“These universities are so arrogant and so disrespectful of their taxpayers’ wishes and, quite frankly, their money, that it’s infuriating.”
So says Michael Thad Allen, once a tenured history professor who found a second career as a lawyer defending college students and faculty against “hallucinatory” accusations from what he calls “Campus Cloudcuckooland.”
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Ohio State Representative Adam Mathews (R-Lebanon) renewed calls for the Ohio Senate to pass his Higher Education Return on Investment Act this week.
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Enrollment across the University of Tennessee’s (UT) five campuses reached an all-time high this fall, according to a press release by the UT system.
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Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Fox News that “the Chinese Communist Party’s inside every major American university today with research dollars and with their students.”
“They’re at the University of Pennsylvania, too,” he continued. “And we now know that this Chinese money, these Chinese officials met classified documents in that space.”
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Accreditation pervades American education from kindergarten through graduate school. It has become a means through which the government enforces subpar educational outcomes and increases its power.
Of course, it didn’t start out that way.
Primary and secondary accreditation began in the 1880s as a voluntary method to improve quality among schools and establish standards for students preparing for college.
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Citing a recent surge of COVID-19 cases across the country and in the Volunteer State, Tennessee State University (TSU) recently announced that it will continue to put COVID-19 safety protocols in place for the upcoming fall semester beginning on August 22nd.
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Tennessee State University (TSU) is facing backlash after some students have suggested there is a housing crisis ahead of the upcoming fall semester beginning on August 22nd.
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May is National College Decision Month, when 1.2 million Class of 2022 high school seniors must commit to the institution where they’ll spend the next four-to-six years.
Two of those high school seniors, Bill and Jane, will soon graduate and both will attend a very selective, but very different, institution in the fall. Let’s explore and project the net return on their decisions, six-years from now, based on facts and national averages.
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Republican lawmakers blasted a federally funded education program that trains researchers and teachers in critical race theory after The Center Square’s investigation broke news of the program. Now, one Florida U.S. Congressman is calling for an investigation into whether the program violates state law.
Newly uncovered Department of Education grant documents show that the department awarded $1,020,800 in a 2017 grant and $1,498,620 in a 2021 grant to a Florida-based program called Partners United for Research Pathways Oriented to Social Justice in Education (PURPOSE).
The taxpayer-funded program – led by Florida State University, which has partnered with Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University – offers participants one-year fellowships. Participants receive training in a range of issues, including critical race theory, during the fellowships.
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Students for Life of America’s (SFLA) recently documented dozens of Christian-affiliated schools that maintain ties with or reference to Planned Parenthood.
Campus Reform found many of these schools are also tied to abortion in other ways. Below is a sampling of Christian-affiliated universities and colleges that promote abortion advocacy and providers.
Texas Christian University
Affiliation: Disciples of Christ
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Many Minnesota schools are struggling to find substitute teachers.
State Sen. and gubernatorial candidate Michelle Benson, R-Ham Lake, on Friday posted on her campaign website her proposed changes to substitute teacher license regulations, which she claims would increase the pool of short-call substitute teachers and help schools stay open.
Currently, substitute teachers in Minnesota must have a bachelor’s degree (or U.S equivalent as verified by a foreign evaluation) in any field; be enrolled in a teacher preparation program; have completed student teaching, or, for candidates in career and technical education (CTE) fields, have professional certification, associate’s degree, or at least five years of relevant work experience in the CTE field, according to the state application. If they meet those qualifications, they can teach up to 15 consecutive days per teaching assignment. Their license is valid for three years. Currently tiered licensure teachers can use their teaching license.
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Cynthia Millen, a USA Swimming referee, recently resigned her post in protest of University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) swimmer Lia Thomas, born as Will Thomas, a transgender athlete who has stirred up controversy after dominating the sport on the women’s team.
Up until November 2019, Thomas competed as a male in the NCAA, which “mandate[s] at least one year of testosterone suppression treatment to be eligible to compete as a woman,” according to the New York Post.
