Columbia University’s “Crisis”
A political economy sketch map
Questions of political economy are at the heart of the Columbia University protests....
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The Texas Attack on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Higher Education
DEI was already a compromise, so now what?
Texas legislature has made it clear that Texas institutions of higher education—and, by extension, the state itself—are not welcoming to people of color, queer and trans people, and undocumented immigrants. ...
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Elite Capture and Racial Capital, from the University to Palestine
A conversation on the part-time faculty strike and freedom on campus
Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò, Associate Professor of Philosophy at Georgetown University and author of Elite Capture: How the Powerful Took Over Identity Politics (and Everything Else), joined Cresa Pugh and Julie Beth Napolin at The New School in December 2023, for a conversation on racial capital in university life, the New ...
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The Cyclopes in the Food Court
Or, how to get your students to go to their Gen Ed classes
As chair of liberal arts at Johns Hopkins’ Peabody Institute, every autumn orientation I tell the incoming students this tale of Cyclopean narrow-mindedness in order to plant a memorable image in their minds of what to avoid....
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It Was Supposed to Make Getting College Aid Simpler. It Hasn’t.
An Urban Matters Q&A with financial aid author Kim Nauer about the FAFSA’s botched rollout
Experts speaking at a recent webinar co-hosted by Immigrants Rising stated the FAFSA is “absolutely not working” for mixed-status families. “We’re talking about millions of individuals who are college-age,” noted the organization’s director of higher education....
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Silencing Teachers in Yemen
How the Houthi threaten the future of a civil society
As the Houthi replaced the internationally recognized government of Yemen, dismissing it predictably as illegitimate and manipulated by Western forces, they dismantled the nation’s academic institutions, imposing a coercive educational regime with an ideologically-driven curriculum on instructors at every level, from primary schools to universities....
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The Humanities As a Theory of Change
The career of Ruth Simmons is a lesson in humanities methodology
At a moment when state auditors are scrutinizing higher education budgets with an eye to trimming humanities majors and offerings out of existence, we’d do well to pause and reflect on the career of the distinguished educator Ruth Simmons....
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Political Polarization Threatens American Education
Fighting back against the anti-learning culture wars
State and local governments and right-wing private organizations collaborate closely to both promote state control of education and defund it....
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A Faculty Union Can Fight for More Than Money
As a strike looms at Rutgers, our model for campus equity centers teaching and learning
J. Faith Almiron discusses the unfair treatment of teachers and educators at Rutgers University. Now a strike is looming....
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The American University of Afghanistan and Me
At a moment of tragedy and upheaval, sociologist Jeffrey Goldfarb found new colleagues and students on the internet
Due to unforeseen circumstances, I am teaching at the American University of Afghanistan in exile....
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Why Do Students Cheat?
ChatGPT and the myth of meritocracy
ChatGPT is just one symptom of a more severe disease in higher education, namely, the multiple forms of meritocratic thinking......
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Counting the Social Cost of What College Costs
The financial burden of higher education is not an unfortunate accident, nor is it a “fact of life” or a “natural consequence” of going to college
Now many of the students with the most motivation to work towards a more equitable and just society feel the least liberty to do so....
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