ACTA's Must-Reads

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Must-See TV

Normally this blog is for "must-reads," but today we have a "must-view," too:

As you can see above, in a recent debate in Missouri, two candidates for Congress identified Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan (respectively) as "Founding Fathers" -- emphasizing once more the necessity of ACTA's call for a renewed emphasis on the teaching of American history.

Speaking of President Lincoln, the Wall Street Journal's review of ACTA friend Lewis Lehrman's new book Lincoln at Peoria is certainly a must-read. Consistent with our focus on American history, Mr. Lehrman will be speaking at a special dinner at ACTA's upcoming annual meeting; if you are interested in being there, please contact us.

Posted by Charles Mitchell on July 29, 2008 at 05:57 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

PA students take advantage of new academic freedom policies

The Chronicle of Higher Education has an article today concerning the recent utilization of student-complaint procedures by two undergraduates at Penn State University. Penn State and Temple University enacted the policies in light of 2006 Pennsylvania House of Representatives hearings on intellectual diversity on university campuses, where ACTA's testimony played a crucial role in encouraging the adoption of measures that promote the free exchange of ideas and respect the academic freedom of both students and professors. (See our publication Intellectual Diversity: Time for Action.)

As today's story illustrates, this is a complex issue which raises many questions about the purpose and nature of university teaching, but it is one to which trustees and administrators should be attentive. And increasingly, they are doing just that. Penn State and Temple are part of a growing number of universities throughout the country taking steps to promote intellectual diversity, including the University System of Georgia (which has undertaken a self-study of the intellectual climate on campus), the University of Missouri (which passed new grievance procedures), South Dakota's public institutions (which have placed important information on course syllabi), and the City University of New York (which passed new grievance procedures and has included intellectual diversity in the qualifications for some new hires).

Posted by Sandra E. Czelusniak on July 23, 2008 at 05:15 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Notes from the campaign trail

Recently, both major presidential candidates have given speeches drawing on themes familiar to ACTA. On July Fourth, Sen. Barack Obama had this to say about civic education, echoing sentiments in our report Losing America's Memory, as well as the Bradley Project's recent report, E Pluribus Unum:

As we begin our fourth century as a nation, it is easy to take the extraordinary nature of America for granted. But it is our responsibility as Americans and as parents to instill that history in our children, both at home and at school. The loss of quality civic education from so many of our classrooms has left too many young Americans without the most basic knowledge of who our forefathers are, or what they did, or the significance of the founding documents that bear their names. Too many children are ignorant of the sheer effort, the risks and sacrifices made by previous generations, to ensure that this country survived war and depression; through the great struggles for civil, and social, and worker's rights.

It is up to us, then, to teach them. It is up to us to teach them that even though we have faced great challenges and made our share of mistakes, we have always been able to come together and make this nation stronger, and more prosperous, and more united, and more just. It is up to us to teach them that America has been a force for good in the world, and that other nations and other people have looked to us as the last, best hope of Earth. It is up to us to teach them that it is good to give back to one's community; that it is honorable to serve in the military; that it is vital to participate in our democracy and make our voices heard.

Meanwhile, Sen. John McCain made some comments on teacher education in his speech to the NAACP annual meeting that brought to mind ACTA's guides for trustees. He said:

We should also offer more choices to those who wish to become teachers. Many thousands of highly qualified men and women have great knowledge, wisdom, and experience to offer public school students. But a monopoly on teacher certification prevents them from getting that chance. You can be a Nobel Laureate and not qualify to teach in most public schools today. They don't have all the proper credits in educational "theory" or "methodology" -- all they have is learning and the desire and ability to share it. If we're putting the interests of students first, then those qualifications should be enough.

Both men's speeches are must-reads.

Posted by Charles Mitchell on July 17, 2008 at 01:36 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Reclaiming the residence halls

Universities hire eminent scholars to teach students and do research -- not to run dormitories. Why, then, would they have staffers, who were hired to administer student housing, come up with "curricula?"

As the National Association of Scholars points out in a new statement, this trend is both real and problematic. Trustees should see that faculty do the teaching, and that administrators promote common-sense orientation programs that respect students' freedom of conscience. If they don't, we will see more sad stories like that of the University of Delaware.

-- This post was written by Michael Leo Pomeranz, a 2008 Robert Lewit Fellow in Education Policy at ACTA.

Posted by Charles Mitchell on July 17, 2008 at 10:13 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Assessing the Commission

The work of the Spellings Commission continues to reverberate. Inside Higher Ed has an article today about the latest assessment of the Commission -- this one a report by the National Association of College and University Business Officers that praises the national, blue-ribbon body for identifying many of the most important problems facing our country's colleges and universities. The report in turn criticizes what it sees as a combative tone in the Commission's statements and directives, as well as the overly defensive response by higher education representatives. In part because of that response, NACUBO finds that the higher education community has not been successful in "easing disquiet among many external constituencies about higher education's presumed insularity and indifference to concerns of the day."

ACTA has also examined the work of the Commission -- and praised its call for "urgent reform." Sharing NACUBO's desire to foster cooperative implementation of that reform, we've issued two reports of our own -- for policymakers and trustees -- underscoring constructive steps that can be made to address the Commission's concerns.

Posted by Sandra E. Czelusniak on July 15, 2008 at 05:50 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

"Are Accreditors Running The Colleges?"

ACTA's own Anne Neal has a piece over at Minding the Campus today shedding some much-needed light on the accreditation process -- and calling for trustees to reclaim their rightful prerogatives. Don't miss it.

Posted by Charles Mitchell on July 11, 2008 at 03:16 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

In Memoriam: John Templeton

ACTA mourns the passing of Sir John Templeton. As obituaries across the world have made clear, he was a world-class investor, and also intensely interested in the interplay between science and religion. As it turns out, he was also passionate about higher-education reform and his foundation has for many years "invested," so to speak, in ACTA. We are thankful for his support and for his life's work -- and we extend condolences to his family and to his colleagues at the Templeton Foundation.

Posted by Anne D. Neal on July 09, 2008 at 04:35 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Gone Fishing

This month, Oxford University Press will publish Stanley Fish's long anticipated new book, Save the World on Your Own Time. The title says it all -- this book represents the culmination of Fish's evolving thinking about what professors should (and should not) be doing in the classroom. Once a leader in the move to politicize humanities departments -- during the 1990s Fish transformed the Duke University English department into a top-tier, cutting-edge center of politically motivated teaching and research -- Fish has since recognized that many college teachers go too far. He has posted eloquently on what academic freedom is and isn't at his New York Times blog, and now he has developed his thoughts into a book. The timing is vital: In an interview with Inside Higher Ed, Fish estimates that around 5 to 10 percent of college faculty "are always imposing their loyalties on the students in an attempt...to recruit students into a political agenda." Given that the American professoriate numbers about 1.7 million, that's somewhere between 85,000 and 170,000 professors who are abusing their positions in unconscionable ways. If Fish is anywhere near correct, that's a pressing problem that requires immediate attention.

Fish's estimate tallies with figures ACTA uncovered in Politics in the Classroom, a 2004 survey of college students done by the University of Connecticut. Politics in the Classroom revealed that 46 percent of respondents said "some professors use the classroom to present their personal political views;" 49 percent said "that professors frequently comment on politics in class even when it has nothing to do with the course." When both students and experienced faculty members are reporting the same problem, there's reason to believe it's real -- and there's reason for trustees to initiate institutional self-studies to identify and address problems on their campuses.

Posted by Erin O'Connor on July 07, 2008 at 04:26 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack