They Say / I Blog

Class in the metaverse: Nir Eisikovits on the challenges of building virtual reality universities

Virtual reality, widely used in gaming, is now being adapted for a range of purposes, including medicine, therapy, and sports. But could virtual reality work for higher education? In this essay, Nir Eisikovits, an associate professor of ethics at University of Massachusetts-Boston, explores the ethical and social challenges of virtual reality. He explains what is at stake for students and universities if campuses move to the metaverse.

Nir Eisikovits, "College Could Take Place in the Metaverse, but These Problems Must Be Overcome First,"The Conversation, 1 March 2022

 

Race and representation in the college classroom: J. Nathan Matias, Neil Lewis Jr., and Elan Hope on the barriers to retaining a more diverse tenured and tenure-track faculty at U.S. universities

People of color are underrepresented in a variety of fields and settings, including in medicine, clinical trials, and the military. This problem also exists in U.S. higher education. In this essay, scholars J. Nathan Matias, Neil Lewis Jr., and Elan Hope show how “Black, Hispanic, American Indian and multiracial faculty members are underrepresented in faculty ranks.” They explain how efforts by universities to diversify their faculty fail to address the structural inequities within higher education that prevent faculty of color from feeling supported and achieving tenure.

J. Nathan Matias, Neil Lewis Jr. and Elan Hope, "Universities Say They Want More Diverse Faculties. So Why Is Academia Still So White?" FiveThirtyEight, 7 September 2021

 

Students as consumers: E. Michele Ramsey on the language of capitalism in higher education

Is college a public good or a consumer good? E. Michele Ramsey asks this question in her May 5, 2020 post on the blog Mere Rhetoric. She critiques the rise of consumer metaphors in higher education, showing how this “language of business” affects students’ and society’s perception of the purpose of college. In the face of the pandemic and the uncertainty of whether college campuses will reopen for the fall, the economic value of a college education is under scrutiny as students seek to ensure they’re getting their money’s worth.

E. Michele Ramsey, "Consumption, COVID-19, and Consequences of Language in Higher Education," Mere Rhetoric: Musings on Communication, Pop Culture, and Politics, 5 May 2020

 

Back on campus: James Hatch on learning from (and with) today’s college students

NOTE: The article referenced by this blog post, James Hatch's "My Semester with the Snowflakes," has been deleted from Medium, the platform where it originally appeared. It is now available on the author's personal website: https://www.spikesk9fund.org/blog/2020/10/31/my-semester-with-the-snowflakes/.

The generational divide is real, captured in “ok, boomer” eyerolls, “Karen” memes, and complaints about those tech-obsessed, lazy millennials. James Hatch is a 52-year-old Navy veteran, a Purple Heart recipient, and a freshman at Yale University. He’s working to bridge the divide in his defense of college students, published in GEN on December 21, 2019.

James Hatch, "My semester with the snowflakes." SPIKESK9FUND, 2019

 

Safety first (or not): Jonathan Zimmerman on ideas that offend

Here’s an idea: we want our classrooms and campuses to be safe spaces for everyone to be able to learn and explore new concepts and information. That shouldn’t be such a controversial statement, should it? Well, that depends. What does “safe” mean? What does "everyone" mean? Jonathan Zimmerman, a professor of the history of education, asserts that college campuses should not be safe spaces, and he explains why in this January 2019 Chronicle of Higher Education essay.

Zimmerman,  “College campuses should not be safe spaces”

Easing the burden: Lamar Alexander on financing a college education

We all know that the price tag for college puts a degree out of reach for many people, and for many others, the debt from student loans is very high. Lamar Alexander, US senator from Tennessee and former Secretary of Education under President George H. W. Bush, has a proposal for easing some of the burden. He lays out his ideas in this February 2019 essay from the New York Times.

Alexander, “Going to college should not be a financial albatross”

More than STEM: Natalie Wexler on forming “citizens of a democracy”

These days it seems that the STEM bandwagon is very full, and why wouldn’t it be, given how important STEM is for employment opportunities and technological advances? Still, there may be areas more important than STEM for the future health of the United States, and education writer Natalie Wexler discusses a few of them in this January 2019 essay from Forbes.

Wexler, “Math and science can’t take priority over history and civics”

 

Top export in trouble: Catherine Rampell on decline of international students in US schools

When you think about exports, the first things you probably think of are agricultural products such as corn and soybeans or manufactured items such as trucks or cigarettes. Did college degrees make your list? Not ours, either. Still, journalist Catherine Rampell, who covers public policy and political issues for the Washington Post, argues in this December 2018 essay that higher education is one of the most important US exports, and what’s more, that it’s in trouble.

Rampell, “One of America’s most successful exports is in trouble”

Not so soft a skill: Matt Reed on career navigation

Smartphones get blamed for a lot of what may be wrong with social interactions these days, including a decline in “soft skills” that some say is the reason why young people are poorly prepared for the labor market. It’s refreshing to read someone who has other ideas about this lack of career readiness and ways to fix it. Community college administrator Matt Reed proposes a change to general education requirements in this October 2018 essay in Inside Higher Education.

Reed, “Career navigation as a Gen Ed”

Who pays the bill: Alia Wong on prestige universities around the world

Prestige universities across the globe share many of the features that account for their excellence—“celebrated faculty, groundbreaking research,” and comfortable, well-maintained facilities. There is a huge difference, however, in the source of funding for these institutions; those in the US are overwhelmingly private schools, while prestige universities in the rest of the world tend to be publicly funded. Alia Wong, education writer for the Atlantic, discusses some of these contrasts in this September 2018 essay.

Wong, “At private colleges, students pay for prestige”