The AFSA Weekly Review
The week's top news, views and other higher-ed reform highlights
AFSA HIGHLIGHTS
UVA President greets antisemitism expose with a shrug WINK Radio. Jefferson Council President Joel Gardner was on The Shilling Show to discuss how UVA President Jim Ryan has failed to address antisemitism at UVA, and what the school can do to protect Jewish students and the community at large. "The most outrageous thing recently was you had a Jewish student who was harassed and then threatened with a gun, and this administration has not said a word about it," said Gardner. Read Gardner’s full report here.
Words of encouragement from friends at FIRE Alma Matters. Alumni are indispensable stakeholders in the fight to save higher education
Students appear to strongly support institutional neutrality Alma Matters. An interesting new survey by Inside Higher Ed indicates that just 22% of students want their schools to make statements about political events — while a solid majority (54%) would prefer that their colleges or universities avoid politicking and remain silent on issues unrelated to education. Read the complete findings here.
NEWS
George Mason student plotted ‘mass casualty’ attack on Israeli consulate, says FBI The College Fix. A freshman at George Mason University is in federal custody after he allegedly plotted a “mass casualty attack” on the Israeli consulate in New York, according to the FBI. The student, Abdullah Ezzeldin Taha Mohamed Hassan, 18, faces federal charges and is being deported back to his home country of Egypt, CNN reports. “Although the student did not live on campus, he has been barred from entering university property,” university President Gregory Washington said in a statement Thursday on the Virginia institution’s website. More reporting on this can be found here, here, and here.
Top universities ‘refused’ to stop antisemitism, House report says The College Fix A U.S. House of Representatives committee report released Thursday detailed how universities likely violated Title VI by failing to protect their Jewish students on campus. The Committee on Education and the Workforce found that administrators “refused to crack down on antisemitism,” states the 43-page Staff Report on Antisemitism.
FIRE survey finds alarming trends of self-censorship among faculty, especially conservatives National Review. A new FIRE survey found that at least one out of every five faculty is likely to self-censor in professional contexts. Over 40 percent of respondents said they self-censor in classroom lectures or discussions, while 56 percent said they self-censor online. One out of every seven faculty say they have faced discipline or threats of discipline for their teaching, research, talks, or other off-campus speech.
Idaho education board lowers the boom on DEI Higher Ed Dive. The Idaho State Board of Education unanimously approved a resolution Wednesday that largely bans diversity, equity and inclusion programming at the state’s public four-year colleges. The colleges can neither operate student resource or success centers nor have policies or initiatives based on “DEI ideology.” It also bans colleges from requiring students and employees to share their preferred pronouns and prohibits the consideration of personal identity characteristics in education and hiring decisions. Read more on this issue here and here.
Republican professors are an endangered species at Arizona State The College Fix. Democrat professors at Arizona State University appear to outnumber Republicans by about 15 to 1 in 12 departments, a College Fix analysis found. Additionally, The Fix found that there are zero identifiable Republican professors in at least three departments: classics, communication, and women and gender studies. One non-liberal ASU professor, Dr. Owen Anderson, comments on the issue here.
Amy Wax threatens to sue Penn for race discrimination, and breach of contract Washington Free Beacon. Amy Wax, the tenured law professor who was disciplined by the University of Pennsylvania for making controversial remarks about race and gender, told Penn on Thursday that she will sue the university for race discrimination if it does not drop the sanctions against her.
Fear Factor: A majority of students fear sanctions for their speech, new Heterodox Academy report finds Heterodoxacademy.org 96.2% of surveyed students said they feared suffering at least one sanction (informal or formal) if they were to discuss a controversial topic. However, only 13.3% of respondents reported suffering such sanctions.
Institute for Civil Discourse to launch at the University of Michigan The University Record. Did someone spike Ann Arbor's municipal water supply? In the latest stunning news, Michigan announced the creation of a stand-alone Institute for Civil Discourse at the school. Read more on this topic here, here, and here.
Follow The Money: Biden’s ed department spent at least $1 billion on DEI The College Fix. The U.S. Department of Education has spent more than $1 billion funding diversity, equity, and inclusion programming in public schools and higher education institutions since 2021, according to a new report.
VIEWS
How alumni can save their alma mater TheFIRE.org. Here are three simple ways for concerned alumni to help get their wayward alma maters back on track.
What the #&%@? A Hamas Advocate on the VMI faculty? Bacon’s Rebellion. This is not a call for censorship, nor is it an attack on academic freedom. It is a demand for accountability and transparency. We need to understand how individuals like Philip Crane, a Visiting Professor at VMI whose public actions aligned with groups that support violence and terror, are vetted before being hired as faculty. This issue goes beyond one individual. It speaks to the very future of VMI and its ability to maintain its reputation as an institution that upholds honor, integrity, and respect for human life.
The woke scare is four times worse than the red scare Bacon’s Rebellion. More than a third (35%) of tenured and tenure-track faculty at 55 of the nation’s most prestigious colleges and universities say they have toned down their writing for fear of engendering controversy, according to a new survey by the Foundation for Individuals Rights and Expression (FIRE). That compares to 9% during the Red Scare of the 1950s.
The scared professors AEI. New data from FIRE reveals the true depths of how fearful of speaking freely professors are. One disturbing number is that just over a quarter (27 percent) of faculty think academic freedom is secure on their campus today. This only scratches the surface.
A looming student shortage will reshape higher education—for the better Minding the Campus. Some fear the so-called “demographic cliff” facing universities (that’s when a lagging national birthrate will begin to constrict the supply of new college students) as another nail in the coffin. Others see it as an opportunity for much-needed reinvention. Read more on this topic here.
Government should not legitimate systemic-racism confessions Real Clear Education. Systemic racism has afflicted the United States. Slavery and Jim Crow will forever stain the great American experiment in freedom. Eisgruber rightly worries about their enduring effects. But the abundant evidence of African-American achievement since the NAACP court victories that culminated in Brown v. Board of Education (1954) and the 1960s civil rights movement undercuts the claim that systemic racism persists.
Civic illiteracy a growing problem among college students Goacta.org The results of a new survey conducted by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA), alongside College Pulse, reveal that today’s college students are unequivocally illiterate on the very basics of America civics. The results of this survey are clear: universities are failing students and, thus, failing America itself.
PODCASTS
ACTA’s Dr. Steve McGuire Interviews Washington Free Beacon Reporter Aaron Sibarium Higher Ed Now Podcast McGuire and crack higher-ed reporter Aaron Sibarium talk about Claudine Gay’s plagiarism, the Columbia deans who were caught mocking their Jewish colleagues, Penn’s punishment of Amy Wax, the left’s reaction to Oct. 7th, whether woke has peaked, and more.
REPORTS AND RESOURCES
U.S. House of Representatives Staff Report on Antisemitism A report released Thursday detailed how universities likely violated Title VI by failing to protect their Jewish students on campus.
GIFT IDEAS!
Ten Books We Want Under the Tree in 2024 The James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal. The Martin Center staff are constantly on the lookout for books that identify and analyze higher education’s successes and failures. Here are a few titles we’d like to see under the tree this year.