Free Republic

The situation unfolding across college campuses in the United States is a complicated one, and bears reflection. I do not propose anything definitive, but I wanted to share a few thoughts. A Very Brief History of the University: The first question we must ask is “What are universities even for?” It is not an easy one. They began as institutions to train clerics in theology and philosophy, and evolved gradually into places for training gentleman scholars. Oxford and Cambridge in the 19th century did not live up to the model St. John Henry Newman describes in The Idea of a...

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell distanced himself from other Republican lawmakers who have called for the National Guard to be sent in to break up the antisemitic riots and demonstrations that have taken over multiple university campuses throughout the US over the last week and a half. “What needs to happen, at least at the beginning, is these university presidents need to get control of the situation, allow free speech, and push back against antisemitism,” McConnell told Margaret Brennan on the CBS 'Face the Nation' program. “I thought that was largely gone in this country, but we’ve seen a number...

Program will address ‘insidious problem’ with racism in medicine: nurses association Nursing students at the University of Illinois soon will receive “diversity, equity, and inclusion” training via virtual reality courtesy of a $20,000 grant to address racism. The American Nurses Association, which awarded the grant through its National Commission to Address Racism in Nursing, says the funds will address an “insidious problem” with racism in nursing. But other medical professionals and scholars say the project is a waste of money. The university’s College of Nursing plans to use the grant to hire a software engineer to create virtual reality training...

This is all Obama. What you see happening right now in New York City. It all started at Columbia University way back in the early 1980’s. Obama was my Columbia U classmate. And now it’s all full circle back to our roots (excuse the pun). Columbia University is the canary in the coal mine. George HW Bush talked about “1,000 points of light.” Obama uses “1,000 points of destruction” to achieve his goal- the intentional destruction of America. You can see it all happening just blocks apart right now – all built around Columbia University and NYC. Upper Manhattan is...

Shocking video footage captured the moment a protester near Columbia University declared, “We’re all Hamas” and “Long live Hamas” as protests intensified Wednesday — with dozens of students taking part in a “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” as the university’s president faced congressional grilling over antisemitism on campus. The clip shows a female protester with a keffiyeh covering her head and face loudly banging on NYPD barricades erected near the university’s Morningside Heights campus before yelling, “We are Hamas!” In the video, shared on X by watchdog nonprofit StopAntisemitism, the person behind the camera questions the protesters and they reply, “Yes, we’re...

An early morning shooting just blocks from student housing at Rutgers University left two people affiliated with the New Jersey school injured on Friday. The shooting occurred just after 2 a.m. at the intersection of Easton Avenue and Hamilton Street in New Brunswick following an apparent altercation, Rutgers police announced. Police found a male victim “affiliated with Rutgers University” with gunshot wounds and took him to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, RLS Media reports.

The unexpected discovery of the dwarf galaxy PEARLSDG, which is isolated and quiescent, challenges established views on galaxy evolution and highlights the capabilities of the James Webb Space Telescope in uncovering cosmic phenomena. (Artist’s concept.) Credit: SciTechDaily.com PEARLSDG, an isolated dwarf galaxy found by the James Webb Space Telescope, defies standard galactic evolution theories by not forming new stars, indicating a need to revise our understanding of galaxies. A team of astronomers, led by Arizona State University Assistant Research Scientist Tim Carleton, has discovered a dwarf galaxy that appeared in James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) imaging that wasn’t the primary...

Elom Tettey-Tamaklo praised failed suicide bomber Fatima Bernawi in a 2023 essay.. Elom Tettey-Tamaklo, the Harvard University graduate student who was filmed accosting an Israeli classmate at a campus protest, penned an essay last year glorifying a Palestinian terrorist who was imprisoned for her role in attempting to bomb a movie theater in Jerusalem in 1967. "When I started learning about Palestine, I was always struck by the women who featured prominently in the movement's work," Tettey-Tamaklo wrote in a March 2023 article published in the Institute for Palestine Studies. "However, one woman's story struck me and has stayed with...

An Israeli-born Columbia University professor who gained notoriety for ripping the school’s failure to address rampant antisemitism on campus revealed this week he’s under investigation by the embattled Ivy — a probe he said is a “clear act of retaliation and an attempt to silence me.” ... “To say that civil rights are being violated does not begin to capture what Jews and Israelis are forced to endure on campus right now, ... Davidai — who considers himself “the most vocal faculty member in the United States and maybe the world” against antisemitism — declined to share details of the...

Growth came after Yale instituted a diversity hiring initiative and pledged to expand DEI offices campuswide Yale University employs more than three administrators and support staff for every four undergraduate students – roughly one administrator per undergrad, according to a College Fix analysis. Over the last decade, Yale added 631 administrators and support staff to its payroll, according to data provided by administrators to the federal Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System. As the university embraced new DEI efforts, the number of administrators and support staff increased by 13 percent, from 4,942 to 5,573, between 2013-14 and 2021-22, the analysis found....

