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Commentary: Ivies in Crisis

January 03, 2025

Liza Libes 
Minding the Campus 

Excerpt: Ivy League applications are down, and Ivy League schools have begun to panic. Over the past few weeks, America’s most coveted schools welcomed the early decision cohort of the class of 2029. Yet unlike in previous years, which saw a consistent increase in the number of applications and a corresponding decrease in acceptance rates, the data from this year’s admissions pool told a different story.

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Commentary: I’m an Ivy League undergrad — here’s why my campus sides with Luigi Mangione

December 19, 2024

Maximillian Meyer
New York Post

Excerpt: Americans reacted with horror this week to a new poll that found young voters evenly divided on the righteousness of Luigi Mangione’s cold-blooded assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.  To me, the result was no surprise: I’m seeing far worse on my Ivy League campus every day — the logical result of the morality crisis running rampant throughout “elite” academia and among many of my generation.

To far-left young Americans, on any given issue, the world is divided into two buckets: oppressor and oppressed. There is little room for nuance, and next to none for negotiation. I’ve seen this phenomenon firsthand in my role as president of Princeton’s premier pro-Israel student organization.

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Commentary: Setting the record straight on our fight for Kamala Harris

December 16, 2024

Michelle Miao and Nate Howard
Daily Princetonian

Excerpt: Since Nov. 5, Princeton commentators from across the political spectrum have misrepresented progressive Kamala Harris supporters.

On one hand, columnist Julianna Lee ’25 wrote a well-intentioned but misinformed op-ed characterizing left-leaning students at Princeton in broad strokes as stuck inside the Orange Bubble and unwilling to engage with other perspectives. On the other hand, certain members of the leftist community have spent more time denigrating Democrats than working to fight fascism. On both of these counts, we would like to set the record straight.

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‘Universities have to be bold’: Director of ACLU-NJ urges Princeton community to take action post-election

December 18, 2024

Abby Leibowitz
Daily Princetonian

Excerpt: A month after Donald Trump’s reelection and the red wave that swept down-ballot elections in New Jersey and across the United States, public policy lecturer Lynda Dodd joined Amol Sinha, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Jersey, for a private presentation held at the Princeton Public Library on Dec. 15. They discussed New Jersey’s potential to build “firewalls of freedom” — safeguards based on actions that governors, attorney generals, and statewide officials can take locally to protect communities made vulnerable by potential Trump policies.

Indivisible Princeton, a local chapter of the organization Indivisible formed by Ezra Levin GS ’13 in 2017 in response to Trump’s first election, hosted the event as its ”relaunch meeting.”

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Commentary: Government Should Not Legitimate Systemic-Racism Confessions

December 15, 2024

Peter Berkowitz
RealClear Politics

Excerpt: Most selective colleges and universities receive substantial federal funds – tens and even hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars a year for student aid and faculty research. Since Title VI contains no exceptions to its prohibition on raced-based discrimination, it also bars racism that is systemic. Thinking along these lines, in 2020, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos attempted to hold Princeton University accountable for the systemic racism it claimed was lodged there.

Entertaining and instructive as was her gambit, the Trump administration should not repeat it. That’s because systemic racism does not plague the nation’s colleges and universities, and government should not legitimize frivolous claims that it does.

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Silence in the Classroom: The 2024 FIRE Faculty Survey Report

December 14, 2024

FIRE

Excerpt: This report explores insights from a national survey of 6,269 tenured, tenure-track, and non-tenure track faculty across 55 four-year colleges and universities in the United States, conducted by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE). As the largest survey of faculty ever conducted on this topic, the data reveal faculty attitudes and experiences concerning free expression and academic freedom.

While many faculty remain confident in higher education, and few report explicit threats or experiences of discipline for speech, the broader climate reflects that of rampant self-censorship, worry, and fear, particularly among faculty in the political minority. A discussion of these findings follow. The PDF version of the report is accompanied by school-specific results for each of the 55 colleges and universities surveyed.

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Partisan Professors

December 04, 2024

Roger Pielke Jr.
American Enterprise Institute

Faculty in U.S. universities overwhelmingly hold views on the political left. That probably won’t be news to most THB readers. Today’s post documents just how extreme today’s left-leaning ideological uniformity has become among professors and shows that in the past, across disciplines faculty were much more politically diverse.

