'America's universities desperately need a reset'
Opinion, comment and editorials of the day


'At Dartmouth, a green shoot in the higher-ed desert'
Mitch Daniels at The Washington Post
"Sian Leah Beilock, the president of Dartmouth, has charted a path worthy of emulation by her higher-ed peers, especially in the 'elite' orbit her school inhabits," says Mitch Daniels. In "so doing, she has kept her institution out of the line of fire from the Trump administration." She "didn't protect her school by merely 'playing dead.'" She has "taken a series of actions, well ahead of the change of national administrations, that distinguishes her and her college from the higher-ed herd."
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'A hurricane with no water'
Bernadette Atuahene at Newsweek
Just as "Hurricane Katrina wiped out Black communities in the Gulf Coast, Black people in Detroit are currently experiencing a hurricane with no water," says Bernadette Atuahene. Like "hurricanes, property taxes hit everyone, and the detrimental consequences for Black people have been most severe." While we "honor all the lives lost and people displaced due to Hurricane Katrina, we should likewise acknowledge the displacement and dispossession taking place in Detroit — a dehydrated yet devastating hurricane."
'Seventy years later, America has yet to reckon with Emmett Till's murder'
Renée Graham at The Boston Globe
History "isn't that many yesterdays ago," says Renée Graham. Emmett Till is "forever a child, murdered by white supremacists, who has become an eternal symbol that ignited the modern civil rights movement and has inspired generations to fight racial injustice." To "erase from museums, this nation's public memory, what happened to Emmett would be another white supremacist atrocity." His "murder, and the revolution that it fueled, is a hallowed part of our heritage that must be protected."
'Singapore's real lesson for Britain and Europe'
Sumantra Maitra at The American Conservative
Singapore is "clean, orderly, modern, and civilized: a perfect city-state," says Sumantra Maitra. In an "era of resentment and social upheavals across the West, it is a bastion of old-school, conservative political stability." But "there is a fundamental tension between democracy and order in a modern, multiethnic state." We "might soon get a continent-size Singapore after all." But for "those in the Anglosphere who still desire liberty and democracy, imperial-style race-neutral policing would solve the liberal dilemma."
Justin Klawans has worked as a staff writer at The Week since 2022. He began his career covering local news before joining Newsweek as a breaking news reporter, where he wrote about politics, national and global affairs, business, crime, sports, film, television and other news. Justin has also freelanced for outlets including Collider and United Press International.
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