Articles
A Strategy for Reforming American Universities
Warren Treadgold, Saint Louis University
After dismissing the possibility of real higher education reform in a 2018 book, Warren Treadgold now believes the demand for reform in some states has grown so strong, and the need so obvious, it might finally be possible to achieve. Here Treadgold suggests a way to do it.
The American Psychological Association’s Abortion Bias
Victor Schmithorst, Wright State University
While the APA purportedly aims to further psychology’s status as a science and relevant field of healthcare, today it is clear that one of the association’s primary functions is acting as a political apparatus for progressive causes.
Wynton Marsalis: What We Need Now
Daniel Asia, Arizona State University
Composer and Professor of Composition Daniel Asia traces the rise of Jazz trumpeter Wynton Marsalis from modest beginnings to the pinnacle of American music.
Fleeing Tension by Fleeing Classics
Mark Adair
Zipf’s law, or the simple principle that we humans wouldn’t perform any work today if we didn’t expect it to lessen tomorrow’s burden, may have played a role in the decline of the classics in higher education curricula.
Did American Police Originate from Slave Patrols?
Timothy Hsiao, University of Arkansas Grantham
The claim made by critics of American law enforcement that policing “traces back” to, “started out” as, or “evolved directly from,” southern slave patrols, is false. The evidence shows that American sheriffs, town watches, constables, and police all emerged from distinctly English institutions.
Diversity: The Last Refuge of Scoundrels
Jonathan Katz, Washington University
When a university administrator talks about “diversity” he is changing the subject from his proper responsibility—doing his job better. At a university that job is improving the quality of teaching, research, and learning.
Literary Friendship, Dinosaurs, and Retrieving Our Literary Legacy
Donald T. Williams, Toccoa Falls College
Donald T. Williams argues that absorbing the works of literary greats so “truly and thoroughly and sympathetically” that it is appropriate to consider these authors your “friends,” is the only approach to the study of literature worth taking.
In Memoriam
Henry Rosovsky and African American Studies at Harvard
Jonathan Burack, Harvard class of '64
Upon word of his death in November of 2022, accolades poured in for Harvard’s renowned Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Henry Rosovsky. But few of the remembrances acknowledged the long-serving Rosofsky’s prescience and courage in challenging the worst tendencies in higher education when they were first emerging.
For the Record
We Need Some Muscle Over Here!
Bruce Gilley, Portland State University
At a March 2023 meeting of the NAS affiliate California Association of Scholars, NAS treasurer and board member Brue Gilley assessed the challenges, activities, and achievements of both organizations since their inception and outlined their current priorities, purposes, and potential strategies.
Photo by Daniel Lerman on Unsplash
