The Conversation

More colleges than ever have test-optional admissions policies — and that's a good thing

Written by Joseph Soares, Professor of Sociology, Wake Forest University

The number of colleges and universities with test-optional admissions policies recently topped 1,000 -- a milestone that one expert says is a welcome trend.Shutterstock.com

Back in the 1980s, Bates College and Bowdoin College were nearly the only liberal arts colleges not to require applicants to submit SAT or ACT test scores.

On Jan. 10, FairTest,...

MLK's vision of love as a moral imperative still matters

Written by Joshua F.J. Inwood, Associate Professor of Geography Senior Research Associate in the Rock Ethics Institute, Pennsylvania State University

2017 was a year of increased conflict in the United States. Many diverse communities were forced to confront a range of challenges related to anti-Semitism, racism, homophobia and anti-immigrant feelings. These challenges strike at the heart of what it means to live in a multicultural, democratic society.

Yet, it is not the first time America has...

Defanged regulations have big media licking their chops

Written by Amanda Lotz, Fellow at the Peabody Media Center and Professor of Media Studies, University of Michigan

Consolidation is happening at a rapid pace. But who will bear the brunt of the costs?Khakimullin Aleksandr/Shutterstock.com

The year 2017 ended with a flurry of news affecting all aspects of the media industry. A shift in net neutrality policy and Disney’s planned purchase of several Fox assets capped a year that also witnessed the pending...

Rejection of subsidies for coal and nuclear power is a win for fact-based policymaking

Written by Ellen Hughes-Cromwick, Senior Economist and Interim Associate Director of Social Science and Policy, University of Michigan Energy Institute, University of Michigan

Coal stockpile at Valley Power Plant, Milwaukee, Wis.Michael Pereckas, CC BY

Energy Secretary Rick Perry has repeatedly expressed concern over the past year about the reliability of our national electric power grid. On Sept. 28, 2017, Perry ordered the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to revise wholesale electricity market rules to help ensure...

Why is El Salvador so dangerous? 4 essential reads

Written by Catesby Holmes, Global Affairs Editor, The Conversation US

Editor’s note: This is a roundup of material from The Conversation archive.

The Department of Homeland Security has confirmed that it will eliminate the Temporary Protected Status that gave provisional U.S. residency to Salvadoran migrants after a 2001 earthquake. Some 200,000 Salvadorans now have until Sept. 9, 2019, to leave the United...

How California's megachurches changed Christian culture

Written by Richard Flory, Senior Director of Research and Evaluation, University of Southern California – Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

The popular view of California is of a liberal, godless region, a land of possibilities that is open to experimentation in all things. As novelist Wallace Stegner wrote in 1967, the California motto is:

“Why not? It might work.”

This is true even in an otherwise conventional field as religion, with perhaps the most illustrative example...

Why most nonprofit boards resemble whiteboards and how to fix that

Written by Kenneth Anderson Taylor, Assistant Professor of the Practice, Bush School of Government & Public Service, Texas A&M University

Nonprofit boards should be more diverse than this group, but too often they're not. dotshock/Shutterstock.com

You may not recognize the name Tarana Burke. She’s the black woman who founded the #MeToo movement a decade ago to support women of color who survive sexual harassment and assault.

Although this movement has mostly directed attention...

Why children's savings accounts should be America's next wealth transfer program

Written by William Elliott III, Professor of Social Work, University of Michigan

New special savings and investment accounts could help pave the way to college for America's poor and middle class.Shutterstock.com

At a time of great wealth inequality and dramatically unequal chances between the rich and the poor of getting a college education, there is perhaps no better time for a new wealth transfer initiative.

Great wealth...

Super-black feathers can absorb virtually every photon of light that hits them

Written by Dakota McCoy, PhD Student in Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University

Super-black feathers on these guys are like looking into a dark cave.Natasha Baucas, CC BY-SA

What do birds and aerospace engineers have in common? Both have invented incredibly dark, “super-black” surfaces that absorb almost every last bit of light that strikes them.

Of course scientists worked intentionally to devise these materials....

Does Apple have an obligation to make the iPhone safer for kids?

Written by Jean Twenge, Professor of Psychology, San Diego State University

Kids shouldn't be expected to self-regulate the amount of time they spend on the device. And parents are finding it tougher and tougher to impose limits.Brazhyk/Shutterstock.com

The average teen spends at least six hours a day looking at a screen, with most of it from using a smartphone.

Many parents, naturally, have wondered if so much time spent...