The Mortarboard

The administrator's source for solutions in higher education.

Why Student-Parents Feel Unwelcome on Campus 09/27/2022

Why Student-Parents Feel Unwelcome on Campus The majority of college students now meet one or more of the characteristics of a nontraditional student, and yet the college experience is still built around the traditional student. Nicole Lynn Lewis of Generation Hope describes the specific challenges that face the millions of college students who are also parents. /episode/index/show/mortarboard/id/24409716

Is Higher Ed Worse Than Enron? 08/30/2022

Is Higher Ed Worse Than Enron? Jason Brennan is the Robert J. and Elizabeth Flanagan Family Professor of Strategy, Economics, Ethics, and Public Policy at the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University. Brennan explains why, in his view, higher education is systematically corrupt in nearly every aspect of its operations. /episode/index/show/mortarboard/id/23942565

Why Do Colleges Offer Remedial Courses Despite Better Options? 08/09/2022

Why Do Colleges Offer Remedial Courses Despite Better Options? Remedial college coursework has survived evidence of ineffectiveness, charges of racial inequity, and legislation that effectively abolishes it. Host Daniel Barwick interviews one of the country's leading experts on remediation, Dr. Katie Hern of the California Acceleration Project. /episode/index/show/mortarboard/id/23763866

Has the Pandemic Changed Students for the Worse? 06/07/2022

Has the Pandemic Changed Students for the Worse? "The End of Burnout" author Jonathan Malesic explains how the pandemic has worsened the habits students need to find success in school. /episode/index/show/mortarboard/id/23326025

To Grade or Not To Grade? "Ungrading" in higher education 05/03/2022

To Grade or Not To Grade? "Ungrading" in higher education Literature professor Elisabeth Gruner and science professor Heather Miceli describe their practice of "ungrading," a feedback tool that has drawn attention and increasing support. /episode/index/show/mortarboard/id/22963325

The Increased Targeting of Scholars 04/05/2022

The Increased Targeting of Scholars Researcher Komi Frey of The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education explains why the last five years have seen a dramatic increase in attempts to censor and punish scholars for expressing their views. /episode/index/show/mortarboard/id/22660334

Is Tech-Ed Fulfilling Its Promise? 03/01/2022

Is Tech-Ed Fulfilling Its Promise? Is tech-ed the future, or a dystopia? Host Daniel Barwick interviews "Ted-Ed's Cassandra" and Hack Education blogger Audrey Watters. /episode/index/show/mortarboard/id/22267352

The End of Preferential Treatment for Elite Colleges? 01/27/2022

The End of Preferential Treatment for Elite Colleges? New York Times Opinion writer Peter Coy explains to host Daniel Barwick why congress gave elite colleges an anti-trust exemption, and the class-action lawsuit that has emerged as a result. /episode/index/show/mortarboard/id/21882143

Why Are College Completion Rates So Low? 11/09/2021

Why Are College Completion Rates So Low? Dr. Yolanda Watson Spiva, CEO of Complete College America, explains to Daniel Barwick how the organization is working to improve startlingly low college completion rates. /episode/index/show/mortarboard/id/21037301

Is Your Campus "Student-Ready"? | Helping students navigate a life, not just a classroom 10/19/2021

Is Your Campus "Student-Ready"? | Helping students navigate a life, not just a classroom Kallie Clark of Temple University's Hope Center for College, Community, and Justice describes research that encourages students to use more of the tools for success that a college offers them. /episode/index/show/mortarboard/id/20832680

The Fight Over Tenure Is Not Really About Tenure 10/01/2021

The Fight Over Tenure Is Not Really About Tenure UNC-Chapel Hill professor Molly Worthen explains to host Daniel Barwick that the resistance to tenure is really a battle over more fundamental forces in higher education. /episode/index/show/mortarboard/id/20644775

How the Pandemic Hit Female Academics the Hardest 09/07/2021

How the Pandemic Hit Female Academics the Hardest Liz McMillen, longtime editor of The Chronicle of Higher Education, explains how a substantial body of evidence suggests that female academics, who were already disproportionately burdened, have been hit especially hard by the pandemic. /episode/index/show/mortarboard/id/20369144

Why Are More Colleges Closing? 08/24/2021

Why Are More Colleges Closing? Host Daniel Barwick interviews Inside Higher Ed's founder and editor Doug Lederman, who explains new data that shows the acceleration in college closings and why that's not always a bad thing. /episode/index/show/mortarboard/id/20215247

The Two Biggest Scams in Higher Education 08/10/2021

The Two Biggest Scams in Higher Education Kevin Carey explains to host Daniel Barwick why some graduate degrees from prestigious universities are among the biggest scams in higher education. /episode/index/show/mortarboard/id/20014112

Should Public College Administrators Be Personally Liable for Their Decisions? 07/27/2021

Should Public College Administrators Be Personally Liable for Their Decisions? Teresa Manning, Policy Director for the National Association of Scholars, argues that the qualified immunity that public college administrators enjoy when making decisions about student constitutional freedoms has resulted in a culture that lacks accountability and has caused taxpayers needless expense. /episode/index/show/mortarboard/id/19919003

