Free Republic

The number of reported sexual assaults at colleges and universities around the country is rising amid new tools for students to report sexual abuse, according to statistics reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. In the data from the National Center for Education Statistics, the Journal reports that trends of reported sexual assaults are rising while the number of lawsuits universities face over mishandling such claims is also rising. University officials now say that conflicting guidance from courts, the Obama administration, and the Trump administration on battling sexual assault on campus have left schools confused over how to handle such claims....

Many of the nation's colleges have become a force for evil and a focal point for the destruction of traditional American values. The threat to our future lies in the fact that today's college students are tomorrow's teachers, professors, judges, attorneys, legislators and policymakers. A recent Brookings Institution poll suggests that nearly half of college students believe that hate speech is not protected by the First Amendment. Of course, it is. Fifty-one percent of students think that it's acceptable to shout down a speaker with whom they disagree. About 20 percent of students hold that it's acceptable to use violence...

The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) issued a statement taking issue with a recent Trump Administration policy reversing an Obama policy pushing racial diversity guidelines. “The Administration’s policy of encouraging universities receiving federal aid to focus solely on merit when deciding which students to admit leaves us deeply concerned,” the statement reads. “The assumption that competence is more important than diversity when determining who will be allowed to practice medicine is a departure from the directive given by the immediately previous administration.” “We don’t deny that that competence should play a role in the process, but it should not...

Cabot Phillips of Campus Reform interviewed students at New York University to test the truth of a Gallup Poll showing a sharp decline in young Americans who are proud of their country. Sadly, the responses he received aren’t surprising. Student after student made it clear: they were not. “No! I’m not proud of America. I’m not proud of what we’ve done,” said one student, while another simply declared, “definitely not.” One student, addressing the concept of American Exceptionalism, said “I think we need to stop thinking we’re the best nation on Earth. It’s just egotistical and not accurate.” When asked...

You may not realize it, but you are currently funding some dangerous people. They are indoctrinating young minds throughout the West with their resentment-ridden ideology. They have made it their life's mission to undermine Western civilization itself, which they regard as corrupt, oppressive and “patriarchal.” If you're a taxpayer—or paying for your kid's liberal arts degree—you're underwriting this gang of nihilists. You're supporting ideologues who claim that all truth is subjective; that all sex differences are socially constructed; and that Western imperialism is the sole source of all Third World problems. They are the post-modernists, pushing “progressive” activism at a...

Hey guys, if you’ve both been drinking, don’t take her back to your place. Because the rules are different for you and her. Now you can add ‘prison record’ to pregnancy and disease as risks you take in the hookup culture. Waking up in bed with a stranger could lead to criminal charges. Well, for the guy, anyway. That’s because Feminism is awfully selective in which parts of the law they want to women to be equal under. One female student didn’t take her school’s mandatory (and sketchy) sexual training course and was threatened with ‘academic probation’. Here’s what she...

Florida lawmakers have passed a bill that eliminates “free speech zones” at public universities and allows schools to be sued for restricting campus protests. The Florida Excellence in Higher Education Act of 2018 passed Monday in the House and Senate by votes of 84-28 and 33-5, respectively, sending it to Governor Rick Scott’s desk where it awaits his approval. Introduced by state Rep. Bob Rommel, Naples Republican, the bill contains a provision that prohibits public universities from establishing so-called “free speech zones” and instead designates generally all outdoor campus areas as “traditional public forums,” effectively keeping colleges from restricting protest...

Government in the name of order, control, efficiency, organization, the greatest good for the greatest number, solidarity, social justice, and safety is instead ruling over a society that is increasingly disordered, crime-ridden, unjust, and disturbed to an extreme. A word that describes the direction of our acceleration through space and time is anarchy. The momentum toward anarchy began with the move toward federal government expansion. During Woodrow Wilson's presidency, we began to see the implementation of what is now called the administrative state. This was helped along by our participation in WWI, which created the need for more governmental controls....

A professor pilloried for her views asks if it's still possible to have substantive arguments about divisive issues. ...... The op-ed, which I co-authored with Larry Alexander of the University of San Diego Law School, appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer on Aug. 9 under the headline, “Paying the Price for the Breakdown of the Country’s Bourgeois Culture.” It began by listing some of the ills afflicting American society: ...... We then discussed .. a list of behavioral norms—that was almost universally endorsed between the end of World War II and the mid-1960s: Get married before having children and strive to...

“I have had enough bullshit,” wrote Notre Dame sociology professor Christian Smith in a recent piece about the systemic problems of American Higher Education. “The manure has piled up so deep in the hallways, classrooms, and administration buildings of American higher education that I am not sure how much longer I can wade through it and retain my sanity and integrity.” This forward, in-your-face commentary on the state of today’s higher education caught the attention of many in the realm of the Ivory bell tower, but should also serve as a wake-up call to those who don’t follow higher ed...

