Circuit will consider whether the university may essentially ignore Supreme Court precedent and treat religious speech differently from secular speech. Specifically, the university violated a <a href="http://www.alliancedefensefund.org/news/pressrelease.aspx?cid=4111">settlement agreement</a> in a previous case by <a href="http://www.telladf.org/UserDocs/UW-RCFFactSheet.pdf">withholding approximately $35,000</a> in funds it had agreed to pay the Roman Catholic Foundation. The District Court issued a declaratory judgment against the university, but refused to issue an injunction and refused to order repayment of the fees. The Roman Catholic Foundation appealed the denial of the injunction and denial of fees, while UW appealed the declaratory judgment.</p> <p>Lest anyone think that UW-Madison is somehow unique in its viewpoint discrimination, the misappropriation of mandatory student fees to fund left-wing activism on a vast scale has long been a problem. For example, Michael Moore's 2004 "<a href="http://slackeruprising.com/">Slacker Uprising</a>," designed to energize the college vote for John Kerry, was largely funded by a <a href="http://www.thefire.org/article/5040.html">massive infusion of student fees</a>. On other campuses, student-fee discrimination is so pervasive and longstanding that religious and conservative organizations often don't even bother to apply for funds.  </p> <p>In the Seventh Circuit at least, all that could change if Roman Catholic Foundation prevails. Students, for the first time, could have real assurance that they have equal access to the funds they are forced to pay. And that would be a true victory for free speech, for legal equality, and for fundamental fairness.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZmU1Mjk4OWFhNjE3ZWI1MTI5YzM3ZTlmOTZhNmQ5YWU= Tue, 27 Oct 2009 12:25:50 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Jane S. Shaw) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MWU4ZTcxNmY0MjE1YzcyYWRiYzBjYmY0OWM0ZmFkNjk= <p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=M2I2NmZiNmYwM2UwMGY3YzZiOWY0NTliOTRkNTdjODE=&p=1">Robert </a>and <a href="http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YTUwNzc1OThlOGViOWMxNmI2YjBiNTgxMDk4MjcwYzg=">George</a> rightly challenge <a href="http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZDk5MjJjNDEyYjFhZjE2M2MzNDIzMTE5MTZlOTZiYjk=">Marcus Winters's</a> argument that more students should be going to college (the popular view, it appears). One point that Winters raises is the “wage premium” -- the difference between the lifetime earnings for high-school graduates and college graduates.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Many questions swirl around this premium. How much of it is due to the role of the college degree as a screening device rather than to actual education? How much is due to the natural abilities of the college-bound population, who would earn more money even without college? What will be the wage premium for the more marginal students now drawn in by the push to go to college? And how much of the premium reflects the decline in the value of the high-school degree, rather than the benefits of a college degree?</p> <p class="MsoNormal">And then there is the amount of the premium itself. The “million dollars over a lifetime” figure has been discredited. The National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges came up with an estimate of $121,539. Mark Schneider parses the figures in a recent <a href="http://www.aei.org/outlook/100034">AEI Outlook paper</a>.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MWU4ZTcxNmY0MjE1YzcyYWRiYzBjYmY0OWM0ZmFkNjk= Tue, 27 Oct 2009 11:30:29 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (George Leef) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YTUwNzc1OThlOGViOWMxNmI2YjBiNTgxMDk4MjcwYzg= Very good work, Robert!</p> <p>By all means, let's try to get K-12 to perform better. If students who graduate from high school today were as well educated as high-school grads (and maybe even 8th graders) of a century ago, college wouldn't seem nearly so important. For many young Americans, all that college does is to partially overcome the academic deficits of the previous twelve years.</p> <p>Getting K-12 (sorry, now it's P-12, isn't it?) to work better is very hard because the education establishment likes things just as they are, especially with teacher-licensure requirements and union job protection. If the public schools could hire people who both want to teach and appear to have the necessary knowledge, and then promptly fire those who do a poor job, classrooms would improve very quickly.</p> <p>For an excellent article on the inanity of the preparation many teachers get in ed school, read Heather Mac Donald's classic "<a href="http://www.city-journal.org/html/8_2_a1.html#at">Why Johnny's Teacher Can't Teach</a>."</p> <p>One surprise in the Winters piece is that he apparently is unfamiliar with the fact that colleges are already graduating large numbers of people who can't find work other than the kinds of jobs that are learned just through some on-the-job training. Those of us in the skeptics camp have repeatedly argued that we're already far past the point of diminishing returns on higher ed with our glut of people with low-grade college credentials doing mundane work once they get into the labor force. I have never seen anyone in the education-establishment camp even acknowledge that point, much less explain why we nevertheless will benefit from processing yet more young people -- overwhelmingly ones with mediocre-to-weak academic capabilities -- through to their BA degrees.</p> <p>Nor have I ever seen anyone from the establishment camp acknowledge that standards and expectations at many schools are so low that students often graduate without having to improve on the human capital they took from high school. Winters, as Robert notes, writes as if the typical student's college experience is one of high intellectual engagement that significantly adds to his human capital, giving him "knowledge and skills that employers prize." That's true for some, but for many others, college is mostly an extended vacation. Employers often complain that the graduates they interview and sometimes have to hire are so weak in fundamentals that they have to spend money on such matters as how to write a memo. The trouble is that colleges are more interested in keeping students content than in forcing them through the "boot camp" many badly need. For example, rigorous criticism of student writing is mostly a thing of the past because few professors want to fight the "How dare you say that my writing isn't good!" battle.</p> <p>If you think about the reality of higher education rather than its lovely facade, you have to drop the belief that we need to send more students to college.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YTUwNzc1OThlOGViOWMxNmI2YjBiNTgxMDk4MjcwYzg= Tue, 27 Oct 2009 10:32:11 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Robert VerBruggen) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NGM3MTQ0MTJkMmE2YTEyNzAxYjk4ZGNjZGRkNDA0MjU= I <a href="http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=M2I2NmZiNmYwM2UwMGY3YzZiOWY0NTliOTRkNTdjODE=&p=1">respond</a> over on the homepage.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NGM3MTQ0MTJkMmE2YTEyNzAxYjk4ZGNjZGRkNDA0MjU= Tue, 27 Oct 2009 08:31:36 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Candace de Russy) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=OGM5ZGU3OWEzYWNiZTAxODZmYTEwZTJiYjNmNWNhYjE= <p id="BlogTitle"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">David Solway</span> has a trenchant <a href="http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/terrorism-what-terrorism/">commentary</a> at Pajamas Media about professors' partisan, appeasing, and dangerous  "babbling" about Islamic terror. Their departure from reality is exemplified by Ian Lustick’s <em><a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/redirect/amazon.p?j=0812239830">Trapped in the War on Terror</a></em>.</p> <p>The argument of Lustick, a political-science professor at the University of Pennsylvania, is typical:</p> <blockquote> <p>The threat has been grossly exaggerated. . . . The fear factor has been exploited by business and government for profitable ends. . . . Terrorism is mainly a European problem, and . . . 9/11 was a one-off attack.</p> </blockquote> <p>How handy to leave out </p> <blockquote> <p>that it was owing to sheer dumb luck that 40,000-50,000 people did not perish in the inferno -- and, indeed, only by grace of a miscue that the Madrid attack did not claim thousands of victims. Conveniently, he pays no heed to the many subsequent terrorist attempts, not only in the <a rel="external" href="http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/09/07/uk.airline.bomb.trial/index.html">UK</a> and <a rel="external" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/05/world/europe/05cnd-germany.html">Germany</a>, but in <a rel="external" href="http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/toronto/archive/2009/06/22/details-of-alleged-toronto-18-bomb-plot-revealed.aspx">Canada</a> and the <a rel="external" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/30/nyregion/30terror.html">U.S.</a> that have been foiled by alert surveillance.</p> </blockquote> <p>The sound thinkers here? Our own Mark Bauerlein, who writes:</p> <blockquote> <p>The very system that academics invoke to fend off critics has become part of the problem. Ideological bias has seeped into the standards of professionalism. . . . Tenured professors enjoy their lifetime paychecks and proceed by professional habits . . . los[ing] touch with common sense and real-world implications.</p> </blockquote> <p>Self-interest in <a rel="external" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_cuckoo_land">Cloud-Cuckoo-Land</a>? To be sure, as André Glucksmann also concludes, in <em>real</em> real-world terms: </p> <blockquote> <p>The threat of Ground Zero, small or great, advances behind a mask. . . . The terrorist without borders makes us think about him always, everywhere. . . . Each of us waits for the next explosion. . . . The general run of our academics and intellectual elites, however, lapped in their <em><a rel="external" href="http://www.yourdictionary.com/dolce-far-niente">dolce far niente</a></em>, wait instead for the next book deal, the next invitation to hold forth at learned conferences, the next promotion, the next CNN appearance, the next citation or award -- and who knows, maybe even a Nobel Peace Prize.</p> </blockquote><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=OGM5ZGU3OWEzYWNiZTAxODZmYTEwZTJiYjNmNWNhYjE= Mon, 26 Oct 2009 16:28:39 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (George Leef) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZThkNzJiYWFlYzhkMThjZTZiMzBkOWVmOWEyMmQ4ZmQ= Last weekend, I had the pleasure of meeting Charles Murray at the Philadelpha Society's regional meeting in Indianapolis. He gave the big Saturday evening talk, and I was on a panel devoted to the economics of higher education with professors Dwight Lee and Richard Vedder.</p> <p>I mentioned the Winters article to Murray, who told me he had already replied on the American Enterprise Institute <a href="http://blog.american.com/?p=6419">blog</a>. In short, he thinks the notion that the country can profitably put a lot more young people through college romantic.</p> <p>I finally got around to reading the piece myself and was surprised to see that it's just a repetition of rather musty ideas, such as that the college "premium" shows that employers have a high demand for the greater knowledge and skills that college supposedly confers. As I have argued for years, that "premium" does not reflect greater productivity on the part of college-degreed people (although of course, some who graduated from college do gain a lot in human capital), but rather that increasingly, employers only offer the better-paying jobs to people with college degrees. Lots of students manage to get through college with little or no improvement in any valuable skills, and what little they may remember from their courses is of scant benefit in most jobs. But the degree does show employers a modicum of perseverance and organization. Given the fact that many young Americans are pretty poor in those characteristics, the degree is a useful screening device. So it's not so much the case that employers pay more for college degrees as that the avenues into the better-paying jobs have been increasingly closed off to people without them.