Free Republic

**SNIP** A new “Witnessing Whiteness” workshop in the Centennial State encourages participants to form groups that can “dismantle the systems of white supremacy that support current structures of inequity.” The 11-part series, first reported by the educational watchdog Campus Reform, was created by Shelly Tochluk, who is also known in academic circles for organizing the “Unmasking Whiteness” conference. Indicators of “white culture” include “individualism, consumerism, meritocracy as an ideal, superficiality, competition, ambition, productivity, [and] extreme exploitation of labor/resources for profit,’” an online workshop document tells readers.

Expert panelists said at an event Tuesday that environmental degradation disproportionately affects communities of color, and that promoting racial diversity among environmental science researchers could help address the issue. The Environmentalists of Color Collective at UCLA hosted a forum on climate justice, featuring a panel of environmental justice advocates from Los Angeles. ECC aimed to raise awareness and start a dialogue about environmental racism, said Liliana Epps, a second-year gender studies student and member of ECC who helped host the event. Epps said environmental racism and injustice refer to disproportionate allocations of environmental resources. For example, pollutants tend to affect...

A motion filed by lawyers representing the woman accused of starting fires on the campus of St. Catherine University seeking to suppress evidence obtained as a result of search warrants has been denied by a federal court judge. In early February, the U.S. Attorney's Office announced a three-count indictment of Tnuza Jamal Hassan, charging her with attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization, making a false statement to the FBI and arson. The charges came in connection to fires that were set at St. Kate's on Jan. 17, including inside a building that housed a day...

The candidate for a seat in the UC Berkeley student Senate promised safe spaces for squirrels, better access to acorns and support groups for those experiencing habitat loss. His name was Furry Boi, he campaigned in a squirrel suit and he attracted immediate attention. "omg i love him he's so cute," Iris Melody Xu, a UC Berkeley student, wrote on Furry Boi's Facebook page. "Finally, a candidate I can get behind," someone else wrote. But when the character that sophomore Stephen Boyle had created as a joke actually won one of the Associated Students of the University of California's 20...

Student senators at the University of Washington-Seattle recently introduced a bill that would require fraternities to prevent "cultural appropriation" during social gatherings. [Snip] ... the bill is necessary because many "mainstream [fraternity] celebrations further perpetuate stereotypes minority groups have to face," adding that they contribute to the "harm that minority students face" on campus.

Animal species with males who compete intensively for mates might be more resilient to the effects of climate change, according to research by Queen Mary University of London. Moths exposed to increasing temperatures were found to produce more eggs and have better offspring survival when the population had more males competing for mating opportunities (three males for every female). The study, published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, suggests that sexual selection can provide a buffer against climate change and increase adaptation rates within a changing environment. This could improve understanding of how changing environments might affect...

The Fresno State English professor who lashed out at the late Barbara Bush, calling the former first lady an "amazing racist," has made a mark as an author writing about her personal life and Arab-American heritage. Randa Jarrar was born in Chicago in 1978, according to her Wiki page, to an Egyptian-Greek mother and Palestinian father. She grew up in Kuwait and Egypt, then returned with her family to the U.S. in 1991 after the Persian Gulf War. According to Fresno State officials, Jarrar has been on leave this semester from the university, where her instruction includes creative writing. "Many...

In 1996, right after voters in California banned affirmative action in employment and college admissions, minority student enrollment at two and four-year institutions plummeted. What has happened since though, is pretty remarkable. Of the 2.8 million students attending college in California today, two out of three come from racially and ethnically diverse populations. The most eye-popping increase in enrollment has been among Latinos. They now make up 43 percent of all college students in California. Twenty-six percent are white, followed by Asian and Pacific Islanders at 16 percent and African Americans at 6 percent. Business, education and civil rights groups...

One of the many ironies or paradoxes of life in academia is that freedom of speech never is more complex than when it is discussed by people who speak for a living. "In the spring semester of 2017, I was teaching a graduate level course on 'Gender Issues in Education,'" Elizabeth J. Meyer writes on the academe blog maintained by the American Association of University Professors (AAUP). "Since my research has included studying bullying and harassment and school climate issues, I work very intentionally the first day of class to set up an inclusive and welcoming classroom environment that includes...

Part II: Missed Opportunities As the investigation continues into the Stoneman Douglas High School massacre, we are learning about missed opportunities to save 17 lives. Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel, accused of "incompetence and neglect of duty", has been asked to step down. Resource Officer Scot Peterson, whose job it was to provide security and crime prevention services to the school, was accused of “hiding” while innocents who did not have his officer training were gunned down. The truth of the matter is that the tragedy at Parkland was facilitated by the omissions of others. This is how we begin...

