Free Republic

The Executive Leadership Series at Regent University is proud to present the Presidential Candidate Forums. Join us throughout the coming months at Regent University as we introduce some of our nation's top presidential candidates through a series of informative discussions and Q & A. The forums will provide candidates the opportunity to share their campaign platforms in a balanced, non-debate format. FREE Simulcast Due to the high demand for these events and the limited seating of our venue, all theater tickets for these events have been spoken for at this time. As an alternative, we invite you to join us...

Two weeks ago, the University released the final version of its diversity and inclusion action plan, which could not have been compiled without the exhaustive efforts of students throughout last semester. "There are people breaking down, dropping out of classes and failing classes because of the activism work they are taking on," said David, an undergraduate whose name has been changed to preserve anonymity. Throughout the year, he has worked to confront issues of racism and diversity on campus. His role as a student activist has taken a toll on his mental, physical and emotional health. "My grades dropped dramatically....

The funny thing about working in engineering is that your education is never really over. Innovation is constantly reshaping the concepts and processes you find in various areas of engineering, so the professionals focused on these fields have to be on their toes to learn the latest and greatest advancements. A decent chunk of this learning is done through experience, but sometimes you need to jump start it with a course or two. And who better to do that with than MIT, Boeing and NASA? That’s right: The biggest names in engineering are teaming up to develop the ultimate systems...

There are a number of significant challenges in higher education today, including rising costs, diminishing returns, and the stifling effects of runaway political correctness on academic inquiry. That being said, it’s not all bad news. In fact, there are a number of hopeful, emerging trends that promise to create new and expanded opportunities for students while fostering a healthier campus intellectual climate: 1. Declining Number of Applicants – The number of college applicants peaked in 2009… around the same time the number of jobs for graduates bottomed out. What a disaster! Since then, due to demographic realities, the number...

A growing number of colleges have made the SAT or ACT optional. And late last year, more than 80 colleges, including all eight in the Ivy League, announced the formation of the Coalition for Access, Affordability and Success, which is developing a website and application process intended in part to diversify student bodies. Colleges are becoming more conscious of their roles - too frequently neglected - in social mobility. They're recognizing how many admissions measures favor students from affluent families. They're realizing that many kids admitted into top schools are emotional wrecks or slavish adherents to soulless scripts that forbid...

Donald Trump frequently tells crowds that he went to Wharton, as a credential to prove that he is intelligent: "I went to the Wharton School of Business," he noted several times. "I'm, like, a really smart person." "Why do you have to tell us all the time that you went to Wharton?” moderator Chuck Todd asked. "People know you're successful." "They know it's a great business school," Trump replied. You might be forgiven for thinking from this, as I did, that Trump has an MBA from the Wharton School of Business. He doesn't. He actually has an undergraduate degree for...

In last year’s roundup of the top stories of the year, I argued that 2014 was the year we were all drafted into the culture wars. “This is the year when we were served noticed that we won’t be allowed to stand on the sidelines, because we will not be allowed to think differently from the left.” The signature story of the year was the comet shirt guy, a mild-mannered scientist caught wearing the wrong shirt on television. That case served notice that “To be targeted by accusations of misogyny, you don’t have to be a beer-chugging ‘bro’ who spends...

During Customs week, in PAF sessions, and in everyday discourse here at Haverford, we are taught to ask for help when we feel we need it, speak up when we feel uncomfortable, and prioritize our own well being over most other things. At McDonald's, acting in this way could have cost me my job, a job I needed to afford college... Those of us who need to work in order to support ourselves and pay tuition cannot afford to internalize the soft, self-centered mindset presented by our peers and customs folk at Haverford -- had I gone to a manager...

Many welcomed the launch of a new Web site by the U.S. Department of Education last month, designed to simplify higher education decisions by offering information. By combining multiple sources of federal data, the scorecard lets families compare colleges based on a range of variables, such as student debt levels, graduation rates and average alumni salaries. (It does not rate colleges, as the president had initially proposed.) But some critics argue that, while thousands of colleges are included, the site leaves out many schools which might be good options for students. How do you "misplace" more than 700 colleges? By...

A Wheaton College professor announced on Facebook Thursday night that she will be wearing a hijab (Muslim head scarf) throughout her celebration of the Advent as a way of showing solidarity with Muslims. Larycia Hawkins, a political science professor at the Wheaton, Illinois, evangelical higher education institution, explained on her Facebook page that she will be wearing a hijab to work, class, and church. She also vows to wear the hijab during her trip to Chicago and even when she goes on an airplane to return to her hometown for Christmas. "I don't love my Muslim neighbor because s/he is...