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZThkNzJiYWFlYzhkMThjZTZiMzBkOWVmOWEyMmQ4ZmQ= Mon, 26 Oct 2009 13:16:33 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Candace de Russy) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=OTMwZDBhZjE0ZmY0MDY0NmQ0OWFhNWYyN2I0OTkzMjQ= <p id="BlogTitle">In "First They Came for Fox News," <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Claudia Rosett</span> <a href="http://pajamasmedia.com/claudiarosett/first-they-came-for-fox-news/">remarks</a> "how dangerous it is when the President of the United States gives his staff and advisers a green light to single out and denigrate by name a specific news organization," namely, Fox, which has had the gall to expose and criticize Obama's radical left-wing agenda.</p> <div id="BlogContent"> <p>In particular, Rosett singles out the television networks and major newspapers for failing to speak out against the president's vendetta, declaring "They could be next."</p> <p>Not surprisingly, there's been nary a peep about this outrage against free speech from the academy. Schools of journalism, above all, should be screaming bloody murder, for they too -- given the twists and turns of radicalism -- could be next.</p> <p>The academy should be echoing Rosett's message: </p> <blockquote> <p>The matter of deciding whether a news outlet has “a perspective” — and many do — is something that in a free country, if the country is to remain free, should be left to the private customer ...</p> </blockquote> <blockquote> <p>Government personnel getting into this act is altogether different. These are people paid out of the public purse, and speaking under the imprimatur of public institutions — in this case the White House. Here they are, urging White House-favored news outfits to follow the White House lead, and ostracize a specific news outlet the White House doesn’t like. This is Banana Republic stuff, a stock tactic of pressure and intimidation. The effect of such stuff, as a rule, is not to promote accurate news coverage, but to cover up stories the government doesn’t want aired, and shut up critics.</p> </blockquote> </div><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=OTMwZDBhZjE0ZmY0MDY0NmQ0OWFhNWYyN2I0OTkzMjQ= Mon, 26 Oct 2009 12:15:29 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (George Leef) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MWZkOGU2NWRmYzg3YWFmNDc4MmVhMGE1NjM3YWVkNjE= In a <a href="http://www.popecenter.org/clarion_call/article.html?id=2250">Pope Center piece</a>, my colleage Jay Schalin, greatly influenced by a series of recent programs at UNC where students got to hear sharply divergent points of view from able advocates, suggests that it would be good to organize some courses around great debates in our history.</p> <p>I like the idea. Students would find the clash of ideas much more interesting than the mush they're often fed now.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MWZkOGU2NWRmYzg3YWFmNDc4MmVhMGE1NjM3YWVkNjE= Mon, 26 Oct 2009 11:13:09 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Candace de Russy) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NWI3OWU5MWExYTJiNzQwMWI1NmZkNTcxZmExYjhkMDA= The president's legion of citizen volunteers is actively recruiting college students across the nation to earn college credit for advocating his health-care, economic, and green agendas, <a href="http://www.wnd.com/index.php?pageId=107357">according to <em>WorldNetDaily</em></a>. Colleges should refuse to let such "foot soldiering" credit count toward academic degrees.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NWI3OWU5MWExYTJiNzQwMWI1NmZkNTcxZmExYjhkMDA= Mon, 26 Oct 2009 10:27:40 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (John J. Miller) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YzgyMWJkZTQwYmYzYmQ3OGY0MjlhOTc2ZTFmYzBhNzM= Judging from my e-mail inbox, my posts on teacher certification over the weekend have struck a nerve. Here are two more dispatches from the frontlines:</p> <blockquote> <p>When I decided to teach at the high school level, I had to take certification courses and decided to do so at a nearby well-regarded school of education.  I was quickly disappointed. ... all but one of my professors were professional academics who either had never been classroom teachers or hadn't been one in the past 10+ years.  They existed on nothing but fads, educational research, anecdotes from actual teachers, and experiences from when they parachuted in on classes for a week or two to conduct a study.  These academics proceeded to teach their students information and imbue them with ideals that are impractical and/or non-applicable for actual classroom use.  Since they're not in classrooms, though, they often honestly don't know any better.</p> </blockquote> <p>And:</p> <blockquote> <p>In Kansas, secondary certification in history was abolished a few years ago and replaced by general certification in social studies.  My sense is the change was driven by the perceived need to have somebody as a Jack-of-all-trades in tiny rural Kansas schools.<br /><br />The effect is that high school history teachers get a two-semester survey of US history, a two-semester survey of world history, one semester of Kansas history, one other US history course, and one other non-US history course.  <br /><br />That makes seven courses total in history, compared to twelve for real history majors.  Secondary history teachers can graduate without taking a single course on European history.</p> </blockquote><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YzgyMWJkZTQwYmYzYmQ3OGY0MjlhOTc2ZTFmYzBhNzM= Mon, 26 Oct 2009 05:20:47 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (John J. Miller) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MWU4OWUyMzVlMjdiMzM5M2NhYTE3ZWJmNDg0MTVhMzI= <blockquote> <p>I am a native German, with a MA in German literature and a Ph.D. in German Studies from Duke University and 12 years of teaching experience at the college level. I was told that I would need to go back to school and enroll in various pedagogy and methods classes for two years to become qualified as a High School German teacher in a NC public school.</p> </blockquote><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MWU4OWUyMzVlMjdiMzM5M2NhYTE3ZWJmNDg0MTVhMzI= Sun, 25 Oct 2009 14:10:07 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (John J. Miller) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NjU1NGViZDBhMmJiN2MyMzVjY2U3M2Q3MTc3ZWZhNjc= More e-mail:</p> <blockquote> <p>I am 20 year public school History/Government teacher.  Last year I had my fourth and last ever student teacher.  These people may have taken all of these BS classes, but have virtually no content background and are completely clueless.  I have a BA and MA in History and every education course I had to take sucked the life out of me.</p> </blockquote><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NjU1NGViZDBhMmJiN2MyMzVjY2U3M2Q3MTc3ZWZhNjc= Sun, 25 Oct 2009 13:00:19 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (John J. Miller) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YjY2OWRkY2ExOTUzMTk0NTZiOWU3NmNlYWUwZGE4Y2U= E-mailbag:</p> <blockquote> <p>I learned more in the first 90 minutes of my first substituting job than I learend in any college teaching course. ... I am certifed to teach social studies to middle school students, but even though I had a BA with a double-major in political science and history, an MS in International Affairs, and graduated fromthe Army's command and General Staff College, I am "unqualified" to teach social studies to 9th graders, needing to complete three "secondary school methods courses" in order to check that box.</p> </blockquote> <p>Another:</p> <blockquote> <p>I am a recently retired Biology/Physics teacher<br /><br />Over the years, as a senior teacher, mentor and science department chair, I was responsible for training or retraining teachers who had received mostly useless teacher training at the local universities.<br /><br />#1- Get rid of all PhD Education profs and replace them with successful teachers nearing the end of their careers<br /><br />#2- Do it as a paid internship- half day teaching under close supervision, half day teacher training from retired administrators and teachers.<br /><br />#3- One semester to one year while they "solo" under pop-in supervision, meeting for feedback twice a week</p> </blockquote><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YjY2OWRkY2ExOTUzMTk0NTZiOWU3NmNlYWUwZGE4Y2U= Sun, 25 Oct 2009 12:25:11 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (John J. Miller) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=OTVlOGNlNTI4YWJkNzI1ZDU5MTM2ZTk2MGVlNTlkZjk= I've always thought that the biggest problem with teacher education is that prospective teachers spend too much time listening to professors talk about pedagogical theory and not enough time learning their core subjects. In other words, a lot of students who go on to become 10th-grade history professors actually take fewer history courses than ordinary history majors.</p> <p>This isn't precisely the problem Secretary of Education Arne Duncan took on this week in a speech at Columbia's Teachers College, but he was <a href="http://www.ed.gov/news/speeches/2009/10/10222009.html">strongly critical</a> of the way our country prepares teachers:</p> <blockquote> <p>Yet, by almost any standard, many if not most of the nation's 1,450 schools, colleges, and departments of education are doing a mediocre job of preparing teachers for the realities of the 21st century classroom. ... For decades, schools of education have been renowned for being cash cows for universities. The large enrollment in education schools and their relatively low overhead have made them profit-centers. But many universities have diverted those profits to more prestigious but under-enrolled graduate departments like physics—while doing little to invest in rigorous educational research and well-run clinical training.</p> </blockquote> <p>Wow.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=OTVlOGNlNTI4YWJkNzI1ZDU5MTM2ZTk2MGVlNTlkZjk= Sat, 24 Oct 2009 06:39:38 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (George Leef) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MGNmNTc3Y2E2YmFlNTE0NTA1YmY3NGJiNGY5OGFlMGE= A student writer on a <a href="http://blog.stanfordreview.org/2009/10/20/grade-inflation-must-go/">Stanford blog</a> laments that grade inflation is so prevalent at the school. Also, there's an interesting comment that Cornell has adopted a policy of releasing average course grades so it's possible to  tell, for instance, whether a B indicated very good work in a hard engineering course or an A was pretty much average in an English course.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MGNmNTc3Y2E2YmFlNTE0NTA1YmY3NGJiNGY5OGFlMGE= Thu, 22 Oct 2009 13:55:59 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (David French) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YzY0OGZlMWM0NTRlNTExNDc4ZDEzZTZmY2NiZTQwY2E= Over at <em>Inside Higher Ed</em>, Penn professor Marybeth Gasman <a href="http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2009/10/22/gasman">posts</a> an interesting op-ed about a new dress code at Morehouse, one of the nation's premier historically black colleges.  Banned are "caps, do-rags, and hoods in the classrooms, cafeteria and indoors; sun glasses and grillz; clothing with lewd comments; sagging pants and pajamas in public; and women’s clothing and accessories."</p> <p>Professor Gasman sees both expressive and racial problems with the policy:</p> <blockquote> <p>However, as I think about the new Morehouse dress code, I am reminded that much of America (read: white America) does not see African Americans as individuals. If a young white male dresses in pajamas or saggy pants, and a lewd t-shirt on a predominantly white campus, he is seen neither as a representative of his race nor his campus. And let’s be honest, anyone who visits campuses these days, including some of the most prestigious in the country, will see many white male students displaying more of their underwear than most of us want to see, wearing caps inside, and displaying crude T-shirts. But when a young black male wears saggy pants, pajamas, or a do-rag, many Americans see him as a representative of all black America (and in this case, Morehouse College). The stakes are higher for black men because of American racism. The stakes are higher for Morehouse College as well.