March 16, 2018

A protest at the U. of Rochester last semester demanded the resignation of T. Florian Jaeger, a professor in the prestigious brain-sciences department who has been accused of sexual harassment. An inquiry by a law firm hired by the university largely exonerated him and the institution.

News

How a Harassment Controversy Tore a University Apart

By Katherine Mangan

The president resigned. A department is in shambles. And many women say the University of Rochester still has a lot of work to do.

Dimitrios Camacho (right) works with a research associate, Stephanie Rasmussen, on one of the student projects that have helped to double the graduation rate at Dominican U. of California.

Curriculum

Can a Signature Program Save Your College?

By Lawrence Biemiller

Leaders of small institutions hope distinctive academic programs can stanch declines in enrollments and rates of retention and graduation. The results are promising but not certain.

News

5 Paths for Small Colleges

By Lawrence Biemiller

In an era of “evolving realities of costs, demographics, and quality,” many are choosing to change in particular ways.

Chronicle List

What Kinds of Colleges Raise the Most in Private Donations?

By Chronicle Staff

The institutions that raised the most in private donations in the 2017 fiscal year tended to have been founded before 1900.

News

A Former Neo-Nazi Lays Bare the Campus Strategy of White Supremacists

By Goldie Blumenstyk

Christian Picciolini spent eight years as a skinhead, then he did an about-face. Now he has ideas for colleges confronting racist speakers and extremist recruiters on their campuses.

Devinder Malhotra has been named permanent chancellor of Minnesota State Colleges and Universities.

News

Appointments, Resignations, Deaths (3/16/2018)

Compiled by Ruth Hammond and M.J. Prest

Devinder Malhotra has been named permanent chancellor of Minnesota State Colleges and Universities; Sarah Willie-LeBreton will be provost of Swarthmore College.

News

Bias Affects Instructors’ Interactions With Online Students, Study Finds

By Emma Kerr

Instructors in MOOCs are nearly twice as likely to respond to discussion posts from white male students.

Michael Sorrell, president of Paul Quinn College, hopes to use his Dallas institution as a model to establish a network of urban work colleges across the country. Sorrell announced the plan on Tuesday at the SXSW EDU conference in Austin, Tex.

News

Once on the Ropes, a Small Black College Launches a National Effort

By Adam Harris

Paul Quinn College’s president announced an ambitious plan for a network of urban work colleges across the country.

Jorge Domínguez, Harvard professor, in December 1993.

News

Harvard Professor Will Retire After Chronicle Investigation Revealed Harassment Allegations

By Tom Bartlett and Nell Gluckman

A prominent Harvard professor who has been accused by nearly 20 women of sexual harassment announced that he would retire on June 30, but the university’s investigation into his actions continues.

The simplistic, anti-intellectual stereotype is that liberal-arts majors are bound for jobs as baristas or waiters. But even the new narrative — that the liberal arts provide key training for jobs in Silicon Valley and creative industries — may be equally off-target, as career success for humanities majors doesn’t always depend on what those disciplines taught. Sometimes, where you come from and what college you attended are what counts.

News

What Gets Forgotten in Debates About the Liberal Arts

By Scott Carlson

Career success for humanities majors doesn’t always depend on what those disciplines taught you. Sometimes, where you come from and what college you attended are what counts.

Teaching

New Fellowship Seeks to Help Tenure-Track Faculty Members Elevate Teaching

By Beckie Supiano

The program, which will provide $40,000 each to five professors, is unusual in both its generosity and its focus.

Honor

Why Professors at One University Want It to Revoke Trump’s Honorary Degree

By Fernanda Zamudio-Suarez

If a student were repeatedly to make racist, sexist, or offensive public statements, the student would be punished, say faculty members at Lehigh University.

In 2016, students protested the U. of California at Berkeley’s treatment of a professor who they said had harassed them.

Faculty

Can Colleges Act More Quickly to Punish Professors Who Harass?

By Sarah Brown

A newly completed federal investigation of the University of California at Berkeley suggests that institutions should speed up the faculty disciplinary process — but that’s easier said than done.

Jerome Powell, the Federal Reserve chairman, told the Senate Banking Committee on Thursday that America's $1.38-trillion student-loan debt could ultimately hurt the economy. "It absolutely could hold back growth," he said.

Backgrounder

Is Student Debt Big Enough to Hold Back the Economy? What the Research Says

By Dan Bauman

The chairman of the Federal Reserve says America’s student-loan burden could affect economic growth. When it comes to homeownership or small-business creation, he might be right.