Free Republic

Conservatives should welcome the decline of academia as we know it. I, for one, will celebrate its death by engaging in the same activity that characterized my four years at what some call its pinnacle– drinking a lot of Coors Light. There is still nostalgia among conservatives, especially older ones who have forgotten what college is really like, for the idea of higher education as a rigorous venue for intellectual growth, an environment of exciting and vibrant ideas shared by wise, caring educators dedicated to the pursuit of truth. Today, it is nothing of the sort. For the vast majority...

We’ve heard a lot about the “higher education bubble” recently, and for good reason: the higher education establishment is on a path of gaseous unsustainability. College fees have been rising at a rate far above the cost-of-living for decades — currently, all-in fees at many elite institutions top $60,000. Think about that the next time you look at your paycheck and contemplate paying for little Johnny’s tuition a few years hence.But the bubble is not only fiscal. It is also intellectual, social, and moral. As rich and prestigious and powerful as American universities are, they have, in aggregate, lost...

A New Law School Ranking Says The University Of Alabama Is Better Than Yale Or Harvard Abby RogersFebruary 13, 2013National Jurist has come out with a new law school ranking that completely disregards the criteria used by traditional ranking systems. Instead of looking at GPA or LSAT scores, National Jurist said its "goal was to provide an alternative ranking that was focused more on results and service, and that would provide legal education with admirable incentives." TaxProf Blog has a complete breakdown of National Jurist's ranking system, including how the magazine uses RateMyProfessors.com as a ranking tool: Post-Graduate Success: 50%...

While the move to make English the official language in the United States grows throughout the U. S., some academics regret that it is the first one in America. “Multiculturalism and multilingualism are becoming the new default,” Nancy Bou Ayash of the University of Louisville said at the 2013 meeting of the Modern Language Association (MLA) in Boston. She recommends “A translingual approach” and regrets the “dominance of monolingualism.” “U. S. monolingualism remains the statutory law but not the cultural norm,” she avers. The pair of students who offered anonymous reviews of her pedagogy on Rate My Professors.com might have...

The last of the college applications have been rewritten, tweaked and polished, and at last entrusted to the tender mercies of the U.S. Mail or the Internet. Fretting over deadlines morphs into waiting, and yearning, wishing and praying for coveted letters of acceptance. This is the annual crisis in thousands of homes with ambitious high school seniors -- the high school seniors and their parents who still believe that college is the route to the American Dream. But wait. While they play the conventional game of aspiration, certain scholars and economists, and hundreds of thousands of "concerned citizens" have initiated...

Moody's Investors Service now has a negative outlook for the entire U.S. higher education sector, the rating agency said on Wednesday, citing "mounting fiscal pressure on all key university revenue sources." Since 2009, Moody's had had a stable outlook for market-leading, research-driven colleges and universities and a negative outlook for the rest of the higher education sector. "The U.S. higher education sector has hit a critical juncture in the evolution of its business model," said Eva Bogaty, Moody's assistant vice president, in a statement. "Even market-leading universities with diversified revenue streams are facing diminished prospects for revenue growth." The agency...

U.S. history courses at American colleges and universities downplay the nation's economic, military, and political history and dramatically overemphasize the role of race. So finds a new study by the Texas Association of Scholars (TAS) and Center for the Study of the Curriculum at the National Association of Scholars (NAS). The study focused on the University of Texas at Austin and Texas A&M as representative institutions because Texas law requires all students at public universities to take a year of American history and for universities to post course syllabi and faculty credentials online. The researchers found that many important topics...

Ninety-one percent of faculty and administrators from America’s top Catholic universities who contributed to presidential campaigns in 2012 gave to President Obama, a Campus Reform investigation has revealed. The strong support for President Obama from Catholic schools came despite Democrats’ controversial health care legislation which could force employers to provide contraception for employees even though it is explicitly forbidden under Catholic doctrine.

A Christian university blocked conservative students from forming a Young Americans for Freedom chapter on campus last week.Azusa Pacific, a private Christian university near Los Angeles, California, took issue with “divisive language” on the website of YAF, an advocacy group for college-aged conservatives. University officials also feared that replacing the existing conservative student club with a YAF-affiliated one would limit membership options for students.A spokesperson clarified that while students were free to associate with YAF, no official relationship would be permitted to exist. “They can associate with YAF, we’re just not wanting a formal chapter on our campus,” said Rachel...

Campus Reform has compiled a list of the top ten most shocking courses being offered on college campuses. Here they are:“Cyborgs, Avatars, and Feminists: Gender in the Virtual World” at the University of New Hampshire (Women’s Studies): Utilizing feminist theoretical and critical investigations of gender and techno culture, students explore women's popular and theoretical conceptions of cyberspace. Students explore numerous digital communication systems within cyberspace and examine how and why a diversity of women utilize these systems. This course provides students with the opportunity to investigate the impact that advancements in virtual technology have in the lives of women. “Psychology...