</p> </blockquote> <p>I do think she has a bit of a point. I do think do-rags, saggy pants, etc. are seen as marks of black urban culture, but I think she underestimates the extent to which white kids wearing the same clothes aren't taken seriously (and even mocked).  </p> <p>As a graduate of a predominantly white <a href="http://www.lipscomb.edu/">Christian university</a> with a (then) more strict dress code, I think Professor Gasman also underestimates the extent to which dress codes at private universities were the rule rather than the exception and remain the rule at those colleges that have not abandoned their historical identity in their pell-mell rush to run with the academic herd.</p> <p>Simply put, at the private university (especially the religious private university), the dress code is an expression of institutional values.  It is, itself, part of the process of educating students at institutions whose purpose is far more ambitious than providing a solid education in a student's chosen course of study.  At Lipscomb University, part of the mission was to educate the students what it meant to live an entire life as a Christian man or woman, and, yes, <a href="http://campuslife.lipscomb.edu/Uploads/10832.pdf">that includes dress</a>.</p> <p>In other words, the dress code -- like many aspects of private university life -- constituted an act of institutional expression created with the hope that it would become part of the students' individual expression following college. I applaud Morehouse. It is doing what few private educational institutions have the courage to do -- retain its distinctive and distinguished identity.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YzY0OGZlMWM0NTRlNTExNDc4ZDEzZTZmY2NiZTQwY2E= Thu, 22 Oct 2009 12:59:16 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (George Leef) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NTYxYjAzMWJhNGJjNzZiYjRlMWYxMDBhM2RkMWYyMDE= I'll probably have a lot more to say about the Winters article later, but for now, just two quick comments.</p> <p>First, we shouldn't be talking about "sending" anyone to college. That phrasing smacks of central planning, as if government officials know the right percentage of the citizenry who need to go to college. Instead, higher education must be an individual choice.  Fewer young people are making that choice, for whatever reason. The fact that college costs a lot and doesn't seem to do much for many of the marginal kids who give it a try (and lots of those who do, drop out) is a logical reason to decide not to try college.</p> <p>Second, large numbers of young Americans go through their K-12 years with great educational deficits that make them hard to train. The college setting is not a good place for them to catch up on things they ought to have learned back in grade school but didn't. I'll bet that Winters has never tried teaching a college course where most of the students are academically weak and disengaged. It's an exercise in futility.<em class="bioline"></em></p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NTYxYjAzMWJhNGJjNzZiYjRlMWYxMDBhM2RkMWYyMDE= Thu, 22 Oct 2009 10:30:58 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Robert VerBruggen) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MmFkZWI5NzYyZjg4MDNhNzA5NGUzOGRkNzcxNDZhY2U= Over on the homepage, Marcus A. Winters <a href="http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZDk5MjJjNDEyYjFhZjE2M2MzNDIzMTE5MTZlOTZiYjk=">says yes</a>.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MmFkZWI5NzYyZjg4MDNhNzA5NGUzOGRkNzcxNDZhY2U= Thu, 22 Oct 2009 09:27:23 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (George Leef) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YTIxMmUwOTk2ZTllMTdmOTY1ZGU1NWZiZDliMDNlZjA= Should a college lose its accreditation just because its finances are shaky? Should accreditation be the touchstone for eligibility for federal student aid? In this week's Pope Center <em><a href="http://www.popecenter.org/clarion_call/article.html?id=2248">Clarion Call</a></em>, I take a look at a recent case in North Carolina (St. Andrews Presbyterian College) that is in serious financial trouble and facing loss of accreditation as a consequence.</p> <p>I answer both of those questions in the negative.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YTIxMmUwOTk2ZTllMTdmOTY1ZGU1NWZiZDliMDNlZjA= Wed, 21 Oct 2009 14:55:49 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Robert VerBruggen) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZGMwN2QwYzEwZGMzZDUxNGY5NTkyZTIxNjQ0MTQwNWY= Just a few quick comments to add in response to <a href="http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NjAyMWI4OTRlMjVhZTEwMTY4NWI3NjgwZjg5ZjAzMGY=">the letter</a> below.</p> <p>First, I did not mean to disparage the Medill Innocence Project (or Prof. David Protess, who runs it) by calling it "activist." Theirs is a very good form of activism -- while many participants are no doubt motivated by opposition to the death penalty in general, the focus is always on finding the truly wrongfully convicted. So long as the Innocence Project and groups like it stop pursuing cases when they find the convicted party to be guilty, they have my total support.</p> <p>Second, the definition of "reporter" under Illinois law -- not the question of whether students in this class use journalistic techniques, or may, at some point, publish write-ups of what they do -- is what's relevant in terms of the shield. The law defines reporter as:</p> <blockquote> <p>any person regularly engaged in the business of collecting, writing or editing news for publication through a news medium on a full-time or part-time basis; and includes any person who was a reporter at the time the information sought was procured or obtained.</p> </blockquote> <p>Do participants in the Innocence Project meet this definition? Again, I'm skeptical. The program's main goal isn't to publish stories, but to rectify injustices. As I pointed out in my original post, some other schools' Innocence Projects aren't even run out of journalism programs, but out of law or criminal-justice programs. If a person is investigating mainly for these reasons, but <em>also </em>plans to publish the results in a newspaper, does that count?</p> <p>It's a gray area, and as I said before, it illustrates the problem with shield laws generally: They give journalists rights that other people don't have, thus forcing the government to decide who is and is not a journalist. If the law says that prosecutors can access information that's relevant to the case, and a judge agrees that a certain piece of information is relevant, journalists should have to choose between handing over the information and going to jail, just like everyone else.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZGMwN2QwYzEwZGMzZDUxNGY5NTkyZTIxNjQ0MTQwNWY= Tue, 20 Oct 2009 15:58:34 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (George Leef) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NmQ4OTk4MjhjNzA1ZjM2NjQyYWU2OGI0OWYzNTIyNTI= It's something of a breakthrough to see a chink in the armor of preferential admissions -- a recognition that it doesn't do anything for "blacks" for an elite university to bend its standards in order to admit a few more black students from prosperous families. The case for preferential admissions based on family income is no better, however, than the case based on ancestry. If a student from a poor family is able to get into a mid-range college, it does nothing to advance "social justice" (a term Hayek rightly called meaningless) for the likes of Harvard to bend its standards to admit him. I think its narcissism for the Harvards of the nation to think that they provide far better education and do much more to put students on the path to success in life than do our non-elite colleges and universities.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NmQ4OTk4MjhjNzA1ZjM2NjQyYWU2OGI0OWYzNTIyNTI= Tue, 20 Oct 2009 15:25:17 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (George Leef) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=OTY4ZmRhZTU1ZmRjZGExZTVjZTU1ODdkYWYxZjdhMjY= Most schools now compel students and personnel who desire to smoke to do so in designated outside areas, but that isn't enough for a group that wants a complete tobacco ban. <em>Inside Higher Ed</em> has the <a href="http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/10/20/tobacco">story.</a></p> <p>This ought to worry the "diversity" advocates. Smokers are a minority with some distinct cultural traits. If colleges drive smokers away, as the proposed campus-wide bans would tend to do, won't that deprive other students of the opportunity to learn about them and to benefit from the perspective they'd bring to class discussions involving personal freedom and trade-offs?</p> <p>Or do those concerns only apply to certain groups and not others?</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=OTY4ZmRhZTU1ZmRjZGExZTVjZTU1ODdkYWYxZjdhMjY= Tue, 20 Oct 2009 15:17:31 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Allison Kasic) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NDU1Nzg1MjNjNzUyYTAzYzE2ODJjYWNkNDkxMDg3MTE= In June, David and I reported on the fight for free speech at Bucknell University (refresher: the school shut down two peaceful protests -- more into <a href="http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YWMyMDQ4NjdkYThmZDAyNjE0NjZjZGU3MWZjODNiNGU=">here</a> and <a href="http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZmE4YjgyYmVlZDI1OWM0NzMyNDRhZDgxYWVhZjNlNTQ">here</a>). Unfortunately, the situation at Bucknell is still not resolved. But down I-80 at Bucknell's rival school, Lehigh University, administrators are taking a different approach: Instead of censoring students, they are embracing the First Amendment. Fellow Bucknell alum and PBCer Charles Mitchell notes the contrast <a href="http://www.mcall.com/news/opinion/anotherview/all-yv_mitchell1015.7054956oct20,0,3890738.story">over in <em>The Morning Call.</em></a></p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NDU1Nzg1MjNjNzUyYTAzYzE2ODJjYWNkNDkxMDg3MTE= Tue, 20 Oct 2009 14:45:45 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Candace de Russy) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YTg4YTczNzdjNDVlMTI3ZDZiZjg5NjdiZDlmYTk2MjY= How many Western professors are devoting their scholarly acumen, ever so politically incorrectly, to analysing the enduring threat of Islamist terror?</p> <p>Midst these few, <a href="http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/print/CTVNews/20091015/mi5_terrorism_091017/20091017/?hub=TopStoriesV2&subhub=PrintStory">according to CTV News</a>, Cambridge University historian Christopher Andrew stands out. Having been given access to 400,000 files by MI5, Britain's domestic spy service, he recently wrote an official account of the 100-year history of the organization, "The Defence of the Realm."</p> <p class="headline">Andrew concludes that the spy agency, which has only clued into the threat of Islamist terrorism in the last 20 years, has for now tapered off, but that devoted hard-core terrorists remain a threat in the foreseeable future.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YTg4YTczNzdjNDVlMTI3ZDZiZjg5NjdiZDlmYTk2MjY= Tue, 20 Oct 2009 14:11:13 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Jane S. Shaw) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NTYwZGJiNjdkYzE1OWU4MGY1NmIxNzc2ODYyZGJhZmQ= <p class="MsoNormal">Today’s <em>New York Times</em> discusses a proposal by Sen. Tom Coburn to remove political science from National Science Foundation funding. Coburn considers a lot of the discipline's research to be a waste of money, especially compared to the "hard" sciences such as chemistry and biology. Patricia Cohen <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/20/books/20poli.html?_r=1&ref=education">raises the question</a> of whether political science has become too mathematical, narrow, and irrelevant.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">She quotes Joseph Nye, an “influential” professor at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard: “The danger is that political science is moving in the direction of saying more and more about less and less.”