Now competing as a female, Thomas has been able to break school records with ease, causing student athletes, and professional athletes to speak out.
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This year, for the first time since graduation some two decades ago, I did not donate to either of my alma maters. Like many of you, I have become disillusioned with the illiberalism on many college campuses and could no longer support them with an annual gift. While higher education has historically tipped to the political left, the gap has widened in recent decades. Analyzing data on faculty ideological leanings, the American Enterprise Institute reported that “in less than 30 years the ratio of liberal identifying faculty to conservative faculty had more than doubled to 5.”
At Harvard, where I attended graduate school, the faculty political imbalance is particularly striking. According to a 2021 survey by The Harvard Crimson, the college newspaper, out of 236 faculty replies only 7 people said they are “somewhat” or “very conservative,” while 183 respondents indicated that they are “somewhat” or “very liberal.” A similar problem plagues my undergraduate college, Bowdoin.
The absence of my meager donations won’t matter to the colleges I attended, each of which has billions of dollars in endowment money. But big alumni donors at some leading universities are using their influence to improve free thought and inquiry on college campuses.
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A federal judge ordered the University of Iowa (UI) to pay $1.9 million in fees and damages after two student groups won a series of religious discrimination lawsuits against the university.
The Becket Fund, which represents Business Leaders in Christ, will receive $1.37 million while Intervarsity Christian Fellowship will get $533,000, Crux reports.
Eric Baxter, a senior VP and counsel at The Becket Fund, told Campus Reform targeting students of faith “comes at a price.”
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Several leading medical schools across the United States will participate in a three-year Anti-Racist Transformation in Medical Education program.
The program, which is organized by the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and funded by the Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation, attempts to help medical students “dismantle systemic racism and bias in their work and learning environments” while sharing insights across institutions through a virtual learning platform.
The Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation — which believes that health professional education ought to contain a “strong social mission” — frequently funds diversity, equity, and inclusion programs.
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On Thursday in a press release, the University of Tennessee System announced plans to extend the household income level for UT Promise scholarship recipients. UT Promise is a last-dollar scholarship program that guarantees free tuition and fees after other financial aid is received for undergraduate, Tennessee residents with a family household income under $60,000 enrolling at University of Tennessee campuses located in Knoxville, Chattanooga, Martin, Memphis and Pulaski.
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One of Wisconsin’s government watchdogs says it’s keeping an eye on whether the University of Wisconsin’s new mental health providers for students of color discharges their duties in a discriminatory fashion.
The Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty on Wednesday sent a letter to the university after UW-Madison’s September announcement that it hired nine new mental health professionals. WILL took issue with how the school originally framed the new counselors.
The university said “three of these providers will exclusively serve students of color, joining eight providers already in this role.”
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Every so often we receive a comment to the effect that we are paranoid and should stop seeing a Communist under every bed, however, it appears that based on the views expressed by Prof. Saule Omarova, President Biden’s nominee for Comptroller of the Currency, our concerns about the takeover of the Democratic Party by Socialists and Communists have received some very solid confirmation.
Indeed, Omarova is so far out in Communism’s Left Field that Janet Yellen, Biden’s Treasury secretary (a garden variety liberal Democrat) raised concerns about her taking the post.
And Secretary Yellin’s concerns are amply justified.
In 2019, Omarova posted to Twitter in support of the “old USSR” where there was “no gender pay gap.” She attempted to do damage control after being criticized for it, but failed to fully condemn the Soviet Union.
The U.S. Secretary of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration (EDA) awarded a $3.8 million Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES) Recovery Assistance grant to the University of Michigan-Flint, Flint, to construct the university’s new College of Innovation and Technology.
The grant, to be matched with $4.9 million in local funds, is expected to create 126 jobs, retain 175 jobs, and generate $10.4 million in private investment.
