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"Academia is American liberals' sanctuary, their fortress, their source. By controlling the campuses, the Left is able to control much of the nation's intellectual debate," said my colleague Jay Schalin at last year's State Policy Network convention.
Published: Wednesday, December 17th, 2014 @ 6:05 pm
By: John William Pope Center
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What are the limits of the partnerships that a public institution of higher education may form? A growing number of critics, including university officials and faculty, argue that accepting funding and academic influence from the communist Chinese government crosses a line.
Published: Tuesday, December 16th, 2014 @ 8:00 pm
By: John William Pope Center
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On the whole, U.S. colleges and universities don't get everything right. They're overpriced, operationally hidebound, and ideologically stagnant. But American higher education does some things very well-well enough that students from around the world still choose to come to the United States to...
Published: Saturday, December 13th, 2014 @ 8:43 pm
By: John William Pope Center
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About one-third of all freshmen are enrolled each year in a remedial class. Yet current remedial methods are not very effective. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, a mere 17 percent of four-year students enrolled in remedial reading and 27 percent of four-year students...
Published: Sunday, December 7th, 2014 @ 12:58 am
By: John William Pope Center
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At the end of October, the Department of Education released its much-awaited "gainful employment" rule.
Published: Friday, December 5th, 2014 @ 11:28 pm
By: John William Pope Center
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But turning the ship of higher education around is a herculean task (we at the Pope Center are engaged in the same enterprise-ACTA's president, Anne Neal, serves on our academic advisory council-so we know). Furthermore, the context of the university is changing in unpredictable ways.
Published: Tuesday, December 2nd, 2014 @ 2:57 pm
By: John William Pope Center
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In 2012, a UNC-Chapel Hill freshman with a blood level of alcohol nearly three times the legal limit was found dead. Winston Crisp, vice chancellor for student affairs, saw this as indicative of a nationwide problem-one he has been working to address since then.
Published: Monday, December 1st, 2014 @ 9:15 pm
By: John William Pope Center
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About to retire, Oklahoma senator Tom Coburn, M.D., has just released his 107-page 2014 Wastebook, a tabloid-type listing of over a hundred wasteful government-funded projects. Coburn continues the tradition of the late William Proxmire, the Wisconsin senator who, more modestly, chose just...
Published: Monday, December 1st, 2014 @ 11:59 am
By: John William Pope Center
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A new report from the Center for American Progress alleges that the "Great Recession" that began in 2008 devastated public university investments nationwide.
Published: Wednesday, November 26th, 2014 @ 4:24 am
By: John William Pope Center
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In the past few months, under the chairmanship of John Fennebresque, the UNC Board of Governors has been more aggressive than in the past, drilling down into more topics and increasing its discussions in committees and in the full board meetings.
Published: Sunday, November 23rd, 2014 @ 11:41 am
By: John William Pope Center
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Many college leaders speak as though the upward cost spiral is permanent and unavoidable. From experience, I can say that's not true.
Published: Friday, November 21st, 2014 @ 8:44 am
By: John William Pope Center
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For all of the words devoted to our student loan mess (or "crisis" or "bubble"), little has been written on its origins. We know that student loan debt now exceeds $1 trillion and that many young Americans are struggling with a heavy burden, but how things got that way is largely a mystery.
Published: Thursday, November 13th, 2014 @ 11:15 pm
By: John William Pope Center
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With most academic fields, we know what they are about. Political science teaches about political systems and their workings; philosophy about how people have thought on questions such as ethics; literature courses have students read and contemplate worthwhile books.
Published: Thursday, November 13th, 2014 @ 3:24 pm
By: John William Pope Center
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Back in the early 1990s, while I was in the middle of a long business career, I recall reading that the University of Pennsylvania had decided to add an unusual essay requirement for their undergraduate applicants.
Published: Monday, November 10th, 2014 @ 6:39 pm
By: John William Pope Center
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One of the first books about the state of higher education that I read after coming to the Pope Center was Generation X Goes to College by Peter Sacks
Published: Friday, November 7th, 2014 @ 6:11 pm
By: John William Pope Center
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Eduardo Porter, who writes "The Economic Scene" for the New York Times, says our country's higher education system is in crisis and that he has a solution.
