Tag Archive for: academia

Feminist Gender Theorist Explains Hamas Raping Jewish Women is ‘Resistance’

Feminist gender theorists begin by declaring that women don’t exist and then conclude by justifying their rape and murder.

Judith Butler has always been ahead of her time.

She was ahead of her time in adopting pronouns and in promoting gender theory. And all the way back in 2006, the feminist gender theorist and UC Berkeley academic declared that Hamas was progressive.

“Yes, understanding Hamas, Hezbollah as social movements that are progressive, that are on the Left, that are part of a global Left, is extremely important.”

Like most fanatics, Oct 7 only made Judith Butler double down on her belief in the progressive qualities of Hamas.

“We can have different views about Hamas as a political party, we can have different views about armed resistance. But […] the uprising of October 7th was an act of armed resistance,” Butler recently declared.

Butler’s brand of gender theory had begun the deconstruction of the idea that women exist. A few years ago, Butler was claiming the “trans” brand and arguing that “the category of woman can and does change, and we need it to be that way.”

Feminist gender theorists begin by declaring that women don’t exist and then conclude by justifying their rape and murder.

AUTHOR

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EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Can Harvard Be Saved From DEI and a Debased Curriculum?

Harry Lewis has been at Harvard, man and boy, for fifty years. He’s a professor of computer science, and formerly Dean of Harvard. He has long been a Cassandra, a vox clamantis in deserto, alarmed about the state of education at Harvard, where he has registered the decline brought about by the madness of DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) and by self-indulgent faculty members who teach what they want — their niche subjects — rather than what the students need. More on Professor Lewis’s analysis of Harvard’s “debased curriculum,” and comments on it by Professor Peter Berkowitz of the Hoover Institution, can be found here: “Harvard’s Crisis Stems From Debased Curriculum,” by Peter Berkowitz, Real Clear PoliticsFebruary 18, 2024:

Last month, Harry Lewis published a Harvard Crimson column that squarely laid the blame on Harvard for the crisis that has engulfed the great university. Fifty years of experience on the banks of the Charles River inform Lewis’ severe judgment: He is a longtime Harvard computer science professor, a 1968 Harvard College graduate, and, from 1995 to 2003, he served as dean of Harvard College. Nevertheless, while illuminating Harvard’s damaging politicization over the last 20 years of its undergraduate curriculum – and despite his half century at Harvard – Lewis overlooks the full extent of the crisis.

In “Reaping What We Have Taught,” Lewis maintained that the surge of antisemitism on campus following Hamas’ perpetration of mass atrocities in Israel on Oct. 7 was not the fault of Claudine Gay, who resigned as Harvard’s president in early January. Nor, he asserted, had Harvard admitted antisemitic students or hired antisemitic faculty. The problem, rather, lies in Harvard’s curriculum: “Unapologetic antisemitism – whether the incidents are few or numerous – is a college phenomenon because of what we teach, and how our teachings are exploited by malign actors.”

Lewis performed a simple experiment. He typed into the Harvard online course catalog search box key words associated with fashionable progressive ideology. The word “decolonize,” he found, “is in the titles of seven courses and the descriptions of 18 more” – more than triple its appearance before 2000. The words “oppression” and “liberation” are each “in the descriptions of more than 80 courses,” while “‘Social justice’ is in over 100.” Lewis also searched for “white supremacy” and “Enlightenment” – these days, it is often said, the latter arises out of and perpetuates the former. He discovered that the terms’ appearances in the online course catalog run “neck and neck, both ahead of ‘scientific revolution’ but behind ‘intersectionality,’” which barely registered before 2000…..

Consider the Ethics & Civics category. The 2024 spring semester offerings feature such options as “Ethics of Climate Change,”; “Evolving Morality: From Primordial Soup to Superintelligent Machines,” and “Ignorance, Lies, Hogwash, and Humbug” (which deals with fake news and other forms of deceit that mark “the post-truth era”). With one of these courses, students can check the ethics and civics requirement at Harvard without ever studying Western civilization’s biblical and classical foundations, the synthesis of faith and reason in the Muslim, Christian, and Jewish Middle Ages, the modern tradition of freedom’s emergence in the 17th and 18th centuries, and, not least, America’s founding principles and constitutional traditions.

The post-Oct. 7 educational crisis at Harvard, entwined with antisemitism, has been several decades in the making. Effective reform must replace the current curriculum, which advances professors’ interests in niche scholarship and partisan politics, with one that serves students’ interests in acquiring an organized introduction to the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences and in undertaking a reasoned exploration of the United States, the West, and the world.

Can the curriculum be changed at Harvard, removing niche subjects offered by self-indulgent professors, so that again requiring that students be provided with what they need to know: the “general education” that demands basic instruction in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences? And who will remove the modish madness of DEI from the campus, so that it no longer the deciding factor in determining the courses that are taught, the faculty who are hired, and the students who are admitted? What Dean or future President of Harvard would take on the twin tasks of DEI removal and curriculum reform? Perhaps, despite his age, the Harvard Corporation will offer the job of President to Harry Lewis himself. That would be a welcome sign from the Corporation that it’s willing to break with the past. Harvard could not do better.

AUTHOR

EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Columbia University: Posters appear featuring skunk with Star of David, ‘Skunk on Campus’

The combination of Leftist and Islamic Jew-hatred is creating a particularly threatening environment for Jewish and pro-Israeli students.

https://x.com/shaidavidai/status/1752885796921622612?s=12&t=SDSG25xf9fp_h3ec407xlw

The National Socialists called Jews “vermin” and presented their mass murder of them as a purification of Germany, and of Europe in general. The people behind these posters aren’t far from that.

“Antisemitic poster of skunk with Star of David plastered across Columbia University: ‘Villainizes Jewish and Israeli students,’” by Aneeta Bhole, New York Post, February 6, 2024:

An antisemitic flier depicting a skunk in the white and blue of the Israeli flag and a Star of David has surfaced on Columbia University’s campus, sparking outrage among the Jewish community.

The poster “villainizes Jewish and Israeli students on campus and fosters an increasingly hostile environment,” according to the Anti-Defamation League for New York and New Jersey, who blasted the Columbia administration for not taking action to stop it sooner on X.

The skunk depiction has been likened to Nazi propaganda posters used during World War II — which dehumanized the Jewish community and compared them to vermin.

“That skunk poster evokes classic antisemitic tropes that are instantly familiar to anyone who has seen Nazi propaganda,” the director of programming and strategy at End Jew Hatred Michelle Ahdoot told the Post.

The post was highlighted by Shai Davidai, an Assistant Professor at Columbia’s business school.

“This poster seen today on campus depicts all Israelis as skunks. If any other group was depicted as animals, the school would have already called the FBI to investigate,” he wrote on X.

“What’s next? All Jews are vermin? Columbia University – what the f*** are you waiting for?”

A Columbia University spokesperson told the Post that the posters were found on campus this past week and were deemed “abhorrent and antisemitic” by the administration.

