Tag: universities

The University of Minnesota is Paying ‘Diversity’ Staffers Almost $1.5 Million Annually

The University of Minnesota is paying ‘diversity staffers’ almost a million and a half dollars every year. And people still wonder how college has gotten so expensive.

What exactly do diversity staffers even do? Does anyone know?

Parents and students must understand that when they take out massive government loans to pay for college, this is part of what they are paying for. The exorbitant salaries of these pointless employees.

Campus Reform reports:

University of Minnesota pays DEI staff nearly $1.5 million annually

The University of Minnesota pays its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) staff members more than $1.4 million annually, according to publicly available state payroll records.

Despite federal executive orders restricting DEI offices and activities, the University of Minnesota maintains an Office for Equity and Diversity, which consists “of over 15 offices and major initiatives.”

“Equity and diversity is fundamental to everything we do at the University of Minnesota,” the office’s website says.

The central office employs four leadership staff and five administrative staff. Five of those staff members are receiving six-figure salaries, according to OpenPayrolls.

Record from 2025 list Vice President for Equity and Diversity Mercedes Ramírez Fernández ($391,759), Associate Vice President for Equity and Diversity and Faculty Development Keisha Varma ($238,540), Associate Vice Presidents Tina Marisam ($230,444) and Malinda Lindquist ($196,267), and Chief of Staff Elizabeth Martinez-Podolsky ($164,800).

The payroll data also lists Kate Klosterman ($74,298), John Michael Bradshaw ($50,086.40), Jenna Olien ($47,237), and Tia Phan ($99,194).

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Justice Department sues Colorado over in-state tuition and financial aid for illegal immigrants

The U.S. Department of Justice is suing Colorado over the alleged offering of in-state tuition and financial aid to illegal immigrants attending public colleges and universities, the latest legal challenge over what critics say amounts to discrimination against U.S. citizens.

The lawsuit, filed Thursday in Colorado federal court, names the Colorado Commission on Higher Education, the state Department of Higher Education and its director, JB Holston, as defendants.

“For three decades, Congress has made clear that Colorado cannot give education benefits to illegal aliens that it does not give to all American citizens,” said Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward.

“By granting illegal aliens in-state tuition, Colorado is not only violating federal law but subsidizing education for illegal aliens at taxpayers’ expense.

“Our litigation efforts will not cease until we have fulfilled President [Donald] Trump’s promise that illegal aliens will not obtain preferential treatment over our nation’s own citizens.”

Fox News Digital has reached out to both agencies named in the lawsuit for comment.

A spokesperson for Colorado Gov. Jared Polis said each state has the right to determine how to grant in-state tuition rates. 

“The federal government seizing control of determining in-state tuition across the country is absurd,” the spokesperson told Fox News. “In Colorado, we are expanding access to education to provide students with the skills to get good-paying jobs and doubling down on strategies to save students money.” 

The complaint argues that the Advancing Students for a Stronger Economy Tomorrow (ASSET) Act and related state policies violate a federal statute that prohibits states from offering higher education benefits to illegal immigrants based on their residency unless the same benefits are available to all U.S. citizens.

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Rep. Brandon Gill Makes Head of American Bar Association Squirm by Asking Her Questions About DEI in Law Schools

Republican Rep. Brandon Gill grilled Michelle A. Behnke, the president of the American Bar Association this week about DEI policies in law schools, the future of the U.S. Supreme Court and more.

If you have ever seen Gill in this type of environment before, you know how good he is at this.

He asked this woman very simple questions but she kept falling back on answers that sounded like rehearsed legal responses.

Here’s a partial transcript:

GILL: According to the ABA’s website, quote, all of us have implicit biases, would you agree with that statement?

BEHNKE: The ABA believes that, uh, diversity, equity and inclusion, improves the lives of…

GILL: Would you agree with the statement? That, quote, all of us have implicit biases, from the ABA’s website?

BEHNKE: The ABA believes that diversity in all of its…

GILL: Is that a yes? Can I take that… It’s a yes or no question. Do you believe that all of us have implicit biases as your website says?

BEHNKE: The ABA looks to remove barriers and…

GILL: That’s not my question, ma’am. Do you believe that all of us have implicit biases?

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State University of New York System Implements Mandatory Tutoring Program Because ‘Record Number’ of First Year Students Are Failing Math and Writing

The State University of New York (SUNY) is implementing a mandatory tutoring system because a record number of first year students are failing reading and math. This problem is widespread and not isolated to New York.

Part of this problem is due to what happened during Covid-19, when school systems across the country shut down for months and conducted classes via Zoom. Students everywhere fell behind and never caught up.

It is also due to the fact that so many schools have abandoned basic elements of education in favor of pushing woke garbage about social justice, race, and gender.

The College Fix reports:

SUNY institutes mandatory tutoring, extra class time due to ‘record’ number of first-years failing math, writing

Due to a “record” number of first-year failures in freshman writing and math courses, the State University of New York system now will require students to have weekly meetings with a one-on-one tutor, and will add additional time to classes in the latter category.

