Minding the Campus

4 days ago | mindingthecampus.org | Rob Jenkins

Since the education debacle of 2020-22, much of the blame has gone to online or “digital” learning. Conservative commentators, in particular, often speak of online classes in sneering terms, as if they were primarily responsible for students’ learning loss, declining IQs, and the general “dumbing down” of higher education, among other harms. But is that entirely fair?

1 week ago | mindingthecampus.org | Jared Gould

In this first episode of our new podcast, VAS News Chat, I join Teresa Manning, Policy Director at the National Association of Scholars and President of its Virginia affiliate, for a deep dive into my recent article, “America’s Obsession with Diplomas Is Killing Opportunity,” in which I argue that credentials have become an illegitimate precondition for employment and social legitimacy. Manning and I discuss how credentials are not only unnecessary for many professions but often actively harmful.

1 week ago | mindingthecampus.org | Jared Gould

Author’s Note: This article is from my weekly “Top of Mind” email, sent to subscribers every Thursday. For more content like this and to receive the full newsletter each week, enter your name and email under “SIGN UP FOR OUR WEEKLY NEWSLETTER, ‘TOP OF MIND,’” located on the right-hand side of the site. The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” or H.R.1, is stirring up debate.

1 week ago | mindingthecampus.org | Samuel J. Abrams

Harvard, the nation’s oldest and most prestigious university, has long set the standard in higher education. For Jewish families, gaining admission has historically been both a symbol of merit and a source of communal pride. But Harvard has also long resisted their inclusion—first through admissions quotas in the early 20th century, and now, once again, by deliberately limiting the number of Jewish students on campus in the 21st.

1 week ago | mindingthecampus.org | Jared Gould

In Episode 4 of The Week in Science, Scott Turner, Director of Science Programs at the National Association of Scholars, asks whether private philanthropy can rescue science from declining federal support. Before 1950, most scientific research was funded by private donors—not the government. That changed after WWII, when federal agencies like the National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation took over, now supplying up to 90 percent of research dollars at some universities.