At AKA, we closely follow trends and latest developments
in higher education and the nonprofit sector.
Here are some recent articles that we found particularly informative.
Articles
From The Atlantic Universities Deserve Special Standing By Lee C. Bollinger In discovering, preserving, and passing on knowledge, America’s universities embody the core rationale of the First Amendment, which affirms our nation’s commitment to a never-ending search for truth. This role entitles universities to a special standing within the First Amendment similar to that of the press, argues former Columbia president and Constitution scholar Lee Bollinger. Now is the right moment for university leaders to make a case for this standing, which is consistent with the values of our nation’s Founders. Read this article
From The New York Times What Happened When Trump Altered the Deal With Law Firms and Universities By Amanda Taub In cutting deals with the White House, universities forsook their independence to be spared the President’s wrath. The famous “prisoner’s dilemma” experiment has shown this approach to be the most rational individual decision. However, it assumes the jailer is trustworthy, but Trump, instead of rewarding early capitulators, as promised, has pressured them even more. As universities now band together against this challenge, we are seeing what history demonstrates: when the deal for giving in to authority becomes worse, collective action becomes the better option. Read this article
From Foreign Affairs America’s Coming Brain Drain By L. Rafael Reif MIT’s former president offers a compelling description of the unique research system that made the U.S. the world’s leading STEM superpower—a system now becoming collateral damage amid the Trump culture war on universities. Sustaining U.S. leadership in the face of challenges from China, Reif suggests, will require three critical steps: increased public investment in university-based research, capitalization of discoveries that emerge from academia, and immigration policies that attract the world’s best students for study and then work. Read this article
From The Chronicle of Higher Education Left and Right Agree: Higher Education Needs to Change By Michael W. Clune Despite the bitter right-left gulf around higher ed, signs of consensus are emerging. Two years ago, the primary political split was between the right’s belief that universities had to be reformed and the left’s defense of the status quo. Today’s salient division lies, instead, between those who want to reform the university and those who wish to punish or destroy it. As the savagery of White House attacks on higher ed repulses some on the right, and the left increasingly recognizes the need for reform to regain public trust, room for bipartisanship is emerging. Read this article
From McSweeney’s Internet Tendency Introducing Our University’s New, Totally Reasonable Criteria For Promotion And Tenure By Ryan Weber With tenure under increasing attack, honest re-evaluations of its criteria are essential. Like this one, from the University of Alabama - Huntsville professor who also brought us “Greeting Cards for Newly Tenured Professors.” (“Great work on tenure! Now you know the exact desk you’ll die at!”) As higher ed competes with Congress for “least confidence in the public’s eyes,” McSweeney’s proves its value again as the necessary outlet for every embittered faculty member’s despondent and bemused cries for help. Read this article
