Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
Like every other institution in our society, colleges and universities are affected by the changing climate. They face new threats to campus infrastructure, and to the safety of students, faculty and staff. But while colleges and universities grapple with these problems, they can also be part of the solution.
At a time of extraordinary wealth inequality, taxing wealth to pay for higher education is a powerful idea. If the California initiative passes in November, it will serve as a model to the nation for how to both reduce concentrated wealth and expand college opportunity.
A professor of national security affairs at the U.S. Naval War College and a former political adviser, Nichols argues that the country has shifted from a healthy skepticism of accepted knowledge to a proud, self-satisfied ignorance and active hostility to the very idea of expertise. Across American society, intellectual authority is resented, resisted and disregarded, with every opinion ostensibly holding equal weight.
We need a new conception of human progress that recognizes the interdependence of the economic, social, political, and environmental spheres.
University governance is approaching a critical juncture.
It is time to consider a redesign of the university system in a way that takes advantage of recent Internet technology developments and addresses some of the social and economic problems surrounding higher education.
