“What kind of a friend could pull a knife When it’s him or you and his kids need shoes? What kind of friend would do you in When the bomb goes off and the shelter’s his? … What kind of friend would tell you lies To spare you from the bitter truth? And what kind […]
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As a medical practitioner applying for a faculty position at the University of Massachusetts (UMass) Chan Medical School, it is no longer satisfactory to demonstrate a curriculum vitae of excellent merits in research and medical practice. One must also be actively involved in promoting “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) to a level that penalizes individuals […]
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Eastern Nazarene College. Clarks Summit University. The University of Saint Katherine. What do these universities have in common? They were all private Christian colleges. And they were among the latest victims to succumb in the college closure crisis. The recent trend of faith-based university closures is troubling. Young adulthood is an incredibly formidable era, characterized […]
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On what was likely a crisp autumn day in Philadelphia in 1774—before muskets and Minutemen—the American colonies chose diplomacy. They sent a carefully crafted petition to King George III, born out of frustration and hope, as a final effort to mend a relationship that had been fraying for years. Their grievances? Numerous. Following the French […]
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During a brief stint working for Congress decades ago, I used the expression “cheaters, liars, and robbers” to help locate the three House office buildings: Cannon, Longworth, and Rayburn. Those three words unfortunately describe much academic misconduct that is potentially shaking the very foundation of trust and support in American higher education. Cheaters Cheating pervades […]
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“The reason that university politics is so vicious is because stakes are so small,” former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger once restated Sayre’s law in this famous quip on competition in academia. That was the 1970s when scholarly debates about communism and Marxism had little influence on government policies at the height of the Cold […]
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Amy Wax has provided a perfect test case for accessing the state of academic freedom. On paper, just about any college would be lucky to have her. She earned both an MD and a JD, argued 15 cases before the Supreme Court, and then became a law professor at a top college for three decades. […]
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Last week, a student of mine learned that I did not identify as far left. I watched, on the Zoom call, as her pupils dilated in fascination: “But you were an English major at Columbia!,” she exclaimed. Incidents like these are not uncommon. Over on my Instagram page, where I post videos to promote the […]
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The First Continent Congress was not known for taking radical measures. When it met in Philadelphia in the autumn of 1774, it first rejected the plan but was forwarded by Pennsylvania representative Joseph Galloway, Speaker of the Pennsylvania Assembly. Galloway favored a “solid political union” between the colonies and Britain as the best way to […]
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Sundays used to signify a day of rest, reflection, and worship—now, for college students, they signify 11:59 p.m. deadlines and endless Canvas notifications. The constant pressure of online grading systems and classes keeps students in a state of perpetual stress—even at Christian colleges, where Sabbath-honoring should be prioritized. Said religious universities ceaselessly stress the significance […]
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Author’s Note: This excerpt is from my weekly “Top of Mind” email, sent to subscribers every Thursday. For more content like this and to receive the full newsletter each week, sign up on Minding the Campus’s homepage. Simply go to the right side of the page, look for “SIGN UP FOR OUR WEEKLY NEWSLETTER, ‘TOP OF MIND,’” and […]
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An Ivy League degree has long been viewed as American higher education’s crowning achievement—the ultimate status symbol, identifying the holder as a card-carrying member of the elite. At least, that used to be true. No doubt it still is, to some extent, as old ways of thinking die hard. But the recent behavior of many Ivy League leaders has clearly tarnished the crown. I’m reminded of another venerable […]
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Editor’s Note: This article was originally published by the College Fix on October 15, 2024 and is crossposted here with permission. A new House committee report raises concerns about the security of U.S.-China university partnerships, warning that these collaborations are aiding foreign technological and military advancements. “Following a year-long investigation, Education and the Workforce Committee Chairwoman Virginia […]
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Editor’s Note: This article was originally published by the Jewish Journal on October 15, 2024 and is crossposted here with permission. A few weeks ago, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) sent out a “Campus Crisis Alert” featuring the “persistent and pervasive” antisemitism” at Sarah Lawrence College where I teach, focusing in particular on my experiences. The alert came as […]
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Science has a trustworthiness problem. Public trust in science, scientists, and in the worthiness of scientific research for society, has been on a steady decline since 2019, according to Pew Research Center. To be frank, “science” is lucky its trustworthiness problem is not worse, because the public has long been unaware just how deep the […]