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Commentary: Can Harvard Remain Nonpartisan in Trump’s America? Yes and No

November 26, 2024

Mathias Risse
Harvard Crimson

Excerpt: Last Tuesday, Kellyanne E. Conway, a senior adviser in President-elect Donald Trump’s first administration, spoke at a forum at the Harvard Institute of Politics. Conway is perhaps best known for explaining away lies about Trump’s first inauguration crowd size as “alternative facts” in 2017. Back when she made those remarks I had been teaching political philosophy for 17 years and had never felt it necessary to abandon nonpartisanship in my teaching. But I took issue with Conway’s alternative facts right away, and I did so in the classroom.

In the face of a Republican party that, regardless of what it has gotten right, has subscribed to a cult of personality and returned to power on a story anathema to democracy itself, can Harvard remain nonpartisan? Yes and no.

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Commentary: We must dispel the myth of Princeton’s economic diversity

November 21, 2024

Raf Basas
Daily Princetonian

Excerpt: At Princeton, we often forget the sharp difference in income distributions between Princeton and the nation as a whole. The media spins a tale of great improvement: Though Princeton had once predominantly served America’s economic elite, it has done well in shedding the specter of affluence that has haunted it for centuries. After all, a whopping 65 percent of Princeton students receive some level of financial aid.

This is a persuasive narrative, but make no mistake: Princeton’s “economic diversity” is a myth. Although the numbers have improved since the 2017 article from The New York Times, just 30.8 percent of Princeton’s Class of 2026 is from the bottom 60 percent of U.S. households.

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Bret Stephens indicts American universities for placing relevance above excellence

November 19, 2024

Why Evolution is True
Jerry Coyne

Excerpt: A reader called my attention to a new quarterly online magazine called Sapir. It’s edited by the NYT writer Bret Stephens, it’s free, and it has a number of intriguing articles (check out this interview with Daniel Diermeier, our former provost and now chancellor of Vanderbilt University). It also offers a free one-year hard-copy subscription here.

The magazine appears to deal largely but not exclusively with matters Jewish (Stephens’s background). Among the secular pieces is a fine new article by Stephens himself that you can access by clicking on the title below. It’s about the demise of liberalism in American universities, including a defense of what Stephens considers true liberalism and a list of obstacles to university reform. It’s short and well worth reading.

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The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Has Fueled a Surge in Campus Censorship

November 16, 2024

Emma Camp
Reason Magazine

Excerpt: Last year, student-led protests over the Israel-Hamas war broke out at dozens of college campuses. With the new school year well underway, student demonstrations have begun again in earnest.

According to the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), attempts to deplatform speakers were surging by this April. Of the 67 attempts it had recorded from January to mid-April, 73 percent involved controversy surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. So how did a year of raucous—and occasionally disruptive and destructive—protest affect student opinions on free speech?

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Commentary: Princeton’s young alumni are no longer donating, and for a good reason

November 15, 2024

Wynne Conger
Daily Princetonian

Excerpt: “They may have the sense of entitlement,” Larry Leighton ’56 writes of young Princeton alumni who donate at rates far lower than their predecessors. “[T]here seems to be very little knowledge of the importance of philanthropy generally.” In recent years, many alumni have penned “giving pleas” of a similar vein, bemoaning the dying culture of annual giving. But is the reality truly as terrible as these alumni assume it to be?

Yet in recent years, younger alumni have demonstrated a marked decrease in charitable donations, and especially when compared to that of previous classes. Although there may be a manifold of reasons as to why, more and more students have reduced their giving out of concerns about whether the endowment’s investments continue to line up with their values, along with the underlying recognition that the University is no longer sustained on the backs of alumni contributions.

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Commentary: Yale Psychiatrist: Harris Voters May Need to Cut Off Friends and Family Members

November 10, 2024

Jonathan Turley
Jonathan Turley’s Blog

Excerpt: As academics, we are dealing with the election on campuses across America. After the election, I had some valuable discussions with students who supported Harris and some who supported Trump. I wish there would be more interaction between the two groups. That is why this story stood out for me. I do not believe that further separation or isolation will help this country or these individuals.

