"How many of you drive for a living? How many of you want to?" That's the question Michael Crow, the president of Arizona State University, posed recently to an audience assembled in Washington, D.C., to learn about the future of driverless cars. Crow, who participated in a discussion called…
Is there anything left to be learned about the mating habits of college students? For years, we have been subjected to a barrage of books about the rituals of drunken sex. In addition to Hooking Up and American Hook-up, there’s the recent Blurred Lines: Rethinking Sex, Power, and Consent on Campus…
In a recent conversation with an administrator who spent years at one of Manhattan’s most prestigious prep schools, I brought up the subject of gifted education. “I don’t know what you mean,” she responded without a trace of irony. “Every child is gifted in his or her own way.” In a culture where…
The unexpected risks of lives spent online.
"Here, you can be the policeman." Jenna (not her real name), a 4-year-old, hands me one of the dozen small figures spread in front of her, a black woman in a police uniform. “I’m going to be the doctor,” she says as she picks up another black woman dressed in a doctor’s coat. For the next few…
How bad is grade inflation in the humanities? So bad that when U.S. News & World Report issued its annual college rankings last week, it gave more credit to schools for graduating students in math and the hard sciences than it did in other disciplines. According to the publication’s press release:…
How bad is grade inflation in the humanities? So bad that when U.S. News & World Report issued its annual college rankings last week, it gave more credit to schools for graduating students in math and the hard sciences than it did in other disciplines. According to the publication’s press release:…
Even if you hold no religious beliefs, you might want to consider adopting some simply for the sake of your wedding. That’s the conclusion I reached after attending several secular nuptial ceremonies in the years after college. There was little worse than listening to vows that had been made up by…
Even if you hold no religious beliefs, you might want to consider adopting some simply for the sake of your wedding. That’s the conclusion I reached after attending several secular nuptial ceremonies in the years after college. There was little worse than listening to vows that had been made up by…
When is a college acceptance letter not a college acceptance letter? When a school suddenly realizes that it has 800 more freshmen than it knows what to do with. This is what happened last month at the University of California, Irvine, which—in an effort to reduce that number—started rescinding…
When is a college acceptance letter not a college acceptance letter? When a school suddenly realizes that it has 800 more freshmen than it knows what to do with. This is what happened last month at the University of California, Irvine, which—in an effort to reduce that number—started rescinding…
It looks like the finale for the final clubs. A Harvard faculty committee released a report last week recommending that all fraternities, sororities, and similarly “exclusionary” single-sex social organizations be phased out by the spring of 2022. The committee determined that it would not be…
It looks like the finale for the final clubs. A Harvard faculty committee released a report last week recommending that all fraternities, sororities, and similarly “exclusionary” single-sex social organizations be phased out by the spring of 2022. The committee determined that it would not be…
Maybe the welfare of Indian kids should come before the interests of tribal governments. That seems to be the conclusion of the Arizona Supreme Court last week, which allowed a child born to a member of the Gila River Indian Community in 2014 to be adopted by non-native parents.
Maybe the welfare of Indian kids should come before the interests of tribal governments. That seems to be the conclusion of the Arizona Supreme Court last week, which allowed a child born to a member of the Gila River Indian Community in 2014 to be adopted by non-native parents.
