Criticisms of amateurism in college sports usually center around compensation for student athletes. Here, sports historian and former NCAA national champion distance runner Victoria L. Jackson calls out college sports amateurism for another reason—racism. Her January 2018 op-ed was published in the Los Angeles Times; Jackson was also interviewed for the Chronicle of Higher Education …
Continue reading Who pays the price: Victoria L. Jackson on race, revenue, and college sports
Just how important are community colleges in the landscape of higher education in the United States? Well, nearly half of US undergraduates attend a community college; that makes them pretty important. Two community college presidents—Gail Mellow of LaGuardia Community College in New York and DeRionne Pollard of Montgomery College in Maryland—argue in this February 2017 …
Continue reading Opportunity and healing: Mellow & Pollard on community colleges
Many of the students at top-ranked universities have worked enormously hard to get there. They know that a degree from such an institution will pay off in “the market.” Such an emphasis, however, has its own costs and consequences. Vanderbilt University student Jorge Salles Diaz takes a step back and poses some larger questions in …
Continue reading “The people we want to become”: Jorge Salles Diaz on elite universities
You’ve probably been hearing the phrase “global village” for your whole life, and the phrase is usually associated with warm and fuzzy feelings about the interconnectedness of all people and the universality of the human condition. The reality, however, as we’ve been seeing recently, is not especially warm and very far from fuzzy. What’s gone …
Continue reading “Mistrust and friction”: Nicholas Carr on today’s global village
Every day, it seems, there is a new revelation of sexual misconduct by a public figure, and every day we’re less shocked, more sickened. What can we do? How can we move forward? These are not easy questions, but they need to be addressed. Author Kate Harding proposes some concrete steps in this November 2017 …
Continue reading Changing the culture: Kate Harding on accountability for sexual misconduct
Avoid salt. Avoid sugar. Avoid fat. Avoid meat. Avoid avoidance. Hah! You weren’t expecting that last one, were you? Aaron E. Carroll, Indiana University professor of pediatrics, offers some unexpected diet advice in this November 2017 New York Times essay. Read it here: Carroll, "Relax, you don’t need to ‘eat clean’” To support his argument, …
Continue reading Scary foods: Aaron E. Carroll on healthy eating without fear
We’ve been hearing a lot lately about free speech, and we know that it’s a core value—so important that it is protected by the US Constitution. But do we all agree about what free speech really means? Ahh. Not so simple. Princeton professor Eddie S. Glaude, Jr. addresses some of the free speech issues currently …
Continue reading “Special snowflakes”: Eddie S. Glaude, Jr. on campus free speech debates
Something must be wrong with my TV. The video of my football game is perfectly clear, but the announcer’s voice is too high-pitched. Oh. Wait. The announcer is a. . . . WOMAN?! Avid football fan and fantasy writer Claire Wallace responds to the historic milestone with shock and delight in this September 2017 Huffington …
Continue reading First and goal: Claire Wallace on a woman’s place in football broadcasting
It’s a pretty simple proposition—a full-time worker ought to be able to live on the pay received for that job. Still, there is plenty of debate about the issue, with words flying around in every direction. Reporter Will Perkins states his position in this September 2017 essay in the Richmond Register of Kentucky. Read it …
Continue reading Enough to live on: Will Perkins on the minimum wage
If you follow professional tennis closely, you may get an impression that the men on the circuit are covered very differently from the women. It’s more than just an impression, though; there is empirical evidence to show just how large the disparity is. Harvard University economics professor Sendhil Mullainathan wrote this examination of the topic …
Continue reading Give us a twirl: Sendhil Mullainathan on sexism in sports journalism
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