Free Republic

Anti-Jewish, pro-Hamas protesters — such as those seen at Columbia and Yale — will be expelled if they try to pull the same stunts at Florida universities, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) made clear on Thursday. “You think about what happened when you have these Hamas demonstrators out. They’re taking over bridges, and they’re taking over roads,” he said, noting that these individuals do not have the right to do that. “How do you know if someone — someone may need to get to a hospital. Someone may need to pick up a child somewhere, and you’re just going to commandeer...

The recent wave of violent protests and arrests at elite universities like Yale and Columbia have only confirmed for Scott Katz that he made the right decision to attend Elon University. The North Carolina college, where he is currently wrapping up his sophomore year, is a long way from his hometown of Lafayette Hill, the predominantly liberal Philadelphia suburb where the average home costs $610,000. Katz, who is Jewish, says the antisemitism that’s increasingly visible at colleges nationwide—especially in the Ivy League, and other elite institutions like Stanford and Berkeley—hasn’t even touched his campus. “I haven’t been affected by it...

American universities have entered more than $2.3 billion in contracts with China in the past decade amid on-going concerns about the influence of its communist government on U.S. higher education, a new investigation found.These contracts included agricultural research regarding orange crops, trainings for airline pilots, and medical trials for a tumor treatment drug developed by a Chinese pharmaceutical company, the Wall Street Journal reported.The investigation uncovered approximately 2,900 contracts from 2012 and 2024 between Chinese businesses and about 200 U.S. public colleges and universities in all 50 states.Some involved specialized training, such as $37 million in contracts between Chinese airlines...

Not too long ago, Gavin Newsom got caught with his hand in the cookie jar of political cronyism. In response to a draconian law passed raising fast-food worker wages to $20 an hour, known as A.B. 1228, Newsom carved out a little exemption for his friends at Panera Bread on the laughable grounds that these establishments bake bread on the premises. In reality, the owner of several Panera establishments was a high school buddy who was a really good donor to his campaigns. Once caught, Newsom backed off, but right when he thought no one was looking, he went right...

A group of major Universities has issued guidance claiming that it is a form of “discrimination” to voice the opinion that “the most qualified person should get the job.” The Telegraph reports that At least five universities, including the University of Glasgow and the engineering department of Imperial College London have included guidance on training courses, which states that voicing the opinion is a “micro aggression.” The guidance comes in the wake of criticism that of DEI policies are leading to cases of people being hired in roles not necessarily because they are qualified, but in order to fulfil quotas.

The University of North Carolina system oversees 16 state universities. Campus locations include Chapel Hill, Wilmington, Charlotte, Asheville, and Greensboro. UNC-Chapel Hill, originally called the University of North Carolina, was founded in 1789 and is one of the oldest public universities in the United States. According to Wikipedia statistics, some 245,000 students attended UNC system universities in 2021. One of the schools in the UNC system, UNC-Greensboro, is in the news these days because of a decision by Chancellor Franklin D. Gilliam Jr. to cut undergraduate and/or graduate programs in physics, mathematics, computer science, anthropology and nursing, citing “university direction,...

An undercover investigation reveals multiple Texas universities admitting they will continue DEI work despite the state’s ban.. A new investigation released by Accuracy in Media reveals how Texas universities are attempting to skirt a state law that bans Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion policies in higher education. Accuracy in Media (AIM)—an organization that empowers individuals to hold journalists, public officials, and private officials accountable—has released an undercover investigation showing multiple university officials saying they will continue DEI work under new names. Senate Bill 17, which took effect in January, effectively prohibits Texas universities from hiring employees to “perform the duties” of...

Idaho public universities have ramped up spending to $6 million on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts and teaching students about 'white fragility' and 'toxic masculinity.. Idaho Freedom Foundation (IFF) researchers have lifted the lid on a tripling of DEI spending since 2022 at Boise State University (BSU) and three other taxpayer-funded schools across the Gem State. Those schools now have 75 administrators dedicated to DEI, many of them earning six-figure salaries. The top earner, Yolanda Bisbee, is an expert on tribal relations who bags $170,706 per year as chief diversity officer at the University of Idaho (UI). 'The DEI...

Several large public universities are getting multimillion dollar budget cuts.. The bursting of the higher education bubble has finally struck its first blow, and it is a serious one. Several major public universities have announced multimillion dollar budget cuts in January, citing enrollment declines among other factors. Pennsylvania State University expects to cut $94 million from its budget starting in July 2025. The University of Connecticut (UConn) announced significant budget cuts in response to its projected $70 million deficit. And the University of New Hampshire (UNH) will slash expenses by $14 million. These cuts were a long time coming—higher education...

For a long time, people (including me) have been calling for major changes in higher education. Now someone is doing something about it. Hedge-fund tycoon Bill Ackman is waging war to make universities accountable. Ackman started his campaign by demanding the resignations of University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill, Harvard President Claudine Gay and Massachusetts Institute of Technology President Sally Kornbluth after the trio’s shambolic performance before Congress on antisemitic harassment on their campuses. Magill and Gay are now gone, and Kornbluth is worried. Penn’s board of trustees pushed Magill out pretty quickly. Gay, being a diversity hire, was harder...