“We are grateful to Secretary Raimondo and the Biden Administration for investing in University of Michigan-Flint’s College of Innovation and Technology,” Whitmer said in a statement. “This grant will help us usher in a new era of prosperity by supporting over 300 good-paying jobs and generating $10.4 million in private investment.”
Mayor Sheldon Neeley welcomed the investment.
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Some Virginia universities have started kicking out students who refused to get vaccinated against COVID-19 and other institutions may start following suit.
Virginia Tech disenrolled 134 students this week who did not receive the vaccine. Before that, the University of Virginia disenrolled 288 students, and William & Mary withdrew 42 students for the same reason. All three universities require students be vaccinated against COVID-19 unless they receive a medical or religious exemption.
“Of the approximately 37,000 students enrolled at Virginia Tech, 134 students were not in compliance with the COVID-19 vaccination requirement, meaning that they did not submit vaccination documentation or receive a medical or religious exemption,” a statement on Virginia Tech’s website read. “These students have been disenrolled. The university does not know whether any of these students were not planning to return for reasons unrelated to the COVID-19 vaccine requirement.”
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Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita announced that his office will investigate the and the Chinese Communist Party’s Confucius Institute at Valparaiso University.
“The investigation is aimed at identifying and getting to the bottom of the true intent of any relationships between Valparaiso University’s programming and the Chinese Communist Party,” a statement from Rokita’s office reads.
Valparaiso, a private Lutheran institution, received $1.1 million from the Chinese government between 2010-2019 and acknowledges the Rokita’s investigation on its Confucius Institute website.
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Susan King is stepping down as dean of the University of North Carolina’s Hussman School of Journalism and Media.
The university announced the decision yesterday.
The Hussman School faced backlash from progressives after it apparently backed off from a plan to give Hannah-Jones tenure for her work as the Knight Chair in Race and Investigative Journalism.
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An Ohio lawmaker wants to remove the mask-wearing decision for K-12 students across the state from local school boards by having the state prohibit any district from requiring masks.
Rep. Mike Loychik, R-Bazetta, said he plans to introduce legislation to stop school districts across the state from mandating students wear masks, saying parents in his district are upset school boards have required masks as the school year begins.
Lakeview and Warren school boards, each in Loychik’s district, voted to require masks for students.
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Saint Joseph’s University will not renew its contract with math Professor Gregory Manco despite the fact that a three-month investigation into his Twitter history found he had not violated any campus policies.
Manco has been a non-tenured assistant professor of math at Saint Joseph’s since 2005 and also a volunteer assistant baseball coach, but tweets in February criticizing slavery reparations and racial bias training had prompted the probe even though he used an anonymous account.
He was put on administrative leave during the probe. Its outcome, announced in May, determined Manco could not be found guilty of violating any policies, citing “insufficient evidence.”
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Among a list of building names George Washington University has collected for study and review is Francis Scott Key Hall.
Key is the author of “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
But the private, Washington D.C.-based university has received a request to rename Francis Scott Key Hall and it will consider whether to scrap the moniker at some point in the future, according to its Name Change Request Registry.
University officials did not respond to repeated requests from The College Fix over the last week asking about the nature of the complaint or complaints against Francis Scott Key Hall and whether students or faculty asked for it to be reviewed.
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If there were trillions of dollars socked away in convenient vehicles to avoid taxes and benefit the ultra-elite should we not tax them? Are they not fair game in a just system of taxation, where the little guy and the middle class have to pay up—or else?
The largest endowments, mainly universities indoctrinating students in social justice, wokeism, and class warfare, pay absolutely no taxes.
The big foundations, promoting radical left-wing activism, likewise pay no taxes.
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Some Virginia universities intend to prohibit marijuana on campus grounds after it becomes legal for recreational use for adults age 21 and older in the state.
Although the commonwealth will allow legal possession beginning in two weeks, the plant still is illegal at the federal level and a schedule I drug under the controlled substance act. If a university allows marijuana on campus, some universities worry it could threaten their federal funding.
