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Injured Hispanic Custodian Sues School After Not Being Able to Read English Warning Sign

Tiffany Gabbay — Fri, 10 May 2013 19:03:35 +0000

Photo credit: CBS

A group of Hispanic custodians at Denver’s Auraria Campus are suing their employer, claiming they are victims of discrimination. One of those custodians, Bertha Ribota, claims she was injured on the job as a result of not being able read a warning sign in English, CBS reports.

“Too many things have happened to me there that I don’t even know how to explain it,” said Ribota.

“If I could speak English I wouldn’t have the problems that exist.”

CBS explains further:

The complaint accuses the campus of purposely keeping vital information from Hispanic employees pertaining to the terms and conditions of their employment, changes in work status, and, more pointedly, safety. They claim they are being excluded because the information is not being delivered in Spanish.

Last week 12 custodians from the Auraria Campus filed an EEOC complaint against the Auraria Higher Education Center, which is the organization that maintains the campus for Metro State University of Denver, the Community College of Denver and the University of Colorado Denver.

“What is sort of a neutral business practice, that they speak English on campus and it’s an English-only campus has a discriminatory impact on this group of workers,” said attorney Tim Markham.

Campus spokesman Blaine Nickeson said in response: “I don’t know if that’s a problem. I think it’s one of the concerns. I will go on to say there’s not a statute to translate.”

Watch the interview below:

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At least a dozen domestic terrorists now teach at America’s universities

Meredith Jessup — Thu, 09 May 2013 20:34:20 +0000

Some of the names are familiar: Bill Ayers, Bernadine Dohrn and, most recently exposed, Kathy Boudin.

But the College Fix reports there are many more former members of domestic terrorist organizations who now hold esteemed faculty positions at some of America’s most prestigious colleges and universities:

“Members of the Weather Underground make up half of this list; some are well known, like Bill Ayers and his wife Bernadine Dohrn, Ayers is now retired from the University of Illinois, while Dohrn is still teaching at Northwestern Law,” writes Ryan James Girdusky in a guest blog post Wednesday about the dozen or so former members of domestic terrorist organizations who are now college professors.

From Girdusky’s post (as quoted by College Fix):

“Other lesser-known members of the group include Howard Machtinger, who was charged with conspiring to bomb the Detroit Police Officers Association Building and was on the run from the law for five years from 1973 to 1978. Machtinger now works for the School of Education at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.”

“Another Weatherman alumni, Mark Naison, has been a professor at Fordham University for 43 years. … Eleanor Raskin was also involved in the 1968 Columbia University occupation … She began to teach at the State University of New York in Albany and then later at Albany Law School. … ”

” … Weatherman, Mark Rudd, former spokesman for students in the Columbia student revolt of 1969 … is now retired but spent a long career as a math instructor at the Central New Mexico Community College.”

Read the full report from Girdusky here.

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Military vet shares troubling higher ed experience with TheBlaze

Meredith Jessup — Thu, 09 May 2013 14:20:05 +0000

An interesting note on the state of higher education from my inbox:

I’m currently a student working on my undergraduate degree at Santa Clara University (SCU). SCU is a private Catholic (Jesuit) institution. After having lived in Europe and spent three tours of duty in Iraq, I have a good understanding of global issues. I thought coming to school would broaden my horizons both in business and in liberal arts. Unfortunately, both have been disappointing because of the curriculum taught at this school. We all know that academia leans way left, but the problem is how far it leans and how indoctrinated/polarized graduates are.

Indoctrination was the norm for the Taliban in Afghanistan and for many places in Iraq under Saddam Hussein. As Al Qaeda waged unconventional warfare against us in those two countries, we did our best to bring positive change while our enemy continued to oppress the local population. The left in our country is conducting unconventional warfare in the classroom and our society is losing badly…

Let me get a bit more specific. Our core curriculum requires students to take courses on social justice. Christianity is used to justify social justice through the redistribution of wealth and property. Most students tacitly agree with professors and make comments that will be approved of. One professor in particular is a devout socialist and anti-war activist who has been arrested numerous times over the years. In the past I would normally speak up and provide an alternate point of view for students which has, in my opinion, negatively affected my grade. This time, I have remained quiet because speaking up hasn’t made an impact in the past.

This letter is meant to emphasize the gravity of the situation and that my fellow veterans who are in the same position as I am are having similar experiences around the country. Our education system is in far more peril than most people know and this machine will continue pumping out future business leaders, politicians, and community activists, with a very narrow point of view which will only further harm our country.

Quotes/Lessons from school:

“Justice is the work of redeploying social power and the transformation of the social system.”

“Biblical Justice according to Christ, is the redistribution of wealth and property.”

“Always call for Revolution.”

“It’s ok to get arrested for protesting.”

“Rich people are very unlikely to go to heaven.”

“Salvation is economic redistribution of goods.”

“The vulnerable according to scriptures: Widows, orphans, poor now translates into modern day illegal aliens, gays, people in prison, Native Americans, low income earners, etc.”

“God’s justice is suspicious of the rich.”

“Justice > Charity”

Lastly, I want to inform you of a topic most people aren’t aware of about the Yellow Ribbon program and how it affects Santa Clara University (SCU). The yellow ribbon program is part of the G.I. Bill which some schools participate in to help veterans pay for college. SCU Undergraduate program offers 5 veterans the opportunity for the yellow ribbon on a first come first serve basis. They pay $8,100 which the VA matches as part of the yellow ribbon, totaling $16,200 per vet, each year. 5 vets at $8,100 a year is $40,500 which Santa Clara pays. I’m telling you this because of a program that SCU and the Society of Jesuits are providing at Santa Clara:

https://www.usatodayeducate.com/staging/index.php/ccp/25-undocumented-immigrants-find-a-home-at-santa-clara-university

This article from late 2011 highlights the fact that 25 illegal immigrants are given the opportunity to go to Santa Clara University for free. It’s 5 students per year until the money allotted by the Society of Jesuits ($1.2 million) runs out. SCU is the only school in the country with this program in place, at least at this high of a level. I find it a bit hypocritical that men and women who gave their blood, sweat, and tears don’t get a dime from this University while providing free education to those who aren’t citizens.

Editor’s note: This post was published with author’s express permission. Do you have a story to share? Let us know!

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Why are ‘hate crime’ hoaxes so popular on campus?

Meredith Jessup — Fri, 03 May 2013 14:20:51 +0000

Meg Lanker-Simons made headlines this week after police discovered that she posted the threatening, obscenity-laced post on her own Facebook page. In other words, she was responsible for her own harassment. Hers is one of a growing number of cases of “hate crime” hoaxes, many of which are unfolding on America’s college campuses. Why are they becoming more common?

The Wall Street Journal explains some possible reasons:

One obvious answer is that people do this sort of thing to get attention. Multicultural identity politics, which is a dominant force on campus and a significant one off it, creates a perverse incentive structure by rewarding victims of purported hate and going easy on hoaxers…

Some hate-crime hoaxers have motives that are more personal than political. TheNew York Times, reporting in 1988 on the grand-jury report in the Tawana Brawley hoax, noted that “evidence suggested that she may have feared the wrath of her mother’s boyfriend for her late nights out.” In 1998 Associated Press reported that Cornelius Weaver, a black Louisiana man who claimed he had been dragged behind a car by three white men–similar to what actually happened to a black Texan named James Byrd–recanted and admitted he had invented the story to cover up a drug deal that went bad.

It seems to us, however, that there is in addition an important psychological component to the phenomenon of fake hate crimes. As we noted last month, the anthropologist Robert Ardrey posited a hierarchy of three basic psychological needs, of which the most important is identity, followed by stimulation and security.

A shared experience of being oppressed can be a powerful source of identity. That’s why in America groups like blacks, Jews and gays tend to identify more strongly with their groups than do their traditionally unoppressed counterparts, whites, Christians and heterosexuals. (In the case of the latter set, we are referring to the groups as a whole, not to ethnic, sectarian or sexual subsets of them.) To what extent women were oppressed by prefeminist sex roles is a complicated question, but one definition of a feminist is someone whose estimate is on the high side.

Oppression of minorities, and certainly of women, scarcely exists in America in the 21st century. Genuine hate crimes happen, but they are very rare. Few societies in history have offered more security to the previously downtrodden. But the presence of security only makes the need for identity and stimulation more pressing. Hate-crime hoaxes are an extreme way of meeting those needs.

It’s an interesting read about a truly odd phenomenon. For more, click here.

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Hamas vs. hummus: How much do college kids know about the Middle East?

Meredith Jessup — Fri, 03 May 2013 12:26:31 +0000

via The Corner:

Our pal Robert Agostinelli shares this video of comedian Mark Schiff interviewing UCLA students on their knowledge of Israel and the Middle East (and the difference between Hamas and hummus). Oy.

WATCH:

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Prominent Black Pastor Disinvited From Speaking at College Over ‘Untimely’ Criticisms of Obama

Tiffany Gabbay — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 22:30:07 +0000

Rev. Kevin Johnson (Philly.com/Philadelphia Inquirer)

Rev. Kevin Johnson, senior pastor of Bright Hope Baptist Church in North Philadelphia and alumni of the famed Morehouse College, has been uninvited to speak at his alma mater after criticizing President Obama, who is slated to deliver the school’s commencement address this week.

The prominent black pastor penned an opinion column on April 14 for the Philadelphia Tribune titled, ”A President for Everyone, Except Black People,” in which he criticized Obama for failing to appoint members of the black community to cabinet positions in his administration, and for his failure to address issues of poverty in the community.

After the article was published, Johnson said Morehouse President John Silvanus Wilson, Jr. phoned the pastor to ask him to step down as speaker because of his “untimely” remarks about the president. According to the East Atlanta Patch, Johnson asked school administrators to honor his invitation, only to learn that he had been replaced by not one, but three alternate speakers.

In response, Johnson said that he has “always been and continues to be a supporter of President Obama.”

“The issue is not about the article in question, but about Morehouse’s longstanding history and pedagogy of free thought and free speech. Without free thought and free speech, Morehouse would not have produced our most admired alumnus, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.”

Now, a group of two dozen pastors are reportedly demanding that the prestigious black college change their decision and re-invite Johnson. Some even noted the “dangerous” trajectory the college will find itself on if the school penalized one of its most distinguished alumni for simply exercising free speech.

“If President Wilson turns his back on one of our most distinguished alums because of an exercise of free speech and political commentary, he will have set Morehouse on a dangerous course and departed from the great tradition bequeathed to us,” said Rev. Dr. Amos Brown, senior pastor of Third Baptist Church in San Francisco.

“In 1947, Dr. King warned that, ‘If we are not careful, our colleges will produce a group of close-minded, unscientific, illogical propagandists, consumed with immoral acts. Be careful, ‘brethren!’ Be careful, teachers!’ We are potentially witnessing the realization of King’s greatest fears.”

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UMass Prof Who Mentored Suspect #2: I Hope I Didn’t Influence Him to Commit Terror (and Compares Some Chechens Fighting Russia to George Washington)

Tiffany Gabbay — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 18:37:50 +0000

Professor Brian Glyn Williams. Source: HuffPo

A professor of Islamic Studies at University of Massachusetts–Dartmouth who once mentored Dzhokhar Tsarnaev via email, recently said in an interview that he hoped he didn’t influence the man to commit acts of terror.

Professor Brian Glyn Williams said that he had been communicating with the younger Tsarnaev via email in an attempt to inform him of the history of Chechnya and its fight against Russia.

Responding to Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s potential role in the Boston Marathon terror attack, Williams told Steve Urbon of South Coast Today that he hoped his teachings did not negatively influence the aspiring jihadist.

“I hope I didn’t contribute to it. That kid and his brother identified with the Chechen struggle,” he said in an email.

In a separate article penned for The Huffington Post on April 20, Williams also commented on the “secularized” nature of the Chechens he has met, even saying they seek to emulate to George Washington “freeing the 13 colonies.”

“First of all, the Chechens I have met, including the members of the small tight knit community here in Boston, tend to be a rather Sovietized, secularized, moderate Muslims,” Williams states in the second paragraph of his column.

“The ones I know tend to emulate George Washington for freeing the 13 colonies from British oppression. The Chechens dream of the same thing for themselves from their historic nemesis, imperial Russia/Soviet Union/the post-Soviet Russian Federation.”

While Williams does qualify his remarks to include only the Chechens he “knows” and can’t be criticized based on his own personal experience, the comment is still curious in the larger context given Chechnya’s long history of terrorism and human rights abuses. His remarks also assert that Chechnya’s struggle against Russia is solely nationalistic, rather than being based (at least in part) on goals of establishing a unified Islamic theocracy, which rebel fighters have admitted to seeking.

To be fair, Williams does seem to note some Chechen abuses.

“The Chechens responded with acts of terrorism against Russians, including the notorious Beslan school hostage taking and the seizure of a theater in Moscow in 2002,” he says. “There were also numerous suicide bombings including the notorious/tragic ‘black widows’ (Chechen women whose husbands were killed by the Russians) who became suicide bombers. There were also numerous suicide bombings including the notorious/tragic ‘black widows’ (Chechen women whose husbands were killed by the Russians) who became suicide bombers.”

Still, he adds “While it is mere speculation at this point, it can be hypothesized that this tragic history of victimhood at the hands of Christian/Soviet Russia and the terrorist response may have inspired Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and his brother.”