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Commentary: Trump supporters don’t bite: Princeton progressives must burst the Orange Bubble

November 12, 2024

Julianna Lee
Daily Princetonian

Excerpt: At Princeton, there is a stereotype of the classic Trump voter: hateful, uneducated, racist, and transphobic. Sitting at an Ivy League institution where a pre-election poll found that 74 percent of eligible undergrads cast votes for Harris, it’s easy to think that people don’t vote for Trump unless there is something really messed up about the way they see the world — but Princeton’s favorable view of the Democrats is an outlier.

We shouldn’t dismiss Trump voters as hateful, uneducated, or misinformed; we should engage with them about where they are coming from and why they made the choice they did.

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Commentary: I Was Shunned at Princeton for Being a Zionist; We Must Actively Ensure Academic Diversity Now

November 05, 2024

Ronen Shoval
Algemeiner

Excerpt: Universities were once celebrated as arenas of free thought, where diverse ideas could challenge one another, and truth could emerge from debate. However, a new form of intolerance has gripped campuses worldwide, stifling intellectual diversity and turning academic institutions into echo chambers.

My experience at Princeton University illustrates the extent of this culture of suppression and the dangerous consequences it poses for education.

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How Universities Should Regulate Contentious Speech

November 02, 2024

Jonathan Kay and Cass Sunstein
Quillette Podcast

Excerpt: Quillette podcast host Jonathan Kay speaks with prolific Harvard University legal scholar Cass Sunstein about his new book, Campus Free Speech: A Pocket Guide.

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Commentary: An appeal to the majority: Let faculty have the option of a remote vote

October 31, 2024

John Londregan
Daily Princetonian

Excerpt: At their upcoming Nov. 4 meeting, the faculty will take up a proposal requiring that any contested proposals made by colleagues be subject to a remote University-wide faculty vote.

Although this proposal —  requiring that all faculty have the chance to weigh in on controversial policy changes — may seem like common sense, the status quo requires only the approval of a majority of those attending a meeting in person, typically a minuscule fraction of the more than 1,000 faculty employed by Princeton. I encourage my colleagues to come to the Nov. 4 faculty meeting to support the proposal.

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Much-Anticipated Faculty Meeting Kicks Controversial Votes to April

October 30, 2024

Hope Perry ’24
Princeton Alumni Weekly

Excerpt: Princeton faculty present at a closed meeting Oct. 21 voted 166-156-7 to postpone votes on three controversial proposals related to faculty advocacy until the last scheduled faculty meeting of the academic year, on April 28, 2025, according to meeting minutes obtained by PAW.

Faculty meetings are typically held in Nassau Hall and are open to the campus press and other observers specified by the faculty’s rules. Two weeks before the meeting, the Faculty Advisory Committee on Policy (FACP), composed of six tenure track faculty members, unanimously voted to close the meeting to observers.

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Commentary: The Neutral Turn

October 25, 2024

Michael S. Roth
Slate Magazine

Excerpt: It is urgent that the leaders of colleges and universities stand up in defense of their interests and the values of higher education. American schools have long trumpeted their contribution to promoting an educated citizenry. Now, as one of the most consequential elections in American history approaches, we must do everything we can to help students work on campaigns and facilitate voting. And we must call out the threats to higher education.

This may seem straightforward, but in the wake of Oct. 7 and controversies over statements (or the lack of statements) concerning the atrocities, many academic leaders have embraced a doctrine of “institutional neutrality.” This is exactly the wrong time for such a retreat.

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Commentary: For meaningful discourse, free speech at Princeton must be combined with intellectual responsibility

October 25, 2024

Kenneth Chan
Daily Princetonian

Excerpt: In late September, Princeton Politics Professor Robert George published a column in the New York Times, in which he urged young conservatives to “exercise and … defend your right to think for yourself” in the face of a “hostile” campus community. Days before, my colleague, Head Opinion Editor Eleanor Clemans-Cope, published a column arguing that “to insist on the importance of liberals engaging with these debates is insisting on an ideological project that launders harmful, fringe opinions back into mainstream society.”

Yet both of these columns’ bellicose calls to opposite sides of the political spectrum neglect fundamental truths. Our pluralistic society only works if we are willing to engage with all sorts of opinions, no matter how repulsive. But we must also debate with intellectual responsibility: We need to scrutinize our own opinions as rigorously as possible in light of new information.

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The University of Michigan Doubled Down on D.E.I. What Went Wrong?

