Jennifer A. Frey
@jennfrey
Philosopher @utulsa fellow @HumanEcologyCUA host @eudaimoniapod board @CLT_Exam. Bylines @wsj @nytimes Mother to many. Frequently argues w/ @FreyChristopher.
I wrote about the lack of administrative support for the liberal arts in @nytimes. The standard story we hear is that students don't want it. But a darker reality is that even when it wins big with students and donors it loses with those in power. nytimes.com/2025/07/17/opi…
Amen, my sister. I see my students transformed every day by liberal leaning, and across the country I see the powerful wrecking the paths to it, without shame and without consequences.
I wrote about the lack of administrative support for the liberal arts in @nytimes. The standard story we hear is that students don't want it. But a darker reality is that even when it wins big with students and donors it loses with those in power. nytimes.com/2025/07/17/opi…
My friend @jennfrey 100%: “It’s not that liberal learning is out of step w/ student demand. It’s out of step w/ the priorities, values & desires of a board of trustees w/ no commitment to liberal ed & an admin class that won’t fight for liberal arts” nytimes.com/2025/07/17/opi…
My former dean from Tulsa, @jennfrey, is in @nytopinion with a powerful set of reflections on her time there and the program that she built (and to which I contributed in my small way). Although the piece is full of deep claims about the nature of liberal learning...
CrowdSource this week! THE GREAT BOOKS 📚 ➡️ The End of Tulsa Honors (@jennfrey) ➡️ Canon Controversies (@zenahitz, @scholars_stage, Anika Prather, Dan-El Padilla, @rooseveltmontas) ➡️ "A Different Order" (@chezaristote, Thomas Merton, Mark van Doren) ➡️ Alternatives…
High-Status Men Are Attracted to Ambitious Women ifstudies.org/blog/high-stat… @lymanstoneky
Bless his heart.
Hot take: Europe is a bunch of third-world countries with better branding. No A/C. No dryers. Ice is a luxury. You’ll sweat through dinner while the waiter ignores you for 2 hours. Say what you want about America, but at least eating out doesn’t feel like hot yoga with bread.
Congratulations - you knew a stupid physicist.
One time, a physicist I know dismissed the entire field of philosophy with one simple declaration, and I still love him for it. “If we can’t know, it doesn’t matter.”
I’m now hearing that the administration is proposing reducing the division to eight departments and also toying with the idea of eliminating and outsourcing language instruction. A rumor is also going around that doctoral admissions will be cancelled for next year.
Not entirely sure what’s happening at Chicago yet, but it’s happening fast and largely in secret—I’ve heard the provost has ordered the dean to consolidate depts in the humanities div with fewer than 15 TT faculty. Could be the end of some very important depts and PhD programs
If I were a 15 year old lad, sure.
would you sign on to a 19th century whaling ship for 5 years if you'd be able to buy a house at the end of the term?
Not entirely sure what’s happening at Chicago yet, but it’s happening fast and largely in secret—I’ve heard the provost has ordered the dean to consolidate depts in the humanities div with fewer than 15 TT faculty. Could be the end of some very important depts and PhD programs
University of Tulsa students have started a petition to save their Honors College and have asked me to share with my followers here. If you are inclined to support these students in their goal to recover what was lost, you can sign here: change.org/Protect_UTulsa…
Congratulations to the University of South Carolina, the latest flagship state university to establish a major academic program on civic life and leadership. sc.edu/uofsc/posts/20…
On this episode of Anchored, @jennfrey shares the story behind her recently published New York Times op-ed, "Students Want the Liberal Arts. Administrators, Not So Much." Frey reflects on her abrupt dismissal as Dean of the Honors College at the University of Tulsa—despite…
“It’s so hard to get authentic liberal education in today’s academy, because even when it wins, it loses.” We spoke to @jennfrey about the decision to gut the Honors College at the University of Tulsa. Full episode linked below.
Novelist & philosopher, Dame Iris Murdoch, would have been 106 today. To celebrate her life and remember her birthday, explore an issue of MFS including a 1987 interview. #ReadUP - bit.ly/lirismurdoch Thank you @JHUPress
I don't want affirmative action for conservatives. I want higher ed to admit, reject, & move on from its nearly hegemonic affirmative action for progressives & its systemic, reflexive, sometimes explicit bias against non-progressives. That Morton can write this sentence & not…
I know one of these guys who is at a university and I think he’s doing fine despite his rhyming, Thomist ways.
most universities & colleges surely have faculty members who are contrarians? liberals & progressives are always quarreling with one another; "the left eats its own"; hiring conservatives per se will result in very lop-sided resumés especially in the sciences. really, research…
Judging from this NYT op ed piece, Professor Morton is a well-intentioned person. To her credit, she admits that there needs to be more grappling with conservative perspectives on college and university campuses. She doesn't seem to understand, however, that the non-strawman…