Free Republic

Scientists finally re-analyzed the study and found that it was riddled with errors—but that didn’t matter then because it furthered the narrative. In America, an inordinate number of so-called “scientific” studies are subject to what’s called the “replication (or reproducibility) crisis.” If someone publishes a study that feeds into leftist shibboleths, no matter how poorly done the study is (small sampling, foolish assumptions, bad math, etc.), the results are widely trumpeted and become embedded in the popular consciousness. That the study cannot be replicated (run again from scratch) or reproduced (subject to a new analysis of the study’s data)—and often...

The radical Cornell University prof who lauded the Hamas terror attack on Israel as “exhilarating” and “energizing” dodged any punishment and is now back teaching at the upstate Ivy League school. Shamed history Professor Russell Rickford was out for the past year on “voluntary leave” after widespread public outcry when he was recorded at an off-campus anti-Israel rally cheering Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, invasion that slaughtered 1,200 Israelis. ““It was exhilarating, it was energizing ….I was exhilarated,” Rickford said at the time — before apologizing for applauding the mass murder of innocent civilians. ... Rickford is now teaching at least...

Yesterday, I pointed out that while a number of elite colleges and universities had released data on their enrollment after the end of Affirmative Action, Harvard had not. This seemed strange given that a) Harvard was one of two defendants in the case which eventually ended Affirmative Action and b) Harvard said it would release the data after the deadline to commit in May and yet four months later it hadn't done so.Today, Harvard finally released that data and the results do show a decline in black enrollment but also an uptick in Hispanic enrollment.The share of Black students declined...

Teaching was my second career. I enjoyed teaching high school and college English, but there were frustrations. Among them were college teachers and administrators complaining about how unprepared incoming freshmen were. I know what you’re thinking: plenty of high school teachers are awful. It’s their fault when kids entering college can’t read or write or do math. Without question, there are some poor teachers out there. After all, 50% of people in every endeavor are below average. However, there are two arguably more important factors to consider. The first is the effort of each student. The greatest teacher in the...

For second consecutive year, Harvard bottom ranked school with score of 0.00 The top five worst universities for free speech also all happen to be mostly Ivy League institutions, according to a major new student survey released today by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. Harvard, Columbia, New York University, the University of Pennsylvania and Barnard College made up the bottom five schools, respectively. Conversely, the top rated school was the University of Virginia. Last year’s highest, Michigan Technological University, came in second best for free speech. In third place was Florida State University, and fourth and fifth were...

Robin DiAngelo, the best-selling author of White Fragility, is a big believer in citing minorities. In an "accountability" statement on her website, which makes repeated reference to her Ph.D., DiAngelo, 67, tells "fellow white people" that they should "always cite and give credit to the work of BIPOC people who have informed your thinking." It doesn't matter if their contribution is just a few words. "When you use a phrase or idea you got from a BIPOC person," DiAngelo says, referring to black, indigenous, and other people of color, "credit them." But the white diversity trainer has not always taken...

The former student also told Alpha News that he submitted a report with the House Oversight Committee and spoke to a staffer for Rep. James Comer.. A man who says he joined Tim Walz on a trip to communist China is speaking out about his experience of traveling to the country with the future vice-presidential candidate. “It was almost a daily revelation of how much he adores the communist regime,” the former student told Alpha News. For over a decade, Tim Walz traveled to and from China. First arriving in the country in 1989, Walz taught at a high school...

Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang said China is directing the 'full power' of its industries toward AI ... Chinese government is spending three times as much as the U.S. government is to become the world’s undisputed AI leader. "The country that is able to most rapidly and effectively integrate new technology into warfighting wins. If we don’t win on AI, we risk ceding global influence, technology leadership and democracy to strategic adversaries like China," Alexandr Wang, CEO of Scale AI, told members of the House Armed Services Committee on Tuesday. "The Chinese Communist Party deeply understands the potential for AI...

Dem veep pick Tim Walz has fawned over his time living in China, saying he will “never” be treated as well as when he was in the Communist country and hailing the repressive regime’s lack of crime. The Minnesota governor spent 1989 to 1990 teaching school in China as a part of the WorldTeach program based out of Harvard University — one of the first Americans accepted into the program, according to the Star-Herald... “They gave me more gifts than I could bring home. It was an excellent experience,” Walz said,... Walz and his wife, Gwen Whipple, went on to...

Harvard University will be offering a course examining medieval texts by using “queer theory.”Harvard’s English department will be featuring a “Queer/Medieval” class in the upcoming spring 2025 semester. The course will be an “introduction to queer theory as an intellectual tool with which to read texts far removed from the political, cultural, and social discourses from which queer theory emerged,” specifically, in this case, medieval texts. “We will ask: what can queer theory offer readers of medieval literature in its explorations of gender, sexuality, race, power, narrative, trauma, and time?” the course description states.The course will use the lens of...

