Free Republic

In a new initiative to promote religious pluralism, Duke University will broadcast the Muslim call to prayer every Friday on campus.

A feminist professor of communications at the University of Michigan has become a laughingstock for a poorly-sourced column in a socialist newspaper about the academic basis for hating Republicans. In the article, Susan J. Douglas began with the statement, “I hate Republicans” and declares that “marrying a Republican is unimaginable to me…” A specialist on “Gender and the Media,” she is reportedly married with a daughter. I’ve got something that beats that. Curtis J. MacDougall, the author of a journalism textbook that I used in college, was a Marxist with a 319-page FBI file, who wrote favorably about Fidel Castro...

In a Dec. 5 op-ed, the president of California State University (CSU) claimed if you are “light skinned” you have “significant unearned privilege” and routinely think less of those who are different than yourself. In her piece, “Privilege at The Beach,”—referencing the Long Beach area where the school resides—Jane Close Conoley, a white woman herself, asserts that “light skin color and high income levels may attract significant unearned privilege.” Those who qualify for such privilege, often unknowingly exert distrust and “lower expectations of behavior” on those of another skin color. “Those who are less affluent with darker skin or from...

The concept of white privilege remains controversial in the same way people still argue about climate change. A small, increasingly-fringe faction might argue that it doesn't exist at all. Another broad, more conservative group might concede that it does, technically, exist, but still disagree about what it means, whether it's important and what, if anything, we can do about it. Still, many others would argue that acknowledging and working to understand it is an important step toward fixing the problem -- in the case of white privilege, the problem being compounded, inter-generational inequality that, although sometimes subtle, is still present...

In a unanimous vote earlier this week, the D.C. Council passed legislation repealing “the exemption allowing religiously-affiliated educational institutions to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation.” The repealed exemption (2-1402.41) read: (3) Notwithstanding any other provision of the laws of the District of Columbia, it shall not be an unlawful discriminatory practice in the District of Columbia for any educational institution that is affiliated with a religious organization or closely associated with the tenets of a religious organization to deny, restrict, abridge, or condition — (A) the use of any fund, service, facility, or benefit; or (B) the granting...

ROCKVILLE, Md. -- Montgomery County Public Schools will remove religious labels from school holidays, but members of the Islamic community say the adjustments to the school calendar do nothing to gain parity and a day off for the Muslim holiday of Eid.

(CNSNews.com) - Secretary of Education Arne Duncan says government funded universal preschool is a “social movement” and compared it to civil rights and gay marriage during a speech in Los Angeles last month. “At the end of the day for me this is really a social movement,” Duncan said when discussing federally subsidized preschool at the LA Universal Preschool (LAUP) forum on Oct. 21. “If you look at social movements, we all celebrate what happened in the 1960’s. The civil rights movement was extraordinarily powerful, life transforming, earth shattering. But the question I have is, why didn’t the civil rights...

High school students in Long Island, N.Y., were recently denied the right to establish a club for Christian students by their school administrators. This marks the second time they’ve run into trouble. Last year, John Raney, a 17-year-old student at Ward Melville High School, created Students United in Faith as an extracurricular club where Christian and non-Christian students could come together to discuss faith and pursue hunger-relief charity projects. “I wanted to start the club because I thought it would provide a safe space for Christians to meet and talk about their faith,” Raney told Fox News. Administrators at Raney’s...

It’s hard to imagine that any school would have a problem with a book about a Christian family that helped Jews escape the Holocaust. But Springs Charter Schools in Temecula, Calif., not only had a problem with “The Hiding Place,” they also took issue with any other book that was written by a Christian author or included a Christian message. “We do not purchase sectarian educational materials and do not allow sectarian materials on our state-authorized lending shelves,” Superintendent Kathleen Hermsmeyer wrote in a letter to attorneys at the Pacific Justice Institute (PJI). Pacific Justice Institute is representing a parent...

Ithaca, N.Y. — Leaflets calling a conservative columnist for the Cornell Daily Sun a “Racist Rape Apologist” have been anonymously distributed around campus. Julius Kairey, a senior in the College of Arts & Sciences and author of a biweekly Sun column titled, “Always Right,” recently wrote a column about sexual assault that drew rebuttals. The circulated leaflets show a photo of Kairey. Under the photo, the words, “Daily Sun Columnist and Racist Rape Apologist” appear. No other text, no specifics supporting the allegations, are printed on the page.... The most recent Kairey column takes issue with a new California law...

Dissident conservatives have long bemoaned the prevalence of academic bias against them. The bias, indeed, has become so prevalent that liberal politicians are starting to notice. “Liberals, especially in universities, profess ‘diversity’ and ‘tolerance’,” Grove City College professor Paul Kengor said during an interview with the Young America’s Foundation. “In truth, they only tolerate things they agree with—which, of course, isn’t really tolerance. What liberals really practice is, at best, a selective tolerance and a selective diversity.” Kengor is the author of a number of books, the latest of which is entitled 11 Principles of a Reagan Conservative. Surprisingly, similar...

