CAMPUS

April 1st, 2009

Conservative Paper Stolen at UMass Amherst

FIRE reports that the conservative paper at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, the Minuteman, had its latest issue stolen off the racks. Worse, campus security and the the university administration did nothing to stop the theft. Just another case of tolerance and understanding at a fine institution of higher education.

Posted in Blog
By CJ Ciaramella

March 22nd, 2009

Court Upholds Forced Association on Campus

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that a California law school is not required to recognize religious groups that have closed or discriminatory membership requirements. In essence, this means that the college can defund any campus religious group that requires its members to follow a particular faith.

Posted in Blog
By CJ Ciaramella

February 28th, 2009

Student Harassed for Advocating Concealed Carry

Since I recently wrote about the case of concealed carry over at Western Oregon University, I find this story to be quite relevant:

At Central Connecticut University, a professor recently filed a complaint against a student, saying the student made the class feel “scared and uncomfortable” after he gave a presentation advocating concealed carry on campus. That night, the student was called into the campus police station, where police grilled him about the firearms registered in his name and where he kept them.

Posted in Blog
By CJ Ciaramella

February 21st, 2009

Professor Censors Student for Religious Speech

Over the past week, I’ve been following with interest the awful case of Jonathan Lopez, a student who is suing officials from the Los Angeles Community College District after his speech professor interrupted him, called him a “fascist bastard” and refused to grade his speech.

Lopez’s presentation was on Christianity and included a section about his belief in traditional marriage. In response, his professor told him to “ask God” what his grade was. Furthermore, when Lopez appealed to the dean, he was threatened with expulsion, along with vague mentions of “hate speech.” Classy.

Posted in Blog
By CJ Ciaramella

February 9th, 2009

Update on Stimulus Bill Provision

The latest version of the stimulus bill currently worming its way through Congress doesn’t include funds for renovating college buildings. That means the provision excluding such funds from being used on religious buildings on campuses, which I wrote about in my last blog post, has also been nixed.

Posted in Blog
By CJ Ciaramella

February 6th, 2009

No Bailout For Religious Buildings on Campuses

FIRE reports on the only group around not getting a chunk of the stimulus bill – religious buildings on campus:

Posted in Blog
By CJ Ciaramella

January 7th, 2009

Monkeys on Your Back, Literally

From the Chronicle of Higher Education:

Rhesus macaques share about 93 percent of their genomic sequence with humans and are thus popular with medical researchers.

Not so at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, in New Delhi, where a troop of 80 to 100 of the monkeys have terrorized the campus for several years, entering waiting rooms, biting people, and grabbing food from patients and visitors.

Posted in Blog
By CJ Ciaramella

January 2nd, 2009

Will this be covered in the next stylebook?

As I mentioned previously, the Modern Language Association’s annual conference has been going on. Well, apparently that’s not all that’s been going on. As Inside Higher Ed reports*:

The annual meeting of the MLA has long been known (and frequently satirized) for the sexual puns and imagery of paper titles [...] As the MLA meeting concluded on Tuesday, however, one session sought to put sex at academic conferences center stage. Drawing on literature, theory and experience, panelists considered not only the role of sex at conferences, but talked about identity, love and (perhaps more timely to many MLA attendees) the dismal academic job market.

*Warning: The article talks about casual sex between academics, which might be inappropriate for children and those with strong mental imagery.

Posted in Blog
By CJ Ciaramella

December 30th, 2008

David Horowitz in the Lion’s Den

The Chronicle of Higher Education news blog has ongoing coverage of the Modern Language Association’s annual conference (yes, the same MLA of stylebook infamy), and it’s pretty interesting stuff.  This article on the appearance of David Horowitz caught my eye, especially the following:

Before the session began, members of the MLA Radical Caucus handed out a statement protesting the organization’s decision to invite Mr. Horowitz to speak. Mr. Horowitz “consistently misrepresents the views of academics whom he wishes to discredit,” the caucus said. “He is not a scholar but a liar of the Goebbels school.”

Posted in Blog
By CJ Ciaramella

December 15th, 2008

FIRE Report Shows Widespread Restriction of Free Speech on Campuses

Today FIRE (Foundation for Individual Rights in Education) released a report on the state of free speech in American universities, finding that 74 percent of the 364 campuses studied significantly limit speech on campus. (Full PDF of the report here, summary of findings here.)

Posted in Blog
By CJ Ciaramella