Tag: universities

Florida’s DeSantis bans pro-Palestinian group from state campuses

Florida’s university system, working with Governor Ron DeSantis, ordered colleges on Tuesday to shut down a pro-Palestinian student organization, marking the first U.S. state to outlaw the group whose national leadership backed Hamas’ attack on Israel.

The State University System of Florida said chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) had to be dismantled as part of a “crack down” in the Republican-led state on campus demonstrations that provide “harmful support for terrorist groups.”

“Based on the National SJP’s support of terrorism, in consultation with Governor DeSantis, the student chapters must be deactivated,” the system’s Chancellor Ray Rodrigues wrote in a memo to university leaders.

SJP is active in at least two Florida universities, Rodrigues said.

The University of North Florida in Jacksonville and Florida State University in Tallahassee have SJP chapters, based on Instagram sites. The National SJP did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Tensions between pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian students have led to harassment and assaults at U.S. universities since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack and Israel’s siege and bombardment of the Gaza Strip.

Administrators at some U.S. universities criticized the National SJP after it called Hamas’ attack “a historic win for the Palestinian resistance” and called for a “day of resistance” on Oct. 12 with demonstrations by its chapters at over 200 colleges in America and Canada.

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Academic Complicity in the Censorship Industry: The Case of Kate Starbird

The U.S. Congress has recently heard a report from the House Judiciary Committee which presents disturbing allegations about U.S. Government involvement in surveillance and censorship focused on citizens’ social media activities. The report raises concerns about breaches of the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment guaranteeing freedom of speech. Something highlighted by the report is the role played by University of Washington academic, Dr Kate Starbird.

The attention this has drawn to an individual academic has been condemned in the press as politically-driven and unwarranted harassment. In the Washington Post, Naomi Nix and Joseph Menn (2023) refer to a ‘deluge of bad information about disinformation researchers’ work’ that ‘has led to a torrent of digital harassment’. That concern has been shared by a number of academics who see it also as an indirect assault on academic freedom.

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Stanford Lecturer Suspended After Separating Jewish Students, Labeling Them As ‘Colonizers’

A lecturer at Stanford University has been suspended after he allegedly forced Jewish students to stand in a corner while labeling them as “colonizers.” He also praised and justified the recent terrorist attacks carried out by Hamas, referring to the jihadist group as “freedom fighters.”

Students told the San Francisco Chronicle that the professor, who has been identified as Ameer Hasan Loggins, opened two classes on Tuesday by stating that the day’s lesson would focus on “colonialism.” He then proceeded to blame the current conflict on “Zionists” and justified last weekend’s terrorist attacks that left more than 1,300 Israelis and at least 27 Americans dead, stating that they were a necessary part of “the resistance.”

The teacher then asked Jewish students to identify themselves before ordering them to stand in a corner, stating that this is what they were doing to Palestinians, said Nourya Cohen, a co-president of Stanford’s Israeli Student Association. “He asked how many Jews died in the Holocaust,” Cohen said. When one student said six million, the professor said, “Yes. Only six million.”

“Colonizers killed more than 6 million. Israel is a colonizer,” the lecturer reportedly said.

Rabbi Dov Greenberg, director of the Chabad Stanford Jewish Center, spoke to three students from the class and told the Jewish news outlet Forward that they were afraid to speak out over fears of repercussions. “He said, ‘Hamas is a legitimate representation of the Palestinian people,’” Greenberg told the outlet. “‘They are not a terrorist group. They are freedom fighters. Their actions are legitimate.’”

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Jewish NYC Councilwoman Inna Vernikov arrested for carrying gun at pro-Palestinian rally

Republican Brooklyn Councilwoman Inna Vernikov was arrested Thursday when she was spotted toting a firearm at a pro-Palestinian rally— resulting in calls for her to be removed from office.

The councilwoman, who is Jewish and has spoken out against pro-Palestinian supporters, was in attendance as protesters convened on the campus of CUNY’s Brooklyn College Thursday.

