AFSA HIGHLIGHTS
Saving Cornell: A call to action for alumni Cornell Free Speech Alliance Website. The Alumni Free Speech Alliance writes an open letter to the public regarding alumni trustee elections. More on this topic can be found here.
UNC AFSA comments on proposed UNC campus gatherings policy UNC Alumni Free Speech Alliance Website. AFSA alumni offer comments on a new “campus gatherings” policy being mulled by the UNC Board of Governors.
There's no First Amendment right to federal funding, says ASU professor The Alma Matters Substack Page. President Trump's freeze on DEI-related grant funding has most of academia in an uproar. But not everyone in the Ivory Tower is angry about it.
2025 could be the breakthrough year for campus free speech The Alma Matters Substack Page. AFSA Co-Founder Ed Yingling presents a game plan for making 2025 a winning year in the fight for campus free speech.
Pricing UVA out of the competition JeffersonCouncil.org. The University of Virginia takes care of poor and lower-middle-class students, but almost completely ignores the “true” middle-class student, who is faced with three options given the soaring cost of tuition at the school. These families can deplete their life savings to attend UVA, take out an unsustainable level of student loans, burden their children with an enormous amount of debt upon graduation, or attend another university that offers a quality education at a much lower cost. Option three is happening right now and will continue unabated unless the Board of Visitors cuts administrative overhead, applies the savings to tuition reductions, and stops spending hundreds of millions of dollars annually on capital projects UVA can no longer afford.
Fighting for the soul and sanity of UVA The Saving America Podcast. TJC President Joel Gardner was recently on the Saving America Podcast discussing The Jefferson Council's fight to save the soul of UVA from presentism and politicization.
NEWS
Ibram X. Kendi is departing Boston University BU.Edu. But the controversial Critical Race Theory guru will now be creating headaches for Howard University. More on Kendi’s abandonment of his sinking ship can be read here.
University of Colorado renames DEI office to 'Office of Collaboration' The Denver Gazette. The University of Colorado has apparently renamed its diversity, equity and inclusion office to the “Office of Collaboration.”
Florida eliminates university gen-ed courses covering systemic racism and privilege FirstCoastNews.com. Thursday in Jacksonville, Florida’s Board of Governors voted to approve a new university course list that weeds out any classes they believe are "based on theories that systemic racism, sexism, oppression, and privilege are inherent in the institutions of the United States and were created to maintain social, political, and economic inequities."
Trump order pushes universities to ‘monitor’ protesters on student visas The New York Times. An executive order signed this week would push colleges and universities to combat antisemitism specifically by monitoring and reporting international students. FIRE responds here.
Columbia University radicals use tactics they learned months earlier at an event hosted by a school-approved student group The Washington Free Beacon. Columbia University released a now-familiar condemnation in response to the latest act of anti-Israel vandalism at the school, calling it "unacceptable and abhorrent," but the tactics used this week by student radicals were taught to them on campus ground, by a Columbia-sanctioned student group. “The actions that we saw take place yesterday matched up perfectly with the instructions that were being offered,” one student said.
New research identifies more than 1,100 DEI-related jobs at University of Michigan The College Fix. The latest reporting by Jennifer Kabbany and The College Fix about the blob that ate the University of Michigan.
Sanctioned Penn Prof Amy Wax thinks Trump may join her fight against the university that punished her for ‘offensive’ speech The New York Sun. The embattled professor, sanctioned for offending her colleagues with her comments about race and gender, speaks to the Sun about her lawsuit against her Ivy League employer.
Political scientist warns of post-Marxism’s infiltration in higher education The College Fix. Post-Marxist ideology has infiltrated higher education, and there’s risks in teaching it to students, said political scientist Wilfred Reilly, a professor at Kentucky State University. Reilly defines post-Marxism as “the idea that society is set up to oppress you and that all gaps in performance reflect that oppression.”
Columbia University senate to consider mask ban as universities continue to grapple with anti-Israel radicals The New York Sun. The proposal was leaked this week by an anti-Israel student group but was confirmed by the resolution’s author.
College leaders galvanize to fight the anti-DEI ‘chaos’ Inside Higher Ed. Education for All, a grassroots network of mostly community college leaders, is spreading strategies for how to resist anti-DEI bills and rhetoric.
Executive order directs Princeton to investigate international pro-Palestine student protesters The Daily Princetonian. An executive order signed by President Donald Trump and released on Wednesday, Jan. 29 calls for Princeton and other universities to “monitor” and “report activities by alien students and staff” for actions that constitute antisemitism. Read the order here.
