Free Republic

Diversity has become corporatized on American campuses, with scores of bureaucrats and administrators accentuating different pedigrees and ancestries. That's odd, because diversity does not mean any more "variety" or "points of difference," at least as it used to be defined. Instead, diversity has become an industry synonymous with orthodoxy and intolerance, especially in its homogeneity of political thought. When campuses sloganeer "celebrate diversity," that does not mean encouraging all sorts of political views. If it did, faculties and student groups would better reflect U.S. political realities and might fall roughly into two equal groups: liberal and conservative. Do colleges routinely...

The New York Times and the Huffington Post have been very critical of recent legislation by the House and Senate of the State of North Carolina. But neither of those liberal news outlets - and I use the term "news outlets" loosely - have recognized their recent attempt to restore due process in one of the most oppressive judicial systems in the country. Indeed, the UNC system is among the greatest antagonists of fairness and due process in the entire nation. Since this is a bold assertion, it demands elaboration. Students in the UNC system are routinely brought up on...

The FBI and Seattle authorities were investigating a Nevada man who was arrested after he was spotted on the University of Washington campus in a stolen truck carrying multiple explosive devices, stolen firearms and body armor, police said Thursday. The man was arrested a few blocks away after a police pursuit near Seattle Children's Hospital late Wednesday, said John Vinson, chief of the University of Washington police. He gave no further details of the pursuit, but he described the arrest as "high-risk." Justin Miles Jasper was arrested early Thursday and was being held without bail in the King County jail...

Over the past 10 years, I have written columns variously titled "Academic Cesspools," "Academic Dishonesty," "The Shame of Higher Education," "Academic Rot" and "Indoctrination of Our Youth." Therefore, I was not surprised by David Feith's April 5th Wall Street Journal article, "The Golf Shot Heard Round the Academic World." In it, Feith tells of a golf course conversation between Barry Mills, the president of Bowdoin College, in Brunswick, Maine, and philanthropist Thomas Klingenstein. Klingenstein voiced disapproval of campus celebration of diversity and ethnic differences while there's "not enough celebration of our common American identity." Because Klingenstein wouldn't help finance the...

When Isaac Newton went to the University of Cambridge several centuries ago, he studied seven days a week, at least ten hours a day, and actively avoided the revelry that some Cambridge undergraduates engaged in even then. No one expects American undergraduates to work as hard as Isaac Newton or as medieval monks. However, what seems to be happening on many American college campuses is the development of such a powerful "fun" culture that a quarter of the students or more arrive thinking that having fun is the main reason they are at college and that the pursuit of knowledge...

(Some time in the not-too-distant future at a public university near you). Good morning, everyone. My name is Dean Crawler and I would like to welcome everyone to new staff training here in the Dean of Student's Office at the University of Neo-Communism in Wonderland, or UNCW. I wish to welcome all returning Deans, Associate Deans, Assistant Deans, and Adjunct Deans as well. They say it takes a village to raise a child. One could say that it takes a fiefdom to raise a generation. Of course, we prefer to avoid references to Western civilization here at UNCW. We are...

The S.S. Barack Obama is slowly submerging. A Pew Research poll released on Monday showed the President’s support is waning in key demographics from his 2008 election--including the youth vote--despite his best efforts. Though he handily won over the MTV generation in 2008 by a 33 point margin over Senator McCain, it appears that a handful of young people are thinking twice this time around. The Pew poll shows President Obama with 56 percent of the youth vote, a 21 point lead over Governor Romney. Though he still holds a strong lead among young Americans, a 10-point drop in support...

Author's Note: On Wednesday, October 24th, I will be debating liberal Rick Perlstein and libertarian Jim Harper at NC State University in Raleigh. The event, which is free and open to the public, will begin at 6 pm in Dabney Hall.Despite their feigned interest in tolerance, college campuses are among the most punitive and stifling environments in the country. Students are routinely punished for "offenses" ranging from penning mild satire to holding the wrong opinions on important social and political issues. One book, Unlearning Liberty, by Greg Lukianoff, documents these abuses better than any other that has been written since...

Occasionally, a columnist must issue an apology for something he wrote that, while seeming correct at the time, later proved to be misguided. Today, is one of those occasions where I must take the time to write a retraction concerning a column I wrote some time ago. Although it has been roughly four years since the column appeared, I am still compelled to offer an apology. The issue concerns the use of pictures of the aftermath of abortion and whether the pictures should be displayed on college campuses, which are obviously populated by scores of women who have, in...

