Tag: universities

DOJ Opens Investigation Into Suspected Race-Based Practices At Arizona State University

The Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division has launched a Title VI investigation into diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) practices at Arizona State University (ASU), one of the country’s largest public universities.

Wednesday’s announcement comes after recent viral videos that appear to show university personnel participating in or concealing the handling of distinguishing students by race, color, or national origin. Federal officials noted the videos raised the prospect that ASU may have violated civil rights protections while benefiting from considerable taxpayer support.

“No student should be denied access to opportunities or resources because of race, color, or national origin,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s (DOJ’s) Civil Rights Division said. “The United States is committed to keeping universities free of unlawful discrimination – especially when they try to hide illegal conduct to avoid oversight and compliance.”

Federal law does not allow discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin at institutions that receive federal funding. ASU has 194,000 students enrolled across its campuses as of the 2024-2025 school year and receives hundreds of millions of dollars in federal grants and aid annually, public records from the U.S. Department of Education show.

The Civil Rights Division’s investigation will determine whether ASU’s DEI-related policies result in illegal discrimination in areas including admissions, recruitment, scholarships, tutoring, and educational support services. Officials underscored that the investigation is underway.

This action comes amid a broader national effort to examine university practices following changes to federal policy and public outcry over race-conscious programs. Many colleges and universities changed or repackaged DEI initiatives in the wake of executive actions and legal challenges.

The Department of Education indicates that Arizona’s major universities, including ASU, have contended with state-level restrictions on certain diversity initiatives while ensuring federal compliance. Universities nationwide have quietly adjusted DEI programs as a result of potential funding cuts and investigations.

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University of Washington Confirms that NIH-Funded Muscular Dystrophy Experiments on Dogs Have Ended After White Coat Waste Investigation

The University of Washington has confirmed that the portion of its NIH-backed muscular dystrophy experiments on dogs has officially ended, following a major investigation and public pressure campaign by the government watchdog group White Coat Waste (WCW).

The experiments intentionally caused dogs to suffer from muscular dystrophy before killing many of them.

WCW first requested documents on the UW muscular dystrophy dog lab from both the NIH and the university in July and August of last year.

The organization finally received the first tranche of records, including graphic photos and videos, from UW in early April. WCW is still waiting for additional records from the university.

Once those initial documents arrived, WCW immediately released the explosive findings.

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Selling dead bodies to the US Navy for Israeli military training?

Medical case manager Miriam Volpin was at work in Nevada when she received a disturbing message from a student journalist at the University of Southern California (USC).

That student, Jennifer Nehrer, was part of a team investigating allegations that bodies donated to the school for education and scientific research were being sold to the United States Armed Forces. Some may even have ended up in the hands of Israeli military surgeons.

“I just got sick to my stomach,” Volpin told Al Jazeera.

Her 101-year-old mother, Jeanette, had died in 2021. A former flight nurse who served in World War II, Jeanette had arranged to donate her body to USC.

Volpin now fears her mother’s body was among those used to train surgical teams for conflicts like Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.

The AJ+ documentary series Direct From caught up with Volpin and other family members who wonder whether the remains of their loved ones were used to provide training for military personnel.

Direct From also met with the student journalists who broke the story in 2025, to take their investigation further.

Their reporting revealed that USC was one of two schools in southern California that provided cadavers to the US Navy for Israeli surgical teams.

Records show that, since 2018, USC has supplied at least 89 fresh cadavers as part of agreements involving training for both the US Navy and Israeli military personnel.

Public information about the Israeli training is limited. But a 2020 medical paper written by USC and US Navy instructors offers a rare glimpse inside the process.

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Louisiana Governor Is ‘Tired’ Of ‘Being Inundated With The Smell Of Marijuana’ At Football Games, So He Signed A Bill To Jail People For It

Louisiana’s governor says he signed a bill that threatens to send people to jail for up to one year if they smoke marijuana within 2,000 feet of a school property—including a college campus— because he is “tired” of smelling cannabis at football games.

“Like most of you, I’m tired of going to our college and high school campuses and being inundated with the smell of marijuana,” he said in a video posted to social media. “And I’m tired of seeing drugs littering our high school and college campuses, hurting our students.”

“These drugs take away from the family-friendly environments that our colleges are supposed to be, especially on game days,” the governor said.

The legislation from Rep. Gabe Firment (R) that Landry signed last month applies to people who violate drug laws “while smoking, vaping, or otherwise abusing such controlled dangerous substance while on any property used for school purposes by any school, within two thousand feet of any such property, or while on a school bus.”

The bill “takes a massive step toward protecting our families and children in Louisiana on those campuses,” the governor argued in his new video that was posted on Friday.

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Law Students Threatened for Not Attending Mandated DEI Training: Report

Students at Southern Illinois University’s Simmons Law School were reportedly threatened with a “letter of reprimand” that would be placed in their permanent file if they did not attend a mandatory diversity, equity, and inclusion training session.

The reprimand letter could also be shared with the state bar, according to a report from the Daily Signal published earlier this week.

“Those who cannot attend in person typically fulfill the make-up expectations without issue,” an associate dean wrote to one of the students who didn’t wish to participate.