A spokesperson from James Madison University told The Center Square the Office of Student Accountability and Restorative Practices will continue to address incidents of marijuana on campus because use and possession are illegal under federal law.
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Administrators censured a conservative University of Michigan regent after he made controversial comments about Democratic state leadership, despite similar comments from left-leaning students and faculty.
Ron Weiser — who became a regent in 2016 and is currently serving as chairman of the Michigan Republican Party — called Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, and Attorney General Dana Nessel “witches” and suggested that they be burned at the stake.
Weiser is the first regent to be censured in the university’s 200-year history.
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The Biden administration has chosen a close ally of Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) to oversee the nation’s expansive federal student loan program.
On Monday, Rich Cordray, director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau during the Obama administration, was announced as the new head of the Education Department’s Office of Federal Student Aid, which oversees over $1.7 trillion in loans to U.S. students.
In a statement following his appointment, Cordray said he sought to “create more pathways for students to graduate and get ahead, not be burdened by insurmountable debt.”
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Universities in the United Kingdom have been instructed to pay students thousands of dollars because they had ‘”less valuable” experiences due to the universities’ COVID-19 actions.
The Office of the Independent Adjudicator (OIA) is an independent body that reviews students’ complaints against higher education institutions. It does not have the power to regulate or punish the institutions, however.
OIA recently shared several complaints students have made about the impact coronavirus has had on their educational experiences.Universities in the United Kingdom have been instructed to pay students thousands of dollars because they had ‘”less valuable” experiences due to the universities’ COVID-19 actions.
The Office of the Independent Adjudicator (OIA) is an independent body that reviews students’ complaints against higher education institutions. It does not have the power to regulate or punish the institutions, however.
OIA recently shared several complaints students have made about the impact coronavirus has had on their educational experiences.
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A professor at Southern Illinois University received an indictment for concealing his support from the Chinese government.
According to a United States Department of Justice press release, Mingqing Xiao — who teaches mathematics at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale — “fraudulently obtained $151,099 in federal grant money from the National Science Foundation (NSF) by concealing support he was receiving from the Chinese government and a Chinese university.”
Accordingly, he was charged with two counts of wire fraud and one count of making a false statement. He faces the possibility of twenty-year sentences for each of the former, as well as a five-year sentence for the latter. All three charges are punishable by fines of up to $250,000 each.
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A leading medical journal terminated an editor who questioned the existence of structural racism. His fellow medical professors expressed approval of the firing.
The American Medical Association wrote in a statement that it was “deeply disturbed” and “angered” by a recent Journal of the American Medical Association podcast that “questioned the existence of structural racism.” Though the organization claimed that “JAMA has editorial independence from AMA,” the statement added that “this tweet and podcast are inconsistent with the policies and views of AMA.”
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Senate Minority Leader Jim Ananich, D–Flint, and state Rep. Julie M. Rogers, D–Kalamazoo, are sponsoring bills aimed to allow high schoolers earn their diploma without Algebra II.
Senate Bill 318 and House Bill 4595 were introduced Wednesday with bipartisan support.
Currently, Michigan students must complete Algebra I, Geometry, Algebra II, and a math elective to graduate. Bill proponents argue these math requirements are often excessive for students who don’t plan to enter a field requiring advanced math and will instead need to understand interest, student loan payments, and how to complete taxes.
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West Chester University in Pennsylvania has recently instituted mandatory diversity training for faculty and staff.
The required training would take place on the electronic platform EverFi, according to a memo sent to employees obtained by The College Fix.
Employees were notified that this program would serve to demonstrate the “mission, goals, values, and strategic plan” of the public university in ensuring an inclusive and welcoming work environment.
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Amid rumors of a video that shows a student being targeted during a diversity lesson at Boise State University, administrators have abruptly suspended all of the school’s general education classes called “University Foundations 200: Foundations of Ethics and Diversity.”
“We have been made aware of a series of concerns, culminating in allegations that a student or students have been humiliated and degraded in class on our campus for their beliefs and values,” states a March 16 memo from President Marlene Tromp to the campus community.
