Free Republic

Beginning with the freshman class that enters in fall 2017, Harvard University students will no longer be allowed to hold leadership positions in campus groups while also maintaining membership in the exclusive, single-gender final clubs that dominate the school’s social scene. The new rule, announced Friday morning by President Drew Gilpin Faust and Harvard College Dean Rakesh Khurana, comes as the school grapples with how to stem sexual assaults and foster an inclusive environment, all while acknowledging the limits of its control over groups that it doesn’t fund or govern directly. The policy barring students from holding leadership positions in...

Police and school investigating incident as a hate crimeLOS ANGELES (ChurchMilitant.com) - A Los Angeles Jesuit university has fired an employee for telling students there are only two genders — male and female. In April, Catholic Loyola Marymount University (LMU) allowed LGBT Student Services (LGBTSS) to hold LGBTQ+ Awareness Week, also known as Rainbow Week. Posters were put up throughout campus, but on April 14 three members of the club noted some were taken down and placed behind a garbage can. They retrieved the posters and put them back up, claiming an unnamed employee of the Alumni Relations office approached...

“The fact that some university boards and administrations now bow to pressure groups, and shield students from these ideas through safe spaces, code words, and trigger warnings, is in my view a terrible mistake. The whole purpose of college is to learn how to deal with difficult situations, not to run away from them. A microaggression is exactly that, micro.”

Following a drop in students applying for housing, the University of Missouri will not be placing students in two dorms for the fall 2016 semester. Mizzou will be closing the Respect and Excellence halls (ironic names, given the circumstances) in order to utilize dorm space "in the most efficient manner" to keep costs down. In March, the university announced that it saw a sharp drop in admissions for the coming school year, and will have 1,500 fewer students. This will lead to a $32 million budget shortfall for the school, prompting the need to close the dorms in order to...

The cupcake legions at the University of Tennessee of Chattanooga (UTC) are mobilizing against Hailey Puckett. She’s pure evil because she supports Donald Trump, and other members of the student council cannot stand it. Last week, Puckett, a student senator, was weathering calls for her resignation due to her political beliefs (via Campus Reform): Hailey Puckett, the senator in question, participated in a chalking campaign on her campus during which she and her peers scrawled pro-Trump messages on the sidewalks of UTC’s campus. "We do not support bigotry or hatred or the messages spread by Donald Trump’s ignorance." “Super proud...

Haruka Weiser, 18, from Portland, Oregon, was a first year theater and dance student at The University of Texas in Austin. Weiser was reported missing Monday morning by her roommates and was found dead Tuesday in a creek that runs through UT's campus. Haruka had been walking back to her dorm from the drama building on campus when she was assaulted, then killed. On Friday, Austin police arrested Meechaiel Khalil Criner, a black, seventeen-year-old, homeless, six-foot-tall punk and charged him with first degree murder. Poor Haruka. A gorgeous, eighteen-year-old girl with big hopes and dreams gets raped, has her life...

On Monday, students at Indiana University Bloomington mistook a priest for a Klu Klux Klan member, taking to social media to express their fear of the alleged Klansman, who they claimed was carrying a whip, and dressed in “white robes.”

Marquette University has delayed the termination of Associate Professor John McAdams, opting to suspend him without pay through the fall 2016 semester, but University President Dr. Michael Lovell is demanding an apology from McAdams as a condition of getting his job back over his November 2014 blog post criticizing a graduate student instructor who bullied a student for arguing against same-sex marriage. McAdams said in a recent radio interview that he'll apologize, "When hell freezes over." The blog post in question sparked national headlines and a heated debate about academic freedom following the University's disciplinary actions against McAdams for exposing...

The University of California System is frequently lauded as one of the best public-education systems in the world. But a scathing new state audit of the system tells a story of manipulation of admissions standards for financial gain, as the San Francisco Chronicle reports. The audit claims that the university knowingly admitted out-of-state-applicants with lower qualifications in an effort to boost income from increased tuition. "This report concludes that over the past several years, the university has undermined its commitment to resident students," the audit reads. "The university made substantial efforts to enroll nonresident students who pay significantly more tuition...