Is The University of California Broke? 06/22/2021

Is The University of California Broke? Host Daniel Barwick interviews authors Laura Hamilton and Kelly Nielsen, who argue that California has made decisions about UC that have impoverished campuses in a number of ways, limited access, and created segregation. /episode/index/show/mortarboard/id/19534415

Is Tenure an Illusion? Interview with John Warner 06/01/2021

Is Tenure an Illusion? Interview with John Warner Inside Higher Ed and Chicago Times columnist and author John Warner explains why tenure is at best a sort of guild, and at worst is an illusion. /episode/index/show/mortarboard/id/19290884

Season 4 Begins: Free Community College + Tenure Threatened 05/11/2021

Season 4 Begins: Free Community College + Tenure Threatened The 4th season of the Mortarboard begins with a bang...Dr. Daniel Barwick discusses the recent proposals for free community college, and examines a never-before-used threat to tenure at John Carroll University, in an interview with Inside Higher Ed faculty reporter Colleen Flaherty. /episode/index/show/mortarboard/id/18997106

Is State Funding for Higher Ed Increasing? 03/02/2021

Is State Funding for Higher Ed Increasing? Emma Whitford from Inside Higher Ed describes to host Daniel Barwick how specific states are approaching their higher ed funding for the upcoming year. /episode/index/show/mortarboard/id/18099305

How Colleges are Rushing to Digital Recruiting 02/16/2021

How Colleges are Rushing to Digital Recruiting Join Higher Ed Dive's Jeremy Bauer-Wolf, as he explains how the pandemic and enrollment drops have accelerated college digital recruiting strategies. /episode/index/show/mortarboard/id/17866040

Higher Ed Spends $50B/Year On...Empty Space?? 02/02/2021

Higher Ed Spends $50B/Year On...Empty Space?? According to Lumina Foundation, with enrollment dropping steadily and the majority of costs fixed, colleges and universities are currently spending $50B a year on space, services, and personnel they don't need, says Lumina CFO Brad Kelsheimer. /episode/index/show/mortarboard/id/17687090

Public Colleges and Private Contractors - Interview with Jon Marcus 01/19/2021

Public Colleges and Private Contractors - Interview with Jon Marcus The Hechinger Report researcher Jon Marcus discusses the full extent of the transfer of public money to private contractors in American higher education. /episode/index/show/mortarboard/id/17541242

Student Services in a Post-Pandemic World 01/05/2021

Student Services in a Post-Pandemic World Student services expert Eric Stoller explains that the way colleges serve students has changed quickly during the pandemic and why those changes are just the beginning. /episode/index/show/mortarboard/id/17258732

"An unfortunate trendsetter" in COVID Management 12/22/2020

"An unfortunate trendsetter" in COVID Management UNC-Chapel Hill's history professor Jay Smith talks to host Daniel Barwick about how the university mismanaged its original COVID planning, and then mismanaged its responses to the resulting outbreaks. /episode/index/show/mortarboard/id/17219540

Where Does Online Education Go From Here? 12/08/2020

Where Does Online Education Go From Here? Online education expert Joe Sallustio explains to host Daniel Barwick that the pandemic will only accelerate the demolition of the theoretical, psychological, and practical barriers to online education. /episode/index/show/mortarboard/id/17070668

The Real Purpose of American College 11/24/2020

The Real Purpose of American College Professor and game designer Ian Bogost explains to host Daniel Barwick that worries about the fate of higher ed are misguided, because prominent critics mistake college’s secondary purpose, education, for its primary one, collegiate life. /episode/index/show/mortarboard/id/16826339

Who Gets Into College? Interview with Jeff Selingo 11/10/2020

Who Gets Into College? Interview with Jeff Selingo In this two-guest episode, Dan talks to Nancy Reasland of Cornell College in Mount Vernon, Iowa, about how the college has been so successful fighting the spread of Covid-19, and Jeff Selingo explains how the college admissions process is built to serve the needs of colleges, not students. /episode/index/show/mortarboard/id/16667867

Assessing College Student Challenges During the Pandemic 10/27/2020

Assessing College Student Challenges During the Pandemic Eddy Conroy of Temple University's Hope Center explains how the Center collects data about the plight of students both prior to and during the pandemic, and offers next steps for helping students meet the challenges they face. /episode/index/show/mortarboard/id/16539971

Should Higher Ed Blame Students for Covid Results? Interview with a Specialist 10/06/2020

Should Higher Ed Blame Students for Covid Results? Interview with a Specialist Higher education requires students to sign COVID-19 waivers, behavior codes, and pledges, and then expels them when they break the rules. Behavioral specialist Jennifer Howell of the University of California - Merced explains why the push to blame students ignores context and best practices. /episode/index/show/mortarboard/id/16283762

The Cannibalization of College: Interview with Dr. Mitch Lingo 09/15/2020

The Cannibalization of College: Interview with Dr. Mitch Lingo Researcher Dr. Mitch Lingo explains to host Dr. Daniel Barwick how colleges, college towns, and even students are all cannibalizing themselves in responding to the coronavirus. /episode/index/show/mortarboard/id/15963176

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