</p> <p class="MsoNormal">That statement could be made about a lot of academic research, I suspect. Indeed, Mark Bauerlein came to that conclusion for humanities research in his American Enterprise Education report "<a href="http://www.aei.org/yra/100001?parent=3">Professors on the Production Line, Students on Their Own</a>."</p> <p><span><span> </span></span></p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NTYwZGJiNjdkYzE1OWU4MGY1NmIxNzc2ODYyZGJhZmQ= Tue, 20 Oct 2009 13:37:52 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Candace de Russy) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YTYyMTlhZDQyMzAwZjkyYjY3NWQwOTAwNDZhYWI2NzM= The folks in the United Arab Emirates and NYU do not think picayunishly.</p> <p>With the financial backing of Abu Dhabi, <a href="http://nyunews.com/news/2009/oct/19/library/">reports</a> <em>New York University News</em>, the university plans to <em>completely </em>digitize the campus's libraries, which have a combined 5.1 million volumes, and thus connect New York's research materials not only to the new, degree-granting satellite campus in the United Arab Emirates (NYUAD) but also to the global network university.</p> <div class="printcontent"> <p>This would be a first. No other university has a totally digitized library.</p> <p><a href="http://nyunews.com/news/2009/oct/19/library/">Read</a> how Kirtas Technologies, a leading company in digitization services, is advancing this extraordinary revolution in access to knowledge.</p> </div><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YTYyMTlhZDQyMzAwZjkyYjY3NWQwOTAwNDZhYWI2NzM= Tue, 20 Oct 2009 13:06:56 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (George Leef) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NDg0NTBjYWE0MTVhYjA3MTFmNTYwNWNmMzZlNTczYTE= According to <a href="http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2009/10/16/a_poor_time_for_a_law_school_at_umass_dartmouth/">this</a> <em>Boston Globe</em> editorial, Massachusetts is considering the creation of new law school, which would be the only "public" (that is to say, taxpayer-funded) law school in the state.</p> <p>The <em>Globe</em> takes a skeptical view of the claim that the school wouldn't cost state taxpayers because it would cover its costs. That's a sensible position. Political assurances that X "will not cost taxpayers anything" are like Lucy telling Charlie Brown that this time she will let him kick the football.</p> <p>But there is a line that bothers me: "It's not a point of pride for MA to be one of just six states without a public law school." Baloney. There is no reason why legal education should be done by state-sponsored schools. I'd say the fact that Massachussetts doesn't blow taxpayer money on something that the free market provides perfectly well should itself be a point of pride.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NDg0NTBjYWE0MTVhYjA3MTFmNTYwNWNmMzZlNTczYTE= Tue, 20 Oct 2009 11:59:01 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Roger Clegg) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YjIyNTE3MzQzNGJhMmEwYTkzN2Q5ZjgzMzI5ZTk5Y2U= <p class="MsoNormal">. . . <a href="http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=529611">editorializes</a> in favor of less emphasis on race, and more emphasis on socioeconomic status, in admissions. Here’s the conclusion:</p> <blockquote> <p class="arial">President Obama’s daughters Sasha and Malia, for example, are far less in need of affirmative action than many white children living in poverty in the hills of Appalachia. The president himself has stated as much, <a title="blocked::http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0808/12421_Page2.html" href="http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0808/12421_Page2.html" target="_blank">declaring during the presidential campaign</a> that affirmative action ought to operate “in such a way where some of our children who are advantaged aren’t getting more favorable treatment than a poor white kid who has struggled more.”<br /> <br /> Due to its role as a leader among universities, Harvard ought to take the initiative in refashioning affirmative action along the lines of Obama’s postracial vision. Race-based affirmative action has played an important role over the course of its four-decade existence. But socioeconomic-based affirmative action is now the more effective way to fight for social justice.</p> </blockquote><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YjIyNTE3MzQzNGJhMmEwYTkzN2Q5ZjgzMzI5ZTk5Y2U= Tue, 20 Oct 2009 11:30:02 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (NRO Staff) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NjAyMWI4OTRlMjVhZTEwMTY4NWI3NjgwZjg5ZjAzMGY= <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; ">I too am an alum of Medill, and I spent six months on a case within the Innocence Project, in which we found evidence that led us to conclude that the suspect was guilty. The case was suspended soon after our discoveries. To call this program activist is actually an insult to me.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; ">I hold the <em>National Review</em> in very high esteem. I am one of the very few conservative-thinking writers to leave Medill each year, and more important, I adamantly support the death penalty.</span> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">‘</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; ">However, we have witnessed miscarriage of justice after miscarriage of justice coming from the Chicago police force and legal system. There is rampant evidence of repeated, forced confessions, intimidation, and perjury. I would hardly call David Protess an activist. He is a journalist, as was I in his class, and we sought to find out whether or not an individual had been wrongfully accused of felony murder. I worked on a separate case in 2004 while several friends worked on the McKinney case, and what I will say to you is that there is overwhelming evidence and documentation that this man is innocent. That is really all that should matter.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; ">The Cook County prosecutor’s office is trying to undermine this case by trying to undermine the program. We were not graded by or pressured into finding evidence (although my team found actual physical evidence in a case 22 years later at the scene of the crime). This was a class that educated students on how to handle difficult interviews, how to examine court documents, how to ask questions and how to follow leads. This class was probably more investigative in nature than any journalism job that any graduate could obtain well into their 30s. This is journalism, through and through. And at the end of the day, when enough evidence had been compiled and a case had been made, we could have reported the news in the <em>Tribune</em> as had been done in numerous other cases since the Ford Heights Four.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; ">David wanted us to focus on one mission: To find the truth. And in my case, we found evidence leaning toward guilt. He soon suspended the case, although we would later question certain police-reporting practices. In a time when the journalism profession has become a laughingstock, I would be troubled if you do not see this as actual journalism that should be protected at all costs. We have a national press core that is afraid to ask questions. Meanwhile, we have 15 students a quarter walking into the roughest neighborhoods in Chicago, fearlessly asking questions about murders from 20 years ago. I’d hire an alum of this class over any other </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">“</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; ">professional reporter</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">”</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; "> any day of the week.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; ">I ask that you take my words into consideration the next time you write an opinion piece about this program. It was the best decision I have ever made, the reason I attended Medill, and although I left journalism and went into political communications, it taught me more about the trials of life than any other personal experience. Never did I feel that my grade was based on discovery. It was based on perseverance. And at the end of the day,  I was far more concerned with discovering the truth than I was about a letter on my student record. I am certain that every other student who took this course feels the same way.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; ">Thank you.<br />Garrett Baldwin</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; ">Medill </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; ">’</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; ">04</span></p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NjAyMWI4OTRlMjVhZTEwMTY4NWI3NjgwZjg5ZjAzMGY= Tue, 20 Oct 2009 10:42:02 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Robert VerBruggen) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=Y2M4ODE3NzM2OTlmMjg4ZWYwZjM3ZGM4NWZjMTY0MTA= I'm <a href="http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MmZiZDQ2NTQ5NzA0MWUxMTc4OGRmMWY0NjdkMzYwZDI=">pretty skeptical</a> of "stereotype threat" explanations of the racial gap in test scores, but <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/15/AR2009101503477_pf.html">this</a> probably isn't smart:</p> <blockquote> <p>Last year Morton Sherman, the new superintendent, ordered principals throughout [Alexandria, Va.] to post huge charts in their hallways so everyone -- including 10-year-old kids -- could see differences in test scores between white, black and Hispanic students. One mother told me that a black fifth-grader at Cora Kelly Magnet School said that “whoever sees that sign will think I am stupid.” A fourth-grade African American girl there looked at the sign and said to a friend: “That’s not me.” When black and white parents protested that impressionable young children don’t need such information, administrators accused them of not facing up to the problem. Only when the local NAACP complained did Sherman have the charts removed.</p> </blockquote> <p>Hat tip to <a href="http://www.discriminations.us/2009/10/academic_performance_and_race.html">Discriminations</a>.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=Y2M4ODE3NzM2OTlmMjg4ZWYwZjM3ZGM4NWZjMTY0MTA= Mon, 19 Oct 2009 15:12:21 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Robert VerBruggen) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NDNkZTI4NzRkOTVkNWUwM2JjZTlkOTI3YTgyYmRmZGQ= The Medill School of Journalism (disclosure: I'm an alum) is <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-nu-subpoena-19-oct19,0,3778012.story">fighting</a> Cook County prosecutors over a case the school's <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Innocence_Project">Innocence Project</a> handled:</p> <blockquote> <p>The <a id="PLGEO100100501000000" class="taxInlineTagLink" title="Cook County" href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/topic/us/illinois/cook-county-PLGEO100100501000000.topic">Cook County</a> state's attorney subpoenaed the students' grades, notes and recordings of witness interviews, the class syllabus and even e-mails they sent to each other and to professor David Protess of the university's Medill School of Journalism.<br /> <br /> Northwestern has turned over documents related to on-the-record interviews with witnesses that students conducted, as well as copies of audio and videotapes, Protess said.<br /> <br /> But the school is fighting the effort to get grades and grading criteria, evaluations of student performance, expenses incurred during the inquiry, the syllabus, e-mails, unpublished student memos, and interviews not conducted on the record, or where witnesses weren't willing to be recorded.</p> </blockquote> <p>I'm not sure the syllabus, grading criteria, and final grades are relevant. I'm skeptical the excuse that "students might have been pressured to find evidence that McKinney was innocent or else they would get poor grades in the class" -- why not evaluate the evidence itself, much of which was recorded live, rather than the process by which it was collected?