According to the Times Union, SUNY reported that a quarter of its freshmen failed the introductory math course, and 22 percent flunked English.

This fall at SUNY Albany, selected first-years will have to get tutored in writing for an hour each week, and for 90 minutes in math/science. “Hundreds” of high-performing students have been tapped to help with the effort.

Dean for Undergraduate Education JoAnne Malatesta said that the assisting students, who “did well” in the writing class, will “direct freshmen to the tutoring center and encourage them to go to the professor’s office hours.”

Some 375 student tutors also will hold “90-minute ‘supplemental instruction’ sessions” each week in math and science that freshmen are “expected” to attend.

Malatesta said similar sessions in the past have led to “significant gains” in academic performance.

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Woke U: University at Buffalo Funds Research on ‘Queer Theory,’ ‘Racial Capitalism’

In the latest example of DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) and wokeness at educational institutions, Campus Reform reports that the University of Buffalo is funding research on ‘queer theory’ and ‘racial capitalism.’

“The University at Buffalo’s Gender Institute will fund grant projects with up to $7,000 to advance scholarship related to women, gender, and sexuality.”

In January 2025, President Trump signed the Executive Order ‘Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity.’

It targets DEI and DEIA programs across the federal government, private sector, and institutions of higher education.

The University of Buffalo’s grants seem to fly in the face of the order.

“Funding, which ranges from $1,000 to $7,000, can support “data collection, archival research, fieldwork, research assistance, supplies, books, software, travel integral to the development of the project, and other forms of research support and curriculum development expenses.”

“A grant from fall 2025 supported a monograph about Shakespeare’s Macbeth and abortion. The project was titled “Queering Birth, Queering Death: The Problem of Life in Early Modern Literature.”

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Finally! Court Rules Texas Can Bar Illegals From Getting In-State Tuition

As reported many times here at The Gateway Pundit, many schools have offered in-state tuition to illegal aliens in violation of federal law.

Now, according to The College Fix ,”Texas can continue to prohibit illegal immigrants from receiving in-state tuition rates at public universities, a federal court affirmed.”

“The ruling last Thursday by a three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upholds an agreement between Trump administration and Texas, which ended the Lone Star State’s program. Federal law prohibits illegal immigrants from receiving better tuition rates than out-of-state American citizens.”

Surprisingly, illegal aliens, even in Texas, have been getting better rates of tuition than other Americans from out of state.

This law fell apart following a lawsuit. “Texas quickly settled as part of a coordinated effort with the Department of Justice.”

The Trump administration has targeted these laws, which give tuition breaks to illegals in both red and blue states.

It is clearly wrong to give lawbreakers an advantage over law-abiding American citizens.

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GOING VIRAL: Blue Haired Trans Student LOSES IT, Attacks Cops When Officer Misgenders Him – Gets Tased and Arrested 

Police body camera footage from the University of Central Florida last year is blowing up on the internet due to the absurdity police had to deal with from a so-called transgender student.

The now viral incident occurred in February 2025 but has resurfaced.

An officer, seen in the video below, walks into a campus building, where he encounters a blue-haired student, who has been identified as 27-year-old Jarrett Vick. “Why do you let those kids get away with this? They are not supposed to be here,” Vick screams at the officer, sparking the incident.

The cop, who said he was on campus for a stolen vehicle investigation, then threatened to put him in cuffs and take him to a Baker Act facility for psychiatric hold, and Vick said, “f*cking try it.”

The officer then called for backup to deal with the unhinged student, and upon saying over the radio, “he’s having a breakdown,” things escalated with Vick screaming, “She! She! Just say the right pronouns!”

“What’d you say?” the officer responded as he pulled out a can of mace and started chasing Vick around the room.

Eventually, a second officer arrived, and the police placed Vick, who forcefully resisted and appeared to attack officers,  under arrest.

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Education Secretary Spent £500,000 of Taxpayers’ Money Trying to Scrap University Free Speech Laws

Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson has run up a bill of more than £500,000 in taxpayers’ money attempting to block free speech protections for university academics. The High Court has ordered the Government to pay the Free Speech Union’s legal costs of £353,748 after it successfully resisted her bid to scrap the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act. The Mail has the story:

Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson has spent more than £500,000 of taxpayers’ money trying to water down laws which protect free speech in universities, it was revealed last night.

Ms Phillipson embarked on the legal battle after trying to dilute Tory legislation which put a duty on universities and student unions to actively promote, as well as protect, free speech on campuses, describing it as a “Tory hate speech charter”.

A free speech watchdog allows universities to be fined up to 2% of their income for censoring academics.

The laws came after university staff were hounded out of their jobs for expressing their opinions.

They included Professor Kathleen Stock, who resigned from Sussex University in 2021 after harassment and protests by trans activists, saying she felt pressure to “self-censor” her work.

The philosophy lecturer, who believes single-sex spaces are necessary in places such as prisons and public toilets, was accused by students of making trans people feel “unsafe”.

Ms Phillipson’s move to block the laws was successfully opposed by the Free Speech Union (FSU), run by Tory peer Toby Young.

