Three Words: Cal Poly Sacramento

Don’t Build a Money-Pit Arena For the Second-Rate Kings. Make an Investment That Will Transform (and Maybe Save) California’s Capital City.

We Californians need to help Sacramento.

Before you start hyperventilating, I’m not talking about our state government. I’m talking about the city and county, the capital region. With little notice or comment, this Sacramento has become one of the most economically distressed places in California. The housing bust and all those state budget cuts hammered employment in the capital region; homelessness is up, and there are fewer jobs now than there were a decade ago. Empty retail corridors in once-growing suburbs like Rocklin and Natomas are some of the bleakest places …

My Time as a Damn Average Raiser at UCLA

College Looked Out of Reach When I Withdrew in 1948. Returning Altered the Course of My Life.

John Burke and I, Class of 1948 graduates of Mt. Carmel High School, and new UCLA students, sat quietly, bewildered, on the lawn of the quad eating our brown bag …

Here’s How Janet Napolitano Rescues the University of California

First, Debunk the Nonsense. Second, Unleash the Pol.

Janet Napolitano, who officially takes over as president of the University of California this week, has experience as Arizona attorney general, as Arizona governor, and most recently as U.S. Department …

The Humanities Aren’t As Dead As You Think

But They Need to Integrate With Other Disciplines to Prosper in an Era of More Students and More Majors

What’s happened to the humanities—once the center, and now the wallflower, of American higher education? The subject of their decline and fall has become a familiar lament. As New York …

The Undergraduate Education That Drags On and On and On

You Can Enroll at California State University. But When Can You Graduate?

How long should it take a good student to earn a four-year college degree? The answer once seemed obvious to me: four years. But that was until I started teaching …

Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad MOOCs?

Online Education May Threaten the Academy’s Livelihood

Is technology about to transform higher education, much as it has retailing and media? Silicon Valley and universities of all types are excitedly and warily assessing the potential and perils …