“[Vernikov] was observed with the but-end of a firearm (handgun) protruding from the front portion of her pants” while observing the protest between noon and 2:45 p.m. Thursday, police sources told The Post.

“The Councilwoman eventually left the location and upon notification to police, the Councilwoman was contacted and she turned herself in to the 70 Precinct, in the company of her attorney [around 2:50 a.m. Friday],” the sources continued.

The 39-year-old was arrested and charged with possession of a firearm because she was on school grounds, the sources said.

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Washington U. Prof: AI Girlfriends Are Ruining a Generation of Men

The rise of AI girlfriends is ruining an entire generation of young men by fostering a silent epidemic of loneliness, according to Washington University Professor of Data Science Liberty Vittert.

There are now apps that offer virtual girlfriends for men who want an AI lover to talk to them, allow them to live out their sexual fantasies, and learn, through data, exactly what they like, according to a op-ed written by Washington U. professor Liberty Vittert and published by the Hill.

These apps reportedly have millions of users, who are able to choose the physical attributes and personalities of their virtual girlfriends.

Some of the artificial lovers are even based on real people. One online influencer, for example, created an AI bot of herself and gained over 1,000 users in less than a week. She believes the AI girlfriend version of herself can generate $5 million a month.

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Former Yale student cleared to sue accuser over false allegations

A former Yale student who was kicked out of the school in 2019 after being accused and acquitted of rape in 2018 can now sue his accuser for defamation over statements she made during a school hearing on the matter after a Connecticut Supreme Court ruling over the summer.

According to the New York Post, 30-year-old Saifullah Khan has had a $110 million defamation lawsuit pending against the school since 2019, and has been fighting to bring his accuser into the suit.

In June, the state’s supreme court granted Khan’s request, and ruled that the accuser, a fellow student, shouldn’t receive “qualified immunity” from her testimony in a school hearing that Khan raped her after a 2015 Halloween party.

Qualified immunity protects people from being sued over statements they make in judicial cases, but the court ruled that the university hearing wasn’t a stand-in court proceeding, since Khan wasn’t allowed the chance to cross-examine his accuser.

“For absolute immunity to apply under Connecticut law,” the June decision states, “fundamental fairness requires meaningful cross-examination in proceedings like the one at issue.”

Khan’s team listened during the referenced hearing to the woman’s testimony from a separate room, never being able to cross-examine her. The ruling said Khan’s defense attorney was left to act as a “potted plant.”

The court said that Yale’s hearing couldn’t be considered “quasi-judicial” because the woman wasn’t made to testify under oath, and Khan wasn’t provided with a transcript of the testimony.

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How Columbia University ignored women, undermined prosecutors, and allowed one of its OB/GYNs to abuse hundreds of patients

Columbia University — where Robert Hadden spent his entire medical career — has never fully accounted for its role in allowing a predator to operate unchecked for decades. To date, more than 245 patients have alleged that Hadden abused them, which by itself could make him one of the most prolific sexual assailants in New York history. But the total number of victims may be far higher. On any given day during his two decades of practice at Columbia, Hadden saw 25 to 40 patients. Tens of thousands came under his care. A baby girl he delivered grew up to be a teenager he allegedly assaulted.

Hadden, 65, was sentenced in July to 20 years in federal prison — the result of a long, arduous process that Columbia often undermined. One of the country’s most acclaimed private universities was deeply involved in containing, deflecting, and distancing itself from the scandal at every step.

In agreeing to pay $236.5 million to resolve lawsuits brought by 226 of Hadden’s victims, Columbia admitted no fault, which is in keeping with public statements over the years placing the blame for what happened solely on Hadden. But the university’s own records show that women repeatedly tried to warn doctors and staff about Hadden. At least twice, the fact that Hadden’s bosses in the OB/GYN department knew of the women’s concerns was acknowledged in writing. They allowed him to continue practicing.

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Shakespeare’s Macbeth Branded as Racist for Themes Like ‘Darkness’

William Shakespeare’s Macbeth has been accused by an academic hosted by the Globe Theatre of being “racialised” with references to “darkness”.

