Category: Academia

Yale College Dean Placed On Leave For “Reprehensible” Yelp Reviews

PiersonshieldPierson College Dean June Chu has been a successful academic and administrator at Yale University.  However, that stellar record came to a halt — and Chu was put on leave — after it was discovered that she had written reviews on Yelp deemed offensive.  The controversy again raises the question of whether teachers should be subject to discipline for their comments outside of schools. Chu is not accused of saying anything offensive to students or even on campus.  Yet her Yelp comments were enough to force her into a leave of absence.

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California State University Professor Sued After Allegedly Leading Students Out Of Class To Wipe Out Pro-Life Messages On Campus

downloadWe have been writing about the enculturation of anti-free speech values in college students across the country.   The most recent incident occurred at the California State University where assistant professor of public health professor Greg Thatcher is shown on a videotape wiping out the pro-life statements written in chalk by members of Fresno State Students for Life.  Thatcher supports his students who destroyed the messages before his arrival (those students said that their teacher gave them permission to destroy the free speech of other students).  Thatcher’s attitude and open contempt for free speech is chilling. It is also now the subject of a free speech lawsuit filed against him in his personal capacity.

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UC Santa Cruz Yields To Four Demands After Students Occupy Administrative Offices . . . Students Then Add Three More Demands

The_University_of_California_1868_UCSC.svgWe have been discussing Black Lives Matter and other protests on campuses where students have demanded changes in everything from exam grading to tenure decisions to housing.  Many of these demands raise troubling questions about the academic integrity of academic institutions as well as free speech and other countervailing concerns.  

University of California Santa Cruz has yielded to four demands from protesters after they occupied Kerr Hall.  The school now faces demands for three additional demands and has been given Chancellor George Blumenthal  four months to comply over face “more reclamations.”

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Agricultural Scientist Responds To Oregon County’s Mandate To Apply Herbicides To Organic Farm

By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor

Yesterday I fielded an article concerning a rather distressing mandate by an Oregon county weed control agency seeking to force the application of hazardous herbicides onto a 2,000 acre organic farm owned by Azure Farms. Sherman County Oregon maintains this scorched earth policy is necessary to abate, or more specifically “eradicate”, weeds listed by state statute as noxious.

Now, the scientific community is responding to this overreaching government action by acting in the interests of health and responsible environmental stewardship through advocacy in the hopes that officials in Sherman County will reconsider their mandate.

Dr. Charles Benbrook is a highly credentialed research professor and expert serving on several boards of directors for agribusiness and natural resources organizations. Having read news of Sherman County’s actions, he penned an authoritative response I believe will make informative reading for those concerned by present and future implications in the forced use of herbicides under the rubric of noxious weed eradication, and the damage to organic farming generally arising from such mandates.

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Duke Divinity Professor Who Questioned Diversity Training Resigns After Being Put Under Investigation

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School Withdraws Suspension Of Middle Schooler For “liking” Picture of An Airsoft Gun

There is another moronic application of the “zero tolerance” policy of public schools out of Ohio at the Edgewood Middle School.  Administrators informed the parents of Zachary Bowlin that he was facing suspension because he merely “liked” a picture of an airsoft gun on Instagram.  While the school withdrew the suspension after public outcry, there is (again) no indication that anyone will be disciplined for this abusive treatment of a middle schooler.

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The Booger Diet: New Study Shows Medical Benefits of Mucus

Mucus_cellsFirst there was that warning that our faces would “freeze like that” when we made grotesque grimaces.  Then there was the thing about an apple a day keeping the doctor away.  Then there was the warning that if you keep putting your finger up your nose, your finger is going to get stuck up there.  Some maternal warnings are debatable from a medical science perspective and it appears that another one has just fallen.  Remember Mom telling you to take your finger out of your noses and not to eat snot?  Scientists at Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) say that eating boogers is actually good for your teeth and health.

