
In November 2016, The Chronicle of Higher Education will mark its 50th anniversary. To lead up to the occasion, we’ve chosen front pages featuring some of our reporting on events in higher education and the zeitgeist of the nation’s colleges and universities over the years.
Each week for the next 12 months, we’ll present one of those front pages online as well as in our print edition. These news articles represent moments of evolution and change, of course,but more than a few are salient today.
Whether you have read The Chronicle for years or have come to us only recently, we thank you for your readership and support. We couldn’t have done it without you, and we look forward to the next 50 years together.
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Our 50th Year
1966: First Issue of The Chronicle
Here’s a look at the cover of our very first issue, published 49 years ago. -
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1967: Student Protests Gain More and More Attention
Opposition to U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War intensifies. -
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1968: ‘Deeper Student Unrest’ Tops the Front Page
A presidential election held in wartime produced rancor on campuses. -
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1969: An Academic Year Opens on a Fractious Note
Some campus administrators said they were “almost ready to give up” trying to deal with an “escalating crisis in higher education.” -
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1970: Firing on Student Protesters, and Calling for Change
A presidential commission examined fatal shootings during protests on two campuses. -
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1971: Signs of Transformations to Come
Tenure was under attack, sex discrimination on campus was being investigated, and distance education was envisioned. -
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1972: Drugs on Campus, From the Dealers’ Perspective
As recreational drug use spread far and wide, some students saw business opportunities. -
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1973: Early Efforts to Diversify Faculties Prompt Resentment
Some black academics took umbrage at what they saw as the relatively rapid progress being made by women on campus. -
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1974: Ferpa’s Birth Puts College Administrators on Edge
The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, in all its complexity, has become part of the fabric of campus operations. -
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1975: Part-Timers: ‘Marginal, Expendable, Underprivileged, Underpaid’
Expressing the same frustrations in 1975 as they do today, some part-time instructors made early attempts to organize. -
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1976: Computers in the Classroom: the Pioneer Era
In 1976, “two-way communication between student and machine” was a novelty worth noting. -
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1977: Early Gray Hairs for the Professoriate
Federal legislation in 1977 would have let colleges send tenured faculty members on their way at age 65. -
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1978: Affirmative Action Barely Survives an Early Challenge
In 1978, the Supreme Court’s “Bakke” decision limited the purposes to which colleges could put such policies. -
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1979: Climate Change, in Librarians’ Terms
Books shelved at Winthrop College’s library were threatened by an effort to save energy. -
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1980: Faculty Blues, a Generation Ago
Stress was highest among married women and single men in academe, a survey found. -
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1981: A Denunciation of ‘Doctrinaire Egalitarianism’
Critics warned of a relaxing of academic standards on many campuses. And a professor, accused of sexual harassment, sued his accusers. -
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1982: A Hard Look at Drinking on Campus
In light of the problems caused by alcohol abuse, colleges began to question their traditional attitude of benign neglect. -
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1983: ‘Rising Tide of Mediocrity’
The National Commission on Excellence in Education issued a report whose sting was felt for years. -
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1984: In the Culture Wars, a Volley at Higher Education
William J. Bennett, chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, said colleges were failing at their “great task of transmitting a culture.” -
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1985: Colleges, and Individual Students, Struggle With AIDS
The epidemic, in its early years, forced difficult decisions on every campus. -
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1986: A Tour of South Africa’s Campuses
In a major report on higher education under apartheid, The Chronicle examined a regime that proved to be in its last years. -
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1987: Raking College Curricula Over the Coals
In a best-selling book, Allan Bloom argued that the liberal arts had given up on teaching universal truths. -
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1988: Stretching the Curriculum at Stanford
The university replaced its traditional program in Western culture with one that also takes up issues of race, gender, and class. -
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1989: A ‘Disturbing Pattern’ in Black and White
The Chronicle visited four campuses to describe what has come to be called the racial climate. -
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1990: The Fate of a ‘Lost Generation’ of Scholars
Long before the term “alt-ac” was known, some Ph.D.s found work outside academe after years of fruitless job-hunting at colleges. -
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1991: Ivy League Gives Up Sharing Financial-Aid Data
The colleges, along with others, faced antitrust pressure from the Justice Department, which saw the practice as unfair to students -
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1992: Making a Name in Afro-American Studies
Henry Louis Gates Jr. gains notice for building a discipline, and reinvigorating a department, at Harvard. -
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1993: Trying to Redefine Southern Pride
The complications of old times not forgotten at the University of Mississippi -
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1994: No Appeasing Angry Historians
Drew Gilpin Faust reviewed ethical violations for the scholarly association of a newly diverse discipline. -
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1995: The Birth of bell hooks
This is how an English professor’s literary pseudonym took on an outspoken life of its own. -
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1996: Fund-Raising Campaigns Enter Perpetual Mode
As back-to-back campaigns grew more common, so did criticism — and defense — of their wisdom. -
1997: Professor, You’ve Been Scammed
A fast talker posing as a well-known sports sociologist bilked dozens of scholars out of more than $200,000. -
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1998: The Role of Green Polyester in Faculty Hiring
Frumpy or chic? Sometimes clothes make the professor. -
1999: Opening Lab Doors to Women
When a faculty-led study showed MIT that it was discriminating against women, the university did something unusual: It agreed. -
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2000: Stanley Fish, Recruiter Extraordinaire
The well-known literary theorist tested his contrarian reputation to see what he could do as a dean at a regional public university. -
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2001: On One Campus, a ‘Wartime’ Atmosphere
The John Jay College of Criminal Justice, in Manhattan, lost more than 100 students and alumni among the first responders on September 11. -
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2002: Winning by Design
No athletic department carried more weight on its campus than Ohio State’s. -
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2003: ‘Academe’s Hispanic Future’
As they enrolled in ever greater numbers, Hispanic students were having an effect on campuses from the Mexican border to Minnesota, from California to the Carolinas. -
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2004: Psst. Wanna Buy a Ph.D.?
Diploma mills had become a multimillion-dollar, worldwide industry, attracting some memorable characters. -
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2005: A City and Its Colleges, Devastated
In the wake of Hurricane Katrina’s flooding, months of difficult efforts by colleges saved higher education in New Orleans. -
2006: ‘Hockey Stick’ Gets Heated Reception in Congress
A chart of world temperatures over nine centuries became embroiled in a duel of science and politics in the battle over climate-change theory. -
2007: ‘Gunshots on Campus’
The shooting deaths at Virginia Tech stunned the nation and led colleges to re-examine their policies on campus security. -
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2008: Hard Times on Many Campuses
The Great Recession forced hundreds of colleges to scramble for cash to pay their bills. -
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2009: No Safety in Numbers
The Clery Act’s reporting requirements for campus crimes produced too many numbers to crunch. -
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2010: That’s Why They’re Called Trustees
One-fourth of private colleges do business with companies run by members of their governing boards. Whose interests come first? -
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2011: A Test of Faith in Happy Valley
The child-sex-abuse scandal at Penn State shook the institution to its core. -
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2012: At UVa, a Presidency Restored
The tension between Teresa Sullivan and the governing board, which ousted and then reinstated her, went deeper than a clash of strong-willed figures. -
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2013: An Arm and a Leg
The high cost of college sent some students into the “body commodification” market, where they exploited the value of their own skin and what’s underneath it. -
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2015: ‘Arc of Outrage’
The conversation over sexual assault on campus grew fiercer but not more productive.