Free Republic

The number of students applying to attend one of the State University of New York’s 64 campuses plummeted by 20 percent this year amid the coronavirus pandemic, Chancellor James Malatras said. Malatras dropped the bombshell in an op-ed published on Empire Report New York. “This year at the largest system of public higher education in the country — the State University of New York — our applications are down approximately 20 percent, one of the largest annual decreases in the System’s 73-year history,” Malatras said. Students can apply to a number of colleges before deciding where to enroll. But the...

Prominent Buffalo developer Louis Ciminelli has been sentenced to 28 months in Federal prison along with a $500 thousand fine for his conviction on charges in connection with the 'Buffalo Billion' program. Ciminelli is out on bail pending appeal. Ciminelli was sentenced Monday in federal court for a pay-to-play conspiracy in which his firm won a development job worth a half billion dollars. Ciminelli and three others were convicted over the summer. Prosecutors say the scheme involved state-funded contracts worth more than $850 million. Prosecutors say Ciminelli and others in his company contributed nearly $100,000 to Cuomo's campaign. The Democratic...

“Open Mic” night May 2 at the SUNY Oswego Lifestyles Center turned out to not be so open after all. Taking the title at face value, conservative student Nicole Miller gave a speech about liberal intolerance on campus and — wait for it — got put on warning for making other students “uncomfortable.” The school’s Alcohol and Other Drugs Program coordinator, Trisha DeWolf, emailed Miller to say that if she did it again, she’d be banned from future open-mic events. (Kudos to the website Campus Reform for publicizing the remarkable missive.) While insisting she was “in support of [Miller’s] freedom...

An unanswered question in the Florida gun debate: What to do with existing guns? That’s the scary ass headline hovering over a tampabaytimes.com article written in the aftermath of Florida’s new gun control legislation. The implication is clear: Dems don’t think it’s enough to ban “assault weapons” (which the new bill does not do). Something must be done to disarm MSR-armed civilians. No really . . . When the Senate debated SB 7026— the gun legislation that just landed on Gov. Rick Scott’s desk — Sen. Linda Stewart, D-Orlando sponsored an amendments that would have banned the “sale or transfer”...

Thirteen cases of mumps have now been confirmed at the State University of New York at New Paltz, an increase of four since last week.At least eight members of the school's intercollegiate swim team, along with one athletics staff member, are among the sick. Swim practices and workouts were suspended as a precaution at the onset of the initial outbreak. 2 Mumps Cases Confirmed on SUNY Campuses; Outbreak Expands It's not clear if the additional four cases are connected to the mumps spread on the swim team, which county health officials first learned of a month ago. Last week, college health...

For years, the State University of New York included this query on its undergraduate application: “Have you ever been convicted of a felony?” On Wednesday, the university’s board of trustees voted to remove the question, citing the barriers it posed to some prospective students. The news that one of the largest public university systems in the country will no longer ask applicants whether they have been convicted of a felony is a step forward in a movement to remove questions about criminal histories from college applications. A 2010 study by the Center for Community Alternatives, a nonprofit group in New...

The State University of New York (SUNY) at Binghamton is now offering a course called "#StopWhitePeople2K16" as part of routine training for residential assistants. [Snip] The presenters of the course ... state their purpose is to "help others take the next step in understanding diversity, privilege, and the society we function within," presumably the "white" society they plan to "stop" at the event. The three RAs claim they will give "#StopWhitePeople2K16" course attendees the "tools" to respond to "uneducated people" with "'good' arguments." You know, the people who preach mutual respect, equality under God, and constitutional freedoms. Those people....

The State University of New York at Binghamton (SUNY-Binghamton) is offering a training class titled “StopWhitePeople2k16,” to instruct residential assistants (RAs) on how to deal with “uneducated” people who don’t believe in ideas like white privilege. The class is just one of several available to RAs at the school, and was discovered by the Binghamton Review, a student newspaper. Residential assistants are students who agree to assist with overseeing and monitoring residential life in return for receiving a free room from the school. Apparently, though, Binghamton RAs also have the responsibility of “stopping” white people. “The premise of this session...

ALBANY – An Albany County grand jury indicted three University at Albany students Monday on charges related to an incident on a CDTA bus in January. Ariel Agudio, 20, of Huntington, faces one charge of assault, three counts each of attempted assault and falsely reporting an incident, all misdemeanors, and three counts of harassment, all violations. Asha Burwell, 20, of Huntington Station, is charged with one misdemeanor count of assault, four misdemeanor counts of falsely reporting an incident and one count of harassment, a violation. Alexis Briggs, 20, of Elmira Heights, is charged with one misdemeanor count of assault and...

At the last minute, officials at the State University of New York at New Paltz curtly canceled a planned campus debate between a notable left-wing media critic and a notable right-wing media critic because the right-wing media critic has right-wing views. . . . School officials had blasted out emails promoting the event as late as March 28. Then, on the afternoon of March 30, SUNY New Paltz student activities director Mike Patterson declared that the debate would not occur. "The intended purpose for our community would likely not be achieved," Patterson explained, according to The New Paltz Oracle, the...

