The James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal

10/12/2026

In the second essay of our AI series with Minding the Campus, National Association of Scholars Senior Fellow Lilla Nora Kiss explores how artificial intelligence is reshaping entry-level jobs and why colleges must rethink how they prepare students for professional careers.

https://jamesgmartin.center/2026/10/the-ai-economy-still-needs-beginners/

10/11/2026

Is cancel culture making a comeback?

Martin Center Managing Editor Garion Frankel writes for Free the People about Portland’s woke excesses and why what happens there should concern the rest of America.

Be warned: What happens in Portland does not stay in Portland.

10/11/2026

More college students favor socialism than capitalism, but do they understand the difference?

Martin Center President Jenna Robinson explains in The College Fix why colleges need stronger economics and political science education.

Scholars say students’ responses raise questions about whether they really understand what socialism is College students rated socialism slightly more favorably than capitalism in a recent North…

10/11/2026

Sunday Read 📚

There is no such thing as a values-neutral education. Every curriculum reflects moral judgments. The question is not whether schools teach values, but whether they are willing to admit it.

Schools cannot avoid teaching values, no matter how strongly they claim to remain morally or ideologically neutral.

10/08/2026

DEI conformity has no place at Yeshiva University, an institution built on Jewish tradition and intellectual debate.

Yeshiva University’s DEI requirements sit uneasily with its stated commitment to Jewish thought, tradition, and open disagreement.

10/07/2026

Hillsdale rejected the education establishment’s bureaucratic mandates and built something better: teacher preparation rooted in knowledge, character, and the liberal arts.

The result? Teachers prepared to educate, not indoctrinate.

Hillsdale College shows how teacher education can thrive without the mandates of state certification and national accreditation.

10/05/2026

Four years after ChatGPT, universities are still treating AI as an academic-integrity problem instead of an opportunity.

AI should help students think, not think for them.

Universities need an AI strategy that transforms university operations and prepares students and faculty for artificial intelligence.

10/04/2026

Your weekend read:

The AAUP’s first-ever political endorsement has been called a radical break from the traditions of American higher education.

But what if it’s actually the logical conclusion of the system we built?

John Adams warned about an intellectual elite that mistakes talent for virtue. More than two centuries later, his warning looks remarkably prescient.

https://jamesgmartin.center/2026/10/aaup-john-adams-prestige-virtue-higher-education/

10/01/2026

Accreditation should reward results, not paperwork.

New federal reforms could bring more competition, stronger accountability, and a sharper focus on student outcomes.

Proposed federal reforms and a burgeoning new public-university accreditor could reshape how colleges are evaluated.

09/30/2026

What are universities so afraid of?

UCLA argues that releasing course syllabi could threaten academic freedom and “devalue” state assets. But taxpayers have a clear interest in knowing what public universities are teaching.

Daniel Buck examines UCLA’s arguments and makes the case for real syllabus transparency.

Universities like the University of California-Los Angeles are still dragging their feet on syllabus transparency.