ACTA's Must-Reads

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Cheers to President Skorton

Far too often, ACTA comes into contact with university leaders who fail to defend the free exchange of ideas -- for example, the board of the University of Delaware, which declined to put a stop to a significant threat to intellectual pluralism, and the administration at Brandeis University, which has harshly sanctioned a professor for making "controversial" comments in the classroom. Today, we want to laud one who has come to the fore for doing the opposite: David Skorton, president of Cornell University. Yesterday, Skorton wrote a column calling for the protection of the free-speech rights of a student newspaper presently under fire. While exercising his own right to disagree with the publication, the Cornell Review, he cautioned the numerous members of the Cornell community who have demanded punishment for the Review that "The antidote to offensive speech, however, is more speech, not less speech." Well said.

Sorry to say, but university heads who take a stand for intellectual pluralism are much too rare -- and they are exactly the kind of leaders for whom trustees should be looking. President Skorton deserves credit for taking this brave stance, and we need more like him.

Posted by Charles Mitchell at 05:17 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Grading Harvard Law School

From the school that brought the term "grade inflation" to the public consciousness comes this new grading system for law students--or rather, non-grading system. According to an article in the Harvard Crimson, starting in the Fall 2009 semester the Harvard Law School will no longer assign letter grades, replacing them with the more vague designations of "Honors," "Pass," "Low Pass" and "Fail." Similar grading systems are already in place at the Stanford and Yale law schools.

As expected, this new grading scale has come under substantial criticism from a number of quarters. Several faculty members--and quite a few students as well--have expressed concern that the new system will blur the distinctions among students in terms of academic achievement. This presents more of a problem for Harvard than for Stanford or Yale, as Harvard enrolls significantly more students. The result will likely be a large cohort of graduates with very similar transcripts, which give very few objective indicators of aptitude for employers to evaluate.

This is precisely what ACTA has been arguing in our writings on grade inflation and relaxed standards--namely, that it harms students by depriving them of a realistic assessment of their academic performance, and leaves future employers unable to distinguish the excellent from the merely "good enough."

This is yet one more example of Harvard following a trend, rather than setting a standard. For this, Harvard deserves an F.

Posted by Sandra E. Czelusniak at 02:56 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Asking the "Enduring Questions"

From the National Endowment for the Humanities comes news of a new grant program for colleges and universities entitled "Enduring Questions." The program gives 18- to 24- month grants for pilot courses that avoid extensive specialization, focus on a specific question about the human experience, emphasize the close reading of original texts, and provide intellectual pluralism. The suggested "questions" are ones that a true liberal education should pose to students--including such topics as the definition of the "good life," the nature of human dignity, and the meaning of freedom and happiness. As Anthony Kronman has written in his recent book, Education's End: Why Our Colleges and Universities Have Given up on the Meaning of Life, the evisceration of these "Permanent Things" in our institutions of higher learning has led to a more impoverished academic experience for students.

This program is surely good news, as are the various broad and engaging programs starting up across the nation thanks to the support of alumni interested in restoring a rigorous and coherent liberal education for students. For example, Texas alumni are helping to make possible a new Program in Western Civilization and American Institutions at UT-Austin. Alumni at Hamilton College have helped establish the Alexander Hamilton Institute which is bringing together large numbers of students--in a variety of scholarly communities--to engage life's big questions.

Another new venture is especially deserving of mention: The National Great Books Curriculum Academic Community. Started by faculty at Arapahoe College, Oakton College, Santa Barbara College, Washington College, and Wright College, this consortium now offers a rich curriculum specially designed for faculty and colleges interested in teaching the great books which address the fundamental issues of the human condition. This new program stems from a combined grant from the NEH and the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education, and it is one that faculty, administrators and trustees should note with interest.

Posted by Sandra E. Czelusniak at 03:03 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Oases of excellence in the spotlight

Also in today's New York Times, a much-noticed article details the rise of what ACTA calls (following on the words of Professor Gertrude Himmelfarb, 2007 winner of our Philip Merrill Award for Outstanding Contributions to Liberal Arts Education) oases of excellence. These programs, as the article points out, give students the opportunity to study subjects that often get short shrift in today's academy, such as American history, Western civilization, and the Great Books. As part of our commitment to helping concerned alumni make donations in ways that further academic excellence, ACTA is featuring the heads of several oases at our upcoming ATHENA Roundtable -- including Professor Rob Koons of the University of Texas' Program in Western Civilization and American Institutions, whom the Times quotes. Our president, Anne Neal -- co-author of The Intelligent Donor's Guide to College Giving, one of the seminal publications on this topic -- also chaired the 2005 Philanthropy Roundtable conference on higher education cited in the article as having catalyzed much of the recent activity. We're delighted by the success concerned alumni and engaged faculty are having on campuses today, and we hope you will join us at ATHENA in a few weeks to hear even more glad tidings.