In the aftermath of 17 students and teachers being gunned down at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, schools, colleges, and universities are reevaluating campus safety and taking a closer look at their active-shooter protocols. There are questions about how this could have happened when there were so many signs for earlier detection. In a three-part series, we will examine a local well-publicized case involving the University of South Florida where an incident was detected at the Tampa campus but went unreported by the USF police department and how the failure to take appropriate action could have just...

Headlines about liberal bias in higher education read like "The sun rises in the east." A weekend headline in the Boulder Daily Camera said "CU Boulder grapples with plummeting support of higher education among conservatives." The story analyzed a Pew Research study that showed right-of-center support for higher education dropping 18 points in just the past two years, with 58 percent of Republicans saying education has a negative impact on the country. Only 19 percent of Democrats feel the same. "CU administration is well-aware of the study's findings and agrees the results are a troubling sign of the times that...

Each year, California invites students who are in the country without legal permission to apply for the same financial aid packages available to others. But officials once again are concerned that fears are keeping those they want to help from seeking the funding. The deadline to apply for aid through the California Dream Act is March 2, just about two weeks away. As of Monday, 19,141 students had applied. That's a little more than half of last year's total. "We're 20,000 students behind," said Lupita Cortez Alcalá, executive director of the California Student Aid Commission, the organization that administers state...

A new Harvard University climate action plan, announced by Harvard President Drew Faust today, clears an ambitious path forward to shift campus operations further away from fossil fuels. The plan includes two significant science-based targets to reduce emissions dramatically: a long-term goal to be fossil-fuel-free by 2050, and a short-term one to be fossil-fuel-neutral by 2026. The plan builds on Harvard’s previous 10-year climate goal, achieved in 2016, to reduce on-campus greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent, despite a square footage increase of 12 percent during that period. Following this milestone, Faust appointed a climate change task force composed of...

Secret ballot votes rammed through in 11th hour The Undergraduate Student Government at Ohio State University has come under sharp criticism for a rushed, irregular secret ballot vote Wednesday night that rammed through a resolution in support of an anti-Israel boycott. A six-hour long meeting culminated in a half-hour of rapid-fire amendments to the "Resolution to Establish a Committee to Investigate OSU's Investments in Companies Complicit in Human Rights Violations." As the USG was being expelled from the room at midnight, two secret ballot votes were quickly cast within minutes—the first attempt returned more ballots than senators present—and it was...

Scientific inquiry has long been considered a stalwart of observation and objectivity, but one effort underway by some researchers prioritizes applying a “critical social justice lens into science,” according to an upcoming event at UC Santa Cruz. The event, what organizers dubbed “Feminist Science,” describes the effort as a method that infuses social justice, inclusion and equality into science to advance progressive social change. The workshop is hosted by Free Radicals, described as “a collective that envisions an open and responsible science that works toward progressive social change.” The mission of the Free Radicals is to enact political and social...

A course at Salisbury University in Maryland is using a “Pyramid of White Supremacy” to help teach students about diversity and “cultural competence.” “Avoiding confrontation with racist family members” and “remaining apolitical” make up the base, which is deemed critical for more egregious things like mass killings and genocide.

A federal court judge who will decide whether the University of Iowa discriminated in deregistering a faith-based student organization asked UI attorneys Thursday if the institution has taken steps to ensure it is applying standards equally to all groups. U.S. District Court Judge Stephanie Rose pressed UI attorney George Carroll, specifically, on whether UI has addressed allegations it unequally enforced its human rights policy by deregistering Business Leaders in Christ for barring an openly-gay student. The student organization — which goes by BLinC — has argued other UI groups limit membership and leadership to those who agree with their ideals...

A teacher’s assistant at Wilfrid Laurier University in Canada was chastised after she showed a video of two professors from the University of Toronto, Jordan Peterson and Nicholas Matte, debating the use of gender-specific pronouns. She was teaching on that subject in a communications class. The university president has offered an apology. Lindsay Shepherd, the TA in question, was called into a meeting with staff and faculty. She secretly recorded the meeting. She told them, in part: "I don’t see how someone would rationally think it was threatening. I could see how it might challenge their existing ideas. But for...

Women are more likely to have been sexually assaulted by the age of 44 if they didn’t go to college, according to a new study from the University of Michigan. The study, spearheaded by sociology professor and researcher William Axinn, found that the risk of “experiencing forced intercourse” is more than 2.5 times greater for women who’ve attended little or no college. After more than six years’ intense focus on a purported campus rape crisis, Axinn’s study exposes the Obama administration’s Title IX regime for the elitist and politically-motivated overcorrection it was. Axinn and his team analyzed data from the...