Opinion

If the liberal arts college really is Downton Abbey, as I somewhat facetiously suggested last week, then I think we’re in trouble. It’s been clear all season that despite paying some lip service to progressivism, the series’ ideological commitments are conservative: the preservation of the stately manor is the pre-eminent goal of the family and of the story.

Remember printed sets of encyclopedias? Thick, heavy books enlightening us about everything from aardvarks to zoology while taking up an entire bookshelf or two. As consumers of facts we now have two main online encyclopedias: Wikipedia and Encyclopaedia Britannica online, each offering a distinct value proposition. And there might be some market confusion between them.

I was at a great conference this weekend. Here are some preliminary and fragmented thoughts.

Town and gown. How long we've all heard about the tension between a college or university and the community that surrounds it. As a trope, it's been around for decades -- maybe longer.

Josh Milstein considers the transition from a graduate program to the first job.

Bob Blaisdell explains why his remedial English students so dislike writing in class -- and why he needs to get them comfortable doing so.

Would having more time really make a difference in our productivity? Most of us would say yes – more hours would mean we could get more work done. However, productivity blogger, Scott H. Young, argues that focus rather than time dictates our output. Just turning off the phone, laptop, internet or locking yourself away for hours isn’t enough to maintain your focus.

Almost everyone professes to be for national democracy but democracy is a complex concept with different legitimate views of what it is — and with different legitimate views of what it must include and what is appropriate to nourish it. Should a democratic national political system have democratic universities? There’s not just one common answer.