Earl Shorris, A Weapon in the Hands of the Restless Poor. Harper's Magazine, Sep 1997.  about providing literature and philosophy classes to low-income students in NYC.

Thomas Albert Howard, Protestant Theology and the Making of the Modern Germany University.  Oxford University Press | Amazon page, 2006.  (pdf book)  “In shaping the modern academy and in setting the agenda of modern Christian theology, few institutions have been as influential as the German universities of the nineteenth century. This book examines the rise of the modern German university from the standpoint of the Protestant theological faculty, focusing especially on the University of Berlin (1810), Prussia's flagship university in the nineteenth century. In contradistinction to historians of modern higher education who often overlook theology, and to theologians who are frequently inattentive to the social and institutional contexts of religious thought, Thomas Albert Howard argues that modern university development and the trajectory of modern Protestant theology in Germany should be understood as interrelated phenomena.”

Rachel Alexander, Suspicions Confirmed: Academia Shutting Out Conservative Professors. Town Hall, Jun 10, 2013.

Gregg Henriques, The College Student Mental Health Crisis. Psychology Today, Feb 15, 2014.

Miroslav Volf, Lower Education: Why Universities Must Not Ignore the Meaning of Life. ABC News, Apr 14, 2015.

Dave Levinthal, Koch Foundation Proposal to College: Teach Our Curriculum, Get Millions. Center for Public Integrity, Sep 12, 2014.

Emily Yoffe, The Campus Rape Overcorrection. Slate, Dec 7, 2014.

Beth McMurtrie, Why Colleges Haven't Stopped Binge Drinking. New York Times, Dec 14, 2014.

Samuel Goldman, Can America Learn from German Universities? The American Conservative, Jun 17, 2015.

Michael Lewis, Harvard Admissions Needs "Moneyball for Life". New York Times, Jun 20, 2015.

The Onion, Parents Dedicate New College Safe Space In Honor Of Daughter Who Felt Weird In Class Once. The Onion, Jul 15, 2015.

Julie Scelfo, Campus Suicide and the Pressure of Perfection. New York Times, Jul 27, 2015.

Veruska Cantelli and Flavio Rizzo, The New Paladins of the Humanities. Warscapes, Jul 28, 2015.

Ray Williams, The Cult of Ignorance in the United States: Anti-Intellectualism and the Dumbing Down of America. Psychology Today, Jul 7, 2014.

Michael Lind, Let's Abolish Social Science. The Smart Set from Drexel University, Aug 25, 2015.

Lindsay Bever, The Shocking Racial Epithet Hurled at USC's Student Body President. Washington Post, Sep 21, 2015.

Peter Gray, Declining Student Resilience: A Serious Problem for Colleges. Psychology Today, Sep 22, 2015.  about student neediness

Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt, The Coddling of the American Mind. The Atlantic, Sep 2015.  about students demanding protection from words and ideas they don't like

David Brooks, The Big University. New York Times, Oct 6, 2015.

R. Owen Williams, The Danger of Erasing Yale's Confederate Ties. The Atlantic, Oct 7, 2015.

Viviana Maymi, Here's How I Was Raped. Harvard Crimson, Oct 8, 2015.

Christina Cauterucci, Georgetown Students Want Their School to Pay a Novel Form of Reparations. Slate, Nov 13, 2015.

Ross Douthat, A Crisis Our Universities Deserve. New York Times, Nov 14, 2015.

Conor Friedersdorf, Brown University's $100 Million Inclusivity Plan. The Atlantic, Nov 24, 2015.

Susan Svrluga, College President: "This is Not a Day Care.  This is a University!". Washington Post, Nov 30, 2015.

Due Quach, Poor and Traumatized at Harvard. Medium, Jan 2, 2015.

Robert Frodeman & Adam Briggle, When Philosophy Lost Its Way. New York Times, Jan 11, 2016.