October 16, 2024

Nicholas Confessore
New York Times Magazine

Excerpt: Leaders of the University of Michigan, one of America’s most prestigious public universities, like to say that their commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion is inseparable from the pursuit of academic excellence. Most students must take at least one class addressing “racial and ethnic intolerance and resulting inequality.” Doctoral students in educational studies must take an “equity lab” and a racial-justice seminar. Computer-science students are quizzed on microaggressions.

When Michigan inaugurated what it now calls D.E.I. 1.0, it intentionally placed itself in the vanguard of a revolution then reshaping American higher education. Around the country, college administrators were rapidly expanding D.E.I., convinced that such programs would help attract and retain a more diverse array of students and faculty.

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International University Leaders Convene to Discuss Threats to Academic Freedom

October 24, 2024

Ryann Quinn
Inside Higher Ed

Excerpt: Liviu Matei knows firsthand what it looks like when an authoritarian leader seeks to reshape higher education. Matei was provost at Central European University when the parliament led by Viktor Orbán, Hungary’s prime minister, passed a law in 2017 essentially forcing his institution out of the country. The law supposedly targeted foreign branch campuses, but many saw it as an attack on a university founded by liberal Hungarian American financier George Soros.

The situation became a worldwide “cause célèbre of academic freedom,” Matei said during a panel Wednesday. But he added that “you might be surprised to hear that there was almost no discussion about academic freedom in Europe between the fall of the Berlin Wall” and the new millennium.

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Why Polluting Speech Should Not Be Regulated

October 20, 2024

John K. Wilson
Academe Blog

Excerpt: The temptation to regulate free speech in the name of a higher good is a constant danger on the left, and the right. Too often, we ignore how centrist administrators and thinkers endorse censorship too easily, and how much power they hold. I think the greatest threats to campus free speech today come from right-wing legislators and wealthy donors seeking to suppress dissent and anxious administrators willing to silence controversial figures on the left or the right. But even well-intentioned arguments by leftists, conservatives, and centrists alike in defense of censorship help weaken the defense of free expression at a time when we need to make it stronger.

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Columbia suspends Shai Davidai’s campus access after he allegedly ‘harassed and intimidated’ University employees

October 22, 2024

Columbia Spectator
Rebecca Massel

Excerpt: Columbia temporarily suspended Business School assistant professor Shai Davidai’s campus access, University spokesperson Millie Wert confirmed in a statement to Spectator on Tuesday.

Davidai publicized the University’s decision to restrict him from campus in a video posted to his Instagram account on Tuesday evening. In the video, he said “the University has decided to not allow me to be on campus anymore. My job. Why? Because of Oct. 7. Because I was not afraid to stand up to the hateful mob. And because I was not afraid to expose Mr. fucking Cas Holloway.”

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The AAUP continues to back away from academic freedom

October 11, 2024

Robert Shibley
FIRE

Excerpt: This week, the American Association of University Professors gave its blessing to mandatory “diversity statements” in hiring — as long as the faculty votes for them first. FIRE has long argued that such statements can too easily function as ideological litmus tests and has repeatedly warned against them.

The AAUP’s new statement on “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Criteria for Faculty Evaluation” marks yet another departure from the organization’s roots as a stalwart protector of faculty members’ right to dissent from the orthodoxies of the day, whatever those might be.

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Tigers for Israel, Chabad art installation raises questions about U. policy on symbolic structures

October 12, 2024

Miriam Waldvogel
Daily Princetonian

Excerpt: An art installation on Wednesday, Oct. 8 sponsored by Tigers for Israel (TFI) and Chabad House on the Frist North Lawn, which was meant to draw awareness to the Israeli hostages held in Gaza and Hamas’ attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, may be the first test case of the University’s policy on symbolic structures following last spring’s ‘Gaza Solidarity Encampment.’

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‘Student Intifada’: Anti-Israel Harvard Student Groups Commemorate ‘One Year of Genocide’

October 08, 2024

Abigail Anthony
National Review

Excerpt: Four Harvard University student organizations released a joint statement on Monday denouncing the university and further claiming that the October 7 attacks on Israel showed “apartheid cannot stand.”