Last semester, I was giving a lecture on the history of the Supreme Court from 1953 to present. Toward the end of the lecture, I asked my students if they could name the current Chief Justice. None were able to do so. There were thirty students in the class. This was in a college classroom, mind you. I was annoyed by the failure of a single student to know the name of one of the three most powerful men in America. But, whenever annoyed, I have a tendency to make jokes to lighten the atmosphere. So I told my students...

One of the greatest dilemmas facing American students today is the perennial threat of leftist indoctrination on college campuses. In recent years, institutions of higher learning – which have historically been places for enlightened thought and dissenting opinions – have increasingly become breeding grounds for radical liberalism. College courses, which are often taught by biased professors who espouse leftist ideology, fail to adequately challenge undergraduate students and often leave many of them woefully unprepared for the real world. In his most recent work, Please Enroll Responsibly: Avoiding Indoctrination at College, attorney turned political activist Lee Doren examines pragmatic ways students...

AUSTIN, Texas -Texas is preparing to give college students and professors the right to carry guns on campus, adding momentum to a national campaign to open this part of society to firearms. More than half the members of the Texas House have signed on as co-authors of a measure directing universities to allow concealed handguns. The Senate passed a similar bill in 2009 and is expected to do so again. Republican Gov. Rick Perry, who sometimes packs a pistol when he jogs, has said he's in favor of the idea. Texas has become a prime battleground for the issue because...

The Texas Senate today gave final approval to a measure that would allow persons holding concealed handgun licenses to carry firearms on Texas public college and university campuses. The legislation now moves to the Texas House where it has strong bipartisan support. The legislation passed despite strong opposition from student government and leaders at the University of Texas and some other schools. Many students, nonetheless, have advocated for concealed carry on campus following the Virginia Tech massacre.

March 24, 2009 On Campus: The Pro-Palestinians' Real Agenda During a recent visit to several university campuses in the U.S., I discovered that there is more sympathy for Hamas there than there is in Ramallah. Listening to some students and professors on these campuses, for a moment I thought I was sitting opposite a Hamas spokesman or a would-be-suicide bomber. I was told, for instance, that Israel has no right to exist, that Israel’s “apartheid system” is worse than the one that existed in South Africa and that Operation Cast Lead was launched only because Hamas was beginning to show...

Worker's censure ignites debate Thursday, July 21, 2005 WAYNE - A William Paterson University employee censured for calling a film on lesbian relationships a "perversion" has sparked a debate over where free speech ends and discrimination begins.Jihad Daniel, 68, of Hackensack said he was simply expressing his Muslim religious beliefs in the e-mail to a WPU educator advertising the film. But university administrators contend he violated the university's anti-discrimination policy. And the e-mail's recipient said she felt the e-mail qualifies as harassment, not free speech.The dispute began in March when Professor Arlene Holpp Scala of the women's studies department sent...

From Yale to the University of North Carolina, liberal academia is being challenged by a new generation of conservative leadership. Credible tales of professors grading down conservative students have always run rampant. Biased lectures remain the unremarkable norm. One variable has changed, however. Liberal academia lacks its traditionally receptive audience. During the opening weeks of the Iraq war, professors were shocked by the absence of antiwar fervor among their pupils. Leading up to the 2004 elections, record numbers of undergraduates joined the College Republicans and other conservative organizations. Ingenious student protests, such as Berkeley’s affirmative action bake sale and Duke’s...

I am associate professor of geology and geophysics at the University of Oklahoma in Norman. I receive teaching evaluations that run from average to outstanding. I have more scholarly publications than half the full professors in my department. But as I sit here writing, three of my four classes have been cancelled. I am scheduled to be moved out of the office I have occupied for the last twelve years into a dank hole in the basement that was never intended to be used as office space. Recent events are the culmination of four years of retaliation, intimidation, and harassment....

Letter to the Editor After reading Greg Ehrhardt's letter to the editor titled, "Note to Democrats: The rich are here to stay," I was delighted someone finally pointed out many college students are deficient in their knowledge of economic issues. My hope was that maybe Ehrhardt would have bothered to read a history book, or at least an economics book, before he wrote this response. As I read his letter, I felt a nauseous feeling in the pit of my stomach, and an overwhelming sense of impending doom that could only be caused by one thing: Republican rhetoric. It seems...

I am a member of the political affairs committee of the Program Board at George Washington University. Next week we are hosting controversy week. One of the scheduled events is a smoke-in. We are hoping to get views from both sides of the smoking debate; health risks versus smoker's rights. We would like for your organization to attend. The event is scheduled for Friday, April 26 from 11:00 am until 1:00 pm. You would be setting up an informational table. You can bring posters, pamphlets, free items for the students, etc... We just ask that you don't bring any items...