</p> <p>But prosecutors probably are entitled to the notes on the interviews, and to e-mails that discuss the case. Illinois <a href="http://www.poynterextra.org/shieldlaw/states.htm#IL">has</a> a "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shield_laws_in_the_United_States">shield</a>" law for journalists, but the Innocence Project, while run in this case from a journalism school, is pretty clearly activist, not journalistic, in nature (<a href="http://www.innocencenetwork.org/members.html">at some universities</a>, it's run out of the law or criminal-justice school). The point of the Medill Innocence Project is, in its own words, "to expose and remedy wrongdoing by the criminal justice system."</p> <p>Medill's dean can point out that the students "took reporting to the nth degree," but under Illinois law, you have to report <em>for publication </em>to be a reporter. These folks report, overwhelmingly at least, for the purpose of exonerating the wrongfully convicted. In this particular case, they "took their findings to the Center on Wrongful Convictions at the Northwestern law school's Bluhm Legal Clinic," according to the story linked above. Further, even if the students are journalists, under Illinois law the shield <a href="http://www.cravenlawoffice.com/images/Reporter_sPrivilege.pdf">does not apply</a> if the information is essential to the public interest and isn't available elsewhere.</p> <p>If anything, the debate about whether these students count as journalists helps to demonstrate the problems with shield laws. The government has no business deciding who is and who is not a journalist, and then giving special privileges based on the distinction.</p> <p>Now, I'd respect the folks in the Innocence Project if they, out of respect for the promises they made to their sources, refused to turn over the documents and went to jail. I'm just unimpressed by their request for the law to treat them differently than it treats everyone else.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NDNkZTI4NzRkOTVkNWUwM2JjZTlkOTI3YTgyYmRmZGQ= Mon, 19 Oct 2009 13:43:44 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (George Leef) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MGFiNDgwZjRmMTI3NmYzMmY3OTdmNWI3ZTU2ZjQwMmM= North Carolina State has been rocked with scandal of late, most significantly the hiring of and oversized compensation for the wife of former governor Mike Easley (who is himself in very hot water over various abuses of power). That embarrassment led to a discussion in the NC State alumni magazine over the troubles at the school, and in a Pope Center <a href="http://www.popecenter.org/commentaries/article.html?id=2247">piece</a> released today, Jane Shaw takes a look at the substance of the discussion.</p> <p>Government-funded institutions with weak oversight of large budgets: a perfect recipe for connivers to help themselves to a lot of money.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MGFiNDgwZjRmMTI3NmYzMmY3OTdmNWI3ZTU2ZjQwMmM= Mon, 19 Oct 2009 10:33:39 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Robert VerBruggen) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NjgxODQwZmI3MjE0MDA4NGRmOWQ3MjM2YjExNjY1YzA= Some professors <a href="http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1481272">look at the question empirically</a>.</p> <p>Hat tip to the <a href="http://volokh.com/2009/10/18/choosing-lawful-versus-unlawful-music-downloads/">Volokh Conspiracy</a>.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NjgxODQwZmI3MjE0MDA4NGRmOWQ3MjM2YjExNjY1YzA= Mon, 19 Oct 2009 08:46:27 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (David French) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NGY4NDQ0YmI1MTY1MWM5NWYyNjRlNTUxNjk2OTk0OGM= I would encourage PBC readers to jump over to <a href="http://www.thefire.org/torch/">FIRE's blog</a> and read Azhar Majeed's <a href="http://www.thefire.org/article/11190.html">response</a> to Yale professor Anthony Kronman's <a href="http://www.yaledailynews.com/opinion/guest-columns/2009/09/30/kronman-yale-distinct-its-press/">defense</a> of the university press's now-infamous decision remove "offensive" Mohammed cartoons from a book about . . . those very cartoons.</p> <p>While I can't improve on Azhar's critique, I do want to highlight what should be an obvious point. Responding to threats of violence with self-censorship only rewards threats. Azhar is correct that the "age of the internet" has made such threats virtually "ubiquitous." How many news stories begin with some variation of, "When Jane Smith published her blog, she had no idea that she would one day be on the receiving end of threatening email." Censorship based on "threats" could be all-consuming.</p> <p>But what if there is good reason to believe that publication will lead to more than mere threats? What if people have already died because of similar (or identical) speech? Then, there is an even <em>greater</em> need for the speech. If we cannot reward threats with self-censorship, how much more critical is it to deter actual violence?</p> <p>Let's meet violence with speech, but not with speech alone. Use lawful authority to protect the speakers, protect the public, and protect the rule of law. Sometimes, blood must be shed to defend liberty.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NGY4NDQ0YmI1MTY1MWM5NWYyNjRlNTUxNjk2OTk0OGM= Fri, 16 Oct 2009 11:58:58 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Jane S. Shaw) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NjYwNTZlMTYyOTU4YTQ4ODBhYjExMmViMTk4YmQ4NWU= <p class="MsoNormal">Stephen Trachtenberg, former president of George Washington University, has a <a href="http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/higher-education/trachtenberg-when-a-colleges-r.html?hpid=sec-education">curious column</a> in the <em>Washington Post</em>.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">He discusses a court case (carefully pointing out that he does not have the full details) in which a student is suing the University of Pennsylvania for misrepresenting its “Executive Masters in Technology Management.” This program is co-sponsored by the engineering department of Penn and the Wharton School of Business. The student received a diploma from Penn, but a mere “certificate of completion” from Wharton. The student expected a Wharton degree, which is considered more prestigious than a degree from Penn’s engineering department.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">According to Trachtenberg, the student was “apparently quite satisfied with what he learned,” but he wanted the prestige of the Wharton name.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Trachtenberg uses this case to illustrate a broader issue, that "the brand has overcome the education" -- people value a school’s prestige more than they value its education. But he doesn’t take a stand on where the fault lies -- in this case, or more generally. Was the student seeking a Wharton degree on the cheap? Or had Penn misrepresented the nature of the master’s degree? My guess is both.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">The message for me: People in higher-education transactions are just as self-interested as those in other transactions. The student wanted prestige; the school wanted revenues. Wharton sold its name, but held back giving a diploma because such a diploma would tarnish its prestige. As for the student being “satisfied” with his education, frankly, this is a glib remark. Education was not what he was primarily looking for.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NjYwNTZlMTYyOTU4YTQ4ODBhYjExMmViMTk4YmQ4NWU= Fri, 16 Oct 2009 11:30:43 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (George Leef) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=Y2JmMjEyN2NmNDhlZmVlNmE1OTYzZGE1MDY3ODBkMDg= I'm referring to the National Labor College, an accredited, degree-granting institution run by the AFL-CIO. In today's Pope Center <a href="http://www.popecenter.org/commentaries/article.html?id=2246">piece</a>, I write about the school.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=Y2JmMjEyN2NmNDhlZmVlNmE1OTYzZGE1MDY3ODBkMDg= Fri, 16 Oct 2009 09:41:45 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (John J. Miller) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=OWM1YmE0NDMyY2QxMzg1MTc3MTA3ZGY3YzlkMWM1ZmE= <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/16/us/politics/16texas.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&hpw=&adxnnlx=1255685076-DLIUPf1otki7x7pmhsVvtg"><em>NYT</em></a> on Texas A&M, which President Obama will visit today:</p> <blockquote> <p>[T]his is no Berkeley. ... A walk across campus remains a quiet, almost solemn idyll, where cadets march in formation, the most provocative T-shirts feature slogans in favor of Jesus and the destination signs on shuttles flash “Bush School.”</p> </blockquote><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=OWM1YmE0NDMyY2QxMzg1MTc3MTA3ZGY3YzlkMWM1ZmE= Fri, 16 Oct 2009 05:32:29 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (John J. Miller) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MDkzODcwMjllMjQ3ZjQxNmM2N2Q1YjQ2MGM1YmY4MjU= If others have mentioned this already, forgive me -- but I'd like to call attention to a book just published by the American Enterprise Institute: <a href="http://www.aei.org/book/100020"><em>The Politically Correct University</em></a>. It's a collection of essays on what has gone wrong with our colleges and universities. More than a set of typical complaints, it's packed with actual data on the political views of the academic class as well as practical suggestions for reform. Contributors include occasional PBCers Anne Neal and Peter Wood. Best of all, the AEI website lets you print it out as a pdf file--so you can download the whole thing for free and print the parts you want to read.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MDkzODcwMjllMjQ3ZjQxNmM2N2Q1YjQ2MGM1YmY4MjU= Thu, 15 Oct 2009 13:56:23 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Robert VerBruggen) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZDM1NmViNGJlZjEwNDM4Mjc3OGZiNzg3OGRhMDQ1MTU= <a href="http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/10/15/oberlin">Ew</a>.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZDM1NmViNGJlZjEwNDM4Mjc3OGZiNzg3OGRhMDQ1MTU= Thu, 15 Oct 2009 12:39:28 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Robert VerBruggen) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NDNiYWFiMzJhYWIyZWNhMWI3Zjk5YjNkOTk1ZjhjMzY= Legislation has been introduced that would stop interest from accruing on government college loans for active-duty soldiers and National Guard members.</p> <p>The <em>Washington Monthly </em><a href="http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/college_guide/blog/nobrainer.php">calls</a> this a "no-brainer," and it is pretty hard to oppose -- but I have to ask: Why are so many of the benefits of military membership restricted to those who attend college? Why, for example, did the college-bound benefit from the immense expenditures of the G.I. Bill, while non<span style="font-family: ">-</span>college bound returning vets didn't?</p> <p>If you want to increase compensation for members of the military, and especially those on active duty, great. But why not just increase their salaries, and let them decide whether to spend it on college and/or paying off education loans? They're <a href="http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000%5C000%5C012%5C889xcncf.asp">bright people</a>; they can figure it out.</p> <p>The only counterargument I can think of is that by compensating college/college-bound students more, you can attract a higher number of smart kids. The same effect could be achieved, however, by giving bonuses to recruits with high <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armed_Services_Vocational_Aptitude_Battery#Armed_Forces_Qualification_Test">AFQT</a> scores.