Free Republic

The University of North Carolina is facing criticism after instructors announced they would withhold grades from students until the school reinstated individuals suspended for pro-Palestinian demonstrations on campus. On Monday, the university at Chapel Hill confirmed reports of professors punishing students by refusing to submit grades unless the school administration ends suspensions of those who engaged in protests last week. Nick Craig, a local radio host in Wilmington, North Carolina, published a screenshot of a professor’s message to students about holding their grades hostage. “The University has suspended 15 of your and my fellow students for their participation in a...

A University of North Carolina student who defended the US flag from anti-Israel protesters said he was willing to put his life on the line and said they would have had to take the flag “over my dead body.” Like many other US campuses, the quad of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill was attacked by anti-Israel protesters who descended on a flag flying at half mast to commemorate four Charlotte officers who were killed in the line of duty. Stompel, who is a junior majoring in political science, recalled thinking, “I don’t understand how people can act...

A student who held up her own American flag at a North Carolina campus Tuesday, after an anti-Israel mob desecrated an American flag flying on campus, said she would die for Old Glory. Anti-Israel protesters targeted the American flag on the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's quad — which had been flying at half-mast after four Charlotte officers were killed in the line of duty. At one point, they replaced it with a Palestinian flag – enraging students and inspiring members from the Pi Kappa Phi fraternity to take action. "I definitely was emotionally a little bit shaken,"...

Hamas students at UNC are so confident in their protective circle. Their bubble of delusion is quickly disturbed: https://twitter.com/CitizenFreePres/status/1786283415928549430 This is what happens next: https://twitter.com/i/status/1786283415928549430 Bob Lonsberry Via Twitter/X: Chancellor Lee Roberts personally took down the Palestinian flag and raised the U.S. flag at Chapel Hill. He is the son of journalists Cokie and Steven Roberts, and the grandson of House majority leader Hale Boggs. We need more like him . . . https://twitter.com/BobLonsberry/status/1785421898534339043

A fundraiser to throw a “rager” for the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill frat brothers who protected the Stars and Stripes from an anti-Israel mob this week has raised an eye-watering $400,000. And billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman is a fan — donating $10,000 to the cause. The GoFundMe contribution — spotted Wednesday night by an eagle-eyed X user — will help throw the patriotic pack of Pi Kappa Phi members “the party they deserve,” according to a description on the fundraising site.

More than 1,300 people have been arrested at pro-Palestinian protests on at least 40 college campuses across the U.S. over the last two weeks. Why it matters: University administrations have cracked down on student demonstrators in unprecedented ways as protests grow in size and intensity. The majority of arrests have occurred at encampments and sit-ins. Dozens of smaller-scale college protests haven't seen altercations between demonstrators and police. More than 100 universities have had encampments or sit-ins.

Several politicians praised students from the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill for protecting the American flag from anti-Israel protesters. UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor Lee H. Roberts was seen raising the American flag back to the top of the flag pole after pro-Palestinian protesters took it down and replaced it with the Palestinian flag. After Roberts left, pro-Palestinian protesters reportedly once again began attempting to remove the flag, leading a group of students to move in to hold the flag up off the ground and defend the flag from protesters.

One of the problems with the campus radicals and useful idiots is that they don't really live in reality. They talk about an occupation when there is no occupation of Gaza by Israel. They talk about a genocide when there is no genocide by Israel. There is a genocide being attempted by Hamas against Israel, but the radicals and idiots seem to refuse delivery on that reality. Fox's Lawrence Jones asked one of their people hawking propaganda material on the street outside of Columbia University some important questions, and her responses show how empty their positions truly are. He asked...

Earlier, we reported on the pathetic and disgraceful display being put on this week by pro-Hamas protesters on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH). To quickly recap, demonstrators who were upset over early morning arrests at an attempted encampment took down the American flag at the main campus and replaced it with a Palestinian flag.Though the agitators were amused, the university's interim chancellor, Lee Roberts, was not. Roberts proceeded to walk to the flag pole himself, remove the Palestinian flag, and re-fly the U.S. flag, to the appreciation of the Jewish students nearby. In...

A chaotic scene at UNC-Chapel Hill continued Tuesday afternoon, hours after police began detaining pro-Palestinian protesters on campus. University police said 30 people were taken into custody Tuesday morning because they refused to leave. On Tuesday afternoon, already tense situation escalated after the American flag was lowered and replaced with a Palestinian flag on the main quad. Dozens of police officers entered the main quad along with UNC Interim Chancellor Lee Roberts. Classes were canceled for the rest of the day and non-mandatory operations were suspended. According to university police, protesters attempted to block UNC police vehicles by standing in...

