Aug. 2, 2019
The Chronicle of Higher Education Volume 65, Issue 38Cover Story
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AdviceGrades Can Hinder Learning. What Should Professors Use Instead?
Alternative approaches can help shift students’ attention from how they did to what they learned.
Highlights
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News
How to Lead a Small (but Mighty!) College
Barbara K. Mistick has some hard-earned wisdom for the presidents of small colleges and their trustees.
Commentary
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The Review
The College Dropout Scandal
Forty percent of students don’t graduate. No one is held accountable. No one is fired. That must change. -
The Review
Gin, Sex, Malaria, and the Hunt for Academic Prestige
How the misadventures of Margaret Mead, Reo Fortune, and Gregory Bateson shaped anthropology. -
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The Review
‘Elite Schools Are National Treasures. Their Elitism Is What Makes Them Such.’
Anthony Kronman on the “aristocratic ethos” in higher education. -
The Review
How Higher Education Can Atone for Its Long History of Racism
It’s not just colleges founded before the Civil War that need to confront their shameful pasts. -
Advice
Sorry, Headhunters, but the Healthiest Presidential Searches Are Open
The biggest risk to a campus, a candidate, and a search firm is not a breach of confidentiality in the hiring process, but rather, a failed presidency owing to a bad fit.
Also In the Issue
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Chronicle List
Recent Private Gifts to Higher Education: A Big Boost for the Humanities and for Pianos
The chief executive of a private-equity firm gave the University of Oxford $188 million for the humanities. -
Technology
Textbook-Exchange Programs Are Saving Students Money. Will They Soon Be Obsolete?
Students have bought and sold textbooks online since the early days of the internet. Now, student governments are formalizing that resale market — just as companies like Pearson are switching to digital. -
News
Thousands of Former College Athletes Are Sharing $208 Million From the NCAA. Here’s What They’ll Do With It.
The settlement applies to Division I men’s and women’s basketball and Football Bowl Subdivision players who competed from 2010 to 2017 — 53,748 athletes in total. -
Campus Speech
More States Are Passing Campus Free-Speech Laws. Are They Needed, or Is the Crisis Talk Overblown?
Supporters say the legislation reminds public colleges of their First Amendment obligations. -
News
Morehouse Is Criticized — Again — for Its Handling of Sexual Misconduct
Two students at Morehouse College said last week that a staff member had sexually harassed and assaulted them. It’s the most recent in a string of sexual-misconduct cases Morehouse has been accused of mishandling. -
News
University of Alaska Regents Vote to Declare Financial Exigency
They call it sad but say they needed to take the step given the state’s budget crisis. -
Leadership
University of South Carolina Trustees Vote for Governor’s Pick for President
The election of Lt. Gen. Robert L. Caslen Jr. angered students, faculty members, and some board members, who believe the trustees who supported Caslen did so in response to pressure from Gov. Henry McMaster. -
BACKGROUNDER
‘Dire Financial Straits’: A Portrait of a Desperate University That Made All the Wrong Bets
An accreditor says Cincinnati Christian’s president has put the interests of a bank ahead of those of the deeply indebted institution. -
Free Speech
Why Did East Carolina Allow Trump to Speak? The University Probably Didn’t Have a Choice
Other politicians have appeared at the North Carolina institution in the past. Under the First Amendment, a free-speech expert says, it couldn’t say no to the president. -
Backgrounder
A Textbook Giant Is Going ‘Digital First.’ That Might Not Be Good for Affordability.
The digital-first strategy hopes to create more reliable revenue streams and standardize textbook editions. But some observers worry that the change will do little to make materials more affordable for students. -
News
Transitions: Concordia U. at St. Paul Selects New President, Alvernia U. Names Senior Leadership
The Rev. Brian Friedrich, chief executive at Concordia University, Nebraska, will lead the St. Paul institution. -
News
‘Better, Not Bigger’: As Private Colleges Hunger for Students, One University Slims Down
George Washington University announced last week it would slash its undergraduate enrollment by 20 percent over five years. -
News
Transitions: U. of South Carolina Names New President, Lansing Community College Chief to Retire
South Carolina’s next leader is Lt. Gen. Robert L. Caslen Jr., former superintendent and president of the United States Military Academy at West Point.