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NDNiYWFiMzJhYWIyZWNhMWI3Zjk5YjNkOTk1ZjhjMzY= Wed, 14 Oct 2009 15:40:33 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (David French) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YmI5NmExYTRhYWYzZDcyOGFlZjhjMGEzZTU4Yjk4ZWY= Scott Jaschik has a <a href="http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/10/14/evolution">long and interesting story</a> in today's <em>Inside Higher Ed</em> about efforts to spur greater dialogue within Christian colleges and universities between those Christian biologists who (broadly defined) believe that God created the heavens and earth through evolutionary processes, those who believe in a six-24-hour-day creation and a "young earth," and those who fall somewhere in between. Scott does a better job than most at reporting these kinds of issues, avoiding the "rational and respectable Christians versus fundamentalists" slant that so many reporters take. I have a few thoughts:</p> <p>First, when biologists find themselves "under fire" for allegedly defying the "literal" creation story, the actual events are often much, much more complex than the simple "I took on the creationists and they sacked me" tale told after the fact. As one commenter notes, there was in fact more to the story of the professor who resigned from Olivet Nazarene College, and there is evidence from <a href="http://www.calvin.edu/archive/asa/200709/0333.html">within the college</a> that it hardly bans teaching different scientific perspectives.</p> <p>Second, while civil, intramural debates can be quite healthy, it is important to note the institutional academic freedom interests in play. Different Christian universities have different mission statements and statements of faith. This is, of course, their right, and it is their right -- as independent religious organizations -- to adhere to those mission statements and ask their faculty to do so as well. No one is required to attend any religious school, no one is required to teach at any religious school, and you are not treating faculty unfairly if you ask them to uphold the school's mission. In many ways, the community of Christian schools represents a "marketplace of ideas" far more open than the parallel community of secular schools -- where ideological orthodoxy is rigidly enforced not just within but among the institutions.</p> <p>Third, I would be surprised if the principles of evolutionary biology were not taught even at schools dominated by a "young Earth" viewpoint. Professors know evolutionary biology and students learn it. They may learn it from a critical standpoint, but they still learn it. It's hardly the case that students at Christian universities leave with yawning gaps in their knowledge. After all, many of them go on to receive doctorates from secular universities. Thus, while the theological/scientific debate is important, the actual impact on classroom instruction -- as a rule -- is far less material than what outside observers believe.</p> <p>Finally -- and this is a pet peeve of mine -- I hate the use of the term "literal" or "literalist" when describing those who believe the Bible is God's word. I have never in my entire life met any single person who believed there was no metaphor in the Bible. So, the actual debate within orthodox Christianity is not between "literalists" and others; it's between those who disagree over the meaning and intent of words, when both sides believe those are the words God intended to use.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YmI5NmExYTRhYWYzZDcyOGFlZjhjMGEzZTU4Yjk4ZWY= Wed, 14 Oct 2009 14:34:55 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (George Leef) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YjJjNWU4ZWRhNWNhYzU1MzJlNmE0NWNhOTU5YTkzOTg= David makes a very good point about the desirability of having well-defined standards for financial stability. Nearly two years ago, the Pope Center released <a href="http://www.popecenter.org/clarion_call/article.html?id=1928">this piece</a> written by math professor Robert Blumenthal (then at Oglethorpe and now at Georgia College and State University) making that same point. Given the extraordinary importance that accreditation now has -- without accreditation from a federally recognized accrediting body, a school is ineligible for government financial-aid money -- schools ought to know exactly what will be treated as an unacceptable financial situation.</p> <p>The question is not whether St. Andrews is acceptable academically. There is no doubt that it's at least as good a school as most other liberal-arts colleges. It's probably better than many others. So why should the shaky financial situation trigger what amounts to the death penalty from the recognized regional accrediting association, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools? If SACS is concerned that the school's financial difficulties might cause trouble for students, what is the logic in revoking accreditation when that action unquestionably will cause trouble for them by shutting down the school and forcing them to finish their educations elssewhere?</p> <p>I don't see a good reason to make eligibility for federal financial aid dependent on accreditation at all. We don't want to see students blowing federal money on degree mills, but accreditation is not a good indicator that a school is educationally serious and lack of accreditation is not proof that a school is not educationally serious. The DoE should come up with a more reliable method of finding out degree mills and barring them. Better still would be to cut the Gordian Knot and get the feds out of the business of educational financing, of course.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YjJjNWU4ZWRhNWNhYzU1MzJlNmE0NWNhOTU5YTkzOTg= Wed, 14 Oct 2009 13:53:33 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (George Leef) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NGNiZWJkYjg1ZTA0YjhmZDk2MzdhMDE1NzFlNTYyYzk= In this week's <em><a href="http://www.popecenter.org/clarion_call/article.html?id=2245">Clarion Call</a></em>, my Pope Center colleague Jay Schalin writes about an unexpected event -- an outbreak of civilized debate at UNC. Last spring, freedom of speech was on life-support as leftist protesters disrupted talks by speakers they didn't like and didn't think anyone should be allowed to listen to. This fall, however, the school has had a cornucopia of talks and debates featuring speakers all across the political and philosophical spectrum. This is a big step in the right direction for UNC.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NGNiZWJkYjg1ZTA0YjhmZDk2MzdhMDE1NzFlNTYyYzk= Wed, 14 Oct 2009 12:52:49 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Candace de Russy) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MDZhMjVhYzJiMDQ3N2M2Mjg4MWZlNjEwN2U3ZjhjM2E= With the recent ignominious implosion of the community-organizing behemoth ACORN, it is of interest, although not surprising, to read Bethany Stotts's<a href="http://www.campusreportonline.net/main/printer_friendly.php?id=3354"> review </a>of how <a href="http://www.campusreportonline.net/main/search.php?search_what=saybrook"><span style="color: #810081;">Saybrook Graduate School and Research Center</span></a>, in its Human Science program, trains the nation's legions of leftist community activists.</p> <p>Forget even the common, gross misuse of (emphases henceforth mine) <em>interdisciplinary</em> studies. Saybrook, according to the campus <a href="http://www.saybrook.edu/"><span style="color: #0000ff;">website</span></a>, quixotically invites students to design their own "<em>unique</em> <em>transdisciplinary</em> plan to focus on individual academic and professional goals."</p> <p>A small sampling of this Saybrook curriculum, in addition to its race-this and gender-that offerings, includes studies in "<em>altered states of consciousness . . . </em>social change among indigenous peoples . . . [and] the way in which religious and therapeutic values impact health care; and physician and patient spirituality.”  </p> <p>Saybrook also conflates the Native American Medicine Circle with social change, for example, in guiding students to transform society by developing "familiarity with philosophies and practices of nonviolence, Aikido, and the Native American Medicine Circle" and "experience with <em>deep ecology perspectives</em>."</p> <p>Given Saybrook's indoctrinating and jejeune offerings, the title of Stotts's piece, "Can You Say Brook[en]," is especially fitting.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MDZhMjVhYzJiMDQ3N2M2Mjg4MWZlNjEwN2U3ZjhjM2E= Wed, 14 Oct 2009 12:14:49 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (David French) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZDkxMTZlZjQzODgxZjJhMGFhMWIzOTQ0YTQ2ZjVkOTg= Today's <em>Inside Higher Ed</em> carries <a href="http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/10/12/accreditation">news</a> of an interesting federal-court ruling from North Georgia. St. Andrews Presbyterian College, an 800-student school in North Carolina, sued the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools in 2007, alleging that the association's finding that the school did not have a "sound financial base" was an unlawful violation of the school's common-law right to due process. Apparently, the association was on the verge of stripping the college's accreditation because it was (and is) heavily in debt. The school argued that the terms "sound financial base" or "financial stability" did not provide precise enough standards to guide either the school or the association.</p> <p>A federal court disagreed:</p> <blockquote> <p>United Stated District Court Judge William S. Duffey, Jr., of the Northern District of Georgia, writes in his opinion that accrediting agencies like SACS “are to be afforded great deference” in their rulings and that “these interpretations should be upheld unless ‘clearly erroneous.’ ” He further notes that “the weight of authority” allows SACS to “maintain flexible standards” to evaluate myriad institutions. Dismissing the arguments of St. Andrews, Duffey states that “SACS’ compliance requirements are not impermissibly unspecific” but “provide sufficient notice to member institutions and thus do not violate common law due process standards.”</p> </blockquote> <p>Elsewhere, the court noted that it did not want to be a "super-accreditation" board and expressed reluctance to weigh into the intricacies of higher-ed accreditation.  </p> <p>At one level, it's tough to argue with the conclusion that high debt loads equal financial instability. On the other hand, creating concrete metrics to measure stability is not that difficult and is done every day in the business world. </p> <p>By conditioning virtually any meaningful federal or state educational benefit on accreditation and then by explicitly recognizing specific accreditors, the government has imbued them with an astonishing level of power over colleges and universities. Is it too much to expect powerful entities to promulgate precise standards? While it seems easy for a court to wash its hands of a case when a debt-burdened college challenges a financial-stability finding, excessive deference could prove dangerous. After all, how does one measure a commitment to "<a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120934372123648583.html">diversity</a>" or "<a href="http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/06/06/disposition">social justice</a>" or any of the other ideological "metrics" that are creeping into the accreditation process? Can a federal court really wash its hands of accreditation decisions when the accreditor <a href="http://www.ed.gov/admins/finaid/accred/index.html">derives its power</a> from the government?</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZDkxMTZlZjQzODgxZjJhMGFhMWIzOTQ0YTQ2ZjVkOTg= Tue, 13 Oct 2009 17:04:39 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (George Leef) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=Mzc2YjkzMDJmOWY2M2ZkNWJlZDBlOGY3ZjFmN2ZkNmE= Over at <em>Minding the Campus</em>, University of Wisconsin professor Donald Downs has a good <a href="http://www.mindingthecampus.com/originals/2009/10/the_problem_with_student_engag.html">essay</a> on the student-engagement movement.</p> <p>Student engagement? Does that mean how busy they are with their course work? Well, no -- it's about how busy they are with things other than their coursework, but not including the usual college stuff of sports and parties. The idea is to keep track of "community service," artistic and cultural pursuits, and so forth. This can even take the form of a separate transcript.</p> <p>High-school students these days are under great pressure to show such "engagement" to make themselves look exceptional to college-admissions people. It leads to a lot of claims that are dubious at best. Now this is creeping into college as well. For serious students, it is apt to be mostly a distraction, and for non-serious students, a temptation to deceive.