According to Urbon, the connection between Williams and the younger Tsarnaev was made two years ago when English teacher Steve Matteo at Cambridge Ridge and Latin High School put the two in touch, perhaps thinking that since Williams is an expert on Chechnya, the two would find much in common.

Williams, who taught classes on the War on Terror, “obliged by exchanging emails with the then-17-year-old student,” Urbon wrote.

There, Dzhokhar learned about accounts of “mass killings, death camps, mass graves, torture, destruction,” perpetrated by the Russians on the Chechen people.

While Williams and Dzhokhar only communicated via email and never met physically, the professor recalled his student clearly. He noted that he sent the young Chechen-American links to academic papers and books to read.

“He was learning his Chechen identity, identifying with the diaspora and identifying with his homeland,” Williams said of his student.

“He wanted to learn more about Chechnya, who the fighters were, who the commanders were. I sort of gave him background.”

Williams went on to tell Urbon that he believed Tamerlan Tsarnaev became radicalized following his trip to Russia and that Dzhokhar may simply have been following his older brother’s example.

TheBlaze will outline the radical Wahhabist influence in Chechnya in an in-depth article to be published Wednesday.

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Video: Today’s students are afraid to express their minds

Meredith Jessup — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 16:06:35 +0000

The price of political correctness:

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You can now take a college course on ‘navigating pornography’

Meredith Jessup — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 15:10:23 +0000

Your tuition dollars at work (via College Fix):

A relatively new Pasadena City College class called “Navigating Pornography” – devoted to giving students a venue to study and discuss a touchy topic in an academic setting, according to its professor – has already prompted praise and concern.

First offered last spring, the class is a for-credit elective open to all students and does not require any prerequisites. In just one year, it’s come under national scrutiny after its instructor, Professor Hugo Schwyzer, invited a porn star to speak to its students.

But Schwyzer defended Navigating Pornography in an interview with The College Fix, calling the subject matter legitimate.

“(The course) focuses on giving students tools to understand pornography as a historical and contemporary phenomenon,” Schwyzer told The College Fix. “Students today live in a porn-saturated culture and very rarely get a chance to learn about it in a safe, non-judgmental, intellectually thoughtful way.”

The course doesn’t merely consist of viewing pornography. In fact, students do not view porn inside the classroom. Instead, they watch it on their own time as homework. Assignments include journals, a research paper, and a final exam, Schwyzer explained.

Schwyzer, professor of history and gender studies at the Southern California-based community college, said the elective provides students an avenue to discuss pornography in an academic setting.

Obviously there was a high demand for porn discussion in academia. Who knew?

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University Prof. Offended By Images at Pro-Life Rally Gets Arrested After Odd Obscenity-Laced Tirade

Becket Adams — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 23:30:42 +0000

Did you know that an image can “swear to you”? Yeah, neither did we.

University of Buffalo professor Laura Curry was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct after she “launched into a profanity-laced tirade directed towards a group of pro-life students,” according to Fox News’ Todd Starnes.

Her complaint? She was upset that the pro-life rally on campus had on display an image of a man being hanged. (Pro-life rallies regularly feature images drawing comparisons between abortion and infamous mass slaughters [i.e. Wounded Knee, the Holocaust, etc.]).

In a video that was recorded moments before her arrest, and later posted to Creative Minority Report, Curry can be heard saying that the image is “swearing to her.” So she responded by swearing about the image. Loudly.

“Where does it say I can’t use the f**k word in public?” the professor shouted at students. “I can swear because that’s part of my vocabulary. That’s part of my First Amendment rights!”

“I can swear in public because that is profane,” she continued. “That image is swearing to me. That is profane to me.”

Curry is an adjunct instructor of media study, according to the Fox report [strong language!]:

“That image is profane but f**k isn’t,” she went on.

Police officers eventually responded to her tirade, allegedly offered her a warning, and then hauled her off when she refused to calm down.

A university spokesman confirmed Curry’s arrest but declined to provide further information regarding her employment status, Fox notes.

“The University of Buffalo strives to create an environment in which diverse opinions can be expressed and heard,” the university said in a statement. “As a public university, it is a fundamental value of UB that all members of the campus community and their invited guests have a right to peacefully express their views and opinions, regardless of whether others may disagree with those expressions.”

The statement added that protesters have a right to “oppose the views or opinions of others, but not in such a way as to limit or prevent the speaker’s freedom of expression or interfere with university operations.”

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Ayn Rand Group Preps for Islamic Showdown at UC Davis

Mytheos Holt — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 01:30:21 +0000

Tonight, the Ayn Rand Society at UC Davis will host a discussion on the Arab Spring, and whether the Islamist tenor of much of its influence could possibly be a problem. To quote from the event’s description on Facebook:

Islamists Rising in the Middle East: Where next for America?

*no signs or banners of any kind will be allowed inside the auditorium*
*no food or beverages allowed also*

A forum featuring Elan Journo, Daniel Pipes and Larry Greenfield.

Since the so-called Arab Spring, upheavals and revolutions have racked the Middle East. So far, the Islamist movement has gained not only greater prominence but also political power in Egypt and elsewhere. Amid the tumult in Egypt, the Syrian civil war, and an imminently nuclear-capable Iran, what are America’s interests in the region? What’s fueling the rise of Islamists, and how should we view them?

Where are things heading in the Israel-Palestinian conflict? What should America’s policy be toward the region, and toward Israel in particular?

Join the panel for a discussion of these and related questions.

Why is this news? Because Muslim groups at UC Davis are hopping mad, and may end up disrupting the event. Or at least, they have been making noises that suggest as much already. An op ed in the UC Davis campus paper, the California Aggie, has already been published condemning the event in the strongest possible terms:

We, as student organizations under the UC Davis Division of Student Affairs and representative of the diverse student body, condemn the event “Islamists Rising in the Middle East: Where Next for America?” where Daniel Pipes, Elan Journo and Larry Greenfield are invited to speak. The event will take place at UC Davis on April 11 at 7 p.m. and is hosted by the UC Davis Ayn Rand Society. Pipes, Journo and Greenfield have past histories of speech that demonstrate racism and Islamophobia that clearly transgress the principles that the University of California and UC Davis are meant to embody.[...]

We acknowledge that UC Davis regards free speech as a principle of community. However, we will not support speech that is racist and has no purpose but to further ignorance throughout communities. We do not support speech that will alienate communities and legitimize stereotyping. We do not support speech that builds the very prejudice and discrimination that the University should be working against in order to foster a campus that is rich in understanding and intellectual growth.

Thus, as the University acknowledges “historical and deep-rooted understandings and biases” in our current society, we expect, by extension, it will acknowledge that the ideologies being furthered by the speakers serve to perpetuate the irrational fear and “othering” of Islam and Muslims (Islamophobia) which have material implications on the safety and sense of belonging of our peers.

We expect the University will follow its own protocols and sanctions, which include the confrontation and rejection of such hate speech that is “based on race, ethnicity, gender, age, disability, sexual orientation, religious or political beliefs.” (Principles of Community)

The University’s neutral stance against such speech has allowed it to tear at the fabric of our community and is detrimental to the very principles that UC Davis strives to accomplish. We expect the University to take a stance against such hate speech.

Meanwhile, the event’s Facebook page has been besieged with angry comments. A small sample follows:

(Photo Credit: Facebook)

The Ayn Rand Society, however, is not taking this lying down, nor are the guests. Elan Journo, one of the guests, told TheBlaze in an email that he was counting on University Security to keep the problems to a minimum.

“We are putting our trust in the university and its security team uphold the freedom of speech of the panelists in the face of any disruptors,” Journo told TheBlaze. “It is ludicrous, if it were not so sad, that public discussion of the Islamist movement is somehow a taboo. This is the ideological movement behind al Qaeda, Taliban, Muslim Brotherhood and Iran. Surely the more people learn about it, the better.”

And as to those who may protest Journo has nothing but contempt for them. “The “Arab Spring” pushed open the door for Islamic totalitarian groups hostile to America. Some in the West want to play that down and muzzle open discussion of Islamic totalitarianism. Whose side are such apologists on–freedom of speech or Islamic dictatorship?”

One presumes that if there is a protest or a larger problem tonight, Journo’s question may be answered quite forcefully.

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Depressing: Some Of These College Students Have Never Heard Of Margaret Thatcher

Becket Adams — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 23:30:34 +0000

As many paused on Monday to mourn the passing of Lady Margaret Thatcher, at least a few Americans found themselves asking, “Who?”

No, really, as the following video from MRC TV’s Dan Joseph reveals, there are college students in the U.S. who have never heard of the Iron Lady:

Look, we understand that all “man on the street” videos choose to emphasize the most “entertaining” answers. So it’d be unfair to say that the above interviews are indicative of the entire state of higher education in the U.S.

Still, considering how expensive earning a degree has become (the average student graduates with roughly $27,000 in student-loan debt), you’d expect all of them to have at least heard of Britain’s first woman prime minister, right?

That is all.

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What’s happening to First Amendment freedoms on campus?

Meredith Jessup — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 14:29:09 +0000

In our nation’s capital, an institution of higher learning named for our nation’s first president is failing to defend the rights its namesake once fought for.

Controversy is stirring on the campus of The George Washington University this week after a group of students lodged a complaint against Father Greg Shaffer, the Roman Catholic priest and leader of the Newman Catholic Student Center on campus. Shaffer has spent five years preaching the Catholic faith to GW students, but now students are objecting to his “strong anti-gay and anti-abortion views.”

In other words, as Mary Katharine Ham notes, the students are trying to oust the priest after realizing he’s… Catholic.

Fr. Greg Shaffer (Image: GW Hatchet)

The school’s student newspaper, The Hatchet, has the details:

[Seniors Damian Legacy and Blake Bergen] lambasted Shaffer’s counseling sessions, in which he said he advises students who are attracted to members of the same sex to remain celibate for the rest of their lives. They also criticized the priest for a fiery blog post he wrote last May, calling gay relationships “unnatural and immoral” after President Barack Obama came out in support of same-sex marriage. [...]

Legacy and Bergen will deliver a letter this week to top administrators including University President Steven Knapp, citing academic studies that link harmful psychological effects, like the inability to sleep and loss of appetite, with being around homophobic behavior.

GW’s Office for Diversity and Inclusion is already reviewing the case, after Legacy submitted a report last semester that outlined how other schools vet religious leaders before bringing them to campus.

I was a student at GW back in the day and an active member of the Newman Center during my time on campus. The Newman Center is a wonderful organization that fostered a real sense of community rooted in faith and fellowship. It’s with a heavy heart that I read things like this:

“We have to appeal to [Fr. Shaffer]. In the end, he’s the one preaching on Sunday. He’s the one counseling these students,” Legacy said. “The money doesn’t matter to him, but when you see the faces of the people you’re turning away, you see the people who say ‘Oh, I would go to church all the time, but I don’t like Father Greg.’ When you meet them at their level, that’s going to hit them harder because it’s something they’re going to understand.”

The great thing about the Newman Center and similar Christian organizations is that they “turn away” no one. The truth of the matter is that these individuals feel offended by traditional church doctrine and choose to leave.

The animosity of these students and their complaint are appalling and it’s scary to know that GW and, no doubt, countless other universities are taking complaint like this seriously. This only reflects academia’s own animus toward religious institutions whose teachings don’t comply with today’s politically correct collegiate curriculum.

In my mind, the sad situation involving Fr. Shaffer and the Newman Center is part of a larger assault on the First Amendment. College campuses used to be places of diverse thinking and open debate. But as a conservative who studied on a liberal campus, I can tell you that interest in opposing views is dwindling — and too-frequently missing altogether.

You might recall another post I wrote which involved another GW student back in the Fall of 2011. In that story, I exposed the lies of a law student caught on tape protesting with Occupy Wall Street in New York City. At the time, I worked part-time for the university’s law school career office — a continuing job I’d held for years from my undergrad days. But just two weeks after my story about the OWS protester was published, I received a termination letter from the university. No facts in my story were contested; there was no wrongdoing on my part. I had reported the truth, but that truth shed “a negative light” on the university and its students. I exercised my First Amendment rights and, for that, I was fired (from a school of law, of all places).

My heart goes out to Fr. Shaffer and the other students and staff of the GW Newman Center. I know what it’s like to stand up for what you believe in, even when it means you’ll be shown the door. It’s unfortunate that I was fired from my job at GW after six years, but I have never regretted writing that story or standing by my work under fire.

I hope that if enough of us speak up for our rights, something will change.

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Survey Finds Many High School Seniors More Worried About Student-Loan Debt Than Getting Into College

Becket Adams — Sat, 06 Apr 2013 00:34:24 +0000

Getty Images.

Many U.S. high school seniors are more worried about the amount of debt they’ll incur earning a college degree than they are about getting into their school of choice, according to a new survey from the Princeton Review.

“Thirty-eight percent of students surveyed listed ‘level of debt incurred to pay for the degree’ as their primary concern,” the Erie Times-News notes.

“That edged out the top answer of the previous three years, which was getting into their preferred school but not being able to afford it or get enough financial aid,” the report adds. “This year, 33 percent listed that as their biggest worry.”

The survey signals a shift in the way Americans think about higher education, taking on student debt, and budgeting for the ever-increasing cost of college.

