June 2024 Round-Up
LIKE IT NEVER LEFT: Columbia students re-occupy campus as alumni weekend begins.
Columbia University anti-Israel students have re-occupied a portion of the south lawn after it was dismantled by police nearly a month ago. The encampment was set up by Columbia University Apartheid Divest, which was one of the groups behind the previous encampment. Read the article.
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito delivered a commencement address at Franciscan University,
a private Catholic school in Steubenville, Ohio, addressing what he saw as the deteriorating state of American higher education, among other themes. He praised the U. S. Constitution: “I think that our Constitution is the best the world has ever seen . . . I believe that our Constitution could not have endured and could not have provided the framework for our country’s growth if it did not rest on a deep understanding of human nature and human behavior.” He warned of attacks on First Amendment freedoms. Read the article.
The election is heating up, but Trump resonates with Gen Z voters.
In a recent appearance on ‘Fox & Friends,’ Campus Reform Student Spokesperson Emily Sturge shared that Gen Z values (President Trump’s) “openness and realized that Donald Trump is the type of leader we want in the White House, because more members of my generation are waking up and realizing that our lives were actually better under Donald Trump than they are under Joe Biden,” she added.” Read more here.
Colleges’ “Group Purity” Crisis
Students and faculty on elite campuses tend to see the world in terms of opposing groups: us and them, black and white, good and evil, and, most importantly, oppressor and oppressed. A decades-old sociological concept explains much about this spring’s campus upheavals. Learn more here.
Standing Up for What’s Right
Your weekly report on education news by Mike LaChance at Legal Insurrection.
Free speech group, Speech First, files lawsuit against public university over ‘bias response team’
Indiana University is violating students’ First and 14th Amendment rights through its “far-reaching” bias reporting policy, a civil rights organization alleges. Read more here.
LIKE IT NEVER LEFT: Columbia students re-occupy campus as alumni weekend begins.
Columbia University anti-Israel students have re-occupied a portion of the south lawn after it was dismantled by police nearly a month ago. The encampment was set up by Columbia University Apartheid Divest, which was one of the groups behind the previous encampment. Read the article.
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito delivered a commencement address at Franciscan University,
a private Catholic school in Steubenville, Ohio, addressing what he saw as the deteriorating state of American higher education, among other themes. He praised the U. S. Constitution: “I think that our Constitution is the best the world has ever seen . . . I believe that our Constitution could not have endured and could not have provided the framework for our country’s growth if it did not rest on a deep understanding of human nature and human behavior.” He warned of attacks on First Amendment freedoms. Read the article.
The election is heating up, but Trump resonates with Gen Z voters.
In a recent appearance on ‘Fox & Friends,’ Campus Reform Student Spokesperson Emily Sturge shared that Gen Z values (President Trump’s) “openness and realized that Donald Trump is the type of leader we want in the White House, because more members of my generation are waking up and realizing that our lives were actually better under Donald Trump than they are under Joe Biden,” she added.” Read more here.
Colleges’ “Group Purity” Crisis
Students and faculty on elite campuses tend to see the world in terms of opposing groups: us and them, black and white, good and evil, and, most importantly, oppressor and oppressed. A decades-old sociological concept explains much about this spring’s campus upheavals. Learn more here.
Standing Up for What’s Right
Your weekly report on education news by Mike LaChance at Legal Insurrection.
Free speech group, Speech First, files lawsuit against public university over ‘bias response team’
Indiana University is violating students’ First and 14th Amendment rights through its “far-reaching” bias reporting policy, a civil rights organization alleges. Read more here.
PREVIOUSLY
- “Professor Jenkins: “Leftists are wrong. Western culture is not white supremacy”
“For decades, leftists have described anyone and anything they don’t like as ‘racist.’ But maybe they’ve cried wolf a little too often; the word seems to be losing its pejorative power. More and more, people are coming to understand that if everything is racist, nothing is racist. Clearly, the Left needs a new insult.” Read the article. - The University of Virginia as highly organized tours, staffed by a number of eager and willing volunteer students.... The goal of these tours would seem to be to humiliate the memory of Thomas Jefferson, the University, and even the state of Virginia, as much as possible. I can’t imagine why anyone would want to go to the University after having one of these tours.... Read more here.
- “Upstart conservative student newspaper at U. of Alabama will tackle ‘DEI’” - “The inaugural print issue will focus on “the fall of tradition and the rise of DEI in its place,” Ginger Morrow, Capstone Free Press editor-in-chief and co-founder, told The Fix via email on December 12.” Read more here.
- “Think tank determines nation’s best, worst states on ROI for college degrees” - “A think tank that ranked the nation’s state public universities based on return on investment found that the best states include South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Kansas and Pennsylvania. Read more here
- “Congressional campus free speech roundtable brings together representatives, free speech advocates” - "In a recent press release, Rep. Greg Murphy discussed the Congressional Campus Free Speech Roundtable, an event at the U.S. Capitol addressing “First Amendment concerns in post-secondary education.” Current college students joined organizations for the second annual roundtable. Participating organizations included Young America's Foundation (YAF), the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), current college students, and members of the Alumni Free Speech Alliance (AFSA).” Read the article here.