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=Mzc2YjkzMDJmOWY2M2ZkNWJlZDBlOGY3ZjFmN2ZkNmE= Tue, 13 Oct 2009 12:53:00 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Sol Stern) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=Yjc0MDRjMWQxMTgzZjYxZDgyNGU4ZmU2OTY3MWI1Yzc= <p class="MsoNormal">This week, <em>Time</em> has <a href="http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1929589,00.html?xid=rss-topstories">a welcome look</a> at the plight of urban Catholic schools. The article, by Gilbert Cruz, rightly emphasizes that this is a problem for all of us. Every time one of these successful faith-based schools shutters its doors for financial reasons, the taxpayers ultimately pay the price in the form of more poor students dumped into already-failing public schools.<br /> <br /> What <em>Time</em> doesn’t seem to get is the degree to which the deteriorating condition of Catholic schools has been exacerbated by public-school reform schemes that have been oversold to the public and, ironically, cheered by many conservatives and businesspeople. In New York City, for example, the Catholic schools are competing for teachers with a public school system that now has unheard-of sums of money to spend. In just the past seven years, the city’s education budget has increased from $12.7 billion to $22 billion. Teacher salaries have risen 43 percent across the board in six years, passing the $100,000 top-salary threshold for the first time. Ten years ago, the gap between the city’s top salaries for Catholic-school teachers and public-school teachers was around $28,000. It’s now $50,000. Catholic schools find themselves stuck on a treadmill in which they either have to raise salaries even higher -- and pass the costs on to students’ families -- or lose more teachers to the public schools.<br /> <br /> The public-school monopoly is even winning the philanthropy race. Acting as though a per-pupil expenditure of $21,000 isn’t enough, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and schools chancellor Joel Klein have run a major fundraising drive that has brought in a whopping $400 million in philanthropic funds since 2002. Some of America’s wealthiest people, including Eli Broad, Michael Dell, Bill Gates, and Mort Zuckerman, have made major contributions. Gates alone has given about $125 million to New York’s public schools -- which could have created an endowment big enough to prevent most of the city’s Catholic-school closings over the past few years. For Mayor Bloomberg, soliciting every last philanthropic dollar is a question of appetite. For the Catholic schools, it is a question of hunger. In the gilded city, appetite is winning.<br /> <br /> The Catholics are still outperforming their much richer public counterparts in test scores and graduation rates. But Bloomberg’s public school system is indisputably better at public relations and marketing. Lots of taxpayer dollars are spent on a slick press operation, which has convinced most New Yorkers that exciting new options are now available in the public schools and that the schools have shown historic academic gains. By failing to analyze the public schools’ test scores critically, while almost never reporting on the achievements of the Catholic schools, the mainstream media have been complicit in this distortion. The Archdiocese of New York’s school system has a one-person PR office. How many potential customers are the Catholic schools losing because they can’t compete with the public schools’ well-oiled publicity machine?<br /> <br /> The Catholic schools’ publicity deficit is also a matter of philosophy. Historically, Catholic school leaders have been reluctant to be seen as competitors with the public schools. They have been content to carry out their mission to educate poor children, assuming that if they built strong schools, the children would come. Clearly, that’s a luxury they can no longer afford.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=Yjc0MDRjMWQxMTgzZjYxZDgyNGU4ZmU2OTY3MWI1Yzc= Tue, 13 Oct 2009 12:40:07 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (NRO Staff) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZDRkZmRmYzY4OTkwNmRjYmIwZDI3YWU5MmQyZjBkODE= So what if 24 percent of Americans don't care for Columbus Day? No big deal. Indeed, if there were <em>no</em> kind of celebration, then there wouldn't be those school events where he (and by analogy, all Europeans) are put on trial.<br /><br />A much more sensible approach (thus, won't happen) would be to have two holidays, preferably in August when we can go to the beach. The first holiday would be "Civil Rights Icons Day," and you can celebrate whomever you wish: MLK, Harvey Milk, Cesar Chavez, or even Thomas Jefferson. The other day would be "Ethnic Pride Day," and would incorporate St. Pat's, Columbus, Cinco de Mayo (we are being creative here), and Kwaanza. I can foresee that the growing population of Wiccans might want to move Christmas there, too; but we can deal with that when it arises.<br /><br />Most important of all, those two holidays would occur when school is not in session, so there wouldn't be any manipulative "education" about them. Just do what you feel, I say, and the rest of us can go catch some rays.<br /><br />Robert Allgeyer<br />Aptos, Calif., and Ormond Beach, Fla.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZDRkZmRmYzY4OTkwNmRjYmIwZDI3YWU5MmQyZjBkODE= Tue, 13 Oct 2009 12:23:35 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Candace de Russy) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MzE5MWVjN2Q3ZmVhMTFhNzE5MDU5MDYzMThiZjhkZmM= According to a Rasmussen poll, <a href="http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/lifestyle/holidays/october_2009/24_say_america_should_no_longer_honor_columbus_with_a_holiday">24 percent say America should no longer honor Columbus with a holiday</a>. </p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MzE5MWVjN2Q3ZmVhMTFhNzE5MDU5MDYzMThiZjhkZmM= Tue, 13 Oct 2009 11:52:47 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Kathryn Jean Lopez) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NTBjYmUzYzJiMmQxMDQxN2E0NTkwYjE5N2E1YTVjZDY= Notre Dame <a href="http://media.www.ndsmcobserver.com/media/storage/paper660/news/2009/10/13/News/Activities.Office.Funds.Trip.To.D.c.March-3801297.shtml?reffeature=textemailedition">sends another confusing message</a> about why exactly it exists:</p> <blockquote> <p>A surprise move from the Student Activities Office allowed five students to attend a national gay rights demonstration in Washington D.C. Sunday, sophomore Jackie Emmanuel, president of the Progressive Student Alliance (PSA), said.<br /><br />The students were granted permission from the Office to use PSA funding to travel to the nation's capital to participate in the National Equality March over the weekend, Emmanuel said. <br /><br />"The fact that we were University-approved was surprising but it was a wonderful surprise," she said. "The University hasn't always been entirely receptive in the past."<br /><br />Sophomore Joanna Whitfield, a PSA officer and an attendee of the trip, said the support from the University was unexpected.<br /><br />"They haven't always been supportive of us in the past," she said. "But we're thrilled."</p> </blockquote><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NTBjYmUzYzJiMmQxMDQxN2E0NTkwYjE5N2E1YTVjZDY= Tue, 13 Oct 2009 11:43:08 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (George Leef) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NDFjYjcwMGJkZThkZDIyNWVjZDM2ZGRlZjUwYmI4ZjI= In today's Pope Center <a href="http://www.popecenter.org/commentaries/article.html?id=2244">article</a>, my colleague Jenna Robinson writes about higher-ed leadership from a perspective suggested by Edmund Burke: Do we want those in positions of authority to just facilitate student desires (the "delegate" role), or do we want them to exercise their judgment and try to make college education what it ought to be even if it isn't what students (and the faculty) want? Burke famously wrote that he thought members of parliament should exercise judgment regarding the best course for the whole nation and not just try to "bring home the bacon" for the voters back home. Jenna (and I) think that higher ed would be a much better value if its leadership would act more like Burke's "trustees" and less like "delegates."</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NDFjYjcwMGJkZThkZDIyNWVjZDM2ZGRlZjUwYmI4ZjI= Mon, 12 Oct 2009 11:10:22 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (John J. Miller) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NTk4OWFkNTIzMzE1ZjdlYjI0NGM4Yjk0M2U5Y2IwYzk= A <a href="http://www.gainesville.com/article/20091009/ARTICLES/910099886/1008/WEATHER?Title=UF-students-join-in-No-More-Che-Day-">report</a> on the festivities.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NTk4OWFkNTIzMzE1ZjdlYjI0NGM4Yjk0M2U5Y2IwYzk= Mon, 12 Oct 2009 05:23:07 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (John J. Miller) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ODRkYWNlZTZhYzc5YzRlYzFmMDBkYzIyZTYwODJlMDY= They're celebrating it at the <a href="http://chalkboard.blogs.gainesville.com/11404/uf-students-protest-che-guevera/">University of Florida</a>:</p> <blockquote> <p>Participants said students wear Guevara’s image on T-shirts without knowing he was involved in killing people in Cuba and elsewhere.</p> <p>“It’s supposedly trendy. It’s supposedly cool to wear,” said Jeff Ivey of the UF College Republicans, which took part in the event. “Most people don’t know what he’s all about.”</p> </blockquote><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ODRkYWNlZTZhYzc5YzRlYzFmMDBkYzIyZTYwODJlMDY= Fri, 09 Oct 2009 14:47:54 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Carol Iannone) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MzRkYTJmZmY3Mzc5MDk1ODMxNzUzODlhYmIzOTQ0ZDQ= <div>Ever since the eminently privileged Henry Louis Gates erupted into unjustified accusations of racism when a white police officer appeared at his home to investigate a report of a possible robbery, the race card has seemed to suffer a dimunition of potency as a tactic of debate in our public discourse. The president himself had to backtrack from harshly judging the police officer when made fully cognizant of Gates's unreasoned outburst.</div> <div> </div> <div>This may be one area where a prominent academic opened the way. Since then, those who've tried to argue that opposition to Obama's policies is motivated by racism have been rebuked by none other than the president himself, who reminded everyone that he was black before he was elected. This was echoed by former President Clinton who, while of course affirming that racism persists, said that Obama would be facing the same opposition even if it didn't, since he, Clinton, faced it too. Most recently, New York State's hapless governor, David Paterson, suggested that his opponents were motivated by racism, and he soon after received a request from Obama not to run in New York State's upcoming gubernatorial election. Reports were that the last straw for the president was Paterson's invocation of racism as an excuse for his bumbling. Using race in this way, to ward off criticism and silence opponents, seems to have become as good as announcing "I'm in over my head," "I don't know what I'm doing," and "I have no answers to my critics." </div> <div> </div> <div>And isn't it surprising that both the exposure of ACORN and the investigation into Charles Rangel's possible financial misdeeds in the House are proceeding pretty much without reference to race?</div> </p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MzRkYTJmZmY3Mzc5MDk1ODMxNzUzODlhYmIzOTQ0ZDQ= Fri, 09 Oct 2009 13:20:42 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Jane S. Shaw) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZDgzNDk0MTg4Y2E0MjEwYmVkNTg2M2I5MDczYTNhN2I= <p class="MsoNormal">At first glance, it appears to be just another ho-hum report about efforts to improve instruction on the college level. But the <em>Inside Higher Ed</em> <a href="http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/10/09/ncat">article</a> about the National Center for Academic Transformation (NCAT) is my Exhibit A for understanding the incentives in universities.