Posted by Charles Mitchell at 03:20 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Hasta la vista, SAT?

In today's New York Times -- and a host of other publications -- a new report calling for colleges to de-emphasize standardized tests such as the SAT and ACT in admissions is getting a lot of attention. As the Times article points out, an increasing number of colleges are making the SAT optional, and this new report is sure to produce more discussion of the issue. ACTA encourages trustees to follow this important debate closely and to make certain that their institutions make the best possible decision as to how to proceed.

Posted by Charles Mitchell at 03:07 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

UC Regents take a stand for accountability

According to an article in the San Jose Mercury News, the University of California Board of Regents has put the brakes on the rehiring of retired employees. This move was prompted after the media revealed that taxpayers in the state of California were paying the UC-Berkeley police chief a whopping salary of $194,000 a year after she had taken a $2.1 million retirement package. According to university spokesman Paul Schwartz, the police chief was one of an estimated 1,900 UC employees retired and rehired -- and, in this case, without searching for a replacement. The Regents' new policy is designed to prohibit such costly, wasteful practices and to keep the best interests of tuition-paying students, parents, and taxpayers in mind. Bravo!

Posted by Sandra E. Czelusniak at 03:57 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Arthur E. Rasmussen, RIP

ACTA mourns the passing of Arthur E. Rasmussen, a distinguished businessman and trustee who was -- along with his wife of nearly six decades, Joann -- one of our earliest and most generous supporters. Throughout his involvement with higher education in general and ACTA in particular, Art was a stalwart defender of the liberal arts and of core curricula, particularly at the University of Chicago, where he studied. We are indebted to him for his example and his wisdom, and we extend our condolences to Joann and the rest of the Rasmussen family.

Posted by Anne D. Neal at 02:30 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

The Smithsonian and the First Amendment

Today's Washington Post includes an article with an important comment by ACTA president Anne D. Neal. The piece is a profile of G. Wayne Clough, now the secretary of the Smithsonian Institution and formerly the president of the Georgia Institute of Technology. There, Anne notes an important free-speech lawsuit that Georgia Tech lost while Clough was its leader. This controversy was one reason the University System of Georgia Board of Regents recently commissioned -- at ACTA's urging -- a review of the intellectual environment on the 35 campuses it governs, one of which is Tech.

Posted by Charles Mitchell at 05:35 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

The open curriculum and its discontents

On the curricular front today, Brown University has announced a new initiative aimed at encouraging "more coherence in the experience of students"--a coherence that has apparently been lacking since the adoption of the "new curriculum" in 1969. While these new policies do not significantly change the degree requirements--which consist of a student's major, demonstrated "competence" in writing, and not much else--the university does seem to be acknowledging some of the system's shortcomings. Among other steps, Brown is undertaking reviews of every major in order to strengthen introductory courses and demonstrate how the knowledge gained in each discipline contributes to a general education, rather than specialized major requirements. The university is also encouraging students to interact more closely with faculty advisors and to develop individual portfolios which track progress towards educational goals. Read the whole article here.

While this initiative is a step in the right direction, it still doesn't guarantee the breadth and depth of education that a solid core curriculum normally provides. Open-curriculum schools like Brown and those with vague "distribution requirements" often see their students either concentrating all of their coursework in a few departments or undertaking haphazard, unfocused educational programs. Very few students starting off at a university have a true understanding of what constitutes a genuine liberal arts education--and this makes a core curriculum essential to ensuring that they receive such an experience.

For further reading, see ACTA's publications Becoming an Educated Person and The Hollow Core.

Posted by Sandra E. Czelusniak at 03:29 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

More from the campaign trail: Both Obama and McCain back ROTC

Presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama voiced their support for the Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) program during a forum at Columbia University yesterday. Columbia is one of several institutions, including fellow Ivies Harvard and Yale, who have barred the military training program on their campuses -- a move that Democratic candidate Obama called a "mistake." And judging by the 2005 student referendum at Columbia overwhelmingly supporting ROTC, there are a number of students who would agree with him. It's time that trustees, administrators, and faculty followed suit.

