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An illustration of three schools on a podium and ranked from first place to third.

College Rankings Were Once a Shocking Experiment

Now they’ve become an American ritual.
by Jake Lundberg via The Atlantic on October 2, 2025
Arthur Oncken Lovejoy receives an honorary diploma from George Boas during 1951 commencement ceremony.
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The Real History of Tenure

Tenure is more than just academic freedom; it is also about labor protection, and it has a long history.
by Deepa Das Acevedo via Made By History on October 1, 2025
Buildings at the University of Minnesota.

The Book That Explained the University To Itself

Laurence Veysey’s 1965 tome remains the most incisive portrait of higher education.
by Scott Spillman via The Chronicle of Higher Education on August 25, 2025
Painting of Renaissance poets reading and chatting together.

The Strange History of University Autonomy — and Why We Need It More Than Ever

Academic freedom from the Middle Ages to apartheid South Africa to now.
by Adam Sitze via The Chronicle of Higher Education on August 15, 2025
Exhibit

College Costs

Historical perspectives on the money that fuels American higher education, and Americans’ attempts to reckon with the power dynamics that result.
The book "A Forgotten Migration," and author Crystal R. Sanders

A Forgotten Migration: An Interview with Crystal R. Sanders

A new book examines the long history of racial inequality in higher education through the post-baccalaureate experiences of Jim Crow era African Americans.
by Ashley Everson, Crystal R. Sanders via Black Perspectives on July 28, 2025
Columbia University building shrouded in darkness.

In the Hallowed Place Where There’s Only Darkness

Columbia University as security state.
by Ellen Schrecker, Nina Berman via VQR on July 10, 2025
Photo of Claudine gay testifying to Congress.

What a 1964 Book About American Anti-Intellectualism Can Teach Us About the Trump Era

On Richard Hofstadter and the current assault on academia.
by Peter Balakian via Literary Hub on July 9, 2025
Senator Joseph R. McCarthy and his aide Roy Cohn.

Worse Than McCarthyism: Universities in the Age of Trump

The target then was the nonexistent threat of Communist teachers; today, it’s the supposed radicalism of the academy.
by Ellen Schrecker via The Nation on April 3, 2025
City College of New York in a still from Joseph Dorman’s Arguing the World, 1997.

The 176-Year Argument

How the City College of New York went from an experiment in public education to an intellectual hot spot for working class and immigrant students.
by Vivian Gornick via New York Review of Books on April 3, 2025
Two people wrestling. One wearing blue and the other wearing red.

Understanding the Evolving Culture-War Vernacular

The Right is exploiting a manufactured moral panic.
by Isaac Kamola via Academe on March 24, 2025

How Business Metrics Broke the University

The push to make students into customers incentivizes faculty to seek visibility through controversy rather than through traditional scholarly achievement.
by Hollis Robbins via Compact on March 18, 2025
Ronald Reagan standing before a podium and a row of American flags.

The Rise of Ronald Reagan, a Product of California

On the early career of the actor-cum-politician who changed America.
by Michael Hiltzik via Literary Hub on February 26, 2025
Gov. Ronald Reagan confronted student protesters in Sacramento weeks before dismissing “intellectual luxuries.”

The Day the Purpose of College Changed

After February 28, 1967, the main reason to go was to get a job.
by Dan Berrett via The Chronicle of Higher Education on January 26, 2025
Jimmy Carter receiving an honorary degree from Notre Dame in 1977.

Here’s How Jimmy Carter Changed Higher Education

He tackled segregation in the nation’s public colleges and fraud in student-aid programs, and established the Department of Education.
by Kelly Field via The Chronicle of Higher Education on December 29, 2024
College students studying in a campus lounge.

What the New Right Learned in School

Many of today's most influential right-wing tactics and arguments have their roots in 1960s-era college campuses.
by Emily M. Brooks via Contingent on November 17, 2024
Abstract art piece showing various different people speaking.