“One year ago today, Gaza broke through Israel's blockade, showing the world that the ongoing Nakba and apartheid cannot stand,” reads the statement released on October 7. “Every day since, the Israeli regime has escalated its 76-year-long occupation into a now 365-day-long genocide.”

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Censorship and Consternation Mar Oct. 7 Campus Remembrances

October 04, 2024

Johanna Alonso
Inside Higher Ed

Excerpt: With Monday marking the first anniversary of Hamas’s deadly attack on Israeli civilians and the beginning of the war in Gaza, numerous colleges are aiming to commemorate and honor the lives lost in the Middle East over the past year while also preparing for a new wave of protests.

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Commentary: Amy Wax Has Become a Right-Wing Troll. But Her Punishment Is Wrong.

October 04, 2024

Cathy Young
The Bulwark

Excerpt: THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA’S DECISION last week to punish tenured law professor Amy Wax with a one-year suspension and other sanctions for what her defenders call controversial opinions—and her detractors call racist hate speech—has been widely criticized as an egregious assault on intellectual freedom.

What ultimately emerges from an attempt to dig through the murky and complicated facts is an all-too-familiar story: that of a once-acclaimed conservative scholar on the path from heterodoxy to crackpottery and from outspoken to deliberately offensive. It is also one of those cases in which supporters of academic freedom must defend the right to express odious views without sugarcoating their odiousness.

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Campus Protest Investigations Hang Over Schools as New Academic Year Begins

October 05, 2024

Zach Montague
New York Times

Excerpt: With a new academic year well underway, more than 60 colleges and universities are still under federal investigation over antisemitic and Islamophobic incidents during the campus protests that swept the United States after the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel, according to the Department of Education.

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Princeton Opens Bias Investigations Into Anti-Palestinian, Anti-Israel Flyers

October 02, 2024

Hope Perry
Princeton Alumni Weekly

Excerpt: Stickers and flyers with hate messages have been found on campus in recent weeks, prompting the University to open investigations and remind the campus community of its role in addressing harassment.

Princeton Public Safety opened an investigation into a bias incident against Palestinians in early September when about 30 flyers printed with the phrases “Nuke Gaza” and “Kill Roaches” were found on a walkway near Spelman Hall. Several weeks later, on Sept. 28, multiple stickers were found scattered across campus on stop signs and bulletin boards with anti-Israel messages, including “Death to ‘Israel’” and “Tel-Aviv [sic] will Burn.”

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Princeton’s political student groups navigate U. restrictions as they prepare for this fall’s elections

September 25, 2024

Megan Cameron
Daily Princetonian

Excerpt: With Election Day just over a month away, Princeton’s politically active student groups are gearing up for a surge of campus engagement. Both the Princeton College Republicans and Princeton College Democrats are planning a series of events aimed at mobilizing students ahead of the Nov. 5 election. These groups are finding ways to encourage political engagement despite University restrictions on political activities, which are enforced by the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students (ODUS), the office under which these groups are registered.

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Commentary: Princeton’s Progressive Coalition opposes University’s latest protest bans

September 22, 2024

Alex Norbrook and Alan Plotz
Daily Princetonian

Excerpt: Princeton rolled out a new protest website two weeks ago, expanding their “time, place, and manner” restrictions to more times, more places, and more manners. By placing explicit bans on some of the most common forms of political demonstration, tightening language on obscure and inconsistently-applied existing restrictions, and departing from a constructive approach of speaking with protestors, the policies intend to stoke fear and chill protest.

We, the undersigned member organizations of the Princeton Progressive Coalition, oppose these tightened restrictions, reject the University’s hostile approach to protest, and call on all who support free speech and free expression to challenge these protest bans.

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Campus Protest Encampments Are Unethical

September 16, 2024

Conor Friedersdorf
The Atlantic

Excerpt: This semester, student protesters opposed to Israel’s war in Gaza have already defaced a statue at Columbia, vandalized an administration building at Cornell, and blocked access to a convocation at Pomona College. Whether they will return to the tactic of erecting protest encampments, as happened on nearly 100 campuses last spring, is uncertain.

