Free Republic

NEW YORK -- A Cornell University junior was arrested Tuesday for allegedly making violent online threats directed toward Jewish students at the school. Gov. Kathy Hochul says state police and the FBI's joint terrorism task force questioned him earlier Tuesday. Patrick Dai accused of posting antisemitic threats The U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of New York says 21-year-old Patrick Dai has been arrested for posting antisemitic threats, including, "If you see a Jewish 'person' on campus follow them home and slit their throats." The feds say Dai is from the Rochester area and faces charges of posting threats to...

Like most Americans, I was of course shocked by the vicious inhumanity that the cowardly terrorist group Hamas carried out in Israel three weeks ago. Unfortunately, organized evil is neither unique nor surprising. The Nazis were equally evil across Europe, as were the Japanese at Nanking and Stalin with Ukraine, and Mao with his people. Sadly, evil happens, devils exist and thankfully they are rarely celebrated. But rarely doesn’t mean never, and the most shocking thing was not the evil perpetrated, but rather the extraordinary support it has received. Not only is Hamas’s evil finding exuberant support in places like...

I was stunned when students across the country, including mine, immediately celebrated the Hamas terrorist attack in Israel on Oct. 7. Students for Justice in Palestine called the terror attack a “historic win” for the “Palestinian resistance.” A Columbia professor called the Hamas massacre “awesome” and a “stunning victory.” A Yale professor tweeted, “It’s been such an extraordinary day!” while calling Israel a “murderous, genocidal settler state.” A Chicago art professor posted a note reading, “Israelis are pigs. Savages. Very very bad people. Irredeemable excrement…. May they all rot in hell.” A UC Davis professor tweeted, “Zionist journalists … have...

The Biden administration is announcing new actions Monday aimed at combating a dangerous scourge of antisemitic incidents on college campuses across the country in the wake of the Hamas terror attacks on Israel. The White House highlighted a series of steps taken by the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice and the Department of Education, including engagement with campus law enforcement officials, which comes amid rising tension on college campuses. Over the weekend, a series of antisemitic threats were made against Cornell University’s Jewish community in online posts. CNN has reported that at many universities, students are engaging...

Mississippi State Auditor Shad White is advocating for a major shift in funding for degree programs at public universities. He is aiming to redirect resources away from what he calls "garbage fields" like women's and African American studies, which often lead to graduates leaving the state. A recent report from the Mississippi State Auditor's Office highlighted this push for change. It emphasized the importance of aligning college majors with workforce needs to address Mississippi's "brain drain" issue. This problem arises when college graduates leave the state in search of better job opportunities. The report revealed that taxpayers invest the same...

A federal judge ruled today that a ban on drag shows at a Texas public university can remain in effect while a lawsuit challenging it proceeds, writing that drag performances are not categorically protected under the First Amendment. U.S. District Judge for the Northern District of Texas Matthew Kacsmaryk, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, denied a motion for a preliminary injunction against West Texas A&M University from banning future drag shows on campus. Kacsmaryk also granted the university president, Walter Wendler, qualified immunity from the lawsuit, filed by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE). "Because men...

Florida’s public university system on Friday voted to approve the Classic Learning Test (CLT), a college entrance exam, making it the first state to accept an alternative to the SAT. Backed by Christian schools and conservative political groups, the CLT was first introduced in December 2015 and is currently accepted by over 250 American colleges and universities, according to its website. The $59 online test consists of a three-section, two-hour exam that assesses verbal reasoning, grammar and writing as well as quantitative reasoning. Students will also have the ability to view their scores the same day they complete the test....

Want to know how diversity, equity, and inclusion ideology has begun to take over public higher education in Alabama? Read Scott Yenor’s recent report, “Going Woke in Dixie?: The progress of DEI at the University of Alabama and Auburn University.” He details the effects of the University of Alabama’s “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) strategic plan, lists the number of well-paid diversity officers, and catalogs how athletics and Greek life have been subordinated to DEI ideology. His description of DEI at Auburn University is just as comprehensive. “Going Woke in Dixie?” provides chapter and verse on just how badly DEI...

There are reports circulating that colleges and offices are beginning to reinstate COVID mask mandates and contact tracing despite no new cases of the virus being reported.The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Monday that Morris Brown College, a black private liberal arts college has reinstated the measures as part of a “precautionary step.” The report notes that students and staff will all be asked to mask up while on campus, only one week after classes began.A communication issued by the college claims there have been “reports of positive cases among students in the Atlanta University Center,” a consortium of black colleges and...

March 25, 2021, Rutgers University became the first university in the nation to announce it would require students to take COVID vaccines for fall 2021 enrollment, retracting its January 8, 2021 announcement that “…with our stance of human liberties and our history of protecting that, the vaccine is not mandatory.” What happened within a few short months that made Rutgers ultimately decide to hell with student civil liberties? Rutgers claimed and still does to this day that it has a “commitment to health and safety for all members of its community” even though on July 30, 2021, Rochelle Walensky issued...

