As everyone has, I have struggled to find some appropriate words, a meaningful response, to the Sandy Hook tragedy. I stayed silent, however, because I felt that I had little to add to the millions of sentiments posted already.

Then the NRA held their news conference.

It...

It turns out acupuncture works. It's not a placebo, and it's not a scam. It's a technique with documented efficacy.

I have little to say about the evidence involved, as I do not conduct such studies, but I do have two questions that I think need answering:...

You know fall has really arrived when the media says American education is in crisis again. It's an annual ritual.

We've been in this "crisis" for decades now, but the recurring hair pulling over test scores and international rankings masks a deeper problem in American education that is only just...

Last month I joined over 300 others for four days in Toronto at a conference called "A Positive Global Vision of Healing and Flourishing through Meaning."

The "meaning conference" is organized by the International Network on Personal Meaning and has been scheduled every two years since 2000; thus...

When I reflect on my three presidencies, all at colleges and universities very different than Penn State -- none with a football team -- I wonder if I could have kept a scandal as sordid and unsavory as Jerry Sandusky under wraps.

I conclude that I could not. (And, of...

Everyone, it seems, is now interested in the politics of higher education -- a topic that used to be downright obscure.

This suggests to me that there is a crisis brewing.

The clearest piece of evidence is the surprising amount of press that Teresa Sullivan's resignation/interregnum/reinstatement has gotten...

A university has to stand for something, and this means that sometimes a university has to take a stand.

Yet it would appear that few universities are doing this. One of my proudest moments as president of Saybrook University turned into one of the most disappointing moments I've had with...