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More than 100 firefighters battled a devastating blaze at one of New York's last Gilded Age mansions that's currently on sale for $50 million. Flames burst out of the windows of the townhouse at 854 Fifth Avenue – which is home to the Serbian Mission to the United States – after a fire broke out on the third floor at around 8.40pm on Sunday. The two-alarm fire was declared under control shortly before 10pm, CBS New York reported. Three firefighters and a civilian were injured in the blaze, the FDNY said. The Beaux Arts mansion – which has 32 rooms,...

9 White Celebs, World Leaders Whose Families Owned Slaves Anderson Cooper A rule of thumb is: where there is old money, you will find some connection to slavery. So of course it wasn’t hard to determine that Anderson Cooper was connected, in a familial way, to slavery. His bloodline is tied to the Vanderbilts, one of the richest families in American history. Cooper’s great-great-grandfather, Cornelius Vanderbilt – who was also Cooper’s cousin through inbreeding – was a tycoon who built his wealth from shipping and railroads. He also owned plantations: one in particular was in Georgetown, S.C., where Michelle Robinson...

The gender war has now moved from bathroom regulations and into the recommended language in theology classes. The divinity schools at Duke and Vanderbilt Universities have rekindled debate, previously addressed at Notre Dame and Harvard, by issuing gender neutral guidance to their professors.

It’s the start of a new year on university campuses, and Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., was quick out of the gate with the latest contribution to the pandemic of gender hysteria. An initiative launched by the university’s Faculty Senate Gender Inclusivity Task Force urged faculty members to politely quiz students and colleagues on how they prefer to be addressed: as he, she, ze, zir or hir. “When introducing yourself, offer your name and pronoun,” it advised, suggesting they start off lectures with: “I am Professor Jones and I use she/her/hers pronouns. What should I call you?” It also provided...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Vanderbilt University announced Monday that it will pay more than a million dollars to remove an inscription containing the word “Confederate” from one of its campus dorms. The private university has referred to the Confederate Memorial Hall simply as “Memorial Hall” since 2002, but was blocked in court from changing the name chiseled on the building because it was constructed with the help of a $50,000 gift from the United Daughters of the Confederacy in 1933. Under the agreement, Vanderbilt will pay $1.2 million, the equivalent of the gift made 83 years ago, to the organization’s Tennessee...

When Vanderbilt University football player Cory Batey and three of his buddies raped a 21-year-old white woman on June 23, 2013, he said this to her: “That’s for 400 years of slavery, you bitch!” Speaking at Batey’s sentencing hearing this Friday, the unnamed victim described how even after the sexual assault, the football player continued to abuse her by degrading her with more hateful speech and urinating on her face, according to The Tennessean. “Something permanent snapped that day,” she said. “I felt myself detach from my body. Now, I feel like I’m walking around in the shell of someone...

A jury has found a former Vanderbilt football player guilty on all charges for his role in the rape of an unconscious woman. Brandon Vandenburg was found guilty by the jury in Nashville of raping the woman who he was dating at the time in his Vanderbilt dorm room three years ago. The jury took four hours to make their decision and delivered their verdict just after 8.20pm local time. Vandenburg now faces a potential jail sentence of up to 25 years and was taken into custody as soon as the verdicts were read out while his parents began to...

Academics found something they don't want the government to regulate when they looked in the mirror. "Last year, for example, the Task Force on Federal Regulation of Higher Education—formed in 2013 at the behest of a bipartisan group of U.S. senators and comprised of top university officials from around the country—released a stunning indictment of what it called the 'jungle of red tape' produced by the Education Department," Jenna Ashley Robinson and Jesse Saffron reported on The Pope Center's web site. "The report cited analysis from George Mason's Mercatus Center that showed federal higher education mandates increased by 56 percent...

Taylor Force murdered on school trip to Israel, wife severely injured in stabbing spree -- the day's third terror attack; several other victims critical The American tourist killed in Tuesday's terror attack in Tel Aviv was identified as 29-year-old Taylor Force, a graduate student at Vanderbilt University, the school said in a statement. Force, a Lubbock, Texas native, was killed and at least 10 people were injured Tuesday evening when a Palestinian man carried out a stabbing spree in Jaffa. Five of the injured were described as being in critical condition. The attack was the third of the day; two...

Vanderbilt Professor Carol Swain, a highly respected black Christian conservative, tells Breitbart News Facebook blocked her account for more than 26 hours. "What troubles about me about all of this is that Facebook is such a huge forum. Some of my posts were reaching over 400,000 people. I was reaching people and hopefully being able to connect with people around the world," Swain says. She has been blocked by Facebook since late Wednesday morning, Swain says. "When I tried to post on my Facebook page I got the box on the page saying I was unable to post to do...

