Free Republic

Alumni of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are preparing to sue the school for allegedly rejecting male applicants in favor of “artificially” increasing the percentage of female students. The group FairAdmissions@MIT, a nonprofit organization formed by the alumni, is seeking male plaintiffs who, despite having top-tier applications, nonetheless were rejected from the prestigious school. “The first phase of our program is identifying male college students or recent graduates who had top SAT/ACT scores, great GPAs, strong recommendations, and substantial extra-curricular activities yet got rejected by MIT,” Mark J. Perry, the group’s president, said in a press release on Wednesday. “Our...

The Virginia Military Institute continues to face intense pushback from an alumni group that opposes the military school’s ongoing diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. The activists in recent months upped their efforts by seeking to redirect the institute’s alumni fundraising in an effort to persuade campus leaders to pull back on critical race theory policies and programs. “The only way you can influence them is by hurting their pocketbook,” alumnus Gene Rice told The College Fix in an interview.

1,513 alumni of Rhodes College in Nashville, Tennessee signed a letter opposing Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination to the Supreme Court. As you probably guessed, it’s about abortion. Past nominations of conservative judges also brought out the same vitriol so this is now expected behavior.Amy Coney Barrett graduated magna cum laude in 1994, was a member of the Honor Council, and named to the Student Hall of Fame. Rhodes College is a small private liberal arts college historically affiliated with the Presbyterian Church. The student population is about 2,000. The Princeton Review reports that the college is “academically very...

Dozens of former Obama administration officials are running for office this year, largely in opposition to President Trump and his policies, NBC News reported Sunday. At least 64 former Obama staffers are running for federal, state or local office this year, according to the network, which cited numbers obtained from the Obama Alumni Association. The group said it expects that number to rise as more Obama alums contact it about their bids. Some states also have yet to hold primaries, giving more former staffers the chance to announce campaigns. At least 28 of those Obama officials are running for the...

Scott MacConnell cherishes the memory of his years at Amherst College, where he discovered his future métier as a theatrical designer. But protests on campus over cultural and racial sensitivities last year soured his feelings. Now Mr. MacConnell, who graduated in 1960, is expressing his discontent through his wallet. In June, he cut the college out of his will. “As an alumnus of the college, I feel that I have been lied to, patronized and basically dismissed as an old, white bigot who is insensitive to the needs and feelings of the current college community,” Mr. MacConnell, 77, wrote in...

Princeton University grads capitalize on their diploma more than any other school's alumni, a new study finds. Research from PayScale.com revealed that Princeton alumni have the highest mid-career salaries at $137,000, with starting salaries averaging close to $57,000 a year. As a whole, the top 10 highest earning schools' graduates make an average of $122,500 at mid-career, up nearly 5 percent over last year's top 10, the study found. "Given that the economy isn't roaring back and student debt continues to spiral out of control, it is imperative that future college students educate themselves on the earnings they can expect...

Sandra Fluke, the Georgetown Law student who challenged the Catholic university’s right to refuse to provide contraceptives in its insurance coverage, is still attempting to get the Jesuit school to change its policy. Invited by a student group, with the aid of a faculty member, Fluke recently made her case to Georgetown undergrads. All of the above may be complicit in misinforming Georgetown’s student body. Although the event was closed to the press, an intern from the Young America’s Foundation, who attends Georgetown, provided an account to the Cybercast News Service (CNS). “The majority of Fluke’s talk centered around her...

Exploring the respected notion of higher “general education” in America, the American Counsel of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA) set WhatWillTheyLearn.com in motion, a project aimed at evaluating major public and private colleges and universities on seven key areas of knowledge; English composition, foreign language, literature, U.S. government or history, economics, mathematics, and the sciences. ACTA, an independent and non-profit organization, upholds to the standards of “academic freedom, excellence, and accountability” of America’s schools while releasing accurate rankings. Such a task is especially important during this time of rising tuition costs and economic uncertainty. This online, college ranking guide is currently...

exans wide receiver Andre Johnson was named the NFL Alumni Wide Receiver of the Year for the third time in his career and became the first Texan to win the award in back-to-back seasons. He also was honored in 2006 and 2008...

Alumni Gifts Empowering Left? Malcolm A. Kline, December 30, 2009 Jane Shaw over at the John William Pope Center for Higher Education Policy is having second thoughts about her annual alumni gift to her alma mater. “One point in Wellesley’s favor, by the way: its president hasn’t signed the ‘Presidents’ Climate Change Agreement,’ an expensive will-o’-the-wisp effort to ‘take a stand’ on global warming,” she writes. “And English majors are still required to study Shakespeare.” “Are those good enough reasons for me to support Wellesley with my money?” she asks herself. “Probably not.” Jay Schalin, also of the Pope Center,...

