Tuition fees and access to university

Stephen Gordon in the Globe and Mail discusses some research on the link (or lack thereof) between fees and the decision to go to university. Enlightening reading, if counterintuitive.

On individualism and gnosticism

My piece on things Christmas and Christian - in today's Gazette. Merry Christmas!

Leithart on "religious Freedom"

noted here...

Sister Valsa John, R.I.P.

From this morning's Globe

AUCC on CAUT

Here is the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada's response to the Canadian Association of University Teachers' complaint against the revised statement of academic freedom that the AUCC issued a few weeks ago.

The key set of statements comes in the middle of the AUCC statement:

"Academic freedom is constrained by the professional standards of the relevant discipline and the responsibility of the institution to organize its academic mission. The insistence on professional standards speaks to the rigor of the enquiry and not to its outcome. The constraint of institutional requirements recognizes simply that the academic mission, like other work, has to be organized according to institutional needs. This includes the institution’s responsibility to select and appoint faculty and staff, to admit and discipline students, to establish and control curriculum, to make organizational arrangements for the conduct of academic work, to certify completion of a program and to grant degrees." (emphasis mine)

This statement is an important corrective to the heavily politicized notion of academic freedom that issues forth from CAUT, in which no presuppositions whatsoever are to be admitted in inquiry. CAUT defends academic freedom on the basis of historical cases that are a century old. From CAUT, one would have hoped for a more robust and specific citation of contemporary evidence of threats to academic freedom. (This would be especially possible in cases where industry is funding and biasing certain scientific research. One thinks of the pharmaceutical industry right off.) CAUT's position also depends on a completely untethered understanding of tenure, something which ought to be up for rigorous debate among academics given the tremendous scepticism that reigns in our society over the utility of tenure. 

I have not heard this stated in the media, but it seems plausible to consider the AUCC's decision to revise its statement on academic freedom as a response to the CAUT bullying of Christian universities last year. The above selection from the AUCC statement seems to go out of its way to talk about institutional autonomy and mission, even to the point of faculty hiring. Good for the AUCC! (And, not coincidentally, some Canadian Christian colleges and universities are members of the AUCC.) But, have you heard anything? Send me an email: paulalle66 AT gmail.com

Dawkins and W.L. Craig

Richard Dawkins has posted a flaming defense of his decision not to debate evangelical philosopher William Lane Craig.
The nature of this non-debate is very readily summed up:  Dawkins badly needs the crazy biblical interpretations of a fundamentalist approach to scripture in order to look good. This is not the first time that doctrinaire atheists and one-sided evangelicals "needed each other" badly.

My next book

is in the T &T Clark catalog (p. 44) . Meanwhile, bibliography and footnote format beckon (long sigh)...

Canadian Universities at a tipping point

of credibility. In undergrad education, according to the Globe. The emphasis on research, which has been the drum pounded ad nauseam for the past ten years is starting to look more problematic than ever.

c/o Greece

We now know that an independent Quebec really was and is impossible.

Stay in school (university)

Says a study of the 'great recession' in the U.S. Similarities for Canada no doubt hold to a large degree (ahem, degree).

C.K. Barrett, 1917-2011

the Telegraph's obit

Mary Beard is so thoughtful

And on a subject fraught with trouble.

Monbiot on Academic Publishing

Very Interesting!

Secular Gnosticism and the NY Times

Nice piece by Francis Beckwith here.

The Other Blog I write for

Items and topics more relevant to the Catholic church and the Archdiocese of Montreal, which sponsors the blog, Fides publica. I will keep my own personal blog here though, focusing from time to time on topics more technically theological, philosophical and academically oriented.