NAS member William Pannapacker (writing under the pen name Thomas H. Benton) has another insightful article in the Chronicle of Higher Education, "A Perfect Storm in Undergraduate Education, Part I." It touches on many of the same issues Jason Fertig raises in his interview with Inside Academia. Pannapacker asserts that a number of powerful forces have come together at the same time to produce an environment where academic rigor is nearly impossible:
- Lack of student preparation
- Grade inflation
- Student retention
- Student evaluation of teachers
- Enrollment minimums
- Contingent teaching
- Time constraints
- Curricular chaos
- Demoralized faculty members