“As soon as the University learned of them, they were removed and a report was filed under the University’s anti-discrimination policies,” a statement from Columbia continued.

It remains unclear who made the poster which reads — “Beware! Skunk on Campus. Brought to you in collaboration by Columbia University and the IDF,” referring to the Israel Defense Forces, who are currently battling Hamas in Gaza, causing tensions between Muslims and Jewish people to rise around the globe….

AUTHOR

EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. All rights reserved.

American Muslims for Palestine calls on Muslims to ‘make Zionists feel very uncomfortable on campus’

This kind of talk, larded as it is with dreary Marxist rhetoric about “colonization,” is why we are seeing the increasing physical intimidation and menacing of Jewish students on campuses, and sometimes even physical attacks.

American Muslims for Palestine Official Taher Herzallah at San Diego Mosque: This Is the Time to Make Zionists Feel Very Uncomfortable on Campuses; It Is Incumbent Upon the Muslims to Rule Palestine, Enforce the Rules of Allah on Earth

MEMRI, December 23, 2023:

AMP director of outreach and grassroots organization Taher Herzallah spoke at a December 23, 2023 AMP event held at the Islamic Center of San Diego about pro-Palestinian student activism. He said that this is the time to make the Zionists feel “very uncomfortable on campus.” He stated that the “Zionists are really going to regret the day they made Muslims their enemy,” and he claimed that the Jews colonized Palestine in order to be accepted into “whiteness.” Herzallah said that on October 7, the people of Yemen and Gaza destroyed the “veneer of superiority” of the West and the colonizers, and he advised his audience to follow the path they have set. He said that it is “incumbent” on the Muslims to rule Palestine from the River to the Sea and that the Muslims will “bring the rules that Allah gave us to this earth, because that’s what we were sent for.” Other speakers at the AMP event were the mosque’s imams, Taha Hassane and Shaykh Abdeljalil Mezgouri, Dr. Ahmed Soboh, the religious director of the Islamic Center of Yorba Linda, religious advisor of the Chino Calley Islamic Center, former chairman of the Islamic shura council of southern California, and board member of CAIR LA, and Osama Shabaik, member of the “Irving 11,” along with Taher Herzallah. The event was streamed live on the YouTube channel of the Islamic Center of San Diego.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

The Graves of Academe

From The Center For Public Leadership at Harvard’s Kennedy School:

Our faculty and programs translate theory into applied practice in fresh ways and ask critical questions. Through scholarship, education, and practice, we interrogate and explore what it means to lead and serve with the goal of creating a more equitable and just world.

THE LEADERSHIP AND HAPPINESS LABORATORY

The Leadership and Happiness Laboratory conducts integrative research and creates educational resources for leaders in all sectors to learn the science of happiness, apply it in their own lives, and share it with others.

LEARN MORE ABOUT THE HAPPINESS LAB

NEGOTIATE WELL

Negotiate WELL provides negotiation resources for managers, negotiators, and educators.

LEARN MORE ABOUT NEGOTIATE WELL

NEGOTIATION AND CONFLICT RESOLUTION COLLABORATORY

The Negotiation and Conflict Resolution Collaboratory develops ways to connect students of negotiation with practitioners on the frontlines and faculty leading cutting-edge research.

LEARN MORE ABOUT NCRC

PRACTICING DEMOCRACY PROJECT

The Practicing Democracy Project  enables people to work together to develop the leadership, build the community, and create the power to fulfill the democratic promise of equal, inclusive, and collective agency.

LEARN MORE ABOUT PDP

PROGRAM ON CRISIS LEADERSHIP

The Program on Crisis Leadership focuses on risk reduction, emergency preparedness, crisis response, and disaster recovery leadership challenges.

LEARN MORE ABOUT PCL

SOCIAL INNOVATION + CHANGE INITIATIVE 

The Social Innovation + Change Initiative hosts the New World Social Innovation Fellowship: a rigorous co-curricular program for path makers, change makers, and pioneers committed to addressing pressing social problems in new and creative ways.

LEARN MORE ABOUT SICI

Leadership And Happiness Laboratory?

Sign me up.

AUTHOR

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EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. All rights reserved.

Left: Preventing the Government from Censoring Free Speech is Censorship

The “clear message is to have this sort of chilling effect on communication between the government and platforms.”

After a federal judge issued a ruling ordering the federal government to stop “specifically flagging content or posts on social-media platforms and/or forwarding such to social-media companies urging, encouraging, pressuring, or inducing in any manner for removal, deletion, suppression, or reduction of content containing protected free speech.”

The lefty censorship lobby responded with pages of unhinged hysteria that failed to address the issue.

Conservatives were repeatedly accused of trafficking in false conspiracy theories to achieve this outcome. But if so, then why worry about the verdict? If the Biden administration isn’t actively urging, encouraging, pressuring, or inducing social media firms in any manner for removal, deletion, suppression, or reduction of content containing protected free speech, what could the problem possibly be?

Secondly, lefties and their media claimed that barring the government from advocating censorship was interfering in its free speech.

Here’s the government-funded NPR complaining that, “the government’s ability to fight disinformation online has suffered a legal setback that experts say will have a chilling effect on communications between federal agencies and social media companies.”

A chilling effect generally applies to government suppression of speech, not the suppression of government censorship.

“It’s hard to think of a more sweeping ruling,” says Evelyn Douek, an expert on the regulation of online speech and a professor at Stanford Law School.

“The injunction enjoins tens of thousands, maybe hundred [of] thousands of federal government employees from having almost any kind of communication with private platforms about content on their services,” Douek tells NPR. She notes that while there are exceptions for certain types of criminal content, overall, the “clear message is to have this sort of chilling effect on communication between the government and platforms.”

Actually, it’s pretty clear about what government employees can and can’t do. They can do most things like send a pineapple to Facebook by courier or ask it to remove pro-ISIS propaganda, what they can’t do is “specifically flagging content or posts on social-media platforms and/or forwarding such to social-media companies urging, encouraging, pressuring, or inducing in any manner for removal, deletion, suppression, or reduction of content containing protected free speech.”

Pretty clear.

The term ‘Orwellian’ gets thrown around far too much but here the Left has decided to argue that preventing government employees from censoring people has a chilling effect on their speech. One wonders what the old ACLU or any 1960s liberal would have made of that argument.

Big Tech used a variation of this argument to Florida bans on internet censorship, but the government doesn’t even have a platform. It and its allies are fighting for the right to go censoring.

AUTHOR

EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Texas A&M received almost $500,000,000 in grants from jihad terror-linked Qatar regime

It isn’t just Texas A&M. Georgetown and Harvard, among many others, are bought and paid for as well. This is why our nation’s universities never speak the truth about jihad, Sharia, Islam’s origins, or other key issues, and instead pay lavish attention to the spurious phenomenon of “Islamophobia.”

Documents Show Texas A&M Appeared to Receive Almost $500 Million in Grants from Qatar Regime

Judicial Watch, May 3, 2023:

(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that it received records from Texas A&M indicating that it received $485,811,921.33 in grants and contracts from the Qatar Foundation.

