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 →

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 →

Indoctrination Replacing Intellectualism I recently read a study on student attitudes on free expression that suggests students value a diverse and inclusive environment more than free speech rights. The report from Gallup and the Knight Foundation comes at a time when students have challenged the principles of the First Amendment... 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 →

What's Up with UC’s National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement? The University of California’s recent decision to establish The National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement in Washington, D.C. illustrates all that is wrong with academe today. The typical answer of a university to a perceived problem,... Read more →

Bourgeois Norms: The New Mantra of Higher Education Last week I blogged about the increasing popularity of including material related to equity, diversity and inclusion into college curricula. Now, to the list of forbidden ideas on American college campuses, add “bourgeois norms”—It’s become politically incorrect to suggest that the values... Read more →

How Best to Teach Cross-cultural Communication and Multicultural Studies The hot topic on college campuses is whether issues surrounding equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) should be included in the college curriculum and, if so, how should it be incorporated into the curriculum. These issues have grown in importance because of... Read more →