| From | Intercollegiate Review <[email protected]> |
| Subject | The DOE and Unchecked Bureaucracy |
| Date | March 27, 2025 7:08 PM |
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The best of intellectual conservative thought.
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Note from the Editor: The Intercollegiate Review will be moving to Substack later this Spring.
Substack offers a more convenient and accessible experience to you as the reader and will allow us to reach a wider audience.
We are grateful for your support of the Intercollegiate Review and are committed to keeping your subscription completely free as we move to Substack.
[link removed]
CATEGORY: EDUCATION (7 MIN)
Incubators of America
[link removed]
Last week, President Donald Trump ordered the closing of the Department of Education and the return of authority over education to the states. Whether or not the move sticks permanently, the face of American education will have substantively changed. And parents, seeing the shifts in education over the past few decades, have often shifted their children over to homeschooling or the private school system.
Nathan Ristuccia, writing in American Reformer
[link removed]
, discusses the scholar J. Gresham Machen, who founded Westminster Theological Seminary and spoke out against the Department of Education at the time of its founding. Ristuccia notes that Machen helped lead the “Sentinels of the Republic,” a group of conservatives fighting the progressives of the early 1900s.
Ristuccia lists some publications by Machen that opposed the Department of Education on philosophical grounds. Machen defended the importance of independent Christian schools in opposition to “the tyrant of the scientific expert” and “uniformity in education.” Ristuccia recounts Machen’s opposition to the regime of “expertise” that dominated the lobbyists for a department of education.
Ristuccia says Machen predicted that Congress would leave wide discretion for these “experts,” who would then operate as a “centralized and irresponsible bureaucracy.” And that, according to Machen, would be destructive to the human soul. Ristuccia points out Machen’s analogy to Ford cars: though “standardization, uniformity, and efficiency” might be good for assembly lines, they are not good for the souls of American children.
Read Ristuccia’s piece here
[link removed]
.
Read Now
[link removed]
[link removed]
CATEGORY: POLITICS (4 MIN)
Pulling on the people
[link removed]
Reeling from its defeat in the 2024 elections, which gave Republicans power in the White House and both houses of Congress, the Democratic Party is searching for people who can lead it to resurgence in 2026 and 2028. But taking advantage of the youth vote is important, and young leftist leaders who are popular with the masses are difficult to come by.
For UnHerd
[link removed]
, Daniel McCarthy, editor of Modern Age and ISI’s Vice President for the Collegiate Network, discusses the possibility of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as a future Democratic nominee for president. McCarthy debates whether the messages that she and Sen. Bernie Sanders espouse will have sticking power with the American electorate.
McCarthy reasons that President Donald Trump successfully demonstrated the power of populism on the right, achieving victory in 2016 and 2024 with a new coalition of voters. And he notes that Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris each failed to defeat Trump while relying on the power of “respectability” and the establishment. McCarthy argues that populism has worked before for Democrats—pointing to Bill Clinton’s 1992 win and Barack Obama’s 2008 primary success.
But in order to succeed, McCarthy thinks Ocasio-Cortez will have to make her messaging non-ideological and pro-common sense. She would have to shun extreme issues, like “gender, immigration, and defunding the police,” to do so, and McCarthy isn’t sure if she’ll be able to capitalize.
What do you think? Read McCarthy’s article here
[link removed]
to learn more.
Read Now
[link removed]
[link removed]
CATEGORY: VIDEO
The Gilded Age & Westward Expansion with Miles Smith
[link removed]
In this engaging episode of Conservative Conversations
[link removed]
, Tom Sarrouf sits down with historian and scholar Miles Smith to explore the transformative era of the Gilded Age and Westward Expansion. They discuss the economic growth that characterized the late 19th century, the development of new industries, and the rise of America as an economic power.
Smith and Sarrouf also delve into the complexities of the relationship between the North and South during this period, examining the lasting effects of the Civil War, regional economic disparities, and the shifting political landscape. This conversation offers a deep dive into a pivotal moment in American history, unpacking the forces that shaped the nation's future and laid the groundwork for the 20th century.
Watch Now
[link removed]
Because our student editors and writers are bravely bringing conservative ideas to their campuses, we’re highlighting their efforts here.