There appear to be discrepancies between what is listed in the gift reporting received from Texas A&M and what was reported by the school to the federal foreign gift reporting system. For instance, Texas A&M’s gift record for January 1, 2013 – May 22, 2018, only lists a total of $69,844.41 from the Qatar Foundation, whereas the Department of Education’s database shows a total of over $47 million for the same period.

The new information was released in a court victory last month in litigation on behalf of Judicial Watch client Zachor Legal Institute under the Texas Public Information Act. Zachor fought for information about the potential influence by the Qatar government’s funding of certain Texas A&M University programs and a Texas A&M campus in Education City, Al Rayyan, Qatar (Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development v. Ken Paxton, Texas Attorney General (No. D-1-GN-18-006240))….

Read more.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

The Graves of Academe: Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Queer and Trans Studies

Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics

I’ve been intermittently visiting – sometimes with amusement, always with horror —  a website where academic jobs are advertised. I do this not  for myself, but to help keep tabs for a friend’s son, who has been looking for permanent employment in a university for several years. His problem is that he is, in every possible way, wrong, just wrong. He’s a white male. White males are so…well, you know. There are just so many – far too many — of them in the groves of academe. It’s only fair to put a hiring freeze on the entire category – no more white males,  until everything evens out. He studies European history. Europe is so…yesterday. Something has to be dropped, after all, to make room for Pan-African Studies, Islamic Studies, North African Studies, Qaddafi Studies, Gender Studies, Queer Studies, Black Queer Studies, Black Feminist Queer Studies,  Reparations Studies, Palestinian Diaspora Studies, Interpersonal Preference Theory, Psycho-Psychology, Latinx LGBTQ Studies, Scheduled Caste Studies, Identity Studies, und so weiter. He knows à fond four, or possibly five, languages, acquired at great effort. And he can do research in another three. But languages are out. Who needs them, now that we all have Google Translate? He’s attended – received high degrees from — several of the most famous universities in England and America. His doctoral thesis was a brilliant piece of work. So what? He has one book coming out this year, and another in 2024. Who cares?

What I have learned is that the Gods of the Copybook Headings are Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Sometimes the elements are rearranged, like those famous deck chairs on James Cameron’s doomed ship, just for fun, even though we all know it will soon be sinking. University X wants to hire only those convinced of the deep need for Equity, Inclusion, and Diversity, while University Y, on the other hand, wants to hire only those who positively pant to prove their worth in furthering Inclusion, Equity, and Diversity.  University Z, the most tradition-bound of the three, hopes to employ only the most enthusiastic coney-barker promoters of that tripartite panacea for all our woes, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.

Did I mention Gender? Did I mention Race?

I don’t think I can take much more of this.

Framingham State UNIVERSITY  “Six Higher Education Excellence In Diversity Awards”

At FSU, we are deeply committed to inclusive excellence and strive to promote a culture of antiracism, encouraging a challenging yet collaborative learning environment, and providing culturally relevant education. FSU is designated as an emerging Hispanic-Serving Institution by the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities and also belongs to the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Inclusive Excellence community, providing national leadership in science education and exploring strategies that will lead to more inclusive science education. We are honored that our commitment earned FSU six Higher Education Excellence in Diversity (HEED) Awards from INSIGHT Into Diversity. We encourage applications from those who share our commitment to promoting a diverse, welcoming, and inclusive community.

University of Richmond: “Developing A Diverse Workforce”

The University of Richmond is a private university located just a short drive from downtown Richmond, Virginia. Through its five schools and wide array of campus programming, the University combines the best qualities of a small liberal arts college and a large university. With approximately 4,000 students, an 8:1 student-faculty ratio, and more than 90% of traditional undergraduate students living on campus, the University is remarkably student-centered, focused on preparing students “to live lives of purpose, thoughtful inquiry, and responsible leadership in a global and pluralistic society.”

The University of Richmond is committed to developing a diverse workforce and student body, and to modeling an inclusive campus community which values the expression of difference in ways that promote excellence in teaching, learning, personal development, and institutional success. Our academic community strongly encourages applications that are in keeping with this commitment. For more information on the department and its programs, please see history.richmond.edu.

Loyola University: “Diversity Reading Groups” and “Best Practices for Hiring”

“With a newly established Office of Equity and Inclusion headed by our Chief Equity and Inclusion Officer, we are committed to providing an environment where everyone can learn, grow, and thrive. Key efforts include faculty development programming, opportunities for learning (e.g., Diversity Reading Groups), investment in pedagogical resources for differential instruction (e.g., Fellows Programs), affinity faculty and staff groups, and following best-practices for hiring.

Loyola University Maryland strongly values the benefits that diversity brings to the workplace. In accord with its Ignatian values, the University is committed to creating and promoting a community that recognizes the inherent value and dignity of each person. Loyola University Maryland does not discriminate on the basis of race, sex, color, national or ethnic origin, age, religion, disability, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, military status, or any other legally protected classification.

University of California, Berkeley: “Equity, Inclusion, And Belonging”

“Diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging are core values at UC Berkeley. Our excellence can only be fully realized by faculty, students, and academic and non-academic staff who share our commitment to these values. Successful candidates for our academic positions will demonstrate evidence of a commitment to advancing equity, inclusion, and belonging.

“The University of California, Berkeley is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, age, or protected veteran status. For the complete University of California nondiscrimination and affirmative action policy see: http://policy.ucop.edu/doc/4000376/NondiscrimAffirmAct

Beloit College: “Critical Identity Studies”

We welcome candidates from a variety of disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives, as well as those who can contribute to programs in Justice and Rights, Critical Identity Studies or Environmental Studies. Teaching responsibilities include survey courses in modern U.S. history as well as introductory and upper-level courses in the candidate’s area of expertise. The successful candidate will share Beloit’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, and will demonstrate an ability to support students from historically underrepresented backgrounds.

Because equity and inclusion are central to our students’ liberal education and vital to the thriving of all members of our residential learning community, Beloit College aspires to be an actively anti-racist institution. We recognize our aspiration as ongoing and institution-wide, involving collective commitment and accountability. We welcome employees who are committed to and will actively contribute to our efforts to celebrate our cultural and intellectual richness and be resolute in advancing inclusion and equity. We encourage all interested individuals meeting the criteria of the described position to apply.

Located in a diverse community close to Madison, Milwaukee, and Chicago, Beloit is a selective undergraduate liberal arts college that attracts students from across the United States and the world. The college emphasizes excellence in teaching, learning beyond the traditional classroom, international perspectives, and collaborative research among students and faculty. It is recognized as one of the Colleges That Change Lives. AA/EEO

Rutgers University: “Racial Justice Work”

The Department of Childhood Studies at Rutgers University—Camden invites applications for a one-year postdoctoral fellowship, renewable for a second year, to commence September 1, 2023. The position will be funded by a Higher Learning grant awarded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation as part of the “Rethinking Race and Justice Through Childhood Studies” initiative. This initiative seeks to support emerging scholars of race and childhood, provide institutional support for racial justice work in the field, and demonstrate the justice and career potential of humanities training through civically engaged childhood studies.

