Tag: universities

Campus deplatformings hit record high

Campus deplatforming attempts have reached a disturbing new milestone. For the first time since FIRE began tracking these incidents, more than 200 attempts to prevent invited speakers from appearing on campus have been recorded in a single year — and 2026 still has nearly three months to go. The previous record, set just last year, has already been shattered. And the problem isn’t confined to one side of the political spectrum.

The attempts are being initiated by actors across the political spectrum — with attempts from the right of the expression exceeding attempts from the left both last year (116 to 64) and this year (96 to 74).

Recent incidents include:

  • Fenggang Yang, a professor of sociology and founding director of the Center on Religion and Chinese Society at Purdue University, accepted an invitation to deliver the keynote address at the U.S.-China Catholic Association’s 2026 conference at the University of St. Thomas. After Chinese government officials reportedly objected to Yang’s participation, citing his past criticism of the Chinese government, Yang withdrew from speaking at the conference.
  • The Chicago Thinker, a conservative student publication at the University of Chicago, reserved Breasted Hall through the university’s Turning Point USA chapter for a “fireside chat” with Tim Pool, host of Timcast IRL, and Jack Posobiec, a political activist and former U.S. Navy intelligence officer. According to the Thinker, the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures (ISAC), which manages the venue, confirmed the booking on Aug. 30 but canceled it nine days later. ISAC told organizers by email that the event “might be, as the terminology goes ‘controversial,’” and would require heightened security. University administrators reversed this decision.
  • At Harvard University, the Harvard Jewish Alumni Alliance urged the Kennedy School to disinvite New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof after he wrote about claims of Israeli soldiers using dogs to rape Palestinian detainees. Harvard rejected the demand.
  • Turning Point USA scheduled a “Freedom Built to Last: Honoring Charlie Kirk” memorial at Utah Valley University, featuring a number of prominent conservative speakers. Students for a Democratic Society at UVU opposed the event honoring Kirk and his political legacy. The university declined to cancel the event, and it proceeded on Sept. 10.

This year, there have also been six attempts targeting Twitch streamer Hasan Piker, the most of any individual. These attempts failed at the University of Michigan, Michigan State University, Yale University, Cornell University, and the University of Texas at Austin. Piker’s invitation to speak at the University of Washington was revoked because, according to university officials “the planning process did not meet the required rigor for university-hosted Speaker Series events.”

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DEMOCRAT CORRUPTION SCANDAL: Husband of Rhode Island Democrat Party Chair Indicted in Alleged $20 MILLION Fraud Scheme That Helped Destroy Community College

Michael Perik, a Jamestown, Rhode Island businessman and the husband of Rhode Island Democratic Party Chair Liz Beretta-Perik, faces a dozen felony charges in a sweeping Ohio indictment accusing him and two others of orchestrating a coordinated scheme that diverted roughly $20 million in federal financial aid, Pell Grants, and state subsidies from Eastern Gateway Community College before the institution collapsed.

Ohio Auditor of State Keith Faber announced the indictments on October 8, 2026, following a multi-year investigation by his Special Investigations Unit.

A Jefferson County grand jury returned a 24-count indictment charging Perik and co-defendant Nicole Rowe Colclasure with engaging in a pattern of corrupt activities (racketeering), aggravated theft of $1.5 million or more, theft in office, telecommunications fraud, bribery, having an unlawful interest in a public contract, receiving stolen property, and money laundering.

Former Eastern Gateway president and chief financial officer Michael Geoghegan faces nine related felony counts. Court appearances were scheduled for October 19.

According to the Ohio Auditor’s office, Perik allegedly used four for-profit entities he controlled, including the Student Resource Center, to improperly divert funds through fraudulent reimbursements and illegal incentive compensation.

Federal law bars incentive payments tied to enrollment and financial aid activities unless handled by a truly independent third party.

Investigators allege the companies did not operate independently; instead, they exercised significant control over enrollment, attendance verification, financial aid access, and other core functions.

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University of Michigan voting hub where foreign student illegally voted remains active

The location where a student illegally voted at the University of Michigan in the last election remains active heading into this month’s midterm voting, prompting some election integrity concerns.

In 2024, 19-year-old Chinese national Haoxiang Gao was charged with voting illegally in the 2024 presidential election at a voting site set up in the university’s Museum of Art. He has since fled the country.

Currently the museum is listed as one of two “Campus Voting Hubs,” where early voting will start Oct. 21 and run through Nov. 1 and will be open 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily.

The University of Michigan’s media relations division did not respond to requests from The College Fix asking what measures have been taken to ensure that no illegal voting occurs at the museum site again.

