Dec. 13, 2019
The Chronicle of Higher Education Volume 66, Issue 15Cover Story
-
BackgrounderFixing the Courses Everyone Loves to Hate
Large introductory courses are notorious for being tedious, confusing, and even harmful. The University of Michigan at Ann Arbor is betting it can change all that.
Highlights
-
News
College Fairs Might Seem Ho-Hum. Until You Meet the Rural Students at This One.
This regional gathering attracts teenagers from small-town high schools that few admissions officers ever visit. Here’s how it changed one student’s perspective on college.
The Review
-
The Chronicle Review
The Unbearable Virtue-Mongering of Academics
Stanley Fish is skeptical of free speech, and dismayed by the ubiquity of Subarus.
Also In This Issue
-
The Review
How Elitism Marginalizes Academics
When applying for grant money is a ritual of rejection. -
The Review
Why Are Campuses So Tense?
Identity, stereotypes, and the fraying of the college experience. -
The Review
The Free-College Fantasy
The proposals floated by presidential candidates are nonsensical. There’s a better way. -
-
Curriculum
Remedial Reforms Are Removing Barriers for Students. Here Are 4 Key Challenges to Scaling the Changes Up.
Overhauling developmental education will require faculty buy-in and wraparound supports, reformers say. -
Student-Loan Debt
High Loan-Default Rates Won’t Be Solved by Income-Driven Repayment, Report Finds
Federal data show startling racial disparities even after those plans became available. -
News
Transitions: U. of Mobile Makes Interim President Permanent, New Provost at Rhodes College
Lonnie Burnett has been interim chief executive at Mobile since May. Rhodes College’s new provost comes from Virginia Commonwealth University. -
News
Transitions: U. of North Dakota Selects President, New Provost at the U. of Kansas
The University of North Dakota’s next chief executive is a retired dean from the U.S. Air Force Academy. -
News
Hunting for Fraud Full Time
Elisabeth Bik quit her day job as a microbiologist to search for research misconduct. -
News
Leading an Island University: No Vacation
Presidents of universities in the United States’ territories face challenges similar to those encountered by their mainland counterparts. -
-
The Review
The Humanities Must Go on the Offensive
The field has bought into the notion that “useful” and “moneymaking” are synonymous. They’re not. -
Chronicle List
Where the New Tenure-Track Teaching Jobs Are
The total number of new tenure-track hires was up nearly 5 percent from the previous year at four-year public institutions. -
Advice
A Modern Great Books Solution to the Humanities’ Enrollment Woes
Can a new gen-ed curriculum in the liberal arts boost undergraduate and graduate education at the same time? -
News
UNC Will Give Silent Sam to a Confederate Group — Along With a $2.5-Million Trust
The university system has ensured that the divisive Confederate monument won’t return to its Chapel Hill campus. But its method of doing so is “insane,” said one professor. -
News
How Cheyney U. Was Pulled Back From the Brink
The historically black college nearly lost its accreditation. Instead, the federal and state government and an accreditor have taken big steps to keep it open. -
Small Colleges at Risk
Lessons From Vermont’s Demographic Crisis
Don’t dismiss the state as a mere outlier: It’s at the leading edge of a decline in students that is looming over other parts of the country. -
News
A College Made Famous by the ‘Little House’ Books Will Be Sold for $1. Here’s What That Tells Us About Higher Education.
Three takeaways from the sale of the historic Iowa College for the Blind, expected this month. -
News
The Next Bulwark Against Faculty Cuts: GoFundMe?
Students have for years turned to crowdfunding to help with tuition and study-abroad costs. Now the strategy’s being used to try to save scholars’ jobs. -
News
She’s a ‘Star’ Latina Professor. But Not Good Enough for Tenure at Harvard.
Harvard denied tenure to Lorgia García-Peña, a Latina/o-studies professor, sparking outrage from students and scholars who say ethnic studies aren’t valued. -
Student Loans
The Education Department Wants to Streamline Student-Loan Repayments. It Might Not Fix What Ails the Debt-Collection System.
NextGen will allow borrowers to pay off their student loans through a website and will give advice on lending options. But critics say it’s unlikely to absolve the department of its failure to oversee servicers. -
Immigration
Some 250 People Arrested in ICE’s ‘U. of Farmington’ Sting Operation
Almost all of the undocumented immigrants who enrolled in the federal agency’s fake university are from India, and most of those arrested have been granted “voluntary departure,” according to a newspaper’s report.