Kevin Carey, Academic Freedom Has Limits.  Where They Are Isn't Always Clear. Chronicle of Higher Education, Jan 15, 2016.

Robert Tracy McKenzie, Academic Freedom in a Christian Context. blog, Jan 18, 2016.

Catherine Rampell, Liberal Intolerance is on the Rise on America's College Campuses. Washington Post, Feb 11, 2016.

Jon A. Shields and Joshua M. Dunn, Sr., Forget What the Right Says: Academia Isn't So Bad for Conservative Professors. Washington Post, Mar 11, 2016.

Jonathan A. Cole, The Chilling Effect of Fear at America's Colleges. The Atlantic, Jun 9, 2016.

Peter Lawler, Higher Education as American Counterculture. The Imaginative Conservative, Aug 2016.  a bit rambling to arrive at a mostly Catholic, liberal arts perspective

Roger Kimball, The College Formerly Known as Yale. Wall Street Journal, Aug 8, 2016.  about Yale being a prolific slave trader

Mia Hall, Vanderbilt Returns Donation, Axes 'Confederate' From Residence Hall Name. NBC News, Aug 16, 2016.

Adam Grant, Why We Should Stop Grading Students on a Curve. New York Times, Sep 10, 2016.

Benjamin Sweetwood, I Was Reported For Gender Misconduct For Calling Myself Handsome in Class. The Tab, Oct 1, 2016.

Jonathan Haidt, Two Incompatible Sacred Values in American Universities. Duke University, Oct 15, 2016.  60 minute lecture

Stephanie Saul, The Conservative Force Behind Speeches Roiling College Campuses. New York Times, May 20, 2017.

Ashley Finigan, A Case for Reparations at the University of Chicago. Black Perspectives, May 22, 2017.

Derek Thompson, This is the Way the College Bubble Ends. The Atlantic, Jul 26, 2017.

David A. Graham, Why the Justice Department Is Targeting Affirmative Action. The Atlantic, Aug 2, 2017.  comparison to GWBush's DOJ

Andrew Prokop, As Trump Takes Aim at Affirmative Action, Let's Remember How Jared Kushner Got Into Harvard. Vox, Aug 2, 2017.

Vivian Yee, Affirmative Action Policies Evolve, Achieving Their Own Diversity. New York Times, Aug 5, 2017.

Barbara Marcolini and Chris Cirillo, The History of Affirmative Action. New York Times, Aug 5, 2017.

Carol Anderson, The Policies of White Resentment. New York Times, Aug 5, 2017.

Daniel Golden, Who’s Taking College Spots From Top Asian Americans? Privileged Whites. ProPublica, Aug 9, 2017.

Jeremy Ashkenas, Haeyoun Park, and Adam Pearce, Even With Affirmative Action, Blacks and Hispanics Are More Underrepresented at Top Colleges Than 35 Years Ago. New York Times, Aug 24, 2017

Bryan W. Van Norden, Western Philosophy is Racist. Aeon, Oct 31, 2017.

Sophie Khan and Huixian Li, Stop Pointing to Asian Americans to Downplay Racism at Universities. The Hill, Dec 8, 2017.

Ozan Jaquette and Karina Salazar, Colleges Recruit at Richer, Whiter High Schools. New York Times, Apr 13, 2018.

Ashley Gross and Jon Marcus, High-Paying Trade Jobs Sit Empty, While High School Grads Line Up For University. NPR, Apr 25, 2018.

Adam Harris, The University of California Stands Out Among Top Schools When It Comes to Serving Poor Students. The Atlantic, May 1, 2018.

Trevor Noah, Fraudulent For-Profit Schools Make a Comeback Under Betsy DeVos. The Daily Show, May 16, 2018.  and The Young Turks, Betsy DeVos Caught Getting Rich from Fraud. The Young Turks, May 15, 2018.

Adam Harris, Here's How Higher Education Dies. The Atlantic, Jun 5, 2018.

