Higher education
August 26, 2023 — Scott Johnson
I am deeply saddened to report that Professor Dain Trafton died yesterday in Exeter, New Hampshire. Professor Trafton’s wife, Vera Trafton, wrote me from the hospital earlier this week and alluded to his health challenges. She thought hearing from a few of his former students might help bring him back. Over the course of my four years at Dartmouth I got close to Professor Trafton in a variety of ways
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July 9, 2023 — Scott Johnson
I touched on the enraging story of XiYue Wang in “The Princeton historian mugged by Princeton.” The Middle East Forum invited Wang to tell the story of his captivity in Iran to a Washington audience. I have posted the video below. MEF’s Clifford Smith converts Wang’s speech into an excellent narrative account in the post “Academic Perfidy and Diplomatic Appeasement Embolden the Islamic Republic.” Listening to Wang’s speech, I confess
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July 2, 2023 — Scott Johnson
FOX 9 is the Twin Cities Fox affiliate. Via Twitter, I see that it has gone deep on the Supreme Court case holding that President Biden lacked the authority to forgive some $430 billion in student debt with the wave of a pen. FOX 9’s Corin Hoggard covers the “story” “Burden of student debt heavier for minorities after Supreme Court ruling.” Hoggard overlooks the constitutional issue addressed by the Court
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June 30, 2023 — Scott Johnson
I thought that President Biden’s claim of authority to wipe out some $430 billion in student debt under the HEROES Act was absurd. As I noted when President Biden exercised his purported authority to confer the giveaway, the issue of standing was key to the outcome of the two cases challenging Biden’s purported authority. Today the Supreme recognized Missouri’s standing and held 6-3 in Nebraska v. Biden that the HEROES
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June 30, 2023 — Scott Johnson
Within an hour of the release of the Supreme Court decision in the “affirmative action” cases yesterday, President Biden stepped forth with his pitty-pat steps to mumble his disparagement of it. The White House has posted the transcript of his halting remarks here. Biden spoke about the effects of the “affirmative action” regime with the confidence of a guidance counselor, but not the candor. On that point, he regurgitated the
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June 27, 2023 — Scott Johnson
Tirien Steinbach is an attorney who has served as associate dean for diversity, equity and inclusion at Stanford Law School. You may recall the role she played in the shoutdown of Fifth Circuit Judge Kyle Duncan at the law school. She took the lectern at the event to lecture Judge Duncan in support of the shoutdown. Steve Hayward and I covered the story in a series of posts that are
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June 13, 2023 — Steven Hayward
This news item caught my eye: Secretary Cardona cancels UW commencement speech amid researchers strike Hours before he was scheduled to give the commencement speech to the University of Washington’s graduating class of students, U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona canceled his appearance, citing a strike by graduate and postdoctoral researchers. “Secretary Cardona will not cross the picket line to give the commencement address,” a spokesperson for Cardona said in
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April 29, 2023 — Scott Johnson
The fabricated controversy over Justice Thomas and his billionaire friend Harlan Crow has missed what should be the real controversy. Crow contributed $105,000 to Yale Law School! YLS is of course Justice Thomas’s alma mater. But wait! There’s more. The Thomas connection is no coincidence. Crow’s contribution was for a worthy cause, sure to generate heartburn among the authorities at YLS. Crow’s contribution was for a portrait of Justice Thomas
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April 13, 2023 — Scott Johnson
Hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin is an alumnus of Harvard who is grateful for his education. He has given millions to Harvard. Most recently, he gave an unrestricted gift of $300 million to Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Harvard’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences is to be renamed in his honor. It’s hard to believe he couldn’t resist the temptation, find a worthier object of his charity, or
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April 4, 2023 — Steven Hayward
It is fun to take in the Chronicle of Higher Education every day, because it is like reading a trade journal for an industry that knows it is in decline, along the lines of daily newspapers or buggy whip makers. Every day the Chron operates from a cringe mode about the problems of declining enrollment, financial pressures, the poor morale among DEI staff and the rising backlash against it, and above
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April 4, 2023 — Scott Johnson
The Washington Free Beacon has published Fifth Circuit Judge James Ho’s remarks at the annual gathering of the Texas Review of Law & Politics this past Saturday. In his remarks Judge Ho announced that he is extending his hiring boycott to include graduates of Stanford Law School. Judge Ho’s remarks are worth reading from beginning to end. This is far from the most interesting point he makes, but it is
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March 23, 2023 — Scott Johnson
I have repeatedly noted the role played by the National Lawyers Guild chapter at Stanford in the shoutdown of Judge Duncan at the March 9 Federalist Society event that has disgraced the law school several times over. The National Lawyers Guild is an old Communist front group that seeks to spread the old-time religion despite the fall of the Soviet Union and the Communist International. Alan Dershowitz now reviews the
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March 22, 2023 — Scott Johnson
The great Michael Ramirez has turned his easel to the Stanford disgrace featuring the shoutdown of Fifth Circuit Judge Kyle Duncan. We have followed the reporting of Aaron Sibarium and the opinion of the editors at the Washington Free Beacon on this deeply disgusting story. It is a disgrace without bottom. Michael’s cartoon of the day is posted at his Substack site under the title “Stanford Universilly” along with links
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March 19, 2023 — Steven Hayward
English majors are fast disappearing from our colleges and universities, and with good reason. Here’s a current summer course offering from Johns Hopkins University: Climate Fiction and Capitalist Accumulation – AS.060.186 This course will examine the relationship between capitalist accumulation, the climate crisis, and contemporary climate fiction. What is capitalist accumulation? How has this process led to the contemporary climate crisis? What ideas constitute its ideological apparatus? How do contemporary
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March 18, 2023 — Scott Johnson
Judge Michael McConnell to the contrary notwithstanding, we seek to publicize the ringleaders, perpetrators, and administrators involved in the shoutdown of Kyle Duncan at the March 9 Stanford Law School event sponsored by the school’s Federalist Society chapter. To borrow a phrase from Bob Dylan, we seek to tear the rag away from their face. Judge Duncan himself is not inclined to let it ride. The Wall Street Journal has
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March 17, 2023 — Scott Johnson
Having closely followed events, the Washington Free Beacon has now posted an editorial on the disgrace of Stanford Law School arising from the shoutdown of Fifth Circuit Judge Kyle Duncan at the March 9 event sponsored by the Federalist Society chapter. It is a reported editorial that takes us inside the aftermath. Note the attempted intervention of Federalist Society adviser (former Tenth Circuit judge) and Stanford Law School Professor Michael
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March 15, 2023 — Scott Johnson
Megyn Kelly covered the disgrace of Stanford Law School on her Sirius XM/podcast show yesterday. She invited Tim Rosenberger to discuss the disgrace. Rosenberger is the president of Stanford Law School’s Federalist Society chapter and hosted Fifth Circuit Judge Kyle Duncan at the shoutdown. In the video of the segment below, Megyn Kelly mocks Stanford DEI Dean Tirien Steinbach. Rosenberger does a good job discussing the event. Kelly deserves some
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