Free Republic

For quite a few years, the opponents of using standardized tests in college admissions were riding high. More and more schools were falling for the argument that the tests were unfair if not outright racist, and were not good at predicting whether a student would succeed in college. More recently, the battle’s course has shifted, as numerous colleges and universities have reinstated the requirement that applicants submit their scores on one of the tests. Naturally, this has inflamed the anti-testing forces. In a New York Times piece published on Sept. 16, Miriam Pawel declares, “This California Educational Juggernaut Doesn’t Need...

Students at the University of Colorado are in for some rocky news. Boulder, the beautiful college town the CU calls home, is one of the most dangerous in America, according to a new study. One the other hand, the Gators aren’t as perilous as they look. Gainesville, home of the University of Florida, is one of the safest college towns. The study from Lesson Maker Pro evaluated 174 college towns — big and small — across seven safety metrics, tracking crimes from Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) violations and hate crimes to robberies and aggravated assaults. Researchers culled data from...

Late in the second quarter Saturday at Darrell K Royal–Texas Memorial Stadium, No. 7 Texas was up 14 points on a Florida team in free fall. The Gators, ranked as high as No. 8 earlier this month, were coming off back-to-back blowout losses, the second of which was handed to them by a South Carolina squad that was previously winless in SEC competition. To top it off, Florida arrived in Austin with its QB1 nursing a shoulder injury that he suffered in that disheartening setback to the Gamecocks.

A stunning new poll has revealed that American young people are expressing positive views toward Sharia law at higher rates than ever as the midterm elections approach in three weeks. Experts say much of the support can be attributed to the lack of balanced formation being provided by American universities and fear of being labeled racist, leading to young people being ill-informed about the oppression inherent in Islamic legal code.Earlier this month, Rasmussen Reports published the results of a survey that found a full 43% of voters aged 18-24 saying they have positive views of Sharia law. Strikingly, the poll...

A young woman reported that she was raped in a frat house bathroom at the University of Chicago — as a group of men cheered “when’s my turn” and “let me in,” outside the door. The shocking report at another elite university fraternity house comes weeks after the “Cornell 7” gang rape allegations. The alleged assault at UChicago took place in the early hours of Sunday during a rowdy party at the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity house in Hyde Park, The New York Times reported. The woman, 21, was not a student of the university but attended the party alongside...

It has been nearly four years since OpenAI announced ChatGPT in November of 2022, and most universities continue to muddle along with their AI efforts. Many are treating it as a tactical academic integrity issue when it really is about strategic organizational transformation. If done right, AI can fundamentally change how students learn, faculty teach and conduct research, and universities operate. Based on our 2025 internal survey of UNC professors, 95% of our faculty agree that our students must leave Carolina ready to use AI intelligently and ethically. Overall, while 90% of college students are using AI, 58% of them...

(The Center Square) – An Ohio college that touted a “Free College Benefit Program” was actually illegally funded with millions in taxpayer dollars, according to indictments released Thursday. A grand jury in Jefferson County indicted three people for stealing $20 million from Eastern Gateway Community College, a state school which has now closed, Ohio State Auditor Keith Faber said. Michael Perik, Nicole Rowe Colclasure and Michael Geoghegan are accused of diverting Pell grants and other federal financial aid state funds through “fraudulent reimbursements and illegal incentive payments, “ Faber said Thursday. The “Free College Benefit Program” caused the school’s enrollment...

Students at Cornell University began what was billed as a seven-hour sit-in on Wednesday in solidarity with "Jane Doe," the former student who alleges she was drugged and raped by multiple members of a fraternity on its Ithaca, N.Y., campus in October 2024. "Seven hours for the seven hours she endured," a coalition of Cornell student groups said in an Instagram post announcing the demonstration. "Seven hours of solidarity. Seven hours demanding change."

Female Rage Hot Sauce’s second “Hot Dogs for Abortions” fundraiser of the summer brought hundreds of supporters together to raise money for the D.C. Abortion Fund, channeling their anger over reproductive rights into advocacy. The fundraiser, held at Dew Drop Inn on Sept. 17, is the latest iteration of an event that began as a backyard party following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. What started with friends grilling hot dogs and donating at the door has since grown into a recurring fundraiser for abortion funds, raising thousands of dollars along the way. “After the Dobbs case...

American higher education is in retreat. It’s shrinking. The for-sale signs have gone up. It’s time for “inventory reduction.” Forty-nine colleges have closed since 2020. Forty others have merged with neighbors. The Huron Consulting Group says that 400 colleges are at risk of closing in the next decade. The prospect of insolvency has now moved beyond small colleges. Larger ones are closing programs and laying off faculty. Not counting community colleges, trade schools, online-only outfits and clandestine thinkatoriums, some 2,700 four-year institutions are currently authorized to hand out college degrees in the US. That compares with 4,150 licensed hot dog...