And some experts say the system has reached a breaking point.

Kathy Kristof, former president of the Society of American Business Editors and Writers, during a panel discussion in Washington, D.C., on Friday called it the “conning of America’s children.”

The average college senior in 2012 graduated with an average of nearly $27,000 in student loan debt, according to CNN Money.

“Two-thirds of the class of 2011 held student loans upon graduation, and the average borrower owed $26,600,” the report adds. “That’s up 5% from 2010 and is the highest level of debt in the seven years the report has been published.”

Additionally, outstanding student loan debt stands at about $956 billion, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit.

“Student debt increased by 4.6 percent in the third quarter from the previous quarter — when annualized, that’s almost a 20 percent rate of increase,” CBS MoneyWatch notes.

Relating a message from a former student weighed down with loan debt, Stephen Burd, senior policy analyst New America Foundation’s Education Policy Program, said: “I will never own a home because of this crippling debt.”

Is higher education even worth it? That seems to be the question on the minds of many Americans.

“Junior college isn’t such a bad option…The debt is much easier to manage,” Kristof suggested.

She added that in her community, Mormon teenagers go off on two-year mission trips before pursing their college degrees. When they return, she added, they are more mature and ready to tackle major financial obligations.

“The number of kids who take five or six years to get through college is phenomenal and I think that has to do with being mature enough to go to college,” she said. “Don’t be pushing your kid to go into something you know as a parent that they’re not ready to go into.”

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Featured image Getty Images.

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University news site encourages students to have sex… in campus Catholic center

Meredith Jessup — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 16:56:02 +0000

An article appearing on a student news blog at New York University encouraged its readers to have sex in the school’s Catholic Center.

The NYU Local ran an article on March 28 titled “The Best Places to Have Sex on Campus”.

“Unfortunately, NYU seems to have designed its buildings to keep hormonal students from humping all over the place,” the article says. ”Luckily, we at NYU Local spent some time getting down and dirty to investigate where, exactly, you could hook up without being too worried about getting caught.”

The authors go on to explain how they thought it’d be “funny” to recommend students engage in sexual acts at the university’s Catholic student center (h/t Campus Reform via College Fix):

We spent a lot of time searching the new addition to Kimmel Center for places to sex in, mostly because we thought it would be funny to suggest that you to screw in our brand spanking-new Catholic Center. It turns out there’s a very super secret in-between door area in the Colloquium Room (566) on the fifth floor that is perfect for a quickie. With a study area only steps away, this location is the perfect mix of privacy and exhibition, if you’re into that sort of thing…

Har, har. Making fun of peoples’ religious beliefs — what a riot.

As a side note, attending this “prestigious” institution of higher learning will set you back about $60,000/year.

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A college degree now qualifies you to pour coffee

Meredith Jessup — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 14:38:48 +0000

“College graduates should not have to live out their 20s in their childhood bedrooms, staring up at fading Obama posters and wondering when they can move out and get going with life.”

These remarks from Rep. Paul Ryan may be even more true today than they were last August when he delivered them at the Republican National Convention. A new paper suggests these grads’ worries are legit, that skilled workers with degrees are winding up in low-skilled jobs. Even worse, unskilled workers are being forced out of the labor force altogether, The Daily Beast‘s Megan McArdle writes about a new paper from Paul Beaudry, David Green, and Benjamin Sand.

Obviously, if Beaudry et al right, this is ferociously depressing news. It suggests that we’re pushing more and more people into (more and more expensive) college programs, even as the number of jobs in which they can use those skills has declined. A growing number of students may be in a credentialling arms race to gain access to routine service jobs. Or maybe the productivity of our nation’s wait staff is spiking as more skilled workers flood into these jobs.

Unfortunately, there’s no obvious policy response to this. It’s easier to create more college educated workers through government policy than it is to create jobs for them. It’s not even obvious what the personal response should be–except that if you’re planning to major in English, you should maybe see if you can’t get a job at Starbucks instead.

$100,000 in student loans and all you get is a lousy green apron.

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What Issues Are College Students Most Concerned About?

Tiffany Gabbay — Sat, 23 Mar 2013 00:24:46 +0000

On his Friday evening broadcast, Glenn Beck hosted a panel of college students to discuss what issues are most important to them. From mounting student loan debt to an increasingly difficult job market, college students and recent graduates are feeling the sting of America’s changing economic times.

Watch below as students weigh in with their concerns and experiences:

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Diehard Kentucky Basketball Fan Blames Creeping Socialism For NCAA Tourney Snub

Becket Adams — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 03:59:59 +0000

Kentucky is known for many things: Bourbon, Bluegrass, and extremely intense (i.e. hardcore [i.e. slightly frightening]) basketball fans.

And we’re not kidding when we say Kentuckians are intense about their basketball.

Consider, for example, “Chester.” Chester is so upset by the fact that his Kentucky Wildcats didn’t make it into this year’s NCAA tournament, that he believes creeping socialism may have had something to do with it.

“I think it’s a disgrace and a joke that the NCAA didn’t put us in the tournament,” he told Kentucky Sports Radio’s Matt Jones. “If you ask me, it’s a bunch of liberal socialism that’s made its way into sports.”

“Laugh all you want,” he adds. “But it’s the truth. That mindset is creeping its way into everything.”

“It ain’t nobody’s fault, I’m not mad at you,” he told the host. “That’s just the reality. Maybe you oughta’ think about what your party is doing to this country.”

–

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(H/T: SB Nation). Featured image screen grabs.

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Chicago Public School Bans ‘Islamophobic’ Novel — and Now Parents & Teachers Are Protesting

Tiffany Gabbay — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 19:15:04 +0000

Photo source: Persepolis

Written by an Iranian woman who once told her schoolteacher in Tehran that she wanted to “be a prophet,” the memoir “Persepolis” has been banned in Iran, Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates because the work is considered to be Islamophobic and blasphemous to Muslims. What’s more, it has also been banned in a Chicago public school for ostensibly the same reasons.

Teachers, students and parents at Chicago’s Lane Tech College Prep are staging a protest Friday after all traces of Marjane Satrapi’s novel was purged from the North Side school — a decision made by Principal Christopher Dignam, who said he was instructed by Chicago Public School officials to remove the book.

The protest, scheduled to take place from 3:30 to 4 p.m., at Western Avenue and Addison Street, is, according to an email from the members of the school’s union, intended to “support the First Amendment, education and intellectual freedom.” It comes in response to a March 14 email from Dignam that reportedly told faculty members that “one of the Network Instructional Support Leaders stopped by my office and informed me (per a directive given during the Chief of Schools meeting on March 11) that all ISLs were directed to physically go to each school in the Network by Friday (3/15).”

Further, according to Dignam, he was also instructed to:

• “Confirm that “Persepolis” is not in the library,
• “Confirm that it has not been checked out by a student or teacher,
• “Confirm with the school principal that it is not being used in any classrooms,
• “And to collect the autobiographic graphic novel by Marjane Satrapi from all classrooms and the Library.”

“I was not provided a reason for the collection of ‘Persepolis,’” Dignam added.

The principal later revised the previous set of instructions, stating:

“Any further challenge or attempt to remove this or any other book from a school library must be guided by the Collection Development policy which outlines the review procedure. This clarification and a copy of the Collection Development policy has been forwarded to all school chiefs.”

While a 1982 Supreme Court ruling instructs that school districts may not remove books that already exist in its libraries, they are, however, allowed to exclude it from school curriculum.

The book, recommended by the Young Adult Library Association as one of “100 Best Books of the Decade,” follows Satrapi’s life as a young girl-turned-adolescent in Iran following the Islamic Revolution and subsequent deposal of the Shah. Her parents are described as Western Marxists educated in France, where her book was originally published.

A film adaptation of Persepolis, released in 2007, was banned in Iran, a move that the author believes is due to the fact that the movie portrays women who do not wear hijabs and “because they fall in love.”

“It is too Western and it is un-Islamic and maybe anti-revolutionary,” she said in an interview.

“We’re trying to find out right now if this is CPS-wide or just Lane Tech,” said Steve Parsons, a teacher at Lane Tech.

“We haven’t been given a reason why.”

The book, according to DNAinfo, was recommended by CPS in its “Literacy Content Framework: Seventh Grade Toolset,” as well as for 11th-graders to teach the “unifying concept” of “individualism and culture.”

A spokeswoman for Satrapi’s American publisher, Pantheon, said the author is aware that the issue with the Chicago Public School System, but did not provide comment other than to note that the book has never before been banned in the U.S., according to DNA.

Satrapi currently lives in Paris where she continues to write about ideals of liberalism she hopes Iran will one day embrace.

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Law schools come up with genius solution for unemployed grads

Meredith Jessup — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 17:16:40 +0000

Isn’t this sort of like breaking windows to create jobs for glass repairmen?

Law schools are now opening their own law firms to employ graduates who can’t find jobs. Hello, education bubble:

A pilot program at the University of California Hastings College of the Law will place some third-year students into offices like the public defender’s for full-time training on the understanding that the next year those students will be employed there for small salaries. The program is called Lawyers for America, a conscious echo of Teach for America, in which high-achieving college graduates work in low-income neighborhood schools. The hope, said Prof. Marsha Cohen of Hastings, is that other law schools will follow the model. Professor Caplow of Brooklyn Law said her school planned to be one of the first.

A dozen law schools, including City University of New York and Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego, have set up incubators to train future solo practitioners in their first year out of school, offering office space and mentors. Pace Law School in White Plains, opened what it calls a community law practice last fall with four graduates serving the region.

“You can’t just hang out a shingle and expect clients to show up in droves,” said Jennifer C. Friedman, executive director of the Pace Community Law Practice. “We want to provide our graduates with the tools of success while serving low- and moderate-income clients.”

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College prof requires students to lobby for Obama policies

Meredith Jessup — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 21:54:14 +0000

I’m pretty thoroughly convinced that GWU Law professor John Banzhaf works hard to create trouble none exists. Whether he’s suing Catholic University for non-existent discrimination of Muslim students or trying to get tobacco companies to pay for an individual’s choice to smoke, he takes the cake when it comes to leftist legal activism.

Now, Banzhaf is proudly announcing that as a requirement of his course, students will be required to lobby their local government officials on behalf of the Obama administration’s anti-obesity campaign. Specifically, Banzhaf plans to assign homework in which “undergrads will have to file a real legal document aimed at a major social problem – something which he suggests might be a first for any university.”

My theory about Banzhaf’s mischief seems to be confirmed given the fact that this information came directly from him — he writes his own press releases to advertise his nonsense:

Banzhaf says that asking undergraduate students to undertake a real world project, rather than just writing another academic research paper, is consistent with the University’s advertised claims that: “Research at GWU is at the Intersection of Policy and Practice” and that “At GW, Politics is Not a Spectator Sport . . . Here, a Stroke of Genius Can Become a Stroke of a President’s Pen.”

It also follows, he says, from the motto of the course itself: “We’ve always been told NOT to play with our food – At GW, We’re taught to change the world with it.”

He also suggests that homework assignments to do something in the real world are far better than the typical requirement to simply write a paper. Students are more likely to become interested and engaged by doing something real, and society will be better able to benefit from their new ideas.

If that last part were true, Banzhaf wouldn’t require students to lobby on specific issues of his choosing. Instead of actually contributing new ideas to popular debate, students “are more likely to become interested and engaged” in liberal leftist causes. Fantastic.

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It’s Hard to Imagine What Happens Next

Becket Adams — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 23:15:11 +0000

Baseball is a lot of things: Exciting, strategic, historic, suspenseful.

It is not, however, a contact sport. Well, it isn’t unless your name is Pete Rose or you happen to be pitching for a Division III college baseball team that’s down 6-2:

The hit happened during a Sunday game between Hendrix College (Conway, Ark.) and Berry College (Mount Berry, Ga.), according to the video’s description.

Larry Brown Sports describes the scene:

The YouTube uploader, whose user name is “HendrixBaseballFan,” says the Berry College pitcher threw at batter Matt Simmons, who had called timeout just before the pitch was delivered. The next pitch was in the dirt, and Hendrix’s runner at third tried to score. We say “tried” to score, because nobody could have predicted what happened next.

As junior center fielder Collin Radack was attempting to score, he was leveled by Berry’s pitcher. You can’t even try to argue the contact was accidental, because the video shows the pitcher locating the runner and running straight at him.

As mentioned in the above, Berry was down by four runs when the pitcher, Levi Austin, took down Hendrix’s Collin Radack. So who knows? Maybe the dirty hit was a bit of frustration coming out.

Amazingly enough, and despite Radack being awarded the run (even though he clearly didn’t touch home plate), Berry managed to rally and take the game 9-7.

Oh, also, you better believe Austin was disciplined for his “unorthodox” tactics: “The school’s athletic director informs Larry Brown Sports that the player has been suspended for the team’s next conference three-game series.”

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(H/T: Deadspin). Featured image screen grab.

