Tag: universities

MSU students are suing a professor after she required them to subscribe to a website she founded that funds Planned Parenthood

An adjunct professor at Michigan State University, Amy Wisner, is being sued by two of her students after requiring her business communications class to purchase a $99 subscription to an activist website she founded that funds Planned Parenthood.

The website, The Rebellion Community, was described in the class syllabus as “a global social learning community.”

Several students looked into the website and found posts from their professor on social media which detailed the leftwing causes that their membership fees were going to, most notably, Planned Parenthood.

MLive News reported,

Though Wisner initially told students that she would reap no benefit from the subscriptions, the lawsuit said, students found out that Wisner operated the site and had said in different contexts that its proceeds would be donated to Planned Parenthood or used to fund “an RV roadtrip around the United States to co-create communities of rebels.”

The university says that Wisner is no longer employed and the school has offered to refund the students the cost of their subscriptions.

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“Your Speech Is Violence”: How The Mob Is Using A New Mantra To Justify Campus Violence

When those words became a popular mantra years ago on college campuses, I wrote that the anti-free speech movement was moving toward compelled speech while declaring dissenting views to be harmful.

Today, it isn’t just silence that is considered violence on college campuses. It is also speech, as both faculty and students are actively shutting down opposing views on subjects ranging from abortion to climate change to transgender issues.

Recently, many people were shocked by a videotape of Hunter College professor Shellyne Rodríguez trashing a pro-life student display in New York. Most were focused on her profanity and vandalism, but there were familiar phrases that appeared in her diatribe to the clearly shocked students.

Before trashing the table, she told the students, “You’re not educating s–t […] This is f–king propaganda. What are you going to do, like, anti-trans next? This is bulls–t. This is violent. You’re triggering my students.”

The videotape revealed one other thing. At Hunter College, and at other colleges, it seems that trashing a pro-life student display and abusing pro-life students is not considered a firing offense. Hunter College refused to fire Rodríguez.

The PSC Graduate Center, the labor organization of graduate and professional schools at the City University of New York, supported that decision and said Rodríguez was “justified” in trashing the display, which the organization described as “dangerously false propaganda” and “disinformation.”

Rodríguez later put a machete to the neck of a reporter, threatened to chop him up and then chased a news crew down a street with the machete in hand. Somewhere between the machete to the neck and chasing the reporters down the street, Hunter College finally decided that Rodríguez had to go.

Rodríguez denounced the school for having “capitulated” to “racists, white nationalists, and misogynists.” She explained that her firing was just a continuation of “attacks on women, trans people, black people, Latinx people, migrants, and beyond.”

The redefinition of opposing views as “violence” is a favorite excuse for violent groups like antifa, which continue to physically assault speakers with pro-life and other disfavored views.  As explained by Rutgers Professor Mark Bray in his “Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook,” the group believes that “‘free speech’ as such is merely a bourgeois fantasy unworthy of consideration.”

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Erasing the English: Anglo-Saxons Never Existed, Claims Cambridge University

Cambridge University is reportedly teaching its students that the Anglo-Saxons never existed as a unique ethnic group in an “anti-racist” attempt to dispel supposed nationalist “myths” about Britain.

In an ironic turn of events, the Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic (ASNC) at the once prestigious Cambridge University in England is now attempting to dismantle the very ideas inherent in the title of the department, claiming that the Anglo-Saxon ethnic group is apparently a racist concoction meant to stoke British nationalism, according to a report from London’s Daily Telegraph.

The woke academics claimed that the purpose of its anti-English stance is to make its history lessons “more anti-racist”, the department said according to the broadsheet, adding: “One concern has been to address recent concerns over use of the term ‘Anglo-Saxon’ and its perceived connection to ethnic/racial English identity.”

“In general, ASNC teaching seeks to dismantle the basis of myths of nationalism… by showing students just how constructed and contingent these identities are and always have been,” they continued.

Apparently unsatisfied with dispelling the supposed “myth” of the Anglo-Saxon people, the university department went on to claim that there was never a “coherent” ethnic identity for the peoples in England, Ireland, Scotland, or Wales.

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Minnesota to provide illegal immigrants with free college tuition

Illegal immigrants will be eligible for free college tuition in the state of Minnesota, according to Axios.

