campus protests

Safetyism and the Tentifada: Modern Campus Protests Undermine Intellectual Rigor and Erode Higher Education

The spring of 2024 witnessed the startling reemergence of anti-Semitism on the quads of many leading universities. Rather than admissions policies that quietly barred Jews from campus in the early twentieth century for fears of “overrepresentation,” the present paroxysms are on florid display. Camps were erected, students assembled with signage, makeshift libraries, and teach-ins that […]

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We Keep Us Grammatical

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published by Law & Liberty on June 6, 2024. It is crossposted here with permission. We keep us safe” is a progressive mantra. At Princeton, for example, this statement, plus an exclamation point, heads the tweet with the “Princeton Gaza Solidarity Encampment Community Guidelines” that Princeton Israel Apartheid Divest (@PtonDivestNow) posted on […]

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Identifying and Refuting Marxism on Campus

Although many of the protesters who occupied college and university campuses around the country had little knowledge of intellectual history, they marched to the beat of philosophical drummers they may not have ever heard. Their chants rhythmically echoed ideologies. The anti-Israel and anti-American passions expressed in pro-Palestinian demonstrations have deep and dark roots, tracing back […]

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Censure and Sensibility at USC

There are multiple reasons the University of Southern California (USC) Academic Senate might act to censure USC President Carol Folt. The faculty could censure her for her relatively anemic fund-raising performance over the past five years—see Contribution Revenue in USC’s Annual Reports—including her poorly received attempts to reorganize volunteer alumni and alumnae supporters; for her […]

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An Octogenarian Reflects Upon Student Protests Over Six Decades

As angry crowds of student protesters gathered at elite universities across the nation to call for a ceasefire—and, in many cases, to echo the Hamas demands for the destruction of Israel—many are no doubt inspired by the vision of earlier student protesters who brought an end to the senseless violence that resulted from American intervention […]

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No, Mr. Mayor, Outside Organizers Are Not Responsible for Student Radicalism

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published by The Epoch Times on May 6, 2024 and is crossposted here with permission. In his May 1 press conference on the university student demonstrations, occupations, and riots, New York City Mayor Eric Adams blamed outside professional organizers for radicalizing our young people in universities in New York, on campuses throughout […]

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When University Leaders Won’t Lead

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published by Dissident Professor on May 7, 2024 and is crossposted here with permission. There are a number of college campus protests going on right now, and they will likely continue in some form for some time. You may be sympathetic, or you may object on a number of very legitimate […]

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Texas’s Higher Ed Officials Need to Wake Up

To regain order and discipline on our college campuses, leadership must understand the problem and who is involved. They must then take the necessary steps to ensure that every college campus provides a safe learning environment for all students. Since October 7, 2023, there have been many pro-Hamas and pro-Palestinian demonstrations on our nation’s college […]

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What Lies Behind Student Pro-Hamas, Anti-Israel, and Anti-Semitic Uprisings?

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published by The Epoch Times on April 29, 2024 and is crossposted here with permission. The sudden uprising of university students across North America in support of Hamas and allegedly about the welfare of Palestinians does not result, for most students, from close ties with people on the other side of […]

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Better Campus Incentives: Reward the Good, Punish the Bad

Bad pronouncements from fellow economists have historically caused lots of mischief, but there is something important on which most of them agree: people respond to positive incentives—money, material goods, power, even sexual attractions—and try to avoid negative incentives—losing large sums of money, freedom through imprisonment, etc. I have argued for decades that those incentive systems, […]

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Top of Mind: Anti-Semitic Protesters

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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Colleges Are Drawing the Contempt They So Richly Deserve

I am heartened by the news (from Pew that 58% of GOP voters disrespect our colleges). It has taken a lot to break through the complacency of these voters. Of course, the real credit for this turnaround goes to those students at Middlebury and their counterparts at dozens of other colleges and universities. It goes […]

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Four Lessons for Professors from Recent Campus Tumult

1) Never object to a diversity policy publicly. It is no longer permitted. You may voice concerns in a private conversation, but if you do it in a public way, you are inviting a visit from a mob or punishment from an administrator. 2) Do not assume that being politically progressive will protect you (as […]

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College Students Lose It over the Election

University heads are very concerned with their students’ feelings and fears about the presidential election.  A Chronicle of Higher Education article collected 45 university president statements on the election. The statements reveal how many presidents advocated acceptance of the election results and/or congratulations of the winner—approximately zero–as opposed to offering comfort and therapy of sorts […]

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LET PROS RUN YOUR CAMPUS PROTEST

In a crowd of protesters at Brigham Young University, Kelsey Bourgeois, 26, is shown carrying a sign in one hand and a megaphone in the other. The photo is in the May 27 issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education. She is not a BYU student, though she was one years ago. She is a […]

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Limp Administrators Let the Angry Few Take Over

The tumultuous, racially charged demonstrations that rocked American campuses this fall show few signs of abating. In fact, they’re spreading across the country because student activists have been emboldened by their “successes.” For example, at the University of Missouri, the president and chancellor resigned amid protests (even the football team threatened to go on strike) […]

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