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6 Olympians Who Have Faced Legal Drama Over Murder, Assault, Doping and Drunk Driving Allegations

Billy Hallowell — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 12:55:08 +0000

South African Olympic sprinter Oscar Pistorius appears on February 21, 2013 at the Magistrate Court in Pretoria. Pistorius battled to secure bail as he appeared on charges of murdering his model girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on February 14, Valentine’s Day. Credit: AFP/Getty Images

(TheBlaze/AP) — Oscar Pistorius, facing a charge of premeditated murder in the Valentine’s Day slaying of his girlfriend, isn’t the only Olympic athlete to encounter legal drama. In fact, Pistorius is only one of several Olympians who have found themselves in a courtroom for various accusations. Here are some the most famous:

–

MARION JONES

One of track and field’s biggest stars at the 2000 Olympics, she won three gold medals and two bronzes in Sydney. Eight years later, Jones was serving time in a federal prison in Texas.

The former world’s fastest woman was forced to return the medals to the International Olympic Committee after pleading guilty to lying to federal investigators about taking performance-enhancing drugs and her involvement in a check fraud scam. Jones served a six-month sentence from March-September 2008.

—

TIM MONTGOMERY

In 2002, Montgomery was the world’s fastest man, dating Marion Jones and was an Olympic gold medalist with the United States 4×100-meter relay team at the 2000 Sydney Games. The Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative scandal exposed his doping and subsequently led to his 9.78 seconds record time being dropped from the books.

Olympian Tim Montgomery (Photo Credit: AP)

Montgomery was later sentenced to almost 10 years jail time for his part in a $5 million check-fraud conspiracy – which also ensnared Jones and his former coach Steve Riddick, a relay gold medalist at the 1976 Montreal Games – and a conviction for dealing heroin in Virginia.

—

TONYA HARDING

Harding competed for the U.S. in figure skating at the 1994 Winter Olympics while under suspicion following an assault on her teammate and medal rival Nancy Kerrigan weeks before the games in Lillehammer, Norway.

Harding eventually was placed on probation after pleading guilty to helping cover up a conspiracy, involving her former husband, tied to an assault on Kerrigan before the national championships.

Tonya Harding (Photo Credit: AP)

At the Olympics, Kerrigan won silver after recovering from her injuries; Harding finished eighth and was soon banned from the sport.

—

BRUCE KIMBALL

At the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, Kimball won a diving silver for the U.S. in the 10-meter platform event.

Four years later, he was preparing for the national trials before the Seoul Olympics when he drove drunk at high speed into a group of partying teenagers in Hillsborough County, Fla., killing two.

Kimball, who competed at the trials and failed to qualify, pleaded guilty to two charges of drunken driving-manslaughter and was sentenced to 17 years in prison. He was released in November 1993 after serving nearly five.

—

GUY DRUT

Being an Olympic gold medalist eventually earned Drut a presidential pardon after the former French sports minister was found guilty in a political corruption case.

Drut, a 110-meter hurdler, won silver in 1972 at Munich, then added gold at the 1976 Montreal Olympics.

In 2005, a Paris court imposed a suspended sentence of 15 months on Drut for taking money from fictitious jobs linked to public construction contracts from 1990-92.

He was pardoned by President Jacques Chirac because of his distinguished service to French sport. The International Olympic Committee reprimanded him for conduct that “seriously tarnished the reputation of the Olympic Movement.”

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Another Colorado Dem Offers Advice on Gun-Free Self Defense: Use the Buddy System

Becket Adams — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 00:30:54 +0000

It appears Colorado Democrats have some peculiar notions about guns and self-defense.

For instance, while legislators debated last Friday whether to ban conceal carry permits on college campuses, Democrat Congressman Paul Rosenthal suggested that the “buddy system” is a perfectly acceptable alternative to carrying a firearm.

He also said students could learn judo or buy pepper spray. Watch the video via Revealing Politics:

And then there’s Democrat Congressman Joe Salazar who said last week that campuses should ban guns because some women have itchy trigger fingers.

“It’s why we have call boxes, it’s why we have safe zones, it’s why we have the whistles. Because you just don’t know who you’re gonna be shooting at,” he said.

“And you don’t know if you feel like you’re gonna be raped, or if you feel like someone’s been following you around or if you feel like you’re in trouble and when you may actually not be, that you pop out that gun and you pop — pop a round at somebody,” he added.

Seriously, Colorado, what’s going on over there?

–

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Alleged Yale Law Student Goes Absolutely Ballistic on His Colleagues in Obscenity-Laced Goodbye Letter: ‘Clarence Thomas Ain’t Got Sh** on Me’

Becket Adams — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 20:37:19 +0000

Here’s some advice (free of charge!): If you get to a point where realize you’re unhappy with what you’re doing and your colleagues have become unbearable, it’s probably best to quietly bow out and move on with your life. Keep it drama-free.

Or you could freak out and give a big, fat rhetorical middle finger to everyone around you.

The following letter from an alleged Yale Law student falls into the second category.

Fed up with his apparently humorless and hypocritical colleagues, a Yale Law student recently posted an open letter to the school’s listserv explaining why he hates each and every one of them. It’s pretty brutal

The letter was later re-posted by “Above The Law” [warning: very strong language has been redacted and emphases added]:

Dear tYLS or tWall or whatever dumb sh** you call it these days:

I am a second-semester 3L. How exciting. In a surprising turn of events, I decided I want to work for a couple of years at a law firm but eventually try to become a published author, or, if that fails, get a Ph.D. and try to become a professor.

Why am I telling you all of this? It’s because I wanted to thank you all for inspiring me to follow my passions and my dreams. Specifically, these passions and dreams are writing and making fun of people.

I realized I hate law and politics. Why? Because I literally hate like 90% of you, and honestly I don’t really feel like going down the path that involves being stuck with even more people like you who literally have no sense of humor and get offended over literally everything. You think Clarence Thomas hates YLS? Clarence Thomas ain’t got SH** on me.

I’ve watched as you guys get offended over the dumbest sh** and wax political over the dumbest sh**. LOL. I mean wow, and seriously, this f***ing school. If the sticks up your a**es were any larger, you guys would give Muslim extremists a run for their money. I thought Muslim terrorists were pretty bad for getting offended to the point of wanting to cause physical violence over a drawing, but I’m willing to bet there are a couple of words I could throw out there on this forum that would turn even you guys into rabid angry dogs. Anger. And Hatred. Over a WORD. A F***ING WORD. USED OUT OF CONTEXT. I’ve come to realize that even at the smartest, most “enlightened” institution, students can be literally retarded and have no basic grasp of logic or rationality.

Also, you guys are a bunch of judgmental s***bags and hypocrites who haven’t understood the concept of “don’t judge a book by its cover” (speaking of metaphorical phrases, ever hear of “sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me”? How has this somehow been twisted in your f***ed-up minds to “words also hurt me too really bad so please stop hurting my feelings you big weenie!”).

You guys openly judged me for not speaking out after the Yale DKE scandal, telling me I didn’t care enough about sexual assault and feminist causes. For your f***ing information my sister had been sexually assaulted the winter before, and I had written my senior thesis, law school personal statement, AND 250 on human trafficking/sexual assault. You guys then criticized the sh** out of “monster” parents like Amy Chua and other tiger mothers after the Battle Hymn/WSJ incident, not bothering to think perhaps you might have been seriously offending some Asian students, who, like me, may have grown up under similar circumstances and still loved our parents and knew our parents loved us. To show you why that is offensive, imagine the extremist reaction if someone on the Wall criticized black or Hispanic culture. I’m not sure how criticizing Asian culture is any different, but I guess we don’t count as people. Finally, in the coup de grace, you guys criticized me for being a flake and giving up on my public interest dreams and going corporate. Little did you know the reason I decided to go corporate was because my parents, who are making less than $20k to support 4 students (i.e., family of 6), declared bankruptcy the summer before law school and I thought as the oldest son it was my responsibility to do something about it. The affirmative action “debate” was the camel that broke the straw’s back, and actually, that was the first important step that pushed me towards trying to realize my dreams of writing for a living.

So seriously, fu** you guys, you judgmental, uninformed pricks, patting yourselves on the back on top of your go**amn moral high horses. I realize I am killing my future political career. GOOD. If you’ve read The Republic, you know exactly what my opinion of politicians are. I realize I am burning bridges. EXCELLENT. If I succeed in my passions, I want to make damn sure it is without the help of any of you phony-a** sh*****ks. I’ve ALREADY gotten compliments about how inspirational I am, and I haven’t even f***ing started yet. That’s the biggest compliment I’ve ever received in my life. It’ll probably take you guys 10-20 years to get that even once, so good luck and keep up the good work! /sarcasm.

In a slightly more serious note–if I could convince even just ONE of you uptight mother****ers to just relax a little bit, learn to laugh, stop getting so offended over everything, and stop being so judgmental and hypocritical and hurting other people’s feelings in the process, the burnt bridges would be so worth it.

I know I could have waited until the end of the semester to send this, but it would provide me endless entertainment to see the expressions on your stupid-a** faces for the rest of the semester.

TLDR; f**k you, f**k you, f**k you, you’re cool, f**k you, I’m out (oh wait, I realized you guys probably don’t even watch movies based on marijuana just in case you get asked about it on the bar, so you probably missed the movie reference. Mea culpa).

Hugs and Kisses,
[Redacted]

p.s. I have a $100 desk chair I bought from Ikea that I don’t want any more and am willing to sell to you for $99.50 OBO.

p.p.s. I know I should probably use the spreadsheet for this but I’m too lazy so I don’t feel like it but I have a torts book for sale that nobody will want to buy since torts isn’t offered this semester but I am going to try to pawn it off anyway.

p.p.p.s. I was wondering if anyone has an extra macbook, preferably a macbook air because that would be easier on my shoulders. Standard offer of good conversation and baked goods apply.

Wow. Well then. Tell us how you really feel.

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(H/T: Business Insider). Front page photo courtesy Getty Images.

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Check Out the Hilarious Cover Letters Sent to the University of Wisconsin After Officials Posted the Head Coaching Job

Becket Adams — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 18:33:39 +0000

fanpop.com

Following Bret Bielema’s decision to go work for Arkansas, the University of Wisconsin began its search for a replacement football coach.

The University listed the job opening on its human resources website (which is required by law because it’s technically a government job) and asked that applicants have at least “5 years of successful college football coaching experience” and a bachelor’s degree.

And you wouldn’t believe some of the responses they received.

Using a public records request to get his hands on applications from people who “did not request anonymity,” Doug Brown at Deadspin compiles some of the best cover letters from the “less qualified” applicants :

Jeffrey Kohnlein

Career job title: “Executive search consultant”
Current salary: “$83,200/yr”
Desired salary: “$100,000/yr”

To who it might concern:

I have extensive Executive level recruiting experience as part of a $1B professional staffing firm and currently with GE Capital’s Retail Finance business unit.

I also played one year of NCAA Division III athletics (baseball) and began coaching High School Baseball at the age of 18. I spent 2yrs as the Head JV and Assistant Varsity Baseball Coach for my former High School coaching, teaching and mentoring student athletes on the game of baseball as well as how it relates to life and daily choices. My assistant coach during my first year is currently an Assistant Coach with the Phoenix Suns.

As a life-long Wisconsin resident and University of Wisconsin supporter, also hold a Bachelors degree from the school system, I am expressing my interest in the Head Coaching vacancy for the football program.

Ronald Rains

Dear Holly,

I want to see Barry if he is here and available. N.C.A.A. is very good when I am a fan. It is better when I am the fan, since 1969 for around 44 years now. It is best when I know you well at Division I and Big Ten Conference.
My goal is to DISCOVER it, Plan is to DEVELOP Famous Wisconsin Football. Then, I retire with DEDICATE my time to you.
PROPORTION is important for proper arrangement or balance of parts for WISCONSIN FOOTBALL SUCCESS. I believe it can be achieved.
COMPREHENSIVE LEARNING occurs when they beat us, or we beat them. It’s good for program and N.C.A.A.
PASSION happens when everybody works hard, yet so winning. It also occurs when they had more success for those events that we did not score more points.
RESPONSIBILITY is to us POINTS PLAY, OUTCOACH THEM AS MUCH AS WE can. SPORTSMANSHIP AND CITIZENSHIP are important element at all times, before events, durning events, and reflections.
Win-Win,
Coach Ron Rains

Lawrence Bullock

To; Whom it may concern;

Dear sir,

I am writing in order for your personal consideration to be part of your staff as NCAA position. I was mentored by Steve Kiner, when he was at University of Tennessee, I believe you might know Steve, He was Linebacker for Oilers. I hope you will interview my services. I believe my experience with Steve was meaningful. I have coached with Tom Parry, friend of Mouse Davis, Mike Dunbar, and Greg Olsen who was @ Tampa Bay for 2 years.

Sincerely, May you have many Blessings this Year(LB)

LAWRENCE BULLOCK

Alex Cabasso

I know I lack the overall experience in coaching, but what I lack in experience I make up for with hard work and unbreakable determination. Please give me a shot I promise you I will not let down the program.

Brian D
Career job title: “Financial Analyst”
Current salary: “$48,000/yr”
Desired salary: “$50,000/yr”

I have no football coaching experience at any level. It would be a huge mistake to hire me for this position.

Thank you for your consideration.

James Lusiak

Office of Athletics Human Resources:

I am interested in the position of Head Football Coach. I do not fit the mold that you would expect to find from an applicant for Head Football Coach, but please read on and I will outline my qualifications and experiences for this position. I am currently a football season ticket holder and have been attending football games at Camp Randall since I was a student at UW-Madison from 1995-1999. Not only am I a fan of the game of football, but I am also a student of the game. It is my desire to see that this program continues to be the elite program that it has become through the rich traditions and the work of Coach Alvarez to put the Badgers atop the Big Ten Conference.

