Faculty

A Professor Brought His Guns to Protect Protesters at White-Supremacist Rallies. Then His Troubles Started.

Dwayne Dixon’s unusual politics have helped build bridges between the right and the left. But in the fallout from Charlottesville, he’s found himself standing alone.

Leadership & Governance

USC President Steps Down Over Sexual-Misconduct Scandal Involving Gynecologist

C. L. Max Nikias, president of the University of Southern California, will step down, the institution announced on Friday.

Admissions & Student Aid

This Nepali Teenager Sees His Future Vanishing. Can an American University Save Him?

After losing their full scholarships at the U. of Texas at Tyler, dozens of students from Nepal have scrambled to find other colleges. Here’s how one young man has fared.

Leadership

College Chiefs Spare You the Terrible Details of Campus Crises. We Won't.

Presidents, current and former, tell their sides of difficult stories and settle some scores in a new book. But they often leave out the juiciest parts.

Faculty

U. of Kentucky Moves to Fire Tenured Professor for Telling Students to Buy His Book

A journalism professor stole university property and sold it for personal gain, the institution says. The faculty member, Buck Ryan, has denied all the claims.

Research

What's With the Home-Run Boom? Major League Baseball Asked This Professor to Find Out

Alan Nathan, a physicist at the University of Illinois and a Red Sox fan, shares what he and his colleagues discovered by looking at baseballs in a whole new way.

The Daily Briefing

The Daily Briefing tells individual subscribers everything they need to know about higher ed. Here’s a sample.

Commentary

What’s Wrong With Being From the South? Just Ask an Academic in the North

The stereotype of the Southerner — the rube, the redneck, the bigot — pervades elite colleges and hinders the important work of bridging a growing cultural divide.

Advice

When Do You Stop Being an Early-Career Scholar?

To reach tenure, you must survive the pressures of life as an advanced assistant professor.

Lingua Franca

Amazon’s Alexa: Not Yet as Smart as a 5-Year-Old Child

Geoff Pullum says natural-language processing is not ready for prime time, much less Amazon Prime.