Former Solicitor General Prelogar Speaks at W&L Law School
[link removed]
via The W&L Spectator
“‘You are charged with zealously advocating for that client’s interests’ and ‘everyone deserves a defense’ are two components of the legal ethos ingrained in Professor Elizabeth Prelogar’s head at a young age by her father’s time as a lawyer. Yet Prelogar, the former United States solicitor general under President Biden, spent nearly four years defending not one client but the entire federal government. Defending the federal government was one of the many challenges of her former role, which Professor Elizabeth Prelogar shared with a packed Millhiser Moot Court Room. Invited to speak at the annual Lewis F. Powell, Jr. Distinguished Lecture, the student-led introduction noted that Prelogar ‘embodied Justice Powell’s spirit of legal excellence and commitment to the institution of the Supreme Court.’”
Wake Forest Baseball: A Midseason Review
[link removed]
via The Wake Report
“Wake Forest Baseball came off two straight losses for the first time this season prior to their 12-10 victory today against Clemson. Sitting at 7-1 in the ACC (19-5 overall), this weekend’s series against the Tigers could not be more pivotal for the Demon Deacons. About halfway through the season, Wake has fought tooth-and-nail to maintain its current ranking of 11th on D1baseball.com’s Top 25 list. After a severely underwhelming performance in last year’s postseason tournament, the stakes are high. Whether or not Tom Walter’s team raises itself to meet its lofty expectations this year depends entirely on the ability for his newly-revamped team to keep its head on the grindstone down the stretch this Spring. Perhaps Wake’s success in the ACC this year can be majorly attributed to its star-studded offensive trio, consisting of Junior SS Marek Houston, Junior OF Ethan Conrad, and the team’s current Sophomore DH Kade Lewis. The three have contributed a combined .414
average, 21 HR, and 97 RBI this season, and also lead all others on the team with OPS numbers of 1.239 or higher. Additionally, Houston and Conrad are achieving special attention across the country as members of the incoming MLB draft class.”
Ready for War: Kotlikoff Named President
[link removed]
via The Cornell Review
“On Friday, March 21, Michael I. Kotlikoff was named 15th President. The full Board of Trustees voted on his elevation from Interim President at their March meeting in Ithaca. In 2024, Martha Pollack decided to retire and approached Kotlikoff to be Interim President for the 2024-25 and 2025-26 academic years. During that second year, Cornell would conduct a nationwide search for a permanent replacement. The unspoken rationale was that the campus was in turmoil in the Spring of 2024 and that many currents would be settled down by the time the Presidential search would be conducted in 2025-26. However, with new challenges to higher education raised in Washington, in both the Congress and the Executive Branch, the amount of conflict has increased, and Cornell will be in more of a crisis in 2026 than in 2023-24.”
Mapleton 8th Grade English Guide Suggests Students Write Sexual Content, Kept Quiet from Parents
[link removed]
via The Cougar Chronicle
“A guide given to 8th-grade students in a Mapleton Junior High School English class contained suggestions to include sexually inappropriate interactions between story characters, according to documents shared by a concerned parent. The guide, disseminated by Mr. Austin Andruski, encouraged students in a creative writing section to develop characters with a variety of ‘love languages,’ including ‘physical touch,’ described as ‘feeling or expressing love through physical touch & accessibility, including kissing, cuddling, holding hands, and sex.’ Another portion of the guide encouraged inserting ‘numbing’ behaviors of characters, such as ‘alcohol, drugs, and sex.’ According to Nebo School District policy, sexual content, including ‘the intricacies of intercourse, sexual stimulation, or erotic behavior” and ‘the advocacy of premarital or extramarital sexual activity,’ may not be taught in schools; this includes the prohibition of sexual content in the form of
‘instructional materials, direct instruction, or online instruction.’”
UChicago Lost Money on Crypto, Then Froze Research When Federal Funding Was Cut
[link removed]
via The Stanford Review
“While Stanford responded to the federal funding research freeze by halting administrative hiring and protecting research, the University of Chicago panicked. On January 28, hours after the Trump administration announced the first round of grant cancellations (which was later scaled back before being renewed last week), UChicago administrators sent out an alarming directive to researchers at the school: ‘We are requesting that all University researchers working on federal grants temporarily suspend their non-personnel spending on [sic] federal grants as much as possible during this period of substantial uncertainty. For example, do not make any additional spending commitments, purchase new supplies or equipment, start new experiments, embark on funded travel, etc.’”