An professor at an Illinois Christian college was placed on leave Tuesday after wearing a headscarf to show solidarity with Muslims.Larycia Hawkins, who is a Christian and an associate professor of political science at Wheaton College in suburban Chicago, said Wednesday that her actions were demonstrations of her own faith. Hawkins began wearing a hijab to counter what she called the "vitriolic" rhetoric against Muslims in recent weeks."In the spirit of Advent, my actions were motivated by a desire to live out my faith. Period," Hawkins said Wednesday at a news conference at a Chicago church. Advent is the season...

College football players are gladiators of sorts. On the one hand, they are vastly underpaid for the risks they take as well as the profits they generate for the university and the scores of jobs they subsidize. On the other, in terms of college protocols, they are pampered and exempt from rules that other students follow. Being exploited and privileged is a bad combination. For half a century, liberals have pointed out that football players should drop the amateur pretense, join a semi-pro club, and make the money they deserve -- given that their admissions, grades, and class attendance are...

The American university is imploding in its self-refuting duplicity. Safe zones are anything but safe. People are bullied by those decrying bullying. Rather than celebrate liberty, liberals now demand conformity. Campuses have become bastions for speech codes rather than free speech. Students are more interested in “trigger warnings” than they are in research and learning. Disagreement is now synonymous with hate. Personal inclinations now equal personal identity. Progressives think they are right in telling conservatives they are wrong for thinking they’re right. If you dare to challenge the party line or the politically correct, you will be excluded in the...

Researchers from the Tulane Prevention Research Center found that 60 percent of New Orleans students surveyed utilized salad bars in 12 public schools. But white and other minority students were twice as likely to use salad bars as African-American students.

The chaos that erupted across college campuses earlier this month escalated racial tensions among students to levels not seen since the 1950s and 60s, as radical activists sought to enforce a new orthodoxy of ‘white privilege’ across universities. The inevitable consequence — a newly-racialized American campus — is beginning to emerge. In the space of a few days, Facebook pages for “White Student Unions” have sprung up on dozens of campuses across North America. The pages adopt the language of campus activists, promising a “safe space” for white students and condemning alleged anti-white racism on campus. Mainstream media outlets have...

For over half a century, American universities, with few exceptions, have ceased teaching and begun indoctrinating. In the past few weeks, this downhill spiral has accelerated. The university is now a caricature of an educational institution. It is difficult to come up with an idea or policy that is more absurd than the ideas and policies that now dominate American campuses.

During a town hall Thursday evening in Iowa, Donald Trump told voters the "only way" to make college more affordable for low-income students is "to start some governmental program." The Republican presidential hopeful was asked what measures he would take, as president, to ensure middle-to-low income Americans are able to "pay their tuition [and] afford books while they're going to school." "Well the only way you can do it is you have to start some governmental program and you have governmental programs right now," Trump told the moderator during the forum, which was held at a local community college. "They...

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) says widespread race protests at American colleges and universities are being carried out by "leftist, coddled kids" with "trust funds.""We're seeing universities all across this country with leftist, coddled kids - usually with trust funds - protesting against horrible aggression, because the micro-aggression [of] 'I heard a word that scared me,' " Cruz said at the Presidential Family Forum in Iowa on Friday, according to the Des Moines Register. "What's wrong with our universities?" Cruz, who is running for president, criticized political correctness for discouraging the pursuit of truth. "The best answer to political correctness is...

OSTON (AP) -- Amherst College has turned on its mascot. Georgetown University is renaming buildings. Union College has a new motto. Faced with growing pressure from students, colleges across the U.S. are updating campus fixtures that have been deemed insensitive or outdated. Inspired by racially charged protests at the University of Missouri, students have demanded tweaks of that type among broader calls for improved treatment of minority students. Those behind the changes say they're long overdue. Critics say it's another example of coddling by American universities. Here's a look at some recent changes:

Jesse Watters on white privilege: "I'm also tall, athletic, smart and rich - should I apologize for that too?" Charming as ever, Bill O'Reilly's bloodhound Jesse Watters went to the University of Missouri to hector students about race, gender and sexuality. Watters' stuck to his shtick, using "common sense" interpretations of phrases with specific meanings to prove that college campuses are no place for men-of-the-people. For example, he asked one woman if he was in her "safe space," and when she said he wasn't, he took a step closer to her and asked, "what about now?" Deliberately confusing the concept...