They sold America, the greatest nation on Earth, for next to nothing because that’s what they believe it’s worth. The Ukrainian energy company Burisma paid Mr. Hunter Biden up to a million dollars a year! Wow! It seems like a lot of money. But what were the Bidens selling? Not Hunter’s expertise in, say, energy, economics, international law, Ukrainian culture, or actually anything that he could do on his own. They were paying him because of his proximity to his father, President Joseph Robinette Biden. The Bidens were selling the greatest country on Earth. And this is, to me, perhaps...

For at least two and a half thousand years, virtually all educated people believed that knowledge was the savior of humanity. Even Maimonides wrote in his “Guide for the Perplexed” that once all of humankind had knowledge, the world would be at peace. Then came the 20th century. The most educated nation in world history—a land to which all other nations looked for science, psychology, culture, philosophy, reason, and ethics—applied its knowledge to commit crimes against humanity that no barbarian could have imagined. “Does calling for the genocide of the Jews violate your institution’s code of conduct concerning bullying and...

America’s top universities should abandon their long misadventure into politics, retrain their gaze on their core strengths and rebuild their reputations as centers of research and learning.

Leaders of elite schools disgrace themselves before Congress—and expose the rot at the core of American higher education. Forget Ridley Scott’s Napoleon, now in theaters: if you want to watch an epic drama of vanity and failed leadership that ends in catastrophe, just tune in to the hearing held this week by the House Committee on Education and the Workforce. Summoned to account for the surging anti-Semitism on their campuses, the presidents of Harvard, MIT, and the University of Pennsylvania delivered a masterclass in obfuscation. When New York representative Elise Stefanik asked them whether calling for the genocide of the...

The Ivy league and their kindred so-called elite campuses may soon go the way of Disney and Bud Light. After October 7, the public was shocked at what they saw and heard on America’s campuses. Americans knew previously they were intolerant, leftwing, and increasingly non-meritocratic. But immediately after October 7—and even before the response of the Israeli Defense Forces—the sheer student delight on news of the mass murdering of Israeli victims seemed akin more to 1930s Germany than contemporary America. Indeed, not a day goes by when a university professor or student group has not spouted anti-Semitic hatred. Often, they...

years-long abandonment of free speech has allowed radicalism and anti-semitism to fester on campus. Where free speech dies, institutional stupidity takes its place. ... Jewish students were mobbed by pro-Palestinian demonstrators at Harvard and protesters were heard chanting for an “Intifada revolution” on UPenn’s campus this weekend — leading the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights to investigate both schools for Title VI discrimination violations. ... Students retreat into echo chambers where their beliefs go unchecked, and they are readily swept down radical rabbit holes in which Zoomer TikTokers are inexplicably celebrating the philosophy of Osama bin Laden. In...

The latest ranking of America’s best universities is here, perfectly timed for the approaching admissions season.“Best” is of course subjective, and U.S. News and World Report has compiled 19 metrics on which they evaluated more than 400 national universities. Some of them include:Graduation rates & performance: A four-year rolling average of the proportion of each entering class earning a bachelor’s degree in six years or less. Performance is measured against predictions made by the publishers, and when beaten, the university gains a higher scoring.Peer assessment: A two-year weighted average of ratings from top academics—presidents, provosts and deans of admissions—on academic...

On October 7, 2023 the words “never again” rang hollow for the first time since the Holocaust when 6 million Jews perished at the hands of the Nazis. Employing a level of barbarism that should cause even the most fervent anti-Semite to recoil in disgust, Hamas terrorists systematically tortured and murdered over 1200 Jews. Many of those who watched the video footage of these events will never fully recover and those who do now have unimaginable horrors permanently etched in their memories. Hamas redefined what is meant by “man’s inhumanity to man.” This attack was a massive intelligence failure on...

NEW YORK -- A Cornell University junior was arrested Tuesday for allegedly making violent online threats directed toward Jewish students at the school. Gov. Kathy Hochul says state police and the FBI's joint terrorism task force questioned him earlier Tuesday. Patrick Dai accused of posting antisemitic threats The U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of New York says 21-year-old Patrick Dai has been arrested for posting antisemitic threats, including, "If you see a Jewish 'person' on campus follow them home and slit their throats." The feds say Dai is from the Rochester area and faces charges of posting threats to...

The Biden administration is announcing new actions Monday aimed at combating a dangerous scourge of antisemitic incidents on college campuses across the country in the wake of the Hamas terror attacks on Israel. The White House highlighted a series of steps taken by the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice and the Department of Education, including engagement with campus law enforcement officials, which comes amid rising tension on college campuses. Over the weekend, a series of antisemitic threats were made against Cornell University’s Jewish community in online posts. CNN has reported that at many universities, students are engaging...