Under Minnesota’s free tuition program, dubbed the “North Star Promise,” illegal immigrants will have their full tuition paid for if they enroll in a two or four-year program within the University of Minnesota or Minnesota State systems and come from a household with an income of $80,000 or less, according to Axios. To be eligible for the free tuition, applicants must have either graduated from a Minnesota high school or have lived in the state for a year without being enrolled in college full-time.

“We want to make sure that when we’re expanding opportunities for everybody, we’re doing it for all Minnesotans, regardless of background, regardless of their documentation status,” Democratic state Senate Higher Education Chair Omar Fateh told the outlet.

Applicants must also submit a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form, which helps determine which students need financial aid, Axios reported.

The program will begin in the 2024-2025 school year and is expected to cost $117 million in its first fiscal year, according to the Associated Press.

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Oxford College Can Now Expel Students For Using The Wrong Pronouns

A prestigious college at the University of Oxford announced Thursday that violating its new transgender harassment policy, including using the wrong pronouns, could lead to expulsion.

Regent’s Park College released a Trans Inclusion Statement, which outlines in detail what the college considers “transphobic harassment” and threatens offenders with severe penalties, including expulsion.

The statement declares, “Any unlawful discriminatory behaviour, including transphobic harassment or bullying of by individuals or groups, will be regarded extremely seriously and could be grounds for disciplinary action, which may include expulsion or dismissal.”

The college’s statement goes on to define “transphobia” broadly, including acts like “denying or disputing the validity and/or existence of a trans person’s identity,” “refusal to treat a person in accordance with their affirmed identity,” and “misgendering” by using “the wrong name or pronoun.”

The college further admits that “it is not possible to have a comprehensive definition of transphobia.” The college interprets the United Kingdom’s Equality Act of 2010 to forbid discrimination based on gender identity, even though the law uses the medical term “gender reassignment” rather than “gender identity” in its anti-discrimination language.

The Trans Inclusion Statement came out in the wake of a controversial talk the college hosted given by “gender-critical feminist” Kathleen Stock, a former professor at the University of Sussex. Stock’s talk was heavily protested and even interrupted by a trans activist who glued her hands to the floor of the stage.

Stock promoted her book “Material Girls,” stating that she wants “trans people protected from violence and discrimination,” but that it was “not fair on females” to share spaces like bathrooms and changing rooms with biological men. She called for “third spaces” as a compromise.

At the end of its statement, the college briefly mentions how the Equality Act protects religious belief and states that it respects the right of “those holding gender-critical beliefs” with the qualification that their speech “does not constitute harassment as not respecting the rights and freedoms of others.”

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Ohio State receives first-ever DEA license to grow psychedelic mushrooms for research

Ohio State University is about to grow psychedelic mushrooms.

For scientific research, people.

Ohio State, alongside the mental health and wellness research and development company Inner State Inc., was awarded the first-ever license by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency to grow whole psilocybin mushrooms. The mushrooms will be used in the study of mental health treatment capabilities with naturally grown psychedelic mushrooms.

“This license is a major milestone not only for Inner State and Ohio State, but for the entire field of psychedelic research,” Inner State CEO Ashley Walsh said Wednesday in a news release.

The license allows Ohio State and Inner State to cultivate psilocybin mushrooms for research purposes only. All research will be conducted in a federally sanctioned and secured grow house in accordance with strict DEA regulations and guidelines.

“By combining cutting-edge techniques in genomics and metabolomics, we have the opportunity to obtain a high-resolution picture of the chemical diversity of mushrooms that have remained difficult to study for several decades,” according to Ohio State researchers Dr. Jason Slot and Dr. Kou-San Ju.

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UK university launches postgraduate course in clinical use of psychedelics

A UK university is launching one of the world’s first postgraduate qualifications on psychedelics to teach healthcare workers about using psilocybin, LSD, MDMA and other psychoactive drugs in therapeutic work.

The certificate from Exeter University cements psychedelics as an area of scientific importance in the UK. It could help pave the way for clinical therapies becoming available within the next five years, with some treatments being in the final stages of clinical trials.

This would follow Australia, which has become the first country to allow psychiatrists to prescribe psychedelics for treatment-resistant depression. In the US, MDMA may be licensed to treat post-traumatic stress disorder by the end of the year, and Oregon and Colorado are planning to legalise the regulated use of psilocybin, the hallucinogenic chemical found in magic mushrooms.