Nick Surgey, Zaid Jilani, The Koch Brothers Commissioned a Survey of Americans and Found Most Like a $15 Minimum Wage, Free College, and Universal Health Care. The Intercept, Aug 9, 2018.

Renee Graham, The When It's OK to Be Black - Just Not Too Black. Boston Globe, Sep 14, 2018.  colleges less likely to admit black students who express interest in racial justice

Amanda Ripley, The Why Is College in America So Expensive? The Atlantic, Oct 2018.  extras, secondary non-teaching staff, unregulation

Ross Douthat, The Meritocracy Against Itself. New York Times, Oct 3, 2018.  re: elite Ivy League students protesting Kavanaugh

Conor Friedersdorf, Everyone Wants the Supreme Court to Thwart Democratic Majorities. The Atlantic, Oct 8, 2018.  also notes that 70% of people want college admissions to be a "true meritocracy" and race-blind

Alia Wong, Elite-College Admissions Are Broken. The Atlantic, Oct 14, 2018.

Saahil Desai, College Sports Are Affirmative Action for Rich White Students. The Atlantic, Oct 23, 2018.

Alia Wong, The App at the Heart of the Movement to End Affirmative Action. The Atlantic, Nov 20, 2018.

Derek Thompson, Does It Matter Where You Go to College? The Atlantic, Dec 11, 2018.  "Research suggests that elite colleges don’t really help rich white guys. But they can have a big effect if you’re not rich, not white, or not a guy."

Colleen Flaherty, Q&A Goes Horribly Wrong. Inside Higher Ed, Jan 7, 2019.  re: the field of classics

Daniel A. Gross, How Elite US Schools Give Preference to Wealthy and White 'Legacy' Applicants. The Guardian, Jan 23, 2019.

Bill Chappell and Merrit Kennedy, U.S. Accuses Actresses, Others Of Fraud In Massive College Admissions Scandal. NPR, Mar 12, 2019.

Annika Neklason, Elite-College Admissions Were Built to Protect Privilege. The Atlantic, Mar 18, 2019.  "Even as selective schools opened their doors to a wider array of applicants in the early 20th century, they put policies in place to maintain the advantages of wealthy white students."

Jodi S. Cohen and Melissa Sanchez, Parents Are Giving Up Custody of Their Kids to Get Need-Based College Financial Aid. ProPublica, Jul 29, 2019.  “First, parents turn over guardianship of their teenagers to a friend or relative. Then the student declares financial independence to qualify for tuition aid and scholarships.”

David Kirp, The College Dropout Scandal. Oxford University Press | Amazon page, Aug 1, 2019.  and interview by John Iadarola, US Colleges Face Major Dropout Scandal. The Damage Report, Aug 18, 2019.

Reihan Salam, Why Conservatives Are Turning Against Higher Education. The Atlantic, Aug 20, 2019.  “College isn’t providing an effective engine of upward mobility for most Americans.”

Joe Pinsker, The Price of Ascending America’s Class Ladder. The Atlantic, Sep 16, 2019.  “Being upwardly mobile can come at a cost to people’s relationships with the family, friends, and community they grew up with.”

Daniella Silva, Study on Harvard Finds 43 Percent of White Students Are Legacy, Athletes, Related to Donors or Staff. NBC News, Sep 30, 2019.  “The number drops dramatically for black, Latino and Asian American students with less than 16 percent each coming from those categories, the study said.”

Derek Thompson, The Cult of Rich-Kid Sports. The Atlantic, Oct 2, 2019.  “A new paper provides stark evidence that Harvard gives preferential treatment to affluent white applicants through legacy preferences and sports recruitment.” See the underlying study by Peter Arcidiacono, Josh Kinsler, and Tyler Ransom, Legacy and Athlete Preferences at Harvard. Duke University, Sep 11, 2019.  “Using publicly released reports, we examine the preferences Harvard gives for recruited athletes, legacies, those on the dean’s interest list, and children of faculty and staff (ALDCs). Among white admits, over 43% are ALDC. Among admits who are African American, Asian American, and Hispanic, the share is less than 16% each. Our model of admissions shows that roughly three quarters of white ALDC admits would have been rejected if they had been treated as white non-ALDCs.”

