Higher Education

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Local heroes of 2011

In the 14th annual edition of the Providence Phoenix 's Best issue, we highlight people and organizations who are doing exceptionally good work.
Simon Moore and Linda Katz
By DANIEL MCGOWAN AND MARION DAVIS | April 22, 2011

2010 Muzzle Awards on campus

Harvard and Yale universities felt the sting of the global economic collapse firsthand in 2009, as the endowments of these stalwart New England Ivy League members dropped by nearly a third. The schools didn’t fare much better in the free marketplace of
Harvard and Yale once again lead the way . . . for academic censorship
By HARVEY SILVERGLATE | July 02, 2010

Boston After Dark: Glory, Old

Since the national student strike began, the Massachusetts College of Art, on Brookline Avenue in Boston, has undergone a remarkable change.
Posters of protest at Massachusetts College of Art
By THEODORE GROSS | May 28, 2010

BU offers the class of 1970 a second chance at complacency

Boston University’s class of 2010 celebrates its commencement this weekend, and BU has invited the class of 1970 to tag along.
After School Special
By CLIF GARBODEN | May 14, 2010

Bell ringers and brown nosers

It was a number of months ago when I first observed a guy who was working as a barista at the coffee place I favor in the morning ...
Dr. Lovemonkey answers your questions
By DR. LOVEMONKEY | May 14, 2010

At the Cable Car: The wind-lashed and sea-worn

On a recent Sunday, the usual grad school crowd at the Cable Car Cinema in Providence gave way to something different — the wind-lashed faces and sea-worn hands of Rhode Island’s oft-ignored surfing community.
Surf’s Up
By ABIGAIL CROCKER | May 14, 2010

Ledge Lessons

As advocates of higher education and living as long as medically possible, we were sad to read that, according to new-media-powerhouse Web site the Daily Beast, Greater Boston is home to not one but five of the most stressful colleges in the United Sta
We love you, stressed-out college kids! So relax, and remember how good you have it.
By CHRIS FARAONE | April 30, 2010

Students gone wild

When it comes to warding off stress, every college has its own traditions. Some quell student woes with late-night pancakes. Some offer free movie nights. But only at Tufts University in Medford does release of academic tension involve hundreds of synch
Tufts naked quad run
By ALEXIS HAUK | March 19, 2010

Back to school

Some of us know (or think we know) our paths from a young age. We follow those trails through 12 years of school, and then four (plus) more. Some of us don't. We flounder, we search, we know what we want but we don't know how to achieve it. The crucial
Coloring outside the educational lines
By DEIRDRE FULTON | January 22, 2010

Instead of cuts: guts

Let’s assume, reader, that you’re concerned about economic and social justice. For those in real need — people who are poor, sick, old, mentally ill, addicted, disabled — you want decent care. You’re concerned, too, about proper funding of schools, commu
Raise taxes on the rich? Only one candidate says ‘yes’?
By LANCE TAPLEY | January 08, 2010

Review: The House of the Devil

Have you walked near a college campus lately? You might notice that the ’80s are creeping into fashion, the way the ’70s did a few years back, and with the same lack of irony. It’s happening in cinemas, too — something that’s not entirely unwelcome when
The '80s revival hits the horror genre
By BRETT MICHEL | December 04, 2009

Youth to power

Bates College junior Robert Friedman will be missing a couple weeks of class in December.
Going Green
By DEIRDRE FULTON | November 27, 2009

Ex-USM staffers claim age discrimination

In complaints filed with the University of Southern Maine's Office of Campus Diversity and Equity, a state legislator and five former colleagues allege they were discriminated against in a recent department restructuring because of their ages. The comp
Litigation Watch
By JEFF INGLIS | November 20, 2009

Inside the term-paper machine

It’s never been easier for college students to hire someone else to write their term papers for them.
The black market of term papers exposed
By COLMAN HERMAN | November 06, 2009

Free speech again quashed at Harvard

It should come as no surprise to readers of “Freedom Watch” that yet another instance of political, intellectual, and academic censorship has sprung up at Harvard, the self-touted pinnacle of higher education.
RSVPeeved Dept.
By HARVEY SILVERGLATE | October 23, 2009

Rhode Island’s pride is showing

There was much to-do and flexing of cultural muscles and civic pride as Our Little Towne placed in the top 10 in many prestigious categories in Travel & Leisure magazine’s 2009 survey of “America’s Favorite Cities.”
Finally, some good ‘news!’ Plus, Brown slips, the Patriots slide, and more
By PHILLIPE AND JORGE | October 16, 2009

Course correction

So it unfolded on Facebook, the story of this down-on-his-luck recent graduate in possession of a bachelor’s degree in the liberal arts from a respected area school.
Out of school and out of work? Don’t enroll in a grad program just yet — adult-education coures could do (and land you) the job.
By VANESSA CZARNECKI | October 16, 2009

Prep Yourself!

