Presidential Opinion

Macalester College President Suzanne M. Rivera writes: The poet Sarah Kay says, "Sometimes the question is 'or' but the answer is 'and.' "  I've been thinking about this a lot recently while reading numerous essays on whetherincreasing diversity on college campuses is hindering freedom of inquiry and expression.The writers frequently position inclusion efforts on college campuses as a "challenge"that must be managed or overcome. I disagree, and a recent incident on our campusillustrates why.

President Rivera's complete commentary article.

Wesleyan University (CT) President Michael Roth writes:  At a time when misinformation grows more sophisticated and demagoguery runs rampant, the public should be able to turn to higher education for guidance. But there is declining trust in the sector, which has been embroiled in controversies ranging from its high cost, to tensions between academic freedom and religion, to questions about the role of social justice on campus. From Texas to Florida, government leaders have felt empowered to ramp up their war on universities. Critics on the left accuse universities of being the servants of neoliberal corporatism, while critics on the right view them as engines of indoctrination into world views that dismiss the lives of ordinary people. At a time when higher education should be contributing to our public lives, many of its leaders are busy playing defense, or worse, just laying low.

David Wippman, president of Hamilton College (NY), and Glenn C. Altschuler, the Thomas and Dorothy Litwin Professor of American Studies at Cornell University (NY), write:  With final exams again upon us, students across the country seem more stressed than ever, even as study after study has found they’re spending far less time on schoolwork than students once did.  As educators, our job is to meet students where they are, without sacrificing standards. That requires renewed efforts to foster a culture of learning that prioritizes academic work over other pursuits and ensures that students have access to adequate support services.
 

Colin Diver, a former dean of the University of Pennsylvania Law School and a former president of Reed College (OR), writes:  Yale’s law school made the stunning announcement last week that it would no longer participate in the influential rankings published annually by U.S. News & World Report. Given the outsize importance attributed to the rankings by prospective applicants and alumni, Yale’s decision sent shock waves through the legal profession, and indeed all of higher education. Yet the law schools at Harvard, Berkeley, Georgetown, Columbia, Stanford and Michigan quickly followed suit. Will the universities of which they are a part join the boycott? Will other colleges and professional schools do the same? Could this be the beginning of the end for college rankings? I sure hope so.

Brian Rosenberg, president emeritus of Macalester College (MN) and a visiting professor in the Harvard Graduate School of Education, writes: The recent announcement by the law schools at Yale and Harvard that they would “no longer participate” in the rankings offered up annually by U.S. News and World Report is, I suppose, worthy of at least polite applause. Berkeley Law followed soon after, then Columbia, Georgetown, and Stanford. As of today, 10 of the publication’s top 15 law schools have said they will stop taking part. Apparently crises of conscience are contagious.