PURPOSE

CURRICULUM

1    Can the Humanities Be Saved?  As recently as 2011, humanities majors made up a third of all bachelor’s degrees from top liberal arts colleges. Today, that number has slipped to well under a quarter. At elite research universities, the drop has been even more alarming—from 17 percent to just under 11 percent today. “This wasn’t a gradual decline; it was more like a tidal wave,” Brian C. Rosenberg, the president of Macalester College, told The Atlantic. Of all undergraduate majors, history has seen the steepest decline since 2008. The timeline is significant, with that being the year of the great recession. Despite fears of a bad job market for liberal arts majors, “an undergraduate degree grounded in the liberal arts and sciences is the best preparation for the workforce of tomorrow. Bar none,” Katherine A. Rowe, the new president of the College of William & Mary, argued at the recent Virginia Education Summit. How did the humanities get pushed to the sidelines? Some blame years of “politicized indoctrination” and “insidious efforts to promote STEM vocationalism.”  to the top

2    A Partial Victory in Wisconsin  Last year, the University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point announced plans to phase out 13 humanities majors while adding 16 vocational programs. But following an outcry from students and alumni, and a plethora of news media headlines, the university now says it plans to cut only six (history, German, French, geology, geography, and two- and three-dimensional art). While this might seem like at least a partial win for the humanities, it still means the elimination of 6 to 10 faculty, including at least three tenured faculty; the biggest cuts would be in the history department. to the top
 

3    STEM Not Thy Humanity: Liberal Arts Do Coding  As more occupations require the skills gained from liberal arts and STEM degrees, more universities are evaluating the link between the humanities and technology. A few schools are integrating technology into humanities classrooms. The small liberal arts Dominican University of California, for instance, is partnering with Make School, a start-up coding boot camp (see To Survive), while Penn State is saving money—and boosting test scores—by conducting virtual reality geology field trips. Not surprisingly, online degrees are sprouting in the undergrad and graduate levels, creating some concern among faculty that online program managers are gaining too much control over curriculum.  (See Story 13) Meanwhile, Betsy DeVos’s federal Education Department is encouraging more online learning by cutting government oversight.  to the top
 

COMMUNITY

4   Harvard Admissions Under the Microscope  A Harvard admissions lawsuit, first filed in 2014 by a conservative interest group called Students for Fair Admissions, has brought the issue of affirmative action back into the spotlight. The plaintiffs have accused the premier Ivy League College of discriminating against Asian-Americans by holding them to a higher standard than other racial groups. During the three-week trial last fall, Harvard officials vigorously defended the application process—the first time they were forced to answer such questions in public.
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Both sides leaned heavily on statistics, and the trial featured testimony from two economists who became “the unlikely stars of the show.” The plaintiff’s star witness, Peter S. Arcidiacono, a Duke University economist, analyzed six years of Harvard admissions data and concluded that the admissions process favors blacks and Latino applicants over white and Asian-American ones. Harvard’s top expert witness, economist David Card from the University of California at Berkeley, argued that applicants’ multidimensionality “is really the defining feature of the admissions process.” Court documents also revealed that a subset of applicants—the children of Harvard alumni and faculty, donors, and recruited athletes—make up 5 percent of applicants but 30 percent of all students offered admission. The Harvard trial may just be the tip of an iceberg. Similar lawsuits challenging race-conscious admissions processes are expected in the coming years.   to the top
 

5    So How Do You Get into Harvard?  With over 40,000 applicants and only 2,000 available spots, it’s inevitable that most Harvard applicants won’t get in. So what does it take to beat the odds? Most of the elite universities in America, like Harvard, “systematically discriminate in favor of affluent, privileged alumni children,” Nicholas Kristof wrote in The New York Times. “If that isn’t enough to get your kids accepted, donate $5 million to the university, and they’ll get a second look.” But even this is no guarantee. It helps to come from “sparse country,” rural states with relatively few Harvard applicants. Admissions officers also like applicants with “unusually appealing personal qualities,” such as “effervescence, charity, maturity and strength of character.” And it helps to be an aspiring humanities major, have a compelling story to tell, or apply early.  to the top

GOVERNANCE

TRUSTEESHIP

6  “Silent Sam” Keeps on Falling  For more than a century, “Silent Sam,” a bronze statue of a young Confederate soldier, stood on a main campus quad at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill—until it was toppled last August by protestors who decried it as a symbol of racism. (See A Name by Any Other Name) The UNC–Chapel Hill Board of Trustees then approved a plan to move the toppled statue into a yet-to-be-built $5.3 million history and education center on the outskirts of campus. The building would cost $800,000 a year to maintain. In addition, a safety panel, noting that campus protests are becoming increasingly violent, recommended that the university create a 40-person “mobile force platoon” that would cost an estimated $2 million a year, with $500,000 in equipment expenses.  

