Category: Education (higher ed)
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Exploitation and Privilege at VCU
by James A. Bacon Bacon’s Rebellion has devoted considerable digital ink over the years to explaining how Virginia’s higher-ed institutions exploit its students through unconscionably high tuition and fees. But it is useful to remind ourselves that colleges and universities are rigidly hierarchical and exploit the knowledge workers at the bottom of that hierarchy as…
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Ah, the Good Ol’ Days When a College Education Cost $235 a Year
Responding to my frequent diatribes against the rising cost of college attendance, reader Carter Peaseley sent me this clipping from an old Richmond College advertisement in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, dating back to 1906. The tuition was $100 for a full year of study, and living expenses were $15 a month. Total cost of a year’s…
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Social-Emotional Learning — We Are All Aboard for the Ride
by James C. Sherlock A new educational theory has been implemented while most were not looking. The educational-industrial complex is all-in on Social Emotional Learning (SEL). Behold the circle of life of that complex: Many education schools have for a very long time been producing “studies” under government grants awarded by ed school grads…
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VUU Gambles on Recruiting Hispanic Students
by James A. Bacon Although the appeal of Virginia’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) has been limited mainly to African-Americans, Richmond-based Virginia Union University, founded in 1865 to educate former slaves, is making a major push to recruit Hispanic students. VUU President Hakim J. Lucas wants the student body to be 25% Hispanic within…
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Higher-Ed’s Endless Mission Creep
by James A. Bacon Based on informal observation of Virginia’s public colleges and universities over many years, I have oft lamented “mission creep” as a factor pushing the cost of college attendance ever higher. But I never explored the idea systematically. Fortunately, a new study has done that job for me. In “Priced Out: What…
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The Soul of the University – Still Thinking
by James C. Sherlock The battle for the soul of the University of Virginia is on writes Jim Bacon, like me an alumnus. There is apparently only one fighter on the side of freedom of expression, reasoned debate and the maintenance of order as key foundations of academic freedom. That is the Board. University President…
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Sign Standards for UVa’s Lawn Upheld
by James A. Bacon No longer will it be permissible for residents of the University of Virginia’s rooms on the Law to post large signs on their doors proclaiming, “F— UVA,” as a Lawn resident did last semester. Under new policies issued by the University administration, Lawn residents will have to confine their profane proclamations…
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What Do Students Really Value in a College?
by James A. Bacon An ongoing debate about the economics of higher education is the degree to which students value their education as an investment (a way to get a better job and generate higher income) and to which they view it as a consumer good (four years of parties and good times). The question…
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“Hard” and “Soft” Threats to Academic Freedom
by James A. Bacon Dismissals and de-platforming of conservatives in academia have gotten a fair amount of media attention, but they are only the most outrageous and visible of the threats to intellectual diversity on college campuses. In a new study for the Center for the Study of Partisanship and Ideology, Eric Kaufman, a professor…
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Diversity, Equity, Inclusion… and Conformity and Indoctrination
by James A. Bacon Almost every public university in Virginia has diversity office dedicated to increasing minority representation — in particular African-American and Hispanic representation — in the student body, faculty and staff. But the Northam administration deems those efforts inadequate. The Governor’s Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion has just published a “Strategic Plan…
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UVa’s COVID Commissars
by James A. Bacon COVID-19 infections may have been trending down in Virginia for almost two months now, but they spiked at the University of Virginia several days ago, and the Ryan administration imposed tough new rules to curtail the spread. Not surprisingly, many students have violated the restrictions. In so doing, they have sparked…
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GMU Ponders Race-Based Faculty Hiring
by Hans Bader George Mason University could start giving give minorities illegal racial preference in hiring until its mostly white faculty has the same racial balance as its more heavily non-white student body, which is more ethnically diverse than the average college. Under GMU’s draft “ARIE Task Force Recommendations,” GMU will “recruit, hire, and retain…
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WaPo Nabs Polk Award, Is Pulitzer Next?
By Peter Galuszka How ironical. Our esteemed Jim Bacon has been on a tear in recent months writing about media coverage of the problem of systemic racism at the Virginia Military Institute. Of special interest to Jim is the reporting of Ian Shapira, a Washington Post reporter who has been digging into the VMI. After…
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Did UVa Stack the Deck in Its Lawn Selection Process?
by James A. Bacon It is deemed a great honor to be one of the 47 fourth-year students at the University of Virginia awarded a residence on the Lawn, Thomas Jefferson’s architectural masterpiece and World Heritage site. A committee of 60 students selects the residents from a pool of applicants, in theory based on their…
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Demanding Openness about UVa’s Cost Structure
by James A. Bacon Last week the University of Virginia Board of Visitors held a workshop to discuss next year’s increase in tuition, fees, and other charges and to hear input from the public — mostly students begging the board for relief from the ever-escalating cost of attendance. A PowerPoint presentation released at the meeting…