Opinion

Some movies don’t impress me much in the moment I’m watching them, but age well in the recollection. (“Fargo” was like that.) They typically have more going on than meets the eye, and the first impression doesn’t do them justice. The CASE conference was like that for me. I enjoyed the conference, but one lesson from it has stubbornly stuck in my mind ever since. I don’t think I fully appreciated it in the moment.

If I ran an edtech company the first thing that I'd do is move all of our infrastructure to Amazon's Web Services (AWS).

I’m just back from my last “family weekend” ever at my daughter’s college. I can’t recall my parents ever attending one of these weekends while I was in college — nor can I remember wanting them to — but my husband and I have alternated trips up to my daughter’s campus every year. Part of the reason is that we simply like Boston; part of it is that she’s in an a cappella group that always performs that weekend; part of it is of course our pleasure in seeing her in her other context.

Quantity without quality, particularly in the context of higher education, is simply meaningless and wasteful—perhaps dangerous. The ongoing phenomenon of mergers and consolidations taking place in South Africa, as controversial as it may be, has some lessons for Africa in an expansion mode.

I spent last week getting to, attending, and then getting back from this year's AASHE conference in Los Angeles. As I headed west, I had planned to post pretty much every day, giving my reactions to things I'd experienced at the conference. But as reality overcame expectation, I found I didn't really have anything to say on a daily basis. Indeed, it took me a while to form an opinion on the conference which -- like all conferences everywhere, it seems -- offered some interesting moments within a generally unremarkable context.

Every time I see the acronym MOOC, I find myself filled with some combination of excitement and apprehension.

Richard D. Kahlenberg questions the rationale for the University of Texas defense of affirmative action.

H. William Rice considers why some good candidates don't connect with those interviewing them, and how to improve your chances of impressing the search committee.