Curriculum

John Fea, a history chair, describes what he learned on his daughter's college tours about the presence or absence of a liberal arts ethos.

Dick Gregory writes that students who are protesting against a dean who recommended his autobiography should think about which battles matter the most.

Students are so busy singing in a cappella groups, planting trees for the environment and playing intramural ultimate Frisbee that they're being robbed of their education, argues William Hurst.

Southern Utah University goes all in with an experiment on general education, combining 13 courses into one year of material that eight professors jointly teach.

Columbia's core literature course, long criticized for its lack of diversity, adds to the list a novel by Toni Morrison -- the first living author and the first nonwhite author.

UC Irvine moves toward a system in which doctorates can be earned in five years, half the norm for these fields at many institutions. Some departments embrace plan; they fear impact on dissertations and on adjuncts.

Historians at Sacramento State are furious that an anthropology course has been deemed to meet a state requirement for study of American history.