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Commentary: Liberal students debate, you’re just not listening

September 18, 2024

Eleanor Clemans-Cope
Daily Princetonian

Excerpt: In a recent feature in The Atlantic, Princeton Lecturer Lauren Wright charges that conservative students on elite liberal college campuses like Princeton’s are constantly challenged and thus better prepared for real-world discourse, while liberal students are coddled and unwilling to engage. She backs this up with interviews from 43 college students — 28 conservatives and 15 liberals at “competitive schools.” But her framing reflects a misunderstanding of what truly constitutes meaningful intellectual and community dialogue on campus. I should know — I was one of her interviewees.

Wright misunderstands a critical aspect of campus dialogue. Liberals do interact with opinions that challenge their own, but they do so on issues that are typically grounded in productive, forward-looking dialogue, like criminal legal system reform, geo-engineered climate solutions, diplomatic engagement between the United States and China, and the morality of consulting jobs.

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Pro-Palestinian Protesters Return With Rally, March to Nassau Hall

September 06, 2024

Hope Perry ‘24
Princeton Alumni Weekly

Excerpt: Princeton Israeli Apartheid Divest (PIAD) returned this fall semester with an inaugural rally and a familiar message from last spring, calling for the University to divest and disassociate from Israel and Israeli companies, universities, and cultural institutions, and asking Princeton to drop charges against students who participated in an April sit-in.

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Student Organizers Are Shifting Tactics as Universities Impose New Restrictions on Protests

August 26, 2024

Juan Carlos Lara
KQED News

Excerpt: Most Bay Area universities are back in session for the fall semester, and with the return of classes comes the return of student organizers whose mass demonstrations and encampments rocked campuses across the country last spring.

Those organizers say they haven’t given up on their demands, but they are shifting tactics away from the 24/7 encampments. In recent weeks, university leaders have also announced policy changes that students fear will violate their first amendment rights and hamper their ability to organize effectively.

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UNC-Wilmington shuts down DEI office

August 14, 2024

Gabrielle Temaat
College Fix

Excerpt: The University of North Carolina Wilmington is the most recent college to close its “diversity and inclusion” office. The school announced the decision to shut down its Office of Institutional Diversity and Inclusion last week, according to WECT News.

“Based on policy requirements and consistent with System Office guidance, UNCW will close the Office of Institutional Diversity and Inclusion (OIDI), eliminate the Chief Diversity Officer position and shift the cultural and identity centers from OIDI to Student Affairs,” Chancellor Aswani K. Volety wrote in a message to the school.

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Commentary: AAUP drops 20-year opposition to academic boycotts

August 14, 2024

Jerry A. Coyne
Why Evolution Is True

Excerpt: Most rational people, I believe, are opposed to academic boycotts: those political movements that try to prohibit the exchange of scholars or academic information with countries deemed unacceptable on ideological grounds. These boycotts not only stem the free flow of information among countries that is the lifeblood of academia—especially of science—but also punish those who can contribute to this knowledge even though those people rarely have any influence with their government. Indeed, as in the case of Israel (surely the reason for the dropping of the boycott prohibition), many scholars are opposed to the government’s policies.

Inside Higher Ed reports on the ending of boycotts by the influential organization the American Association of University Professors, an organization that should know better.

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One Rule for Frat Boys. Another for Violent Activists

August 14, 2024

Francesca Block
The Free Press

Excerpt: The allegations were shocking. Fraternity brothers had been accused of beating new members with paddles, burning cigarettes into their skin, forcing them to lie on beds of nails, spitting on them, and commanding them to drink urine. University of Maryland administrators were alarmed by the claims, which appeared in their inboxes in late February, coming from at least two anonymous accounts. They decided to act fast.

But by the end of the school year in June, 35 Greek organizations out of the 37 on campus were cleared of all wrongdoing. The Maryland case, sources told me, reveals a double standard on American campuses today: students who openly break the law—including trespassing, breaking and entering, and harassing their fellow students—are given a pass when they’re committing crimes in the name of activism, while students suspected of behaving badly in their social lives are treated like villains.

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Columbia President Minouche Shafik Resigns Unexpectedly

August 14, 2024

Josh Moody
Inside Higher Ed

Excerpt: Columbia University President Minouche Shafik resigned abruptly Wednesday night after months of pressure from Congress and campus constituents over her handling of pro-Palestinian student protests.

Shafik spent a little more than a year in the role, a tenure fraught with tension over how she navigated campus demonstrations related to the war between Israel and Hamas that began last fall. The protests at Columbia—which set off a wave of similar demonstrations at colleges across the nation—culminated in the construction of an encampment in the center of campus and the occupation of an administrative building for nearly two weeks, resulting in the arrest of more than 100 protesters in April.

