BY JOHN K. WILSON Today, the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents passed new rules imposing harsh mandatory penalties on campus protesters who disrupt events. However, Gov. Tony Evers has declared that he plans to reject the new rules. That’s fortunate, because the new rules are quite terrible. In addition to the deplorable practice of…
BY JOHN K. WILSON Colleges are increasingly looking at antibullying policies to respond to abusive treatment on campus. In my article in the latest volume of the Journal of Academic Freedom, “The Danger of Campus Bans on Bullying,” I argue that universities must be wary of such rules. My argument is not that bullying on campus…
BY JOHN K. WILSON In the vast pantheon of loathsome lackeys serving Donald Trump, Sean Spicer is still a star figure. His obsequious devotion to Trump and indifference to the truth reached legendary status. This week, Spicer begins his $125,000 stint on “Dancing With the Stars” where everyone expects his stumbling on the dance floor…
BY JOHN K. WILSON [Updated with statement from Camille Paglia at the end, and a second update about it.] The Wall Street Journal last week published a profile of Camille Paglia, the University of the Arts professor who is basking in publicity she hasn’t seen in decades because some dumb students said she should be…
BY JOHN K. WILSON Yesterday, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals issued an important decision for freedom of the press and free speech on campus in The Koala v. Khosla, reversing a deeply mistaken lower court ruling. The 9th Circuit ruled that a public university cannot ban funding to student publications, particularly not in reaction…
BY JOHN K. WILSON T.J. Martinson, a widely acclaimed novelist and author of The Reign of the Kingfisher, was hired in April as an Assistant Professor of English at Olivet Nazarene University, a Christian college in Illinois. And on June 28, Vice President Carol Summers informed Martinson that he will not be allowed to teach.…
BY JOHN K. WILSON I interviewed Ian Reifowitz via email about his new book which is being published today, The Tribalization of Politics: How Rush Limbaugh’s Race-Baiting Rhetoric on the Obama Presidency Paved the Way for Trump (Ig Publishing). Reifowitz is Professor of Historical Studies at SUNY-Empire State College and also the author of Obama’s America: A…
BY JOHN K. WILSON This afternoon, Oberlin College was hit by a jury with $33 million in punitive damages added on to the June 7 judgment of $11.2 million for defamation. (The punitive damages will probably be reduced to $22.4 million under state law, but perhaps $10 million in plaintiff legal fees will also be…
BY JOHN K. WILSON Steven Thrasher, a student graduation speaker who received his Ph.D. from New York University last week, sparked enormous controversy with his speech. Thrasher expressed support for “the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against the Apartheid State Government in Israel” and declared, “We must stand together to vanquish racism and Islamophobia…
BY JOHN K. WILSON The Mississippi Board of Trustees of State Institutions of Higher Learning debated proper salad preparation techniques on May 16. That’s because they spent two hours discussing whether James M. Thomas should be granted tenure despite his criticism of Republican legislators. Ultimately, Thomas was allowed to receive tenure (with an untold number…