In the latest instalment of ‘Anti-Racist Shakespeare’ webinars hosted by the Bard’s Globe Theatre in London, assistant professor of English at Trinity University in Texas Kathryn Vomero Santos declared that the language in Macbeth demonstrates the alleged racial bias of the 17th century playwright.

According to comments reported by the Daily Mail, Vomero Santos claimed in the discussion that the use of words such as bat, beetle, black, and night could be seen as examples of “racialised” language in the play that examines the corrupting nature of power.

Pointing to a scene in which the lead character is referred to as “black Macbeth”, the American academic reportedly said: “I think that it’s important to help our students to see the ways in which a play we might not recognise immediately as a ‘race play’ is relying on racialised language and playing on the dichotomy of whiteness and blackness and dark and light.”

The professor was backed up by playwright Migdalia Cruz, who said of the use of words such as Jew, Moor, and Turk within the play:  “A lot of people cut those things and I thought, I am not going to make him not a racist, he is a racist – but a racist of his time. Everyone in his time were racists.”

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LAWSUIT: FIRE sues to stop California from forcing professors to teach DEI

Today, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression filed a lawsuit on behalf of six California community college professors to halt new, systemwide regulations forcing professors to espouse and teach politicized conceptions of “diversity, equity, and inclusion.”

Each of the professors teach at one of three Fresno-area community colleges within the State Center Community College District. Under the new regulations, all of the more-than-54,000 professors who teach in the California Community Colleges system must incorporate “anti-racist” viewpoints into classroom teaching. 

The regulations explicitly require professors to pledge allegiance to contested ideological viewpoints. Professors must “acknowledge” that “cultural and social identities are diverse, fluid, and intersectional,” and they must develop “knowledge of the intersectionality of social identities and the multiple axes of oppression that people from different racial, ethnic, and other minoritized groups face.” Faculty performance and tenure will be evaluated based on professors’ commitment to and promotion of the government’s viewpoints. 

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‘Identity and Justice’ scholar explores ‘structural racism in chemistry’

Critical race theory can be applied to the teaching of chemistry, according to a University of Illinois-Chicago professor.

Professor Terrell Morton is an “Identity and Justice in STEM Education” scholar who “draws from critical race theory, phenomenology, and human development to ascertain Black students’ consciousness and how it manifests in their various embodiments and actions that facilitate their STEM postsecondary engagements,” according to his faculty bio.

He held a similar job at the University of Missouri where he was brought on as a diversity hire. He was in the “inaugural cohort of Preparing Future Faculty Postdoctoral Fellows for Diversity at MU,” according to his LinkedIn profile.

He wrote in Nature that CRT can “identify tangible strategies for redressing and mitigating structural racism in chemistry.”

Professor Morton (pictured) wrote that chemistry and the science field at large “has maintained a culture that typically favours white, cisgender, middle-to-high socioeconomic status, heterosexual, non-disabled men.”

Minority students, he wrote, “must alter their presentation of themselves to be seen as someone capable of succeeding — including abandoning aspects of their home and cultural identities, having to go above and beyond to demonstrate their intellectual capabilities.”

Morton says that “is not divisive, it is not designed to shame, demonize or encourage hate, and it does not inherently produce feelings of guilt or blame” and is not taught in schools, despite the claims of conservative politicians. In fact, it is “rarely taught” even in undergraduate, according to the UIC “scholar-activist.”

There are several ways the scholar found racism embedded in chemistry. “Racial realism applied to chemistry acknowledges that the field, and science generally, exists as a microcosm of the broader society and thereby perpetuates structural racism or gendered racism,” he wrote.

“Whiteness as property,” according to Morton, explains why the contributions of black scientists are not respected. “The erasure of Black perspectives and experiences in science, historical and contemporary, normalize science as white property, perpetuating feelings of invisibility and hypervisibility for Black students.”

Morton previously gave a presentation in 2021 on “deprogramming whiteness” which made similar points as his 2023 essay.

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