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Florida Public Colleges Ordered To Check Courses for 'Anti-Israel Bias'

August 08, 2024

Emma Camp
Reason Magazine

Excerpt: Last week, officials ordered several public universities in Florida to examine courses for "antisemitism or anti-Israeli bias," reported The Chronicle.

The directive, issued on Friday, ordered the leaders of 12 public universities in the State University System of Florida to provide the system's board of governors with a list of "related instructional materials" for any course whose description or syllabus contains the keywords Israel, Israeli, Palestine, Palestinian, Middle East, Zionism, Zionist, Judaism, Jewish, and Jews.

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When Oversight Becomes Intimidation and Control

August 08, 2024

John Warner
Inside Higher Ed

Excerpt: There are a number of recent stories about political acts that are direct attacks on how higher ed institutions operate that have me worried because they lack contemporary precedent.

Consider the gap between a board dedicated to overseeing the health and well-being of the institution and one specifically dedicated to “controlling” the institution, apparently on behalf of the state’s chief executive. Oversight and control are two very different things.

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Three Columbia Deans Who Sent Texts Evoking ‘Antisemitic Tropes’ Are Resigning

August 08, 2024

Robert Barba
Wall Street Journal

Excerpt: Three Columbia University deans, who were placed on indefinite leave last month over insensitive text messages they sent during a panel about Jewish life on campus, are resigning, a university spokeswoman said Thursday.

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The Growing Trend of Attacks on Tenure

August 05, 2024

Ryan Quinn
Inside Higher Ed

Excerpt: Over the past two years, lawmakers in at least 10 states have pushed legislation that would weaken—or outright eliminate—tenure in public colleges and universities. With the exception of a Democratic state senator in Hawai’i, these bills have all been pushed by Republicans in states such as Texas where the party controls the Legislature.

Despite these proposals, no state has actually gone through with fully banning tenure from its public colleges and universities. The bills that would’ve done so either failed to pass or were watered down before passage after facing opposition from faculty members, who stress that tenure protects academic freedom, including for conservatives, and from university leaders, who say it helps recruit professors who could make more outside academe.

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Conservative professor disciplined for criticizing DEI Gets $2.4 million to settle lawsuit against college

July 29, 2024

Jennifer Kabbany
College Fix

Excerpt: A Bakersfield College professor who was investigated and disciplined after he questioned the use of grant money to fund social justice initiatives at his school has agreed to a $2.4 million settlement to resolve his lawsuit.

Matthew Garrett, formerly a tenured history professor at the California community college, will receive $2,245,480 divided into monthly payments for the next 20 years as well as an immediate one-time payment of $154,520 as “compensation for back wages and medical benefits since [his] dismissal,” according to the July 10 settlement agreement.

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Americans’ Confidence In Higher Education Still Slipping, Survey Finds

August 01, 2024

Michael T. Nietzel
Forbes

Excerpt: Only 36% of Americans believe that higher education “is fine” as it is now, a five percentage-point decline from just a year ago. That’s one of the top-line findings of a new survey released this week by New America, the progressive think tank.

Americans’ growing unhappiness with the current state of higher education was also revealed by the fact that in 2024 73% of them believed that higher ed offers a good return on investment, down from 82% who felt that way in 2017. In addition, only 54% of Americans think that higher education is having a positive impact on the way things are going in the country today, a 16 percentage-point drop since 2019.

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Commentary: A Dangerous Victory For Social Media Companies

July 29, 2024

Sam Kahn
Persuasion

Excerpt: The Court has ruled, the results are in, and what we are left with is… the worst of all possible worlds.

In Moody v. NetChoice/NetChoice v. Paxton, the Court espoused a doctrine in which social media companies are viewed as curators or compilers of online material, with the feed constituting a “distinctive expressive offering”—even when those curatorial choices are in fact made by algorithms or AI tools. That philosophy gives the social media companies carte blanche to moderate—or censor—as they wish. Meanwhile, in the highly consequential case Murthy v. Missouri, the Court found that plaintiffs lacked standing to sue the government even when the government had copiously interfered in tech companies’ moderation practices.

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