In my time at UW-Madison I not only learned what it means to be a Badger, I earned a B.S. in Pharmacy. I have been a Pharmacist since 1999 and have been with my current employer, Walgreens, since 1991. I have worked at some of the busiest pharmacies in the country and have spent 7 out of the last 12 years being the Pharmacy Manager. Managing a busy pharmacy involves fulfilling the duties of a pharmacist at the same time that you are managing team of 9 to 11 people to complete multiple different tasks simultaneously within a specified timeframe. This is very similar to the game of football. I work with my team of assistant managers, technicians, and cashiers to schedule, plan strategies, put the right employees in the best positions according to their strengths, and do so within a fast-paced high-pressure environment to come together to achieve a specific goal.

I believe that my skill-set that I have built as a pharmacy manager in combination with my knowledge of college football makes me a viable, although admittedly unconventional, candidate for this position. I am constantly working to coach my employees to help them develop and put them in the position to effectively use their talents. I have to work within a specified budget and spend a majority of my time dealing with the public, providing excellent customer service. This directly relates to both recruiting, public relations, and being able to work cooperatively with diverse groups and administrators, faculty, staff and students. In the pharmacy we may have computer issues, illness, insurance issues, customer problems, etc. Every day I have to work to resolve these issues at the same time I still have my responsibilities to my other customers and staff to complete prescriptions on time.

I know that I do not have the coaching and head coaching experience with Division 1 that would be preferred for this position. I do not consider this lack of coaching experience to be a disadvantage and am not afraid of taking a challenge head on and tackling it. I was accepted into a very competitive and demanding Pharmacy program at UW-Madison while married, had two children, and worked full-time to provide for them all the while I was a full time student.

I appreciate your consideration and look forward to a written response to this application. This application may be made available to the public upon request.

David Eagan
Career job title: “Senior Advisor”

Looking forward to the interview process

Eric Redmon
Career job title: “Coach”
Current salary: “$85,000/yr”
Desired salary: “$200,000/yr”

Coach Redmon
Take this team to the next level

Click here to see even more applications at Deadspin

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‘Scariest Thing I Think I’ve Ever Seen’: 100 lbs. Light Fixture Comes Crashing Down on High School Wrestler

Becket Adams — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 18:20:21 +0000

High school senior Michael McComish discovered last week what it means to “bring the house down”:

As a member of the Madison High School wrestling team in South Dakota, it was McComish’s moment in the spotlight, unfortunately both figuratively and literally — that’s because a spotlight literally came crashing down on him:

“That was the scariest thing, folks, I think I have ever seen,” one of the announcers can bear heard saying in the video.

Thankfully for McComish, and despite the fact that the 100-lbs spotlight dropped 15 feet onto his head, the damage was minimal and he laughs off the incident.

“After a couple of seconds I realized what it was — I noticed all the glass and thought ‘okay, this isn’t good,’” McComish told KSFY.

“I thought this guy’s kind of aggressive and then I realized it was the light. Everyone’s been asking if I’m going to look up every time I wrestle now,” he joked with Today.

McComish needed about 20 stitches after the incident. (Courtesy KSFY).

“The incident sent him to the emergency room where McComish had to have about 20 stitches in two places on his head,” CBS News reports.

McComish’s mother and his school are thankful the incident wasn’t more serious.

“We are very thankful it was not more serious. We are hoping for the best and taking it just one day at a time,” his mother told the Madison Daily Leader.

“The unfortunate accident that occurred on Friday was indeed a scary moment for everyone involved. We are thankful to report that (McComish) is recovering and is in school,” Madison High School said in a written statement.

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Young Christian Zionist Leaders Look to The Future in Exclusive Blaze Interview

Alex Kirby — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 17:21:07 +0000

“The philosophy of the classroom today will be the philosophy of government tomorrow.” ~Abraham Lincoln

Pakistani death to Israel and the US protest (AP Photo)

These images are more and more common as anti-Israel sentiments have been increasing across the Middle East in the wake of the Arab Revolutions. However, a sight not so common is the amount of anti-Israel hatred weaving through our colleges and universities. Photos like the one below seem to somehow be hidden in the internet or not covered by the media, but support for the Palestinian causes are growing at the same alarming rate as vitriolic animosity towards the state of Israel.

Anti-Israel students protest outside the White House (AP Photo)

The external threat toward Israel is getting worse, and fast, with ever-increasing anti-Israel bias. Amidst all this pro-Israel supporters and sympathizers have reckoned they need to raise pro-Israel leaders particularly in the college campuses often promoting against Israel. CUFI on Campus is the organization at the forefront of this cause, helping cultivate tomorrow’s pro-Israel leaders. CUFI, Christians United For Israel, is a Christian organization which seeks to share a biblical perspective on the country of Israel, yet it extends beyond spiritual belief to provide sound political and social statistics and information regarding Israel.

In essence the organization can be described as a reaction to anti-Israel worldview. The college wing of of the organization sees its mission as more than a simple reaction, namely as a group on “the frontline in the ideological war on Israel and the right of the Jewish people to [have] a home of their own. If you haven’t spent time on a college campus recently, you would be shocked by how bad the situation has become.”

The CUFI on Campus website makes sure to note that the organization empowers students to search for truth, advocate for the innocent, and make a difference in a world where injustice exists: ”You can impact our future leaders. You can take action today that will make a positive difference tomorrow.”

CUFI on Campus (courtesy of CUFI.org)

To see the initiatives and goals of the organization, and how CUFI on Campus let’s take a look at what their alumni are doing now to carry out those goals. First, why are students increasingly involving themselves with CUFI?

When asked how they got involved and why they connected to CUFI on Campus, the alumni stated:

Hope Dodson: “When I began to learn more about the Jewish heritage of my own faith I was very interested in knowing more…I attended a private Christian university and I wanted to share all of this information that had become so fascinating to me with my peers. I contacted the organization to get more information….and as I continued to be educated, I became more and more passionate about the US relationship with Israel and being a voice for this country that is so negatively targeted.”

Elizabeth Ploshay and Tres Whittum both express that their faith backgrounds also gave them a slight edge toward support for Israel, but that it was not until they attended the CUFI Summer Conference that they developed a passion for educating others about the truth behind Israeli-Palestinian conflicts.

Students attend a CUFI summit

When asked about what stood out the most in their experiences Emily Lofgran made it known that CUFI provided clear “facts and figures that I could share with anyone who would listen. I was fired up to advocate for Israel on my campus and in my community because I knew the facts would back me up.” Elizabeth Ploshay stated her Christian faith propels her to support Israel, but that CUFI provided facts and “action points” to where her support was not just spiritual but one founded on “common sense.”

Elizabeth, similarly to the other alumni, also mentioned their trips to Israel as life-changing moments. “Going to Israel made me realize what an ally it is for the US given shared values, threats, technology and advancements.” Being “struck by piles of shoes in the holocaust memorial” Elizabeth emphasized that CUFI “says you can make a difference.”

Today, Elizabeth is working in Congress as a legislative assistant to develop and present various pieces of legislation pertaining to Israel. This experience has lead to the belief that the biggest threat against Israel is the illegitimacy campaigns running through Iran and the UN, those advocating for Israel to surrender land and ultimately its sovereignty. There is a lot of propaganda in existence, but little of it contains truth regarding Israel, their interaction with the Palestinians, and the Palestinian protests against Israel.

Just recently it was uncovered how Hamas in West Bank are faking deaths and funerals. The Blaze’s Billy Hollowell wrote on how even in the past few weeks Palestinians have worked to deceive and manipulate through these fake injuries. CUFI says it exists for reasons like this, “to confidently speak on Israel’s behalf, using facts, without demeaning anyone else’s opinion in the process.”

Hope also states that CUFI desires and teaches its supporters to “create conversation” within their circles of influence, conversations which lead students to ask questions and do sound research rather than simply exchange unpleasantries. CUFI students desire to advocate on behalf of whatever truth is, and their experience propels them into a life of service after obtaining their diplomas.

Today Elizabeth Ploshay is currently working as an English Teacher at Hebei Normal University for Nationalities in Chengde, China and has this to say about the legacy CUFI left for her:

“While finishing up my final year at Drake University, I learned that Drake had a program that sent recent graduates to China to teach English. I had previously studied Chinese and wanted to do work that would help people. I will probably only be here for a year before I return to the states for law or graduate school. CUFI on Campus helped me put my faith into action. I believe that I was called to China so I can love and serve people. Along with teaching, I’m working on building relationships with orphanages in the area to do humanitarian work.”

“More than anything with CUFI on Campus, I learned an extensive amount about how to accurately and efficiently speak up for unjust situations. Everyday, whether having a discussion with a friend about current events or trying to get a sick child to a local medical clinic in Haiti, I am consistently reminded of different experiences and strategic conversational tactics that I learned in CUFI on Campus that taught me how to effectively do so.”

These alumni were also asked their perspective on issues pertaining to foreign policy and the relationship between Israel and the United States:

There is a contingent of people who think the U.S. is “too involved” in Israeli affairs. Why is the U.S.-Israel relationship so important both from a geo-political and moral standpoint?

Hope Dodson said that it is “in America’s best interest to remain involved with a country that has been one of our closest allies since their inception in 1948.”

“From a moral standpoint, There are an excessive amount of double standards expected of Israel. Many of the same situations occur right here in the US (borders, immigration, etc.) but if rockets were being shot from Mexico into Texas, our government would never be expected to continue to provide necessary resources to the area [let alone] not retaliate in defense.”

Dodson went on to explain that Israel “is surrounded by countries who are openly declaring her destruction” and that “it is absurd to expect the leadership of Israel to do anything less than defend themselves, especially when their allies are so quickly backing away.”

“Many American’s don’t realize how adamant many extremist Muslims are on the destruction of The United States, not only Israel, and the implementation of Sharia law here. I am afraid that by the time the majority decide to become aware, it will be too late to change it, which is why CUFI and CUFI on Campus is a crucial voice in a time such as this,” she told TheBlaze.

Emily Lofgran mirrored Dodson’s sentiments, saying that “Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East and that “the U.S. and Israel share common values.”

“From a political standpoint, it is that simple. We have to remember that the Middle East is an area of great animosity toward America. Israel is our first line of defense.”

Lofgran continued that those of goodwill “have a moral obligation to stand with Israel.”

“President Ronald Reagan said, ‘For the people of Israel and America are historic partners in the global quest for human dignity and freedom. We will always remain at each other’s side.’ That quote is a significant reminder of the relationship’s history. We aren’t just saying we should befriend Israel now. We are continuing a two-sided relationship of support. As a Christian I also recognize the Biblical reasons for maintaining the relationship and I urge those of faith to take the stand.”

CUFI on Campus (courtesy of the CUFI Facebook page)

So in light of all the vitriolic hatred, misinformation, and anti-Israeli propaganda, especially on our college campuses, there is an organization which seeks to promote productive conversation, advocate on the side of truth, and develop young leaders to serve others during and after their academic careers.

The Blaze’s Tiffany Gabbay contributed to this piece.

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UT Professor: Some Blacks, Latinos Perform Worse Than Whites Academically Because They Are Raised By Poor, Uneducated, Single Women

Benny Johnson — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 22:45:24 +0000

Getty Images

Does upbringing have an impact on your success in education? University of Texas Law professor Lino Graglia certainly thinks so.

The professor sparked outrage recently by claiming black and Hispanic students are failing academically because they have been raised in single parent homes, usually by females, with modest financial resources. Professor Graglia was speaking with the BBC last week for a radio interview when the topic of affirmative action was brought up.

Graglia, a Hispanic American, noted that even after segregation ended “very few blacks got into the University of Texas.” The professor noted that this was because they could not pass the admission standards. He noted that the average black performance on SAT test is “200 points lower” than that for the average white student.

Lino Graglia (jaybsauceda.com)

(University of Texas)

Gary Younge, the radio show host, then asked why “black people were performing badly at school” and struggling scholastically.

The professor replied, “I sure don’t know” but then noted that nearly three quarters of black children are now “born outside of marriage.” Graglia went on to say he could “hardly imagine a less beneficial or more deleterious experience than to be raised by a single parent, usually female, uneducated and without a lot of money.”

Host Younge

Younge then pointed out that he was black and raised in a single parent family himself and asked if that makes him likely to be “not as smart as a white person of the same age?”

Professor Graglia laughed and said the host might be “more smart” than whites based on his accomplishments. He continued to state that minority children do “less well” in subjects like math and reading but reiterated that “admitting them into selective schools with large gaps in qualification is not the answer.”

The University of Texas is currently fighting a legal battle in the Supreme Court with a white student who claims she was forced to go to a second-rate college as a result of the School’s affirmative action program.

Graglia was accused of racism in 2007 after telling a student group that black and Mexican-Americans “have a culture that seems not to encourage achievement” and it “set children up for failure.”

Listen to the controversial comments below:

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‘Racist’?: University of Miami Sends Out Emergency Text Only Alerting Students to ‘Black Male on Campus’

Jonathon M. Seidl — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 17:44:17 +0000

The University of Miami is under fire over an emergency alert it sent to students on Thursday attempting to notify the student body of a crime, but instead only sending out the description of the alleged criminal. In this case, people were told to be on the lookout for a “black male on campus.”

