April 2025

Attempts to erode university accreditation due to any criteria based on DEI is wrong. But there are many growing flaws in U.S. university accreditation based on the decline in academic rigor resulting in a growing number of low quality and worthless degrees due to watered down policies. I focus on two problems: failure to require masters-level training for high school teachers of “dual” college-credit courses, and a major reduction in course credits for degrees.

As a first generation college student who is now a professor, I know firsthand the vital role libraries play in providing access to knowledge and opportunity, especially for those from underserved backgrounds.

Many years ago, when I interviewed Wes Jackson for a “Sunflower Journeys” story related to his work at The Land Institute near Salina, he referenced a book by his friend Wendell Berry — “The Unsettling of America.”

Once we depose Trump and deport Musk we can laugh about their greedy corrupt behavior even as we tend to the disastrous damage they did. They will fail, if Americans rise up in massive nonviolent noncooperation.

“Fights between individuals, as well as governments and nations” Nikola Tesla wrote in 1905, “invariably result from misunderstandings in the broadest interpretation of this term. Misunderstandings are always caused by the inability of appreciating one another’s point of view.”