Higher education
October 4, 2024 — Steven Hayward
The anti-Semitic left is promising major pro-Hamas demonstrations on Monday, October 7, to mark one year of the “resistance” against the so-called “settler colonialism” of Israel. Expect a mob to try to block intersections in New York, and many of our elite campuses will see considerable disruptive protests. I’ll be pre-occupied most of Monday doing a methodology workshop for graduate students down at Pepperdine, which, I like to note, puts
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September 19, 2024 — Steven Hayward
After Brown vs Board of Education was decided in 1954, the Democrat-run segregationist South engaged in “massive resistance,” requiring years of follow-up court cases and Department of Justice action to enforce desegregation. It was understood that after the Supreme Court ruled against race-based affirmative action admissions last year in the Harvard and UNC cases that Democrat-run institutions would engage in massive resistance once again. And already we have the circumstantial
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August 25, 2024 — Scott Johnson
Minnesota Governor and Vice President wannabe Tim Walz is big into attributions of weirdness, but he presents as another case study in Democrat projection. To take just one small example, I thought his bragging that none of his Nebraska high school classmates went on to Yale was weird. It made me think of my own high school class of 38 guys. Three went to Harvard, two went to Yale, one
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August 24, 2024 — Scott Johnson
I wrote here about the preliminary injunction entered against UCLA by Judge Mark Scarsi in Frankel v. Regents of the University of California. I called this opening paragraph of Judge Scarsi’s order the Scarsi scar: In the year 2024, in the United States of America, in the State of California, in the City of Los Angeles, Jewish students were excluded from portions of the UCLA campus because they refused to
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August 16, 2024 — Scott Johnson
The revelation of anti-Semitic hatred in deep pockets of American society has come as something of a shock to me and others. It is the hate that dares to speak its name in the university, in the Democratic Party, and elsewhere. The resignation of the Columbia University president this week reminds us of the horror show in Morningside Heights (more here). As Steve Hayward noted earlier this week, Judge Mark
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June 25, 2024 — Scott Johnson
The Washington Free Beacon continues to expose the deep thoughts supporting Columbia University’s surrender to the anti-Semitic mob. Today Jessica Costescu draws on the private Instagram account of Gil Hochberg, the Ransford Professor of Visual Studies, Comparative Literature, and Middle East Studies and chairman of the school’s Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies (“MESAAS”) department. In the Instagram post on which Costescu’s story focuses, Professor Hochberg decries the coverage
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June 22, 2024 — Scott Johnson
As I recalled earlier this week, basketball great Charles Barkley famously disavowed his own autobiography, claiming that he had been “misquoted” in it. Sir Charles (or someone) aptly titled the autobiography Outrageous! The Fine Life and Flagrant Good Times of Basketball’s Irresistible Force. Sir Charles came to mind in connection with the statement circulated by Columbia College dean Josef Sorett late last week. Commenting on the Washington Free Beacon story
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June 17, 2024 — Scott Johnson
Readers may recall that basketball great Charles Barkley famously disavowed his own autobiography, claiming that he had been “misquoted” in it. Sir Charles (or someone) aptly titled the autobiography Outrageous! The Fine Life and Flagrant Good Times of Basketball’s Irresistible Force. Bob Greene declared that Barkley’s disclaimer made him a “front-runner for idiot of the year.” Years later, Hugo Lindgren observed in the New York Times that “mostly, Barkley’s reaction
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June 13, 2024 — Scott Johnson
When alumni descended on Columbia University to celebrate their class reunions on May 31, one panel of professors and administrators focused on the past, present, and future of Jewish life on campus. The event featured former dean Columbia Law School dean David Schizer, who co-chaired the university’s task force on anti-Semitism; the executive director of Columbia’s Kraft Center for Jewish Life, Brian Cohen; the school’s dean of religious life, Ian
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May 22, 2024 — Scott Johnson
Today Chairman Joe announced that he is canceling $7.7 billion in student debt for 160,000 borrowers. NBC’s Peter Alexander posed a good question to White House press secretary KJP at the White House press briefing. “What is the White House’s message to those Americans who did not attend college, for a variety of reasons perhaps, including perhaps they didn’t want to take all the debt that went with it…” REPORTER:
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May 22, 2024 — Scott Johnson
This past Sunday at Morehouse College President Biden gave a campaign speech in the guise of a commencement address. In substance Biden’s speech was a demagogic disgrace. What would an honest address have sounded like? Speaking in my own voice, I think it would have sounded about like this. * * * * * I am grateful for the privilege of speaking to you this afternoon. Morehouse is our only
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May 21, 2024 — Scott Johnson
The White House has posted two May 19 transcripts of “remarks by President Biden at a campaign event” (here, at CRED Café, and here, at Huntington Bank Convention Center). The White House should have listed a third — Remarks by President Biden at the Morehouse College Class of 2024 Commencement Address. In view of Biden’s office as President and his audience of black college graduates, it may be the worst
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May 14, 2024 — Steven Hayward
Last Friday evening I had the occasion to team up in Los Angeles with Dean Pete Peterson of Pepperdine University’s School of Public Policy (where I just finished a very congenial semester filling the large shoes of the late Ted McAllister) to discuss the state of higher education before an audience of about 90 citizens alarmed at the current scene. Our conversation was unscripted and spontaneous, but here are some
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May 13, 2024 — Scott Johnson
Jerry Seinfeld delivered the commencement address at Duke University’s 2024 university-wide commencement ceremony in Wallace Wade Stadium yesterday. Seinfeld took the occasion to make the case for comedy and humor, both by example and by advice (starting at about 11:45). Seinfeld is a man not entirely in tune with the times, either in his defense of humor or otherwise. He urged the graduates to take advantage of their privilege. As
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May 8, 2024 — Scott Johnson
I want to add this footnote to my adjacent post on “The campus seen.” We can’t understand what’s happening in the current eruption of anti-Semitism on campus without understanding what has happened at Columbia University. Columbia University is ground zero of the intifada revolution. The video below features the deep thoughts of Columbia president Minouche Shafik in the satirical context afforded by reality. Want a good laugh this morning? Watch
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May 8, 2024 — Scott Johnson
I want to note a few reports on the campus scene. Attention must be paid. The scene should not be unseen. I have been asking who is behind the kill the Jews crowd on campus. Park MacDougald takes a comprehensive look in his May 6 Tablet column “The People Setting America on Fire.” It is the best effort yet to turn over the rocks and look underneath. Park, by the
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May 7, 2024 — Scott Johnson
Mario Torres is the Columbia custodian depicted in the viral photograph that I posted via X here. The photo shows him fighting off one of the thugs breaking into Hamilton Hall last week. I commented that he deserves recognition as a man of the year. He is so much better than the pathetic institution he serves. Now Free Press’s Francesca Block has tracked him down for an interview that is
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