What is More Important: Learning Soft Skills or Hard Skills? I recently learned that the School of Public Affairs at the American University in Washington, D.C. is attempting to combat the adverse political dialogue taking place in today’s society by launching a new project on civil discourse. This project, designed... Read more →

Issues Surrounding the Transfer of Technology Extensive transfer of technology from university and nonprofit laboratories to the commercial sector is an increasingly common occurrence in the U.S. Widespread university activity in technology commercialization began only with the passage of the Bayh-Dole Act in 1980. This legislation enabled universities, nonprofit research... Read more →

Are Students Responsible or Instructors? Last week I received a notification from the American Accounting Association that said: “As you may know, most textbook publisher’s test banks and solution manuals can be purchased online or are free, which cause an unlevel playing field for students.” The Association asked for volunteers... Read more →

It’s Time to Emphasize the ‘Soft Skills’ I recently read a post on LinkedIn by Oliver Schinkten. He talks about the skills needed by college students to be successful in the "real world." Here is a summary of those skills from his post. Adaptive Thinking:Things change quickly in the digital... Read more →

Are Student Evaluations a Useful Tool? Last week I read an article about why student evaluations of college instructors are not reliable and should no longer be used in performance evaluation decisions. The author claims, based on research, that student evaluations may be associated with the gender of the instructor.... Read more →

Should Colleges Drop the “D” Grade? Perhaps you’ve heard that a North Carolina Community College -- Stanly Community College – has decided to drop the “D” grade. Students will either be given a “C” grade,” which is most likely to happen, or given a “F” grade for the course. The... Read more →

The Case Against Caplan's Thesis: Why the Education System is a Waste of Time and Money What is the value of a college education? Is it largely a waste of time as George Mason University economist Bryan Caplan contends? Or, is there more to getting a college education than increasing... Read more →

Larry Nassar and Michigan State: A Tale of a Corrupt Culture, Ethical Blindness, and Institutional Indifference I always believed the NCAA was relatively even-handed with its punishment of Penn State University in the Jerry Sandusky sexual abuse scandal. The football program scandal led to a $60 million fine, four-year postseason... Read more →

Ethics Means First, Do No Harm Most people are unaware that the tax reform act includes a college endowment tax that threatens the long-standing tax-free earnings from these donations. Some colleges are in panic mode, especially Harvard, Yale and Stanford. The investment-per-student-threshold was set at $500,000. The tax will raise... Read more →

The Rich Lose 'Pay to Play' Donations In case you are not aware, the recently passed tax reform bill is likely to have a huge effect on funding college sports including the elimination of a tax break that benefits major athletic programs. Currently, donations made to certain booster clubs or... Read more →