Colleges and universities have long been the place for examining the most complicated societal issues of the day. But the ability of these institutions to play host to civil dialogue is under fire. Free-speech rights are paramount, yet the rise of "microaggressions" or overt hate speech cannot be tolerated. As a result, administrators face a […]
Changing legislation is accompanied by growing interest in the convenience of voting on campus. In 2013, when Illinois law called for four-year public universities to host early voting centers, staff at The University of Illinois at Chicago recognized an opportunity to boost students' civic engagement. Making campus voter-friendly: A number of groups, such as the […]
Although "intrusive advising" is rising on the list of higher ed buzzwords, this approach is likely more than a passing trend. As colleges strive for greater levels of student success, some are finding this strategy can bring higher retention rates and, in turn, help the bottom line. Intrusive advising isn't just a rebranding of traditional […]
Southwestern Illinois College, Community College District #522 has lost the chair of its board of trustees—because he's been appointed president of the institution. Nick Mance, who spent two decades as chair, resigned recently to participate as a candidate in the college president selection process. The remaining board members appointed him to the new role, citing […]
A dramatic gap in wages exists between Americans with college degrees and those without them. African-American and Latino students enroll in and graduate from college at considerably lower rates than do white and Asian students, even as they represent a larger share of the nation’s students. One strategy to address this challenge has been to […]
The fairness of race in admissions is again under question. A lawsuit brought against Harvard University by the nonprofit Students for Fair Admissions contends the institution systematically discriminates against Asian-American applicants. This is compounded by Harvard's 2013 internal investigation that found the Asian-American representation in its student population would increase from its current 19 percent to 43 […]
Americans learned from the timeless wisdom of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: “Education must enable one to sift and weigh evidence, to discern the true from the false, the real from the unreal, and the facts from fiction.” One of the great challenges of Community, Technical, and County Colleges is to provide quality, affordable higher learning […]
We hear it all the time—complaints about the inefficiency of public higher education in Massachusetts. These complaints are often based on the incorrect assumption that providing students with a choice—the choice of where, when, and what to study is necessarily inefficient. How do we provide choice in an efficient way? I’ll answer that from my […]
For several decades scholars in a variety of disciplines have argued about the relationship between knowledge and rhetoric, investigating the inherent connections between how we know what we know and how we communicate what we know. These debates have been primarily theoretical, provoking some to wonder about the practical consequences of the discussion. What better […]
When we think of the students served by institutions of higher education, we usually think of young adults the age of undergraduate and graduate students. But colleges and universities often offer programs to children and adolescents under the age of eighteen and as young as pre-kindergarten. These children and adolescents are more vulnerable than older […]
