In a generation hungering for intimacy at an unprecedented level, can we offer students pathways to encounter the Father’s transforming love? In a generation flocking to supernatural movies, television shows, and video games, can our campus ministries help students experience the kingdom of God breaking into the world in ways that defy all natural explanation?
3 College Trends the Class of 2021 Should Expect, by Brian Witte
While the value of such specialized degrees is occasionally debated, there is a clear trend toward increased diversity in majors. Once a rare sight, design your own major programs, like that of Swarthmore College, allow students to explore and combine disparate disciplines, like biology and music.
Degrees of Ignorance: The Gutting of Gen Ed, by Michael W. Clune
There is no reason to unduly limit our students’ horizons. Following your interests does not doom you to a life of poverty and struggle. Today’s students are being deprived of that freedom, and we educators are to blame.
The Illusion of Respectability, by Allen Guelzo
Our mission is simple. And it means death to one of our greatest lusts.
What do Recent Campus Protests Mean? NYT, WSJ, CHE, and IHE Disagree
As anger over race relations leads to rallies, sit-ins and several prominent resignations of administrators, experts consider the messages, the tactics and the backlash. Four opinions.
Parker Palmer’s Spectacular Commencement Address on the Six Pillars of the Wholehearted Life, by Maria Popova
“Take everything that’s bright and beautiful in you and introduce it to the shadow side of yourself… When you are able to say, ‘I am … my shadow as well as my light,’ the shadow’s power is put in service of the good.” -Parker Palmer
The Coddling of the American Mind, by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt
In the name of emotional well-being, college students are increasingly demanding protection from words and ideas they don’t like. Here’s why that’s disastrous for education—and mental health.
In Elite Schools’ Vast Endowments, Malcolm Gladwell Sees ‘Obscene’ Inequity in Hoarding Money Intended for Students
“I was going to donate money to Yale. But maybe it makes more sense to mail a check directly to the hedge fund of my choice.” – Malcolm Gladwell (Twitter)
Can Religion and Higher Education Coexist? by Q Ideas
Is newer always better? Most people don’t know that current educational practice is less than a century old. Paradoxically, the harder we try to produce great thinkers similar to those of the past, the further we move from the style of education that produced them.
The Endangered Liberal Arts College, by Jason Jones
Saving Sweet Briar (for now) doesn’t undo the disinformation campaign against the liberal arts, who comprise about 4 percent of U.S. colleges and do extraordinary things typically not found in any other institution type. Data supporting this claim of quality can be found in multiple studies (outlined and hyperlinked below), and it deserves some attention because such dedication to uncompromised quality in a close academic community falls on deaf ears in our national conversation that focuses primarily on quantity, scale and technology.
The ‘Story Behind the Story’: Making Lit Matter, by Erick Sierra
As American society increasingly questions the importance of what we in the humanities do, in the classroom I’ve been able to depend less and less on the grand narratives that long ago motivated my own passion for literature and instead imagined an importance for literature—a story behind the story—sourced not in grand abstract metanarratives, but in what students themselves find viscerally and deeply important.
Academic Branding: Professors Producing Hollywood-Style Previews to Attract Students, by Daniel A. Gross
Harvard University was an early adopter in short videos shared across social networks to boost student interest and attendance as they “shop” for classes. They have an intimacy that course catalogs and posters lack.