When the Supreme Court banned affirmative action last year, elite universities warned of large declines in diversity. Yet many of their freshman classes last fall showed the opposite, enrolling more Black and Latino students. Two competing explanations exist: either elite schools can preserve diversity without taking race directly into account, or they’re simply ignoring the Court’s ruling— “cheating,” their critics say.What’s certain is that a resolution will take years to arrive and likely involve numerous lawsuits and further Court decisions. Read this article
With links to relevant essays and research, this article examines how the value of humanities and social science degrees got lost in “the gap between what students and their parents think a French degree leads to and what doors it could actually open.” It assigns blame—faculty, right-wing legislators, K-12 curricula— and identifies long-term threats to personal, professional, and societal development. By highlighting the mixed results of institutional responses, it also makes clear the jury is still out on how to close the gap. Read this article
Confident in your institution’s progress on AI? Worried where you stand among peers? You’ll find this survey’s insights a useful window onto the challenges faced by campus leaders nationwide in navigating generative AI. Although 83% use AI tools, they see far lower faculty adoption, and most feel their institution is not yet ready to use AI. They foresee risks—a greater digital divide, challenges to academic integrity—yet believe that overall these will be outweighed by improvements in student learning, research, writing, and creativity. Read this article
The author builds on her earlier, related article in TheAtlantic to offer a provocative explanation for why many students arrive at college unprepared to read entire books. The root cause, she argues, is less lack of ability or interest than a change in values. “[Y]oung people might be responding to a cultural message: Books just aren’t that important”—conveyed by parents, pundits, and politicians who emphasize coursework relevant to future employment over humanistic study that contributes to personal development. Read this article
This critique feels especially relevant in light of growing pushback against land acknowledgments from both the Right and the Left. Part history, the article notes their origin in Australian Aboriginal ceremonies and their later spread to North America. Part cultural analysis, it argues that acknowledgments “reinforce the myth of Native disappearance and irrelevance.” But most useful are its descriptions of universities that are developing active partnerships with modern Native nations instead of “mourning the past through land acknowledgments.” Read this article
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