The Campus Controversy Complex

Campus speech debates reveal a history of distorted narratives, balancing free speech, moral standards, and generational conflicts in U.S. universities.
by Adrian Daub via The Pennsylvania Gazette on October 24, 2024
Collage of a flag, a philosopher, hands in prayer, and a Gothic building.

Learning Civics from History

Civic thought and leadership institutes will thrive if they promote strong scholarship and courses in traditional fields the mainstream academy slights.
by James Hankins via Law & Liberty on September 11, 2024
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How 'The Campus' Captured Our Imaginations—And Our Politics

At least since the 1960s, a warped vision of college life has shaped U.S. culture and politics.
by Adrian Daub via Made By History on September 3, 2024
Drawing showing teacher in front of the blackboard while students look bored in the back of the classroom.

Why Professors Can’t Teach

For as long as universities have existed, academics have struggled to impart their knowledge to students. The failing is fixable—if Washington demands it.
by Jonathan Zimmerman via Washington Monthly on August 25, 2024
Chalkboard in a classroom.

What Are You Going to Do With That?

The future of college in the asset economy.
by Erik Baker via Harper’s on July 23, 2024
A West Village, New York pizza restaurant.

What Should Econ 101 Courses Teach Students Today?

Why introductory economics courses continued to teach zombie ideas from before economics became an empirical discipline.
by Walter Frick via Aeon on June 7, 2024
Student protestor holding sign behind campus police officer

Campus Police Are Among the Armed Heavies Cracking Down on Students

While some of the worst behavior has come from local and state police, university police have shown themselves to be just as capable of brutality.
by Alex S. Vitale via The Nation on May 9, 2024
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The Eternal Inflation of the Spotless Grade

For more than 50 years, we've been worrying about "grade inflation" at elite American universities. It's time to move on.
by Christopher Deutsch via HNN on December 20, 2023
Ivy League presidents testify before Congress about campus antisemitism.
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What Today’s University Presidents Can Learn From the 1st Modern Expulsion Over Campus Hate Speech

A 1990 case from Brown University was the first time a modern university expelled a student for a violation of a "hate speech code.”
by Matthew Pratt Guterl via Made By History on December 19, 2023
A view of the campus of New College of Florida in Sarasota, Fla,. on Jan. 19, 2023.
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The History Behind the Right's Effort to Take Over Universities

The right has had qualms about universities since the 1930s.
by Lauren Lassabe Shepherd via Made By History on October 23, 2023
Conservative College Campus Counterprotesters with signs saying "Peace Through Victory in Vietnam."

Modern Conservatism Was Born on College Campuses. So Why Does the GOP Hate Them?

Leaders of the political right learned lessons from the 1960s that still inform the movement today.
by Ian Ward, Lauren Lassabe Shepherd via Politico Magazine on September 4, 2023
A group of students demonstrating during a counterprotest to an ongoing anti–Vietnam War rally.

The Right Uses College Campuses as Its Training Grounds

Conservatives love to bemoan their supposed status as oppressed minorities in universities. But the college campus has long been a key site for the Right.
by Scott Wasserman Stern via Jacobin on August 17, 2023
IMPERATOR Steam ship.

The Students Who Went to Sea

"The Floating University: Experience, Empire, and the Politics of Knowledge"
by William H. Whyte via Literary Review on July 7, 2023
Graduation cap with "HIRE ME" written on top.

The Broken Promise of “College for Everyone”

The rise in undergraduate degrees was supposed to increase prosperity and cut economic inequality. Biden’s student debt relief plan proves otherwise.
by Jack Schneider via The New Republic on February 27, 2023
Pew Research chart showing rising earnings disparity between young adults with and without college degrees

Pushing Everyone Into College Was a Policy Response to Other Policy

None of it happened by mistake.
by Freddie deBoer via Freddie deBoer on November 21, 2022
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