“This is never acceptable; it is not what Boise State stands for; and we will not tolerate this behavior,” Tromp stated. “…Given the weight of cumulative concerns, we have determined that, effective immediately, we must suspend UF 200.”
She goes on to note that academic leadership will determine next steps “to ensure that everyone is still able to complete the course.”
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Citing an increase in “bias” and “hate” on campus, the UW-Madison student government recently voted unanimously to double the ethnic studies requirement needed to graduate from three credits to six.
“UW-Madison is responsible for providing students with the knowledge to become more understanding and empathetic individuals,” Associated Students of Madison committee leaders said in a news release following the vote.
“Increasing the Ethnic Studies Requirement is a way to combat current systemic racism and encourage a dialogue around its history,” the group said.
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Friday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed Cornell Law Professor and creator of the Legal Insurrection blog Dr. William Jacobson to the newsmakers line to talk about his new criticalrace.org website.
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Where did Antifa youth rioting in the streets receive their intellectual and ethical bearings? Why are the First and Second Amendments no longer fully operative? How did the general population become nearly ignorant of their Constitution, history, and the hallmarks of their culture? Why do employers no longer equate a bachelor’s degree with competency in oral and written communications, basic computation, and reasoning? How in the 21st century did race and ethnicity come to define who we are rather than become incidental to our individual personas? In answering all these questions, we always seem to return to higher education – the font of much of our contemporary malaise.
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A new bill looks to grant the government additional oversight on foreign access to U.S. research and intellectual property.
The legislation comes as a response to recent incidents of high-security concern which concern China’s relationship with the US, including Chinese programs that seek to recruit American scientists, and the widespread failure of U.S. universities to report foreign funding.
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On Wednesday, students sued Harvard University for not refunding tuition and fees after the coronavirus pandemic forced classes online.
This makes Harvard at least the fourth Ivy League school to be targeted for failing to reimburse educational costs, following Brown, Columbia, and Cornell. The school is facing a $5 million federal class-action lawsuit. Students chose to pursue legal action as a result of not having “received the benefit of in-person instruction or equivalent access to university facilities and services.”
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Were all of the foreign students returning to America’s campuses in January vectors of infection for coronavirus? Especially the students from China? There’s no evidence yet to prove the point, although the odds are that at least some coronavirus infection came to the United States from foreign students.
If we’ve been spared a campus plague, it’s owing to the grace of God, and not to any actions by our colleges and universities.
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An economics professor at George Mason University is speaking out about the “racket” that he says is college, and blaming it on the “diversity people” who he says have flooded the university system with unnecessary and perpetually increasing expenses tied to a seemingly endless need for more and more diversity initiatives and faculty.
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Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) recently sent a letter to the presidents of Florida public universities to warn about the threat that China poses to the United States and its higher education institutions.
