Free Republic

The radical Cornell University prof who lauded the Hamas terror attack on Israel as “exhilarating” and “energizing” dodged any punishment and is now back teaching at the upstate Ivy League school. Shamed history Professor Russell Rickford was out for the past year on “voluntary leave” after widespread public outcry when he was recorded at an off-campus anti-Israel rally cheering Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, invasion that slaughtered 1,200 Israelis. ““It was exhilarating, it was energizing ….I was exhilarated,” Rickford said at the time — before apologizing for applauding the mass murder of innocent civilians. ... Rickford is now teaching at least...

Transgender individuals who flee states seeking “gender-affirming care” can find refuge in the town of Penn State University. The resolution was introduced by Democratic Socialists of America to “protect” trans adults and youth and provide them with a “welcoming haven."The borough home to Penn State University (PSU) was designated as a “sanctuary city” for transgender individuals. The resolution, proposed by the local Democratic Socialists of America chapter, aims to “protect” and offer “gender-affirming healthcare” to trans adults and youth fleeing less accommodating states.The State College Borough Council voted unanimously Aug 19 to adopt the statutes listed in Resolution No....

(The Center Square) – The University of Virginia tops the 2025 free speech ranking on college campuses, a first for the school founded by Thomas Jefferson. The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression surveyed over 250 colleges and universities in its rankings. The foundation survey, administered by College Pulse, surveyed nearly 60,000 undergraduates enrolled full-time in four-year degree programs. UVA scored an average of 73.41, which is described as “good” for its free speech climate. The survey reported that 78% of students reported that “shouting down a speaker to prevent them from speaking on campus is at least rarely acceptable.”...

For second consecutive year, Harvard bottom ranked school with score of 0.00 The top five worst universities for free speech also all happen to be mostly Ivy League institutions, according to a major new student survey released today by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. Harvard, Columbia, New York University, the University of Pennsylvania and Barnard College made up the bottom five schools, respectively. Conversely, the top rated school was the University of Virginia. Last year’s highest, Michigan Technological University, came in second best for free speech. In third place was Florida State University, and fourth and fifth were...

America’s youth are being pushed into a one-size-fits-all college track that saddles many with debt — without preparing them for careers.A few months ago, a handful of lucky Gen Xers virtually won the lottery when the White House directed the Department of Education to “adjust” their student loan accounts, in some cases down to zero. Joel Lambdin, a 49-year-old string musician from New York City, became a poster child for this one-time forgiveness measure, as Business Insider reported. During his studies and bohemian career, Lambdin had accumulated $250,000 in student debt that remained in forbearance for more than 25 years...

The notorious Shanghai-based Marxist millionaire behind a sprawling anti-U.S and anti-Israel disinformation network has a cadre of operatives embedded at Columbia University, The Post has learned. Neville “Roy” Singham poured the huge fortune he made off the $785 million, 2017 sale of his software company, ThoughtWorks, into at least a dozen nonprofits, including the communist People’s Forum in Midtown. The groups helped organized many of the protests that raged across the city and nation since Hamas’ Oct. 7 raid on the Jewish state. Documents The Post obtained show multiple apparatchiks from these organizations work at the Kairos Center for Religions,...

Robin DiAngelo, the best-selling author of White Fragility, is a big believer in citing minorities. In an "accountability" statement on her website, which makes repeated reference to her Ph.D., DiAngelo, 67, tells "fellow white people" that they should "always cite and give credit to the work of BIPOC people who have informed your thinking." It doesn't matter if their contribution is just a few words. "When you use a phrase or idea you got from a BIPOC person," DiAngelo says, referring to black, indigenous, and other people of color, "credit them." But the white diversity trainer has not always taken...

The Rutgers University professor who was under an internal review after posts she made on Facebook following the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, writing “Let’s hope today’s events inspire others" will teach this fall. ... The Rutgers University professor who was under an internal review after posts she made on Facebook following the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, writing “Let’s hope today’s events inspire others” will teach this coming fall. A source provided Campus Reform with screenshots of the Facebook posts, which were made by Rutgers University Writing Program Assistant Teaching Professor Tracy Budd in the...

Columbia University has not only caved and failed to expel any of the students busted in the occupation of a building during a pro-terror riot, most of them are still “in good standing’’ there, a House report says. “The failure of Columbia’s invertebrate administration to hold accountable students who violate university rules and break the law is disgraceful and unacceptable,” fumed Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC), chairwoman of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, in a scathing statement accompanying a panel analysis Monday. “More than three months after the criminal takeover of Hamilton Hall, the vast majority of the...

Christina Westman dreamed of working with Parkinson’s disease and stroke patients as a music therapist when she started studying at St. Cloud State University. But her schooling was upended in May when administrators at the Minnesota college announced a plan to eliminate its music department as it slashes 42 degree programs and 50 minors. It’s part of a wave of program cuts in recent months, as U.S. colleges large and small try to make ends meet. Among their budget challenges: Federal COVID relief money is now gone, operational costs are rising and fewer high school graduates are going straight to...

