Tackling the Scourge of Christian Nationalism

The notion of Christian Nationalism reflects a "willful disregard" for the First Amendment, said one area educator.(Lee Edwin Coursey | The Fletcher Forum of World Affairs)

In recent decades, Christian Nationalism’s warped ideas have begun to attract the attention of scholars and teachers at universities and seminaries here in the Heartland. They’re trying to understand both its appeal and its dangers and to give students the tools necessary to make their own judgments about whether it’s good old basic Americanism or,…

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College Students Grapple with Housing Troubles as Costs Soar

A photo of a dormitory hall. At the foreground of the photo is a green lawn with a curved sidewalk path cutting through it on the left side of the photo. The dormitory is a red color and stretches horizontally across the photo. A large tree partially covers the right side of the building.

Sydney Johnson did everything right. Still, water poured from her ceiling.  The now-graduated University of Missouri student spent winter break taking classes and staying at her off-campus apartment. A few weeks earlier, property management sent instructions for how to avoid pipe bursts during cold months, which Johnson followed.  But her upstairs neighbors were not so…

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Kansas Community Colleges Reaching a Crossroads

A tiger statue at Cowley College in Arkansas City, Kansas.

Kansas’ 19 community colleges offer a pathway for 96,000 students to pursue postsecondary studies. But precipitous enrollment declines, aging campuses and funding struggles cloud the future of these institutions, which are often economic linchpins in small cities.

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