“If a student misses a required session and does not complete a make-up within a reasonable period of time, we typically issue a letter of reprimand,” the dean added.

The email was obtained by a parental rights group called Defending Education.

After multiple Freedom of Information Act requests, Defending Education obtained the message, which also said that the “letter is placed in the student’s permanent file and would be shared with the bar if the file is requested as part of the character and fitness process.”

In addition, other emails revealed that the university is teaching students that the law, and legal field, can be “racially discriminatory.”

The Daily Signal highlighted a specific part of the training that mentioned bullying.

One of the presentation slides read, “Bullying disproportionately affects traditionally underrepresented groups,” while another slide claimed “lawyers of color were bullied more often than white lawyers.”

Erika Sanzi, senior director of communications at Defending Education, told the outlet that the school’s tactics are “indefensible and embarrassing.”

“Threatening law school students with a letter of reprimand if they refuse to attend a DEI session they were deceived about is indefensible and embarrassing,” a statement from Defending Education noted.

This news comes just days after the council of the American Bar Association, which oversees law school accreditation in the United States, moved to change a rule that forces schools to support DEI.

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Doing The Math: UC Faculty Urges Return To Standardized Testing After Shocking Decline In Skills

Years ago, I wrote a column denouncing the decision of the University of California system to drop standardized testing in the cause of greater racial diversity. Now, hundreds of UC mathematics faculty have called for a return to such testing after reports showing a thirtyfold increase in students with math skills below high school level.

It was heralded as a way to preserve diversity after voters in California repeatedly rejected race-based admissions and the Supreme Court appeared ready to bar such practices (commonly proven with reference to standardized test differentials among applicants).

Now, many professors in the California system have come to the same conclusion as some of us who denounced the move years ago. They have witnessed the drop in academic skills and abilities among incoming students.

These tests not only have the most significant predictive value for performance but also play an important role in the advancement of minority students. Former University of California President Janet Napolitano, however, overrode those conclusions.

Napolitano responded to such criticism with a Standardized Testing Task Force in 2019. Many people expected the task force to recommend the cessation of standardized testing. The task force did find that 59 percent of high school graduates were Latino, African-American or Native American but only 37 percent were admitted as UC freshman students.

The Task Force did not find standardized testing to be unreliable or call for its abandonment, however.

Instead, its final report concluded that “At UC, test scores are currently better predictors of first-year GPA than high school grade point average (HSGPA), and about as good at predicting first-year retention, [University] GPA, and graduation.”

Not only that, it found: “Further, the amount of variance in student outcomes explained by test scores has increased since 2007 … Test scores are predictive for all demographic groups and disciplines … In fact, test scores are better predictors of success for students who are Underrepresented Minority Students (URMs), who are first generation, or whose families are low-income.”

In other words, test scores remain the best indicator for continued performance in college.

That clearly was not the result Napolitano or some others wanted.

So, she simply announced a cessation of the use of such scores in admissions.

The system would go to a “test-blind” system until it developed its own test.

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Hakeem Jeffries: We Are Calling for ‘Black Athletes to Abandon SEC Schools’

Thursday on MS NOW’s “All In,” House Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) reiterated the Congressional Black Caucus’ call for “black athletes to abandon SEC schools” over redistricting efforts.

Host Chris Hayes said, “You know, there’s been calls for, the CBC, Congressional Black Caucus has called for athletes, to boycott the SEC conference where, you know, schools like Ole Miss and Tennessee and the states that are that are contemplating this, Gamecocks in South Carolina, the SEC, in sort of opposition to this is a kind of interesting point of leverage. And you echoed that today. Tell me about why you think that makes sense.”

Jeffries said, “Well, we are proud to stand with the NAACP that has appropriately called for black athletes to abandon SEC schools when these schools are in states that are targeting in an unprecedented fashion, black political representation. And our view is that if there’s no representation, there should be no athletic or sports participation. And this comes from a long line of, you know, African-American athletes rising to the occasion. You know, this is a Muhammad Ali moment. This is a Bill Russell moment. It’s a Jackie Robinson moment. We understand that it’s going to require a level of courage and character and conviction and these are personal decisions that will have to be made. But it certainly is our view that there will be athletes who are going to make the decision based on this racially, you know, egregious gerrymandering that’s taking place, a return to Jim Crow like tactics in the South, that there will be black athletes who will make a decision to take their talents elsewhere.”

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Colorado Democrats pass law requiring campuses to stockpile abortion drugs

The Colorado legislature recently passed a bill stipulating that all colleges and universities be required to provide abortion pills either in their campus pharmacies or via prescriptions to obtain them off campus. 

The bill passed the state Senate last week and the House in late April, but pro-life and religious leaders told The College Fix that the measure will isolate young women and pressure them to abort their unborn babies.

House Bill 26-1335, sponsored by Democrat Rep. Lorena Garcia, requires higher education institutions “to maintain a stock of abortion medication to dispense to students enrolled at the institution” if there is a pharmacy on campus. If there is no pharmacy, it requires health centers to provide prescriptions for students to obtain abortion pills off campus. 

