Free Republic

The enrollment and financial woes of the State System of Higher Education (PASSHE) are well known. And fixing the mess will be a monumental challenge, concludes an analysis by the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy. The 14-school system’s enrollment has plunged by 21 percent from its 2010 peak of 119,513 students. But while the student census has, on net, fallen precipitously, commensurate reductions in faculty, other staffing and standalone institutions that kept costs unacceptably high were not considered. Until recently, that is. The terrible financial picture at PASSHE reflects two major causes, notes Jake Haulk, president-emeritus of the Pittsburgh think...

Call me the 1617 Project. Yep, that’s the year my first ancestor born on these then-wild and woolly shores saw the light of day in the touch and go environment of the Jamestown Colony. You’re not supposed to say things like this—but I am proud of Temperance Bailey Cocke. At the age of six, Temperance cheated death by hiding out at Jordan’s Journey, a settlement upriver from James Fort, while Powhatan engaged in a historic massacre. As a result, voila--here I am. Can’t thank you enough, Temperance, you brave gal, you! On behalf of Temperance and other intrepid colonial souls,...

Smith College in Massachusetts is offering a course this fall semester called “White Supremacy in the Age of Trump.” The course will explore questions such as “is White Supremacy a permanent feature of race in contemporary U.S. society?” and “how does one appropriately respond to its ideology and political power in the Age of Trump?” Students will examine “the relationship between white supremacy and white privilege,” as well as “analyze the history, prevalence, and current manifestations of the white supremacist movement,” and learn “how to build a human rights movement,” which includes “reproductive justice," so that students can “counter the...

UChicago United, a coalition of activist groups at the University of Chicago, is advising students to avoid calling the police for certain crimes and is taking shots at the school. The story: The coalition recently released the 2020 edition of its “dis-orientation” booklet. The 63-page booklet covers various topics, including race, free speech, and global justice. According to its Facebook Page, UChicago Unite was “formed to make the University of Chicago campus more inclusive for students of marginalized backgrounds and identities.” Don’t call the police: The booklet tells students that the university will teach them to call the University of...

'After adjustment for demographic and socioeconomic factors, the group most likely to attend selective colleges were students in male breadwinner-female homemaker families.'Teens whose mothers worked part-time or not outside the home were significantly more likely to be admitted to and attend a highly selective college or university than teens whose mothers worked full time, finds a study out today from the Institute for Family Studies. The study controlled for external factors including family income, parental education, the child’s sex, race, and family composition.“Students are more likely to be accepted by and attend highly competitive colleges when their mothers are at...

The Trump administration has taken several steps to address the growing threat of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) influence on U.S. college campus last week. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo designated Confucius Institute U.S. centers as a foreign agent for Communist China.His action was followed by a letter to the governing boards of American universities from Under-Secretary Keith Krach. Krach warned these board members that their institutions are at the forefront of a serious challenge “brought on by the authoritarian influence of the Chinese Communist Party.”Within the same week, the Wall Street Journal reported that some professors at several...

The Big Ten circus is an unmitigated PR disaster with a leader who wants to hide in the corner without suffering from the consequences of a premature decision. After a sudden and unpredictable shift in optimism within 72 hours, Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren canceled football, with little evidence to back up his decision. Now parents of affected students are demanding justification as to why Warren reached this verdict.After Dr. Venk Murthy, a University of Michigan cardiologist, questioned the evidence the Big Ten used to cancel its season, parents of Ohio State, Penn State, and Iowa football players have submitted...

An English professor at Iowa State University warned students that they might get dismissed from the class if they argue against abortion or criticize the Black Lives Matter movement, according to her syllabus. The syllabus, which was obtained by Young America’s Foundation, was written by professor Chloe Clark, a 2016 Iowa State University graduate, for students who will be attending her English 250 class. The student who sent the syllabus to the organization wanted to remain anonymous, fearing retribution. Clark notified students that “othering” is prohibited in her class, as well as “any topic that takes at its base that...

If people are only racist or 'antiracist,' your ideology is easy to enforce after a certain point of proliferation because people believe it's bad for business to be on the side of alleged racism. “If you voted for Donald Trump, you are a racist. You have no wiggle room,” tweeted Jemele Hill on July 19. Hill is a writer at The Atlantic and the daughter of a Trump voter. While her contention might puzzle the average American, it would raise few eyebrows on college campuses, where racism and bigotry have been defined differently for years.Those expanded definitions, so broad they...

To understand just how normalized radical ideas are on college campuses, look at the curriculum for which students pay thousands and thousands of dollars. From their first steps on campus for orientation to walking across the stage on graduation day, students are usually bombarded with leftist propaganda. College campuses facilitate the perfect environment for indoctrination, providing a platform for radical professors to teach their opinion as fact. As a young woman in college, I know firsthand how difficult it can be to stand behind conservative values in the face of leftist campus culture.Conservative parents are in a catch-22. While still...