CATEGORY: CULTURE (12 MIN)
The need for speed
[link removed]
What’s your dream car? If you haven’t been asked that before, you may have at least thought about the question. Perhaps it’s a retro classic like a 1960s Aston Martin (the choice of James Bond) or a modern innovation like a McLaren GTS. No matter what you chose, there’s a very good chance that you picked something with “streamlines and smooth, shining surfaces.”
For this week’s article from the Modern Age
[link removed]
website, we travel back in time to the Summer 1959 edition of Modern Age and an article by Helmut Schoeck, a German sociologist. Schoeck discussed the advent of the streamline and how technological advances changed the Western conception of beauty. Schoeck saw this manifesting itself in cars, planes, ships, decorations, and even font choices.
Schoeck argued that no one (in 1959) would grow up without knowing about and getting used to the streamlined form—toys and art would never be the same. Schoeck traced the advent of the streamline to an innate desire in man: the need for speed.
“It is man’s desire to thrust across land, sea, and through the air with a minimum of resistance—in other words, man’s longing for the utmost speed—that caused decisive changes in our system of esthetic values in engineering,” Schoeck wrote. “We entered the age of streamlined technology.”
And this contrasted with older cultures, which Schoeck said focused on “simple geometric forms.” He asked whether the change to streamlines would help art, or if it instead would make art “barren,” reliant only on “the rhythm of perfectionist technology.”
Read Schoeck’s thoughts here
[link removed]
on the Modern Age website.
Read Now
[link removed]
Thought of the Day:
“You will never understand bureaucracies until you understand that for bureaucrats procedure is everything and outcomes are nothing.”
- Thomas Sowell
Join ISI’s new Alumni Giving Club
It’s never been easier for you to support our mission—and stay part of our community—with ISI’s new Alumni Giving Club!
For just $19.53 a month, you can join the fight and “pay it forward” by educating the next generation for ordered liberty.
Join the Club
[link removed]
Follow on Twitter Friend on Facebook Forward to Friend
Copyright © 2025, All rights reserved.
Our mailing address is:
Intercollegiate Studies Institute
3901 Centerville Road
Wilmington, DE 19807
unsubscribe from all emails
[link removed]
update subscription preferences
[link removed]
Email not displaying correctly?
View it in your browser
[link removed]
.
Note from the Editor: The Intercollegiate Review will be moving to Substack later this Spring.
Substack offers a more convenient and accessible experience to you as the reader and will allow us to reach a wider audience.
We are grateful for your support of the Intercollegiate Review and are committed to keeping your subscription completely free as we move to Substack.
[link removed]
CATEGORY: EDUCATION (7 MIN)
Incubators of America
[link removed]
Last week, President Donald Trump ordered the closing of the Department of Education and the return of authority over education to the states. Whether or not the move sticks permanently, the face of American education will have substantively changed. And parents, seeing the shifts in education over the past few decades, have often shifted their children over to homeschooling or the private school system.
Nathan Ristuccia, writing in American Reformer
[link removed]
, discusses the scholar J. Gresham Machen, who founded Westminster Theological Seminary and spoke out against the Department of Education at the time of its founding. Ristuccia notes that Machen helped lead the “Sentinels of the Republic,” a group of conservatives fighting the progressives of the early 1900s.
Ristuccia lists some publications by Machen that opposed the Department of Education on philosophical grounds. Machen defended the importance of independent Christian schools in opposition to “the tyrant of the scientific expert” and “uniformity in education.” Ristuccia recounts Machen’s opposition to the regime of “expertise” that dominated the lobbyists for a department of education.
Ristuccia says Machen predicted that Congress would leave wide discretion for these “experts,” who would then operate as a “centralized and irresponsible bureaucracy.” And that, according to Machen, would be destructive to the human soul. Ristuccia points out Machen’s analogy to Ford cars: though “standardization, uniformity, and efficiency” might be good for assembly lines, they are not good for the souls of American children.
Read Ristuccia’s piece here
[link removed]
.
Read Now
[link removed]
[link removed]
CATEGORY: POLITICS (4 MIN)
Pulling on the people
[link removed]
Reeling from its defeat in the 2024 elections, which gave Republicans power in the White House and both houses of Congress, the Democratic Party is searching for people who can lead it to resurgence in 2026 and 2028. But taking advantage of the youth vote is important, and young leftist leaders who are popular with the masses are difficult to come by.