PBS News Hour, This College Lowered Tuition Due to the Pandemic — and Plans Not to Raise It Again. PBS News Hour, Aug 4, 2020.  Southern New Hampshire Univ lowered tuition from 32k to 10k

Georgetown University, The Dollars and Cents of Free College. Georgetown University, Oct 14, 2020.  and summary by Abigail Hess, Georgetown University Report Finds Joe Biden’s Free Public College Plan Would Pay Off Within 10 Years. CNBC News, Oct 14, 2020.  “Researchers estimate that Biden’s college plan would cost $49.6 billion (roughly $8.6 billion less than it would cost if the plan did not have the $125,000 income limit) during the first year and that the benefits of the plan would outweigh the costs due to an increase in earnings and tax revenue within 10 years. The team at Georgetown estimates that after 11 years, the Biden initiative would cost $73 billion per year, but would be completely offset by the associated increase in tax revenue to a whopping $186.8 billion as workers earn more due to their advanced education and training.”

Ruth Shalit Barrett, The Mad, Mad World of Niche Sports Among Ivy League–Obsessed Parents. The Atlantic, Nov 2020.  “Where the desperation of late-stage meritocracy is so strong, you can smell it”

Cory Turner, How Education Secretary Betsy DeVos Will Be Remembered. NPR, Nov 19, 2020.  revising Title IX sexual assault allegation processes; borrower defense and student loans; school choice (charter and voucher)

Jessica Guynn, Donald Trump Executive Order Banning Diversity Training Blocked by Federal Judge. USA Today, Dec 23, 2020.

Davarian Baldwin, In the Shadow of the Ivory Tower: How Universities Are Plundering Our Cities.  Bold Type Books, Mar 2021.  See interview by Christine Amanpour, How Ivy Leagues Are "Plundering Our Cities" - Davarian Baldwin Explains. Amanpour and Company, Apr 27, 2021.  See also Davarian Baldwin, The Rise of the UniverCity.  Jacobin Magazine, Sep 2, 2021.  

Sam Haselby and Matt Stoller, It’s Time to Break Up the Ivy League Cartel. Chronicle of Higher Education, May 28, 2021.  “Democracy requires something more than a handful of super-rich universities.”

Ryan Grim and Emily Jashinsky, Matt Stoller: It’s Time To Break Up The Ivy League Cartel. Rising | The Hill, Jun 11, 2021.  on the problem with endowments and power; the struggles of lower to middle tier colleges; the comparison between the Ivy Leagues with the great land-grant universities that were the result of Reconstruction

Chris Hayes, ‘Outrageous Use Of State Power’: GOP Fears College Educated Voters. All In | MSNBC, Jun 23, 2021.  re: Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and other GOP leaders are nervous about conservative ideology being unable to stand up to left-leaning colleges. People with higher levels of education are more liberal. Important links as resources. See also Chris Hayes, DeSantis Vows To Defund Colleges For Being Too Liberal. All In | MSNBC, Jun 23, 2021.  because of Critical Race Theory. “An intellectually impotent ideology and party—when it cannot win, it will cheat,” says Tressie McMillan Cottom on the GOP making it harder to learn and harder to vote instead of trying to sway voters. Brett Bachman, DeSantis Signs Bill Requiring Florida Students, Professors to Register Political Views with State. Salon, Jun 23, 2021.

Derek Robertson, It’s the University of Austin Against Everyone — Including Itself. Politico, Nov 17, 2021.  “The discord in and around the launch of a new, free-thinking university reveals the power of intellectual “independence” — and just how hard it is to credibly claim.