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by Emina Melonic American higher education, once the envy of the world, is suffering a crisis of confidence and a loss of purpose. “Once upon a time, universities were institutions dedicated to the pursuit of truth and the transmission of the highest values of our civilization,” writes New Criterion editor and publisher Roger Kimball. “Today, most are dedicated to the destruction of those values. It is past time to call them to account.” What would accountability look like? The distinguished British philosopher Roger Scruton, a conservative through and through, recently proposed a radical solution: “get rid of universities altogether.” Have these men taken leave of their senses? Not at all. Both have been keen observers for decades of the slow-motion catastrophe unfolding in academia. It may be we’ve reached a turning point. Behind most of the problems plaguing education is a noxious identity politics. This is particularly true in the humanities because these subjects easily lend themselves to manipulative interpretation and reshaping by those with an ideological agenda. Take a piece of classical literature, such as Homer’s The Iliad, slap a theory on the text, and bingo, you have just rid yourself of the chore of trying to understand this magnificent piece of dramatic poetry…
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by Walter E. Williams Much of today’s incivility and contempt for personal liberty has its roots on college campuses, and most of the uncivil and contemptuous are people with college backgrounds. Let’s look at a few highly publicized recent examples of incivility and attacks on free speech. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and his wife, U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, were accosted and harassed by a deranged left-wing mob as they were leaving a dinner at Georgetown University. McConnell was harassed by protesters at Reagan National Airport, as well as at several venues in Kentucky. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and his wife were harassed at a Washington, D.C., restaurant. Afterward, a group called Smash Racism DC wrote: “No—you can’t eat in peace—your politics are an attack on all of us. You’re sick votes are a death wish. Your votes are hate crimes.” Other members of Congress—such as Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., and Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Rand Paul, R-Ky.—have been physically attacked or harassed by leftists. Most recent is the case of Fox News political commentator Tucker Carlson. A leftist group showed up at his house at night, damaging his front door and chanting, “Tucker Carlson, we…
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by George Leef In a recent essay published in The Chronicle of Higher Education, Yale philosophy professor Jason Stanley is haunted by a spectre—the spectre of American universities aiding the rise of fascism. (The essay, “Fascism and the University” is subscriber-only content, unfortunately.) He says that “patterns have emerged that suggest the resurgence of fascist politics globally” and lists the United States as among the countries where he sees that occurring. Moreover, he argues that our higher education system could become complicit in the advance of fascism. What does Stanley mean by “fascism?” He defines it as “any ultranationalism—ethnic, religious, or cultural—in which the nation is represented by an authoritarian leader who claims to speak for the people.” He fears fascist politics pave the way for nationalists to achieve power and regards them as dangerous even if they don’t lead to an explicitly fascist state. Focusing on higher education, Stanley says that it has “historically been a bulwark against authoritarianism” but worries that “this time” (meaning the U.S. under Trump), it will instead be “its pawn.” That sounds like a troubling prospect. Ultranationalist fascism creates an overpowering, omnipotent state that serves the interests of a few at the expense of the rest of…
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The Trump administration is preparing to abolish policies that direct colleges and universities to increase diversity by considering race in college admissions, according to U.S. officials. Media reports say Trump administration officials intend to argue against guidelines issued by president Barack Obama’s administration that offered legal recommendations for schools seeking to consider race as an admissions factor. The development was first reported by the Wall Street Journal. Trump administration officials plan to argue that the guidelines exceed Supreme Court precedent and mislead schools that legal types of affirmative action are easier to attain than the law allows. Anurima Bargava, who led civil rights enforcement in schools during the Obama administration, disagreed with the reported arguments, saying only guidelines were offered to schools that were exploring the continued use of affirmative action legally. “This is a purely political attack that benefits nobody,” she told the Journal. The Trump administration did not immediately respond to the Journal’s request for comment. The Trump administration move comes as the Justice Department investigates whether Harvard University unlawfully discriminates against Asian-American students by holding them to higher admissions standards. The investigation was revived last year after Obama civil rights officials dismissed a similar complaint. In a…
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by Victor Ashe It is never fun to voice concern about the University of Tennessee and its spending practices. As a graduate of the UT College of Law, I am proud of my Tennessee law degree. Having attended graduate school there, I wish the following was fiction instead of fact. However, when we learned over the past few weeks that donors to the UT athletic program are having over $18 million diverted from other purposes to fund payouts for three persons who were terminated, one has to wonder: Who is minding the store from a financial standpoint? With the forced departure of Butch Jones as football coach by AD John Currie and now Currie’s departure, preceded by payouts for former AD Dave Hart and Mike Hamilton the total cost potentially exceeds $18 million. That is not pocket change. When UT Chancellor Beverly Davenport fired (suspended) Currie, did she consider the cost involved to the Athletic Department as only 8 months earlier she had signed a contract with Currie on top of his actual salary which would guarantee him $100,000 a month until June, 2022 if fired without cause. Davenport and Currie worked well together until she suddenly removed him…
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