These Schools Say Helene Showed Why It Pays To Be Small by Matt Hartman

I found cause a little more than a week ago to write a bit about how much my heart aches for Western North Carolina as they strain to recover from the devastation caused by Hurricane Helene. I have also been inspired — and, I feel compelled to add, not at all surprised — by the amazing ways the majority of people in the community have stepped up in support of one another. I’m especially heartened to see that Warren Wilson College, the innovative institution of higher learning where I was proud to work for eight years, has responded in precisely the way I would have expected, with faculty, staff, and students locking into the stirring solidarity of the problem-solving mode that is the place’s default setting. Writing for The Assembly, Matt Hartman includes Warren Wilson College in his recounting of how small colleges in the area are persevering under the trying circumstances brought by the storm.

Kamala Harris Isn’t Talking About Being the First Female President. History Suggests That’s the Right Move by Melissa Blair

When I worked at Warren Wilson College, Melissa Blair was one of my favorite faculty members to collaborate with, and I’ve been wowed by the amazing scholarship she’s done around U.S. women’s history in recent years, especially two recent books on the subject. She is exact right person to offer informed commentary on the significance of Kamala Harris’s current candidacy for the presidency of the United States. Time magazine clearly understands that, too. They published Blair’s recent column about Harris’s shrewd choice to downplay the historic first she would achieve if elected and instead concentrate of presenting herself as simply the best person for the job.