Just when it seemed that cooler heads might prevail, when it seemed that the tension fueled by allegations of a racially motivated attack at the University at Albany might subside, along comes the attorney for Asha Burwell with a phrase that's gasoline for the fire. Academic lynching. Yes, Frederick Brewington went there. That's how the attorney described the UAlbany process being used to determine the potential on-campus punishment for Burwell and the two other black students who said a pack of white passengers beat them on a CDTA bus while yelling racial slurs. UAlbany now believes Burwell, Ariel Agudio, and...

Three SUNY Albany students who claimed they were victims of a racially motivated attack on a city bus might face charges themselves after surveillance footage apparently debunked their story.... The three students, who are all black women, initially said up to a dozen white classmates spewed racial insults and ganged up on them. But the video, which has not been released to the public, shows one of the alleged victims throwing the first punch, as well as one alleged victim using a slur against a white passenger...the footage shows no evidence of racism directed at the students.

BINGHAMTON, NY--Some state workers are being told not to come to work because of the snow. But it's no "snowday" for them. They are losing a vacation day. According to Binghamton University's website, all non-essential employees are not allowed to come to work because of the state of emergency. But they'll have to use a vacation day.

"Project Grey Goose and University at Albany SUNY to investigate major Power Grid blackouts caused by hackers" SNIPPET: "This is an open call for volunteers who wish to participate in a joint Project Grey Goose / University at Albany SUNY open source intelligence investigation into power grid blackouts caused by hacker attacks. The scope is global and includes the U.S. Interested parties should contact me from their work email address with an expression of interest, a brief bio, and your experience, if any, in SCADA systems in general or the power grid in particular. All respondents will be kept confidential....

Updated: April 8, 2008 05:26 PM EDT ALFRED, N.Y. (WIVB) - - Alfred University has cancelled all classes and closed the library per police request. ALFRED, N.Y. (WIVB) - - Police are on campus at Alfred University, investigating a report of a Hispanic male, possibly carrying a gun. He is described as wearing a green hoodie sweatshirt and carrying a back pack. Faculty and students are being advised to remain inside where they are, not to go outside. Update: The following email has been sent out to the campus: Alfred State College has been advised that the description of the...

Feb. 21 issue - Turhan Canli has an odd photo collection. It includes several shots of people's faces. He flashes photos of the words "death," "happiness" and others printed in various colors. He also has images of fanged snakes and snarling dogs, babies and white supremacists. Canli, a psychologist at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, recently showed several of the pictures to Robert Sheiman, 22, a theater manager from New Haven, Conn. Before viewing them, Sheiman was put in an fMRI scanner, and as each photo flashed up, he indicated his reaction—positive, negative or neutral—by pressing...

In an article in Science magazine, SUNY Downstate researchers describe erasing memory from the brain by targeting a molecular mechanism that controls memory. Finding may be applied to chronic pain, memory loss, and other conditions.Scientists at SUNY Downstate Medical Center have discovered a molecular mechanism that maintains memories in the brain. In an article in Science magazine, they demonstrate that by inhibiting the molecule they can erase long-term memories, much as you might erase a computer disc.Furthermore, erasing the memory from the brain does not prevent the ability to re-learn the memory, much as a cleaned computer disc may be...

As readers of this space know, we frequently subject academics to what we view as constructive criticism. As travelers through the blogosphere may have noticed, they sometimes answer those critiques. “Someone named Candace de Russy (on the usually unbearably dreadful National Review blog on the university situation 'Phi Beta Cons') cites someone else named Laura Ventura at Accuracy in Academia to the effect that the fact that the journal Critical Inquiry has more citations of Derrida and Marx than of C. S. Lewis and Thomas Jefferson is an indication of the journal’s ‘anti-American, anti-war, and anti-Christian’ stance,” Bucknell sociologist Alexander...

jhorrigan@th-record.com New Paltz - A group of four student leaders here have declared their support for a student militia that should be allowed to carry guns on campus. Not handguns, mind you. But shotguns. And not now, but later, maybe years later, as part of an effort to protect students' rights. It's taken a generation, but you can safely kiss the image of SUNY New Paltz as a hippie haven goodbye. It's been replaced by a whole new brand of expectation-bending politics. The students cite years of general abuse by administrators, campus and local police toward students - including profiling...

Professors are never more revealing than when they are trying to deny that higher education and those who deliver it have any bias whatsoever. Dr. John Doolittle of American University offered several such insights in a debate with me at the AU campus earlier this month. Dr. Doolittle pointed out that when he studied at the University of Wisconsin in the early 1970s, “I knew for a fact that three professors voted for Richard Nixon.” He did not say what happened to the political balance on the university faculty when that Republican trio retired. Moreover, UWI has hundreds of professors...