Published: Tuesday, November 4th, 2014 @ 9:20 pm
By: John William Pope Center
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From 2009 to 2013, the University of North Carolina system gradually increased its minimum admission standards. Students entering UNC schools this fall had to score at least 800 on combined math and verbal SAT tests to be admitted.
Published: Monday, November 3rd, 2014 @ 5:08 pm
By: John William Pope Center
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The job rationale for going to college is intense these days, especially now that there are statistics from state governments showing that some majors offer dismal prospects while others are high-paying.
Published: Saturday, November 1st, 2014 @ 7:58 pm
By: John William Pope Center
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When the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) released its first comprehensive review of education programs in 2013, many K-12 education reformers were enthusiastic. Prominent news coverage and support from school superintendents called attention to the need to improve teacher preparation.
Published: Tuesday, October 28th, 2014 @ 1:17 pm
By: John William Pope Center
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It tells a gripping story. The 131-page report by Kenneth L. Wainstein and his colleagues peels back 18 years of scandalous secrecy at UNC-Chapel Hill to reveal that between 1993 and 2011, more than 3,100 students took "paper classes."
Published: Sunday, October 26th, 2014 @ 12:12 am
By: John William Pope Center
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College syllabi are handed out en masse at the beginning of a course for students. Sometimes they're kept and carefully followed; sometimes they're tossed away when the student decides not to take the course after all. Professors often post their syllabi online. They're certainly not treated like cr
Published: Thursday, October 23rd, 2014 @ 8:55 pm
By: John William Pope Center
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The national hysteria over sexual assault on college campuses is approaching a frightening crescendo.
Published: Thursday, October 23rd, 2014 @ 6:52 pm
By: John William Pope Center
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In most states, community colleges offer only associate degrees in nursing, which require two to three years of education. But in five states Florida, Indiana, Nevada, New Mexico, and Washington they offer a four-year nursing bachelor's degree.
Published: Wednesday, October 22nd, 2014 @ 4:49 pm
By: John William Pope Center
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For a long time, those of us who argue that higher education’s standards are eroding had to point to anecdotes to support our case.
Published: Monday, October 20th, 2014 @ 6:29 pm
By: John William Pope Center
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General education is not given the respect and attention it deserves in the great majority of US colleges and universities, North Carolina State University included. Largely because of campus politics, political correctness, and pandering to students, at most colleges it has become an academic...
Published: Friday, October 17th, 2014 @ 12:34 am
By: John William Pope Center
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From time to time, the Pope Center brings speakers to colleges in North Carolina to share ideas that are neglected on campus. Surprisingly, those ideas include aspects of entrepreneurship.
Published: Thursday, October 16th, 2014 @ 5:36 am
By: John William Pope Center
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Should public universities be allowed to derecognize a Christian student group because it requires members to be Christian? Astoundingly, the courts say yes. Ever since the 2010 Supreme Court decision in Christian Legal Society v. Martinez, the courts have allowed universities this power.
Published: Sunday, October 12th, 2014 @ 12:58 pm
By: John William Pope Center
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It's easy for young students to be dazzled when they hear that going to college will earn them an extra $1 million in their lifetime. Or when they see headlines touting high-paying majors and new graduates' success stories.
Published: Saturday, October 11th, 2014 @ 12:56 am
By: John William Pope Center
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After 30 years working in the chemical industry, I knew that I wanted to teach as a second career. I was fortunate in 2002 to find my way to Ursinus College, a highly regarded liberal arts school near Philadelphia, where I have worked for a dozen enjoyable and stimulating years on both faculty and s
Published: Monday, October 6th, 2014 @ 8:47 pm
By: John William Pope Center
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At last week's First Amendment Day celebration at UNC-Chapel Hill, Greg Lukianoff, president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), presented some alarming findings
Published: Saturday, October 4th, 2014 @ 10:44 pm
By: John William Pope Center
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A persistent question about American higher education is what explains the apparent increase in demand for workers who have college credentials. It could be due to rising skill requirements for jobs, implying that the economy needs a larger number of people who have been through college...
Published: Monday, September 29th, 2014 @ 12:28 pm
By: John William Pope Center
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