This autumn more than a million students are going to take part in an experiment that could re-invent the landscape of higher education. Some of the biggest powerhouses in US higher education are offering online courses - testing how their expertise and scholarship can be brought to a global audience. Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have formed a $60m (£38m) alliance to launch edX, a platform to deliver courses online - with the modest ambition of "revolutionising education around the world". Sounding like a piece of secret military hardware, edX will provide online interactive courses which can be...

SNIPPET: "Google removed 640 videos from YouTube in the second half of last year amid fears they promoted terrorism. The Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) made a request for five user accounts to be closed for allegedly promoting terrorism. Google agreed and deleted the 640 videos."

About Us Resources Send Tips Donate RSS CNSNews.TV On the Spot On the Scene The Schein OTJ Golden Hookah Soros Spends $400 Million On 'Open Society' Education, 'Social Action,' Colleges And Universities By Dan Gainor June 5, 2012 Subscribe to Dan Gainor's posts School is letting out around the United States, but for George Soros, education never stops. Soros has given more than $400 million to colleges and universities, including money to most prominent institutions in the United States. He also helped establish Central European University (CEU) which, in turn, uses its resources to promote his personal goal of an...

May 17, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Professors at four Jesuit-run Catholic universities have recently stepped into the media to voice their disagreement with Catholic bishops on church teachings, including on contraception and the nature of marriage, and condemning the prelates for promoting an “idiosyncratic minority view” as Catholic dogma. The professors’ statements come at the same time that Pope Benedict has emphasized to U.S. bishops that reform of Catholic universities in the United States is the “most urgent challenge” facing the Church in the country. The pope told U.S. bishops who were visiting Rome recently that a lack of progress towards...

Pope: Catholic education part of New Evangelization   2012-05-05 Vatican Radio Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday spoke about the importance of Catholic education when addressing a group of United States bishops in Rome on their ad limina visit. Calling Catholic schools “an essential resource for the new evangelization,” the Holy Father urged that a Catholic education be within the reach of all families, whatever their financial status. Turning his attention to higher education, Pope Benedict said colleges and universities “need to reaffirm their distinctive identity in fidelity to their founding ideals and the Church’s mission in service of the Gospel.”He...

Several recent incidents on campuses show that Jew-hate and double standards are alive and well. In February 2010, a student at the University of California, San Diego, left a noose dangling from a bookcase in the school library. Although the noose was directed at no individual student, the obvious racial overtones of this symbol of the Southern lynch mob provoked predictable outrage. In protest, students occupied the chancellor’s office. A campus teach-in on tolerance was held. Black students publicly expressed their indignation, pain, and fear to a sympathetic campus administration. The chancellor issued an uncompromising statement condemning the incident and...

American universities have become infected with foreign spies posing as humble students and researchers, who are working to steal government secrets and new technologies to take back to their own countries. Untold numbers of foreign agents are hidden among the thousands of legitimate international students who are studying science, technology and engineering in the US. China, Russia and Iran are among the nations who are attempting to exploit the culture of openness and transparency in American higher education. … Several recent arrests and discoveries illustrate the point. Even the high-profile network of Russian sleeper agents that was dismantled in 2010...

BANGOR, Maine — The University of Maine System has given its employees more than $7 million in raises since 2006, during a period of repeated budget cuts and fiscal uncertainty, according to data the system released Tuesday. But the system’s leaders say that same period was a time of great change and shifting roles, with many employees taking on additional work. Most of the pay increases were awarded under the Salaried Employee Compensation and Classification Program, which allows nonfaculty salaried employees in the system to have their positions reviewed to see if their workload warrants a higher pay rate. Other...

20 Catholic (and Christian) Institutions Opposing Obama/HHS Mandate by Thomas Peters10 hours ago (February 9, 2012) My list of bishops who have publicly condemned the Obama/HHS mandate is now at 171 (representing almost 95% of Catholic dioceses). Only 4 bishops have yet to issue statements — and I expect they will shortly!Now I’d like to begin compiling a list of Catholic (and Christian) institutions who have said publicly they will fight or oppose the mandate.A few ground-rules: I’m only going to include institutions that have issued public statements online or a statement to the press which is available online....

Sign The Protest Your immediate action is vital to STOP abortion advocacy groups at 6 Catholic universities - Sign your protest right now If you care about innocent life, please take a brief moment to sign this urgent petition to stop abortion activist groups at 6 Catholic campuses. Petition: Stop Abortion Advocacy at Catholic Universities I think you’ll agree with me that Catholic campuses must not be used as recruiting centers for Planned Parenthood. It’s so obviously wrong. However, the pro-abortion group called “Students for Reproductive Justice” is active at Boston College, DePaul University, Fordham University, Georgetown University, Santa Clara...