"Men are also allowed to receive extra credit, as long as they shave their bodies from the neck down. Student Stephanie Robinson said it was a “life changing experience.” Female Arizona State University students can receive extra credit for defying social norms and refusing to shave for 10 weeks during the semester. Women and Gender Studies Professor Breanne Fahs, encourages her female students to cease shaving their underarms and legs during the semester and document their experiences in a journal. "One guy did his shaving with a buck knife." Student Stephanie Robinson said it was a “life changing experience.” “Many...

No Koch Bros wanted at B.C. Brooklyn College, part of the disastrous and dysfunctional City University of New York sinkhole, has a $60 million endowment. A drop in the bucket compared to CUNY’s horrifying $3 billion budget.46% of its wildly inflated budget comes from New York State. New York City taxpayers kick in another 10%.With so much taxpayer money, involuntarily extracted, they just aren’t in need of any dirty Koch Brothers cash. Brooklyn College’s liberal politics are keeping grants and progress from faculty and students, one frustrated CUNY professor told the Observer.The CUNY college has turned down a $10 million...

Another little boy has gotten in trouble at school for having something that represents a gun but isn’t actually anything like a real gun. This time, eight-year-old Asher Palmer rolled up a piece of paper, called it a gun and pointed it at other kids, reports the New York Post. Officials at the special-needs school in New York City which Palmer attended then expelled him. The school is the Lang School, a ritzy private bastion which specializes in educating students with language difficulties. Annual tuition is $51,500. “Asher is exactly the type of student Lang is supposed to be serving,”...

Author's Note: The idea for this column isn't terribly original, as this YouTube video attests.Some readers have written questioning my series of columns lampooning the lavender graduation at UNC-Wilmington. That is the ceremony where UNCW graduates are given purple cords to show that they are gay and lavender cords to show they approve of homosexuality. Students then wear these cords when they get their degrees at the university-wide graduation ceremony. Some self-proclaimed conservatives have reasoned that since participation in the ceremony is optional, lavender graduation isn't a topic worthy of column space. That view is misguided as it fails to...

JANESVILLE, Wis. – A school district in southern Wisconsin has publicly apologized for a highly controversial film promoted to students that endorses same-sex marriage while disparaging those who disagree. Last month, students at Craig High School were shown the short video Kids React to Gay Marriage. Controversial statements in the film include calling those who do not approve of same-sex marriage “outrageous” and “insane.” The video was selected by the school’s Gay/Straight Alliance and approved by both the club’s advisers and Craig High Principal Dr. Alison Bjoin to be shown as part of the Day of Silence observance on April...

When it comes to today’s college curricula, nothing, it seems, is beyond the pale. Case in point: At San Diego State University, a brand new graduate program will offer an “Advanced Certificate in Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies,” starting this fall, according to Nathan Harden, editor of The College Fix. A university press release describes the program as a way to “advance knowledge in sexual and gender identity, and increase understanding of the diverse cultural, historical, ethnic, racial and contemporary experiences of people across sexualities.” The new LGBT certificate is actually no surprise for a school that honors San...

A reading assignment has some parents in New Hampshire confused and upset. The controversial book “Nineteen Minutes” by Jodi Picoult is required reading for some 9th grade students at Gilford High School. The book is a fictional story about a school shooting and has been part of the curriculum since 2007. School officials say that the book contains important themes, but parents say that message is overshadowed by what some call pornographic content on one page. The book was assigned to students last Monday, but the school failed to give parents of freshmen students notice of the sexually explicit content...

Campus Reform on Tuesday reported that Brent Terry, professor at Eastern Connecticut State University who teaches creative writing, told his class that a 2014 GOP victory in the Senate will turn America into a very different kind of country and that colleges will start closing up. A current student, who disagreed with the Terry, who according to Campus Reform, wants to remain anonymous recorded the audio of Terry’s rant against Republicans accusing Republicans that they will not and do not want blacks, Latinos, old and young people to vote and Terry incorrectly stated that it is because they are all...

Imagine walking into a college class Monday morning and finding the professor ranting against those 'racist, misogynist, money-grubbing people' known as Republicans. Welcome to intro to creative writing at Eastern Connecticut State University (ECSU). If the GOP takes control of the House and the Senate in 2014, Professor Brent Terry warned, ‘colleges will start closing up’ and America could very well revert back not to 1955, but to 1855:' There are a lot of people out there that do not want black people to vote, do not want Latinos to vote. Do not want old people to vote, or young...