From State of Nature, a special issue on academia. Mark Auslander (Brandeis): The Other Side of Paradise: Glimpsing Slavery in the University's Utopian Landscapes. From Eurozine, a special section on the bonfire of the universities: University strikes in 2009/10 coincide with the ten-year anniversary of the Bologna process, a debate enflaming (not only) Europe. For University of Alberta’s Indira Samarasekera, running a university is an exercise in high-stakes risk management. Zaytuna College's motto is, "Where Islam meets America" — it's the first Muslim college in the United States. A GAO study finds 15 for-profit colleges used deceptive recruiting tactics. From Business Week, a look at the pros and cons of B-School. Simon Balto writes in defense of ethnic studies and American history. From The Chronicle, Richard Vedder writes in defense of college rankings. From The Consumerist, here are 5 reasons why every single college ranking is a pile of crap. The Washington Monthly College Guide and Rankings, unlike U.S. News and World Report and similar guides, asks not what colleges can do for you, but what colleges are doing for the country. Kevin Carey on the case for building new public universities. From Dissent, Jeffrey Williams on universities and the perils of philanthropy. An academic Rip Van Winkle: David Hiscoe returned to academe after more than 20 years in the corporate world and found that what had driven him away has only become worse. "We have decided not to die": Focusing on California and the subprime model of state education, Marina Vishmidt interviews people who have practical and analytic experience of the university occupations movement. Never mind Tolstoy: "This is kind of our protest to say that we're in charge of our sexuality", says one campus sex columnist.