In Annual Letter, Princeton President Defends Tax-Exempt Endowment, DEI, and Institutional Restraint The Daily Princetonian. In his annual State of the University letter published on Jan. 29, University President Christopher Eisgruber ’83 defended the University’s endowment, its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts, and institutional restraint. Though his letter does not, according to him, address the recent orders and policies from the Trump administration targeting universities, much of what Eisgruber wrote addressed attacks on higher education in recent years.
VIEWS
Assessing Trump’s Higher-Ed Orders The James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal. For colleges used to unsupervised radicalism, the party may well be drawing to a close.
The Civics Playbook Public Discourse. A lot of people will no doubt want to know about the political direction of the new civics centers, and there is no hiding that they are inspired by conservative intellectual sensibilities. But to think that there is any sort of partisan agenda set from above misses the point of these schools entirely.
Let’s Hear It From The Faculty The James J. Martin Center for Academic Renewal. The 2024 FIRE Faculty Survey provides a fascinating glimpse at what professors are thinking.
How DEI Conquered the University of Colorado The Wall Street Journal. Trump’s order against the practice is a crucial step in restoring the purpose of higher education.
Federal Funding Shouldn’t Be Going To Woke University Programs City Journal. Congress can shut down extremist international studies centers with a pen stroke.
Why I’m Celebrating The End of the DEI Era KatieCouric.com. As a Black woman born into poverty in rural Virginia, I benefited tremendously from the Civil Rights Movement. But today’s DEI policies are not advancing that cause.
EVENTS
Free Speech as a Human Need — and its DEI Opponents Professor and author Stephen R.C. Hicks will speak at the MIT Free Speech Alliance’s first all-hands meeting of 2025, which takes place next Monday, Feb. 3, from 7:30 to 9:30 PM ET. Hicks will be discussing the individual's need for freedom of speech, the role of knowledge-seeking institutions like MIT in fulfilling that need, and contemporary sources of opposition to free speech.
In addition to Professor Hicks' remarks, MFSA's meeting will include updates from MFSA leadership, previews of upcoming programming and discussion of ongoing initiatives, and Q&A with MFSA members. Attendees can register for the meeting, which will be held over Zoom, at this link
Is the U.S.-Israel alliance a strategic asset for American foreign policy? Princetonians for Free Speech. The Princeton Open Campus Coalition, with support from Steamboat Institute and Princetonians for Free Speech, is proud to present a compelling debate on the following resolution: Be it resolved, the U.S.-Israel alliance is a strategic asset for American foreign policy. Arguing the affirmative is Josh Hammer, Senior editor-at-large of Newsweek and host of The Josh Hammer Show. Arguing the negative is Dave Smith, Stand-Up Comedian and host of Part of the Problem Podcast. The event takes place Tuesday, Feb 11, and 6:30 PM ET in McCosh 10.
Immigration in the Trump Era To Be Debated At UNC On Feb. 20 UNC AFSA. Join UNC AFSA, Heterodox Heels, and the Student Free Speech Alliance for a dynamic panel on immigration, deportation, and shifting policy under the Trump administration. Simon Hankinson of The Heritage Foundation and David Bier of the Cato Institute will explore whether migration benefits the United States, the challenges posed by the current state of the border, and the rapidly changing state of immigration policy and enforcement. Audience Q&A will follow the panel discussion. Register here.
Turley To Headline UNC Alumni Free Speech Alliance April 3 Annual Meeting
Join the UNC Alumni Free Speech Alliance to celebrate a successful year defending free speech at our annual meeting at the Carolina Club on April 3rd, 2025. Arrive at 6:00 PM for cocktails and stay for dinner at 7:00, when keynote speaker Jonathan Turley will discuss the indispensable right to free speech in America and the state of higher education.
Register for this event here.
Jonathan Turley is a law professor, columnist, television analyst, and litigator. Since 1998, he has held the Shapiro Chair for Public Interest Law at George Washington University Law School. He has served as counsel in some of the most notable cases in the last two decades, including representing members of Congress, judges, whistleblowers, five former Attorney Generals, celebrities, accused spies and terrorists, journalists, protesters, and the workers at the secret facility Area 51. Turley has testified before Congress over one hundred times, including during the impeachments of Presidents Bill Clinton and Donald Trump. He was also lead counsel in the last judicial impeachment in US history. He has written for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and USA TODAY. Called the “dean of legal analysts” by The Washington Post, Turley has worked as a legal analyst for CBS, NBC, BBC, and Fox.