Free Republic

NASA has vehemently denied that there are living "insect- and reptile-like creatures" on Mars, after a professor at Ohio University made the controversial claim earlier this week. "The collective general opinion of the large majority of the scientific community is that current conditions on the surface of Mars are not suitable for liquid water or complex life," Alana Johnson, NASA's Public Affairs Officer, said in a statement to Fox News. Johnson added that one of NASA's objectives is "the search for life in the universe" and with the upcoming Mars 2020 rover, the government space agency hopes to take the...

A free-speech advocacy organization has sent Ohio University a letter urging the public institution to suspend rules imposed on fraternities and sororities following hazing allegations. The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education reports that more than a dozen fraternities and sororities have been ordered not to "meet in any capacity, officially or unofficially," as well as to "reduce conversations to personal topics as opposed to sorority/fraternity operations and updates."FIRE says that affected groups were sent an “FAQ” about the ban, which conceded that there is "no magic number" when it comes to knowing how many students are allowed to convene...

Editor’s note: After this article was published and was linked on the Drudge Report, Ohio University spokesman Jim Sabin contacted The College Fix and denied the school is considering a gym room for students of color. Asked about Ohio University’s own student news report on the matter (screenshot above), school officials contacted The New Political and also asked its student reporters to amend their 6-day-old report on the matter. The student news outlet now reports the workout room for minorities would also be open to all students. This article has been amended accordingly. Also, the school is public, not private.

A now-former Ohio University student senator was charged Monday by the OU Police Department with three counts of “making false alarms,” after reporting that she had received a series of threatening messages, including a death threat targeting her as an LGBTQ person. After Anna Ayers, 21, of Ligonier, Pennsylvania, reported that she had received those threatening messages two weeks ago, the OU Police investigated her claims and found that she had “placed the messages herself, prior to reporting them,” according to an OU Police news release issued early Monday evening. Ayers resigned form her position on Student Senate as Senate’s...

ATHENS, Ohio (April 15, 2010) – A new study led by Ohio University scientists suggests that early Native Americans left a bigger carbon footprint than previously thought, providing more evidence that humans impacted global climate long before the modern industrial era. Chemical analysis of a stalagmite found in the mountainous Buckeye Creek basin of West Virginia suggests that native people contributed a significant level of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere through land use practices. The early Native Americans burned trees to actively manage the forests to yield the nuts and fruit that were a large part of their diets. “They...

ATHENS, Ohio (AP) - Ohio University plans to test allowing men and women to live together in the same dorm rooms. It's an idea that was pushed on behalf of the school's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Center. Center Director Mickey Hart tells the student-run newspaper The Post the gender-neutral housing will be of particular benefit to students who identify as transgender. Student Senate member Sean Martin says students in dating relationships who try to live together under the new housing option will be "frowned upon." Administrators say a one-year experiment with male-female roommates will begin with this year's fall term,...

In a bizarre twist of fate, many college students may be living even better than their parents while at school. And these days schools are not only competing for students, but also for luxurious perks to lure those students, ranging from free skiing to free laundry service, free computers, and personalized birthday cakes. Ohio University’s Richard Vedder calls it the “country-clubization of the American university,” adding that “a lot of it is for great athletic centers and spectacular student union buildings. In their zeal to get students, they are going after them on the basis of recreational amenities.” Dr. Vedder...

Looking to bump up their party school ranking, College Dems at Ohio University (Athens) are giving away beer money to voters if they bring a friend. In an email Vice President of College Dems, Kellie Galan, reminded fellow Dems that a friend at the polls is worth $5. See email below. http://www.electionjournal.org/2009/11/02/oh-vote-fraud-alert-bring-a-friend-to-vote-and-college-dems-will-pay-you-5-dollars/ The Ohio Revised Code, would call this more than a no-no. (3) Advance, pay, or cause to be paid or procure or offer to procure money or other valuable thing to or for the use of another, with the intent that it or part thereof shall be used...

Conservative Dissidents at OU-Athens by: Emily Mullin, November 27, 2007 Since coming to college, I’ve been challenged countless times on my political views. I’ve gotten into some pretty heated debates with friends, acquaintances and outright strangers. I’ve been called some nasty words and gotten criticized publicly in the newspaper, but I guess it all comes with the territory. You see, I’m kind of a minority on campus. Or at least it seems that way. To some, I am a conservative. To others, a Republican. And to others still, I’m “ignorant,” “stupid,” or…well, you get the point. I prefer to consider...

When Ann Coulter’s most recent book, Godless, came out, all anyone heard about it was her “attack” on the four women from New Jersey. But Coulter’s book, actually has very little to say about the Jersey Girls, and much to say about a number of other topics, including education. In chapter 6: The Liberal Priesthood: Spare the Rod, Spoil the Teacher, Coulter takes on teacher indoctrination, pay, qualifications, and crime. Coulter asserts that teachers are always presumed heroes, and are spoken of in “reverential terms,” but are busy “inculcating students in the precepts of the Socialist Party of America—as understood...

When it comes to education, conventional wisdom argues that it’s better to go to college after high school. Conventional wisdom states that an educated society will spur economic growth, that a college degree leads to a higher income, and that America needs to increase college enrollment to strengthen against international competition. However, in George Leef’s essay, The Overselling of Higher Education, he argues that this conventional wisdom has flooded universities with apathetic students, subsequently causing a “deterioration of academic standards, credential inflation and soaring costs of college attendance.” Leef serves as executive director of The John William Pope Center for...

One Marine vs. 20 Idiots--Guess Who Wins? On Friday we noted that a score of Ohio University students and others had staged a "die-in" to protest the liberation of Iraq. The Post, the student newspaper, carried a letter from Marc Fencil, a senior who is also a Marine currently stationed in Iraq, that is so excellent we reprint it in full: It's a shame that I'm here in Iraq with the Marines right now and not back at Ohio University completing my senior year and joining in blissful ignorance with the enlightened, war-seasoned protesters who participated in the recent "die-in"...

Conservatives speak out against senator's speech by Chuck Bowen For the Post charles.bowen@ohiou.edu Conservative protestors and anti-abortion activists yesterday tried to shout down vice-presidential nominee U.S. Sen. John Edwards and other Democrats at a campaign stop on the steps of Baker University Center. U.S. Rep. Ted Strickland, D-Lisbon, was speaking to the crowd when about 40 protestors appeared at the intersection of Court and Union Streets chanting, "Four more years! Four more years!" Clayton Henson, chairman of the College Republicans, said he was surprised to see as many protestors as he did, because Edwards' stop had just been announced on...

Ohio University is offering "domestic-partner" benefits to employees, but only same-sex couples can apply. Some critics say the school is setting itself up for a lawsuit by employees who want to add a live-in boyfriend or girlfriend to their insurance plans, the Athens, Ohio, News reported. Eric Clift, a technical services specialist in OU's College of Osteopathic Medicine, told the paper if a heterosexual employee were to legally challenge the new policy as discriminatory, the university might have to either revoke the benefits for gay and lesbian employees, or extend them to straight employees, "which I have to think would...