The plan for the new center left no one happy, with many seeing it as an “expensive shrine to white supremacy.” “It is the most divisive issue I have seen on this campus in my time here,” a professor who has been on campus for nearly three decades told The Washington Post. “We’re just torn up over this.” The UNC Board of Governors rejected the proposal and UNC Chancellor Carol Folt—who was viewed by many as a weak leader who tried to please all sides—announced that she would step down at the end of the school year. Her last day, however, was moved up to January 31. Faculty and graduate teaching assistants who had threatened a grade strike last fall say they are prepared to strike in the spring if “Silent Sam” is brought back to campus. The board now has until March 15 to explore other options and decide the statue’s fate.  to the top

7  Did “Sam” Scare Off Spellings?  Margaret Spellings stepped down from the presidency of the University of North Carolina system just halfway through her five-year term, surprising many—but not everyone. Spellings, the former US education secretary under President George W. Bush, came to the job with ambitious plans but had a rough time, with controversies such as the state’s “bathroom bill” and the “Silent Sam” Confederate statue on the Chapel Hill campus dominating her tenure. Although Spellings gave no specific reason for her departure, she had spent a lot of time and energy pushing back against a board that she often criticized for micromanagement. On the issue of “Silent Sam,” she said, “I mean, we’ve got a Board of Trustees, a Board of Governors, the historical commission, the legislature, the governor.”  While an interim successor has been appointed,  there’s a fear that the politically charged atmosphere could drive away top candidates for a permanent one, who might see the job as “a road to nowhere.” The root of the problem is that the governing board is too big, in the opinion of the Raleigh News & Observer editorial board, which states that 28 members constitute “a caucus, not a board…. What’s needed is a smaller board with members appointed by the governor as well as the legislature. There should be requirements for a bipartisan and demographic mix among members.”  to the top

8  Larry Nassar Fallout at Michigan State Keeps on Spreading  In December, the Michigan Attorney General’s Office released a scathing report on Michigan State University’s handling of sexual abuse allegations against former sports medicine doctor Larry Nassar. It was a “failure of people, not policy” that contributed to hundreds of girls and women being sexually abused, the report charges: “Both then and now, MSU has fostered a culture of indifference toward sexual assault, motivated by its desire to protect its reputation.” The report also cited “multiple shortcomings” in the university’s Title IX investigation into the allegations against Nassar dating back to 2014. (See Story 17.) Nassar is now serving a 40- to 175-year prison sentence.
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In January, John M. Engler, the interim president of Michigan State University, announced his resignation in an 11-page  letter. Engler’s one-year tenure was marred by controversy from beginning to end. The final straw for the university’s governing board came when Engler told The Detroit News that some of Nassar’s victims were “enjoying” the “spotlight” … “you know, the awards and recognition.” Engler is the university’s second leader in a year to be forced out. In January 2018, Lou Anna K. Simon tendered her resignation under pressure for her handling of the scandal. And in a rare move against a former university president, Simon has been charged with lying to police about the investigation. She faces up to four years in prison if convicted.
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The MSU Board of Trustees has voted unanimously to appoint Satish Udpa, the executive vice president for administrative services, as acting president of the university. Udpa was reportedly considered for the position prior to Engler’s appointment.  to the top

9    Fourth and Forty for Maryland  In late October last year the University of Maryland fired its football coach, D.J. Durkin, just one day after reinstating him, the middle of a  rollercoaster administrative ride that started the previous spring with the death of a 19-year-old  football player who collapsed from heatstroke. Durkin was suspended after a damning ESPN report saying the school’s football program had a “toxic culture.” But Durkin was popular and the state’s Board of Regents cleared him of responsibility midway through the season, citing an internal university report.  The public reaction was swift and so was the university’s president, Wallace Loh, who fired Durkin the next day—without consulting the Regents. Then Loh resigned. Then Chairman of the Board of Regents resigned.  And that was not the end of it. The Middle States Commission on Higher Education, the school’s accreditation overseer, then demanded “evidence of a clearly articulated and transparent governance structure that outlines roles, responsibilities, and accountability for decision making by each constituency.”  It may be fourth and forty for the Terrapins.   to the top