Here’s a copy of the message:

(via Daily Mail)

Almost immediately, critics lashed out calling the gaffe “racist.” The Miami Herald has a couplw examples:

“Why yes, UM, there are black guys on campus,” Emma Marzen posted on Twitter. “Good job ENN for forgetting to send the rest.”

Posted Alexander Norton: “how would you handle UM’s racist ENN report? #PRprobs #crisismanagement.”

The school — red-faced — later apologized.

“The initial ENN was both incomplete and insensitive and the University of Miami offers its sincere apologies,” the school wrote in a statement. “University leadership has already launched a full investigation of the incident, the ENN and University procedures.”

The suspect, the Herald reports, was eventually captured after stealing a computer from a dorm and trying to sell it back to its owner for $1,000.

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Unhinged Van Jones Rant: President’s ‘Treasonous’ Opponents Want to ‘Let the Bodies Pile Up on the Beach’

Benny Johnson — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 17:49:00 +0000

Van Jones spoke at the 16th annual Mario Savio Memorial Lecture on the campus of University of California Berkeley last Wednesday evening. In the passionate lecture, Van called Republicans and those who oppose the president “treasonous” and created an allegory where they wish to let people die on a beach.

Jones likened Obama to a lifeguard trying to save people after a disaster and the Republicans as people wishing to “cut the rope” the lifeguard is throwing. Jones went on to describe the Republican vantage point as this:

“Let the bodies pile up on the beach. Let the pain accumulate. Because our view is this: If enough dead bodies pile up on this beach they are going to fire the lifeguard and we can get the lifeguard’s job.”

Van Jones is President Barack Obama’s former Green Energy Czar.

Watch the alarming comments below:

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College prof tells students to leave their ‘American-ness’ at the door

Meredith Jessup — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 16:27:37 +0000

A professor of political science at Butler University reportedly insists that his students disregard their “American-ness,” in addition to “maleness, whiteness, heterosexuality” and class status when writing and speaking in his classroom. According to the College Fix, this practice is being defended as a way to negate students’ “inherent prejudices.”

The syllabus of the course at Butler, a small Midwestern liberal arts institution in Indianapolis, spells out that students should use “inclusive language” because it’s “a fundamental issue of social justice.”

“Language that is truly inclusive affirms sexuality, racial and ethnic backgrounds, stages of maturity, and degrees of limiting conditions,” the syllabus states, referencing a definition created by the United Church of Christ.

The syllabus of the class, called Political Science 201: Research and Analysis, goes on to ask students “to write and speak in a way that does not assume American-ness, maleness, whiteness, heterosexuality, middle-class status, etc. to be the norm.” It is taught by a black, female professor.

Ryan Lovelace, a journalism student at Butler, says he rejects the university’s politically correct agenda and dropped the course from his schedule:

Clearly, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Butler University believes its students were raised as racist and misogynist homophobes who have grown to harbor many prejudices, a stance that is both offensive and hostile to any student’s ability to learn.

As a student at an institution predominantly focused on the liberal arts, I expected to hear professors express opinions different from my own. I did not expect to be judged before I ever walked through the door, and did not think I would be forced to agree with my teachers’ worldviews or suffer the consequences.

Being judged and forced to act a certain way is antithetical to how any institution of higher education should conduct itself.

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Video: What kind of education are you really getting these days?

Meredith Jessup — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 21:25:49 +0000

In June, I wrote about a shocking report that found serious deficits in learning in California’s public education system. The research of the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA) proved that Golden State college grads are paying more for less these days. Now, ACTA is taking its study nationwide and the results are just as startling.

For example, it might surprise you to know that…

Just 17 percent of college graduates knew Emancipation Proclamation freed slaves in Confederacy

Twice as many graduates know Lady Gaga than George Washington as general at the Battle of Yorktown

Less Than 20 percent Identified James Madison as the “Father of the Constitution”

Little more than half understand the Constitution established the separation of powers

57 percent knew John Roberts is the chief justice

So what is the problem?

“Historical amnesia is common because less than 20 percent of schools require even a basic course in American history or government – and only three percent require economics,” notes ACTA spokesman Daniel Burnett. ”It always comes back to jobs. And this is an issue that worries Americans—70 percent of who said they think core courses in basic subjects should be required.”

The new study — “What Will They Learn?” – examines the curriculum of more than 1,000 colleges and universities across the country. Click here to see the complete study.

For a quick summary, check out this video:

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Conservatives Apparently Not Wanted for Jobs at U.S. Colleges

Glenn Hall — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 16:30:21 +0000

The following Blog post is by Will Cain, political analyst for TheBlaze TV

I lack a very essential ingredient when it comes to big-time punditry. Outrage. I’m just outrage deficient.

But this gets me a little worked up. Do colleges discriminate against conservatives in their hiring practices? Is it unconstitutional if state schools discriminate? Those are questions being debated in an Iowa federal court this week. And those are the questions I attempt to answer in my latest CNN.com column.

The Supreme Court has stated clearly that the First Amendment prohibits a state from basing hiring decisions on political beliefs or associations. This rule, though, is not absolute. Imagine President Obama prohibited from rejecting Grover Norquist for ideological reasons. So the Court has recognized limited exceptions for positions like those in policymaking. There you can openly reject someone because of their views, because their views speak to the merits of their qualifications.

But academia is not a policymaking institution. Is higher education supposed to be a taxpayer funded one-sided training camp? With 75% of college professors identifying as liberal, is that what it’s turned into?

Trust me, I don’t like the idea of courts interfering in college curriculum or personnel. I also don’t want courts trying to define who and what is conservative, or liberal, or libertarian…which, would eventually come up. But I don’t think the government can reject you for your political beliefs either.

Read the entire column here.

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Liberal Professor: Romney Is Successful Because He’s White

Mytheos Holt — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 03:32:46 +0000

Since Mitt Romney’s sudden, abrupt turnaround after the first Presidential debate, Democrats have rushed to analyze the reasons behind President Obama’s performance. And curiously, given the Left’s prior obsession with this issue, one factor that has remained all but completely ignored is the question of racism.

Now, that silence has been broken by a professor at the University of Rochester named Stephanie Li. Li has argued in a Huffington Post article posted today that Romney’s success in life is based on “privilege” – specifically, privilege based on Romney’s skin color, though not exclusively:

The Romney’s [sic] shortsightedness on this issue demonstrates their ignorance of one of the central ideas in the field of critical race studies, the unearned privileges accorded to whiteness. In her foundational essay, “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack,” Peggy McIntosh likens whiteness to “an invisible weightless knapsack of special provisions, maps, passports, codebooks, visas, clothes, tools and blank checks.” McIntosh goes on to list dozens of ways in which her whiteness provides her with greater degrees of social validation, convenience, comfort, safety and opportunity. She enumerates how because of her whiteness she “can be sure that if I ask to talk to ‘the person in charge’ I will be facing a person of my race” and “Whether I use checks, credit cards, or cash, I can count on my skin color not to work against the appearance of financial reliability.” Read by countless high school and college students every year, McIntosh’s essay is a classic in understanding how whiteness, with its close associations to financial stability, remains an invisible standard in American society. Critical race studies has elucidated the ways in which all Americans are impacted by their racial identities, and how whiteness is not a universal model of being, but instead a specific social construction.

Romney truly is the whitest man to run for president because he doesn’t realize how his whiteness has influenced his life and how his class standing provided him with remarkable educational and financial opportunities. Instead he explains in the leaked video, “I was born with a silver spoon, which is the greatest gift you could have, which is to get born in America.” Romney’s blindness to his own racial and class privilege feeds into the myth of meritocracy, the false illusion that simply by hard work and steely determination, it is possible to attain the American dream. According to the 2010 census, 40 percent of black children are born into poverty compared to 8 percent of white children. None of these children, black or white, are born with silver spoons.

CampusReform spotted this racially focused op ed and blew the whistle on it. It is consistent with a video released by the liberal organization The Message, which has accused Romney of being “so white [he] makes Wonderbreak look like Pumpernickel.”

Also, the article’s citation of “Critical Race Studies” evinces an ideological predisposition that may have been held by the President himself, who famously hugged – and gave a speech supporting – Critical Race Theorist Derrick Bell during his time at Harvard Law School. It is probably that the President has moved on from this way of thinking since his law school days, it is instructive to know just what Barack Obama as a Law School student might have thought of his fellow Harvard alumnus Mitt Romney. Moreover, this information may provide some clues as to why Obama in the present day might view Romney with such well-publicized contempt.

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Video: A conservative reflects on the liberal college experience

Meredith Jessup — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 21:15:01 +0000

In his latest Afterburner, Conservative commentator Bill Whittle reflects on his recent experience at Oberlin College — one of the most liberal campuses in America. While he was grateful for the hospitality, Bill says he was shocked by the amount of intolerance on campus, especially the limitations on freedom of speech:

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You’ll Never Guess What These College Students Are (Sort of) in an Uproar Over

Becket Adams — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 19:30:23 +0000

So apparently the sandwich wrap is kind of a big deal for some people.

“At the University of Maryland, students are exasperated about a new construction method that Dining Service employees are using for wraps,” the Washington Posts’ Michael S. Rosenwald writes, citing U-Md.’s student newspaper The Diamondback.

What terrible new design could possibly have these students in a huff?

Apparently, according to The Diamondback, Dining Services employees are now “cutting vegetables, chicken and other sandwich products, rather than dicing them, and leaving the ends of the wraps open instead of folded in.”

The last time we were upset by something open-ended,
it involved the words “quantitative” and “easing.”

Materials science and engineering major Claire Tomaszewski condemned the new wrap design: “It’s really difficult to eat because everything falls out of the bottom. It’s not that hard to fold the bottom end.”

“If I am turned off by it, some other people must be, too,” she added.

And she’s right! She’s not alone.

“I like them better when they’re folded in, and I do like the end piece cause I have a bit of extra wrap,” said biology major John Morgan.

“We haven’t been exposed to the other types of wraps,” freshman psychology major Mica Cocco told The Diamondback. “But we definitely think they’re hard to eat and they should accommodate for us.”

Despite the student outcry, it doesn’t appear dining room officials are going to change the wrap design anytime soon (I can’t believe I just wrote that sentence). The staff, who say they take “the new assembly process very, very seriously,” argue the design speeds up production and improves “plate presentation.”

“Many students, however, said the changes have made their meal experience more difficult,” The Diamondback reports.

We aren’t making this up, folks.

“Besides experimentation, college is also about learning important life lessons, and in this wrap matter U-Md. students have discovered a hard truth: The sandwiches they receive in life might not always be designed according to their preferences,” Rosenwald concludes.

Follow Becket Adams (@BecketAdams) on Twitter

Front page photo courtesy shutterstock.com

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Why Do So Many Students Hate Capitalism and America? TheBlaze Speaks to Author of New Book That Criticizes Colleges for Teaching Victimhood

Sharona Schwartz — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 11:41:29 +0000

Just one year ago, throngs of college students took to the streets, “occupying” Wall Street and bashing capitalism. What was it that lured so many? And at those demonstrations, why did we see so many strange bedfellows finding common cause – socialists, environmentalists, pro-Palestinian activists and others? Turns out those allies are not so mismatched after all, but are rather unified by the common perception – real or not – that they are victims of three evil isms: imperialism, colonialism, and capitalism. For many, that worldview was born and nurtured on our nation’s campuses.

In his latest book, “The Victims’ Revolution: The Rise of Identity Studies and the Closing of the Liberal Mind,” author Bruce Bawer takes to task American universities for their emphasis on Identity Studies – that is, Black Studies, “Queer Studies,” Chicano Studies, Women’s Studies – which he believes inculcate into impressionable college students the idea that those minority groups are victims of the oppressive white man. This is the ethos rampant not only in those aforementioned departments but also in the study of literature, philosophy and history. In the past, humanities instruction focused on the great works, aspired to objective truths and emphasized the importance of logical analysis. Apparently, this is no longer the case. To Bawer, the higher education system is today predicated on moral relativity. No more focus on great works, or great men. Our youth are being taught to hate capitalism and to hate America and thus so many have bought into the tenets behind Occupy Wall Street.

The Wall Street Journal in its review of Bawer’s book wrote, “The most traditional branches of Western learning have been replaced by disciplines designed to serve radical political ends.”

Bawer describes the American college campus today as a dystopia, a world in which student and teacher alike present an air of being profound when really they say little that is new and even less that veers from the beliefs of their peers. It’s an exclusive — and wildly expensive — club with its own jargon and belief system, its own saints and sinners. If so many of them didn’t deride faith, one might call it a religion.

Besides examining numerous texts in the various “identity” fields from which he generously quotes, Bawer also attended academic conferences, including one cultural studies conference, where he observed the speakers:

They’ve been trained to reduce the rich complexities and ambiguities of human life to simple formulas about oppressors and oppressed, capitalists and workers, Western imperialists and their Western victims. And when they encounter a reality that doesn’t fit into this paradigm, they don’t know how to deal with it, other than to make statements that are demonstrably untrue.