For UnHerd
[link removed]
, Daniel McCarthy, editor of Modern Age and ISI’s Vice President for the Collegiate Network, discusses the possibility of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as a future Democratic nominee for president. McCarthy debates whether the messages that she and Sen. Bernie Sanders espouse will have sticking power with the American electorate.
McCarthy reasons that President Donald Trump successfully demonstrated the power of populism on the right, achieving victory in 2016 and 2024 with a new coalition of voters. And he notes that Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris each failed to defeat Trump while relying on the power of “respectability” and the establishment. McCarthy argues that populism has worked before for Democrats—pointing to Bill Clinton’s 1992 win and Barack Obama’s 2008 primary success.
But in order to succeed, McCarthy thinks Ocasio-Cortez will have to make her messaging non-ideological and pro-common sense. She would have to shun extreme issues, like “gender, immigration, and defunding the police,” to do so, and McCarthy isn’t sure if she’ll be able to capitalize.
What do you think? Read McCarthy’s article here
[link removed]
to learn more.
Read Now
[link removed]
[link removed]
CATEGORY: VIDEO
The Gilded Age & Westward Expansion with Miles Smith
[link removed]
In this engaging episode of Conservative Conversations
[link removed]
, Tom Sarrouf sits down with historian and scholar Miles Smith to explore the transformative era of the Gilded Age and Westward Expansion. They discuss the economic growth that characterized the late 19th century, the development of new industries, and the rise of America as an economic power.
Smith and Sarrouf also delve into the complexities of the relationship between the North and South during this period, examining the lasting effects of the Civil War, regional economic disparities, and the shifting political landscape. This conversation offers a deep dive into a pivotal moment in American history, unpacking the forces that shaped the nation's future and laid the groundwork for the 20th century.
Watch Now
[link removed]
Because our student editors and writers are bravely bringing conservative ideas to their campuses, we’re highlighting their efforts here.
Former Solicitor General Prelogar Speaks at W&L Law School
[link removed]
via The W&L Spectator
“‘You are charged with zealously advocating for that client’s interests’ and ‘everyone deserves a defense’ are two components of the legal ethos ingrained in Professor Elizabeth Prelogar’s head at a young age by her father’s time as a lawyer. Yet Prelogar, the former United States solicitor general under President Biden, spent nearly four years defending not one client but the entire federal government. Defending the federal government was one of the many challenges of her former role, which Professor Elizabeth Prelogar shared with a packed Millhiser Moot Court Room. Invited to speak at the annual Lewis F. Powell, Jr. Distinguished Lecture, the student-led introduction noted that Prelogar ‘embodied Justice Powell’s spirit of legal excellence and commitment to the institution of the Supreme Court.’”
Wake Forest Baseball: A Midseason Review
[link removed]
via The Wake Report
“Wake Forest Baseball came off two straight losses for the first time this season prior to their 12-10 victory today against Clemson. Sitting at 7-1 in the ACC (19-5 overall), this weekend’s series against the Tigers could not be more pivotal for the Demon Deacons. About halfway through the season, Wake has fought tooth-and-nail to maintain its current ranking of 11th on D1baseball.com’s Top 25 list. After a severely underwhelming performance in last year’s postseason tournament, the stakes are high. Whether or not Tom Walter’s team raises itself to meet its lofty expectations this year depends entirely on the ability for his newly-revamped team to keep its head on the grindstone down the stretch this Spring. Perhaps Wake’s success in the ACC this year can be majorly attributed to its star-studded offensive trio, consisting of Junior SS Marek Houston, Junior OF Ethan Conrad, and the team’s current Sophomore DH Kade Lewis. The three have contributed a combined .414
average, 21 HR, and 97 RBI this season, and also lead all others on the team with OPS numbers of 1.239 or higher. Additionally, Houston and Conrad are achieving special attention across the country as members of the incoming MLB draft class.”
