Sept. 11, 2015

Commentary

A ‘Tour of Duty’ Before College Would Serve Students and the Nation

By Sheila Suess Kennedy and Matt Impink

To improve civic literacy and ease student-loan debt, a voluntary national-service program for high-school graduates, leading to two years of a free college education, is an idea worth considering.

Joshua Putnam, a lecturer in the political-science department at the U. of Georgia, teaches to a class of 12. In smaller classes, he says, "I’m able to have more of a conversation."

Teaching

U. of Georgia Bets $4.4 Million That Small Classes Can Bolster Learning

By Dan Berrett

The university will hire more teaching-focused faculty members and cut enrollments in hundreds of courses.

News

‘Freaks of Fortune’ Author Leaves Princeton for U. of Chicago

Jonathan I. Levy, who earned his Ph.D. in history at Chicago, says the university offers attractive opportunities for collaboration.

News

What I’m Reading: ‘Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town’

Steven Bahls, president of Augustana College, in Illinois, says the book reminded him of the importance of listening.

News

The Week

By Lawrence Biemiller

What you need to know about the past seven days.

The conservative online publication Campus Reform "specializes in a small genre of journalism, but it’s an exciting one to be in," says the editor in chief, Sterling Beard (left, in front of its "wall of fame").

Faculty

Higher Education’s Internet Outrage Machine

By Peter Schmidt

Two online publications, Campus Reform and The College Fix, have found ways to make conservative anger at colleges go viral.

José Cruz presides over a meeting of deans: "A lot of the issues that could impact a president’s ability to meet his or her ambitions or goals are dependent on the provost’s ability to deliver."

From the Archives

The Path to Change Runs Through the Provost’s Office

By Lee Gardner

With external concerns preoccupying presidents, colleges look to chief academic officers to lead innovation and build consensus.

The Chronicle Review

New Ivy League, Same Old Elitism

By Michael Kazin

Top colleges have become more diverse, but they’re still bastions of elitism.

The Chronicle Review

How Art Reveals the Limits of Neuroscience

By Alva Noë

Neuroscience doesn’t even begin to explain aesthetic understanding and response.

The Chronicle Review

The Hidden Code of Creation

By Marcelo Gleiser

Is mathematical symmetry the key to unlocking nature’s mysteries?

Point of View

My Love-Hate Relationship With TurnItIn

By Ry Marcattilio-McCracken

The plagiarism-detection tool efficiently dispenses with a laborious task. But is it fair to students?

Administration

What to Do When the Outrage Is Aimed at Your Campus

By Beth McMurtrie

Instructions on handling a social-media firestorm, from colleges that should know.

Graduate students at the U. of Missouri at Columbia took part in a "day of action" last month to draw attention to their grievances. The protest movement shows how quickly and easily tensions can flare up, on this and other campuses.

Graduate Education

How the U. of Missouri Became a Hotbed for Graduate-Student Activism

By Vimal Patel

A growing protest movement on the Columbia campus shows how quickly and easily tensions can flare up over their issues.

Michele Landis Dauber, a professor of law at Stanford U., disputes the argument that affirmative-consent policies put an unfair burden on accused students. Such policies change the elements that have to be proved, she says, but the burden of proving that she did not consent stays on the accuser.

Students

What ‘Yes Means Yes’ Means for Colleges’ Sex-Assault Investigations

By Katherine Mangan

Affirmative-consent rules set clear standards for what’s required of students. They’re also changing how colleges adjudicate alleged assaults.

Governance

Cooper Union’s Leadership Crisis, in 5 Damning Allegations

By Steve Kolowich

A court filing by New York’s attorney general paints a deeply unflattering — if disputed — portrait of the institution’s leaders.

The 1987 Marquette U. yearbook shows Scott Walker, then a sophomore, and other student leaders. Mr. Walker, who left Marquette in 1990 to take a job, is now governor of Wisconsin and a contender for the Republican presidential nomination.

Government

Where Scott Walker Got His Utilitarian View of Higher Education — and Why It Matters

By Eric Kelderman

The Wisconsin governor has taken an aggressive stance on the role of college. It’s one that has left professors troubled.

J. Bruce Harreld, a business executive turned consultant and one of four finalists for the presidency of the U. of Iowa, will visit the campus on Tuesday.

Leadership

From Corporate Leader to Flagship President? A Finalist at the U. of Iowa Sparks Faculty Worries

By Mary Ellen McIntire

J. Bruce Harreld, a career businessman, visited the campus on Tuesday. While openness to nonacademic leaders has grown, it’s still an idea that makes some uneasy.

“Sociologists typically use it as a term of praise,” says Kieran Healy, an associate professor of sociology at Duke U., “and almost without exception when nuance is mentioned it is because someone is asking for more of it.”

Research

Is Nuance Overrated?

By Steve Kolowich

A scholar took an irreverent stand against a common academic criticism and watched his paper go viral. But there’s a serious point in the paper’s vulgar title.

The Chronicle Review

Sexual Healing

By William J. Peace

The disabled professor who wrote a censored essay for Northwestern University’s medical journal speaks out.

Research

The Results of the Reproducibility Project Are In. They’re Not Good.

By Tom Bartlett

The project tried to replicate the results of 100 psychology studies. Only 39 percent withstood scrutiny.

First Person

Give Us a Voice in Our Own Future

By James M. Van Wyck and Joseph M. Vukov

How academe can open up debate about the future of doctoral education to graduate students.

The Chronicle Review

Why We Need to Resurrect Our Souls

By Mark Edmundson

We no longer seek perfection in thought or art, war or faith — but we can do better.