The department has hosted several major international conferences, sponsors an array of lectures and symposia, including our speaker series in Centering Black Childhoods and workshop series on anti-racist pedagogy, and annually welcomes visiting scholars from around the world.

Applicants must have earned the Ph.D. in Childhood Studies or another humanities-related field, such as English, History, African American Studies, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Latinx Studies, Film/Media Studies, Education, Geography, or Cultural Studies

Rutgers University—Camden’s Department of Childhood Studies is committed to fostering diversity within its community. We are eager to further diversify our faculty and encourage Black, Indigenous and people of color, persons with disabilities and persons of any sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression to apply.

Wesleyan University: “Non-Position-Related Criminal Record”

Wesleyan University invites applications for an Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship in African American Studies beginning July 1, 2023. We seek candidates with expertise in research areas concerning the African Diaspora, particularly Latin America and/or the Pacific, with substantive research and teaching interests in Black feminisms, Afro-Atlantic history, disability studies, queer studies, and/or environmental studies. The successful candidate will offer courses originating in the African American Studies Department.

“In the cover letter, applicants should describe how they will embrace the college’s commitment to fostering an inclusive community, as well as their experience working with individuals from historically marginalized or underserved groups.

Wesleyan University does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religious practice or creed, age, gender, gender identity or expression, national origin, marital status, ancestry, present or past history of mental disorder, learning disability or physical disability, political belief, veteran status, sexual orientation, genetic information or non-position-related criminal record.

Northern Arizona University: “Focus On Queer And/Or Trans Studies and Transnational Feminisms”

“We are looking for a teacher-scholar with a PhD in Women’s and Gender Studies or a related field. We especially welcome applicants who focus on queer and/or trans studies and transnational feminisms, and who demonstrate engagement with intersectionality. The ideal candidate will have a record of effective teaching in classes related to the WGS Queer Studies Minor, as well as WGS introductory, core, transnational or global feminisms, and other elective courses. Successful candidates should have experience in or attentiveness to working with underrepresented groups.

University of Winnipeg: “Preference Given to Indigenous Persons and Members of Racialized Communities”

The Department of History at the University of Winnipeg acknowledges that we live and work in the ancestral and traditional territories of the Anishinaabe, Anishininew, Assiniboine, Cree, Dakota, Dene, and the heartland of the Métis nation.

We invite applications for a tenure-track position in Indigenous History at the rank of Assistant Professor, beginning July 1, 2023, subject to budgetary approval. The successful candidate will have, or be close to completing, a PhD in Indigenous History or a directly related field, such as Indigenous Studies, with a specialization in Indigenous Peoples whose homelands are located in part or wholly within the modern boundaries of Canada and the continental USA. This can include those with a transborder specialization encompassing the present-day US-Mexico borderlands. This position is open to all with a preference given to Indigenous Persons and members of Racialized Communities.

“In the cover letter the applicant is strongly encouraged to provide a description of their relationship to the study of Indigenous History which might include (but is not limited to) family lines and relationality, community relationships, connections to place, Indigenous Identity, or organizational affiliations.

University of Hamburg, Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin bzw. Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter (w/m/d) in Literaturwissenschaft/Wissenskulturen und Interdisziplinarität § 28 Abs. 3 HmbHG,

I’m sorry, but your words are too long. Please try again.

University of Innsbruck, Universitätsprofessur für Germanistische Mediävistik mit Schwerpunkt Spätmittelalter und Frühe Neuzeit (15.05.2023)

That means you too, Innsbruck.

AUTHOR

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EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission all rights reserved

University of Arizona: Muslim killed prof he thought was Jewish, antisemitic aspects of killing were downplayed

In this article about how the antisemitic aspects of the killing were denied or downplayed, the far-Left Forward doesn’t dare consider the question of what made Murad Dervish so violently antisemitic. That kind of investigation might end up being “Islamophobic.” Can’t have that.

Did everyone miss an antisemitic campus murder?

by Arno Rosenfeld, Forward, February 15, 2023:

Here are some facts. On Yom Kippur, a former University of Arizona graduate student named Murad Dervish stormed into the earth sciences building on campus. Dervish believed Thomas Meixner, the hydrology department head, was leading a Jewish conspiracy against him. “Kikes should not be allowed to exist anywhere, ever,” Dervish had previously told one faculty member. Dervish allegedly shot and killed Meixner. It was the only such murder in 2022, a year full of antisemitism. It escaped widespread attention until after Thanksgiving.

But there are other facts, too. Meixner wasn’t Jewish. Dervish’s original grievance was over a bad grade. The 46-year-old had a long history of violence, including against his parents, and scared some faculty to the point they had avoided campus. His antisemitism didn’t become public until weeks after the murder, when it was revealed alongside a tirade against Asians. And the national spotlight that Jewish groups eventually shined on the Tucson school? Some local Jews say it made things worse.

Many outside the region came to see the murder of Meixner, a beloved teacher and father of four, as a blatant act of antisemitism. It landed on the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s list of worst antisemitic incidents of the year, and was widely covered by Jewish media in the United States and Israel. It required — and received — a Jewish response. Yet many Jews on campus saw something more layered and grew frustrated when outsiders began to publicize the case without acknowledging its complexity.

Abigail Simon, a Jewish engineering student, noted that the story went national at a time when Jews are increasingly nervous about antisemitism on campus, and surmised that they might draw conclusions about fresh incidents without much thought.

“I hate to make it seem like people were jumping on a bandwagon,” Simon said. “But I think it was just another drop in the bucket that, ‘Oh, there was a murder on campus,’ and, ‘Oh, the shooter was antisemitic.’”

Though Dervish’s antisemitism, and the location of the shooting, across the street from Hillel, prompted a rapid and thorough response from Tuscon’s Jewish community, their efforts drew little attention as the news of the murder spread. Local Jews also understood that the part of the tragedy that most upset faculty and students was that Meixner and others had repeatedly warned school officials that Dervish posed a threat and they had failed to act. Focusing on antisemitism, some feared, might overstate the role it played in Meixner’s death, and present Jews as more endangered than they actually were.

Outside Jewish groups that tried to draw attention to the case countered that there was nothing subtle about Dervish’s bigotry — no matter what role other factors played in his violence — and point out that antisemitism can operate in strange ways: Its victims often aren’t Jewish.

A grand jury indicted Dervish on seven charges, including first-degree murder, in October. Dervish has pleaded not guilty and his trial is scheduled for September. Judge Howard Fell declined his attorney’s request to ban media from the courtroom.

“Justice grows the best in the full light of day,” Fell said.

A murder, and a revelation
When the shooting first took place, Simon and other students gathered at the campus Hillel for High Holiday programming only knew that something very bad had happened. The scream of police sirens had interrupted a text study. And, a different student recalled, what seemed like the entire campus police department came to a screeching halt outside the academic building across the street.

