How did that Make You Feel?

When did the psychology of college students become a public issue? Adults have always been anxious about the well-being of the young; in many ways, that’s our job. But until the twentieth century, we worried about the rising generation’s moral and religious standing rather...

Diversity and Its Discontents

Have American universities become more diverse? Of course they have. The number of black college students in the United States tripled between 1976 and 2012; during that span, African Americans went from 9 percent to 14 percent of the undergraduate population. The rise in...

The Question of “Political Correctness”

What is political correctness? Once upon a time, in the mid-1980s, a left-leaning cabal of social engineers captured the American university. And not just the classrooms and faculty lounges, mind you; they took over minds, by reshaping the words that we use...

Introduction

In November 2015, America’s college campuses witnessed one of the sharpest bursts of student protest since the 1960s. An email about racially offensive Halloween costumes at Yale sparked an angry confrontation between African American students and a white house master, which was viewed over...

Conclusion

On May 31, 1969, Wellesley College’s first-ever elected class speaker delivered a short set of remarks at its 91st commencement exercises. She had been preceded at the podium by Massachusetts Senator Edward Brooke, who denounced “coercive protest” on college campuses; he also chided student...

Student Bodies

What is in loco parentis? In loco parentis means, literally, “in place of a parent.” And for most of our history, universities acted as one. They made all of the the rules governing student life, in the dormitory and classroom and everywhere else....

Professorial Speech and The Fate of Academic Freedom

What is academic freedom? Here’s what it isn’t: a license for professors do whatever they want. Consider the case of James Tracy, a tenured associate professor of communications who was fired by Florida Atlantic University in early 2016. Tracy has repeatedly asserted that the...

The Politics of Professors and Students

Are American professors mostly liberal? Yes. But you knew that already. What you didn’t know, perhaps, is that 43 percent of professors oppose affirmative action for racial minorities in college admissions. And you probably wouldn’t have guessed that 44 percent of them disagree with...