We Asked About Your Experience of Racism. Here’s What You Told Us.

More than 150 readers wrote in to share their stories.

The Ugly Truth of Being a Black Professor in America

I’ve received hundreds of racist emails, phone messages, and letters. This is what it’s like to be hated.

Departmental Cuts

4 Months Into His Tenure, a Flagship’s President Proposes 50 Faculty Layoffs

Seth Bodnar, a business executive, took over the ailing University of Montana in January. He says the institution needs to evolve, but some professors say he’s putting the humanities on the chopping block.

Faculty Resistance

Catholic U. Is ‘Playing With Fire’ by Trying to Lay Off Tenured Professors, Committee Declares

An ad hoc group’s report could be a setback for the provost’s “academic renewal” plan, which seeks to close a $3.5-million budget gap with layoffs and increased teaching loads.

Teaching

The 5 Tips for Student Success That a Longtime Instructor Swears By

A community-college administrator shares his approach, which he credits with increasing the number of graduates by 67 percent.

Free Speech

After Spending Millions on Provocative Speakers, Here's How Berkeley Is Trying to Avoid a Repeat

A campus panel wants the university to require student groups to explain why potentially disruptive events should be held, and to provide volunteer monitors for the crowd.

Faculty

UNC Rejects Faculty Panel’s Finding That Administrators Interfered in Critic’s Class on Sports

A history professor at Chapel Hill has accused officials of meddling in his teaching of a course that includes material on the university’s infamous fake-classes scandal.

Idea Lab: Student Success

Colleges are increasingly being judged by how well they retain and graduate students, especially those who are first generation or low income. In our latest Idea Lab collection on student success, we profile successful efforts to help students who struggle in college. The 42-page booklet has tips on mentoring, advising, using student data, and more.

Lingua Franca

What Are Your Exceptional Euphemisms This Spring?

In France, Lucy Ferriss discovers the train lines to be perturbé by strikes, and museums beset by fermetures exceptionelles.

ProfHacker

On Not Over-Thinking Things

The perfect is the enemy of the good. That's useful to remember when, say, answering students' emails.