How to Save the American University

Posted4 months agoActive4 months ago

bikenaga

9 points

5 comments

theguardian.comOtherstory

calmmixed

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40/100

Higher EducationUniversity ReformAmerican Culture

Key topics

Higher Education

University Reform

American Culture

The article discusses ways to save the American university, sparking a discussion on the underlying causes of its decline and potential solutions, with some commenters questioning the notion of returning to a previous ideal.

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7-8h

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Key moments

01Story posted
Aug 24, 2025 at 4:42 PM EDT
4 months ago
Step 01
02First comment
Aug 24, 2025 at 6:12 PM EDT
1h after posting
Step 02
03Peak activity
3 comments in 7-8h
Hottest window of the conversation
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04Latest activity
Aug 25, 2025 at 12:04 AM EDT
4 months ago
Step 04

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Discussion (5 comments)

Showing 5 comments

HollowVoice

4 months ago

2 replies

Anyone know how the "Guardian" brand was licensed for American writing? Obviously a different sort from what they usually publish...

defrost

4 months ago

Guardian articles have always varied by authors and editors, they can also be grouped by edition and subject domain.

For some considerable time now The Guardian has had AU (Australia), UK (United Kingdom), US (United States of America), EU (European Union), and International Editions, each with a different focus and overlap with the whole.

General categories include: World, <country>, Environment, Climate crisis, Immigration, Media, Business, Health, Science, Tech, Podcasts, Newsletters, etc.

This specific article has been written by

  Jacob Hale Russell is professor of law at Rutgers University.
  Dennis Patterson is board of governors professor of law and philosophy at Rutgers University and professor of legal philosophy at Surrey Law School in Guildford, England.

  They are the co-authors of The Weaponization of Expertise: How Elites Fuel Populism (MIT Press, 2025).

and falls within the US-NEWS grouping.

To my eye it seems typical of content within the greater circle of content published by The Guardian in that it's a well written opinion within a domain by people within that domain .. much as the film reviews are well written opinion pieces by people familiar with film and literature.

dragonwriter

4 months ago

> Anyone know how the "Guardian" brand was licensed for American writing?

It's not a license, Guardian US is a US-based online-only publication owned by the Guardian News and Media, the same entity that owns the British newspaper, online publication, etc.

kelseyfrog

4 months ago

Any analysis that advocates for a return to a previous ideal, real or imagined, without consideration of what circumstances lead to the straying from such ideal is destined to fail. If one wants to return to a previous state, they must stop and then reverse the structural causes that contributed to the deviation.

In this case, ignoring veracity, it's the summation of factors that led to universities taking a stance. The author has to enumerate them, and describe the reason why the university capitulated, and then modify the equation so that university does not capitulate again. The underlying factor is that the university found it in their benefit to capitulate the first time. What would need to change auch that they didn't capitulate a second?

msgodel

4 months ago

Trash the university and bring back pubs.

The problem is that they got too focused on credentials and money instead of socializing and learning.

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ID: 45007590Type: storyLast synced: 11/18/2025, 12:04:54 AM

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