As The College Fix previously reported, Gao had allegedly registered and voted at the University of Michigan under lax procedures around same-day and early voting opportunities. He signed the voter registration application stating he was a U.S. citizen, according to the feds.

Jason Rogers, chairman of the Washtenaw County GOP, told The College Fix that “Michigan’s rules make incidents like the Gao case (and similar problems) too easy.”

“Same-day registration relies mostly on someone simply checking a box saying they’re a citizen, with no documentary proof of citizenship required,” he said via email.

“On top of that, a student only needs 30 days of residency to register at a campus address. They can vote absentee or early in their home state and then register and vote here with almost no real-time check that they haven’t already voted elsewhere.”

Rena Basch, director of elections for Washtenaw County, did not respond to a request from The College Fix asking what measures they are taking to ensure illegal voting does not occur at the University of Michigan’s polling sites during the current election cycle.

Michigan has one of the most high-profile and hotly contested U.S. Senate races in the nation, with Democrat Abdul El-Sayed running against Republican Mike Rogers. The polls show El-Sayed with a slight lead among likely voters in what is perhaps the most-watched race in the country, with implications for control of the Senate and the future of the Democratic Party.

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Wokeness On Steroids! Portland State science features ‘decolonized library,’ ‘Critical Race spatial lens’

Portland State University took the weird step of “using what its architecture firm calls a ‘Critical Race spatial lens,’ incorporating a ‘decolonized library’ and other spaces intended to expand how students engage with science, according to a Campus Reform report.

“BORA Architecture, the firm behind the project, describes the design as an effort to address “historical inequalities” in science education.”

In case there was any ambiguity as to what this was referring to, “BORA says it engaged black, indigenous, and other students of color in discussions that influenced its design decisions.”

“Our design process leveraged a Critical Race spatial lens to address historic inequalities in science education,” the firm states.

Apparently Portland State never got the message that “we don’t need to do this anymore.”

The era of Wokeness and CRT may be over in much of the country, but clearly that has not reached the so-called institutes of “higher learning”.

“BORA also describes a community gathering room, a food and plant teaching kitchen, and a “decolonized library” as spaces that “push beyond typical Westernized lab offerings.”

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AOC Blatantly Lies About the Trump Administration: ‘They Don’t Want Women to go to College’

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was recently campaigning for Abdul El-Sayed when she launched into a rant about why college should be free.

In the process, she told a blatant lie about the Trump administration, saying ‘They don’t want women to go to college.’

First of all, college is free for many people in this country because of scholarships and grants. Second, women now vastly outnumber men on American college campuses. If anyone is being denied the college experience, it’s men not women.

And finally, what evidence does she have that the Trump administration is trying to keep women out of college?

It’s amazing how often she is allowed to just make things up with no challenge from anyone in media.

The Washington Examiner has details:

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) blasted the Trump administration, saying the Department of Education’s rule limiting student loan programs targets women-dominated fields.

“I want to be very clear that what the Trump administration is doing, specifically, is attacking women’s ability to get an education,” Ocasio-Cortez said Thursday during the “It Shouldn’t Be This Hard” town hall in Escanaba, Michigan, with Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul el Sayed.

Under the DOE’s new rule, Student Tuition and Transparency System and Earnings Accountability, announced in June, undergraduate programs will need to show proof that their graduates earn more money than those without a college degree, and graduate programs need to show that their graduates earn more money than an individual with a bachelor’s degree. If they fail to show enough return on investment, they will be disqualified from federal student loan programs…

According to the Los Angeles Times, the DOE will prevent federal student loan access for college programs that don’t earn enough postgraduation.

“Because they put down that list on what they’re making harder, what they’re not going to give people student loans for, and it’s nurses, it’s teachers, it’s social workers,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “They don’t want women to go to college.”

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Berkeley Scientist Caught on Video Poisoning Female Co-Worker

A chemical engineer in California was caught on video poisoning his female co-worker.

David Xu, 41, a scientist at Berkeley Engineering and Research, had secretly been poisoning his colleague, Rong Yuan, with cadmium for nearly two years.

Cadmium is a toxic heavy metal. Yuan had suffered vomiting and hair loss for two years before discovering that her co-worker was poisoning her.

Rong Yuan saw countless doctors as her condition worsened.

One day, Yuan’s mother noticed an unusual odor coming from her daughter’s water bottle.

This prompted Yuan to set up a hidden camera at her desk, and that is when she caught Xu pouring the cadmium into her water bottle.

