Free Republic

This past Saturday, College Republicans from across the state braved the rain and cold to converge in Des Moines to box donations for Iowa soldiers deployed in Afghanistan. For weeks they fundraised independently on their campuses to buy socks, wet wipes, shampoo, lip balm and much more in an effort to make our brave men and women overseas slightly more comfortable this holiday season. The Iowa State College Republicans received second place overall in the most items fundraised by any chapter, mainly due to the efforts of ISUCR Jeremy Freeman. The Iowa Federation of College Republicans has made donating to...

WHATS NEXT? HALAL CORNER IN CAFETERIA? SPECIAL AREA FOR HIJABI WOMEN? http://youtu.be/MVBHYpzflgc

A number of student organizers in the US have unveiled what they call an 'Occupy Student Debt' campaign, urging borrowers across the country to default on their college loans. The campaign was made public Monday afternoon in New York's Zuccotti Park, where the national Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement emerged, the Huffington Post reported. “Since the first days of the Occupy movement, the agony of student debt has been a constant refrain,” said Andrew Ross, a professor at New York University and an active OWS member, while addressing a crowd in the park “We've heard the harrowing personal testimony...

Liberty University has approved a policy that will allow visitors, students and staff who have concealed weapons permits to carry guns on campus....

The Board of Visitors approved a regulation Friday banning firearms on Grounds, at the University Medical Center and at the College at Wise. The regulation is consistent with an already existing University policy prohibiting weapons, fireworks and explosives on University property. The decision comes after Virginia Attorney General and University alumnus Ken Cuccinelli opined in July that the University’s “policy” banning weapons could not apply to those with concealed weapons permits. In the opinion, Cuccinelli acknowledged that a similar regulation at George Mason University carries the force of law with regard to concealed weapons. “Regulations” undergo a more formal process...

While we were students of the state education apparatus, how many of us had to write research papers where we were asked to "change the world"?I'm sure we can all remember a writing prompt similar to this: "If I could change one thing about the world, it would be …" or "How I can make the world a better place."Often, these writing prompts were given to us when we were not even old enough to think about abstract concepts like war and politics.Were these assignments teaching us to think critically? In some cases, this is possible. For the most part,...

President Barack Obama will announce a new plan to allow students holding both private and government student loans to consolidate their debts into a government loan, thereby reducing their interest rates, officials inside and outside the Obama administration said Tuesday. Mr. Obama is to announce the move in Denver on Wednesday, part of a White House push to emphasize actions the administration can take to boost the economy without congressional approval. The change could affect an estimated 5.8 million people who hold two types of student loans—those issued by private banks and "direct loans" issued by the government, an administration...

Marielena Stuart stood in the middle of a quiet street, 120 miles across the swamp from Miami, and stared down the black plastic barrel of a news camera. Behind her loomed a monstrous church, its 100-foot orange-brick façade shimmering like scales in the nighttime spotlights. Stuart glanced up at its one round window — a Cyclops's unblinking eye gazing out over the strange, tiny town of Ave Maria — and shuddered. Her dream town had turned against her, she explained. Stuart, a conservative Catholic writer and blogger who resembles an aging Elizabeth Taylor, explained she felt like she was being...

In May of 2008, Gov. Rick Perry convened an unprecedented joint meeting of the boards of Texas’s three major university systems — the University of Texas, Texas A&M, and Texas Tech — and laid out an agenda for reforming the state’s higher-education system, a plan to lower costs and raise the quality of both teaching and research. There is real reason for Governor Perry’s concern: Tuition, though still quite low in Texas, has been climbing for years, an unwelcome development, and the state’s higher-ed flagship, the University of Texas at Austin, barely makes the top-50 list in the college rankings,...

Education is the key to the future: You've heard it a million times, and it's not wrong. Educated people have higher wages and lower unemployment rates, and better educated countries grow faster and innovate more than other countries. But going to college is not enough. You also have to study the right subjects. And American students are not studying the fields with the greatest economic potential. Over the past 25 years the total number of students in college has increased by about 50%. But the number of students graduating with degrees in science, technology, engineering and math (the so-called STEM...

