Free Republic

College football’s Week 6 Saturday is the best of the season so far. Not in terms of huge games, because Week 1’s sprawl probably won’t be topped for a while, but in terms of depth. In every window on Saturday, there are like a half dozen games that anybody could get into, topped by an obvious headliner. We’re fully into conference season, and there are potential New Year’s stakes all over. Below, the Watch Grid sorts your Saturday by watchability. As always, watchability does not equate to team quality. Your favorite team is almost too good to watch, I often...

The University of Southern Maine has withdrawn an offer for one college credit for students who travel to Washington to protest as Republican Sen. U.S. Susan Collins considers how to vote on the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. USMaine President Glenn Cummings said Wednesday the “pop-up course” was hastily arranged without his or the provost’s knowledge. The Maine Republican Party shared a Wednesday email in which a university employee says students could receive college credit for taking a bus to Washington, D.C., to demonstrate. The email links to an online form asking students if they’re willing to...

As a young man Obama was a smart guy who didn?t put much effort into his school. He liked to goof off, chase girls and play basketball. And then he started drinking and smoking pot and even used coke when he could afford it. And then something happened during college that made he smartened up and realize that he was wasting his life. He turned his life around and become the success that he is today. As a young man Bush was a smart guy who didn?t put much effort into school either. Some time after school he started drinking...

Editor’s note: For the past year scholars James Lindsay, Helen Pluckrose, and Peter Boghossian have sent fake papers to various academic journals which they describe as specialising in activism or “grievance studies.” Their stated mission has been to expose how easy it is to get “absurdities and morally fashionable political ideas published as legitimate academic research.” To date, their project has been successful: seven papers have passed through peer review and have been published, including a 3000 word excerpt of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf, rewritten in the language of Intersectionality theory and published in the Gender Studies journal Affilia. (Emphasis...

A student production of West Side Story at Kent State University has been cancelled after uproar that white students had been cast to play Latino characters. Latino students who auditioned for roles playing members of the 'Sharks', a Puerto Rican street gang in the musical, were outraged after the three leading roles all went to non-Latino students. Kent State musical theater major Bridgett Martinez, whose parents are from Puerto Rico, auditioned for her dream role as the romantic lead Maria, and was devastated when a white student landed the part. The musical, an adaptation of Romeo And Juliet, is set...

In a recent essay published in The Chronicle of Higher Education, Yale philosophy professor Jason Stanley is haunted by a spectre—the spectre of American universities aiding the rise of fascism. (The essay, “Fascism and the University” is subscriber-only content, unfortunately.) He says that “patterns have emerged that suggest the resurgence of fascist politics globally” and lists the United States as among the countries where he sees that occurring. Moreover, he argues that our higher education system could become complicit in the advance of fascism. What does Stanley mean by “fascism?” He defines it as “any ultranationalism—ethnic, religious, or cultural—in which...

In the days before Harvard Law School announced embattled Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh will not teach in Cambridge this January, undergraduates eager to block his return to campus struck on a new strategy: file Title IX complaints against the conservative judge. Over the past week, several students filed formal complaints alleging Kavanaugh’s presence in Cambridge would violate Harvard’s policy prohibiting sexual and gender-based harassment — though several Title IX experts said this strategy was unlikely to succeed. Jacqueline L. Kellogg ’19 — who said she has filed a complaint against Kavanaugh with the University’s Office for Dispute Resolution...

Clapping as been banned at a leading universty's students' union "to avoid triggering anxiety". The University of Manchester Students' Union passed the resolution to ban clapping at student union events at the first Senate session of the academic year on September 27, according to student newspaper the Mancunion. "It was argued that the loud noise of traditional clapping and whooping pose an issue to students with anxiety or sensory issues. BSL clapping – or, jazz hands – would be a more inclusive form of expression," the paper said. Jazz hands is the British Sign Language for clapping.

FIGHT SONG FOOLISHNESS Texas plays Oklahoma on Saturday, which means three things: Friday night in Dallas will be buck wild; Saturday at the Texas State Fair will be one of the best scenes in college football; and everyone will want to strangle the Pride of Oklahoma Marching Band (31) by the end of the day. As the endless purveyors of “Boomer Sooner,” the band will drive everyone in the Cotton Bowl crazy. The tune itself isn’t too bad, just highly repetitive — and when you couple that repetition with the lyrics and the backstory, this is America’s worst fight song....