10    A New Animal House—at Dartmouth?  Seven current and former Dartmouth College female grad students have filed a class-action lawsuit against the Ivy League school, alleging that three prominent professors sexually assaulted and harassed them over the course of more than 15 years in which the women attended the Ivy League school. The lawsuit describes a “21st Century Animal House” culture in which the male professors used their positions to coerce the students into drinking and sex. The professors “leered at, groped, sexted, intoxicated and even raped female students,” The New York Times reports. The women, who are seeking $70 million in damages, allege that Dartmouth administrators “did nothing and ignored” their complaints, which date back to 2002. (See Story 8.)  In April 2017, the women contacted the school’s Title IX office, and, over the next several months, at least 27 complaints were filed. According to The Washington Post, it was “an open secret” that the “professors regularly held professional lab meetings in bars, invited students to late-night hot-tub parties, and conditioned academic support on participation in a hard-drinking party culture and tolerance of unwanted sexual attention.” After Dartmouth began a seldom-used process to fire tenured professors, one professor retired and the other two resigned. They have been barred from campus and from ever working for the school again.  to the top

11 Bloomberg’s Billions May Not Close the Poverty Gap  Michael Bloomberg donates $1.8 billion to his alma mater, Johns Hopkins University, hoping to close the gap between elite universities and low-to-middle-income families. However, because Johns Hopkins is already a highly selective university, basing admissions on merit, some critics argue that Bloomberg’s gift will only increase the divide between rich and poor in American higher education since so few of the poor can get into Johns Hopkins in the first place.  to the top

ADMINISTRATION

12 Free Speech is Floundering  A year ago, colleges and universities were bracing for more protests and more chaos, but 2018 ended up being a relatively quiet year on college campuses. Overall, there were fewer speaker “disinvitation attempts”; there were fewer cases of professors’ being terminated for political speech; and the number of institutions with restrictive speech codes fell to historic lows. But what looks like positive trends could actually be something else. If fewer conservative speakers are being disinvited to campuses, then perhaps they’re not being invited in the first place. Or maybe they are just afraid to show up. More college students than ever have reservations about free expression, and a much cited 2017 report by the Brookings Institute found that 20 percent of college students believe it’s acceptable to inflict physical harm on those who have made “offensive and hurtful statements.” Historian Allen Guetzo argues that this “bleak view of free speech is no longer the reserve of a dismissible fringe.”  to the top
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13  New Concept: Get to Class on Time  While most universities employ a common practice of allowing students to be ten minutes late for class, cost-cutting concerns are prompting others, like the University of Michigan and Harvard, to crack down on class schedules, expecting students to be at their desks when classes actually start. The University of California at Berkeley has opted out of this time constraint, but is jumping on a new bandwagon, starting an academic division called Data Science and Information. This is meant to help students within all majors use data to enhance their disciplines. (See Story 3.) The reorganization follows MIT’s  announcement last month of a new $1 billion artificial intelligence initiative. to the top

14 “Made in China” Ain’t What It Used to Be  Political controversies surrounding Chinese students, Chinese businesses, and now Chinese spies are growing. United States universities, as well as those in other countries, are closing Chinese-government-funded Confucius Institutes over concerns that they may be a propaganda arm of the Chinese Communist Party at best and at worst may be designed to infiltrate US technology research facilities. By the same token, academic freedoms among the 107 US colleges with Confucius Institutes are said to be at risk in navigation technology, computer science, and artificial intelligence as Chinese scientists at these universities are put under a spotlight. Chinese technology theft has been common in tech businesses; recently the US indicted several Chinese companies for stealing trade secrets from Micron Technology. Meanwhile, a Duke University professor was accused of racial intolerance for telling her Chinese students that they had to speak English on campus or face possible consequences.  to the top

15  Yale Professor Disciplined a Second Time  A prominent Yale University cardiologist and researcher is back in the spotlight after being stripped of his second endowed professorship. In 2013, a university committee concluded that Michael Simons was guilty of sexually harassing a junior colleague. After the woman rebuffed his advances, Simons purportedly retaliated against her boyfriend-turned-husband, who also worked under his supervision. The committee called for Simons to be permanently removed from his cardiology position and barred from other leadership roles for five years. The sanction was later reduced to 18 months, and Simons was allowed to keep his endowed chair.  Fast-forward to the summer of 2018: After again being stripped of his endowed chair, Simons was quickly awarded another endowed professorship. The university contends that this was simply “a transfer of honors, not the conferment of a new one.” The backlash, however, was furious. More than 1,000 medical-school students, trainees, alumni, and faculty members signed a letter to Yale’s president, voicing “disgust and disappointment” with the decision. Simons, in turn, filed a lawsuit against the university, accusing it of “pandering” to #MeToo activists for an offense that was “adjudicated and put to rest” five years before. (Simons later withdrew his lawsuit.) Critics accuse the university of tolerating misbehavior from researchers, like Simons, who bring in millions of dollars a year. Late last year, the longtime dean of the School of Medicine, Robert Alpern, announced that he will step down. to the top

