Spring and Summer Highlights

Ashley Thorne

Here at NAS, we’ve made a habit of every season posting a round-up of the some of the best articles from the last few months, in case you missed one or would like to revisit your favorites. For another way to keep up with us, you can subscribe to our RSS feed

Because our last such post was on April 1, we have quite a few items to highlight. Here we present the top 5-8 articles from each month since then. Enjoy! 

 

April  

 

The Only Work I Can Get Here Involves Diversity Programs

04/07/09 By Margaret Matthews

"There I was, just one person sitting there, but she was seeing a group." An administrator longs to escape the racial labeling that characterizes her department.

B School Postmodernism: A Gambler’s Education

04/07/09 By Peter Wood

How the financial crisis traces its roots to postmodernist "value-creating" and removal from reality.

 

Proven Commitment to the Climate

04/09/09 By Ashley Thorne

Colleges get ready to use a “climate action litmus test” in hiring new campus leaders.

 

Free to Agree

04/14/09 By Peter Wood

A reprint of the article, originally published March 17, 2009, in which NAS broke the story about Virginia Tech's diversity policy.

 

Millennium Falcon: The Bias Birds of Prey

04/17/09 By Ashley Thorne

The University of Arizona's Millennial Student Project targets "unconscious bias."

 

New Fear at the New School

04/23/09 By Ashley Thorne

A letter from President Bob Kerrey to the New School community evades the real problems behind the student protests. This article was linked by Instapundit.

 

The Classroom Without Reason

04/27/09 By Douglas Campbell

A "Report from the Academy" published in Academic Questions. This article earned a high volume of reader comments and engendered some controversy (see Reason? Reason? We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Reason! Scholarship Today). 

 

American Character, the Remix: How College is Shaping Us Now

04/28/09 By Peter Wood

A nation’s manner of educating shapes the character of its people, so how does American education mold our culture today?

 

May  

 

Macalester Preps for World Domination

05/04/09 By Peter Wood

What does “global citizenship” really mean?

 

Snitch Studies at Cal Poly: We Snare Because We Care

05/05/09 By Peter Wood

The university launches a new bias incident reporting system to enforce "respect."

 

Keeping the Faith – Out

05/12/09 By Glenn Ricketts

Debate over President Obama's Notre Dame commencement address sparks anti-Catholic fervor.

 

Sustainability Education’s New Morality

05/15/09 By Ashley Thorne

What will happen when the sustainability revolutionaries take over the college curriculum? On eco-ethics, impact points, and “helping dad become a better man.”

 

Reason? Reason? We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Reason! Scholarship Today

05/18/09

A Duke grad student reacted strongly to the AQ article by Douglas Campbell, “The Classroom Without Reason.” In this posting, we reprint his comment and present responses from both Professor Campbell and NAS president Peter Wood. 

 

Where Do We Start? Reforming American Education

05/21/09 By Peter Wood

10 principles for restoring the integrity of our education

 

June  

 

40 Awkward Questions for College Tours

06/03/09 By Peter Wood, Glenn Ricketts, and Ashley Thorne

Two categories of 20 questions each for parents of high school juniors and seniors: either play the role of an über-progressive or ask the questions colleges never want to hear.

 

For Shame!

06/08/09 By Peter Wood

On the transformation of the idea of "shame," especially on the college campus, and how the right kind of shame is actually seen as honorable.

 

Adopt a Mascot

06/11/09 By Ashley Thorne and Peter Wood

There are many orphaned college mascots who need a good home. Will you give them the love they need?

 

Clash of Symbols

06/16/09 By Ashley Thorne

When Elsa Murano, the first Latina president of Texas A&M University, resigned, some lamented the loss of the institution's "symbol" of diversity.

 

What’s Critical About Critical Globalization Studies?

06/24/09 By Peter Wood

This year a UC Santa Barbara professor sent an email to his class, comparing Israeli actions to those of the Nazis. But where did this professor's academic field, "critical globalization studies" actually come from, and should it exist in the university in the first place?

 

July  

 

Selling Merit Down the River

07/06/09 By Russell K. Nieli

This summer NAS was pleased to present a major review essay by Russell K. Nieli, lecturer in the Department of Politics at Princeton University, critiquing three books supporting affirmative action.  The essay gained attention from the Pope Center for Higher Education Policy and on Phi Beta Cons.

 

Chastening Churchill: The Justice of Judge Naves’ Opinion

07/08/09 By Peter Wood

Why academic freedom is not a defense for Ward Churchill 

 

“Academic Freedom is Not a License for Bigotry”

07/24/09 By Ashley Thorne

A professor is bullied out of a job because of her controversial views, but NYU upholds academic freedom.

 

The Sustainability Movement in the American University

07/27/09 By Peter Wood

NAS president Peter Wood presented this scholarly paper synthesizing NAS's work on sustainability at a conference in Switzerland this summer.

 

UNESCO-Topia: Sustainability’s Big Brother

07/31/09 By Peter Wood

What does gender have to do with climate change? UNESCO’s 8 themes of education for sustainability

 

August  

 

A First Look at Second Nature

08/03/09 By Ashley Thorne

Will education for sustainability become Second Nature? NAS investigates an organization which has played an important role in the story of sustainability’s rise to the position of dominant ideology in the American university.

 

Sunbeams for Indigenes: The New Discipline of Cultural Sustainability

08/05/09 By Peter Wood, Glenn Ricketts, and Ashley Thorne

Goucher College launches a new program to train students to help marginalized communities realize their dreams.

 

Open-Ended

08/12/09 By Ashley Thorne

Should education be free? NAS weighs the merits of “open education”

 

Sustaina-Summits

08/20/09 By Peter Wood

NAS's articles on sustainability; why no one criticizes the sustainability movement; and international visions of sustainatopia.

 

We Need Your Help!

08/20/09 By Peter Wood

NAS begins a project examine how political theory is conveyed in the American undergraduate curriculum. First we need to know: who are the key authors and what are the key books in the liberal, conservative, libertarian and radical traditions? This post received plentiful responses from readers.

 

Welcome Freshmen!

08/24/09 By Peter Wood, Glenn Ricketts, and Ashley Thorne

What you won’t learn in new student orientation about bias police, eco-crazies, diversity, religion, and ideology.

 

An Opinionated Pragmatist Survives Stanford

08/25/09 By Michele Kerr

An education student's firsthand account of her time in a graduate program where she was expected to walk in lockstep. To see Stanford’s reply to Michele’s piece, click here.

 

September  

 

Seven Imaginary Curricula

09/01/09 By Peter Wood

Most colleges don't seize the opportunity to do something original. We suggest they try a new approach, such as the labyrinth curriculum.

 

Sustainability is a Waste

09/03/09 By Peter Wood and Ashley Thorne

10 reasons to oppose the sustainability movement on your campus

College students hear a lot about sustainability these days, but do you know what it really means?

 

Dem Bones, Dem Barebones Education
09/03/09 By Peter Wood and Glenn Ricketts
Online education gains respectability as the wave of the future. This article received a number of in-depth comments from our readers. We take this as a sign that of this topic’s significance to our readers, and we hope to provide a platform for more discussion of online education.


Paglia’s Scimitar
09/10/09 By Peter Wood
The feminist-lesbian-leftist called higher education out as a "rote regurgitation of hackneyed approved terms."

Tray Chic
09/11/09 By Ashley Thorne
Colleges experiment in trayless dining...and mind manipulation.

The Shape of (Academic) Things to Come
09/17/09 By Peter Wood
It’s 2029. Do you know where your university is?

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