A black conservative professor who found herself the latest target of student protests nationwide has one thing to say to those calling for her to be suspended from the university where she teachers: 'Grow up.' Swain said the students behind the protests never took any of her classes, all of which are elective. 'My classes are elective, so no one has to take any of my classes and no one has to go to my blog page or go to my Facebook,' she said. 'I feel that I have been defamed by the students and the petition has been filled...

At this point we could probably use a second blog to do nothing but stories about college campuses and the activities of the special snowflakes who are going to create safe space homes for themselves there. The story coming out of Vanderbilt this week might have been shocking in years past, but by now it’s just a footnote to the daily rap sheet. The students at this esteemed university, having seen the “success” of their fellow seekers of knowledge at Mizzou, are looking to give the boot to one of their professors. Her crime? Penning an editorial many months ago...

Vanderbilt University’s Women’s Center will be hosting a week-long event dedicated to lecturing men about what it means to have “healthy masculinity.” The “Healthy Masculinities Week” is sponsored by Vanderbilt’s Margaret Cuninggim Women’s Center, which claims to be devoted to “Celebrating Women” while “Empowering All.”

The size of G.I. Joe’s biceps and Arnold Schwarzenegger’s guns in the Terminator movies is proof that the dominant form of masculinity is out of control. That message and similar ones were conveyed recently to students during Vanderbilt University’s “Healthy Masculinities Week,” organized by the Margaret Cuninggim Women’s Center. Attendance for students was optional. The Vanderbilt week kicked off with a lecture by the first man to minor in women’s studies at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, Jackson Katz. (His alma mater now offers a bachelor’s in women, gender and sexuality studies.) Entire article can be found hee.

Prof. Edward Rubin, the former dean of Vanderbilt's law school, threatened to shut down a pro-Israel demonstration by Proclaiming Justice to the Nations. Rubin told Laurie Cardoza-Moore, president of Proclaiming Justice to the Nations, that he was going to contact the Nashville Mayor's office to see if the event couldn't be prevented. The former dean of the Vanderbilt Law School, Professor Edward Rubin, threatened to shut down a pro-Israel demonstration as he is an American and not part of the “international Jewish conspiracy,” according to an email obtained by Campus Reform.In the email, sent to Laurie Cardoza-Moore, president of...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (Reuters) - Two former Vanderbilt University football players were found guilty on Tuesday in the rape of an unconscious female student. A jury in Nashville returned a verdict after less than four hours of deliberations. Prosecutors said the woman was raped on June 23, 2013, and that the assault was proved by what the young men recorded on a cellphone. The case comes at a time of heightened national discussion about the prevalence of sexual assault on college campuses.

It was a couple of weeks ago during that beautiful day of the Blue-White game and I was taking goofy videos of tailgaters consuming the sunshine and other things. The mood was festive. One of the young adults who I featured in a video asked me with enthusiasm how I felt about James Franklin. He was on a recruiting roll. I said levelly that I would've chosen deposed Tennessee Titans coach Mike Munchak instead but we'll see how it goes. The guy contorted his face as if I'd just offered him a bowl of Brussels sprouts. "Are you kidding?" he...

No inheritance for Anderson! CNN anchor Anderson Cooper, who comes from the Vanderbilts, one of the wealthiest families in American history, said Monday, March 31, that he will not be receiving any fortune from his mother Gloria Vanderbilt. "My mom's made clear to me that there's no trust fund," Cooper told Howard Stern on his radio show. "There's none of that." Cooper's mom is the great-great-granddaughter of railroad and shipping mogul Cornelius Vanderbilt. Still stunning at 90 years old, the Manhattan socialite and former denim designer is reportedly worth a whopping $200 million. Gloria's equally-successful son, however, told Stern he...

A divinity school in Tennessee has installed an openly homosexual clergywoman as the school’s new dean. Vanderbilt Divinity School (VDS), located in Nashville, Tennessee, has developed a reputation for progressive policies and teachings. An article last week in Nashville Scene described the institution as a “liberal oasis” and “a bastion of the religious left” where scholars tend to “challenge rather than uphold orthodoxy.” In keeping with these beliefs, the school has officially appointed Emilie Townes as the 16th dean of the school. Not only is Townes an ordained American Baptist clergywoman, but she is also an overt homosexual. Townes’ liberal...

On Tuesday I reported that the Tennessee legislature had overwhelmingly voted to protect religious liberty at Vanderbilt University. Vanderbilt, a non-religious private school and recipient of massive amounts of state and federal taxpayer dollars, had implemented a policy that required religious student groups to open themselves to non-religious leadership. In response, the legislature passed a bill that did two things: (1) protected religious liberty at all public universities in the state to prevent any policies similar to Vanderbilt’s, and (2) provided similar protections to students at non-religious colleges that were significant recipients of state funds (but with a one-year sunset...