For Bawer, this world is also characterized by inconsistency. The white man and black man can exhibit the same behavior, yet the oppressor (you know which of the above) is always to blame. For example, he describes a reticence among feminists in Women’s Studies departments to criticize the oppression of Muslim women under Shariah law, including the wearing of hijab and honor killings. Since the Muslim world is to those academics in the “colonized” category, it is not to be condemned. He writes:

In humanities departments today, it is an article of faith that all civilizations are equal – except for Western civilization, which, students learn, is unique only in the degree of its greed, brutality, and lust for power.

Politics aside, this fashion in education has a high price. No more analyzing texts for their aesthetic and literary value. No more objective truth. After he graduated, Bawer believed “even the greatest literary works were treated as mere texts that had no more or less intrinsic value than a phone book or shopping list.” He writes:

Once, the purpose of the humanities had been to introduce students to the glories of Western civilization, thought and art – to enhance students’ respect, even reverence, for the cultural heritage of the West; now the humanities sought to umask the West as a perpetrator of injustice around the globe. Once, the great poets, authors, philosophers, historians, and artists of the Western canon had been heroes whose portraits and statues adorned university campuses; now they were to be viewed with a jaundiced eye-for most of them were, after all, Dead White Heterosexual Males, and therefore, by definition, members of an oppressive Establishment.

In fact, a field of study called Men’s Studies has appeared in about 100 colleges in North America. Bawer believes this is yet a new forum for white-male bashing.

The founding father of the field, Australian sociologist Robert W. Connell, based his writings on feminist theory and a belief that society teaches men to dominate women. In 2008, Connell had a sex-change operation and is now a woman. This raises questions about the integrity of his academic pursuit a decade earlier – while believing privately he was a woman on the inside – considering he “helped establish an academic discipline the entire point of which is that men are authoritarian bullies,” Bawer writes.

Opposite Men’s Studies, Male Studies later emerged as an alternative to the bias of the feminist-theory inspired Men’s Studies.

Robert Heasley, president of the American Men’s Studies Association took a swipe at Male Studies by employing what he presumably believes to be an insult, comparing the discipline to Glenn Beck. Bawer writes:

When Inside Higher Ed asked Heasley what he thought of Male Studies, he called it “a Glenn Beck approach” to the subject; the even more hostile comments about Male Studies by Women’s Studies professors make it clear that, in their view, the idea of a nonfeminist approach to the study of maleness is sheer heresy.

There seems to be no end to those groups which merit their own departments and courses of study. Bawer notes that recently Fat Studies has emerged as a new discipline as has Whiteness Studies which Bawer says emphasizes that “to be white is, in essence to be by definition an oppressor.”

To learn more about what inspired him to write this latest book, TheBlaze interviewed Bawer – who has previously written books challenging the left’s approach to gay issues and books on the threat of radical Islam to the West. Here is our conversation:

What inspired you to take on the American university education system in your latest book, “The Victims’ Revolution”?

I did it because there is a kind of brainwashing going on in the universities today that has already had deleterious effects on society at large – and because nobody else, surprisingly, had yet tried to explain to the intelligent common reader the exact nature of this brainwashing – the ideology, the background, the jargon, everything. Certainly nobody had yet spelled out the facts about identity studies, which are a huge part of the academy nowadays and which, in a way, epitomize the absurdity of what’s going on in place of education in the humanities today.

What is your greatest concern about the higher education being offered to our youths today?

There are plenty of things, all connected. All too often, they’re taught to think of themselves as members of groups and not individuals. Instead of learning to cherish the heritage of Western civilization and freedom, they learn to despise the West as the fount of all evil in the form of capitalism, colonialism, and imperialism. They learn that it is wrong for them, as Westerners, to criticize any aspect of any other culture, however horrible. And instead of learning them to think critically and independently and fearlessly, they’re trained to become good little lockstep multiculturalists who are scared to articulate the obvious truths about certain things that are right in front of their noses. Morally, aesthetically, and intellectually, this is obviously a disaster.

What advice would you give those who – after hearing the alarm you are sounding — would like their children to go to college and receive a top-notch education but are concerned about the ideological focus you describe in your book?

Don’t go by the meaningless annual ratings that always place the same handful of world-famous universities at the top. Some of these places are the worst offenders. It can help to look at the website of the National Association of Scholars, which was founded in reaction to all this nonsense – there’s a lot of information there that can give you an idea of which colleges to avoid and which ones at least allow some room for dissent. A few quick Google searches will help you find out which colleges have “Great Books” programs, Western civilization requirements, and the like, and which ones are dominated by identity-studies claptrap.

Is there a connection between what our youths are learning on campus today and the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations which began a year ago? After all, many of the participants have been college students, some even encouraged by their professors.

Absolutely. They’ve been taught that capitalism is the root of all the world’s evil. They’ve been taught to despise it – and to despise the West, and especially America, and above all Wall Street. The history of the 20th century is one long lesson in the danger of rejecting democratic capitalism in favor of utopian economic schemes, but these young people, many of them very expensively educated, have apparently learned nothing about it at all.

The New York Times Book Review called “The Victims’ Revolution” out-of-date, unbalanced and a “caricature.” Would you like to answer that criticism?

Let me begin by pointing out that the reviewer for the New York Times, Andrew Delbanco, is hardly an objective observer. He is a faculty member at Columbia University, which is one of the greatest offenders when it comes to offering all this fashionable hokum. Among his newest colleagues there is Judith Butler, one of the founders of Queer Theory, and in the book I criticize both Butler and Queer Theory very severely. It may also be worth noting that I’ve written very critically in the past about Delbanco’s work – so it’s no surprise to see him trashing mine.

Delbanco’s criticism is utterly disingenuous. Out of date? The book is based on reportage done within the last two years. Unbalanced? Meaning what? I wrote about what I saw and heard, and didn’t exaggerate anything, and made a point of mentioning the rare instances in which identity-studies practitioners surprised me by actually disagreeing with the party line. A caricature? If the things I quote and describe make these people sound like cartoon characters, that’s precisely the point – this whole shebang is cartoonish. It is a caricature of education.

Why did you decide to pay homage to Allan Bloom’s 1987 bestseller, “The Closing of the American Mind,” in choosing your subtitle – “The Closing of the Liberal Mind”?

Allan Bloom wrote the first prominent book to point out the way in which reason, objectivity, moral and aesthetic values, and a spirit of free inquiry were being supplanted in the academy by ideology and relativism. He described, and decried, an academic revolution; my book, coming along a quarter-century after his, examines what that revolution has wrought.

What remedies do you suggest for bringing American colleges back in sync with American values?

I think this can only be done at the grass roots. I write in the book about David Clemens, who teaches at one of the Cal State colleges. He has singlehandedly created an oasis on that campus for students who want a real education in literature, history, Western civilization. In order to establish his program, he had to take on his colleagues, who recognized his efforts as a threat to what they were doing. But he won. Students support him and sing his praises. He’s turning that place around. Every college in the U.S. needs a David Clemens.

(H/T: FrontPage Magazine)

–

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What’s a ‘Sextravaganza’ and Why Is the University of Utah Hosting It?

Tiffany Gabbay — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 16:15:03 +0000

Photo Source: Mountain West Digital Library

Billed as an event to explore the interconnectedness of faith, atheism and sexuality, University of Utah’s Secular Humanism Inquiry Freethought (SHIFT) group will be hosting a “Sextravaganza” on Saturday, September 15.

The Salt Lake Tribune reports that the free event will feature three speakers and is also being co-sponsored by the Secular Student Alliance and Humanists of Utah.

Adam Isom, president of SHIFT, said he hopes the event will provide attendees with new perspectives on common social and religious mores when it comes to sexuality.

“I hope that … people realize there are these sort of invisible cultural scripts about what’s taboo to either think, do or talk about,” Isom said, “and also scripts about what’s normal.” The Tribune continues:

Psychologist Darrel W. Ray, author of Sex & God: How Religion Distorts Sexuality, will keynote the forum. Author Greta Christina, an atheist blogger and speaker, will likely discuss the idea that sexual morality of traditional religion tends to be based on notions of what God does and does not want people to do rather than solid ethical principles, and she’ll offer atheist alternatives to those views.

University of Utah psychology professor Lisa Diamond, who studies sexual development and relationships, also will speak. She will likely discuss how advocacy for gay marriage has often relied upon potentially damaging arguments based on the seeming moral superiority of committed, monogamous same-sex partnerships and that the Bible doesn’t actually condemn same-sex sexuality.

According to SHIFT co-founder Jason Cooperrider, the “Sexstravaganza” could draw up to 500 people.

Some students feel that the event is timely, given that social issues — particularly with regards to women’s “reproductive rights” — have become topics of debate in this current presidential campaign season.

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This Week in Biden Gaffes: VP Forgets Where He’s Speaking

Becket Adams — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 20:27:42 +0000

During a campaign stop at Wright State University in Fairborn, Ohio, Wednesday, Vice President Joe Biden couldn’t remember where he was speaking.

“A lot of you, in this … Wayne State University,” said Biden in a video of the event. It then skips a beat to where he mistakenly refers to Wright State University as Wayne State University again. Only this time the crowd doesn’t let him get away with it.

“Wayne State University or any college in America –” the vice president starts to say before the crowd corrects him.

“Wright State!” yelled Biden. “It also includes Wayne State! It also includes the University of Delaware! It also includes the university and so on.”

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(H/T: Washington Free Beacon). Front page photo courtesy the AP.

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Public University May Have Violated Election Law By Offering Credit for Obama Internship

Mytheos Holt — Thu, 30 Aug 2012 21:15:30 +0000

The academic world is famously in the tank for President Barack Obama. Some of the President’s largest donors are universities. The President himself is a former university professor. Academics are thick on the ground in his administration. There’s little point in denying that this administration is chummy with academia.

And as long as that chumminess stays firmly private, and not subsidized by taxpayer dollars, it has every right to persist. Unfortunately, in this case, such a subsidy is arguably in place.

Campus Reform reports that Addams State University, in Colorado, recently found itself on the wrong end of a state law prohibiting public resources on behalf of partisan campaigns. Why? We’ll let them tell it:

Adams State University posted the opportunity late last week on its website stating: “The Obama Campaign Internship (GOVT 279 Presidential Election Internship) will be a 12 week long organizing internship for the Obama Campaign.”

No similar offer was made for students to participate on the presidential campaign for Mitt Romney, who is the Republican nominee for the White House.

Julie Waecter, Assistant to the president for communications at Adams State, told Campus Reform on Tuesday that while the public university did offer the credit no public resources were deployed towards that end.

“No state funds are being used to pay for students working on the campaign,” she said.

She added that the school had decided to cancel the offer.

To obtain school credit, individuals would have been required to volunteer for the Obama campaign for at least 15 hours each week and attend an all-day training session on September 20th.

Campus Reform also brings us these screengrabs of the university’s announcement of this “course” before and after the scandal. Before:

And after:

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College Chancellor Takes Stand for Gun Rights After Prof. Threatens to Cancel Class Over Gun-Carrying Students

Jonathon M. Seidl — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 13:32:11 +0000

While the debate over whether the University of Colorado has the right to segregate gun permit-carrying students to separate dorms, the university’s chancellor has just stood up for the rights of those same students to carry guns on campus.

Earlier this week, one professor at the University’s main campus in Boulder threatened to cancel his class if any students showed up legally carrying guns. Physics professor Jerry Peterson declared his stance during a faculty assembly on Monday.

“My own personal policy in my classes is if I am aware that there is a firearm in the class — registered or unregistered, concealed or unconcealed — the class session is immediately canceled,” Peterson said. “I want my students to feel unconstrained in their discussions.”

But on on Wednesday, Chancellor Phil DiStefano squashed the idea in a pointed email to faculty.

“I have the utmost respect for Professor Peterson, who is an old friend and valued colleague, but I want to make clear that if the student carrying the weapon has a concealed-carry permit, the position implied by Professor Peterson’s comments directly violates Colorado law and the operating principles of the campus,” he said according to the Daily Camera.

“On this issue, there can be no ambiguity: all CU-Boulder faculty, as CU and state employees, are expected to teach their assigned courses and to hold classes for all enrolled students,” DiStefano added.

The Daily Camera reports that he also threatened disciplinary action for any professor caught cancelling class because of legal gun owners exercising their right.

The controversy over guns on Colorado campuses came to a head this summer when the state supreme court ruled that schools cannot ban legal, permit-carrying gun owners from carrying their weapons on campus.

“I believe we have taken responsible steps to adhere to the ruling of the Colorado Supreme Court while balancing that with the priority of providing a safe environment for our students, faculty and staff,” DiStefano said last week.

Still, the university’s policy to segregate students in campus housing based on their concealed weapon status has gun rights advocates worried that university is creating a dangerous environment for both those carrying guns and those not.

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Jonathon M. Seidl — Tue, 21 Aug 2012 11:59:13 +0000

Watch the latest video at video.insider.foxnews.com

By now you might know that the University of Colorado has decided to comply with a state supreme court ruling saying that it cannot ban permit-carrying students from having guns on campus. But in complying, the university has created a separate controversy: It has decided to segregate those students with concealed carry permits. Now, if a student has a permit and is living on campus, that student will have to live in separate dorms off campus.

While students are now permitted to carry legal guns in campus buildings, certain restrictions apply. For example, large ticketed events such as football games will still be off limits for gun-carriers.

