Legal

Security Costs Loom Larger in Campus Free-Speech Fights. A Lawsuit Shows Why.

The University of Washington’s College Republicans are contesting a decision to charge them $17,000 for a campus rally featuring a controversial right-wing speaker. Such battles are spreading to campuses nationwide.

Government

DeVos’s Education Dept. Relaxed Rules for For-Profits Under Accreditor That Closed

A letter obtained by The Chronicle suggests that the department offered “flexibility” to colleges that were left without an accreditor after the Obama administration stripped the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools of its recognition.

The Chronicle Interview

What’s Wrong With Writing Centers

They are set up to help privileged students, and that’s not who comes, or needs them, argues Temple University’s Lori Salem, a maverick writing-center director.

Foundations

A Poet Takes the Helm of the Mellon Foundation

Elizabeth Alexander, an academic and poet, is the new leader of one of the most prominent donors to the arts and humanities in higher education.

The Must Reads for 2018

Want to get a jump-start on the year ahead? Here’s a collection of Chronicle articles and essays picked by the editors to help college leaders gain insight into the trends and controversies likely to affect campuses in 2018. Purchase a copy here.

The Chronicle Review

Shamelessness and Hypocrisy at the MLA

These days the rhetoric of the meeting and of universities is aimed at getting Ph.D. students out of the professoriate.

Pedagogy Unbound

Still Learning the Lessons of the ’60s

How the stubborn inertia of educational institutions killed off a successful teaching strategy.

Lingua Franca

Utter Nonsense in the News

Geoff Pullum is horrified by how willing journalists are to represent any kind of signaling or signifying as “language.”