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On October 2, a trial court dismissed Florida’s lawsuit against the Biden Education Department, claiming that accreditation methods for institutions of higher education are illegal. But the state will almost certainly re-file its complaint or appeal to continue its fight against an accreditation system gone bad. Florida says the current system is unconstitutional because it violates the […]
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The release of data on incoming freshmen this fall was watched keenly in light of last year’s Students for Fair Admission v. Harvard decision that effectively outlawed race-based affirmative action policies in college admissions. As the data have been released, the picture is mixed. Some schools have seen the expected results: a larger proportion of […]
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The Declaration and Resolves of the First Continental Congress was adopted on October 14, 1774. It’s important for all sorts of good reasons. The representatives of the colonies—except distant Georgia—came together for the first time to endorse a joint action. They invoked natural law to justify their rights as well as their rights as Englishmen—“the […]
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On the September 27th edition of PBS’s Washington Week, reporters expressed barely controlled outrage about the Trump campaign’s slanderous attacks on Haitian immigrants. Why don’t seemingly racist—not to mention sexist—statements crater Mr. Trump’s support? Chiefly because when, in the eyes of professors and reporters, everyone is racist, then no one is. Normal American voters reflexively […]
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Introduction The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) was initially written to ensure that government-funded institutions, such as museums and universities, give human remains and some types of artifacts from past peoples to related modern tribes. Relatedness was to be determined through a preponderance of evidence, using data from archaeology, anthropology, history, biology […]
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The passage of the End Woke Higher Education Act by the U.S. House of Representatives—currently awaiting a Senate vote—marks a significant victory for constitutional freedoms in higher education. At a time when campuses are increasingly dominated by restrictive speech codes and “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) mandates, this bill offers a much-needed course correction. If […]
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Editor’s Note: This essay is a condensed version of the author’s previous piece for Minding the Sciences, titled “The Evolution of Intelligent Design Theory.” You can read the full-length version here. Headlines occasionally flash across the start page of my Microsoft browser’s newsfeed that feature articles about Darwinian evolution or the supposed chemical origin of […]
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Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story appears in theaters on October 11. I have a confession to make, and I’ve often thought about writing it down. This seems like the appropriate time. Here goes. I think I might have killed Christopher Reeve. There, I feel better already. I should say that I meant to kill Superman […]
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In 2005, an independent scholar and African art connoisseur and trader privately published a book called Phantom Voyagers: Evidence of Indonesian Settlement in Ancient Times. I read the book one year later after having met Mr. Dick-Read in the African Art section of the British Museum, where they keep the infamous Benin Bronzes looted by […]
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If you’ve spent any time in higher education, you’ve probably been told that all white people are inherently racist, police forces should be defunded, and that “diversity, equity, and inclusion”—with a new side of “belonging”—should guide every aspect of modern life. Maybe you’ve even sat through a diversity training where microaggressions are sins and America’s […]
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A terrified junior who had just switched her major to science stepped into her General Chemistry I Laboratory like a rabbit in a wolf’s den. Handing the finished pre-lab to her teaching assistant, she returned to her place at the lab bench, a myriad of unpleasant grading scenarios racing through her head. Not long later, […]
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I graduated from a small state teacher’s college in 1963, majoring in physical sciences and math. While I was not privy to overall grade distributions there, I know that Cs, Ds, and failure were not uncommon. This was simply a fact of life and was understood by all. I later became interested in spatial science, […]
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Imagine an American college or university president making the following public statement: “I regret that my institution, along with many others, has contributed to burdensome federal student loan debt and to rising college tuition levels, allowing our institutions to profit from the existence of student loan monies. At the same time, we have failed to […]
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Editor’s Note: This article was originally published by the National Assocation of Scholars on October 1, 2024 and is crossposted here with permission. Shadows of Influence: Uncovering Hidden Foreign Funds to American Universities, the latest report by the National Association of Scholars (NAS), written by Neetu Arnold, unearths some staggering truths about unreported foreign gifts to American colleges […]
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In the summer of 2023, the University System of Georgia (USG), led by Chancellor Sonny Perdue, announced a new directive: all institutions must remove “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) statements from hiring documents. During an August meeting at Kennesaw State University’s (KSU) Coles College of Business, Dean Robin Cheramie relayed this change, sparking a moment […]
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