It turned out that the police had responded too late, allowing Dervish to escape. Hillel went into lockdown. Simon remembered feeling grateful that Hillel had hired armed security guards for the High Holidays. Everyone gathered in the lounge. “We were all sitting in this one room trying to act like things were normal, but obviously nothing was,” said Jordyn Morris, another student present that day.

Dervish was arrested several hours later on a highway outside of Tucson with knives, machetes, guns and extra ammunition. Another bombshell would come two weeks later, when a local newspaper columnist published an interview with Eyad Atallah, a lecturer in the hydrology department, who — the headline said — “prepared to be shot on campus and barely avoided it.”

Tim Steller, the Arizona Daily Star columnist, revealed that Atallah and other faculty members had been hounded for months by Dervish, who was convinced that a bad grade he received was the result of a Jewish conspiracy against him.

“As Arabs we’re supposed to stick together and I trusted you, and instead you’re a filthy kike lover,” Dervish had texted Atallah last winter.

It wasn’t the point of his article, but based on those messages, Steller was the first to suggest that Meixner’s murder was driven by bigotry against Jews. “Although Meixner was Catholic, his killing could be considered an antisemitic attack,” Steller wrote on Oct. 22.

The column emphasized that university officials were aware of the threats. They had expelled Dervish and banned him from campus, but he kept returning with impunity. And nobody thought to tell Jewish leaders on campus, or in Tucson, that a man who had menaced faculty — to the point several had started working from home out of fear — was blaming his problems on Jews.

After the column was published, Jessica McCormick, director of the campus Hillel, emailed Robert Robbins, the university president. Why, McCormick asked, had the administration failed to notify Hillel of Dervish’s antisemitic comments? Why hadn’t law enforcement protected the Hillel building while Dervish was on the loose? Why hadn’t any school officials reached out after the shooting?…

Dervish had been a volatile presence on campus since he enrolled at the school in the fall of 2021. He screamed obscenities at a professor in the middle of class, and after he lost his graduate assistant teaching job as a result, he sent threats that terrified hydrology faculty so much that they moved classes to Zoom. Expelled and banned from campus last February, he kept coming back, and accosted a professor at a nearby CVS. Dervish threatened an employee at the dean’s office: “I don’t think you have any clue who you are dealing with but you are about to find out and I really don’t think you’re going to like it,” he wrote. Meanwhile, he was sexually harassing a female undergraduate student — the same thing he was accused of in San Diego — contacting her more than 30 times….

AUTHOR

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EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved,

The Graves of Academe: USC School of Social Work Bans ‘Field’

“Shall Paper live, or Ink/Since Brass and Marble Can’t Withstand/This Iron Age’s Violating Hand?” — Johannes de Bosco


The University of Southern California (that’s USC to you and me) has been thrust into the limelight yet again. In 2019, and for several years following, it was in the news as a major participant in the “Varsity Blues” scandal; rich parents were inveigled into paying bribes to the university’s water polo coach, so that their children might be admitted, as potential varsity players of the sport, to USC. It’s a university that as part of its online advertisement for itself says that “USC has conferred honorary degrees on 29 billionaires.” I’m not exactly sure why that should impress anyone, but some people at USC think it should; no doubt USC has its reasons that reason does not know. Some eyebrows were raised when USC agreed to pay its new football coach $10 million a year; not everyone on the faculty – you know, those old fogies who teach such frivolities as literature, history, and philosophy — were pleased by this demonstration of USC’s priorities. But what do those people know? Have they ever had to meet a payroll? A winning football team pays their salaries. They had better stop complaining.

And now the University of Southern California Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work (USCSDPSSW for short) has put USC the news again. The school has just announced that it has decided to ban the word “field” from its curriculum. No longer will anyone at the University of Southern California Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work, whether faculty members, or staff, or students, be permitted to use the word “field.” From here on out, it’s strictly forbidden. The story of this remarkably thoughtful act of anti-racism can be found here: “Elite University Department Bans Use of Word ‘Field,’ Claiming It’s Too Racist,” by Alexa Schwerha, Daily Signal

The University of Southern California Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work will no longer use the word “field” in its curriculum or its practices as part of its anti-racist framework, according to an email reportedly sent Monday.

The school reportedly stripped the word from use due to alleged ties to “anti-Black” and “anti-immigrant” rhetoric, according to the email sent by the Practicum Education Department to the campus community, faculty, staff, and students. The school informed [sic] that the word “practicum” would be used instead to “ensure [its] use of inclusive language and practice.”

This change supports anti-racist social work practice by replacing language that could be considered anti-Black or anti-immigrant in favor of inclusive language,” the email reportedly reads. “Language can be powerful, and phrases such as ‘going into the field’ or ‘field work’ may have connotations for descendants of slavery and immigrant workers that are not benign.”

The revised language aligns with several anti-racist initiatives the school abides by, including the Council on Social Work Education’s Advancing Antiracism in Social Work Education and the Eliminate Racism Grand Challenge for Social Work, according to the email.

“In solidarity with universities across the nation, our goal is not just to change language but to honor and acknowledge incline [sic] and reject white supremacy, anti-immigrant and anti-blackness ideologies,” the email continues. “Words are powerful, but even more so is action. We are committing to further align our actions, behaviors, and practices with anti-racism and anti-oppression, which requires taking a close and critical look at our profession—our history, our biases, and our complicity in past and current injustices.”

The email then claimed the school would “train social work students” to “understand and embody social and racial justice” and told the campus community to “hold each other accountable.”

USC, the Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work, and the Practicum Education Department did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

Don’t forgive them, Lord, at the USCSDPSSW they know exactly what they do. They are beyond all appeals to common sense. They will not engage – because they don’t know how to do so – in discussions about the right use of words. Delicacy, tact, intelligence – don’t even ask. Their every comical word-banning – don’t think they will stop with “field” — should be held up for ridicule, every jot and tittle of idiocy exposed, while those who refuse to get with the program should move unobserved from campus to campus, quietly distributing copies of Orwell’s essay “Politics and the English Language” and even more important, Ian Robinson’s The Survival of English.

Shouldn’t we do away entirely with the word “field”? If it summons up, as we are being asked to believe, images of black slaves in fields of tall cotton (but it was Johnny Cash, a white man, who sang about “them old cotton fields back home”), and Mexican workers in the bean fields and orange groves of sunny California, then it shouldn’t be banned just from the USCSDPSSW. It should be banned everywhere. Anti-racism demands it.

Think of all the possibilities. In sports, the USC Trojans run out onto the football practicum. Everyone experiences the collective thrill of anti-racism as they hear the announcer shout “they’re on the Prac-Ti-Cum and ready to go.” Baseball – same thing. The practicum of dreams will now have players catching balls at center, right, and left practicums.

In USC art classes, students will study such works of Van Gogh as “Wheat-practicum with a lark,” “The green wheat-practicum behind the Asylum painting,” and “Wheat-practicum with crows.” It takes a little getting used to, but just keep at it, and you’ll soon get the hang of it. And each time you refrain from saying the word “field,” you will have won a little victory for anti-racism. Rosa Parks would be pleased.