"Fostering kids is not an easy thing to do,” Christi Dreier of Round Rock, Texas, recently told the Wall Street Journal. Dreier and her partner have fostered several children and adopted three of them. Complaining about a bill that recently passed the Texas house of representatives, she explained,…
"Fostering kids is not an easy thing to do,” Christi Dreier of Round Rock, Texas, recently told the Wall Street Journal. Dreier and her partner have fostered several children and adopted three of them. Complaining about a bill that recently passed the Texas house of representatives, she explained,…
"Fostering kids is not an easy thing to do,” Christi Dreier of Round Rock, Texas, recently told the Wall Street Journal. Dreier and her partner have fostered several children and adopted three of them. Complaining about a bill that recently passed the Texas house of representatives, she explained,…
"First Black Bachelorette shines in debut, but is America ready for interracial love?" When NBC executives tweeted that question last week, what exactly did they expect the answer to be? Were they hoping for some racial unrest to boost their primetime ratings? Have they noticed Kanye West and Kim…
The Jesuits are sorry. Last fall, Jesuit-founded Georgetown University apologized to the descendants of 272 slaves sold by the institution in 1838. In addition to the formal apology, the school announced plans to rename some buildings, construct a public memorial, and possibly offer scholarships or…
The Jesuits are sorry. Last fall, Jesuit-founded Georgetown University apologized to the descendants of 272 slaves sold by the institution in 1838. In addition to the formal apology, the school announced plans to rename some buildings, construct a public memorial, and possibly offer scholarships or…
When Darren Walker, president of the Ford Foundation since 2013, called for a “reimagining of philanthropy's first principles and its relationship to our market system," few people thought this meant that he would join the board of directors of PepsiCo. But that's exactly what he did last fall.…
Higher education had a very good year. That's the news from the Chronicle of Philanthropy, which reports that "during an election year soaked in populism, some of America's biggest philanthropists bestowed an unusually large chunk of their charity on colleges and universities, including several…
Higher education had a very good year. That’s the news from the Chronicle of Philanthropy, which reports that "during an election year soaked in populism, some of America's biggest philanthropists bestowed an unusually large chunk of their charity on colleges and universities, including several…
Twenty years ago, the academic journal Social Text published an article with the trendy title “Transgressing the Boundaries: Towards a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity." The article claimed that quantum gravity is nothing but a social and linguistic construct that physicists are…
Twenty years ago, the academic journal Social Text published an article with the trendy title “Transgressing the Boundaries: Towards a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity." The article claimed that quantum gravity is nothing but a social and linguistic construct that physicists are…
What is the Francis Effect? Recent surveys show that despite all the hype since Jorge Mario Bergoglio first became pope in March 2013, there has been little change in how often Roman Catholics in America attend Mass. This is not to say, though, that the pope has not deeply changed the lives of many…
What is the Francis Effect? Recent surveys show that despite all the hype since Jorge Mario Bergoglio first became pope in March 2013, there has been little change in how often Roman Catholics in America attend Mass. This is not to say, though, that the pope has not deeply changed the lives of many…
Almost two decades ago, shortly after moving to New York City, I was set up on a blind date—a nice Jewish lawyer my aunt had met at her synagogue. Shortly after the small talk ended, he told me that he had just finished registering a complaint with his employer, a midtown white shoe law firm. "They…
How did Donald Trump lose the Mormons? According to a recent Pew poll, only 48 percent of Mormons now describe themselves as Republicans, compared with 61 percent during the last election cycle. For decades, Mormons have been the most reliably Republican religious group in the country. What…
New York University will be making it easier for applicants with criminal records to gain admission to the school: NYU announced at the beginning of August it will now ignore the Common Application’s questions about criminal history. Instead, the school will ask more specific questions that focus…
Philanthropy is on the rise in the United States, hitting a record $373 billion last year, according to the Giving Institute. And yet the image of charity is taking a beating during this election season, a campaign featuring a businessman remarkably stingy with his fortune and an entrenched…
In May, Tennessee lawmakers banned all funding for the Office of Diversity and Inclusion at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. The $436,000 that had been budgeted for the office will instead be put toward scholarships for minority students in engineering. The UTK diversity office was…
Are there really too many high-achieving college applicants? Ted O’Neill, dean of admissions at the University of Chicago for two decades, seems to think so, writing recently, "It was nice to be able to take chances on kids who didn't have perfect records, but who revealed something special—some…
A third of Americans have little or no confidence in charitable organizations. That’s according to a poll out earlier this month from the Chronicle of Philanthropy. Many of those surveyed felt that leaders of charities were paid too much and that the organizations were not good at spending the…
Scott Walker was never going to win fans among the faculty at the University of Wisconsin. Four years ago, Wisconsin professors were in the state capitol protesting the governor’s plans to limit public employee collective bargaining powers. But, boy, did he make enemies this month when he proposed…
The City University of New York must really be rolling in dough. The school’s administration recently turned down a $10 million grant from the Koch brothers to establish a new financial center at Brooklyn College. The business dean explained that he would have to focus on the school’s accreditation…
Many cheered last month when President Obama finally used his bully pulpit to talk about the problems facing young men of color. Of course, the president did not have much else to offer: Nearly all of the $200 million pledged for his “My Brother’s Keeper” initiative is from private foundations, not…