Early in this century a good friend, that rarity of a professor who in neither boring nor leftist, took his daughter on the summer college tour, looking for the right place for her to spend the next four years. One…

On it goes, the puzzling, never quite resolved distemper in colleges and universities. Tantrums, threats, hoaxes, hurt feelings, and demands have been on parade this dismal academic year. Still, many school observers, liberal and conservative, have trouble figuring out what…

Washington Looking back through the years I have seen it all coming: the militant ignorance strutting across our college campuses today, the authoritarian style of the administrators, the mediocrity of the profs, the sheer goofiness of the students. It all…

“Declare your interest” is the conventional British instruction to writers writing on subjects close to their hearts. So: I taught at Baylor University for five years as a Radford distinguished professor of journalism. Loved the place. Loved the people. Still…

Why has it become toxic? This is the season of college Commencement speeches — an art form that has seldom been memorable, but has increasingly become toxic in recent times. Two themes seem to dominate Commencement speeches. One is shameless…