In 2019, Xu was charged with premeditated murder, but in a plea agreement, he pleaded guilty to poisoning, and he was sentenced to two years’ probation.

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Top 3 Most Outrageous DEI Courses Found in New University Catalogs

CriticalRace.Org’s work has included meticulously examining university course catalogs to assess the extent to which diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) content persists in higher education.

As the new fall semester gets underway, universities across America are once again revealing what they are putting on the syllabus and what students will be learning in the classroom. While many universities continue to offer DEI-focused courses, a few of them uniquely stood out. From designed courses to establish “social justice advocacy” among students, to a course specifically studying “whiteness,” these three courses are sure to raise a few eyebrows.

1.Ithaca College’s “The Politics of Whiteness”

According to College’s 2026-27 Course Catalog, students may choose to take a course titled “The Politics of Whiteness” in the Fall semester. This course examines the “emergence of whiteness as a category that determines the distribution of rights and privileges including voting rights, property rights, and the right to own one’s own body.”

2. Stanford Law School’s “Critical Race Theory”

Even after the apparent crackdown on Critical Race Theory in higher education, Stanford’s Law School maintains a course instructing future attorneys in identity politics. Stanford Law School offers a course titled “Critical Race Theory” in the 2026-2027 Autumn semester, which “explores Critical Race Theory (CRT), mapping its origins in the late 1980s in the US legal academy and exploring its transnational and international trajectories.” Other topics of focus in this course include the “attempts to grapple with race and racism as global structures mutually constitutive with law and imperialism.”

3. Arkansas State’s “Social Justice and Advocacy”

The trend of teaching college students to develop advocacy towards left-leaning agendas continues on campuses. In the Arkansas State’s 2026–2027 Undergraduate Catalog, a course titled “Social Justice and Advocacy” is offered in the Fall semester, which is designed to “create a foundational understanding of underrepresented populations, social justice, and advocacy.” The course also maintains the goal of “help[ing] foster and develop advocacy skills.”

These courses illustrate the range of DEI and critical race-related coursework that remains available at universities across the country. From examining whiteness and racial privilege to exploring Critical Race Theory and developing social justice advocacy skills, these offerings raise broader questions about the role and influence of such material in higher education.

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Columbia’s Satire Paper Declares “Land Acknowledgments” Are No Laughing Matter

Columbia University satire student paper The Federalist has long relished triggering viewers, particularly conservatives. When it mocked the murder of Charlie Kirk, it shrugged off objections that people need to get a sense of humor. However, the paper has now apologized for something beyond satire: land acknowledgments. The editors issued a cringing apology for a joke about land acknowledgments. It appears that, unlike political assassinations, land acknowledgment are simply not laughing matters. It pledged to focus on something called “punch-up humor” that picks only on “people and systems in positions of power.”

The editors removed a column titled “I Lived It: Before We Had Sex, My Boyfriend Said a Land Acknowledgment.” It posted a statement on its Instagram page that the article “upset many members of the Columbia community and handled a sensitive topic rashly and irresponsibly: the important recognition of the native land Columbia University and much of our country sit on.”

We take full accountability for the weight of our harmful words, and we thank Columbia’s Native American Council, as well as other members of the community, for bringing this to our attention. We deeply apologize for any harm this article caused, and we are taking this moment to refine our humor guidelines to ensure that our mission of satire does not hurt communities and voices that should uplifted.

In a moment like the one we are currently living in on a campus like ours, political satire is more important than ever, and we would like to reaffirm our commitment to uplifting marginalized voices in this endeavor.

It was a telling moment in higher education, with institutions fighting to coerce faculty members and students to engage in what critics call a woke, performative moment before meetings, classes, and events.

Recently, the University of Washington settled a case after burning a fortune on litigation over a professor’s dissenting view of land acknowledgment.

We previously discussed the case of Professor Stuart Reges, who teaches at the computer science and engineering school of the University of Washington. He refused to post the school’s “land acknowledgment” and instead posted an alternative statement. Professor Reges sued the university and various officials in 2022. Professor Reges has declared, “Land acknowledgments are performative acts of conformity that should be resisted, even if it lands you in court.”

After the university encouraged faculty to add a prewritten “Indigenous land acknowledgment” statement to their syllabi, reading:

“The University of Washington acknowledges the Coast Salish peoples of this land, the land which touches the shared waters of all tribes and bands within the Suquamish, Tulalip and Muckleshoot nations.”

Reges decided to write his own statement:

“I acknowledge that by the labor theory of property the Coast Salish people can claim historical ownership of almost none of the land currently occupied by the University of Washington.”

