Free Republic

MADISON, Wis. — In the wake of a public relations nightmare over a campus mural glorifying a cop killer, Marquette University has cut ties with director of its Gender and Sexuality Resource Center. “Susannah Bartlow is no longer an employee with Marquette University,” said University Spokesman Brian Dorrington told Marquette Wire. “We will work with the Center’s advisory board to search for a new director so that we can continue to grow the important programs in the Center.” Marquette administrators had the mural of black militant Assata Shakur (formerly known as JoAnne Deborah Chesimard) removed Sunday evening, but not until,...

Believe it or not, it is possible to make a conservative case for academic freedom without mixing opposites. In fact, one of the conservative movement’s sages, Russell Kirk, made the case quite eloquently more than half a century ago. “The principal importance of academic freedom is the opportunity it affords for the highest development of private reason and imagination, the improvement of mind and heart by the apprehension of Truth, whether or not that development is of any immediate use to [society],” Kirk wrote. This put him somewhat at odds with one of the movement’s other great “thought leaders” William...

As we have reported, a professor at Marquette, John McAdams, was suspended after criticizing a graduate student who said she would not tolerate criticism of gay marriage in her classroom His suspension is drawing criticism from some unlikely quarters. “The sanction you imposed is not just a ‘severe sanction,’” Professor Daniel Maguire, also at Marquette, wrote in a letter to the university’s president that the professor allowed the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) to publish. We have noted that the AAUP is also looking into this case and asking some pointed questions of Marquette administrators. “ In almost half...

An article in the Chronicle of Higher Education argues that accreditation ought to be denied to Christian colleges that require professors to sign statements of faith or otherwise “draw lines around what is regarded as acceptable teaching and research.” This seems like an obvious next step in the current march of secular intolerance, so I expect we’ll be hearing more arguments like this in the future: ** Why does accreditation matter? Aside from the traditional goal of conferring legitimacy on colleges and their programs, accreditation has taken on a far more consequential role: Students attending institutions that are not accredited...

Arizona schools superintendent John Huppenthal admitted earlier this week that he has been posting anonymously on a number of political blogs using a handful of pseudonyms. Some of the postings attributed to Huppenthal, a Republican, are inflammatory and impolitic. He called food stamp recipients “lazy pigs,” for example, and equated Margaret Sanger’s promotion of abortion for poor black people to the extermination of Jewish people by the Nazis, reports The Arizona Republic. He also blamed Franklin Roosevelt’s policies during the Great Depression for the rise of Adolf Hitler in Germany and suggested that Obama’s policies are similar to Roosevelt’s.

Last week the world of science lost one of its most courageous and brilliant practitioners, and I have lost a dear friend and colleague. On 02 October, J. Philippe Rushton passed away at an infuriatingly young age of 68. I first learned of Phil’s work in 1999 when, as a then member of the Social Psychology Section of the American Sociological Association, I received a complimentary copy of the abridged edition of Race, Evolution and Behavior, which Phil had sent to all 600+ members of the Section at his personal expense. I read it right away, then I purchased and...

MK Aryeh Eldad (Ichud Leumi) has welcomed the decision to recognize Ariel University Center as a university. “This is an excellent academic institution and worthy of its new title,” he said. “Its future is to be a leading research university, and the knowledge that comes forth from it will earn national and international recognition.” He criticized the Israeli left for objecting to the change in status. “The Israel left was not ashamed to fight against academic freedom and excellence in research,” he accused. “But the conv(o)y of settlement continues to move..."

[dc]O[/dc]n May 14, noted philanthropist and neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson is scheduled to give the commencement address at Emory University and receive an honorary degree. But there is a problem. In recent weeks Emory faculty and students have asked the University to disinvite Dr. Carson because he is a critic of evolutionary theory and advocate of creationism. Faculty and staff have written that Dr. Carson’s “great achievements in medicine allow him to be viewed as someone who ‘understands science’” poses a direct threat to science that “rests squarely on the shoulders of evolution.” The anti-Carson letter describes how there is...

A judge has acquitted a controversial pro-family activist from a July 2008 charge of trespassing at a Canadian university. William (Bill) Whatcott was arrested by campus security at the University of Calgary and put into a holding cell for distributing a pamphlet that addressed the “harmful consequences” of homosexuality. Whatcott, in an email to LifeSiteNews, called the ruling a “victory for all Canadians who value freedom of expression and religious liberty on our university campuses.” Judge J.D. Bascom ruled from the Provincial Court of Alberta on November 15th that the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms “applies” to the University...

