Online Colleges

Professor Mike Adams’ suicide will always haunt meIt’s been more than five months since former University of North Carolina Wilmington professor Mike Adams killed himself after being pushed into early retirement for offensive tweets. My friend David French and my colleague Robert Shibley already wrote powerful articles about it, but I knew eventually I needed to say my piece.  Mike S. Adams, from TwitterI first met Mike Adams back in 2001, when he was under investigation for responding dismissively to a student who was, as Mike summarized later, “blaming the 9/11 attacks on the United States Government,” all while the rubble was literally still smoking.  At the time, I was brand-new to FIRE.  Mike and I spoke on the phone many times as his case progressed. During one conver...

Department of Education announces email hotline to report free speech violationsEarlier this week, the Department of Education announced an email hotline for people to report campus free speech violations. Assistant Secretary for Postsecondary Education Robert King asserted that “any abridgment of free speech on a college campus can and should be reported to this new hotline.” Kirkwood Community College finalized a settlement with Jeff Klinzman, who was fired for his political speech on Facebook. FIRE knows from years of experience that censorship comes from across the ideological spectrum and silences students and faculty of all political stripes. For example, UCLA professor Gordon Klein was placed on administrative leave last June after 20,000 people petitioned the university to fire him...

Why a new higher education review is a waste of timeINDIA In the first 100 days of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s second administration, the government has launched yet another rethink of higher education policies and priorities through the draft National Education Policy (NEP) and the Education Quality Upgradation and Inclusion Programme (EQUIP).This is the latest, and seemingly one of the most elaborate, of an endless series of official reports and programmes aimed at improving higher education in the post-independence period. These documents – the first of which was the Radhakrishnan Commission of 1949, continuing with the national education policies of 1968 and 1986, the Yashpal Committee of 2009, the National Knowledge Commission in 2007, and most recently the draft NEP of 2...

Ultimate Guide to College Grants and Scholarships for MinoritiesScholarships and grants are a valuable tool for students who need funds to pay for college. These programs typically have criteria that consider your background and interests. One major category of gift awards is minority scholarships and grants. Minorities are groups that have historically faced societal disadvantages or challenges due to factors including: ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion, and disability. Students whose backgrounds qualify them for these awards can access financial assistance that they don’t need to pay back. Like all scholarships, minority scholarships will usually have additional merit or need based criteria for selection. Minority scholarships are offered by colleges, private organizations ...

Revolution in ARIt’s Time for a Revolution in Academic Resourcing This new academic year is unlike any other.  Colleges and universities are coping with nasty deficits and cash flow problems, but the probable long-term disruptions are even more worrisome.  Never in my half-century of close involvement with academic resourcing have I seen such threats to the operating and financial sustainability of so many institutions.  As Charles Dickens said, it is the worst of times. (more…)

Researching whether a college will closeFor most colleges and universities, competing for high school seniors has been a cutthroat Hunger Games exercise for many years. Before the pandemic hit, the majority of colleges were failing to meet their freshmen admission goals every year. At the start of the pandemic, some respected higher-ed observers predicted that many colleges would close by the summer, but that hasn’t happened. So far, most schools are still open for business. Whether this will last, remains an open question. Whatever happens, it makes sense to do your own research on whether colleges on your child’s list are financially stable. Resources to evaluate a college’s financial health To help you with that task, I’m sharing some new and old resources that attempt to divine how fin...

Apply for a Power of Hope AwardTwitterFacebookLinkedinemailHas your school district successfully moved the needle on FAFSA completion? Are your students engaged in counselor-led initiatives to increase college and career readiness? Share your story! Applications for the Power of Hope Awards are being accepted through Dec. 15. The honor — a program of the National Postsecondary Strategy Institute (NPSI) in partnership with Reach Higher and Common App — is targeted at rural districts and districts where at least half of all students quality for free or reduced-price meals. Applicants are asked to share their district’s strategies for promoting postsecondary success. Applicants must also submit evidence of increased FAFSA rates that were attained (and maintained) for two of the past three sch...

Use this Valuable College Admission ChecklistUsing  a college admission checklist is critical when your child is applying to colleges and universities. Allowing  a teenager to apply to any colleges without a solid game plan can be a financial and academic disaster. In fact, ignoring advance planning is one reason why ONE OUT OF THREE students who start at four-year public and private colleges and universities end up transferring somewhere else. What a terrible track record that is!! College Admission Checklist Here are five college check-list items that you and your child should accomplish before sending out applications.  If you’ve already submitted your applications, you can definitely still do some of these tasks: 1. Use net price calculators. If money is an issue, you sh...

So to Speak podcast transcript: National Review’s Charles C.W. CookeNote: This is an unedited rush transcript. Please check any quotations against the audio recording. Nico Perrino: Hello and welcome back to So To Speak, the free speech podcast where every other week we take an uncensored look at the world of free expression through personal stories and candid conversations. I am your host, Nico Perrino, and today we’re joined by Charles C.W. Cooke. Charles is the editor of NationalReview.com and, I’m assuming, the Englishman representative in the popular National Review podcast, Mad Dogs and Englishmen, which he co-hosts with Kevin Williamson who’s been on the show before – I believe last year – to talk about his book. Charles, welcome onto the show. Charles Cook: Thank you so m...

The Invisible Minority in STEM Graduate school is never easy, but as I neared the end of my first year, my Ph.D. training was about to get much harder. It wasn’t that the classes or research were any different. I had simply come to recognize the truth about myself: I was nonbinary, a gender identity sometimes falling under the transgender umbrella. Excited to finally express my true self, I came out to my colleagues and began to pursue my transition. Here I will share some lessons from my own experience as a transgender STEM Ph.D. student in an effort to show other transgender and gender-nonconforming students that they are not alone, as well as to demonstrate ways in which school administrators, faculty and mentors can be better allies and promote the success of transgender students. ...