So the economy sucks, you’re in a miserable rut at work, and you’re not getting any younger. What are you going to do about it?
You’ve decided to go back to school. Now what?
By RYAN STEWART | October 16, 2009

Time for law to end torture

In a collaborative effort between human-rights activists and incarcerated Mainers, a bill to end the use and abuse of solitary confinement has been drafted and will be submitted to legislators soon.
Letters to the Portland Editor, September 18, 2009
By PORTLAND PHOENIX LETTERS | September 18, 2009

Prison activist: Board chairman wrong

I just finished reading the letter from Jon Wilson. Mr. Tapley was correct, the Board of Visitors is not living up to its mandate to represent the public's concerns about the Maine State Prison, nor is it minimally accountable in that it never filed an a
Letters to the Portland Editor, September 11, 2009
By PORTLAND PHOENIX LETTERS | September 11, 2009

Mike's Bánh-Mì

Someday I'll be able to review a bánh-mì joint without providing a primer. But as a raft of new college students are arriving from the provinces, I'll once again offer Bánh Mì 101.
A great Vietnamese sandwich for both beginners and advanced eaters
By MC SLIM JB | September 04, 2009

Miraculous Appearances

Two weeks after the Phoenix began its prison Board of Visitors interviews, which revealed the group had not produced annual reports as required by law and had not met with the Legislature's Criminal Justice Committee in years, reports for 2005, 2006,
Phoenix questions prompt action
By LANCE TAPLEY | August 21, 2009

Rethinking liberal arts in the digital age

They didn't teach genderfuck, iteration, or micropolitics when I was in college. But times have changed.
Liberal Arts is due for an update
By MIKE MILIARD | July 24, 2009

Cyberchondriacs

Last year, a co-worker (who shall remain nameless to save her from additional embarrassment) discovered a bug bite on her leg. It was slightly different than a typical mosquito bite; it was more bruise-like, and a bit painful to the touch. Not having a
Online health info can make you crazy
By DEIRDRE FULTON | July 24, 2009

Muzzle Awards: Collegiate Division

In a 1957 Supreme Court decision upholding the free-speech rights of university professors ( Sweezy v. New Hampshire ), Justice Felix Frankfurter quoted prominent South African scholars on the importance of academic freedom.
New England campuses muzzle free speech
By HARVEY SILVERGLATE | July 10, 2009

Come on home

What's that about the apple and the tree? With college degree in hand, Lyle Divinsky returns to his Portland stomping grounds with a debut CD, Traveling Man , that not only features dad Phil Divinsky's drummer (Marty Joyce), bassist (Peter Masterson),
Lyle Divinsky croons his way back into town
By SAM PFEIFLE | June 05, 2009

Law students luckier than the rest

While I know it has been extremely difficult for recent law-school graduates to find employment this year, the data in Kara Baskin’s story was not accurate. Ninety-two percent of our class of 2008 was employed within six months after graduation.
Letters to the Boston editor, May 8, 2009
By BOSTON PHOENIX LETTERS | May 08, 2009

Braziliant

As if puny, leaf-free trees and a general lack of flowers in late April weren't enough of a message to the post-winter season to hurry its shit up, art schools across Boston are poised to open their annual May fundraisers, all in the name of spring.
'Brazil on Screen 2009,' Mass Art shorts, and spring sales at Mass Art and the SMFA
By EVAN J. GARZA | May 01, 2009

Nervous, stressed, and depressed, LLC

Twenty-seven-year-old Jesse White is a temporary staff attorney at a domestic-violence nonprofit in the South End.
What's a recent law grad expected to do in this economy?
By KARA BASKIN | May 01, 2009

Bytes of knowledge

Once upon a time, we thought it was novel to be able to buy books in our bathrobes.
Getting the most from an online education
By CLEA SIMON | May 01, 2009

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