Archive

Of all the bones to pick with contemporary American higher education—and there are many—the University of Pennsylvania’s Peter Conn has decided to call our attention to what he calls “The Great...

New York Times columnist Frank Bruni wrote a column this past weekend reflecting upon a soon-to-be-released documentary on higher education in America. Here’s the core of Bruni’s argument: One set of questions...

Defending her successors, Smith College alumna (and future history professor?) Jacqui Shine argues that protesting commencement speakers shows that the graduates have in fact fulfilled the College’s mission: If...

IMF Director Christine Lagarde’s withdrawal as Smith College’s commencement speaker is the latest in a series of high-profile commencement follies aptly described by Harvard’s Ruth Wisse as “The Closing of the...

I teach a couple of courses in our mostly “Great Books” core curriculum. One of our canonical authors—encountered by all sophomores—is Adam Smith. When I teach his works—and, indeed,...

Anthony Murray, educated at a Jesuit law school at a time when I would have thought that that still meant something, worries at great length that—gasp—some Supreme Court justices might...

A friend called my attention to this piece, asserting the waning of “fundamentalism.” Or is it the growth of atheism? Here’s how it begins: Days may be dark right...

The Public Religion Research Institute has just released a survey about American attitudes toward Christmas. The highlights: A plurality of those surveyed favored merchants’ use of the generic “Happy...

Jennifer Michael Hecht laments the fact that so few current public officeholders—-by one count, only five—-have professed their lack of faith. Indeed, it’s almost a mystery to her why...

The headline —-“Fewer home-school families cite religion as their main motivation”—-caught my eye. Is it really true that religious families comprise a smaller proportion of the homeschooling community than...

I’m blessed to have the opportunity to teach my class on ancient and medieval political philosophy this semester. Right now, we’re reading and discussing Aristophanes’ Clouds , which (for...

I have mixed emotions about Troy University’s plan to offer faith-based campus housing . On the one hand, it seems like the careful kind of accommodation of faith in...

The First Amendment Center recently published its annual survey of the ” state of the First Amendment .” I wish I could say that I was heartened by all the...

A state judge in New Hampshire has ruled against a recently enacted program that would have provided tax credits to businesses that contributed to scholarship organizations similar to those...

Adjunct faculty at Pacific Lutheran University have persuaded the National Labor Relations Board that they have the right to vote on whether to be represented by the Service Employees...