By Fred L. Pincus, Emeritus Professor of Sociology, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
In October 2025, the Trump administration made a controversial proposal to nine major colleges and universities, including Dartmouth College and the University of Virginia. The administration offered them a deal: If they agreed to adopt certain policy changes, such as revising admissions and hiring practices, they would…
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By Kenneth Michael White, Associate Professor of Political Science & Criminal Justice, Kennesaw State University
Conflict between Washington and the states is perennial and by design. Lack of clarity about who’s in charge on what issue keeps power from becoming concentrated.
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By Terrence Liu, Assistant Professor, University of Utah
Policymakers are still deciding whether to make some types of Medicare coverage for telehealth permanent. Studies show it helps older adults get more consistent health care.
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By Max Crowley, Professor of Human Development, Family Studies and Public Policy, Penn State
Since early 2025, several large federal health grants to states have been suspended and then restored after legal challenges. On Feb. 13, 2026, for example, the federal government moved to suspend about US$600 million in public health grants to four states before a federal court temporarily blocked the action. Hundreds of…
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By Peter McGraw, Professor of Marketing and Psychology, University of Colorado Boulder
In 1960, 72% of adults were married, and over 90% would go on to marry. HR policies and management practices back then catered to nuclear families with a lone, male breadwinner.
Today, dual-career couples and working mothers…
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By Olivier Sterck, Associate Professor of Economics, University of Oxford
Michael W. Green, a Wall Street investor, created a buzz in late 2025 by arguing that the U.S. poverty line should be jacked up to US$140,000 for a family of four. Currently, a family of that size has to be eking by on $33,000 a year to qualify as poor in the federal government’s eyes.
His critique builds on a broader debate about how to measure poverty in the United States. The U.S. government has made few changes…
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By Carolina Rossini, Professor of Practice and Director for Program, Public Interest Technology Initiative, UMass Amherst
A lawsuit against Meta and Google avoids the issue of liability for content and focuses on allegations that social media platforms themselves are harmful by design.
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By Kenneth Andrew Andres Leonardo, Postdoctoral Fellow and Visiting Assistant Professor of Government, Hamilton College
Contemporary culture seems obsessed with authenticity – but the question of how to be ‘sincere’ in modern society has troubled philosophers for centuries.
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By Antonio Machado Allison, Professor of Environment and Latin American Studies, Wesleyan University
The Orinoco Basin is one of the most biodiverse places on the planet. It’s also rich in oil, gold and critical minerals crucial to modern technology.
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By Angela van der Berg, Director of the Global Environmental Law Centre; Associate Professor Department of Public Law & Jurisprudence, University of the Western Cape, University of the Western Cape
South Africa’s national energy policy says: build more renewable power facilities and build them fast.
But getting the players in the energy space to do that is proving to be difficult. Around…
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