Higher Ed Now

On Constitution Day, ACTA co-sponsored Civic Engagement for All – a virtual event with the Office of Engaged Learning at Baylor University. Moderated by Professor David Corey, the director of Baylor in Washington, a panel of prominent Baylor alumni and senior leaders discussed how students can envision a more robust approach to civic engagement, and why doing so is essential to the health of our communities and our country. Higher Ed Now is pleased to share excerpts of the panel discussion. 

Jeremy Wayne Tate founded Classic Learning Initiatives in 2015 to provide high school students with alternative standardized tests that are rooted in tradition while taking advantage of modern technologies. Featuring passages from great works across a variety of disciplines, the Classical Learning Test (CLT) suite of assessments provides an accurate and rigorous measure of reasoning, aptitude, and academic formation for students from diverse educational backgrounds. Mr. Tate explores the underpinnings of the CLT with ACTA's president, Michael Poliakoff.

Abigail Thompson, Distinguished Professor of Mathematics at the University of California-Davis, drew national attention in December 2019 with her Wall Street Journal op-ed titled “The University’s New Loyalty Oath.” Her bold challenge to the University of California’s use of diversity statements in faculty hiring inspired ACTA to honor her with a Hero of Intellectual Freedom Award. Professor Thompson argued that the rubric for assessing applicants’ diversity statements was not ideologically neutral, and that the hiring process constituted a possible infringement of academic freedom, as well as a threat to intellectual diversity. In this episode, she explores the topic with ACTA's president, Michael Poliakoff.  

For acclaimed sports journalist Sally Jenkins of The Washington Post, the Covid-19 pandemic has blown the lid off excessive spending in college athletics and brought higher education to a reckoning point. She sat down with ACTA's Doug Sprei and Armand Alacbay for a probing conversation a few days after publication of her scathing article, College sports embraced reckless greed. With the Coronavirus crisis, the bill has come due.

Drawing on over thirty years of experience in philanthropy, Joanne Florino has authored the new the guidebook, Protecting Your Legacy: A Wise Giver’s Guide to Honoring and Preserving Donor Intent. She sits down with Emily Koons Jae, the director of ACTA’s Fund for Academic Renewal, to explore what donors to colleges and universities can learn from this new guide; and they cover important trends in higher education philanthropy as well.

John Katzman's trajectory as a groundbreaking educational entrepreneur has included founding The Princeton Review, the online learning company 2U and, most recently, The Noodle Companies, where he serves as CEO. For many years he has been dedicated to making the tools of education ever more innovative, connective, accessible, and effective. He joined ACTA's president, Michael Poliakoff, for a wide-ranging conversation on Zoom.

In loco parentis is the theory that colleges can, and ought to, act “in the place of a parent” with regard to their students. How has this philosophy guided the formation of the modern university, and how has the concept changed since its inception in the early 20th century? Christopher P. Loss, professor of history, public policy, and higher education at Vanderbilt University, joins ACTA’s Erik Gross for a deep dive into one of the pivotal guiding philosophies in American higher education.

Pine Manor College, a small liberal arts school in Massachusetts, has responded to the intense financial and operational pressures of the COVID-19 pandemic in a unique way:  by partnering with nearby Boston College to become the Pine Manor Institute for Student Success. Peter Alcock, a Pine Manor trustee who has been a key driver of positioning PMC for this initiative, sat down with ACTA’s Armand Alacbay to share lessons learned that could prove instructive for many other institutions around the country.  

Stephen Joel Trachtenberg, President Emeritus of The George Washington University, rejoins the podcast to explore higher education's response to the current national crisis around instances of police brutality and the protests against systemic racism. ACTA's president, Michael Poliakoff, kicks off the conversation.

Michael Poliakoff speaks with former U.S. Senator, Representative, and college president emeritus Hank Brown about immediate steps that colleges and universities must take in meeting the financial and operational crisis they are facing from the COVID 19 pandemic.