The University of Wisconsin-Madison is in the process of hiring more counselors after students claimed that the university has a problem with microaggressions and racial bias. Chancellor Rebecca Blank recently announced university plans to accelerate “the hiring of additional student support counseling services … for student mental health issues related to diversity and climate.” She also mentioned plans to have incoming freshmen attend a newly designed “cultural competency” program that aims to rid students of their biases before future transgressions are committed against the university’s social minorities.

The American Council of Trustees and Alumni publishes occasional reports on what college students know. Nearly 10 percent of the college graduates surveyed thought Judith Sheindlin, TV's "Judge Judy," is a member of the U.S. Supreme Court. Less than 20 percent of the college graduates knew the effect of the Emancipation Proclamation. More than a quarter of the college graduates did not know Franklin D. Roosevelt was president during World War II; one-third did not know he was the president who spearheaded the New Deal. But it is little mystery why so many college students are illiterate, innumerate and resistant...

So, after the whole mess surrounding the poop swastika; instances of harassment that were allegedly racially-motivated, though unverifiable since they occurred off campus; and a professor who was charged with assaulting a student reporter at protests over said events has a caused a budget shortfall at the University of Missouri. I know, totally shocking, right? (via Daily Caller): The University of Missouri (MU) is losing about 1500 students and is facing a huge $32 million budget shortfall four months after it attracted national attention as the site of massive race-based campus protests.“I am writing to you today to confirm...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A University of California committee agreed Wednesday to single out anti-Semitism as a form of intolerance that campus leaders should challenge but rejected a more far-reaching denouncement of arguments against Israel's right to exist. A year in the making, the formal position opposing anti-Semitic behavior comes amid a wave of impassioned campus activism that has sparked tensions between Palestinian rights supporters and strong allies of Israel. The committee of the university's governing Board of Regents voted unanimously to send what is being called a "Statement of Principles Against Intolerance" to the full board for consideration on...

Trump University has been much in the news. A for-profit enterprise that went through several name changes and is still the target of a $40 million civil suit accusing Donald Trump of fraud, Trump U has become a centerpiece of attacks on Trump by his political opponents. The lawsuit and the attacks focus on the bait-and-switch tactics of Trump U. The folks who enrolled and paid substantial tuition thought they would get one thing and got another. They thought they would be learning some of Trump’s secrets to cashing in on the real estate market. They received instead some bromides...

Anti-Donald Trump forces are expanding their offensive against the Republican front-runner, releasing a TV advertisement in Florida just days before the state's primary that spotlights a former Trump University salesman who says he was "ashamed" to work for the online school. In the 60-second ad, the employee, named Cliff, describes receiving "nonstop calls with complaints" from customers unhappy with Trump University services. He also talks about the school's low ratings from the Better Business Bureau. "I think I walked away from the job because I couldn't sleep at night," Cliff says. "With Donald Trump, you always have to read the...

A group of “marginalised” students at the University of Arizona issued a list of demands to the University administration, including instituting race quotas in university hiring and adding trigger warnings in classes. The open letter addressed to university staff explained that the students felt that the university failed to “appropriately acknowledge and address the lived experiences of marginalised groups on campus,” claiming that racism, sexism, and other forms of bigotry “run rampant,” and wondering “how many New York Times articles have to come out” condemning UoA before action is taken.

The Better Business Bureau responded to a slew of what it deemed misinformation Tuesday, clarifying that Trump University only received an A+ rating from the group after complaints dropped as the business drew down operations. The BBB said in a statement that it did not provide any documents or comment to Fox News moderators for Thursday night’s debate. In the debate Megyn Kelly challenged Donald Trump on his previous claims that Trump University, a program which offered courses on real estate and investing, had an A rating with the BBB. Kelly said records showed Trump University had a D- ranking...

Cambridge University has agreed to remove a bronze cockerel from view after students complained about its links to Britain’s colonial past. Jesus College said it will take down the Benin Bronze from its dining hall and start discussions about whether to repatriate it to Africa. Last month, students demanded the statue be returned to a royal palace in Nigeria from where it was plundered during a 19th century British naval expedition.

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Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump will come March 11 to Chicago for a rally at the University of Illinois-Chicago Pavilion, just days before the March 15 Illinois primary election. University officials confirmed the Trump campaign had rented the arena for an event that will begin at 6 p.m. It will be the businessman and reality TV star's first visit to the state since a rally in November at the Prairie Capital Convention Center in Springfield.