Free Speech on Campus - Page 4

Converse College Professor Jeffery Poelvoorde may lose his job over his refusal to attend “diversity” training seminars held at the South Carolina college. Despite the looming threat of losing his job, Poelvoorde has refused to back down.

Fordham University is facing a lawsuit filed by a Chinese immigrant student that was suspended from the university over an Instagram post in which he posed with a legally-obtained rifle to honor the anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre. The lawsuit seeks to reverse the probationary status that was imposed on the student as punishment for the post.

Professor Evan Osbourne of Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio, claims that his university has repeatedly rejected his proposal to teach a course that offers criticism of the philosophy of Karl Marx. Osbourne designed the class in response to several courses offered by his peers in the university’s economics department that promote Marxist teachings. According to Osborne, many of his peers continue to teach students that Marxism is a “triumph of human thought.”

The University of California, Irvine, apologized after it highlighted a conservative student organization on its Instagram page in June. Now, the president of the targeted student organization claims that he’s receiving hostile messages from other students.

A new poll has revealed that an overwhelming majority of college democrats support the removal of statues of America’s Founding Fathers. Students around the nation have launched campaigns that call for the removal of campus statues of American icons such as George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. Only four percent of college republicans agree.

Students at the University of Florida told Campus Reform this week that they would refuse to take a course with a professor that opposed the Black Lives Matter movement. Some students even said that professors that do not support the Black Lives Matter movement should be sanctioned or terminated.

Mike Adams, an outspoken conservative professor at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington, was found dead in his home on Thursday. Adams was forced to retire by administrators in July after he sparked controversy over politically incorrect tweets.

Students at Georgetown University published a petition this week in which they argued that police should be banned from the campus. By banning police, the students suggest that officials could create a “sanctuary space” for protesters.

Student Austin Tong of Fordham University has been placed on probation by the school for an Instagram post to honor the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre. In the post, Tong posed with a legally-obtained rifle to symbolize the resistance of pro-democracy activists in China.

Conservative students at Boston College were rejected this week in their effort to establish a conservative student newspaper. The students behind the proposal were previously told by the Board of Student Organizations in 2017 that their conservative newspaper project was “unnecessary.”

Princeton University President Christopher Eisgruber condemned Professor Joshua Katz this week over a column that Katz published in Quillette criticizing the Black Lives Matter movement on campus.

Marquette University reportedly threatened to rescind the admission of a student over TikTok videos that expressed support for President Donald Trump. After a period of uncertainty, Marquette ultimately told the student this week that they would not revoke her admission.

Professor Mike Adam of the University of North Carolina, Wilmington, will receive a $500,000 settlement in exchange for his retirement from the university just weeks after administrators faced pressure to fire Adams for a politically incorrect social media post. In May, celebrities called on the university to fire Adams over a tweet that he made about coronavirus lockdown policy.

A new survey commissioned by the Young America’s Foundation called the Youth Patriotism Index revealed that American colleges and universities are contributing to making students less patriotic. According to the survey, high school students are much more likely than college students to be proud to live in the United States.

A student organization called the Princeton Open Campus Coalition is urging university officials this week to push back against the demands of woke students and faculty. The university recently caved to demands to remove Woodrow Wilson’s name from the university’s school of public policy. According to the students, the “siege against academic freedom” is “fundamentally about ideology and power.”

Loyola University New Orleans students circulated a petition this week that calls for the removal of popular libertarian professor Walter Block over his philosophy on slavery. Block is facing criticism for his position that slavery is unethical because it violates the tenets of libertarianism.

The history department at UC Berkeley condemned an open letter allegedly penned by a professor for its criticisms of the Black Lives Matter movement. The anonymous letter criticized UC Berkeley faculty for failing to cultivate an environment that can tolerate criticism of social justice movements. According to the history department, criticism of Black Lives Matter “goes against our values.”