Students have been told to wave 'jazz hands' instead of clapping at a university union to avoid triggering anxiety problems. Officers at the University of Manchester Students' Union argued that the loud noise of clapping and cheering can also trouble those with sensory issues. A motion was put forward by the union's liberation and access officer Sara Khan to replace it with British Sign Language clapping, also known as 'jazz hands'.

Ten takeaways from a clarifying day in college football: 1. Notre Dame’s path to the College Football Playoff is clear. And easy. With the Fighting Irish ripping Stanford 38-17 Saturday night, their remaining schedule is a veritable cakewalk to 12-0. Now, landmines have been known to pop up in the middle of cakewalks before, and there are questions about whether Notre Dame is really talented enough to go 12-0. But the opportunity is absolutely there.

On paper, college football’s Week 5 looks to be an improvement over Week 4. That’s especially great because Week 4 turned out to be a big bowl of jelly beans, not that readers of The Watch Grid were surprised, because this household expects every weekend of CFB to be wonderful. Below, The Watch Grid sorts your FBS weekend based on which games appear likeliest to deliver maximum watchability. Remember watchability does not refer to how good your team is, because — to be quite frank — I think your team is too good to be contained by any grid anyway.

Clemson senior quarterback Kelly Bryant says he is transferring from the school, just days after coach Dabo Swinney announced that freshman Trevor Lawrence would be the starting quarterback for Saturday's game against Syracuse. Bryant started the first four games of the season, but his fate was sealed when Lawrence threw four touchdowns Saturday a win against Georgia Tech. He did not practice the last two days after Lawrence was giving the starting nod.

At least two professors at Mississippi State University canceled class or excused students for a planned “moment of silence” for the women accusing Supreme Court justice nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault more than 30 years ago. Multiple MSU faculty and staff members attended the silent protest, which was focused on expressing solidarity with the women who have accused Kavanaugh of sexual assault. But only a few students attended, even with the offer of being excused from class.

On November 7, 2006, Michigan voters passed Proposition 2, a measure that banned the use of racial preferences throughout state government and state universities. The next day, University of Michigan president Mary Sue Coleman issued a defiant statement. In it she pledged to fight in the courts against the voters’ decision to have a color-blind state, declaring, “I will not stand by while the heart and soul of this great university is threatened. We are Michigan and we are diversity.” Really? It’s the “heart and soul” of a great university to prefer some people over others on account of race?...

Evangelical College Azusa Pacific announced last week that it will be allowing LGBT relationships for students on campus following years of pressure. Zu Media, the student paper, reported last week that officials at the Christian university in California have decided to remove language from the student standard of conduct that previously prohibited such relationships on campus. APU has said that despite the change, set to take effect in the Fall 2018 semester, it still backs the "Biblical principles of human sexuality," in the belief that "sexual union is intended by God to take place only within the marriage covenant between...

One season after The Year of The Quarterback in college football, the 2018 season began with a muddled quarterback class. There were solid players like Missouri’s Drew Lock, West Virginia’s Will Grier, North Carolina State’s Ryan Finley, Auburn’s Jarrett Stidham and Oregon’s Justin Herbert. But no superstars that threatened a class that saw five first-round picks in the 2018 NFL draft. One-third of the way through this college football season, it’s becoming increasingly apparent that the country’s best two quarterbacks may be two first-year starters. Alabama’s Tua Tagovailoa and Ohio State’s Dwayne Haskins have beelined to the top of the...

Tulane University now requires all incoming students to enroll in a “Race and Inclusion” course, a new addition to the curriculum that has been condemned by some students for its lack of acknowledgment of viewpoint diversity. In a recent press release, Tulane announced that all new enrollees will be mandated to enroll in a course that focuses at least 60 percent of it content on “race and inclusion” to help students understand the “increasingly diverse society” they live in.

This week Georgetown University’s unrecognized pro-choice student group “H*yas for Choice” announced that it would begin providing Plan B emergency contraception to students on campus. The announcement was made via the group’s Facebook page in a short video featuring the group’s president, Angela Maske, and one of its spokeswomen, Elianna Schiffrik.

An anti-Trump professor at Georgetown University went on a profanity-laced Twitter rant against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, who has been accused of committing a sexual assault as a teen. Dr. Carol Christine Fair is an associate professor in the Security Studies Program at Georgetown, according to the school’s website. Fair referred to “Kreepy Kavanaugh” as a “perjurer” and a “rapist” on her verified Twitter account, adding that “nothing has changed since Anita Hill.” Fair also said the “GOP doesn’t care about women. We knew this. F--- them.” In another tweet about Kavanaugh, Fair referred to the GOP as “pro-rape,...