Outside the Beltway

Texas A&M professor finds serious flaws in college faculty productivity study.

Is the college curriculum too heavy in humanities and social sciences and too light on science and mathematics?

A new study finds that college tuition costs could be cut in half if lazy professors got off their butts.

One law school grad seems to think the solution to her employment problems is to sue her law school.

David Blight recounts the story of the first Memorial Day.

A profile of George Mason economist and blogger Tyler Cowen offers this amusing description: “Cowen, 49, has round features, a hesitant posture, and an unconcerned haircut.”

Academic publishers want to end the Fair Use of scholarly journal articles in the classroom.

The rebel and onion armies showed grose negligence by having many of their battles right inside national parks, like Gettysburg.

Most good government jobs require a college degree–but they don’t care much whether it’s a real one.

While elite schools confer many advantages on their graduates, they also wall them off from normal people and create an entitled, out-of-touch elite.

America’s war colleges have some problems but we can’t close them.

An increasing number of bright observers are questioning the notion that everyone needs to go to college.

Should kids be required to buy their lunch at school rather than bring whatever their parents might pack for them to eat?

A photo suggesting oral sex on the cover of a student newspaper has generated controversy.

Another survey shows that Americans don’t know much about their own history, but does it really matter?

While complaints that there’s too much information for intellectuals to sort through, much less read, are constant, they’re not new. Harvard historian Ann Blair argues in her new book Too Much to Know: Managing Scholarly Information Before the Modern Age that this stress goes back at least to Seneca’s time.

This video “Teachers Unions Explained” isn’t particularly fair but it’s nonetheless amusing.

79% do not think Ivy League students make better workers. 18% are undecided.

Would you like President Obama to speak at your graduation? You’re the only one.

George Mason University law students are petitioning against the requirement to pay $136 to rent cap and gown regalia in order to attend their graduation ceremony.

Northwestern’s Human Sexuality course includes a naked woman being brought to orgasm with a dildo.

Should public schoolteachers make more money than the people paying their salaries?

In the Middle East, protesters are marching for democracy. In the Midwest, they’re protesting against it.

Neither side is covering themselves in glory in the battle over the Badger State budget.

For many Ph.Ds, the Ed.D. represents the ticket to the administrative high life, the white flag to academic scholarship, and the tramp stamp of the compromising careerist.

President Obama is proposing to cut billions of dollars from the Pell Grant program, making it harder for kids from poor families to attend college.

An Ohio woman was convicted of two felony counts for sending her kids to good schools.

A new study casts new light on the importance of testing students to reinforce their grasp of information.

A new study suggests college students aren’t learning the critical thinking skills they’re supposed to learn, but that isn’t necessary the fault of the university they’re attending.

Just over 100 years after his death, Mark Twain’s two greatest novels are once again the subject of controversy.

The repeal of DADT may open the doors for ROTC to return to many elite institutions, if cost doesn’t get in the way.

Do graduates of elite colleges earn more because of where they went to school? Or because of the traits that got them selected?

The archaic practice of calling one’s seniors by titles rather than their first name is actually quite useful.