Now the High Court has ruled that the Government should pay the FSU’s costs of £353,748, which takes the total bill to more than £500,000 when its own legal costs are included.

Within weeks of Labour entering office in July 2024, Ms Phillipson declared that she would revoke the planned introduction of the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act, which had been passed in 2023.

Internal documents, disclosed during the litigation, revealed that officials had been instructed before the election to have a statutory instrument ready to pause the Act “on ‘day one’”, and that the Secretary of State did “not wish to implement the Act, at least in full”.

But in January 2025, nine days before the case was due to be heard, Ms Phillipson capitulated and told Parliament that the majority of the Act’s provisions would be enacted after all.

At that point, the FSU offered to withdraw its claim in return for a fixed costs payment of £84,000.

The Government refused, offering instead a “drop hands” settlement under which the FSU, having won in substance, would recover nothing. Since then, the costs have spiralled as expensive KCs wrangled over the details.

Lord Young of Acton, general secretary of the FSU, said: “The significance of this judicial decision is that it confirms our view and the view of our lawyers that we won this case and the Education Secretary lost – costs are awarded to the winners, with the losers having to pay.”

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Unacceptable and Dangerous: Georgetown’s China Initiative Gives CCP-Linked Groups Access to Future US Policymakers

In the latest anti-American move made by American academic institutions, Campus Reform is reporting “Georgetown University has spent the last decade building one of the nation’s most prominent China-focused academic pipelines while receiving tens of millions of dollars in Chinese Communist Party (CCP)-linked funding and nearly $1.5 billion in foreign gifts and contracts since 1992.”

This is outrageous and dangerous in light of President Trump’s address Thursday night to the nation and the revelations of what the CCP engaged in.

President Trump has argued that China interfered in our elections.

The CCP or Chinese Communist Party has sought to undermine America from within at every turn.

Georgetown has raked in billions from foreign governments. Georgetown increased tuition prices for hard-working American families. This fall, undergraduate tuition will cost American students $74,520 before room, board, and fees are factored in, more than doubling since 2006.”

This is outrageous and unacceptable.

“The university has also helped create opportunities for Chinese state-linked institutions and CCP-tied organizations to gain access to the next generation of U.S. policymakers in Washington, D.C.”

If this seems like a recipe for disaster its because it is.

“The university’s Initiative for U.S.-China Dialogue on Global Issues was launched in 2016 with a $10 million “gift” from the Hong Kong-based Spring Breeze Foundation. A 2020 Department of Education Section 117 report stated that Spring Breeze was financed by CP Group and noted the company’s extensive commercial relationships with the CCP. ”

According to this student writing at Campus Reform, this is not a typical exchange program but rather a subversive CCP initiative.

“By 2019, the initiative had launched five research groups, supported 43 student fellows, organized 16 U.S.-China workshops, produced 23 podcasts, funded graduate study tours in China, and hosted 35 public events. ”

“Georgetown has charged families premium prices for access to elite civic and policy leadership opportunities while simultaneously building channels for CCP-linked institutions to reach the students most likely to enter American government, diplomacy, law, and national security work.”

This is ominous; there should be exactly 0 cooperative programs that give the CCP any access or benefit from our universities, as they clearly cannot be trusted.

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LONG OVERDUE: State Department to Crack Down on Universities That Take Money From Foreign Entities on Government Watch Lists

The State Department and a handful of other government agencies are going to start cracking down on colleges and universities that take money from foreign entities that are on government watch lists.

This is something we should have been doing for years, but better late than never.

Higher education is always looking for new forms of revenue and will take cash from pretty much anywhere. It’s a significant threat to national security.

CBS News reports:

Universities receive millions in funding from foreign entities on U.S. government watch lists, records show

Major U.S. universities have received millions of dollars in funding from foreign entities that are on U.S. government watch lists, according to a CBS News review of university funding records submitted to the Department of Education.

State Department and Education Department officials say the disclosure forms, which have not been previously reported, show a combined $27.6 million received in roughly the second half of last year by dozens of top American research institutions that originated from entities appearing on at least one federal government watch list. There are 10 cautionary and restricted watch lists overseen by the departments of Treasury, Commerce, Homeland Security, Defense and State, which flag companies and organizations that should be subject to extra scrutiny due to their ties to foreign government interests.

The two agencies are working together to crack down on academic partnerships with foreign companies and organizations that the Trump administration says could threaten national security.

In one example from the disclosure forms, a company in China that develops state-of-the-art aeronautics for the People’s Liberation Army gave more than $7 million total to three American universities considered top-tier research institutions. In another instance, the largest amount in the documents, disclosed in 2020, was $22.6 million for a 50-year contract from the Beijing Institute of Technology to Bryant University in Rhode Island.

On Wednesday, Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy Sarah B. Rogers sent a letter to the governing boards of major research universities alerting them that future grant-making agencies will be checking if institutions take money from foreign entities on U.S. watch lists — and could pull federal funding for those that do.

At the end of Trump’s first term, Senate Republicans were aggressively pursuing action against China and the huge influence they wield on American college campuses.

It’s good to see the second Trump administration revisiting the topic with an even broader view.

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