In the Department of Physics at USC, that last lonely professor who refuses to get on board with string theory, that is still all the rage, should announce that he is still working on trying to come up with a Unified Practicum Theory. You’re unfamiliar with that? Here’s what it is: in particle physics, it’s an attempt to describe all fundamental forces and the relationships between elementary particles in terms of a single theoretical framework. In physics, forces can be described by practicums that mediate interactions between separate objects.” There. That shouldn’t be hard to understand. A special house blend of quantum mechanics and general — or is it special? — relativity.

And let’s not stop with banning only the word “field” from our collective vocabularies and consciousnesses. There are so many other words that need to be excised from our scandalously offensive lexicons. Take the word “bend,” as in “the slaves had to bend over as they picked the cotton in their practicums.” Let’s fix it: “the slaves had to ____their torsos as they picked the cotton in their practicums.” Fill in the blank. Anything you come up with will be better than “bend.” Then do the same to transform “a bend in the river” and “South Bend, Indiana” and “bend it like Beckham.” See – you can even have fun as you deracistize your language.

What about the word “cotton” itself? I bought a cotton polo shirt the other day, and when I got home I couldn’t stop thinking about those held in bondage in the antebellum South picking the very same stuff that my shirt was made of, and I felt so…so racist. I should have been more attentive to my language. I should have taught myself to think of my recent purchase as a “shirt made of a soft white fibrous substance that surrounds the seeds of a tropical and subtropical plant and is used as textile fiber and thread for sewing.” And from now on I will. Now, isn’t that better?

I fear there is no end to this. There are so many words — thousands, maybe tens of thousands — that will need to be replaced. Whole departments of language police will spend years to work on the problem. We’ll need to get rid of “master bedroom” and “master class” and “Master and Margarita.” We’ll need to ban “overalls” and “dungarees.” And “back” of course, which makes us think of “back of the bus.” We can’t have “back.” Oh, and “bus.” And “tree.” We can’t have “tree.” Do I have to draw you a diagram? Goodness, what work we have ahead of us. And not a moment too soon. Let’s be grateful to the hyper-vigilant people at the University of Southern California Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work (USCSDPSSW) who led the way. And now we have a solemn duty to take what they’ve begun to another level.

AUTHOR

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EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Indiana University ‘Distinguished Panelist’ is Deported Palestinian Islamic Jihad Top Dog

Deported Palestinian Islamic Jihad “Master Manipulator” Among Indiana University’s ‘Distinguished’ Panelists

by Steven Emerson, IPT News, December 20, 2022:

Every so often, Sami Al-Arian emerges to opine on some domestic issue, reminding us of two things: He’s an inveterate liar who continues to whitewash his years of service to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ). And a disappointing number of American academics are willing to ignore that record and treat him as a credible voice.

Al-Arian joined academics and attorneys last Wednesday for a webinar on “Global War on Terrorism and its Impact on Muslim Charitable Institutions.” It was sponsored by the Muslim Legal Fund of America (MLFA) in collaboration with Indiana University’s McKinney School of Law and its Muslim Philanthropy Initiative.

MLFA’s willingness to elevate Al-Arian at least is consistent. It helped fund his defense on terrorism related charges and criminal contempt. But why did two Indiana University branches see merit in lending their school’s prestige to a man recorded exhorting an audience with “Jihad is our path … Victory to Islam … Death to Israel”?

He meant it literally, telling his own 2020 academic meeting that the Muslim world “cannot realize its full potential without defeating and dismantling the Zionist project.”

No one on the MLFA/IU panel mentioned Al-Arian’s documented role on the PIJ shura council, or governing board, or the many times he publicly lied by denying any connection to the terrorist group.

Moderator Cindy M. Lott, director of Indiana University’s PhD. program in Philanthropic Leadership, described Al-Arian as “extraordinarily well known. He is the director of the Center for Islamic Global Affairs and Public Affairs Professor at Istanbul Zaim University in Turkey. He has numerous publications in many interrelated fields including education, research, religion, interfaith and he is coming at us today specifically around the areas of civil rights and human rights.”

But Lott was selectively dishonest in how she represented Al-Arian.

After pleading guilty in 2006 to conspiring to provide benefits to the PIJ, presiding federal Judge James S. Moody called Al-Arian “a master manipulator. You looked your neighbors in the eyes and said you had nothing to do with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. This trial exposed that as a lie. Your back-up claim is that your efforts were only to provide charities for widows and orphans. That, too, is a lie. The evidence was clear in this case that you were a leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. You were on the board of directors and an officer, the secretary. Directors control the actions of an organization, even the PIJ; and you were an active leader.”

During Wednesday’s webinar, University of Wisconsin law professor Mark Sidel offered a different description of his colleagues, including Al-Arian. He thanked the organizers for including him on “this extraordinarily distinguished, other than me, group of participants and speakers.”

Academics Against Research

Al-Arian did run a charity. The Islamic Concern Project, also known as the Islamic Committee for Palestine (ICP), was incorporated in 1988 to pursue “the concept of brotherhood, freedom, justice, unity, piety, righteousness and peace” through “charitable, cultural, social, educational and religious” programs, records show.

But in private fundraisers, the ICP served a different mission.

“It is the active arm of the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine,” Cleveland Imam Fawaz Damra said while introducing Al-Arian during a videotaped 1991 fundraiser. “We preferred to call it the ‘Islamic Committee for Palestine’ for security reasons.”

At the same event, Al-Arian urged his audience to give money to support the jihad.

“We want today’s Muslims to answer the call of God and to go to jihad,” he said. “… So whoever does not spend for the cause of God, will spend himself on the path to destruction and fire, God forbid! We ask God, praise and glory be to Him, to strengthen us with the truth, put the truth in our hearts and on our tongues, to bestow faith upon us, to bestow steadfastness upon us, to bestow jihad upon us, to bestow knowledge upon us, and to bestow unity upon us so that we will be united. So that we will confront our enemies united.”

At another event, Al-Arian asked, “Have we forgotten the Jews and who they are?” God “made [them] into monkeys and pigs … had cursed in this world and in the hereafter, and had imposed a punishment on them in this world until Judgment Day.”

The MLFA/IU panel, like virtually every group to host Al-Arian, did not find any of this pro-terrorism/antisemitic speech relevant in deciding whether to invite him. Nobody thought to ask how he can reconcile the two diametrically opposing images of his work. Rather, they let him spin more yarns of his own victimization….

AUTHOR

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EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Taxpayer-funded Middle East Studies Centers at U.S. Universities Promote Anti-U.S. Propaganda and ‘Islamophobia’ Myths

It’s good to see the National Association of Scholars acknowledging this and documenting it in detail. Jihad Watch has been warning about and documenting it for years, and as a result has been one of the targets of the scurrilous pro-jihad, pro-Sharia propaganda mills that operate out of these compromised universities today. A whole generation has now been propagandized with the “Islamophobia” myth and much more.