The labor theory (which I teach) generally refers to John Locke’s theory. In his Second Treatise, Locke laid the foundation for property as a divine gift of God that began in the state of nature, where all was created in common by God. Reges declared that these tribes, indigenous people, “can claim historical ownership of almost none of the land and that the claim of the university land was not sufficiently used or developed to bestow a claim upon the Coast Salish people. That acknowledged group is a broad collection of different groups with ethnic or linguistic associations.”

In his lawsuit, Professor Reges detailed how, after he stated his own views, the university moved against him.

Reges noted that the university allowed other professors “to include modified statements in their syllabi that were more consistent with the University’s recommended statement.” The operative point is that “other faculty at the Allen School continue to include land acknowledgment statements in their syllabi that differ from the University’s own statement, so long as they express a viewpoint consistent with the University’s recommended version.”

That ended up costing the public a massive amount of money in Washington, but none of the faculty or administrators responsible for this conflict incurred any penalties or costs. Indeed, they were heralded for their struggle in favor of land acknowledgments.

Given such efforts, it is clear that many in academia will not tolerate any jokes, let alone alternatives, to land acknowledgments. It is part of the ideological echo chamber of higher education. The joke, however, is on these forces of orthodoxy. Forcing public apologies with public acknowledgments only undermines efforts to get people to consider the history of Native peoples.

Many of us support discussion and recognition of the history of native peoples. We simply oppose mandatory land acknowledgments, including “voluntary” systems that bar alternatives or coerce participation. As for the cringing editors of The Federalist, they supplied the greatest satirical moment after claiming a mission to “doggedly pursue the truth in its most raw, exaggerated, hyperbolic, blatantly untrue form.”

Some matters in higher education are simply beyond satire, and that is a truly pathetic acknowledgment.

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Cambridge University Declares Free Speech Should Be ‘Restricted’

Gonville and Caius College, one of Cambridge’s oldest foundations, is compelling its undergraduates to attend mandatory “inclusivity training” from the start of term.

The 90-minute sessions are being delivered by Stop Hate UK, a ‘charity’ activist organisation whose own materials tell students their free speech rights may be restricted, that “Islamophobia is a crime”, and that a facial expression can count as harm.

The order lands in the same university that spent the better part of two years investigating a philosopher for lawful speech, and in the same education system that has spent 2026 drilling children in white privilege, “racism requires power”, and compulsory hijabs.

According to an email from the college’s education and tutorial office, seen by The Spectator, “attendance by undergraduate students is mandatory. It is important for the community as a whole to ensure a collective and unified response.” The course, due to run from the week commencing 5 October, will cover “demonstrating inclusive behaviours” and “recognition of a hate incident and its impact.”

A Caius spokesman told The Spectator the college had, “in consultation with student representatives,” committed to “hosting facilitated discussions around inclusivity to support the whole community at Caius.”

That is a softer description than the email students actually received. Mandatory attendance and a demand for a “collective and unified response” is not a discussion. It is an instruction.

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FAFO: Students at UC-Berkeley Facing Deportation After Celebrations of Charlie Kirk’s Death Sparked Interest of State Department

Some students at UC-Berkeley are now facing the possibility of deportation after the State Department took interest in some celebrations of the death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

OOPS.

This kind of disgusting behavior has been documented at more than one college or university. It’s not enough for the left that Charlie Kirk was killed, they feel the need to keep kicking his dead body as well.

The College Fix reports:

Event at UC Berkeley mocking Charlie Kirk memorial draws scrutiny from State Department

A group of UC Berkeley students who celebrated the anniversary of Charlie Kirk’s death have caught the attention of U.S. State Department officials.

Spokesman Tommy Pigott told The College Fix in a statement via email that “people in the United States on visas are guests in this country, and we will not tolerate people here on visas who break our laws, support terrorism, or unlawfully incite violence, which ultimately led to the horrific assassination of an American.”

“That is not only common sense, it’s an essential component of our national security. If that wasn’t the policy under the previous administration, it should’ve been, and it is now under the Trump administration,” Pigott said.

At issue is a Sept. 10 event on the one year-anniversary of Charlie Kirk’s death. Initially, members of Turning Point USA, the conservative campus group founded by Kirk, gathered to solemnly mark his death.

They had a large portrait of Kirk along with posters about “freedom and American patriotism,” according to the Daily Californian student newspaper.

At the event, John Paul Leon, president of TPUSA at UC Berkeley, reportedly said: “You don’t have to agree with everything he said, but when you support the literal political violence and action against this man, that is an act of moral depravity.”

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