We’ve spent the better part of two months at Minding the Campus (MTC) hammering home the same truths: anti-Semitism is rising, “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) is corrosive, and wokeness is warping our universities. These arguments are important—and true. But we’re beating a dead horse.
If our goal is to clarify, win back institutions, and draw new readers into our orbit, we can’t keep repeating the same points with only modest variations in tone. Too much of our recent work has echoed itself, reacting to headlines instead of driving them.
It’s time to move from opinions to investigations.
There’s a wealth of untapped stories waiting to be told—broken education-to-workforce pipelines, widespread academic misconduct, bungled responses to student assault cases, looming college closures, the overlooked consequences of the H-1B visa system, and yes, even furries in classrooms. These topics may not center on anti-Semitism, DEI, or wokeness, but they still reveal just how far off course higher education has veered. Let the facts do the heavy lifting.
Ditch the recycled arguments—find what no one else is talking about.
We also need to broaden our geographic lens. We’ve covered Ivy League land, California, and Ohio to death. But what’s happening in Mississippi? Georgia? Washington? Alaska? For that matter—what’s happening in other states?
Opinion still matters. But MTC needs original reporting, new research, and real scoops that inform rather than merely affirm. That’s how we grow our influence—by producing sharp, reliable information that others overlook. And we should say it all in 500 words or less.
If you have leads or ideas, reach out. If you want help learning how to request public records, verify a tip, or dig through faculty contracts, I’m here for that, too.
Let’s stop beating the dead horse and saddle up something alive to tread new ground. Please send your submissions to me at [email protected].
Image: “beat-a-dead-horse certificate” by nodigio on Flickr.
No.
This was the mistake that we made with Political Correctness in the 1990s — around ’92-’93 we stopped making a fuss about PC so when Newt Gingrich & Co won the House in the 1994 election, they thought that it had gone away.
And it had just gone underground.
The *only* way we will win is to take the approach of the Roman Senator Cato the Elder, who ended every speech he gave (regardless of the topic) with “Carthago delenda est.”
That translates literally to “Carthage, destroyed, must be” — or “Carthage must be destroyed.” In doing this, Cato the Elder never let the Senate forget about Carthage, and eventually there was the Third Punic War (149–146 BC) and the destruction of Carthage.
DEI delenda est!