Free Republic

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,...

For decades, the American university has been drifting away from its most important purpose: giving students a common education in the knowledge and principles they need to become educated citizens. The core curriculum was supposed to provide that common ground. Instead, it became a collection of distribution requirements—a little History here, a little PoliSci there, a Science course somewhere else—with students free to assemble a curriculum that can have little coherence. That’s why UT-Austin’s decision to rethink its Core Curriculum deserves attention. UT is trying to bring back something that has been largely missing from higher education for a long...

Peter Berkowitz is one of those rare public intellectuals who doesn’t mind being on the “wrong” side of hot controversies—which is to say, he’s willing to clash with the “progressive” juggernaut. A former professor at Harvard and George Mason Law School, Berkowitz is currently a fellow at the Hoover Institution and a columnist for RealClearPolitics. His new book, Reclaiming Liberal Education in America, is a collection of his essays on higher education written between 2014 and 2025. They give the reader a comprehensive view of the problems that beset our colleges and universities. He writes, “The nation’s elite institutions of...

Three years ago, Governor Ron DeSantis established the Hamilton School at the University of Florida. According to The Washington Post, the school now boasts “50 professors, four majors, 69 classes this spring.” Similar efforts are afoot with the University of North Carolina’s School of Civic Life and Leadership and The Ohio State University’s Salmon P. Chase Center for Civics, Culture, and Society. Depending on your political perspective, these are either a promising effort to reform universities or, as The Post deems them, mere “conservative backlash” to combat “‘woke’ liberal indoctrination.” Media coverage on these centers tends to focus on their...

In the early years of the Classic Learning Test’s existence, we believed that our fight for acceptance as a college entrance exam nationwide would happen in admissions offices. We were wrong. The legacy tests have lobbied to weave themselves into myriad state government mandates nationwide, making the college entrance exam business as political as it is academic. Knowing this, the SAT and ACT are lobbying aggressively to try to maintain their political moat. In several states — including Georgia, Oklahoma, Texas, and more — they’ve hired lobbyists, even if one or both had not previously had one, and worked side-by-side...

Following the Hamas assault on Israel in October 2023, many American campuses erupted in turmoil—not due to the brutality of the attack, but in support of the Palestinian cause. In the minds of many American students, professors, and administrators, the Israelis are the aggressors and “had it coming.” Anyone who expressed support for Israel was apt to be harassed or even assaulted by pro-Hamas zealots. Jewish students were singled out for vituperation and taunts like “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free!” indicating a desire to see Israel wiped off the map. Encampments sprang up as activists...

Recently, Luke Burgis, Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the Catholic University of America, posed a provocative question: “What is the strongest argument from the political Right AGAINST Great Books programs?” In my view, the Great Books is a fine program for lifelong learning. 15,000 people a year participate in discussion groups affiliated with the Great Books Foundation. By contrast, a parallel lifelong learning project—the daily two-pages-a-day study program of the Babylonian Talmud known as Daf Yomi—drew over 90,000 people (almost all of them men) to the official completion celebration of its seven-year cycle at MetLife Stadium, with a further 7,000 at the major...

The value of the once vaunted college degree has come under increased scrutiny in recent years as critics question the ridiculous cost of most four-year institutions, the fact that huge percentages of them have been leftist indoctrination camps that don’t teach the students any real professional skills that will be useful unless they want to work in the DEI department or become yet another far-left professor, and that many young people are going deep in debt only to find it's tough just to get a barista gig at Starbucks.All but the most affluent families have to beg for financial aid...

I was working in a public space when a nearby conversation caught my attention. One student told a colleague that she would be taking several difficult classes the next semester. He responded, “just use AI, and the classes will be really easy.” I sighed in disappointment. Approximately 80% of undergraduate students worldwide use generative artificial intelligence to help with their coursework. AI can be a powerful tool for students in higher education, but only if they have already developed the ability to read and write effectively and to think critically. These fundamental skills are best developed independent of generative AI...

FReepers just found this short on YouTube. Don't know what college it happened at or which prolife group this is. Point is a very unhinged, childish, embicle of a woman attacks the man because what he said offended her. This is the adults we are now dealing with. Yes the man called the police 🚓

The School of Civic Life and Leadership (SCiLL). At UNC, students hear this name in one of a few ways. One is “eww, that uber-conservative program that’s a waste of money and is trying to indoctrinate everyone.” A rare few respond with, “I haven’t heard of that.” But the vast majority just say, “oh…nice,” and immediately assume you’re a complete nerd. In all fairness, the last one might not be completely off. Yet none of these opinions completely describe the SCiLL program. SCiLL itself is intended to help students learn how to critically engage in civil discourse with people on...

The public exposure, resignation, and subsequent death of the British fabulist Jason Arday have reignited the longstanding (if not eternal) debate about the purpose of higher education in our society and whether it is fulfilling that purpose. On the one side, conservatives are frustrated because, to them, the Arday case is emblematic: universities today are overwhelmingly leftist; leftists dominate the humanities and liberal arts faculties, and leftists are rewarded for poor or even fraudulent scholarship simply because it reinforces the preexisting beliefs of their contemporaries and superiors. On the other side, progressives and other leftists insist that the pursuit of...

When the US Treasury Department sanctioned the transnational organization Masar Badil last week, Washington took a much-needed step toward thwarting terrorist activity and recruitment here in the homeland. **SNIP** SUPER-UW’s rapid development from rhetoric to violence began with Hamas’ Oct. 7 terrorist attack, which killed UW alumnus Hayim Katsman along with 45 other American citizens. SUPER-UW immediately cheered the killing of civilians and venerated those responsible, later inviting UW students to a an event celebrating the slaughter “as not only a victory for the resistance, but a scientific necessity.” In September 2024, SUPER-UW encouraged followers to learn about “defending the...