The word "liberal" derives from the Latin "liber," meaning "free," and describes a mind unencumbered by either prejudice or indoctrination. The adjective "liberal," however, has become, at least in some circles, synonymous with anti-capitalism, anti-business, and therefore anti-American. This author has…

The thought on many an academic's mind today is how to stop it. The "it"? The barrage of reports, papers, and interviews stating that higher education needs to embrace "disruptive change," treat students like customers, and become more entrepreneurial. In short, colleges must adopt a business model, or like blacksmith…

Every state in the U.S. has language in its constitution guaranteeing to its citizens a free public education, yet many states are failing to meet this fundamental right. From New York to California, lawsuits have been brought against state governors and legislatures who have not funded schools adequately. The field of false prophets grows and…

The alarming stories from adjunct faculty, who now comprise a majority of higher-education teachers nationally, share troubling commonalities. The frustrations are financial, personal, and professional. In decades past, most adjunct faculty worked full-time outside of academe and taught an occasional course based on a particular expertise or…

When these inequities began to change in the 20th century, due in part to the sweeping court-ordered integration following Brown v. Board of Education and the simultaneous expansion of public colleges and universities, all citizens began to gain access to educational achievement and, as a result, true access to the American power structure. The…

The ideal of community engagement suggests that both a student's career and his college's mission are (or ought to be) inextricable from the community in which they are embedded. That students, faculty, and academic institutions should serve community purposes, actively engage in community affairs, and network themselves in real and virtual…

On May 14, 2010, Sandra K. Soto was the faculty convocation speaker for the University of Arizona College of Social and Behavioral Sciences. To a significant extent, she congratulated the parents and graduates and flattered the graduates by crediting them with having learned both skills and information, and urging graduates to make use of their…

The enormous changes that took place on American campuses during the 1960s not only opened those campuses to new constituencies and new ideas, but also created a powerful conservative movement that sought to reverse those changes. Along with the rising cost of higher education, the right's campaign against the academic reforms of the sixties has…

California's public higher education system has for a long time been lauded as one of the finest in the world. But for the last several decades, budget cuts and privatization have resulted in the steady erosion of this system, as well as K-12 education in the state and other public sector services. It was told that privatization and choice--in the…

When one considers the possibilities for a new progressive era in American higher education, the author contends that it is wise to review the past because there are lessons to be learned. In fact, the latter part of the 20th century was one of great progress for diversity in higher education, generally speaking, and for African Americans in…

Explores how cultural studies have bred a new type of academic, the public intellectual. Their goal is to make more elastic the boundaries between disciplines and between academe and the public sphere, bringing together certain critical and pedagogical discourses that traditionally have been kept apart. (EV)

Four faculty members from different disciplines at the University of Northern Iowa discuss whether and to what extent they were engaging in the critical pedagogy proposed by bell hooks [sic], a writer on feminism, racism, pedagogy, and black intellectual life. They also consider the ways in which hooks's work informs their understanding of…

Planning for higher education in Washington State is described, including the structure of higher education, the state board's master plan, and progress to date in implementing that plan in a context of rapid and unforeseen economic and political change. Issues discussed include tuition trends, student financial aid, and task force recommendations…

Unless the higher education community itself, primarily students and faculty, responds immediately and forcefully to the issue of underfunding and widespread retrenchment, higher education as we know it will cease to exist. Problems include shrinking state financial and political support and absence of a compelling national security need.…

A discussion of the contemporary situation in American Indian higher education addresses three questions concerning current, past, and future Indian education: (1) how resources are currently allocated; (2) the nature of the present Indian educational-political system and any significant changes over time; (3) whether the current system is…