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Four California Students Sue After Being Suspended For “Liking” Postings on Instragram

225px-Instagram_logoThere is an important lawsuit that has been filed in California after four high school students were suspended for simply “liking” Instagram posts deemed racist.  The lawsuit could force reconsideration of the erosion of free speech rights for students, including the widening scope of discipline for student speech outside of schools.  School officials now believe that they have full license to punish students if their personal views outside of school do not conform with accepted values. This case did have troubling aspects that raised legitimate concerns (though these students were not the author of the posting).  The question is one of authority to regulate speech outside of schools if they do not involve criminal threats.

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Berkeley Student Leader Denounces Campus Police As Triggering and Rejects Free Speech Protections For Speakers Like Ann Coulter

Seal_of_University_of_California,_Berkeley.svgWe have been discussing the alarming erosion of free speech on our campuses and the increasingly twisted view of free speech by students calling for speech codes and regulations.  At the same time, we have seen campus police denounced as being a “triggering” element on campuses (Here and here). Both trends were evident this month at the University of California at Berkeley, including the alarming published comments of a student senator,  Juniper Angelica Cordova-Goff.  Cordova-Goff denounced the large presence of campus police to deal with the protests as triggering while reaffirmed that free speech should not protect speakers who she views as part of a “violent conversation” like conservative Ann Coulter.

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National Student Union Bans Clapping and Whooping As “Triggering” and Non-Inclusive

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TRIGGER WARNING: THIS ARTICLE ON CRUCIFIXION MAY REFERENCE CRUCIFIXION

Marco_palmezzano,_crocifissione_degli_UffiziThe new catchword on campuses is “triggering.”  Universities now warn students about any possible “trigger” that might upset them in curriculum or even faculty lectures.  Monash University now issues triggering warnings for courses like Surgeon General warnings on a pack of cigarettes.   At the University of Glasgow, theology students are being warned in advance that, in courses dealing with Christ, they may see distressing images of crucifixion.

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Clemson Dean Calls For Students To Pass “Intercultural Competency” Test As A Pre-Condition for Holding School Offices

Clemson_University_Seal.svgAltheia Richardson, Clemson University’s director of the Gantt Multicultural Center has triggered a controversy with a proposal that all students should pass an “intercultural competency” test before they’re allowed to run for office or hold positions in the South Carolina college’s student government.  Clemson students are already required to  to take a social justice course following enrollment.  Richardson’s proposal has enraged some students as an ideological test for office — a position that Richardson denies.

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Drexel To Investigate Controversial Professor After Complaints From Donors and Politicians

Drexel University Professor George Ciccariello-Maher is an unabashed lightning rod for controversy.  Last Christmas, he wrote how he longed for “white genocide”.  Then recently he wrote how he wanted to “vomit” when an airline passenger gave up his first class seat to a soldier. It is chilling and obnoxious rhetoric, but he made these comments on his private social media sites.  The investigation by Drexel appears to be the direct result of donors threatening to withdraw support for the university. As such, it is a highly troubling intrusion into the right of free speech of faculty.

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Oxford University Warns That Failure To Make Eye Contact Can Be MicroAggression and “Subtle Racism”

oxford_university_coat_of_arms-svgo-WITCH-TRIALS-facebookIt appears that being shy could now be part of the ever-widening and ill-defined ranger of “micro aggressions.”  Oxford’s Equality and Diversity Unit has issued a statement to student that avoiding eye contact or  “not speaking directly to people” could be deemed a “racial microaggression.” Such a failure to maintain eye contact is cited as a possible cause for “mental ill-health”.

Indiana State University Professor Arrested For False Reports Of Anti-Islamic Threats and Assault

 

imgresAzhar Hussain, an assistant professor at Indiana State University, has been arrested for allegedly making false reports of anti-Islamic threats and an attack. Hussain, 56, teaches aviation technology.

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Res ipsa loquitur – The thing itself speaks