Claiming that their anti-Israel rhetoric lit the fuse that convulsed Columbia University this spring, five Columbia students are suing a collection of far-left lawmakers over their support for anti-Semitic encampments at the college. Democrat Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and fellow progressive “squad” members Reps. Jamal Bowman of New York and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota were named in the lawsuit as well as several anti-Israel organizations, .. “The Gaza Encampment was extreme and outrageous conduct. It was illegal. It violated university rules. Its occupants harassed, followed, physically blocked, intimidated, and bullied Jewish students,” .. “During the protests, I witnessed...

No longer a Bellarmine employee’ Bellarmine University Professor John James is out of work after appearing to joke about the failed assassination attempt against President Donald Trump. “If you’re gonna shoot, man, don’t miss,” the English professor wrote on Instagram after last Saturday’s shooting that took off part of the president’s ear during a rally in Pennsylvania. The Catholic university in Louisville announced soon after that James would be placed on “unpaid leave,” although the social media post did not name him. “Words and actions that condone violence are unacceptable and contrary to our values, which call for respecting the...

University hired 6 new DEI deans in 1 year The Massachusetts Institute of Technology added more than 1,200 new administrative/support staff positions in less than a decade – including six “diversity, equity, and inclusion” assistant deans in one year, a College Fix analysis found. Meanwhile, between 2013 and 2022, undergraduate student enrollment remained basically flat. The administrative hiring increase coincides with concerted efforts by the research university to “advanc[e] diversity, equity, and inclusion” throughout its programs. During the 2022-23 school year, the most recent data available, the university employed 6,693 full-time administrators and support staff, according to information the school...

The Washington Free Beacon’s guide to occupying a Columbia campus building.. Eloise Maybank is accustomed to luxury. A London native, Maybank attended high school at a private French academy in London, the renowned Lycée Français Charles de Gaulle de Londres, and then at Milton Academy, an elite Massachusetts boarding school where tuition runs $76,000 a year. Then she enrolled at Columbia. Maybank was among approximately 100 people arrested at Columbia University in late April for storming and occupying a campus building. Of those arrested, 45 were charged with third-degree criminal trespassing, public records show. At a hearing last month, the...

Shots rang out near the University of Cincinnati (UC) around 2:45 a.m. Monday and Cincinnati police Capt. Mark Burns told the Associated Press that “two subjects” were detained in the aftermath. WLWT reported the shooting was in Corryville, a neighborhood in Cincinnati which is located east of the UC campus. Three people were killed in the incident, and two people wounded. Local12 noted that all three of the deceased individuals were men. One of the subjects detained by police was among two individuals who were shot and wounded in the incident. Just before 3 a.m,, the UC’s public safety department...

Young people, women, and Democrats reported the largest drops.Confidence in higher education has plummeted to its lowest level ever according to the results of two new national polls commissioned by FIRE and conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago. In two AmeriSpeak panels representative of the U.S. household population, we asked Americans: “How much confidence, if any, do you have in U.S. colleges and universities?” This question was first asked in February and then again in May, and its wording is similar to a question posed by Gallup in Summer 2023 when Americans were asked about their confidence in...

WASHINGTON - A recent study has named Gallaudet University as the most dangerous campus in America. According to data obtained by the Parrish Law Firm from Campus Safety, the D.C.-based university for the deaf and hard of hearing topped the list with a staggering 1,110 incidents per 1,000 students. The study analyzed various factors, including hate crimes, criminal offenses, and categories under the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) reported between 2018 and 2022. It took into account campuses of different sizes by converting the raw data into the number of incidents reported per 1,000 students. They ultimately determined the rankings...

Lebanon Hezbollah MP Mohammad Raad is advocating for penetrating “the heart” of Western societies through “investing” in Western university students protesting against Israel in order to subvert American college campuses and increase support for the Palestinians. In an interview with Russia Today TV earlier this month, Raad, who heads Hezbollah’s Loyalty to the Resistance parliamentary bloc in the Lebanese parliament, highlighted the strategic importance of engaging with Western university students participating in pro-Palestinian demonstrations. According to a translation of his remarks reported by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), he stressed that the Iran-backed terrorist organization Hezbollah should capitalize...

St. Cloud State University finalizes plan to cut back on degrees, minors amidst budget problems Nearly one in three degree programs at St. Cloud State University will get the ax, due to budgetary problems. Roughly 60 percent of minors are also getting the boot at the public university, according to a recent announcement. “In a presentation to the campus community on Tuesday, SCSU Acting President Larry Lee confirmed the university will suspend 42 degree programs and 50 minor programs,” KARE 11 reported yesterday. The news outlet reported that other cuts were made last year as well. “The reductions will leave...

The Jovian moon Io as seen by the New Horizons spacecraft. The mission's camera caught a view of one of this moon's volcanos erupting. (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio) The Large Binocular Telescope (LBT), located on Mount Graham in Arizona and run by the University of Arizona, is part of the next generation of extremely large telescopes (ELTs). With two primary mirrors measuring 8.4 m (~27.5 ft), it has a collecting area slightly greater than that of a 30-meter (98.4 ft) telescope. With their resolution, adaptive optics, and sophisticated instruments, these telescopes are expected to probe deeper...