Saagar Enjeti, Class Divide Grows as Non-White Voters Flee Dems.  Breaking Point, Jul 14, 2022.  Cultural leftism is statistically driven by college education.

Frederick V. Engram and Kathleen Meyer, Ya'll Don't Hate White Supremacy Enough for Me: How Performative DEI Prevents Anti-Racism and Accountability in Higher Education. The Vermont Connection, Apr 2023.

“Many institutions of higher learning and more specically predominately white institutions (PWIs) have created divisions, teams, and administrative roles aimed at transforming problematic and racism-centered institutions. However, the teams and leaders almost never have true autonomy or institutional support in creating an environment not centered in whiteness or white feelings but one centered in disruption of the status quo and truly anti-racist. As scholars and practitioners, we nd ourselves being requested to tailor our talks or teaching in a way that is digestible for white people. Meanwhile, students of color are being berated at athletic events, in their classes, and on social media by the same individuals we are asked to spare. In order for higher education to truly meet the moment we have to de-center whiteness, white feelings, and white mediocrity as a starting point. We have to consider the more marginalized and how we must better be of service to them.”

Krystal Ball and Saagar Enjeti, Harvard Investigated For Favoring Rich. Breaking Points, Jul 29, 2023. Rich applicants make up 5% of all applications, but 30% of all acceptances. Of that, 67% are white.

Irene Loewenson, West Point and the Naval Academy Can Keep Affirmative Action - For Now.  Military Times, Jan 8, 2024. “The lawsuits against the academies came a few months after the Supreme Court declared it was unconstitutional for civilian universities to provide a boost to applicants on the basis of their race. In that landmark decision, the court stopped short of banning affirmative action in the service academies, citing their “potentially distinct interests.””

The Wall Street Journal, Former College President Explains the Funding Strategies Behind Universities. Wall Street Journal, Apr 29, 2024. Funding sources and models, the coming population decline, and possibilities.

Natasha Lennard, University Professors Are Losing Their Jobs Over “New McCarthyism” on Gaza. The Intercept, May 16, 2024. As brutal police repression sweeps campus encampments, schools have been cutting ties with pro-Palestine faculty members without tenure. “Many scholars committed to Palestinian liberation can no longer do their jobs. That’s because many of the professors most supportive of Palestine don’t have jobs anymore. This is nowhere truer than in the Gaza Strip — where all 12 universities have been reduced to rubble, and more than 90 professors have been reported killed during Israel’s assault on the territory. The gravity of what United Nations experts warn could amount to U.S.-backed “scholasticide” has no equivalent on American soil.”

Zachary Schermele, California Bans Legacy Preferences in College Admissions. It’s a Growing Trend. USA Today, Sep 30, 2024. “The law, signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, makes California the second state – after Maryland – to ban legacy admissions at private colleges, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Colorado, Virginia and Illinois prohibit the practice at public schools. Maryland’s ban, which Gov. Wes Moore signed in April, applies to both public and private schools… Critics say the longstanding process at many campuses unfairly favors white and wealthier applicants. The trend was prompted in part by the Supreme Court’s decision striking down race-conscious admissions, which has already coincided with declines in enrollment of marginalized students at a number of affluent schools… Driven by a backlash to the Republican-majority court ruling prohibiting race-conscious admissions, the efforts have been mostly concentrated in more liberal states (though surveys show eliminating legacy preferences has bipartisan support)… The “Fair College Admissions Act,” which is moving through New York's legislature, would prevent both public and private colleges and universities from giving children of alumni preferential admissions treatment. Schools in violation of the proposed law would face fines, according to the bill's text.  A similar measure is being considered in Massachusetts and was last referred to a legislative committee in April.”