And while protection advocates believe the law is a step in the right direction, not everyone is happy — especially because it seems to fly in the face of the logic that legal gun carriers sprinkled throughout a campus at all times actually helps prevent violence.

A scathing editorial in the Colorado Springs Gazette lays out that argument [emphasis added]:

Nearly all modern massacres have occurred in “gun-free” zones. It is likely that gun-free zones attract homicidal maniacs, who want the highest death tolls possible before they are stopped. If guns aren’t allowed, no one is likely to shoot back. It is hard to imagine that mere coincidence explains the common thread of “gun-free” rules at massacre locations, such as Columbine High School, Aurora’s Century 16 Theater and Virginia Tech. It seems like common sense that “no gun” signs ensure predators of soft, defenseless targets.

Given these observations, tt is beyond belief that members of the Colorado Board of Regents have indulged a publicity stunt that establishes new “gun-free” zones on college campuses. Their actions could get students killed.

[...]

Colorado law allows only law-abiding adults age 21 and up to obtain concealed carry permits. Almost no one living in a freshman dorm is over the age of 21. In the unlikely event a full-fledged adult with a concealed carry permit lives in a freshman dorm, his or her presence enhances safety. Concealed carry permittees are trained and screened. The new rule is a policy in search of a problem, and it ensures criminals of new defenseless targets.

Regents and administrators have managed only to promise all predators that freshman dorms are defenseless, gun-free zones. Their new rule will almost certainly result in “no gun” signs on dormitory doors.

[...]

We concur, but take strong objection to the needless and self-indulgent endangerment of freshmen in dorms. That new rule is dangerous, unconscionable and probably illegal.

A Denver Post editorial, however, takes a different approach [emphasis added]:

We doubt that the plan goes far enough for gun-rights owners, however, and won’t be surprised if the issue returns to the courts.

The new policy springs from a Colorado Supreme Court ruling in March that upheld a lower-court ruling striking down a total gun ban on University of Colorado campuses.

The suit was filed by students who held concealed-carry permits and were denied permission to bring weapons on campus.

The students argued that the legislature did not include colleges on the list of institutions in which the Concealed Carry Act could be “specifically limited.”

And they were right.

That should change.

The university’s Board of Regents should be allowed to determine the gun rules on campus — including whether a total ban is in order. It’s the same authority currently given to those bodies that oversee county courthouses and K-12 schools.

As we said in March, such a revision would put this important school safety decision where it belongs — with those who are intimately familiar with the school, its culture and student mix.

Now that you’ve read separate views on the issue, take our poll below and let us know what you think:

University of Colo. Gun Poll

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‘Brown Pride’: University of California at Los Angeles Gives $100,000 to Racist Group

Mytheos Holt — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 23:02:35 +0000

The Tea party slogan “Take back our country” has often been unfairly accused of containing racist overtones suggesting that America belongs to white people, and that every other race needs to get off our collective lawn. Indeed, so contagious was this “Tea Party is racist” meme among the media that Emily Ekins, a graduate student at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) had to pen an academic study demonstrating that it wasn’t true.

Not that it apparently would have mattered to UCLA if it was, since a new report from CampusReform demonstrates that the university has actually been sponsoring a group that believes a large chunk of America belongs exclusively to their racial/ethnic group, and everyone else needs to get out. The twist is that that organization is not a pack of skinheads screaming about white power, but instead a self-described “Chicano movement” screaming about “brown power.”

Ladies and gentlemen, meet the Moviemiento Estudiantil Chicano de AZTLAN (MEChA).

Now, some of the more skeptical readers may at this point be wondering if, the menacing logo of an eagle carrying a fasces notwithstanding, the description given above is unfair. To answer that, we provide you with the group’s mission in their own words (emphasis added):

Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán (MEChA) is a student organization that promotes higher education, cultura, and historia. MEChA was founded on the principles of self-determination for the liberation of our people. We believe that political involvement and education is the avenue for change in our society.

In March of 1969, at Denver, Colorado the Crusade for Justice organized the National Chicano Youth Conference that drafted the basic premises for the Chicana/Chicano Movement in El Plan de Aztlán (EPA). A synopsis of El Plan stipulates: 1) We are Chicanas and Chicanos of Aztlán reclaiming the land of our birth (Chicana/Chicano Nation); 2) Aztlán belongs to indigenous people, who are sovereign and not subject to a foreign culture; 3) We are a union of free pueblos forming a bronze (Chicana/Chicano) Nation; 4) Chicano nationalism, as the key to mobilization and organization, is the common denominator to bring consensus to the Chicana/Chicano Movement; 5) Cultural values strengthen our identity as La Familia de La Raza; and 6) EPA, as a basic plan of Chicana/Chicano liberation, sought the formation of an independent national political party that would represent the sentiments of the Chicana/Chicano community.

In April of 1969 over 100 Chicanas/Chicanos came together at UC Santa Barbara to formulate a plan for higher education: El Plan de Santa Barbara. With this document they were successful in the development of two very important contributions to the Chicano Movement: Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán (MEChA) and Chicano Studies.

Or, to summarize this in CampusReform’s words:

The recipient of the funds is a student-organization, Moviemiento Estudiantil Chicano de AZTLAN (MEChA) which believes that the Southwestern U.S. states New Mexico, Arizona, California and parts of Nevada, Utah and Colorado are in fact part of a separate nation called “Aztlan.”

The national organization’s website states that their aim is “reclaiming the land of our birth” and calls the organization “a nationalist movement of indigenousgente [people] that lay claim to the land that is ours by birthright.”

Simply the existence of such a group would be enough to raise the hackles of many people. However, the fact that UCLA has funded them to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars simply adds insult to injury. Again, to quote CampusReform:

A student group espousing anti-American separatist views at the University of California – Los Angeles (UCLA) received $100,000 in funding from the college administration last year, reveals an internal budget obtained by Campus Reform.[...]

The budget documents acquired by Campus Reform, reveals that UCLA allocated $101,012.48 to the MEChA chapter for the 2011-2012 school year out of roughly $600,000 “retention fund” which is derived out of student fees. [...]

The document reports the funds went towards paying the salaries of their director ($39,893.76), assistant director ($6,509.54), three coordinators ($4,889.55 each), eight peer counselors ($4,085.41 each), a G+S counselor ($4,085.41), and an administrative assistant ($3,107.80).

You can read the full budget here:

Now, to be fair to the university, the group is technically being paid to aid with student “retention.” That is, they are supposedly involved in helping students who are in danger of failing out of UCLA avoid that fate. That is arguably a noble goal, even if the group involved is not noble. And MEChA’s explanation of their participation will no doubt strike many as dangerously entitled at a bare minimum.

“We do not come to work for the university, but to demand that the university work for our people,” MECha’s website says of their collaboration with UCLA.

Worse yet, MEChA is more than just a misguided student retention group – they have also been implicated in militant, sometimes violent acts. Their history at UCLA is especially troubling. A collection of documents from a 1993 race riot at UCLA mentions the group as being involved in organizing the riot:

In the spring of 1993, after several attempts from faculty and students at the University of California, Los Angeles to change the standing of the Chicano Studies Program from an interdisciplinary program to a department, Chancellor Charles E. Young announced that the Program would not receive departmental status. The date was April 28th, 1993, the eve of Cesar Chavez’s funeral. This decision ignited the passion and activism of many students and set in motion a sit-in demonstration by the Conscious Students of Color over the welfare of the Chicano Studies Library, budget cuts, and the Chicana/o Studies Program and other Ethnic Programs at UCLA. Around 200 hundreds students walked across the Westwood campus to the Faculty Center on campus to protest the Chancellor’s decision.

The protest turned violent after Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) and University of California Police Department (UCPD) officers appeared in riot gear at the Faculty Center. As a result 99 students were arrested and UCLA pressed charges against the students for vandalizing the premises. These actions set off rallies and demonstrations on the part of a variety of student groups such as MEChA (Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan), Latin American Student Alliance (LASA), Students for Revolutionary Action, community groups, (i.e. United Community Labor Alliance,) and brought together thousands of people to demand changes at UCLA. The most dramatic demonstration and the focus of this archival collection was the 1993 Hunger Strike. Eight students and one UCLA professor decided to protest what they considered an injustice on the part of UCLA Administration, represented by Chancellor Charles R. Young, through a fast to emphasize their demands.

On a very interesting side note, one of the other participants in this riot might be familiar to some readers:

The hunger strike attracted the support and attention of many recognized members of the community including State Senators Tom Hayden, Art Torres, State Representatives Lucille Roybal-Allard and Xavier Becerra, City Assembly woman Hilda L. Solis; Mothers of East L.A. and many others.

That “City Assembly woman” is now President Obama’s Secretary of Labor:

Hilda Solis

Now, back to MEChA, for whom this riot is only the beginning of their issues. Campus Reform notes that the group has twice been implicated in the mass destruction of campus conservative publications at UCLA. This is certainly in keeping with their paper trail elsewhere. A story from Pasadena City College in 2006 goes as follows:

Each week on Thursday, Kris Calnon roams Pasadena City College and distributes its student newspaper, the Courier.

He had just finished doing so this week when he was struck by a drastic surge in demand for the weekly paper.

“I’m coming back from distributing the paper, and I’m noticing the stands are already empty,” said Calnon, 19, who also takes pictures for the paper.

It turned out the papers were not snapped up by eager readers.

Although people are often angered at what a newspaper prints, Thursday’s theft of nearly all 5,000 copies may have been motivated by what the Courier didn’t run.

PCC’s campus police said Friday they had no suspects yet in their investigation into the theft, despite a brazen claim made by a group of students identifying themselves as members of Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztl n.

According to Courier staff, a group of four students piled up trash bags inside and outside their newsroom and left a note saying it was in retaliation for the Courier’s coverage of the group – or lack thereof.

“MEChA came up to the Courier with, like, four trash bags full of newspapers with a note attached and said we weren’t covering them properly, so this is what we get,” said News Chief Dean Lee.

Lee said a Courier reporter covered a MEChA event for Friday’s edition of the paper, but because of space constraints, the paper could only run a photograph and caption.

“They said it was racist and biased,” Lee said.

“Racist and biased.” Quite an accusation, coming from a group that believes this:

Each word in MEChA symbolizes a great concept in terms of la causa. Movimiento means that the organization is dedicated to the movement to gain self-determination for our people. Estudiantil, identifies the organization as a student group for we are part of our Raza’s future.

“Raza” is Spanish for “race.” Elsewhere on their site, the group announces that they “denounce acculturation and assimilation” and stand for the aforementioned “bronze nation.” Racism and bias are not stones that should be thrown from this particular glass house.

In any case, the fact that UCLA is paying an aggressively nationalist, racially motivated group hundreds of thousands of dollars to help students stay in school, despite the fact that their behavior indicates anything but a desire to create a stable campus environment, should be cause for concern.

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‘Jesus Was a Muslim’: Religion Professor Makes Unbelievable Argument

Mytheos Holt — Thu, 12 Jul 2012 00:57:55 +0000

Jesus Christ is pretty unquestionably the central figure of Christianity. His name is where the religion comes from, after all, and the story of Christ allowing himself to be killed by the local Roman government as penance for the sins of humanity is integral to the entire ethical system underlying Christian thought.

However, Robert F. Shedinger, a professor at Iowa’s Luther College, has a different argument. He thinks Jesus was actually…a Muslim. Yes, really. In fact, he wrote a book explaining all about it:

Shedinger explained his argument this way:

Got that? According to Shedinger, Islam is a “social justice movement,” not a religion, and since Christ supposedly supported “social justice,” that makes him a Muslim. To quote him, “I came to the conclusion that [Islam] was a social justice movement and I think that’s who Jesus was in the first century so I conclude Jesus is more like a Muslim.”

Where do we begin with what’s wrong with this picture? The first and most obvious point would have to be that Christ, being born roughly 600 years before Islam even existed, is not capable of being a Muslim. To be sure, if you believe there are commonalities in values between Islam and Christianity (which scholars in both faiths do, in fact, believe), you could argue that Christ held some Islamic ideas. But to claim that he was a Muslim is to take it entirely too far.

Moreover, if we are talking about which religious founder actually got his ideas from the other, would it not be more accurate to say “Muhammad was a Christian.” After all, if Christ’s teachings are virtually indistinguishable from Muhammad’s (which seems to be the main thesis of Shedinger’s argument), and Christ came first (which he unquestionably did), then clearly it’s Muhammad who ripped off Christ, not the other way around. Of course, a book titled “Was Muhammad a Christian” might get a sizably larger amount of backlash from some of Muhammad’s less…shall we say, “socially just” followers, but it also would have been more intellectually honest.

Finally, about that “social justice movement” description, we’d like to hear more of an explanation about how a religion that encourages female circumcision and conquest of any and all unbelievers is somehow tied to “social justice,” or, if it doesn’t support these things, why people who believe it does are wrong. We also wonder why a social justice movement would be based around a belief that there is no God but theirs and their founder is the only legitimate prophet. We expect to be waiting a long time regarding these points.

H/T CampusReform

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Attention college students: The future depends on you

Meredith Jessup — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 15:29:20 +0000

The latest from Generation Opportunity draws attention to the employment gap young Americans face today:

Couple that with the fact 50% of college grads can’t find a job and the future is looking bleak.