Among the duties of a university's board of trustees, there is perhaps no bigger responsibility than helping to select the leader of the campus-the chancellor/president
Published: Thursday, December 1st, 2016 @ 7:38 pm
By: John William Pope Center
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In 2010, a seemingly insignificant event in a far-off land caught my eye.
Published: Monday, October 3rd, 2016 @ 5:11 am
By: John William Pope Center
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The increased use of non-tenure track faculty by universities has drawn condemnation from many entrenched in the seniority system, but critics may be ignoring the more complex realities and distinctive needs of 21st Century higher education.
Published: Tuesday, February 16th, 2016 @ 10:24 am
By: John William Pope Center
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According to the University of North Carolina at Greensboro catalog, the course "ELC 381, The Institution of Education" is "required of students seeking teacher licensure." Unfortunately, the course often goes far beyond what is politically acceptable for an education course at a public university.
Published: Friday, January 15th, 2016 @ 3:25 am
By: John William Pope Center
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Even before she assumes control of the University of North Carolina system, former Department of Education Secretary Margaret Spellings has become a lightening rod for attacks by faculty, students, and activists on the left
Published: Wednesday, January 6th, 2016 @ 1:40 pm
By: John William Pope Center
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Lately, tenure has come under heavy criticism, particularly from conservatives who maintain that it protects incompetent, ignorant, or indifferent teachers to the detriment of students
Published: Tuesday, October 27th, 2015 @ 1:24 pm
By: John William Pope Center
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Those of us in the higher ed reform community have argued for years that the traditional college model is going to experience gale force winds of change.
Published: Tuesday, October 13th, 2015 @ 9:09 pm
By: John William Pope Center
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One issue that gets North Carolinian blood boiling is the former Center for Work, Poverty, and Opportunity at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's law school. To conservatives it is a symbol of the left's abuse of its dominance of academia, in which a Democratic politician...
Published: Monday, July 27th, 2015 @ 5:31 pm
By: John William Pope Center
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Conversations I've had with non-academics about university employment practices usually evoke surprise and skepticism.
Published: Monday, July 20th, 2015 @ 7:09 am
By: John William Pope Center
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An academic institution cannot be all things to all people; it is a particular institution that fills particular needs and has particular limitations. Too expansive a mission can easily be turned toward wasteful means and political ends.
Published: Saturday, April 25th, 2015 @ 11:06 am
By: John William Pope Center
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Tenure entrenches academics in their jobs. While it's a bulwark of academic freedom, tenure also shields those who are not currently earning their keep, as well as many who never did. The current system stymies innovation, most clearly in the area of hiring new faculty.
Published: Wednesday, April 15th, 2015 @ 5:24 am
By: John William Pope Center
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Great outrage has erupted from inside the University of North Carolina system due to the closure of three academic centers by the system's Board of Governors. The local media has published story after story by UNC academics excoriating the Governors for everything from a denial of free speech to...
Published: Saturday, March 7th, 2015 @ 3:15 am
By: John William Pope Center
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In my 35 years of teaching in the Marquette University philosophy department, there were always some faculty (including the present chair) who were quite public about having "partners."
Published: Friday, February 20th, 2015 @ 2:40 am
By: John William Pope Center
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More than 100 students, faculty, administrators, and political activists packed a lecture hall at UNC-Chapel Hill last Thursday to hear controversial indigenous studies professor Steven Salaita speak about academic freedom and censorship.
Published: Friday, February 13th, 2015 @ 6:15 am
By: John William Pope Center
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When we speak about "academic freedom" what, exactly, do we mean? How far should academic freedom extend? How do we know when someone claiming it has actually abused it?
Published: Monday, January 26th, 2015 @ 6:17 am
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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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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One of the hottest academic controversies of the year involves the decision by the University of Illinois to "unhire" Professor Steven Salaita.
Published: Wednesday, August 27th, 2014 @ 8:59 pm
By: John William Pope Center
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Tenure—a contractual arrangement that grants job security to veteran faculty members—has been a feature of American higher education since the late 19th century.
Published: Friday, August 1st, 2014 @ 1:34 pm
By: John William Pope Center
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I have never known a book author to give a critical review an A grade, which would amount to saying, "Yes, my work was entirely off base." Professor Lazere writes that he would give my review only a "C" but I don't think his reply above shows my analysis to have been erroneous in any way...
Published: Tuesday, May 27th, 2014 @ 12:52 am
By: John William Pope Center
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The labor market for college professors has long been distorted. Tenure is a major factor; another is the presence of a massive labor supply glut, in the form of too many aspiring faculty members for too few full-time jobs. In some ways, the faculty labor market now resembles the market for...
Published: Thursday, September 5th, 2013 @ 1:24 am
By: John William Pope Center
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If Neil Gross's analysis of the "why are professors liberal?" question is weak (as I argued here), his analysis of the "why do conservatives care?" question is appalling.
Published: Thursday, June 13th, 2013 @ 12:59 am
By: John William Pope Center
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“Fascists,” “bums,” and “killing machines.” That’s how conservatives and Republicans were described at the initial meeting of a new organization of faculty members in North Carolina. The group, named “Scholars for a Progressive North Carolina,” was formed in response to...
Published: Sunday, April 21st, 2013 @ 5:07 am
By: John William Pope Center
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