U.S. gives $2.9m to Universities that promote anti-West ideologies

Open The Books, November 14, 2022:

While there are more than 50 Middle East Studies Centers at American universities, training students in the culture and languages of the region, 11 are designated National Resource Centers, which provides federal funds.

According to a new report by the National Association of Scholars, the 11 centers each get $260,000 in Title VI funding through the Department of Education to the tune of $2.9 million a year.

They are at Columbia University, George Washington University, Georgetown University, Indiana University, New York University, University of Arizona, UCLA, University of Chicago, University of Illinois, University of Michigan, UNC/Duke University partnership.

The report, Hijacked: The Capture of America’s Middle East Studies Centers, says the centers have veered far afield their purpose, now pushing overtly anti-West ideologies focusing on social issues such as Islamophobia and immigration at the university level, and even push critical race theory to K–12 educators….

Yale University courses are frequently rife with progressive dogmas, including requiring students to read such as, “Islam Today: Jihad and Fundamentalism,” which attempts to reframe the most dangerous aspects of Islam as a “reactive force to Western colonialism,” according to the report.

“By only presenting students with books that advance a pro-immigration agenda, educators sidestep meaningful debate on the issue and bias students toward their own progressive views,” Arnold wrote in the report. “The bias of these centers has been documented for years. It’s time for taxpayers to be taken off the hook for these activist centers.”…

AUTHOR

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EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Is Harvard hopelessly woke? What Harvard is really like

Like most things, Harvard is what one makes of it — and this can include experiences rooted in faith and friendship. 

Harvard is often seen as the archetypal American university, offering a model that many others seek to emulate. So, as a new school year and new application season begin, it seems fitting to ask: what is this storied institution really like anyway? Is it home to heroes or heretics? Maker of gods… or the godless? My response is quite simple: neither extreme is accurate. Harvard is not as heavenly as some think; fortunately, it’s not as bad either.

My college decision was practically effortless. Harvard, I was told, offered everything a motivated, book-smart student could want: challenging courses; fabulous research opportunities; world-class professors; and, most importantly, insightful, intrepid, intellectually curious peers.

I envisioned a campus alive with students who genuinely loved learning, who asked big questions and pursued them to their limits, who discussed Dostoyevsky at lunch and astrophysics at dinner, and who would challenge, shape, and inspire me over the course of our college journey.

Needless to say, this vision wasn’t entirely accurate. Arriving on campus last fall, I was surprised to find that many of my peers did not choose Harvard out of a deep, reverent hunger for veritas. Rather, their motives were primarily mercenary: they had enrolled for the degree and the connections. Almost every Harvard student I know really is a smart, accomplished individual; test scores and ambition, however, are not necessarily synonymous with intellectual curiosity.

Lowered standards, heightened biases  

Critics of Harvard tend to focus on academic standards and political bias. In terms of academics, it is telling that Harvard’s two most popular concentrations are economics and government. Read: wealth and power. Students with these two goals are incentivised to take easy courses whenever possible: between grade inflation and the competitive nature of consulting applications, a B from a fabulous but challenging professor just won’t do.

As such, students offset rigorous concentration requirements with “gems,” pleasant, untaxing courses in which A’s are guaranteed and learning is optional. Last fall alone, over 800 students enrolled in a gen-ed course fittingly entitled “Sleep,” though how many attended more than one lecture remains unclear.

Administrators, meanwhile, do little to counter this trend. Notorious gems (“Sleep” excepted) are occasionally identified and restructured, but with tuition-paying customers to please and a reputation to maintain, addressing lowered standards will be essentially impossible.

The real tragedy is not the proliferation of easy A’s but the slow suffocation of liberal arts education. In lieu of a robust core is a smattering of “distributional requirements” easily satisfied by niche, fringe, or downright non-substantive courses. In other words, “Sleep” might be the only science course a Harvard student ever takes.

Thus, it’s possible to graduate from Harvard without challenging one’s prejudices, without genuinely exploring different disciplines, and without ever diverting one’s gaze from the holy trinity of law, finance, and consulting. Alas, the utilitarian ethos prevails; it was never about veritas anyway.

Harvard critics’ true concern, however, is not academic standards but politics — just how radical is the “Kremlin on the Charles”? According to the numbers, very. While 82 percent of Harvard faculty identify as liberal or very liberal, a mere 1 percent identify as conservative, and none identify as very conservative. The student body, luckily, boasts slightly more ideological diversity: conservative or very conservative individuals made up 6 percent of the Class of 2022, and nearly 70 percent were progressive or very progressive.

Can academic freedom, civil discourse, or mere open-mindedness thrive in such an environment? Here are a few illustrative examples that make it tempting to view Harvard as a powerful brainwashing machine:

First, my hallmates and I attended a mandatory, dorm-wide meeting at the start of the academic year to discuss the hookup culture. We were tasked with creating explanatory posters exploring the hookup culture in its various dimensions. One group of students crafted a suitably vague definition of “hookup” for their poster, while another brainstormed adjectives to describe hookups (highlights include “exciting” and “experimental”). Not once were other approaches to sex and dating, let alone inconvenient biological realities (sex not infrequently makes babies), ever mentioned.

Second, this past semester I watched a trembling professor issue a formal apology at the behest of her outraged students and teaching staff. Her crime: reading aloud a passage from Invisible Man — a novel advocating civil rights and equality — that contained a racial epithet. Although this incident had occurred during a discussion section before a small subset of enrollees, critics swiftly and loudly demanded that she ask the entire class for forgiveness. Pressuring a professor to apologise for her language threatens academic freedom. Critics certainly deserve a voice, but not at the expense of their professor’s.

Finally, I saw a formerly well-liked friend ostracised by her residential housemates during her last month at Harvard. This jovial, whip-smart senior was a Latina Democrat; she volunteered regularly at a youth homeless shelter, vocally advocated racial justice, and actively disliked Trump. Just participating in two pro-life rallies, it turns out, was enough to outweigh all of that.

Faith, friendship, and signs of hope

While such everyday occurrences make it tempting to believe that Harvard is a lost cause, there are two important limiting factors that suggest otherwise. First, because Harvard is a very large institution — with twelve graduate and professional schools, fifty concentrations in the undergraduate college, and an extensive array of administrative offices — centralised or consistent strategic communication is next to impossible. Having many supervisors, counterintuitively, leads to little supervision — within this large bureaucratic institution are many conservative niches, ranging from a controversial pseudonymous publication to a philosophical debating society to a growing pro-life presence on campus.

The second limiting factor is Harvard’s inherent elitism. Prestige and influence require class distinctions; in a truly equitable world, Harvard does not exist. Thus, Harvard will continue to champion progressivism — but never enough to endanger its own future. Harvard students of all political stripes perceive this hypocrisy; if anything, they graduate not more liberal but more cynical. So much for the formidable brainwashing machine.

