Free Republic

The Georgetown University Student Association (GUSA) has elected the first Muslim student to serve as its president at the school which brands itself as America’s “oldest Catholic and Jesuit institute of higher learning. Enushe Khan joined the board of the university Muslim Student Association (MSA) soon after arriving at Georgetown, and served as chair of Interfaith and Service for five semesters, reports The Hoya – the school’s oldest and largest student newspaper.

As the #BlackLivesMatter campus protests have swept across some 60 colleges nationwide, American students, especially the most liberal ones, are being criticized for their intolerance of free speech. Recent data show that 43% of incoming freshmen in 2015 thought it should be a college’s right to ban extreme speakers; 71% supported prohibitions against racist and sexist speech.

Diversity campaigners Monday condemned the darling of Paris fashion week after he failed to cast a single model of colour in his two headline-grabbing shows. Demna Gvasalia, who counts black music superstars Rihanna and Kanye West among his biggest fans, used only white models in shows for his own hip Vetements label and for Balenciaga Sunday, where he has just taken over as creative director. The British-based Models for Diversity group slammed his choice as "appalling, unbelievable and bewildering". Its founder Angel Sinclair told AFP that the omission was all the more "shocking after the great strides at New York...

Students campaigning for the decolonisation of British universities are now demanding that a statue of Queen Victoria is removed from a college campus - because of its 'racist colonial connotations'. Campaigners are set to join a march at Oxford University, on Wednesday, demanding that a statue of the long-reigning monarch be taken down from Royal Holloway, University of London, because she 'sanctioned colonial exploits' . They will be among hundreds of students from campaigns across Britain at the 'Mass March for Decolonisation', calling for the removal of a statue of Cecil Rhodes.

Harvard Law School has been roiled this academic year by allegations of racism–allegations that the school’s Dean, Martha Minow, has stipulated to be true, saying that racism is a “serious problem” at the law school. She doesn’t mean it, of course. Otherwise, someone might ask why she has failed to do something about the problem since becoming dean in 2009. Protesters at the law school have focused on the school’s crest, which borrows from a bookplate that was used by one Isaac Royall, a slaveholder who donated (or whose son donated) land that provided early funding for the school:

As the film and music industries grapple with the fallout from the race rows that dogged the Oscars and the Brit Awards, English author Bali Rai warns publishing too has a serious diversity issue. The award-winning writer, who has Indian heritage but was born and grew up in Leicester, echoes critics of Hollywood and the Academy Awards when he suggests gatekeepers are only recognising a narrow band of talent and ideas, which does not properly reflect society.

The video shows the victim, a 30-year-old woman, walk into the elevator at the Huntingdon stop, on Kensington Avenue near Huntingdon Street, just after 1:30 a.m. Saturday. She holds the door for a man behind her and he joins her in the elevator. Surveillance Video Shows West Philly Triple Shooting The two stand in the elevator for several seconds and exchange words, and the man approaches the woman, cornering her in the elevator and pulling out a knife. He begins to attack the woman, at one point holding the knife pointed down toward her face and chest, as she struggles...

I'm guessing most NewsBusters readers could care less about "diversity" when it comes to choosing Justices of the Supreme Court. That they'd be thrilled if all nine justices looked, for example, like Clarence Thomas--so long as all shared his philosophy of judicial restraint and original intent. On today's With All Due Respect, Mark Halperin interviewed Planned Parent president Cecile Richards. Richards declined to name someone she'd like to see nominated to the Court but did say she was "extremely grateful" for the addition to the Court of Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor. That prompted Halperin to observe: "regardless of ideology...

A reporter at a DFL caucus for Minnesota’s House District 60B could not report on the candidates’ speeches to caucus attendees because the speeches were only given in Somali. Eric Roper with the Minneapolis Star-Tribune posted a series of tweets from the Brian Coyle Center in Minneapolis about the caucus. English speakers were in short supply in the area now populated by Somali refugees. “Ilhan Omar now addressing the room. No English so far in candidate speeches, so I can’t relay what has been said”

British Hollywood actor Jude Law’s do-gooder visit to the so-called jungle migrant camp in Calais ended in violence after a number of the party were ambushed and deprived of their mobile phones by the migrants they had gone to support. Jude Law and other celebrities including Dad’s Army reboot actor Toby Jones, musician Tom Odell, and comedian Shappi Khorsandi visited Calais last week in an effort to raise the profile of the migrant slums before they were demolished by the French authorities. The group used their trip as an opportunity to call on the British government to throw open the...