As the Wall Street protests grow and expand beyond New York, growing scrutiny of the nascent movement is warranted. What do these folks want? Alongside their ranting about the inequality of incomes, the alleged inordinate power of Wall Street and large corporations, the high level of unemployment, and the like, one policy goal ranks high with most protesters: the forgiveness of student-loan debt. In an informal survey of over 50 protesters in New York last Tuesday, blogger and equity research analyst David Maris found 93 percent of them advocated student-loan forgiveness. An online petition drive advocating student-loan forgiveness has gathered...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Some Vanderbilt University religious groups will have to change their policies or risk being shut down. The university told Nashville's News 2 a number of groups are in violation of the school's nondiscrimination policy. In a statement, Vanderbilt University said, "Last academic year, an undergraduate made an allegation of discrimination against a student organization. As a result of that allegation, we sought to ensure that the more than 300 student organizations were aware of their need to comply with the university's longstanding nondiscrimination policy." Stephen Siao is the president of the college Republicans. "The policy that they've...

It's meant to be racist, and it's meant to be discriminatory. But the controversial "Increase Diversity Bake Sale" hosted by the Berkeley College Republicans is still on, the club's president said, despite "grossly misguided comments" and threats aimed toward supporters of the University of California Berkeley student group.During the sale, scheduled for Tuesday, baked goods will be sold to white men for $2, Asian men for $1.50, Latino men for $1, black men for $0.75 and Native American men for $0.25. All women will get $0.25 off those prices.The bake sale is meant to draw attention to pending legislation that...

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My oldest child, Olivia, will be heading to college in two years. So it’s already become college-saving crunch time in our household. As we’ve been putting money away, I’ve become even more passionate about helping other people find ways to cut college expenses. So I’m intrigued by Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s proposal to come up with an affordable college degree program. Perry, who’s running for president, has created quite a buzz for a bold — some say unrealistic — higher-education plan. “I’m challenging our institutions of higher education to develop bachelor’s degrees that cost no more than $10,000, including textbooks,”...

severed from tradition and reali life, literature as it is taught in universities is strictly an intramural game.

Are you LGBT? "A “yes” answer could put students in line to qualify for a scholarship worth one-third of tuition at the private, liberal arts school affiliated with the United Church of Christ, said Rold."

A month after Daniel Fogel resigned as president of the University of Vermont, a top school fundraiser has also left amid an investigation into his affair with Foley's wife. Michael Schultz, an associate vice president for development at the school in Burlington, Vermont, accepted a severance package and departed on Wednesday, a university spokesman said on Thursday. The school's board of trustees conducted a review of the relationship between Schultz and Rachel Kahn-Fogel, the president's wife and a volunteer in the fundraising office. Schultz, who earned a doctorate after writing a dissertation on the proper role of a university president's...

A federal appeals court ruling this week could significantly diminish public university religious groups' ability to restrict membership and leadership to students who agree with their teachings. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday that San Diego State University's nondiscrimination policy for officially recognized campus groups is constitutional. The policy is based on a nondiscrimination policy used at all the schools in the California State University system. Two Christian groups sued SDSU in 2005, alleging the policy violated their free-speech and religious-freedom rights. For the groups to be recognized as official campus groups, they were required to allow all...

When governments want to encourage what they believe is beneficial behavior, they subsidize it. Sounds like good public policy. But there can be problems. Behavior that is beneficial for most people may not be so for everybody. And government subsidies can go too far. Subsidies create incentives for what economists call rent-seeking behavior. Providers of supposedly beneficial goods or services try to sop up as much of the subsidy money as they can by raising prices. After all, their customers pay with money supplied by the government. Bubble money, as it turns out. Sooner or later, bubbles burst. We are...