Stephanie Saul, Suit Accuses Georgetown, Penn and M.I.T. of Admissions Based on Wealth. New York Times, Dec 17, 2024. The schools were accused of giving special treatment to wealthy students who might not otherwise have been admitted. See discussion by Krystal Ball and Saagar Enjeti, Lawsuit Exposes Wealthy Affirmative Action At Colleges. Breaking Points, Dec 19, 2024. Krystal points out that as of 2022, the median wealth for White families is $285k, and for Black families is $45k. Also, wealth concentration is skewed in each racial group, which needs to be addressed.

Ari Melber, See Trump Stumble with 'Nepo Baby' Hires as Facts Shred His Diversity Attacks: Melber Breakdown. The Beat | MSNBC, Feb 19, 2025. “In this special report, MSNBC anchor and attorney Ari Melber reports on the data on gender and racial diversity across U.S. institutions, providing a factual and historical lens for recent attacks on diversity programs and recruitment -- which are often heated and sometimes misleading. The report rigorously compares asserted claims about qualifications and merit by some critics of "DEI" programs with Trump's hiring approach in his second term. Melber also discusses legitimate, long running debates about affirmative action policy to misleading claims about the facts on diverse representation in Congress and top corporations, and efforts to misuse the policy debate for political ends or to stoke racial division.”

Ryan D. Enos and Steven Levitsky, First They Came for Columbia. The Crimson, Mar 14, 2025.

“So far, America’s leading universities have remained virtually silent in the face of this authoritarian assault on institutions of higher education. That must change. Harvard must stand up, speak out, and lead a public defense of our freedom to speak and study freely.

Autocrats — both left-wing and right-wing — always attack universities. The public rationale varies. Some, like Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua and Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Turkey, reportedly accuse universities or students of supporting terrorism; others, like pro-government outlets in Viktor Orban’s Hungary, accuse them of working for foreign interests; still others, like Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador in Mexico, accused universities of supporting “neoliberalism” and corruption.

But these are pretexts. Universities are independent centers of ideas and often prominent centers of dissent. Autocrats are allergic to sources of dissent, so they almost invariably seek to silence, weaken, or control them.

The Trump administration is no different. Its claim to be fighting campus antisemitism rings as hollow as Ortega’s reported claim to be fighting terrorism in Nicaragua’s leading Jesuit-run university. The administration has weaponized the fight against antisemitism as a means to another end: punishing and weakening universities.”

Max, Trump Crisis Erupts As It All Unravels Fast. UNFTR | Meidas Touch, Aug 7, 2025.

“The New York Fed just released new Household Debt figures and they are a disaster. Households are facing historic levels of debt across every sector from mortgages and HELOCs to credit cards and auto loans. But student debt has gone past the tipping point with delinquencies and defaults steadily increasing to unsustainable levels. The crisis is boiling over into the real economy as the Trump administration rips away social safety nets and destroys the labor market. In this video, Max from ‪@UNFTR‬ breaks it all down, the impact of the student debt crisis, what future administrations must do to restore balance.”

Monica Potts, Trump’s War on Higher Ed Is an Attack on Women. The New Republic, Feb 3, 2026.

“In 2024, The Heritage Foundation, the conservative think tank responsible for Project 2025 and so many guiding principles for President Donald Trump’s second term, published a white paper bemoaning the low birth rate among married women in the United States. It blamed a surprising culprit: higher education and federal policies that support students, such as subsidized loans. “If the government provides excessively generous subsidies for higher education, women and men are being artificially pushed away from work and into more years in school because they do not want to leave those tax dollars on the table,” argued the paper’s authors, Jay Greene and Lindsey Burke. Pursuing college meant that young people delayed marriage and starting a family, and, for women especially, that meant a decrease in fertility overall.”

The white paper’s solution was simple: trash federal support for higher education. “Policy changes can help to stem the tide of declining fertility rates by ending governmental inducements to delay entry into the workforce,” it proposed. No longer would people be “staying in school longer, getting trapped with debt, and postponing family formation.”