LOS ANGELES – Hollywood is bracing for an Academy Awards that more than any in recent memory, has the feel of a high-stakes showdown. ADVERTISEMENT After a second straight year of all-white acting nominees prompted industry-wide scrutiny, viewers and stars alike are hanging on the opening words of host Chris Rock. The Dolby Theatre ceremony, heavily guarded by security, stands at the center of a swirling storm over diversity in the movies and at the Oscars, with protests planned near the red carpet and some viewers organizing a boycott of the broadcast. The Academy Awards, normally decorous and predictable, are...

Two months and two billion box office dollars later, Star Wars: The Force Awakens has reaped huge returns for Disney with its most progressive episode yet. Now that Daisy Ridley’s Rey and John Boyega’s Finn have given the Star Wars franchise its first female Jedi and black lead, respectively, does its fearless director J.J. Abrams see a future for a gay character in the galaxy? “Of course!” Abrams said Thursday night at his Bad Robot HQ, where he hosted the US-Ireland Alliance’s annual Oscar Wilde Awards ahead of Sunday’s Oscars, where The Force Awakens is nominated in five categories. “When...

DEVELOPING: At least two people were killed and up to four others injured in a shooting at a Kansas workplace on Thursday. The shooting took place at Excel Industries in Hesston, Kan., KSN-TV in Wichita reported. Victor Ramirez, an employee at the company, told KAKE-TV that at least five people were shot.

I was discussing with a friend two articles today, when I suddenly saw the future — and believe me, it’s not pretty, or at least not any prettier than Daniel Craig in a lush blonde wig as he carries out his secret agent duties. The first article involved the trauma Milo Yiannopoulos visited upon Rutgers’ students when he gave a campus speech challenging Social Justice Warriors. The second article was learning that the CIA is incorporating into its hiring policies the same activist mindset that SJWs have been demanding on American campuses. The resulting epiphany was how James Bond would...

Two weeks ago, the University released the final version of its diversity and inclusion action plan, which could not have been compiled without the exhaustive efforts of students throughout last semester. "There are people breaking down, dropping out of classes and failing classes because of the activism work they are taking on," said David, an undergraduate whose name has been changed to preserve anonymity. Throughout the year, he has worked to confront issues of racism and diversity on campus. His role as a student activist has taken a toll on his mental, physical and emotional health. "My grades dropped dramatically....

Free speech and enlightenment values are under attack in our universities. In the worthy name of defending the weak and marginalised, many student activists are now adopting the unworthy tactic of seeking to close down open debate. They want to censor people they disagree with. I am their latest victim. This is not quite the Star Chamber, but it is the same intolerant mentality. Student leader Fran Cowling has denounced me as racist and transphobic, even though I’ve supported every anti-racist and pro-transgender campaign during my 49 years of human rights work.

The University of Portland has launched a “Speak Up” webpage that encourages students to report “incidents of discomfort” to its Public Safety department. “We ask members of our community to SPEAK UP and report alleged incidents of discrimination and incidents of discomfort regarding observed or experienced interactions of intolerance,” the university states on the webpage.

Author's Note: The email referenced in this column was composed by Chris Moore of East Carolina University, Michael Behrent of Appalachian State University, Jason Sturdevant of North Carolina State University, and Altha Cravey of the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill. Please feel free to email these public servants with your thoughts.Dear Faculty Forward Network (info@facultyforwardnetwork.org): I received your recent email on educational inclusiveness and diversity with great interest. I have written three books, spoken on 88 university campuses, and written approximately 1000 columns on the subject in the last 13 years. This was the first time I've ever...

NEW YORK - Imagine a place where children can steer a dhow boat across the Indian Ocean, sell Egyptian spices and Moroccan rugs, hop on a camel and embark across the Sahara. "America to Zanzibar: Muslim Cultures Near and Far" is a groundbreaking interactive museum exhibit in the heart of New York City that lets kids do just that: explore the A-to-Z of Muslim cultures. The Children's Museum of Manhattan (CMOM), established in 1973, is a hands-on cultural destination for families committed to nurturing "the next generation of global citizens."