Michigan State University Vice President for Research and Innovations Stephen Hsu was forced to resign this week over his research on intelligence. Over 800 faculty members and students signed a petition that called on the university to remove Hsu from his position over his research. Although Hsu has been forced out of his VP position, he remains a member of the Michigan State faculty.

The top 100 universities in the United States overwhelmingly featured leftist commencement speakers this spring. A study found that only one university featured a conservative commencement speaker in 2020.

Students and faculty at Michigan State University are calling for the removal of Stephen Hsu, the university’s vice president for research and innovation, over his research on intelligence. Hsu has fired back at students and others calling for his dismissal: “The Twitter mobs want to suppress scientific work that they find objectionable. What is really at stake: academic freedom, open discussion of important ideas, scientific inquiry. All are imperiled and all must be defended.”

A group of students is defending UCLA Professor Gordon Klein, who was placed on leave after he denied a request to postpone a final exam for black students. Student activists at universities and colleges around the nation have demanded lenient grading and postponed exams for black students in response to the social unrest that has followed the death of George Floyd.

Worcester State University has reversed its previous decision to deny conservative students the ability to recruit members for a Turning Point USA (TPUSA) student group after calls by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) to end the school’s viewpoint discrimination.

The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), a First Amendment advocacy group, penned a letter this week in defense of UCLA lecturer Gordon Klein, who was suspended from the university over his refusal to postpone an exam for black students.

Cornell University Law School Professor and owner of the Legal Insurrection blog William A. Jacobson claims that university alumni and faculty are mounting a campaign to have him fired over his recent criticism of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Lousiana State University Professor Alyssa Johnson tweeted this week that she will prevent students from registering for her courses if they engage in “hate speech.” Johnson’s tweet has received scrutiny from several First Amendment advocacy organizations.

Arizona State University revoked a job offer from professor Sonya Forte Duhé after she praised “good police officers” on Twitter. Prior to the tweet, Duhé was scheduled to assume the role of dean of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State.

Ivanka Trump condemned “cancel culture” in a tweet published on Friday after Wichita State University revoked its invitation for her to speak at the school’s spring commencement ceremony.

Poll: 62% of College Students Don’t Believe They Will Be Infected with Coronavirus This Year

Stanford Professor Rose Salseda was removed from the university’s website after being accused of singing along to a rap song by N.W.A. including a racial slur. Salseda apologized to the Stanford community in a letter published on Monday. The professors performance left a student government leader asking, “Why do we have to put up with that kind of racial violence?”

The student government advisor at Wilmington College in Wilmington, Ohio, warned the school’s student body president, a member of Turning Point USA (TPUSA), that his conservative social media posts could put him “in this little box” and cause others to “cast judgment” on him, as well as burden his fellow student government members with having to answer for his opinions.

A recent poll conducted with students from around the nation revealed that professors are six times as likely to criticize President Donald Trump than Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.

The chancellor at Scottsdale Community College has apologized for “the uneven manner” in which it handled a professor that drew criticism on social media over test questions about Islamic terrorism. The community college initially criticized the professor and even suggested he be required to meet with an Islamic religious leader to review the contents of his course.

Leaders of universities and colleges in Rhode Island argued this week that the Chinese virus pandemic affirms the importance of the campus experience. Many leaders said that they are eager to reopen their campuses for students and faculty for the upcoming fall semester.

Covington Catholic High School student Nicholas Sandmann took to social media on Friday to announce that after being told he would never get into a university, he will be going to college on a scholarship this fall following his high school graduation.

The National Association of Scholars, a non-profit advocacy group for American professors, has called on universities and colleges to cut back on administrative bloat before they accept federal coronavirus relief. American universities and colleges added approximately 500,000 highly paid administrative jobs between 1987 and 2012.

The University of Portland is facing an investigation by the Department of Education over the exclusion of white students and faculty from a feminist student organization. The investigation is the result of a complaint by University of Michigan-Flint Professor Mark J. Perry who alleged that the practice constitutes a violation of Title VI, which prohibits discrimination based on race and color.