Derek Bok has served as president of Harvard twice, from 1971 to 1991 and again from 2006-07. He has written much about higher education and is by no means a reflexive defender of the status quo—see, for example, his The Struggle to Reform Our Colleges, which I reviewed here. Bok’s latest book is Attacking the Elites: What Critics Get Wrong—and Right—About America’s Leading Universities. He explains that his motivation for it was the absence of response from our “elite” higher-education institutions to the surge in criticism from both sides of our political divide. As his subtitle suggests, he thinks that...

Researchers from Harvard University recently explored the possibility of aliens walking among us on Earth. Although the study is independent and not directly linked to the university, it looks into the renewed fascination with UFOs. The government refers to these as Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena or UAPs. The United States is keeping an eye on over 650 possible UFOs, according to a Pentagon official last year. Harvard researchers Tim Lomas and Brendan Case, along with Michael Masters from Montana Technological University, have a new idea about UFOs. They suggest there might be a hidden, earth-based reason for these mysterious sightings, calling...

Harvard University has quietly reversed the suspensions of five students who violated campus policies in their anti-Israel, pro-Hamas, and antisemitic protests this spring, leading to dismay for Jews — and exultation among activists. One activist, Prince Williams, took to social media to boast about the lifting of his suspension, declaring it to be proof of the power of organizing, and repeating the genocidal slogan: “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” Harvard student Prince Williams took to Instagram to let everyone know that he is no longer suspended. “Make no mistake, the reversal of these charges are...

University hired 6 new DEI deans in 1 year The Massachusetts Institute of Technology added more than 1,200 new administrative/support staff positions in less than a decade – including six “diversity, equity, and inclusion” assistant deans in one year, a College Fix analysis found. Meanwhile, between 2013 and 2022, undergraduate student enrollment remained basically flat. The administrative hiring increase coincides with concerted efforts by the research university to “advanc[e] diversity, equity, and inclusion” throughout its programs. During the 2022-23 school year, the most recent data available, the university employed 6,693 full-time administrators and support staff, according to information the school...

A Harvard law student charged with assaulting an Israeli classmate during a confrontation at a protest has landed a top job with the public defender's office in Washington DC. Ibrahim Bharmal, an editor with the prestigious Harvard Law Review, was seen in a viral video allegedly accosting an Israeli student at a pro-Palestine 'die-in' protest in Harvard last October, just days after the attack by Hamas. The confrontation happened after an Israeli student was seen walking over protesters and recording their faces as they lay on the ground to protest Israel's actions in Gaza, according to The Harvard Crimson. Despite...

On Tuesday, Harvard officials announced that the university would adopt a formal stance of ideological neutrality on political events and other controversial issues. The decision comes after months of tumultuous campus protests over the war between Israel and Hamas. Earlier this month, a faculty-led working group published a report that strongly recommended adopting a neutral stance on topics that do not directly concern the university itself. "The university has a responsibility to speak out to protect and promote its core function. Its leaders must communicate the value of the university's central activities. They must defend the university's autonomy and academic...

On Thursday’s broadcast of Newsmax TV’s “The Record,” Harvard Law Professor Emeritus and Newsmax Legal Analyst Alan Dershowitz stated that if she shared his critiques of the conviction of 2024 Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump at Harvard Law, “I’d be booed, I’d be denied the right to come into my class, because they would love this verdict,” because “young lawyers today don’t care about justice. They just want their side to win.”

Sen. John Fetterman told Yeshiva University graduates Wednesday that he was “profoundly disappointed” in Harvard University’s inability to address antisemitism on campus before removing the ceremonial crimson academic hood representing his alma mater. The Pennsylvania Democrat expressed his disapproval with the Ivy League school during his commencement address for the private Orthodox Jewish university, which bestowed him with its “Hero of Israel” award, the institution’s highest honor. “I have been profoundly disappointed [in] Harvard’s inability to stand up for the Jewish community after Oct. 7,” Fetterman, 54, told the new grads at Louis Armstrong Stadium in Queens. “Personally, I do...

Harvard University announced yesterday (Tuesday) that it would no longer comment as an institution on issues that do not relate to its “core function” following the controversies surrounding the school's statements on the massacre of October 7 and the subsequent war between Israel and the Hamas terrorist organization. Interim Harvard President Alan M. Garber wrote in an email that Harvard would adopt the recommendation of a working group that the school not “issue official statements about public matters that do not directly affect the university’s core function.” “There will be close cases where reasonable people disagree about whether a given...

The entitled Harvard students who participated in the pro-Hamas campus encampments are in for a rude awakening that their mommy and daddy cannot bail them out of. Harvard’s Administrative Board has rejected a recommendation from faculty members to allow the 13 students who protested against Israel to graduate with their classmates. The seniors will not be allowed to graduate even if they are in good standing or have never faced a prior disciplinary action during their four years at the Ivy League school. 115 faculty members attended an annual FAS degree meeting where they argued against withholding degrees from the...