University of California Freezes Safety Officer Hiring until Campuses Submit ‘Holistic, Inclusive’ Plan

University of California Berkeley Campus

University of California’s new Community Safety Plan shifts major responsibilities and funding away from UC Police Departments.

The plan, based on an 80-page report released this summer by the Department of Public Safety Community Advisory Board, was announced by UC President Michael Drake last week and will be implemented across all 10 campuses. It reflects UC’s “commitment to equity and social justice.”

“Under this new model, a multidisciplinary team of mental health professionals, campus police, social service providers, police accountability boards and other personnel will work together to prioritize the well-being of the entire UC community,” Drake said in a message to the university. “This reimagined structure will ensure that the m,ost appropriate responders are deployed to meet our community’s specific needs with tailored care resources and services.”

Read the full story

Some Majority-Black Chicago Schools Are Rejecting Calls to Remove Police from Campus

Two people looking at a computer screen

Public school officials in Chicago will let each campus decide if it will keep school resource officers for the fall.

But at least some majority black schools have indicated they want the cops in the building, with one council being accused of “upholding white supremacy.”

Ahead of the discussions and votes that will likely take place throughout the coming months, Chicago Public School students rallied to demand that the police be removed from the schools. CPS board members are appointed by the mayor, but schools have councils that can make some decisions.

Read the full story

Ohio’s Urbana University Closing Its Doors for Good

Urbana University, a branch campus of Franklin University, say they will close their campus at the end of the semester in May due to the combination of challenges brought on by the coronavirus pandemic and years of low enrollment.

The school’s CEO Dr. Christopher Washington took to Facebook Monday to discuss the closure personally.

“I don’t think anyone seen this coming as fast as it did . The calamity of the COVID-19 pandemic, which is affecting our entire nation and in fact our whole world has caused tremendous disruption and uncertainty in higher education,” he said in a video he made in his home.

Read the full story

Campus Diversity Movement Takes Off in Surprising New Directions

by John Rosenberg   Ever since Justice Powell’s lone opinion in Bakke allowed the camel’s nose of “diversity” under the anti-discrimination tent, controversy has raged over preferential treatment awarded to college applicants of certain races. Just as hurricanes often change direction after landfall, the diversity movement has recently taken off in some surprising new directions that deserve public attention. Diversity Statements First came the “diversity statements,” introduced by a smattering of institutions for promotion or tenure and sometimes for all new hires. Both the prevalence and the required content of these diversity statements has expanded dramatically. UCLA’s Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, for example, recently released Version 2.1 of a comprehensive “Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Statement FAQs” attempting to justify why equity, diversity, and inclusion should “figure into faculty hiring and promotion” and laying out chapter and verse of what should be included in EDI statements. Helpful examples were provided, quoted from the faculty hiring guide: Efforts to advance equitable access to education; Public service that addresses the needs of California’s diverse population; Research in a scholar’s area of expertise that highlights inequalities; Mentoring and advising students and faculty members, particularly from under-represented and underserved populations. An applicant’s…

Read the full story

FAKE HATE: Fabricating Hate Crimes is a Byproduct of Victimhood Ideology on College Campuses

by Jarrett Stepman   Anna Ayers, a student government leader at Ohio University, reported finding threatening messages in the drawer of her desk a few weeks ago. Ayers, an LGBT student, said the three notes were “hateful, harassing,” according to The Post Athens, a student-run news outlet, and made specific attacks on her sexual identity. “Senate will never be the same for me,” Ayers told The Post of the notes, the first of which she said appeared Sept. 27 in her desk at the Student Senate. “The friendships will continue to grow, and our successes will always evoke pride, but the memory of my time in Senate and at OU will be marred by this experience. We will all have a memory of a time when this body failed one of its own.” The incident caused a stir on campus. The problem was, that stir was based on a lie. Police quickly concluded that no hate crime had taken place and that Ayers actually had written the notes to herself. The authorities charged Ayers with a misdemeanor, to which she pleaded not guilty. She is no longer a student at the university. Incidents like this have become a strikingly common…

Read the full story