Category Archives: Issue Discussion

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What Rolling Stone’s Failures Mean for Higher Ed

Although widely discredited for a while now, the Rolling Stone has officially retracted its story on the gang rape at the University of Virginia following a report by the Columbia School of Journalism (you can read more about the Columbia report here).  Ultimately, the Rolling Stone violated basic journalistic standards at nearly every stage of the process.  Journalists and the field of journalism will need to learn the lessons from this event to improve journalistic practices and standards.  However, I’m more concerned at the moment for what all this means for higher education.

Photo credit: Bob Mical

Any time you have a national magazine write a story that received the attention that this story did, it should give us all pause.  The fact that we now know this story was without evidence only raises more questions.  Specifically, I see four areas to address when considering what the Rolling Stone’s failures mean for higher ed.

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Should we rename buildings that honor flawed historical figures?

How should colleges and universities deal with buildings named for historical figures that supported ideas or positions that today we find reprehensible?  Should we continue to honor the legacy of slaveholders, KKK members, or pro-segregation leaders?  This isn’t an academic argument as many universities, particularly in the South, have faced protests from students and other constituencies.  However, nearly every major historical figures has aspects of their lives that we can take issue with today.  How do we decide which ones stay and which need to go?

One of the hardest things that I have to help students think through in my history of higher education courses is how to consider moral issues and historical circumstances.  For example, how do we consider the arguments of someone who advocated against women in higher education when we would all disagree with that position today?

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Judges and Professors: Why We Need Tenure

Judges and professors are unusual positions in our society for both involve tenure. Although few argue that federal judges shouldn’t have tenure, the practice in higher education has been criticized for decades. Opponents argue that tenure creates unproductive faculty, hurts teaching effectiveness, and costs institutions and students money that might be better allocated elsewhere. Indeed, this is just the tip of the iceberg as there are seemingly as many ways to criticize tenure as there are tenured faculty left. In today’s post, I want to share the arguments of why we need tenure and why it is critical to the long-term success of American higher education.

Photo credit: Phil Roeder

First, why do we give judges tenure or a lifetime appointment? The Founding Fathers wanted judges to base their opinions on the rule of law and not public opinion. To help insulate the judges, a lifetime appointment provides protection from direct political or societal pressure.

The same holds true for faculty. Society needs researchers and teachers that seek and disseminate knowledge free from undue political or social influence. Just as judges should be solely driven by the rule of law. We need faculty who should be driven by data.

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The Making of SAE: Southern Universities at the Heart of the Problem

As nearly the whole country knows by now, the University of Oklahoma has closed their chapter of Sigma Alpha Epsilon after a racist video went viral. The video showed SAE members singing a racist chant with references to keeping black members out as well as lynching. The university responded quickly expelling the leaders of the chant and shutting down the fraternity. Indeed, the university and President David Boren won praise for their speed and decisiveness in responding to the video. Media accounts portrayed the incident as well as others with SAE chapters at other institutions as reprehensible, but also exhibited some surprise at the open racism evident. Without a doubt, individual prejudice and racism contributed to the actions by OU’s SAE chapter. Yet, this explanation is incomplete and too conveniently excuses Southern universities from responsibility. To put it plainly, the actions and policies of Southern universities have fostered and helped create racially segregated campuses.

For much of the 20th century, predominantly white universities in the South explicitly engaged in deliberate practices that systematically limited the access of African-Americans to high quality higher education. Even though many (though certainly not all) of these practices ended by the turn of the century, the legacy of the policies influences the state of racial segregation on campuses today.

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Understanding the challenges that led Sweet Briar College to close

One of the most significant stories in recent years within higher education is the closing of Sweet Briar College.  While small colleges do struggle and close, Sweet Briar’s closing is somewhat unusual because the institution still had a sizable endowment.  Yet, officials determined that with an inevitable outcome that the best course of action was an orderly shutdown.  But how did we get here?  What are the challenges facing Sweet Briar College?

Sweet Briar’s leadership cited a declining interest in women’s colleges and liberal arts colleges as a major problem for the institution.  In addition, they believed today’s students are less inclined to attend rural institutions.