University of Central Florida Assistant Professor Ali Borji, 39, is criminally charged over what police say was a pattern of stalking that included over 800 text messages a day to a female student. He was arrested on campus at this office on June 28th. UCF says that he resigned earlier from the Department of Computer Science. Continue reading “Publish and Perish? Florida Professor Arrested For Allegedly Stalking Student With 800 Messages A Day”
Category: Academia
The University of Exeter has had the embarrassing task for apologizing for its distribution of an inspiration quote to students that “One cannot permit unique opportunities to slip by for the sake of trifles.” The problem is that the quote is from General Erwin Rommel. What should be the most alarming aspect of this story is not the use of the Rommel quote but that the university personnel did not know who the “Desert Fox” was. Continue reading “University of Exeter Apologizes For Use of Inspirational Quote From Erwin Rommel”
Dr. Betsy Nabel, the president of Brigham and Women’s Hospital at Harvard Medical School has decided to sanitize the school’s Bornstein Amphitheater . . . of white men. Nabel declared recently that she decided that all of the portraits of the historical leaders of the hospitals made minority students and visitors uncomfortable because they are white and male. Nabel therefore ordered their removal and was celebrated for her race-based cleansing of history. Continue reading “Harvard Hospital President Removes Historical Portraits Of White Doctors In The Name Of Diversity”
Many academics have been been following the long-running litigation over Harvard’s admissions criteria. The University has steadfastly resisted efforts to review its admissions statistics and criteria by both litigants and even the Department of Education. It has had to turn over that information and the results are a bit stunning, particularly with regard to the treatment of Asian students. A federal case has revealed what challengers claim is a sizable bias against Asian students and in favor of African American students with much lower scores. This includes a systemic downgrading of Asian students on a “personal” category that many have suggested is an effort to conceal an effective race-based quota or affirmative action system.
Continue reading “Harvard Accused Of Anti-Asian Bias In Admissions”
There has been a rising movement in colleges and universities led by professors who are advocating speech regulation and contesting basic values of free speech. The anti-free speech movement takes many forms. I previously voiced my objections to Antifa and its anti-free speech values, including academics legitimizing efforts to violently curtail free speech on our campuses. One of the most recent examples is the writing of University of Tennessee sociology Professor Victor Ray who explained in a column in Inside Higher Ed that diversity of thought is something of a trap and is in reality “a Trojan horse for white identity politics.” Continue reading “Sociology Professor Declares Diversity of Thought Is “A Trojan Horse For White Identity Politics””
University of Southern California Associate Professor of Communication Stacy L. Smith has written a report entitled “Critic’s Choice?” with USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative which discussed the problem that film critics are “largely white and male.” The solution appears to be the selection of critics based on their race and gender — as opposed to simply their talent and writing — to achieve “inclusion among film reviewers.” We previously discussed a Canadian gender quota for directors.
Below is my column in USA Today on the assertion of President Donald Trump that he can pardon himself. Since such an act would be the most profoundly disgraceful moment in the history of the American presidency, it is chilling to have a president to even engage in such a public debate. However, I believe that such a power does exist in the Constitution. It is a long and unresolved debate that turns on how you interpret silence. Since the Constitution is silent on any bar against a president benefitting from this power, I believe that a self-pardon is indeed constitutional, even if distasteful. Continue reading “Trump Can Indeed Pardon Himself . . . And We Should Now Never Speak Of This Again”
Former high school dean Shaun Harrison, 58, has been found guilty in one of the most bizarre and disturbing criminal cases in Boston. Harrison was an anti-violence advocate that the students called “the Rev.” He turned out to be a drug dealer who shot a student who was selling pot for him.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Carmen Puliafito, 67, the former Dean at the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine, was pushed into drug use by a 21-year-old former prostitute named Sarah Warren. His counsel argued that the Harvard-trained ophthalmologist is bipolar and became “addicted” to the young woman who led him into perdition.
The ACLU has an interesting free speech case in Missouri where Kylan Scheele, 18, was banned from his graduation by the Truman High School in Independence, Missouri. The high school appeared a bit ticked after Scheele post a Craigslist ad to sell the school for $12,725. The ACLU contends that the ban violates Scheele’s first amendment rights.
We recently discussed the disruption of a speaker at a university that was led in part by a professor who believed that she had a right to prevent other faculty or students from hearing the views of speaker Dave Rubin, a Democrat online talk show host who has called for free speech protections on campuses. University of New Hampshire Professor Dr. Joelle Ruby Ryan screamed profanities and refused to respond to Rubin’s invitation to have a dialogue. She is part of a growing number of faculty who rally their students against free speech values and seek to prevent those with opposing views from being heard.
George Washington University is embroiled in a federal challenge against its handling of a case by one of our students accused of sexual assault. The case raises troubling questions of the school’s actions following the disclosure of alleged false statements by an accuser. Many years ago, I wrote a letter to the GW faculty objecting to changes in our rules governing the investigation and adjudication of sexual harassment and assault cases. Like many universities during the Obama Administration, GW was reducing protections for students accused of such misconduct under pressure from the Department of Education (here and here), Now, a “John Doe” has raised some of those very concerns in the alleged refusal of the school to allow an appeal in his case following the discovery of potentially exculpatory evidence. Continue reading “GWU Sued For Refusing Appeal In Sexual Assault Case Despite Allegations of False Testimony”
We have been discussing the erosion of free speech on campuses with rising speech codes and ambiguous rules barring “microaggressions.” A small percentage of students and faculty often push for such speech codes and regulation. However, it is often difficult for students and faculty to object at the risk of being called intolerant or microaggressors. Now there is a Gallup poll confirming that most students feel that they are no longer able to speak freely at college due to this minority of speech intolerant students and faculty. Ninety percent of Pomona students said that they did not feel free to speak openly or freely. It is an indictment of not just Pomona but many of our colleges. Continue reading “Gallup Poll: Ninety Percent Of Pomona Students Feel That They Cannot Speak Freely”
We have followed the continuing difficulties on airlines where the increasing number of therapy dogs has caused rising complaints from passengers and staff alike, including the recent bizarre case on Frontier Airlines. Universities are facing the same pressures as more students demand the right under federal law to bring their therapy pets to campus and their dormitories. At Yale, the number of such animals have increased from just one last year to 14 animals this year. This the increase has come complaints of constant barking and other inconveniences. Continue reading “Going To The Dogs? Therapy Animals Rise 1400 Percent In One Year At Yale”
There is an interesting complaint filed in U.S. ex rel Bernier v. Infilaw against the American Bar Association that accuses the ABA of negligence in its accreditation of the Charlotte School of Law, which later went defunct. What is interesting is that the lawsuit (alleging that the ABA should not have accredited the school) was brought not just by former student and graduate Ese Love, but a former faculty member, Barbara Bernier.