ACTA has been an outspoken critic of the decisions of many universities to bar ROTC and military recruiting from their campuses -- even as quite a few of them readily accept large sums of taxpayer dollars in the form of grants and contracts from the Department of Defense. In our recent publication E Pluribus Unum, which we sent to all presidential candidates, ACTA highlighted the importance of programs such as ROTC for students seeking to serve their country. We wholeheartedly applaud McCain and Obama for their willingness to speak up in favor of students' opportunity to pursue ROTC training at their universities.

Posted by Sandra E. Czelusniak at 01:43 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

A renaissance at CUNY

From the New York Times is this must-read about the Honors College at the City University of New York, a center of educational excellence in a university system which had until recently raised great concerns about declining academic standards and accountability. But things are indeed turning around for CUNY, in no small part due to the efforts of the Committee for the CUNY Future, a group of concerned alumni, parents, and citizens founded in 1998, as well as like-minded members of the CUNY Board of Trustees. With ACTA's help, this group succeeded in urging CUNY to enact some much-needed reforms, including the removal of remediation from the senior colleges and the raising of academic standards, leading to the establishment of the Honors College profiled in this Times piece. This academic revitalization of CUNY demonstrates the profound impact that knowledgeable and proactive alumni and trustees can have on their institutions -- with the effect of improving the educational experiences of countless numbers of students.

Posted by Sandra E. Czelusniak at 10:50 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Palin in comparison

There's an interesting story out on the Associated Press wire this morning about Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's college years. As it turns out, the newly minted vice-presidential nominee, then known as Sarah Heath, "switched colleges at least six times in six years" before eventually graduating from the University of Idaho in 1987. The political implications of this news -- if any -- are far beyond the scope of ACTA's work. But it does point to a couple of important issues in higher education reform.

First, most people tend to assume that "going to college" means attending one school for four years and coming out with a bachelor's degree -- as Sen. Joe Biden, the Democratic nominee for vice president, did. But that's not the reality for most people, including Gov. Palin. In fact, graduating in four years is so rare these days that the U.S. Department of Education doesn't even keep statistics on how many people do it (although some states, such as Georgia, do). Instead, the Department tracks the six-year graduation rate -- which was a stunningly low 56 percent in 2006.

Second, there is also nothing uncommon about transferring. And transferring often goes hand-in-hand with not graduating in four years -- because students often find that the institution to which they transfer doesn't accept the credits they earned where they came from. Only the Heath family knows if this affected Gov. Palin, but it is clear that many students out there today are "paying twice" for a lot of coursework. Second, they and their parents are not the only ones paying twice: Taxpayers, who finance state universities and federal aid programs, are, too.

College costs enough when you're only paying for four years -- but when most students (and with them, taxpayers) are paying for five, six, and more years, these two issues are clearly of concern. That's why ACTA is researching them -- and trustees should look into them, too. Here are a few good questions to ask, just for starters: What is the six-year graduation rate at our institution? How about the four-year graduation rate? What are the policies on transfer of credit? How frequent do transfer students find they can't take call the classes they need in four years? How about students who don't transfer? For more ideas, see ACTA's guide Asking Questions, Getting Answers.

Posted by Charles Mitchell at 11:39 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Whither American politics?

In light of recent studies -- most recently the Bradley Project's report E Pluribus Unum -- noting a precipitous decline in civic literacy among American college students, Friday's Inside Higher Ed dispatch from the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association is disheartening. Several scholars there proposed the abolition of the American politics subfield, citing the increasingly globalized world and a supposed "social amnesia" that arises from the exclusive study of American politics.

But the truth is, it makes sense that American universities educating primarily American students would devote considerable time to teaching American politics -- and the same applies to British universities focusing on British politics, French universities focusing on French politics, and so forth. As former Harvard College dean Harry Lewis has said:

It is true that students are less homogeneous than they used to be in ethnicity, gender, and socioeconomic background. But, in all their diversity, they are the same in at least one important way: They all will be citizens. Most will be U.S. citizens. They will be voters and the political candidates for whom we vote. Moreover, foreign students inevitably learn something about our republic -- from The Colbert Report, if not the classroom. Whether they return home or remain in this country, it is in our interest that what they learn be accurate.

With this in mind, ACTA believes that the teaching of American politics should focus anew on the ideas and people behind America's institutions. Such an approach would not exclude the study of America in a global context, nor would it exclude learned criticism and evaluation of the American tradition. But it would prepare American students to be thoughtful and informed citizens -- which ought to be the goal of any university.

Posted by Sandra E. Czelusniak at 12:11 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack