Author’s Note: I serve as a Turning Point USA (TPUSA) chapter president, but the views expressed here are my own. What follows reflects my personal experience as a Texas State student who organized the memorial and witnessed the events of that day. When Turning Point USA at Texas State hosted a memorial for Charlie Kirk […]
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Editor’s Note: This letter was submitted to the editor of Minding the Campus in response to his article, “College Students in a Romance Recession, Boys Blame ‘Hoeflation.’” Jared, the problems you identify in this rather depressing article are symptoms rather than causes. The cause of the current malaise among our youth begins at the beginning. […]
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I think only an idiot can be an atheist. We must admit that there exists an incomprehensible power or force with limitless foresight and knowledge that started the whole universe going in the first place.[1] – Christian Anfinsen (1916-1995). Professor of Chemistry at Harvard University and winner of the 1972 Nobel Prize in Chemistry For […]
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Once upon a time, people dressed sharply, minded their manners, and worried about how their behavior reflected on their families and communities. Sure, this was partly driven by vanity, but it was also useful. Such prosocial vanity is maligned by modern standards as shallow, but it was not shallow; it served a purpose: it kept people […]
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“Diversity, equity, and inclusion” ideology, or DEI, has replaced merit and intellectual diversity with forced inclusivity and conformity. In K-12 education, this shift has often meant lowering expectations to prevent students from feeling excluded, rather than raising all students to higher standards. In practice, this prioritizes social comfort over genuine learning. For example, philosopher and […]
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The ideal of academic freedom has always rested on a simple promise: scholars must be free to pursue truth, wherever it leads. But new data from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) show how far higher education has drifted from that ideal. In FIRE’s latest survey, an astonishing 94 percent of faculty reported […]
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It’s that time of year again: the college admissions process for American high school seniors, where students race to prepare application essays for a chance to study at many of America’s elite colleges and universities. As a private college admissions counselor at my firm Invictus Prep, I guide a handful of students through the college […]
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The Trump administration’s new monitoring of social media for visa applicants and visa holders, in particular for international students, has generated vigorous debate over the free speech rights of non-Americans. But some of those most affected by the new policies support the intention of protecting American identity through strict immigration policy. The State Department in […]
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Editor’s Note: The following article was published by the College Fix on October 30, 2025. With edits to match Minding the Campus’s style guidelines, it is crossposted here with permission. The United States will likely see fewer foreign college students in America this school year, according to an analysis by the New York Times. The Times’s analysis is based […]
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There is nothing like political ideology to create difficulties with thinking, and the situation worsens when it is channeled through institutions. Among the most pronounced sources of such difficulties, ironically, is the university. I would like to suggest that the logical problem of induction is the single biggest problem in higher education. A few words […]
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Author’s Note: This article originally appeared in my weekly Top of Mind newsletter, which goes out to subscribers every Thursday. Sign up to receive it directly in your inbox. John K. Wilson’s essay in Inside Higher Ed, “Misogyny and ‘Hoeflation’ at the National Association of Scholars,” attacks my essay, “College Students in a Romance Recession, […]
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Editor’s Note: The following article was originally published by the Oklahoma Council Of Public Affairs on October 29, 2025. With edits to match Minding the Campus’s style guidelines, it is crossposted here with permission. Lindel Fields, Oklahoma’s new State Superintendent of Public Instruction, has announced that the Oklahoma State Department of Education (OSDE) will “restart the process of reviewing […]
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President Donald Trump should be commended for his resolute efforts to rid the nation’s colleges and universities of “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) practices that discriminate against individuals on the basis of race, gender, and ethnicity in violation of federal law. The President correctly believes that employment and admissions decisions should be made, and are […]
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Editor’s Note: The following article was originally published by the National Association of Scholars on October 28, 2025. With edits to match Minding the Campus’s style guidelines, it is crossposted here with permission. On October 1, the Trump administration sent a letter to nine American universities offering a “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education.” […]
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In a few days, hordes of witches, ghosts, walking skeletons, and other assorted monsters will descend upon my suburban cul-de-sac. None of them frightens me very much, with the possible exception of the overweight 45-year-old dude in the Spider-Man costume. No, as a long-time college professor, I’m most afraid these days of three things: bad robots, the abyss, and […]
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Halloween is when restless ghosts of the past return, and with the holiday approaching, it’s a fitting moment to resurrect the story of Middlebury College’s (Middlebury) renaming of Mead Memorial Chapel. On April 9, 2025, Judge Robert A. Mello of the Addison Unit of the Vermont Superior Court ruled in the college’s favor, dismissing all […]
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Recent reports show that parents, regardless of political affiliation, still aspire to send their children to college. Yet they would be wise to carefully consider where they are sending them, what kind of education they will receive, and who will be teaching them. The concern is not just about academic quality but about the ideological […]
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“He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that.” — John Stuart Mill The debate over “viewpoint diversity” has moved from faculty lounges to legislatures and boardrooms. Universities from Ohio to Florida have written it into law, and others, like Johns Hopkins, have partnered with think tanks to bring new […]
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Much discourse on college campuses centers on identity politics—the idea that one’s identity, or the way one identifies, deserves attention and respect more than classical ideals of the academy. Instead of discussing philosophy, ethics, or what it means to live a good and moral life, students, egged on by their professors, engage in conversations about marginalization and who […]
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Love seems to be over for college students. That’s at least what I gathered from a recent conversation with a student in Texas. I’ll leave him unnamed—and because he wants total anonymity, I won’t even tell you what school he goes to. But I will tell you he’s not scoring dates. And it’s not for […]
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Editor’s Note: The following is an article originally published by the College Fix on October 21, 2025. With edits to match Minding the Campus’s style guidelines, it is crossposted here with permission. Elite universities are using the H-1B foreign worker visa program to staff their “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) offices, according to a Republican senator. Missouri Senator Eric […]
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