It stipulates that any institution of higher education, whether public or private, must provide access to abortion pills unless doing so would jeopardize its “federal grant participation, … modify the generally accepted standards of medical practice, or conflict with the institution’s sincerely held religious beliefs or practices.”

If signed into law by Democrat Gov. Jared Polis, the bill will go into effect Aug. 1, 2027.

Nathan Fisher, associate director of the Colorado Catholic Conference, expressed concerns about the bill in an interview with The College Fix. “HB26-1335 will force college-aged women into an isolated environment with one perceived option: abortion.”

The bill holds additional religious concerns for the conference. Fisher told The Fix that while there is a religious exemption for institutions as a whole if they have “sincerely held beliefs,” this is not sufficient. 

Fisher said the exemption “does not protect the First Amendment rights of speech and expression for the millions of students on non-religious campuses whose student tuition and fees will be used for abortion medication or the college faculty and staff who will be forced to permit or even prescribe the medication.”

The College Fix also contacted Rep. Garcia, Sen. Katie Wallace, and Rep. Kenny Nguyen, the lead sponsors of the bill, to ask about the religious freedom concerns, as well as the reasoning for including private campuses in addition to public. None responded to two emailed requests over the past two weeks.

The text of the bill states that “true equality cannot be achieved without access to reproductive health care, including abortion.” 

In her introduction of the bill earlier this spring, Rep. Garcia said a key issue is that “your life is on campus when you are in college, and that limits the ability to access certain services that might not be on campus when you’re there.”

Garcia said Colorado has a “constitutional right to abortion care,” so “it is imperative to make sure that all of our institutions ensure that that right exists.”

In the same session, Rep. Nguyen, a co-sponsor, emphasized the importance of abortion “accessibility.”

“I believe that reproductive rights are truly under attack in the federal government, and this continues to codify laws in the state of Colorado to protect access to abortion,” Nguyen said.

However, Lydia Davis, spokesperson for Students for Life of America, described abortion pills as “anti-woman.”

They have “injured and hospitalized women, proving these drugs have never been about ‘healthcare’ or ‘supporting women,’” she told The Fix in a recent interview.

When asked about the Colorado bill, Davis said that “these deadly drugs have killed millions of babies, harmed women, and polluted our water systems with chemically tainted fetal remains flushed into our sewer systems. This bill would turn college campuses into abortion distribution centers and continue transforming our sewers into cemeteries.”

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Accusations grow over ChatGPT’s possible role in Florida State U. shooting

Artificial intelligence platform ChatGPT is facing multiple accusations that it is liable for a mass shooting at Florida State University.

Both the state’s attorney general and the family of a slain university worker accuse the platform, which is owned by OpenAI, of aiding in the April 17, 2025 shooting that killed two people and wounded six others.

Attorney General James Uthmeier says his office is “demanding answers on OpenAI’s activities that have hurt kids, endangered Americans, and facilitated the recent FSU mass shooting.”

“Wrongdoers must be held accountable,” Uthemeier said in an X post.

Similarly, a federal lawsuit, filed on May 11, accuses the platform of not recognizing red flags in messages sent by Phoenix Ikner, who is facing a trial in October for the shootings. The estate of slain Aramark supervisor Tiru Chabba similarly accuses ChatGPT of complicity in the killing.

Florida State University deferred comment to the Attorney General’s office, who then referred The Fix to its April 21 news release. 

The release states: “Florida law states that anyone who aids, abets, or counsels someone in the commission of a crime, and that crime is committed or attempted, may be considered a principal to the crime. The ‘aider and abettor’ is just as responsible for the crime as the perpetrator.” 

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DEAD PEOPLE, ‘GHOST STUDENTS,’ AND BOTS? Trump Education Sec. McMahon Says Biden-Era Student Aid System Was a Fraud Magnet — Taxpayers Already Saved $1 BILLION

The federal student aid system was apparently a feeding trough for fraudsters and according to President Trump’s Education Secretary Linda McMahon, some of the “students” cashing in weren’t even alive.

In a jaw-dropping interview on Fox News, McMahon revealed that the Department of Education uncovered widespread abuse in the federal student aid application system, including bot-driven applications, so-called “ghost students,” and even dead individuals allegedly receiving federal student aid.

Secretary McMahon laid it all out: the Trump administration has completely revamped the FAFSA program with ironclad real-time identity verification and they’re already saving taxpayers billions.

According to the Department of Education website:

The U.S. Department of Education (the Department) launched a new, real-time fraud detection capability for the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA®) form, marking the largest and most comprehensive, nationwide fraud prevention effort in the agency’s history.

Effective immediately, fraud detection is built directly into the FAFSA itself, with every applicant evaluated in real-time using risk-based identity screening. Applicants who display a certain level of fraud risk will now be required to present government-issued identification before accessing federal student aid funds such as Pell Grants and federal student loans.

The Department also recently began conducting a one-time review of all previously submitted 2026-27 FAFSA forms using the new screening technology, ensuring that all federal student aid program dollars are supporting students and families, not fraudsters. The Department estimates that its efforts to identify and deny federal student aid to fraudulent students will save taxpayers over $1 billion during this year’s FAFSA cycle.

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