Filter & Sort
Confessions of a Former Gatekeeper
Looking back on a couple of careers of mostly saying “No.”
An Order of Allegiance
How do faculty answer “What do you do for work?” and how might we change how we think about ourselves and the best ways to serve our students?
An Open Letter: On Elite Education and Pulling Up Ladders
In a letter to someone in a position of power who received a degree from the same institution, Rachel Toor pleads with a certain pol to consider his attacks on higher ed.
Colleges and Universities on the Edge
Rachel Toor wonders if there are now too many institutions to be sustainable. Have we exceeded the carrying capacity of higher ed?
A Not-So-Innocent Abroad
Given her politics, profession and (hippie) parentage, Rachel Toor finds herself surprised to feel a surge of patriotism while traveling overseas.
Letter From a Region of My Mind
Last March, a speed-walk tour of our national museums provided an insight into what was in jeopardy. Now, it seems, we’ve already lost the work of a half century of scholarship.
It’s a Small World (After All)
My take on the quirky and all-too-human realities of academic life, drawing on decades spent in publishing, admissions, the faculty trenches and now as a presidential confidante.