In an interview with Candace Owens, author and filmmaker Dinesh D'Souza said the violence by Antifa radicals and others in response to the death of George Floyd is a direct result of progressive indoctrination at America's colleges and universities. "Academia is the theory, and Antifa is the practice," D'Souza said on "The Candace Owens Show." Discussing his new book "United States of Socialism: Who's Behind It. Why It's Evil. How to Stop It," D'Souza was responding to Owens' comment that America has "replaced a solid education system with psychological conditioning." Students are being taught "anti-Americanism," she said, graduating with a...

A new report summarizes research showing the financial and health repercussions of keeping schools, colleges, and child-care facilities closed far outweigh any risk. The Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity report also offers recommendations on how to reopen for the safest and fairest results. Report coauthor Avik Roy said in a tweet the report aims for policymakers to learn of and “heed the educational, social, and public health impact of prolonged school closures” for the nearly 80 million U.S. students who have already been out of school for months in 2020. The article described the nation’s current educational plans as...

If we’re inclined to glide past the Marxist fingerprints all over America’s current turmoil, assuming its ideas will flare up for a while and then burn out, we’re not paying attention. American institutions have stoked the coals of Karl Marx’s destructive ideology, fanning its flames until his notions have consumed our cultural pillars.Far from being forgotten and irrelevant, Marx’s ideas pervade key institutions, from universities and schools, to mass media and popular entertainment, to major corporations and medicine, to the arts and sciences. They’ve even seeped into many churches and seminaries. Of course, they also define the Democratic Party, Joe...

School officials at Union College in New York recently exposed the personal contact information of student members of the conservative Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) Union College chapter, resulting in a deluge of harassing comments and attacks from progressive students and activists. The story: Samuel Levit, chairman of the YAF Union College chapter, said the group has “been bombarded and slandered with hateful rhetoric, labeling, and vile mischaracterizations” after the university revealed the contact information, according to The College Fix. Union College exposed the YAF students after the group recently took to Twitter and Instagram to condemn the “violence, looting,...

The University of Chicago has determined an economics professor who came under scrutiny over tweets critical of the “defund the police” movement did not engage in “discriminatory conduct on the basis of race in a University classroom.” The statement Harald Uhlig, who has taught at UChicago since 2007, was temporarily removed as editor of the Journal of Political Economy, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago cut ties with him, and he came under investigation over alleged classroom “discriminatory behavior” a series of tweets earlier this month where he took aim at the growing movement to defund police departments following Geroge...

William Jacobson, the Cornell University law professor who came under fire for criticizing Black Lives Matter (BLM) in two articles earlier this month, is now facing calls to boycott his courses. The articles On June 3, longtime law professor William Jacobson posted an article on his blog Legal Insurrection headlined, “The Bloodletting and Wilding Is Part of An Agenda To Tear Down The Country.” On June 4, Jacobson posted another story titled, “Reminder: ‘Hands up, don’t shoot’ is a fabricated narrative from the Michael Brown case,” LaCorte News reported last week. Eduardo Peñalver, the dean of the law school, has...

Woke students are using meaningless language, having a meltdown over facts, and 'canceling' people whose ideas they don't like — all in the name of equality. Students are demanding the firing of two University of California, Los Angeles lecturers for doing their jobs, bringing the quest for conformity and identity politics to an absurd new level.One of the lecturers is Gordon Klein, who teaches accounting at the Anderson School of Management. A UCLA student emailed Klein recently, telling him that in light of George Floyd’s tragic death, black students “are struggling to focus on their educations when there is massive...

Today, Vice President Mike Pence led a discussion with higher education leaders from across the country to discuss the all-of-America approach to respond to COVID-19 and drive America’s phased economic revival.  Vice President Pence, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos and White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx discussed best practices to get students back to school in the Fall.They discussed guidance released by President Trump and the CDC which calls upon colleges and universities to develop, implement and maintain a plan to ensure the health and safety of students, faculty and staff. The Vice President thanked everyone on the...

Any tax-funded bailouts for higher ed need to be contingent upon urgent structural reforms, and a new paper from the National Association of Scholars provides the blueprint. Should universities receive taxpayer-funded bailouts? The answer depends on who you ask. According to Universities U.K., the lobby group for British universities, the answer is an unequivocal yes, even when the suggestion has caused some dithering and calls for a further probe into the Conservative-led government.The Russell Group Universities, the British version of the American Ivies, will be the hardest hit due to the latest crisis, according to one study. In the United...

'Even a phenomenon as menacing as COVID-19 is one of the inevitable risks of life,' writes Purdue President and former Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels. While other education leaders are waiting for politicians to release their students from the lockdowns suspending their futures, former Indiana governor Mitch Daniels, now head of Purdue University, is making plans to reopen his campus for fall.“We have every intention of being on campus this fall,” he told the faculty senate on April 20, according to USA Today. “We are sober about the challenges that will bring. We believe in the value of the on-campus experience,...