Celia Morgan, a professor of psychopharmacology at the University of Exeter and a co-lead of the programme, said: “As the world wakes up to the potential for psychedelics to be an important part of the toolkit to treat some of our most damaging mental health conditions, it’s vital that we’re training the workforce to meet the demand. The global body of high-quality evidence is now irrefutable – psychedelics can work where other treatments have failed.”

Noting that the main barriers to their use were legal and structural rather than medical, she added: “I think this shows how far we have come from the fear and stigma that dogged this field for years, a change which we also see reflected in leading universities around the world conducting gold-standard clinical trials.

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Florida professor leaves $190,000-a-year job following claim he faked data on racism studies

A Florida State University criminology professor abruptly left his $190,000-a-year position following allegations that he fudged data on racism studies during his 16-year tenure.

Eric Stewart, who had six of his studies retracted, has been absent from the college since mid-March after a new investigation over his work renewed scrutiny over claims that he fabricated data by altering sample sizes to make the results appear more racist, the Florida Standard reports.

Stewart was first accused of falsifying data by Justin Pickett, a University of Albany criminology professor who co-authored a report on race and crime with Stewart in 2011.

In the study, the criminologists were looking to test whether the public was increasingly demanding longer sentences for black and Hispanic criminals as those minority populations grew.

In his 2019 complaint, Pickett said their findings showed no relationship between the growth of minority groups and the severity of criminal sentences handed to them.

Despite the result, the paper was published with “altered” data to claim there was a correlation, with Pickett noting that many of the changes appeared to have been tacked on just before publication.

The biggest change Pickett pointed out was their sample size growing to 1,184 respondents even though they only had 500, and that the study’s conclusion came from handpicking the data from 91 counties instead of the full list of 326.

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San Francisco University to host seminar on ‘racist’ math

San Francisco University, in association with the Simon Fraser Public Interest Group, will host a seminar on Tuesday asking the question, “How can math be racist?” and will answer it by “unpacking oppressive structures and bias in math and science.”

Those set to speak at the seminar are Hannah Ghaderi, Co-Directory of Research & Education of the interest group, and Chantelle Spicer, currently the Director of Engagement. Neither of these individuals appear to have any professional background in math. Mathematician James Lindsay told Human Events that it is likely better that these two DEI professionals did not have a math background.

Lindsay said: “They don’t need mathematics backgrounds. They have critical consciousness, which means they know how racism and transphobia are hidden in everything, even things they don’t know anything about.”

“In fact, people with mathematics backgrounds would be less suited to this work than they would because they would believe that having been socialized into mathematics culture makes these so-called problematics seem normal, which makes them invisible,” he said.

Lindsay has recently been at the forefront of speaking out against diversity, equity and inclusion infiltrating mathematics, as woke leftist professors and activists have continued to insist that it’s racist to say at 2+2 = 4, and claim instead that the sum of the equation is 5.

The fundamental thesis of those who suggest that 2+2=5 is not that it must equal 5, but that it can equal five. The idea behind this assertion has to do with deconstructing conventionally accepted notions in exchange for subjectivity and unstable conclusions. This cultural stratagem finds its culmination in postmodernism, where objective fact is often seen as draconian and authoritarian.

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The Military-Intelligentsia Complex: How Higher Education Enables US Militarism

Throughout history, most academics have been the witting or unwitting servants of power. Socrates was accused of failing to honor the gods of Athens and corrupting the youth with his ideas. He was canceled in the ultimate way: sentenced to die. Aristotle, by contrast, tutored the young Alexander the Great, future King of Macedonia, which at the time was occupying Athens. During the rebellion, Aristotle fled to save his skin.

Today, some academics refusing to toe the line are also threatened with death. Chicago University’s John Mearsheimer was placed on the US-funded Ukrainian Center for Countering Disinformation’s blacklist, where he and others, including myself, were accused of committing “informational terrorism” by expressing fact-based opinions about the war with Russia. At the same time that Ukrainian fascists were placing me on their list, a cabal of liberal staff at my military-funded institution, the University of Plymouth (UK), terminated my position without warning or right of reply.

If we look at the US imperial apparatus, we see that higher education plays a major role.

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