The U.S. Department of Education’s proposed rule to overhaul the federal accreditation system is reshaping the broader national debate over accreditation. Among other changes, the proposal would simplify the process for recognizing emerging and existing accreditors, and explicitly encourage a quality-assurance system more focused on student outcomes, academic excellence, and return on investment. Accreditation performs an essential function in American higher education. The Department of Education recognizes accrediting agencies, and accreditation by an appropriate federally recognized agency can help establish a college or university’s eligibility to participate in federal Title IV student-aid programs. That makes accreditors powerful gatekeepers. But a...

I had a simple question: What are teachers learning at schools of education? I wanted to examine what books these institutions assigned, what instructional practices they promoted, and what their assignments required. In the course of that investigation (the results of which you can read about here), I requested the syllabi of required courses from 10 different universities. Eight gave me the requested documents promptly. The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor has yet to provide the syllabi over a year later but assures me that it will do so…one day…eventually. Maybe? The University of California, Los Angeles, however, declined to...

The Education Department has approved a plan to cut federal loans to college programs that result in low-earning jobs - a move the Trump administration sees as an opportunity to rein in runaway borrowing, while critics argue it is a blow to students seeking degrees in such fields as music, public service and religious studies.

For decades, serious scholars of all races have been saying that the obsession with diversity, equity, and inclusion that grips so many of our colleges has adverse consequences. Although it seems benign and helpful to insist on hiring and promoting people from certain backgrounds—the so-called marginalized groups—doing so has unintended and harmful consequences. To cite just one example, that is Thomas Sowell’s argument in his 1991 book Preferential Policies. Adverse consequences usually cause people to stop and reconsider their actions when they directly suffer those consequences. In non-profit organizations, however, the leaders rarely feel any harm from having made poor...

Two young men, identified by police as leaders of a banned University of Wisconsin fraternity, were arrested for an alleged horrific hazing incident. Fraternity president Brayden J Klein and vice president Samuel N Vane, both 20, were taken into custody by the Madison Police on Wednesday. The officers arrived at the location at 8.20pm after they received an ‘anonymous tip' about the events that were taking place at the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity, located along the 100 block of Langdon Street, Madison, about 80 miles west of Milwaukee. They allegedly found 30 half-clothed teens covered in ‘food, condiments, and other...

Pretend for a moment that you are starting your freshman year at Harvard University. You are excited about the college experience and ready to tackle the demanding coursework. You have decided on a major: Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality, while also fulfilling a portion of your elective credits with a minor in Ethnicity, Migration, Rights. You have already reviewed the general education requirements and chosen your courses for the fall semester. Now, you take another look at your selected courses with nervous anticipation. An expository writing course. Typical. A foreign language course. Also typical. The Border: Race, Politics, and...

The University of Michigan plans to exclude first-semester letter grades from students’ transcripts to “curb the mental health crisis.” What would seem like a mundane university-level grading change has become a cultural touchpoint. Early-morning talk shows, national to local outlets—everyone seems to have a reaction. The grading policy is expected to go into effect in fall 2027 in the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, the largest school at the university. Freshmen will still know what grades they received internally, but those grades won’t count toward their overall GPA. Everyone will be required to receive pass/no credit because “covering...

While I was in graduate school, I regularly participated in a research program that paid students to taste test food. Many social science disciplines conduct research this way. While these methodologies may be sound, relying heavily on convenience sampling creates limitations. Those dinosaur nuggets I rated highly in my late 20s may not test nearly as well with an older demographic. These sorts of limitations apply when we consider the research on political identification or bias in higher education—we are limited by our sample. Consider a recent analysis of political giving from faculty and staff at Florida’s five largest universities...

Ever since Benjamin Franklin wielded his fluent French to persuade Parisian elites to support the War of Independence, foreign language knowledge has enabled American diplomats and representatives—not to mention spies—to promote the nation’s interests. During World War II and throughout the Cold War, colleges provided education in languages deemed essential for national defense. Those programs were a great success. In the 1940s, Harvard, Michigan, and Berkeley founded secret schools in Japanese, often led by Japanese-Americans. Other institutions opened foreign language programs thereafter. In the wake of Sputnik in 1958, Congress passed the National Defense Education Act. In recent years, however,...

There is a valid debate as to whether a four-year college degree is worth the time and money anymore. Many people graduate thousands of dollars in debt and can't get a job in "safe" fields like engineering or business. There have always been those "underwater basket weaving" degrees that we make fun of, but now, one university is calling it quits on what are ultimately worthless degrees, and it might be a big win for Conservatives. The University of Texas at Austin, the university system's flagship campus, will be ending enrollment in Women's and Gender Studies, Mexican-American and Latina/o Studies,...