Ready for War: Kotlikoff Named President
[link removed]
via The Cornell Review
“On Friday, March 21, Michael I. Kotlikoff was named 15th President. The full Board of Trustees voted on his elevation from Interim President at their March meeting in Ithaca. In 2024, Martha Pollack decided to retire and approached Kotlikoff to be Interim President for the 2024-25 and 2025-26 academic years. During that second year, Cornell would conduct a nationwide search for a permanent replacement. The unspoken rationale was that the campus was in turmoil in the Spring of 2024 and that many currents would be settled down by the time the Presidential search would be conducted in 2025-26. However, with new challenges to higher education raised in Washington, in both the Congress and the Executive Branch, the amount of conflict has increased, and Cornell will be in more of a crisis in 2026 than in 2023-24.”
Mapleton 8th Grade English Guide Suggests Students Write Sexual Content, Kept Quiet from Parents
[link removed]
via The Cougar Chronicle
“A guide given to 8th-grade students in a Mapleton Junior High School English class contained suggestions to include sexually inappropriate interactions between story characters, according to documents shared by a concerned parent. The guide, disseminated by Mr. Austin Andruski, encouraged students in a creative writing section to develop characters with a variety of ‘love languages,’ including ‘physical touch,’ described as ‘feeling or expressing love through physical touch & accessibility, including kissing, cuddling, holding hands, and sex.’ Another portion of the guide encouraged inserting ‘numbing’ behaviors of characters, such as ‘alcohol, drugs, and sex.’ According to Nebo School District policy, sexual content, including ‘the intricacies of intercourse, sexual stimulation, or erotic behavior” and ‘the advocacy of premarital or extramarital sexual activity,’ may not be taught in schools; this includes the prohibition of sexual content in the form of
‘instructional materials, direct instruction, or online instruction.’”
UChicago Lost Money on Crypto, Then Froze Research When Federal Funding Was Cut
[link removed]
via The Stanford Review
“While Stanford responded to the federal funding research freeze by halting administrative hiring and protecting research, the University of Chicago panicked. On January 28, hours after the Trump administration announced the first round of grant cancellations (which was later scaled back before being renewed last week), UChicago administrators sent out an alarming directive to researchers at the school: ‘We are requesting that all University researchers working on federal grants temporarily suspend their non-personnel spending on [sic] federal grants as much as possible during this period of substantial uncertainty. For example, do not make any additional spending commitments, purchase new supplies or equipment, start new experiments, embark on funded travel, etc.’”
CATEGORY: CULTURE (12 MIN)
The need for speed
[link removed]
What’s your dream car? If you haven’t been asked that before, you may have at least thought about the question. Perhaps it’s a retro classic like a 1960s Aston Martin (the choice of James Bond) or a modern innovation like a McLaren GTS. No matter what you chose, there’s a very good chance that you picked something with “streamlines and smooth, shining surfaces.”
For this week’s article from the Modern Age
[link removed]
website, we travel back in time to the Summer 1959 edition of Modern Age and an article by Helmut Schoeck, a German sociologist. Schoeck discussed the advent of the streamline and how technological advances changed the Western conception of beauty. Schoeck saw this manifesting itself in cars, planes, ships, decorations, and even font choices.
Schoeck argued that no one (in 1959) would grow up without knowing about and getting used to the streamlined form—toys and art would never be the same. Schoeck traced the advent of the streamline to an innate desire in man: the need for speed.
“It is man’s desire to thrust across land, sea, and through the air with a minimum of resistance—in other words, man’s longing for the utmost speed—that caused decisive changes in our system of esthetic values in engineering,” Schoeck wrote. “We entered the age of streamlined technology.”
And this contrasted with older cultures, which Schoeck said focused on “simple geometric forms.” He asked whether the change to streamlines would help art, or if it instead would make art “barren,” reliant only on “the rhythm of perfectionist technology.”
Read Schoeck’s thoughts here
[link removed]
on the Modern Age website.
Read Now
[link removed]
Thought of the Day:
“You will never understand bureaucracies until you understand that for bureaucrats procedure is everything and outcomes are nothing.”
- Thomas Sowell
Join ISI’s new Alumni Giving Club
It’s never been easier for you to support our mission—and stay part of our community—with ISI’s new Alumni Giving Club!
For just $19.53 a month, you can join the fight and “pay it forward” by educating the next generation for ordered liberty.
Join the Club
[link removed]
Follow on Twitter Friend on Facebook Forward to Friend
Copyright © 2025, All rights reserved.
Our mailing address is:
Intercollegiate Studies Institute
3901 Centerville Road
Wilmington, DE 19807
unsubscribe from all emails
[link removed]
update subscription preferences
[link removed]
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