A little over a year ago Gov. Ron DeSantis announced a plan to get rid of DEI at Florida Universities. But the University of Florida pushed back a little on that. Last July, Christopher Rufo accused the school of doing its best to hide just how extensive DEI had become.DeSantis, a Republican, late last year told Florida's public universities to disclose all government funds spent toward programs, classes and other initiatives related to DEI and the teaching of critical race theory.In its official reply, the Gainesville-based University of Florida, which has roughly 8,000 academics and 60,000 students, said it runs...

Alade McKen plagiarized pages of material from Wikipedia.. The chief diversity, equity, and inclusion officer of Columbia University's medical school, Alade McKen, plagiarized extensively in his doctoral dissertation, lifting entire pages of material, without attribution, from sources that include Wikipedia, according to a complaint submitted to the university on Wednesday. The allegations implicate approximately a fifth of McKen's 163-page dissertation, "'UBUNTU' I am because we are: A case study examining the experiences of an African-centered Rites of Passage program within a community-based organization," submitted to Iowa State University's School of Education in 2021. More than two of those pages are...

The University of Houston has cancelled its plans for a ceremony to honor a controversial satanic abortion idol following a public outcry. But the college is still displaying the pro-abortion statue on campus As LifeNews reported, according to Texas Right to Life, the university plans to publicly display a statue called “Witness,” which the pro-life group described as “an 18-foot tall naked female figure with braids shaped like goat horns and arms like tentacles.” The bronze statue also wears a lace collar in imitation of Ginsburg’s recognizable style. The university will display the statue from February 28 to October 31,...

Hundreds of college students at one of the largest party schools in America, Florida State University (FSU), dedicated their lives to God on Thursday.Christian author Jennie Allen shared news of the event on her social media pages. Photos and videos show the large group of young people gathered at Wescott Fountain on the school’s campus in Tallahassee, the Stream reported Saturday.“God keeps doing it!! They confessed their sin. They came forward in droves tonight to trust Jesus. We baptized hundreds in a fountain usually used for partying and worse. And it’s all just the beginning,” Allen wrote in a post...

Yale University will once again require standardized testing for students applying for admission in the fall of 2025. The decision, announced today, ends the test-optional undergraduate admissions process that had been in place at Yale since the pandemic. According to the announcement, the past four years of test-optional admissions had given Yale what it described as “an invaluable opportunity to think deeply about testing policy and to generate new data and analyses. With testing availability now fully restored for prospective applicants around the world, we have reevaluated our policy with the benefit of fresh insights.” Yale is describing its new...

Sidney Chalhoub pledged to support 'Palestinian liberation' as part of Harvard Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine ... The chairman of Harvard University's history department is a member of a faculty group, Harvard Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine, that posted an anti-Semitic cartoon over the holiday weekend depicting a hand emblazoned with the Star of David holding a noose around the necks of one black man and one Arab man. In the background, a black arm swings a machete scrawled with the phrase, "liberation movement." The image was posted alongside a message from the faculty group arguing...

Last week, two New York University students died just days apart from each other. Police officials told the New York Post, that Jacqueline Beauzile, 19, was pronounced dead by EMS after she was found unresponsive at Lipton Hall on Thursday. The body of Doreah Salti, 18, was discovered around 7:30 PM outside the Barney building on Stuyvesant Street. She was later pronounced dead at the Bellevue Hospital with trauma on her body that indicated that she had either jumped or fallen from the building. With many speculating that Salti's death was a suicide, her family said they believed her death...

Harvard is among the many U.S. schools that remain committed ... as of February 6, 2024, an astounding 68 American colleges and universities still have Covid shot mandates in place. Yes, you read that correctly. There are 68 schools in the United States that continue to push the mRNA serum on college students across America. ... The list includes historically elite schools like Harvard and Johns Hopkins. It also includes a variety of ultra leftist colleges in California and New York, and elsewhere, coupled with a significant amount of historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs). ... Speaking of Harvard, they...

Harvard University is obstructing a congressional probe into campus-wide anti-Semitism, leading lawmakers to warn the Ivy League school that it will face a deluge of subpoenas if it continues to stonewall the investigation. "Harvard's responses have been grossly insufficient, and the limited and dilatory nature of its productions is obstructing the Committee's efforts," Rep. Virginia Foxx (R., N.C.), the chairwoman of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, wrote to interim Harvard president Alan Garber on Wednesday. Harvard has until Feb. 14 to produce documents outlining its internal response to a growing wave of anti-Semitism on campus, including records...

The Department of Education Office for Civil Rights has opened an investigation into Indiana University over its alleged failure to respond to anti-Semitism on campus. ... The Department of Education Office for Civil Rights has opened an investigation into Indiana University over its alleged failure to respond to anti-Semitism on campus. The complaint, filed by Campus Reform Editor-in-Chief Dr. Zachary Marschall, alleges that the Bloomington, Indiana institution hasn’t properly responded to anti-Semitism on campus, leaving Jewish students “afraid to speak up.” After the October 7, 2023, terrorist attack carried out by Hamas, several pro-Palestinian protests were held at the Indiana...