In his first book, "Acts of Faith," Eboo Patel describes his early encounters with interfaith events in the late 1990s. He was not impressed. "They were excruciatingly boring," he writes. Why so much talk and so little action, his restless, twenty-something self had wondered. "And where were the young people?" Fast forward a dozen years. Now 37,…

The academic job market is an exercise in captivity, and the author thinks that she is still its prisoner. A Ph.D. in history, the author is learning the rules of the game, and finding that search committees could do with a few lessons, too. In this article, the author shares how she found a way out.

Some job candidates seem to be doing well only to fall flat in one venue: They ace the teaching demo and the dinner meeting, but stumble during the research talk. Perhaps the candidate was disorganized, too strident, or just long-winded and boring. Whatever the cause, the outcome is a strong negative ding when it comes time to vote on the hire.…

When Heather Berg arrived at the University of Virginia in the fall of 2011, she was struck by the seemingly posh lifestyle many of her fellow students enjoyed. Now finishing her second year, she has friends who also felt that culture shock at first. But it's been hard to find them, and to speak candidly with anyone about the impact of money--or…

For years, faculty members have pointed to the sluggish growth in the number of tenured professors and complained that university payrolls are filled with too many administrators. This, they maintain, adds unnecessary costs and takes the focus away from teaching and learning. But whether such "administrative bloat" is really occurring and how much…

Higher education pays off handsomely for society. Yet on a nationwide basis, states' support for higher education per full-time-equivalent student has fallen to just $6,290, the lowest in 15 years. A dedicated source of funds for higher education is problematic. But what if state and federal lawmakers applied the impeccable logic of the gas tax to…

In a tight job market, visiting professorships can be appealing way stations for new Ph.D.'s while they search for permanent posts. Unlike adjunct positions, which are often renewed semester by semester, visiting professorships are set by annual or even multiyear contracts, with most capped at three years. The visiting jobs often come with health…

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has invented or improved many world-changing things--radar, information theory, and synthetic self-replicating molecules, to name a few. Last month the university announced, to mild fanfare, an invention that could be similarly transformative, this time for higher education itself. It is called MITx.…

Of all endowments valued at more than $250-million, the UCLA Foundation had the highest rate of growth over the previous year, at 49 percent. This article presents a table of the largest college endowments in 2011. The table covers the "rank," "institution," "market value as of June 30, 2011," and "1-year change" of institutions participating in…

Many education experts who seek to define the value of a college degree seize on metrics that can be quantified in the short term. Some look at levels of student engagement, while others calculate gains on standardized tests of critical-thinking skills. Still others have started analyzing the salaries that recent graduates earn. A different sort…

The number of conversations about doctoral education and the chancy academic job market has reached saturation. Everyone agrees people need more transparency, more realism: Getting a Ph.D. is no guarantee of permanent full-time employment in higher education. In this article, the author turns to a variable in obtaining tenure-track or full-time…

After almost a half century, American higher education's use of racial preferences in admissions to selective colleges may well be coming to an end. The good news for people concerned about racial and economic justice is that in several states that have banned racial affirmative action by voter referendum or executive order, legislators and…

A course's reading list is the skeleton of a semester's body of thought, the inventory that a professor writes up for the departmental Web site and the schedule of courses that lists the goods. Despite the obvious utility of fixed reading lists, one should jettison them when possible. The author has been conducting an informal experiment using a…

When professors in positions that offer no chance of earning tenure begin to stack the faculty, campus dynamics start to change. Growing numbers of adjuncts make themselves more visible. They push for roles in governance, better pay and working conditions, and recognition for work well done. And they do so at institutions where tenured faculty,…

This article features Antioch College, an old campus with a new future. With no tuition, no accreditation, and a mostly empty campus, the college is making a slow and careful start. Reopening a college that had been shuttered for three years certainly qualifies--especially a college with a rich history that, at this point, is equal parts blessing…