students

16 Frats Strike Back  After several years of high-profile fraternity embarrassments—and worse—a group of single-sex clubs have filed lawsuits against Harvard, claiming that the university discriminates against students based on their gender and their membership in such organizations. The complaint dates to 2016, when the Ivy League school placed sanctions on members of such organizations. The new lawsuits were filed in both state and federal courts and claim that Harvard, also defending itself in a high-profile affirmative action lawsuit (see Story 4 and Harvard’s Asian-Americans),  is violating Title IX, the  federal civil-rights law that says students have the right to free association and equal treatment based on gender (see Story 17 and Students Support Due Process).  to the top

PUBLIC TRUST

REGULATION

17  Betsy DeVos Proposes Sweeping Changes to Title IX Regulations  In November, the US Department of Education, led by Betsy DeVos, proposed a complete overhaul of the regulations governing how colleges and universities handle allegations of sexual misconduct. The proposed regulations would replace the now-rescinded Obama-era Title IX guidelines. One of the most controversial parts of the Obama guidelines was the requirement that colleges use the lowest standard of proof, “preponderance of the evidence.” Under the new rules, schools could apply either the minimal standard or a higher burden of proof known as “clear and convincing evidence.” A key feature of the new rules would allow students accused of sexual misconduct to cross-examine their accusers through a lawyer or an advisor. Both parties would have equal access to review all evidence and the right to an appeal. In addition, schools would be required to investigate only assaults that take place on campus, leaving unclear how incidents that occur, for example, in off-campus fraternities and sororities would be handled. The Education Department claims the proposed changes would ensure fairness for students on both sides, but victims’ advocates say the new rules move too far in the opposite direction, discouraging victims from coming forward.  to the top

18 Accreditation Reform  Education Department officials have outlined plans for accreditation reform. DeVos wants more nontraditional institutions, such as online education programs, to gain accreditation. Concurrently, DeVos has reinstated the accrediting group that the Obama administration severed ties with in 2016. Accrediting Council of Independent Colleges and Universities, or ACICS, had accredited two for-profit college chains that later shut down after receiving allegations of unethical recruiting practices. Critics say that the decision to reinstate ACICS will protect schools that do not fully benefit their students. According to The Wall Street Journal, “24% of students who graduated or left school in 2012 had paid some toward their loan balance after three years, compared with a national average of 46%.” The inability to repay loans suggests that these students have not benefitted from attending school and are not achieving financial stability.
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One online school, Western Governors University, had failed to meet federal requirements for the interaction between faculty members and students, according to the department’s Office of Inspector General in 2017. It was recommended that WGU pay back $713 million in federal aid; however, this past January the departments Office of Federal Student Aid said they would not seek the return of these funds due to the ambiguity of the law and regulations. As part of the accreditation reform plans, the accreditors would define who qualifies as an instructor. to the top

19  Judge in Harvard Trial Has Harvard Connection of Her Own  Does Harvard discriminate against Asian-Americans? That’s the question that a judge, not a jury, will have to answer in a lawsuit challenging the university’s admissions process. As it turns out, the judge deciding the case, Allison D. Burroughs, the daughter of a Harvard graduate, applied to Harvard herself decades ago; like thousands of other high school seniors, she did not get in. (She went to Middlebury College instead.) This suddenly became an issue during the recent trial when someone sent an anonymous mass email to reporters suggesting that Judge Burroughs was biased against Harvard because of that rejection. However, both sides in the trial were quick to say bthat they did not want Judge Burroughs to recuse herself. The closely watched case ended in November, but the judge has indicated that she might not reach a decision until sometime this month. No matter what her decision is, it’s widely speculated that the case will end up before the US Supreme Court.  to the top

CRITIQUE

EXTERNAL ORDERs

TERTIARY EDUCATION

politics

26   A Divided Congress and What It Means for Higher Ed  As Democrats take control of the US House of Representatives for the first time since 2010, the PROSPER Act is dead and so too the chances of renewing the broader legislation of a comprehensive Higher Education Act. Instead, we can expect both more federal control and more spending on education. The Democrats’ proposal for higher education reform, the Aim Higher Act, would increase Pell Grants by $500 per year, index them to inflation, and renew the push for tuition-free community college. If Democrats and Republicans were really willing to work together—and that’s a huge “if”—they could focus on three issues they might actually be able to compromise on: simplifying FASFA; providing better data on college outcomes; and allowing federal student aid for short-term certificate programs.  to the top