Free Republic

Christina Westman dreamed of working with Parkinson’s disease and stroke patients as a music therapist when she started studying at St. Cloud State University. But her schooling was upended in May when administrators at the Minnesota college announced a plan to eliminate its music department as it slashes 42 degree programs and 50 minors. It’s part of a wave of program cuts in recent months, as U.S. colleges large and small try to make ends meet. Among their budget challenges: Federal COVID relief money is now gone, operational costs are rising and fewer high school graduates are going straight to...

Gov. Bob Wise on Monday demanded an apology from the University of Virginia because a pep band lampooned his state's rural image during the halftime show of a college football bowl game. Saturday's Continental Tire Bowl pitted the University of Virginia against West Virginia University. At halftime, Virginia's student-run pep band staged a parody of The Bachelor," with a male Virginia student choosing between two female contestants. The contestant said to be from West Virginia wore blue overalls and pigtails, had a talent for square dancing and declared a dream to move to Beverly Hills, Calif. -- a reference to...