In addition to these two limiting factors, my first year — which was hands-down my happiest in a decade — suggests that Harvard is not a lost cause. I learned to read ancient Greek, solved triple integrals, and wrote an essay on Fredrick Douglass’s conception of the human soul. I kayaked on the Charles, explored Boston’s fabulous art museums, and attended a weeklong seminar in Oxford. I befriended the dining hall workers, learned how to swing dance, and performed Schumann with my chamber ensemble.

Despite the prevalence of secularism and credentialism at Harvard, faith and friendship were central to my joyful first year. In fact, Christianity, particularly Catholicism, is alive at Harvard. Every morning, a dozen students attend daily Mass before eating breakfast together in a nearby dining hall. Weekly talks at the Harvard Catholic Center precede solemn adoration accompanied by a student band. And this past Easter alone, thirty-one members of the Harvard community were fully initiated into the Catholic Church.

Outside of the Catholic and Christian communities, Harvard students are very respectful of religion. Talking openly about my Catholic faith elicits not smirks and grimaces but genuine curiosity and the occasional request to join me at Mass. Although I attended Catholic school all my life, my faith life has never thrived as at Harvard.

Nor have I ever been blessed with such strong, beautiful friendships. Just one week into freshman year, I had already found a group of kind, intelligent friends. Yes, our everyday conversations are less intellectual than anticipated; yes, our educational goals differ significantly. But far more important is character. My friends at Harvard are truly virtuous and generous people.

What’s more, my experience is hardly singular. Personality is an important factor in Harvard’s admissions process — so while many admitted students are indeed ambitious and career-oriented, they are for the most part essentially decent people. This emphasis on personability combined with its unique housing system, active extracurricular life, and countless study abroad and fellowship opportunities means that Harvard intentionally and successfully fosters friendship.

One year into my Harvard career, I can report that no stereotype of the university is entirely accurate. By no means is Harvard an immaculate place: intellectual curiosity often suffers at the expense of utility, classes and administrators can be overly political, and students with unpopular views are often frightened into silence. Still, I have great hope for Harvard.

While it’s true that students can avoid Homer, Shakespeare, or Tolstoy if they wish, it is equally true that those fascinated by such literary giants will encounter first editions of their texts in the rare books library and brilliant professors eager to elucidate them.

Though Harvard students can graduate without having explored questions about God, morality, and the meaning of life, those brave enough to ask can consult prominent theologians and learned priests, travel to Jerusalem on Harvard’s dime, or simply walk down Bow Street to pray in magnificent St. Paul’s.

In the end, Harvard, like most things, is what one makes of it. It can never be perfect; what it can be is a haven for faith, friendship, and the pursuit of veritas.

This article has been republished with permission from The Public Discourse

AUTHOR

Olivia Glunz

EDITORS NOTE: This MercatorNet column is republished with permission. All rights reserved.

Princeton President Conspires to Fire Tenured Prof Who Defended Free Speech

Joshua Katz, a respected linguist at Princeton, is not being fired because of an alleged relationship in 2006, but because he criticized woke abuses in 2020.

At Quilette, Katz had courageously condemned efforts to silence free speech and eliminate academic freedom.

“Independence of thought is considered the hallmark of academia, but everyone deserves it. In the United States, thank heavens, freedom to think for oneself is still a right, not a privilege,” he concluded.

In typical fashion, the radical leftists whom he had criticized in a restrained, civil and respectful fashion, unleashed the full fury of cancel culture and set out to destroy him.

What followed was Lavrentiy Beria’s “Show Me the Man and I’ll Show You the Crime.”

Since none of the false claims that Katz was in any way a racist or had engaged in hate speech, could go beyond impotent fuming they had to find something else.

And all this witch hunt came up was this…

Princeton University’s president has recommended that the school’s board of trustees fire a tenured classics professor, concluding he didn’t cooperate fully in a sexual-misconduct investigation, according to a copy of his letter to the board’s chair reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

Salem witch trial judges would be embarrassed by this.

The report said that in 2018, Dr. Katz didn’t fully cooperate with investigators examining a consensual sexual relationship he had with an undergraduate student beginning in 2006, after her junior year, and continuing until her graduation. The student declined to participate in the investigation at that time.

We know exactly why Princeton President Christopher Eisgruber wants Katz fired. He told us so himself in an op-ed in 2020, deeming his speech “irresponsible and offensive.”

“Our policies, however, protect Katz’s freedom to say what he did, just as they protected the Black Justice League’s. He can be answered but not censored or sanctioned,” Eisgruber claimed.

Now he grubbily seeks to bypass those policies.

“Show Me the Man and I’ll Show You the Crime.”

AUTHOR

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EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Dartmouth Bills College Republicans $3,600 For Security After Forcing Antifa Critic Andy Nog’s Event Online

There just isn’t any doubt about what is happening here. Dartmouth is trying to destroy the College Republicans and crush dissent. It’s what Leftists do, and virtually all of America’s major colleges and universities are controlled by the Left today.

Dartmouth bills College Republicans $3,600 for security after forcing live Andy Ngo event online

by Greg Piper, Just the News, April 21, 2022:

An Ivy League school is demanding after-the-fact security fees from its College Republicans chapter for an event the administration banned in person, threatening the club’s ability to continue hosting events, its president told Just the News.

Dartmouth College ordered the CRs to move the Jan. 20 event with Portland-based Antifa chronicler Andy Ngo online just hours before it was scheduled to start, citing “credible threats” the administration received from law enforcement.

Hanover Police, however, said it didn’t ask Dartmouth to shut down the Ngo event, which it was prepared to secure, and wasn’t told why Dartmouth moved it online.

Event security fees on campus have emerged as a high-profile flashpoint in recent years, usually with right-leaning student clubs accusing administrators of caving to the heckler’s veto by sticking them with unreasonable estimates and bills for speakers perceived as controversial.

Ohio approved legislation in 2020 to ban public universities from basing security fees on the anticipated reaction to a speaker. But an appeals court dismissed a lawsuit against the University of Minnesota after it revised a policy used to move conservative pundit Ben Shapiro to a smaller, less convenient venue than progressive speakers received.

Dartmouth CRs President Chloe Ezzo learned the club had been stuck with a $3,600 bill from the Ngo event, and was thus not in “good standing,” when she applied for funding for its Wednesday night event with James O’Keefe, the conservative firebrand who founded Project Veritas.

The Dartmouth Anarchists, an anonymous group that previously threatened to disrupt the Ngo event, publicly accused the CRs of announcing the O’Keefe event “at the last minute” to avoid scrutiny but didn’t directly threaten to disrupt it.

In a phone call hours before the O’Keefe event, Ezzo described a maddening bureaucratic process that involved three requests for funding from the 18-member Council on Student Organizations, whose rules are “very vague and selectively enforced.”

The council didn’t mention the outstanding security bill until the second request, and one member suggested a prohibited alumni fundraiser to pay the debt, according to Ezzo. It rejected her third request for a token $450 to cover just security, meaning the Department of Safety and Security may stick them with another bill of unknown amount.

“We might come out of this event with four grand of debt” and risk the college freezing its account, Ezzo said. “I feel like we’re set up to fail.”

AUTHOR

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