The notion of academic rigor has fallen on evil times. In a typical instance of continuing epistemic degradation, Donna Riley, of Purdue University's School of Engineering Education, insists that rigor must be eliminated since rigor is a "dirty deed" fraught with "exclusionary implications for marginalized groups and marginalized ways of knowing." It matters little, apparently, if our bridges collapse so long as "men of color and women, students with disabilities, LGBTQ+ people, first-generation and low-income students" are welcomed into the new holistic community defined by "other ways of knowing" – whatever these may be. Similarly, Rochelle Gutierrez, of the University...

Women are more likely to have been sexually assaulted by the age of 44 if they didn’t go to college, according to a new study from the University of Michigan. The study, spearheaded by sociology professor and researcher William Axinn, found that the risk of “experiencing forced intercourse” is more than 2.5 times greater for women who’ve attended little or no college. After more than six years’ intense focus on a purported campus rape crisis, Axinn’s study exposes the Obama administration’s Title IX regime for the elitist and politically-motivated overcorrection it was. Axinn and his team analyzed data from the...

SAN DIEGO—Anthony Rodriguez recalled sitting in a remedial math class at Grossmont College, bored out of his mind. The professor was teaching basic math skills that the 18-year-old had already learned in high school. Rodriguez was forced into remedial math by the community college’s placement test, which assesses a student’s ability to succeed in for-credit, higher-education classes. Rodriguez’s placement-test scores dictated at least a year of these low-level math courses. They cost the same as regular classes but don’t count toward a bachelor’s degree. Each week, Rodriguez watched as fewer and fewer classmates showed up. Eventually, he dropped out too....

NEWARK -- Essex County College's accrediting agency issued its most severe rebuke yet to the institution on Monday, citing the college's ongoing troubles and placing it on probation. The escalated action moves the college one step closer toward having its accreditation revoked, which would mean students are no longer eligible for federal financial aid and in most cases would be unable to afford attending the school and ending a revenue stream that could shut the college's doors. Losing accreditation is very rare but for Essex County College, which serves more than 10,000 students and employs 500 people, the consequences could...

This charade is really about is California Democrats and the left conflating a spurious rise in "racial strife" to the 2016 presidential campaign and President Donald Trump Last week the California State Senate held the second committee hearing in two weeks on “hate speech” couched as “Violent Protests and Police Response.” Democrats were once again seeking approval for legislation on thought crimes. This is a dangerous path as countries without a First Amendment have demonstrated. Writer Andrew Sullivan says, “writers and speakers are now routinely hauled into court for hurting someone’s feelings or violating some new PC edict. In Canada,...

Brenda Tracy (left), talks with Sen. Jeff Merkley, Ron Wyden and PSU President... Oregon’s colleges and universities must resist any Trump administration plans to walk back federal rules directing how schools respond to sexual assaults on campus. That was the takeaway from a Monday morning roundtable discussion at Portland State University. Oregon Democratic Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley and sexual assault survivor Brenda Tracy held an informal discussion with PSU Title IX leaders and sexual assault prevention staffers. The meeting came less than a month after Education Secretary Betsy DeVos rescinded Obama-era guidelines on how schools should handle...

Besides defending his father, Trump Jr used much of his 35-minute address to mock the culture on most of the nation’s college campuses, which he said teaches young Americans to “hate their country” and “hate their religion” while squelching conservative voices. He noted instances where conservatives have been denied speaking opportunities or encountered protests upon their appearances. “Today’s conservative speech is violence. Unprovoked liberal violence is self-defense,” Trump Jr complained. “Words have lost their meanings.” He continued: “‘Hate speech’ is that America is a good country ... that we need borders ... anything that comes out of the mouth of...

For about a century, intellectuals, especially those who teach, have been looking for philosopher kings. When the objects of their affections turn out to be thugs, they rarely admit it. "In the twenty-first century, generalized affirmations of socialism, Marxism, and anti-capitalism remain widespread among Western intellectuals without anyone specifying when and where those ideas were, would or could be realized," Paul Hollander writes in his new book, From Benito Mussolini to Hugo Chavez: Intellectuals and a Century of Political Hero Worship. "It is difficult at the present time to find academics intellectuals ready to identify and locate such a system."...

A Bridgewater State University assistant professor is expressing regret after his post-election rant slamming President Trump and his supporters made headlines. . . . “F– Donald Trump,” and “F– ANYONE who voted for Donald Trump,” a now-deleted Nov. 10 post by Mr. Nichols read. A Nov. 11 post, which has since been deleted, featured a picture of the Ku Klux Klan and Mr. Nichols‘ comment that read: “Trump voters, you belong in this parade.”

A female author subjected to a Title IX tribunal for questioning rape culture in an article is now the subject of a SECOND tribunal for writing “Unwanted Advances: Sexual Paranoia Comes to Campus”, a book that includes a description of her first Title IX tribunal.