The Narthex
Colleges Won't Let DEI Go
Which is why the Trump Administration needs scholastic data
By John M. Grondelski | August 6th 2025 12:45 PMAs part of their settlements with the Trump Administration, Columbia and Brown Universities have agreed to provide applicants' grade point averages and standardized test scores. The New York Times is appalled (link below). I am not. Large swaths of American higher education refuse to let DEI -- diversity, equity, and…
READ FULL BLOG POSTRandom Ruminations #24
The Erasure of Easter... Money in Higher Education... Nine Brief Ruminations...
By John M. Grondelski | April 16th 2025 12:13 PMThe Erasure of Easter Easter is less than a week away. Among non-believers it’s easier to ignore than Christmas, as it always falls on a Sunday. You can say “goodbye” to a co-worker on Friday and return on Monday and Easter weekend will not be noticeably different to the broader…
READ FULL BLOG POSTThe Immorality of Plagiarism
Stealing another's work, week after week, month after month, is a premeditated wrong
By John M. Grondelski | February 21st 2024 1:00 PMHarvard’s president, Claudine Gay, became its ex-president through the confluence of two factors, neither one of which seemed sufficient to remove her from office but, together, generated sufficient public (and, apparently, internal private donor) criticism to render her continued incumbency untenable. As you may remember, Gay was criticized for her…
READ FULL BLOG POSTWhat Hath Notre Dame to Do with Harvard?
Universities must embrace truth, not 'freedom of inquiry' and 'diversity of opinion'
By John M. Grondelski | January 15th 2024 12:51 PMAn Indiana state judge dismissed Notre Dame sociology professor Tamara Kay’s defamation suit against a Notre Dame student newspaper for exposing her abortion advocacy, including her seeming facilitation of abortions by providing students information where they could obtain abortifacients. Kay wanted to exact punitive damages from the paper for exposing…
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