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">NCAT has worked for a decade to help universities cut costs and improve learning. The boilerplate surrounding this work is all too familiar -- don’t fall asleep reading this example of course redesign from Indiana University-Purdue University:</p> <blockquote> <p class="MsoNormal">Jump Start begins with an intensive four-day workshop that focuses on best practices in online course design and starts faculty working with a support team consisting of an instructional design consultant, an instructional technology consultant, an information resources consultant, and a representative from UITS Media Design and Production who provides multimedia development support for the course.</p> </blockquote> <p class="MsoNormal">I have to wonder who would sit through four days of this kind of thing, but <em>Inside Higher Ed </em>says that the NCAT course redesigns initiated ten years ago were effective -- they lowered costs and improved learning. Now, however, the cost reductions, at least, are being ignored. Few schools are even monitoring costs any more. “You’re dealing with a culture that does not care about reducing cost,” says Carol Twigg, president of NCAT.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Of course they’re not going to monitor costs. Why should they? The grant that spurred the redesign is long spent. My guess is that the improved student learning has faded, too.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">In my view, a program like Jump Start is just another of the top-down programs from smart, well-meaning facilitators that have little to do with what faculty want.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Do courses need redesign? Yes. But outstanding teachers probably redesign their courses every year, maybe every week, using technology where it makes sense. Did it take a federal grant for professors teaching giant lecture classes to learn to distribute “clickers” to students allowing them to vote “yes” or “no” to the instructor’s questions?<span> </span>I don’t know, but I doubt it.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">And plenty of other instructors probably won’t teach effectively no matter how many four-day instructional seminars they attend. The issue is incentives. Until now, colleges haven’t needed to cut costs, so they haven’t done so. Until now, good college teaching has been poorly rewarded (compared to research), and bad college teaching has been ignored. When the revolution comes -- that is, when competition from outside the academy starts drawing away students -- course redesign will be all the rage, grants or no grants.<span>   </span></p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZDgzNDk0MTg4Y2E0MjEwYmVkNTg2M2I5MDczYTNhN2I= Fri, 09 Oct 2009 11:46:31 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (George Leef) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ODNiMmY4ZTc0NTJhOTE0ZGU5ZTNhMzUyYTIwNDFjMTg= Writing for the Pope Center today, Prof. Ross Emmett and student Rachel Penn of Michigan State's James Madison College show that there's at least one island of academic rigor in the sea of mediocrity that American higher education has become. Read their article <a href="http://www.popecenter.org/commentaries/article.html?id=2243">here</a>.</p> <p>Most of our sharp and energetic students will find their ways to the educational programs that offer true value and insist on results. The challenge we face is not in dragging more of the weak and academically disengaged students into college for easy courses, but to avoid having our able students waste their time in dumbed-down courses with low expectations.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ODNiMmY4ZTc0NTJhOTE0ZGU5ZTNhMzUyYTIwNDFjMTg= Fri, 09 Oct 2009 11:20:13 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (David French) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=OTdhYjE0YmIyMTk2ZjdjZjQ0ZTUyZGVhZmYwMTIzZjU= While there's no shortage of <a href="http://www.campusreform.org/">excellent</a> <a href="http://www.thefire.org/">websites</a> <a href="http://www.mindingthecampus.com/">commenting</a> <a href="http://www.goacta.org/">about</a> <a href="http://www.nas.org/">campus</a> <a href="http://www.popecenter.org/">issues</a>, there is a crying need for more places for students to tell their own, first-hand tales of life at the modern leftist university. At the Alliance Defense Fund's <a href="http://www.speakupmovement.org/">new website</a>, we're creating a <a href="http://www.speakupmovement.org/StudentStories">specific space</a> for these stories.</p> <p>There, you can read (and <a href="http://www.speakupmovement.org/StudentStories/Details/6427">watch</a>) students discuss -- in their own words -- the events that led to their own legal challenges. For example, community-college student Beth Sheeran <a href="http://www.speakupmovement.org/StudentStories/Details/9664">describes</a> her "up close and personal" encounter with university censorship when she tried to hold a pro-life event on campus:</p> <blockquote> <p><strong>Our college had recently started a program called “Stop the Hate,”</strong> which encourages students to report “bias incidents” on campus to a committee composed of faculty and students  who will investigate what happened and assign the appropriate disciplinary action. Every club member present at the meeting was given a handout on what the school defined a “bias incident” to be, which was " any act of conduct, speech or expression to which a bias motive is evident as a contributing factor regardless of whether the act is criminal.” We were also given a paper titled “The Pyramid of Hate,” which listed acts of “prejudice” and “hate,” including using “non-inclusive language,” making “insensitive remarks,”  jokes, and stereotyping, which were a few steps away from murder and genocide. We were warned that if we passed out fliers as a club we could possibly be expelled. Many of the students in our club were in the process of applying to four year universities. It was not a good time for any of us to risk expulsion, and I took the threat very seriously.</p> <p>Throughout my dealings with the school administrators, I openly told them that I was seeking the advice of a lawyer. My hope was that the school would understand that I considered the matter to be very serious and that they would take it seriously also. Unfortunately, in most of my conversations with them, they would state that we would violate state law or college policies by holding our event. The excuses for shutting down the display and threatening us ranged from, “Washington is a pro-choice state and we can’t use school grounds for a pro-life display,” to “your club is funded by state money so you have to include pro-choice information also.” The faculty advisor for our club, who was supposed to be in our corner, was the one who told us that we faced disciplinary action, including expulsion from school, for holding this event if someone was “offended.”</p> </blockquote> <p>Beth eventually sued and <a href="http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YzI2OTA2NDY5ZTdkOGQ1MGViYzA0YmQ5NDgzZDE5MGI=">won a resounding victory</a>. Hopefully, her story (and <a href="http://www.speakupmovement.org/StudentStories">all the stories</a>) can help convince other conservatives not to settle for second-class citizenship on campus.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=OTdhYjE0YmIyMTk2ZjdjZjQ0ZTUyZGVhZmYwMTIzZjU= Thu, 08 Oct 2009 12:12:16 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Robert VerBruggen) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=Zjc5MjFhYzU4MTQ1NWFlOTk4YjZiMzE2MDhjNjIxMDY= Charlotte Allen <a href="http://www.mindingthecampus.com/forum/2009/10/the_cost_of_raising_boys_like.html">covers</a> a new projection:</p> <blockquote> <p>College enrollment among women is expected to grow by 16 percent, compared with a growth of only 9 percent among men. The U.S. college student population is already 55 percent female, with the total number of women on campus, nearly 10.5 million, outnumbering male students by nearly 2.5 million.</p> </blockquote> <p>I'm a little skeptical of her analysis of this trend. For one thing, she repeatedly confuses "number" with "proportion" -- writing, for example, that since men tend to choose STEM fields more often than women, this new prediction means that "we can expect to see fewer and fewer college students choosing [these] majors." In fact, what it means that we'll see <em>more and more </em>students choosing these (and all) majors, but that growth in these fields won't happen as fast as the growth in the university system as a whole.</p> <p>Another issue is that she attributes this trend to (as Christina Hoff Sommers calls it) the "war against boys." It's certainly <em>consistent </em>with Sommers's analysis, but there are all sorts of other reasons we might expect to see female enrollment outpacing male now that the barriers to female enrollment are gone. For one, women could be temperamentally better suited to college. Two, thanks to their greater physical strength, men have options women don't when it comes to non-college-requiring jobs -- so in a world where both men and women are expected to work, more women will find college to be the best choice.</p> <p>I have yet another theory that relates to the distribution of IQ. While the male and female <em>average </em>IQs are roughly the same, men are more likely to be very smart or very dull than women are, whereas women cluster more closely around the average. Back when college was very rare and limited to the best and brightest, men predominated in the population that was smart enough; now that more than 50 percent of high-school grads go to college, that factor is dead -- and from this alone we should actually <em>expect</em> more women than men to be in college. (When college enrollment pushes further into the population, it's mainly picking up people with IQs around average, which are mostly women.)</p> <p>Finally, of course, is the <a href="http://nrd.nationalreview.com/article/?q=ZmMzMjk3NzUwY2Y3MDlmYzM0OWM3NTM0ZTFkMDExYjk=">skepticism I and many others have</a> about the overall trend -- regardless of the gender balance, why are more kids going to college?</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=Zjc5MjFhYzU4MTQ1NWFlOTk4YjZiMzE2MDhjNjIxMDY= Thu, 08 Oct 2009 11:45:45 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Roger Clegg) http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YjgzMGVhM2I2YjBjNDYxYTQwNzlkZmExYTIzOGE5Nzg= <span style="New Roman; "><span>There have been</span> <a href="https://mail.nationalreview.com/owa/redir.aspx?C=df4eda1fc9ed482099983ddd876f735e&URL=http%3a%2f%2fphibetacons.nationalreview.com%2fpost%2f%3fq%3dMjhjY2NkYmM4NDQ2N2QyOTdkYWNjYzlmNDUxOGM3MTg%3d" target="_blank"> a</a> <a href="https://mail.nationalreview.com/owa/redir.aspx?C=df4eda1fc9ed482099983ddd876f735e&URL=http%3a%2f%2fphibetacons.nationalreview.com%2fpost%2f%3fq%3dMWU3ZDRhNGRmNDg5YWM0ZWJjZWViNjZiZDQzMTg4MTk%3d" target="_blank"> number</a> <a href="https://mail.nationalreview.com/owa/redir.aspx?C=df4eda1fc9ed482099983ddd876f735e&URL=http%3a%2f%2fphibetacons.nationalreview.com%2fpost%2f%3fq%3dNTM2NmJmOWExNjViNDE1Nzg4NTMzNmE5MDlhMWFjYTQ%3d" target="_blank"> of</a> <a href="https://mail.nationalreview.com/owa/redir.aspx?C=df4eda1fc9ed482099983ddd876f735e&URL=http%3a%2f%2fpopecenter.org%2fcommentaries%2farticle.html%3fid%3d2208" target="_blank"> postings</a> here </span>about the U.S. Naval Academy’s use of racial preferences in admissions and, in particular, the brave willingness of a professor there, Bruce Fleming, to publicize and criticize them. Well, today there’s an <a href="http://chronicle.com/article/Professor-Accuses-Naval/48745/">article</a> in <em><span style="font-style: italic;">The Chronicle of Higher Education</span></em> that begins, “A professor at the U.S. Naval Academy has filed a federal whistle-blower complaint alleging that the institution improperly denied him a deserved pay increase for publicly accusing it of illegally operating a separate admissions track for minority students,” and goes on to discuss Professor Fleming’s travails.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YjgzMGVhM2I2YjBjNDYxYTQwNzlkZmExYTIzOGE5Nzg= Thu, 08 Oct 2009 11:39:09 -0400