A Fort Worth high school student was sent to the principal’s office earlier this week for telling another classmate he believes homosexuality is wrong. Fourteen-year-old Dakota Ary spent most of the day Tuesday serving an in-school suspension. It was punishment for discussion in his German class at Fort Worth’s Western Hills High School. “We were talking about religions in Germany. I said, ‘I’m a Christian. I think being a homosexual is wrong,’” he said. “It wasn’t directed to anyone except my friend who was sitting behind me. I guess [the teacher] heard me. He started yelling. He told me he...

Crossing Red Lines By Ari Bussel Those who serve in the military are owed a great debt of gratitude. In the United States, we are registered for selective service, but most of us have not experienced a draft. Military service in Israel is mandatory for every man and woman age 18. Men serve three years, women two unless they fulfill combat assignments that require three years as well. For those who become officers, an extra year is required. In addition to Jewish people, most Druze men and a small number of Bedouin men volunteer for service as well. However, from...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- The U.S. Department of Education is investigating a faculty member's complaint that a series of pro-Palestinian events at a California university crossed the line into anti-Semitism and created a hostile environment for Jewish students. The department's Office for Civil Rights notified the University of California, Santa Cruz last week that it planned to look into allegations made by Hebrew lecturer Tammi Rossman-Benjamin dating back to 2001.

Study: Gay Parents More Likely to Have Gay Kids (Oct. 17) -- Walter Schumm knows what he's about to do is unpopular: publish a study arguing that gay parents are more likely to raise gay children than straight parents. But the Kansas State University family studies professor has a detailed analysis that past almost aggressively ideological researchers never had. When one such researcher, Paul Cameron, published a paper in 2006 arguing that children of gay parents were more likely to be gay themselves, the response from the academic press was virulent, to say nothing of the popular press; the Southern...

Left-wing radicals throughout history have at least one thing in common: They like to claim that their own freedom of speech is endangered while endangering the first amendment rights of others. For example, the screenwriters in Hollywood who claimed their constitutional rights were violated by the House UnAmerican Activities Committee in the 1940s with questions about their membership in the Communist Party did not talk about the anticommunist references they had been keeping out of films. They did their level best to keep anti-communists out of the industry itself but were never called on it either, even by allegedly red-baiting...

Radical Academic Credos Bethany Stotts, January 6, 2010 For supporters of David Horowitz’s student Academic Bill of Rights, academic freedom is about protecting vulnerable students from indoctrination at the hands of radical professors. However, one DePaul University professor recently argued that Horowitz’s conception of academic freedom promotes a “distinctly right-wing agenda” and “contains within it a backhanded insult to the intelligence of the students he is purporting to protect.” “If the professors listed in Horowitz’s The 101 Most Dangerous Academics in America were as silly and irresponsible as Horowitz suggests, why would any student enroll in their courses?” asked Professor...

Supporters of Darwin’s theory continue to distinguish themselves on America’s college campuses—not for their reason and logic, but for their incredible ill manners and an almost pathological inability to engage in civil discussion. Last week, a factually-challenged attack on intelligent design was published in The Nevada Sagebrush, the student newspaper at the University of Nevada, Reno. Nothing new in that; I see ill-informed articles on intelligent design all the time. But after my colleague Rob Crowther posted a short comment suggesting that readers might actually want to hear from intelligent design proponents themselves (imagine that!), the Darwinist thought-police came out...

As soon as I began to speak, the anti-Horowitz demonstrations started. The second row of seats had been entirely occupied by members of ACT-UP the militant AIDS organization that had made headlines by bursting into a mass at New York’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral and throwing condoms on the altar. To my event they brought giant white signs with black lettering, which they now thrust into the air in response to each statement I made. This sea of signs served to block the podium I was speaking from, screaming in giant capital letters: “LIES!” “PIG!” “BIGOT!” As if this were not...

These events illustrate the strategy that has been adopted by opponents of academic freedom: Deny that a problem exists at all, and then discredit anyone who says that it does.-- "Intellectual Muggings"

As a freshman, I haven't been at UT-Martin for very long. But some problems are so obvious that they don't take very long to notice. In my studies I quickly realized that when it comes to the theory of evolution, Darwin is the only one who gets to answer questions-or ask them. I want to question this theory-to test it; check its credentials. And I want honest, thoughtful answers to my questions, not pre-formulated quips and deflections. But I have learned that if I'm not an evolutionist, my questions don't get credited, or even heard. When I ask why theories...

From The Recorder (Central Connecticut State University): On October 3, 2008, [John] Wahlberg and two other classmates prepared to give an oral presentation for a Communication 140 class that was required to discuss a “relevant issue in the media”. Wahlberg and his group chose to discuss school violence due to recent events such as the Virginia Tech shootings that occurred in 2007. Shortly after his professor, Paula Anderson, filed a complaint with the CCSU Police against her student. During the presentation Wahlberg made the point that if students were permitted to conceal carry guns on campus, the violence could have...