Joshua Hunt, a young journalist, was sent to Eugene, Oregon in 2014 to do an assignment for the New York Times. A University of Oregon student had alleged a sexual assault by three of college basketball players. The police report was harrowing. Amid growing national concern about student athletes and sexual violence, many media outlets…
Author: David Potash
Seeing the Whole Elephant
Thinking issues through is hard. It is especially difficult – and all the more necessary – when conclusions do not jibe, when perspectives differ, and when priorities contrast. Two recent reports have catalyzed my thinking about student success. While they do not provide all the answers, they do move the conversation in a good direction.…
Liberal Arts Colleges and Liberal Arts Education
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…
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…