Fifteen protesters have a breakthrough night in North Carolina’s long-running budget battles. Originally published in The American Prospect. BRYAN PROFFIT KNOCKED ON the door of North Carolina Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger’s office. It was locked and no one responded, which seemed odd considering that the Senate was about to open its Monday night […]
Moral Monday Movement Gears Up for Round 2
As the North Carolina state legislature reopens on May 14 with no ideological reversal in sight, the Monday takeovers of the rotunda will resume. So, likely, will the arrests. Originally published in The American Prospect. ON WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON, THE NORTH CAROLINA legislature will open its 2014 session. It will be hard for the Republican majority to […]
Reports from Moral Monday
During 2014, I reported on North Carolina’s Moral Monday movement, a faith-based organizing effort that is becoming a national model. The movement is spearheaded by the state NAACP with broad support from churches and issue-based organizations, including women’s, immigrant, environmental, LGBT, and labor groups. Most of the articles were published online by The American Prospect, illustrated by […]
The Tricky Academics of Eating
Martin Smith’s class poses a simple question: Should I eat fish? But answering it sends students into murky waters. Originally published in Duke Magazine. ON THE FIRST DAY OF HIS MARINE CONSERVATION course this past January, Martin Smith told his eight undergraduates that they would play a game. One student would wait in the hallway. […]
Rebuilding America’s Schools
The average public school in this country is more than 40 years old—and showing its age. Roofs leak, walls are ridden with termites and lead paint, and rooms are chronically overcrowded. Parade looks at two communities that rebuilt their schools—and the lessons they can teach all of us. Originally published in Parade. JUST A FEW […]
The High Price of For-Profit Colleges
The media and policy makers are taking notice of the low graduation rates, high debt loads, and deceptive recruiting practices at many for-profit colleges. Originally published in Academe. AFTER JOSHUA PRUYN EARNED HIS UNDERGRADUATE DEGREE, he looked for a job as a college admissions officer. “I was captain of my hockey team, so I had […]
School of Hard Knocks
Record numbers of women are enrolling in for-profit career colleges, hoping for better lives and high-paying jobs. Instead, too many are ending up with useless diplomas and staggering debt. Originally published in Good Housekeeping. AFTER HER DIVORCE FIVE YEARS AGO, Yasmine Issa realized she could no longer afford to be a stay-at-home mom. She’d taken two […]
Tenure Tracker
In the heart of a deep recession, with most departments listing few openings and some withdrawing them as budgets continue to shrivel, Kelly Kennington, a newly minted Ph.D. in history, hunts for academe’s holy grail: a tenure-track position. Originally published in Duke Magazine. December 2008 For the past seven years, Kelly Kennington Ph.D. ’09 has kept […]
Leap of Faith
Can academic rigor, firm discipline, and a daily dose of religion turn boys from poor families into scholars? An intimate look at one such attempt. Originally published in Duke Magazine. AS AN AUGUST DRIZZLE falls outside, thirty-one middle-schoolers sit at long tables in a North Carolina mountain lodge. It’s the end of summer vacation: Next week […]
Academic Apprentices: Still an Ideal?
With hundreds of Ph.D.s competing for every available faculty position, the apprentice model that sustained generations of silversmiths and printers seems to fall apart at the university level. Originally published in Duke Magazine. THE APPRENTICE IS ONE OF AMERICA’S most enduring icons. Whether it’s Paul Revere silversmithing at his father’s shop or fifteen-year-old Horace Greeley knocking on […]