Public college administrators 2,700 miles apart are trying to escape legal responsibility for what some courts are calling potential viewpoint discrimination against campus chapters of the same nationwide conservative group. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals made that harder for California's Clovis Community College Thursday by refusing to moot the First Amendment lawsuit against several officials by former students in its Young Americans for Freedom chapter. The question of mootness was brushed aside by the court, because even though the college being sued rescinded their "Flyer Policy" at issue, the matter was capable of repetition yet avoiding judicial review....

If you ever thought of being a donor to your favorite college, or leaving an estate gift, I have one piece of advice: don't do it. This isn't out of a cold heart, or being ungenerous, but from practical concerns over university and college financial corruption. The same thing applies to making political contributions: the money just goes into a swamp, and both must be starved (or drained). Donations, if any, must be highly structured, with donor controls and institutional reporting. In both cases, you have to think and act like a shareholder and owner. Giving money to a university...

American universities are rushing to offer degrees in DEI when major U.S. corporations are laying off DEI-focused employees.American universities and colleges are rushing to offer students degrees or certifications in so-called diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) when major U.S. corporations are reportedly laying off DEI-focused senior officers and thousands of employees.In the wake of George Floyd’s death in 2020, American companies were under tremendous pressure from various stakeholders to do more for social justice and racial diversity in the workplace. One of the most vocal stakeholders in the corporate world is Larry Fink, chief executive officer of BlackRock, a trillion-dollar...

Affirmative action in admissions is over and as I pointed out here, the progressive left is basically freaking out about what will happen next. What we’ve seen in California, which outlawed affirmative action in 1996, is that the percentage of black and Hispanic students are likely to drop until schools adopt legal ways to make up for the advantage affirmative action was giving these students. The Washington Post has a story up today looking at how schools might do that. [emphasis added]“Expect a shock,” said Michael V. Drake, president of the University of California, who is in position to know....

WASHINGTON — President Biden implored colleges and universities Thursday to consider applicants’ socioeconomic status and their experience with overcoming adversity — including racial discrimination — after the Supreme Court ruled that race cannot be used to determine who is admitted. “Today I want to offer some guidance to our nation’s colleges,” Biden said at the White House shortly after the ruling. “What I propose for consideration is a new standard where colleges take into account the adversity a student has overcome when selecting among qualified applicants.” The Supreme Court ruled in lawsuits against Harvard University and the University of North...

More than half of Americans don’t believe a college degree is worth the cost ... 56% of all Americans viewed getting a college degree as a bad investment, while only 42% of Americans see a degree as worth it. The highest skepticism of the group that was surveyed came from young adults in the 18 to 34 age range. "Women and older Americans are driving the decline in confidence. People over the age of 65 with faith in college declined to 44% from 56% in 2017. Confidence among women fell to 44% from 54%," the poll said. ... The confidence...

A coalition of education experts, governors and lawmakers are pushing back against the "Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion" policies that have become the norm in public colleges and universities around the country. Several states have legislative efforts underway to require intellectual diversity, and professors tell The Center Square they welcome the change. Texas is the latest state to take on DEI, a broad category that employs teams of administrators to enforce equity and racial policies at the educational institution. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed legislation this week that would stop taxpayer funding for DEI programs at public colleges and universities. Critics...

We have previously discussed professors who have violently attacked students or destroyed displays with opposing views. This month there was the Albany professor who shutdown a pro-life display and then resisted arrest. The latest such case comes from Hunter College where Art Professor Shellyne Rodríguez trashed a pro-life display while screaming that it is “f***ing propaganda” and “triggering” for her students. Rodríguez is an adjunct professor teaching art at Hunter and is shown in a video screaming at the students “You’re not educating S**t […] This is f**king propaganda. What are you going to do, like, anti-trans next?”She continued: “This...

So if you have kids in college or heading to college sometime soon then you’re probably already aware that many schools have abandoned the SAT as a requirement for applicants. Forbes reported last fall that the SAT is now optional at a majority of schools.As the college application process picks up steam for the upcoming academic year, a new survey shows that more than 80% of U.S. bachelor-degree granting institutions will not require students seeking fall 2023 admission to submit either ACT or SAT standardized exam scores…“An overwhelming majority of undergraduate admissions offices now make selection decisions without relying on...

Leftist students at Syracuse University recently voiced opposition to an event featuring Yeonmi Park, a North Korean defector. Ahead of the event hosted by the Syracuse College Republicans in partnership with Young America’s Foundation, students destroyed fliers and posted messages critical of Park and the College Republicans in an online forum. Park, who delivered her speech on Apr. 5, “has criticized concepts like political correctness, trigger warnings and ‘woke culture’ in her career,” according to the student newspaper, The Daily Orange.