Higher Ed Now

ACTA's Armand Alacbay sits down with  John W. Altman -- distinguished entrepreneur, business leader, educator, and veteran trustee at several colleges and universities -- to explore the distinct strengths that trustees should bring to any institutional governing board. Having recently stepped up as ACTA's board chairman, Altman brings a lifetime of experience and insight into helping higher educat...

Pano Kanelos , the noted educator, Shakesperean scholar, and champion of campus discourse, goes one on one with with ACTA's Michael Poliakoff to reflect on his tenure as the 24th president of St. John's College in Annapolis. Kanelos unpacks a pedagogical tradition where all students are immersed in conversation and the study of 200 great books.

As campuses reopen, how can college leaders help students who struggled with alcohol and drug use and mental health issues during the pandemic? In ACTA's webinar, The Pandemic and Campus Substance Use: What Colleges Need to Know Now,   four distinguished health experts explored this topic, from research to practical solutions on the ground. Panelists included  Robert L. DuPont , M.D. of the Instit...

ACTA president Michael Poliakoff sits down with Jodi Shaw , an alumna and former employee of Smith College who took a courageous stand against critical race orthodoxy at Smith. Her story, reported in The New York Times and major news venues, prompted ACTA to award her with a Hero of Intellectual Freedom Award, to be presented later this year. In our podcast, Shaw outlines the events and reasons le...

For most students, a college education is one of the biggest investments they'll ever make in their lifetime. What if colleges and universities could take the risk out of that monumental investment by insuring future income for graduates? ACTA's Armand Alacbay explores this model with Wade Eyerly , the co-founder and CEO of Degree Insurance , which guarantees a student's earnings in the five years...

Margarita Mooney , Associate Professor at Princeton Theological Seminary and founder and executive director of  Scala Foundation , explores the value and vitality of liberal arts learning in conversation with ACTA's Nathaniel Urban and President Michael Poliakoff .

Since 2018 Braver Angels has teamed with ACTA to launch civil debates for students across the nation. College leaders applaud the program's depolarizing, transformative effects on students as they learn to engage respectfully around divisive social and political issues. Program leader Doug Sprei unpacks the magic with college instructors David Dagan of The George Washington University; Mark Urista...

Emily Koons Jae , who leads ACTA's Fund for Academic Renewal (FAR) initiative, has been keeping close tabs on the controversy around a $30 million gift to Ohio State University by the late Michael Moritz . In this episode, Emily explores this provocative story with Mr. Moritz's wife, Lou Ann Ransom , and his son, Jeffrey Moritz .

On Constitution Day, ACTA co-sponsored Civic Engagement for All  – a virtual event with the Office of Engaged Learning at Baylor University. Moderated by Professor David Corey , the director of Baylor in Washington, a panel of prominent Baylor alumni and senior leaders discussed how students can envision a more robust approach to civic engagement, and why doing so is essential to the health of our...

Jeremy Wayne Tate founded Classic Learning Initiatives in 2015 to provide high school students with alternative standardized tests that are rooted in tradition while taking advantage of modern technologies. Featuring passages from great works across a variety of disciplines, the Classical Learning Test (CLT) suite of assessments provides an accurate and rigorous measure of reasoning, aptitude, and...

Abigail Thompson , Distinguished Professor of Mathematics at the University of California-Davis, drew national attention in December 2019 with her Wall Street Journal op-ed titled " The University's New Loyalty Oath. " Her bold challenge to the University of California's use of diversity statements in faculty hiring inspired ACTA to honor her with a Hero of Intellectual Freedom Award. Professor Th...