Two of the four leaders allegedly behind the al Qaeda plot to blow up a Northwest Airlines passenger jet over Detroit were released by the U.S. from the Guantanamo prison in November, 2007, according to American officials and Department of Defense documents. American officials agreed to send the two terrorists to Saudi Arabia where they entered into an "art therapy rehabilitation program" and were set free, according to U.S. and Saudi officials. Gee, who would have expected "art therapy" to fail on terrorists?

As employers make Google searches a routine part of the hiring process, college newspapers are seeing an increase in the number of alumni looking to have their names removed from articles they wrote or were quoted in during their college years. The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that a growing number of papers are being drawn into controversy about whether to grant alumni requests to rewrite a paper's historical record because certain articles or comments could make finding a job difficult or because they could create difficulties and conflicts of interest in the future. The trend is just one of...

Harvard may be the nation’s wealthiest university, but it is short on cash. The school relies on its endowment to generate a third of the money for its operations, and the endowment is on the verge of posting its biggest loss in 40 years. With much of its money tied up for the long term, it is scrambling to meet some obligations. Harvard has frozen salaries for faculty and nonunion staff members, and offered early retirement to 1,600 employees. The divinity school has warned it may not be able to cover tuition for all its students with need, the school...

Another Collegial Clintonian by: Malcolm A. Kline, October 22, 2007 It used to be said that of the think tanks in Washington, D. C., the Heritage Foundation was the Reagan Administration in exile and the American Enterprise Institute was the Ford Administration in exile. The unsaid corollary is that Democratic political appointees can seek refuge in the college of their choice, an option not available to most unemployed Republicans. For example, George Washington University nabbed the latest Clinton Administration alumna. “The White House counsel to former President Bill Clinton was appointed as the next University vice president and general counsel...

Major donors to Brandeis University have informed the school they will no longer give it money in retaliation for its decision last month to host former President Jimmy Carter, a strong critic of Israel. The donors have notified the school in writing of their decisions ? and specified Carter as the reason, said Stuart Eizenstat, a former aide to Carter during his presidency and a current trustee of Brandeis, one of the nation?s premier Jewish institutions of higher learning. They are ?more than a handful,? he said. ?So, this is a concern. There are evidently a fair number of donors...

ALBANY, N.Y. - They were young and eager in the 1990s, these midlevel functionaries, hotshot lawyers and one Cabinet secretary in his father's shadow, all inspired by the same boss: President Clinton. Today, Clinton administration alumni are taking their turn in the political spotlight while their former leader cheers from the sidelines. "I am pleased and proud that so many of them have run or are running for office," the former president said in an e-mail to The Associated Press. "Their dedication and enthusiasm are part of the reason why we were able to accomplish as much good as we...

AL ASAD, Iraq (May 16, 2006) -- One hundred and sixty-seven years ago, an educational institution was founded in the rolling hills of Virginia. Through the years, many brave Americans have walked its halls, taking the first steps of journeys marked by personal sacrifices of which some even offered their lives in defense of their fellow citizens and country. The Virginia Military Institute's mission is to produce educated, honorable men and women prepared for the varied work of civil life, imbued with love of learning, confident in the functions and attitudes of leadership, possessing a high sense of public service,...

Since the New York Times and Wall Street Journal broke the news about the admission of Taliban official Sayeed Rahmatullah Hashemi to a special student program at Yale, we’ve received numerous emails from outraged Yale Alumni. One email stood out from the rest — "I won’t give Yale one red cent this year, but maybe I will give them a red fingernail instead!" She was referring to the Taliban’s policy of pulling the fingernails off of Afghani women who dared to wear fingernail polish. Some of these women even had their thumbs sliced off as punishment. To date, Mr. Rahmatullah...

UCLA recruiters have long delighted in bringing star high school athletes to their campus during the winter months, when warm weather and sunshine prove particularly attractive to many from colder climes. But the sort of sunshine that operates as a disinfectant, public scrutiny, is proving much less welcome to campus leftists. The Bruin Alumni Association, a year old group of conservative bent, is drawing fire for its activities aimed at exposing leftist indoctrination in the classroom. It has started UCLAprofs.com to collect and publicize information about faculty leftism, particularly as it verges into classroom indoctrination. The Los Angeles Times reports:...

The most egregious attack is the allegation that Alito is a closet racist because of his membership in the Concerned Alumni of Princeton. The conservative group opposed affirmative-action and lower admission standards in 1984. The organization's newsletter carried articles by contributors, none of whom was Alito. Yet, the Kennedy-Schumer-Durbin-Biden-Leahy cabal is trying to tattoo objectionable articles from that newsletter on Alito's chest. So fierce were the accusations that Mrs. Alito left the hearings with tears streaming down her face after she endured watching the man she knew and loved smeared by a bunch of less-than-honorable men. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham...