Columbia physics professor Emlyn Hughes was assigned to teach a course on quantum mechanics to undergraduates. His first class was bizarre, to put it mildly. This is what happened in the first five minutes.

It’s back to school time and Stephen Walt has some suggestions for what any student aspiring to a career in foreign policy or international relations should learn about while in college. I thought that it was a good list for people going into any field of study and so pass it along.

After fierce protests at their high-handed action, the trustees at the University of Virginia had to humiliatingly reverse course and voted unanimously to reinstate the president Teresa Sullivan whom they had just forced out.

Teresa Sullivan, the president of one of the most prestigious universities in the country, was summarily fired after just two years on the job and despite the fact that there was no hint of scandal or that she had done her job poorly. Kevin Carey argues that part of the problem lies in the fact …

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I have lived all my life working in universities, except for two years in a national laboratory which was pretty similar to a university physics department except that there was no teaching involved. It has been a good life for me.

There has been much discussion recently about computer software that seems to be able to grade students high school essays about as well as humans, but of course much faster.