- “Watch the March For Life 2023, Jan 24, 2023” - “Campus Reform's Shaila Mehta walked with pro-life demonstrators at this year's March for Life in Washington, DC. Many walked with signs reading "I am the post-Roe generation" and "choose life." Others offered insight into the pro-life movement's role in a post-Roe America.” Watch the video here.
- Stanford University's IT department introduced its Elimination of Harmful Language Initiative in May, and on Monday, the EHLI published a long list of words that it says could be considered harmful, KTLA sister station KRON reports. Read more here.
- UC Berkeley students respond to question: "Should San Francisco Guarantee Income for Trans People?" Watch the video here.
- "Cambridge Dictionary changes definition of ‘man’ and ‘woman’ Cambridge Dictionary is being blasted by critics online for revising the definition of “man” and “woman” to include people who do not identify with the sex they were assigned at birth." Read the article here.
- ‘You Are Not Alone’: "New Conservative Student Newspapers Challenge Liberal Narratives On Campus" Read article here.
- "5 times leftist activists wanted to rewrite American history this year" Read the list here.
- Texas H.B. 1006, states clearly that “each institution of higher education has the general responsibility to foster a diversity of viewpoints” and to “maintain political, social and cultural neutrality.” Read the article here.
- "California College Approves Electronic Security System to Bar White Males From Nonwhite 'Safe Space'" Pomona College, an elite private school in Southern CA, has a lounge meant only for students of color and maybe some white women. Read article here.
- "This is what forgiving students loans will do" Will Witt from PragerU explains
- "Bachelor’s degrees have become optional for more jobs across industries" "The shift comes as demand for workers remains high and unemployment is low,” TheJournal reported." Read article here.
- "University Bans Conservative Student Group’s Pro-Gun Signs, Security Escorts Regional Director Off Campus" "Creighton University, a private college in Nebraska, told a conservative student group they could not use a pro-gun sign at a recruiting event this November, according to emails obtained exclusively by the Daily Caller." Read article here.
- "Cancel Culture's War on History, Heritage and the Freedom to Think for Yourself" "Those who do not fall in line with this government-sanctioned group think—who resist, who dare to think for themselves, who dare to adopt views that are different, or possibly wrong or hateful—are branded as extremists, belligerents, and deplorables, and shunned, censored and silenced." Read more here.
- ‘Ethics’ app at Clemson allows students to instantaneously report on each other with texts, videos. "Students at Clemson University can now anonymously report real or perceived misconduct by peers, faculty or staff with a single text." Read the article here.
- Jury awards $645,837 to Auburn professor demoted for criticizing lax degree standards. "Stern had sued the university for retaliating against him when he criticized the preservation of an easy major for the sake of athletics." Read the article here.
- "Biden admin seeks to take student debt cancellation to Supreme Court" Read article here.
- Campus Reform Correspondents, Kale Ogunbor and Melissa Da Gama: "Social Media played large role in surge of Gen Z Voters" Watch the Video here.
- Judge strikes down Biden's student loan bailout: 'We are not ruled by an all-powerful executive' Read more here.
- "Harvard Mandates New COVID-19 booster, Threatens Holds on Enrollment if Students Don't Comply" Read more here.
- "New report warns dozens of universities violate students’ due process right"s"Nearly two thirds of America’s “top” 53 universities do not guarantee that students will be presumed innocent until proven guilty on misconduct charges" Read more here.
- Update on "Unlawful Censorship" article below: Judge strikes down speech code at California Community College. Watch the video here.
- "Ian Haworth slams 'absolutely absurd' violent student protest at University of New Mexico" See the video here.
- Learn more about Defending Student Rights on College and University Campuses here.
- ‘What is a Woman’ campus stop prompts drama, debate: ‘We are living through a period of mass psychosis’ Read the article here.
- "Lecture Series aims to uncancel Christopher Columbus, 'rectify' his legacy" A series of lectures that began in early September and continued through this month aimed to challenge — and debunk — the argument that Christopher Columbus was a racist, colonizing murderer. Read more here.
- Medical Students recite woke pledge during white coat ceremony. Read the article here.
- "Progressive Law School Implements 'Jewish-Free Zones' Read the article here.
- Texas A&M University "hit with class-action lawsuit over race-based hiring priorities" - Read the article here.
- Higher education is implementing 'diversity, equity, and inclusion' initiatives to vet students/faculty rather than evaluating them on merit - Read the article here.
- Government is the cause, not solution, to the dramatically rising cost of college - Read the article here.
- "Is Radical Campus Leftism Creating More Conservatives?" Listen to the episode on the Federalist Radio Hour