Free Republic

Yale University announced Wednesday it will keep the name of a residential college named after 19-th century alumnus and slavery supporter John C. Calhoun, but will eliminate the title of “master” for faculty members. The Ivy League university said it was preserving the name of Calhoun College, despite fierce protests that called for the removal of Calhoun’s name to confront the history of slavery in the U.S.

University students are increasingly unable to read a whole book as they simply don’t have the concentration spans required, nor are they able to understand complex, nuanced arguments, academics have said. Lecturers at leading British universities are having to actively encourage students to read beyond the set texts, and have noticed that students are increasingly unwilling to read whole texts. They say they believe internet culture is to blame, as young people nowadays are used to receiving arguments in the form of 800-1000 word articles. Anything beyond that, they say, is now proving too challenging. “Incoming undergraduates have had their...

The totalitarian attitude on campus hit me in a very personal way on March 30 as I was sitting on an airplane at Reagan National Airport on my way to Albany, New York. I was informed that a campus debate I was scheduled to participate in later that day had been cancelled. I was told to get off the plane and go home. I believe this is the first time on a college or university campus that a left-right debate has been cancelled because of objections to one side of the debate. It appears the totalitarian left is so determined...

You cannot walk through a tour of most colleges without getting lectured about the need for "diversity" and the prevalence of women's and even queer studies. My youngest son and I took a tour of Columbia University in New York City recently and were told that the contributions of the great Western thinkers to our civilization would be "updated" in various classes with reference to the involvement of feminists and homosexuals. There is even a "Queer House" or "Q House" on campus. A 28-page guide is available on "Resources and Programs at Columbia University related to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender,...

My student debt surrounds me like the construction on the University of Massachusetts campus; no matter how hard I try to avoid it, it shows up everywhere. It keeps me from getting to class on time, it ripped a hole in my backpack and it just puts me in a terrible mood. Like the construction, my student debt affects my every decision: what books I buy for classes versus which ones I can access for free, the amount of hours I work to pay my rent and if I can even continue my education at UMass. You can get rid...

In the city of angels a day for praise, worship, asking forgiveness and declaration of the Lord's goodness to America and the nations...in the way of thy will be done on earth (now, today)as it is in heaven. A coliseum of believers from many nations joining in spiritual warfare for good. 7:30 AM to 10:30 PM Pacific Time.

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., April 5 (UPI) -- A woman who made serious sexual assault accusations against members of a University of Virginia fraternity -- which were featured in a sweeping 2014 Rolling Stone magazine article -- will have to testify this week in a defamation lawsuit against the magazine. . . . An independent review by the Columbia School of Journalism ultimately determined that in producing the article, Rolling Stone violated "basic, even routine journalistic practice" by failing to fact-check or corroborate key portions of the woman's story before the piece was published. Police investigators later said there was no evidence...

MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin, March 31, 2016 – The Wisconsin Jesuit university that suspended a tenured professor after his blog post exposed a student’s apparent harassment by a graduate assistant for not supporting homosexual “marriage” has moved closer toward firing the instructor. Marquette University suspended Political Science Professor John McAdams without pay during Holy Week and said it intends to terminate him if he doesn’t apologize for the 2014 blog post. The suspension is effective April 1, extending through the fall 2016 semester.

George Mason University will rename their law school "The Antonin Scalia School of Law" after receiving two donations totaling $30 million. These gifts are the largest in school history. While the name change isn't official yet, everything is expected to be switched to the new name by July. (To avoid the awkward acronym that many pointed out was formed by the new name, the school will probably be referred to as "Scalia Law School.") The change still needs a final go-ahead from Virginia’s higher education oversight agency, which is expected to give its blessing. The school’s dean expects that people...

The George Mason School of Law will be renamed in honor of the late U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonin Scalia, who died earlier this year. The university announced Thursday that it has received $30 million in combined gifts to the George Mason Foundation to support the law school, the largest gift in the university’s history. The donations make possible three new scholarship programs. Twenty million dollars came from an anonymous donor, and $10 million came from the Charles Koch Foundation, which has given millions of dollars to colleges in the United States. The family is well known for its...

The president of the evangelical Oklahoma Wesleyan University, Dr. Everett Piper, was adamant about sending children to the right university and academic institution, in his recent interview with The Daily Caller’s Ginni Thomas. When Thomas asked him what could be done about sending children to liberal institutions, Piper said, "Stop sending your kids to these institutions that teach this pablum." Then, he gives advice on how to distinguish what universities are teaching their students. "Obviously, it can be found out easily by checking the news," he said. But, he added, if you have reservations about the institution, "do two simple...

The school took action this week on two diversity demands, hiring a chief diversity officer and requiring students to complete diversity-themed courses. Still reeling from last year’s student protests, the University of Missouri took action this week on two more diversity demands, hiring a chief diversity officer and requiring students to complete diversity-themed courses. The College of Arts and Science at Mizzou announced Wednesday that undergraduates will now have to complete three credit-hours of “diversity intensive” (DI) courses in order to graduate, saying the courses will focus on “understanding differing social groups” and “will explore at least one form of...

<p>University students across the country -- at Amherst, Georgetown, Harvard, Princeton, Yale, UC Berkeley and dozens of other campuses -- are caught up in yet another new fad.</p> <p>This time, the latest college craze is a frenzied attempt to rename campus buildings and streets. Apparently some of those names from the past do not fit students' present litmus tests on race, class and gender correctness.</p>

Under state rules, the first two years of promise zones must be funded through philanthropy. Beginning in 2018, the Detroit Promise will be funded by increases in property tax revenue based on the 6 mills of the State Education Tax; the program will capture half of any increase in property tax revenue from the SET, officials said. Detroit Public Schools interim superintendent Alycia Meriweather told students gathered at a news conference that it’s now up to them to be prepared for college, by getting good grades. “You have an opportunity today that all the rest of us who grew up...

This past June, American academia went into an uproar over Gov. Scott Walker’s new budget in Wisconsin,....Specifically,any professor in the system—tenured or not—could be dismissed or laid off by the 18-member Board of Regents using maddeningly vague criteria:“when such an action is deemed necessary due to a budget or program decision requiring program discontinuance,curtailment,modification or redirection.”This,when combined with the faculty’s diminished role in governing the university—and thus determining such things as which programs should continue, be curtailed, or get modified—basically meant that these regents—16 of whom were appointed by Walker—could fire anyone,at any time, for any reason.[SNIP]Professors do not want...

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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...