AKA Review - 11.17.2023

From The New York Times
Why Liberal Academia Needs Republican Friends

By Ross Douthat

Waning funding from legislators and donors who perceive an ideological shift of universities away from the free debate of diverse ideas is leading higher education into a sustained financial squeeze. One result is growing conservative attacks on the humanities as unnecessary for future employment and as sources of liberal indoctrination. In this context, New York Times columnist Ross Douthat argues that academia needs to negotiate with those conservatives who believe the humanities need to be saved, even if that means greater acceptance of conservative pedagogies and voices. Read this article

From The Chronicle of Higher Education
Higher Ed’s Ruinous Resistance to Change

By Brian Rosenberg

Why do colleges and universities whose mission statements speak of the transformative power of education find it so difficult to transform themselves? Despite compelling pedagogical reasons for change, institutions rely blindly on practices that research shows are ineffective, such as the lecture and traditional academic calendar, argues the former President of Macalester College. "It’s as if we spent [the two pandemic years] building the foundation for a new future, only to abandon it for the familiar discomfort of a system widely in need of reinvention." Read this article

From The Atlantic
The College Backlash is Going Too Far

By David Deming

Reports that the "college wealth premium" will be lower for people born in the 1980s than for any prior generation suffer from the flawed assumption that the wage difference for college graduates and those without degrees stays constant throughout people’s lives. In fact, the earnings advantage for college graduates increases steadily with work experience, until eventually they are earning nearly twice as much as workers with only a high-school diploma, thus rapidly increasing their total wealth. Taking on debt to go to college feels risky but the long-term value of a degree is much greater than it first appears.
Read this article

From Hechinger Report
Why Are Campus Political Groups so Hard to Track Down?

By Olivia Sanchez

College Democrat and Republican clubs—longtime gateways for students’ lifelong involvement in politics—have fallen into disarray. In part, this reflects disfunction within the groups, "refracting what they see in larger politics." Other trends include a new Republican national college organization wishing to repair the party’s image. On the Democrat side, we see state-based clubs taking action on the societal issues most relevant to their state, as well as leftist students eschewing clubs for gender alliances, multicultural centers, and groups that advocate for a specific cause. Read this article

From The Atlantic
A Humanist Manifesto

By David Brooks

The core humanistic skill is "the capacity to see others deeply…and make them feel seen, heard, and understood." Citing artists from James Baldwin to Rembrandt, the author argues for the study of humanities to learn about people and be trained to pay each other close attention. He offers a diagnosis: "In a healthy society, everybody is recognized to some degree. In an unhealthy society, like America today, recognition is doled out to the few." His humanist prescription: "Create more attention. Distribute it more fairly. Shine our full attention on those in darkness—which these days is pretty much everybody." Read this article.