Reading essay collections is a shot in the dark. Some volumes are tightly edited and themed. Those are my favorite, for they offer multiple perspectives on an issue. They are easier to remember them and I feel as though I’ve learned something when I finish the volume. Other collections wander. And while it’s almost always…
Author: David Potash
Academic Conservatism From the 1970s
I recently read an interesting book published more than forty-five years ago: The Idea of a Modern University. The volume contains the “fruits” of a two-day symposium held at Rockefeller University in February of 1972, organized by a group called UCRA (University Centers for Rational Alternatives). The book, conference and group are very much a…
More Than a Memoir
If you have not yet heard about Tara Westover’s Educated: A Memoir, I wager that you will soon. And if you have not yet read the book, I expect that you probably will. This is a book that will be assigned, taught, and taught again and again for many years to come. It is that…
An Education to the Stars
Mike Massimino is a retired NASA astronaut, a seasoned space traveler who played a key role in two Space Shuttle missions. When I picked up his memoir, Spaceman: An Astronaut’s Unlikely Journey to Unlock the Secrets of the Universe, I expected a bit of biography and a tech-heavy account of space exploration, perhaps written with…
Inequity in Action
What is the mission of public four-year colleges? I would wager that most American would say that they should provide high-quality educational opportunities to all students, regardless of wealth, status, and background. The reality, according to a recent study, is different. Our Separate & Unequal Public Colleges, a report from the Georgetown University Center on…
Action In Equity
I was excited and pleased earlier in the month to take part in an equity summit organized by the Partnership for College Completion, a Chicago-based nonprofit. The PCC’s work is in technical support, educational policy and public awareness of college access, affordability and college completion in Illinois. A key aim of the organization is to…
Wrongs, Rights, and Blurred Lines: Sexual Assault and Higher Education
Some book titles can hide or confuse. Other titles, though, truthfully convey a book’s essence. Vanessa Grigoriadis, an editor for the New York Times Magazine and Vanity Fair, has written thoughtfully about sexual assault at colleges. It is a difficult topic, emotionally charged and painful. It is a politicized issue – from the right and…