Editor’s note:Since the barbaric Hamas attacks against Israel on October 7th, American universities have become an undeniable locus of Jew hatred within our nation. Much attention has deservedly been paid to the radical campus groups like Students for Justice in Palestine who call for the genocide of the Jews and cheer the terrorists of Hamas. What has received less attention—but should in fact rank as the universities’ worst offense—is the Jew hatred promoted by official departments and institutes of the universities themselves. In the case of our campuses, Jew hatred is “the call coming from inside the house.”The Freedom Center...

If you are up on the latest trends in academia, you’ll know that “institutional neutrality” is in the news as more universities consider or adopt it. In my view, this is a good thing, as it maintains the role of the university as a neutral arena in which faculty and students can freely express and debate a wide range of viewpoints constructively rather than feel stifled when their university takes a public stance on a political or social issue. However, there is confusion within academia on what institutional neutrality means and how to implement it. The free-speech organization FIRE (Foundation...

During the last dozen years or so, one of the more common higher-education stories has been a college or university rushing to judgment against a male student or faculty member over an allegation of misconduct with a female. The Obama education department encouraged schools to “get tough” by employing procedures that were grossly unfair to the accused individuals, usually resulting in their suspension or expulsion. Subsequently, many lawsuits were filed against colleges for having violated the rights of those who were disciplined. In most instances, the school lost, with the judges frequently denouncing the “kangaroo court” nature of the proceedings...

If I, a graduating senior, were to give one piece of advice to an incoming UNC student, it would be to research prospective classes diligently. Search online for syllabi, survey professors’ CVs and academic work, and read students’ course reviews. Far too often, one signs up for a class simply because it fulfills a general-education or major requirement, only to spend a semester subjected to a shallow display of advocacy and a denigration of what once provided the basis for a rigorous liberal education. Unfortunately, the number of truly rigorous and enlightening courses available to UNC students continues to dwindle....

The University of North Carolina system oversees 16 state universities. Campus locations include Chapel Hill, Wilmington, Charlotte, Asheville, and Greensboro. UNC-Chapel Hill, originally called the University of North Carolina, was founded in 1789 and is one of the oldest public universities in the United States. According to Wikipedia statistics, some 245,000 students attended UNC system universities in 2021. One of the schools in the UNC system, UNC-Greensboro, is in the news these days because of a decision by Chancellor Franklin D. Gilliam Jr. to cut undergraduate and/or graduate programs in physics, mathematics, computer science, anthropology and nursing, citing “university direction,...

The UNC chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) doesn’t have a great track record on free speech and civil discourse. Its members have occupied university administrative buildings, attempted to shout down speakers, and used intimidation tactics on Jewish students. So it’s unsurprising that SJP shows equal disdain for the university’s commitment to institutional neutrality. The Chapel Hill student organization has shared a list of “demands” for university action in an online petition and in a letter to UNC administration. The list of demands, if met, would be the equivalent of UNC taking sides in the Israel-Hamas conflict.

On October 17, at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC), students taking a communications class were told:“The majority of Palestinians are children. They are seen as legitimate targets of violence.”“Israel and the United States do not give a shit about international law or war crimes.”“White nationalists like Richard Spencer see Israel as a model to be emulated.”“The attack by Hamas was not senseless, there is context.”These are just some of the things that professor E. Chebrolu said during a class titled, “Rhetoric and Public Issues” (COMM 170).Chebrolu told students, “What has been happening in Gaza and the...

Student organizations play a major role in shaping a campus environment outside of the classroom. Students’ participation in athletics, activism, extra-curricular learning, events, and other activities is typically organized by student-run clubs that work to supplement formal academic instruction. Many such organizations are funded by their respective universities, which means that close scrutiny of potentially discriminatory funding practices is merited. Indeed, there are drawbacks to using mandatory fees to subsidize student organizations at all. UNC-System schools provide substantial funding to registered student organizations by allocating revenues collected through mandatory student fees. UNC-Chapel Hill states that its required student-organization fee “supports...

Digital-reporting systems on college campuses are not a new concept. Yet they are currently being manipulated, even exploited, to fuel a campus culture in which peers and even faculty patrol each other for “biased” speech and activities. In recent years, colleges and universities across the United States have proven that maintaining free speech, academic freedom, and the pursuit of truth is low on their list of priorities. Instead, allegedly “inclusive” and “diverse” university environments regularly fall prey to a single political narrative, often accompanied by the silencing of those who do not agree. As colleges and universities have pursued this...

"Mental health" has become a catchphrase of our time. In 1976, Raymond Williams, the British literary scholar, published Keywords, in which he analyzed nearly 200 words that, in his view, comprised the core vocabulary of modern Western societies. Among the terms that Williams identified were “democracy” and “capitalism,” “utilitarian” and “unconscious,” “reform” and “revolution.” If a new edition of Keywords were to appear, it would almost certainly include an entry on “mental health.” The term “mental health” seems to have become mainstream after the Second World War, when the first International Congress on Mental Health was held in London in...