BY JOHN K. WILSON Bari Weiss is a coward. That claim may seem incredible to those who have read the fulsome praise from conservatives about Weiss’ decision last week to quit her job as an op-ed editor and writer at the New York Times, and her open resignation letter. Newt Gingrich tweeted, “Bari Weiss’s Letter…
BY JOHN K. WILSON More than one hundred professors at Princeton have signed a letter proposing reforms in the wake of Black Lives Matter. The letter contains a lot of good ideas (which I suspect is what the signers support), but unfortunately it also has one particularly bad idea: “Constitute a committee composed entirely of…
BY JOHN K. WILSON Today, Donald Trump tweeted: “Too many Universities and School Systems are about Radical Left Indoctrination, not Education. Therefore, I am telling the Treasury Department to re-examine their Tax-Exempt Status…and/or Funding, which will be taken away if this Propaganda or Act Against Public Policy continues. Our children must be Educated, not Indoctrinated!”…
BY JOHN K. WILSON On July 6, the Trump Administration reached yet another new low in bigotry and incompetence, by decreeing that it will deport international students at colleges that choose to protect their students and faculty with online courses in the midst of a deadly pandemic. ICE announced, “The U.S. Department of State will…
BY JOHN K. WILSON Jonathan Zimmerman has an essay today attacking the 1619 Project, and since InsideHigherEd has eliminated comments on its articles, I wanted to discuss it here. Zimmerman is obviously right when he writes that “we must also avoid imposing a singular interpretation or ideology that will prevent — not promote — a…
BY JOHN K. WILSON California’s Leonard Law, passed in 1992, is unique in the country: It requires private universities to protect some elements of the First Amendment just like a public university. Last month, the Stanford Daily wrote about the Leonard Law controversy on campus, focusing on the Stanford College Republicans and their claim that…
BY JOHN K. WILSON When Ilana Feldman was appointed interim dean of the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University (GWU) last month, it was an obvious choice. Feldman is a highly respected scholar who was already serving as vice-dean with no complaints about her work. But quickly this became what is probably…
BY JOHN K. WILSON The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) has released a Model Code of Student Conduct for colleges to adopt, and it’s a tremendous advance for student liberties on campus. All colleges should adopt this Model Code (with slight improvements, I believe). Too many colleges have vague and repressive provisions in…
BY JOHN K. WILSON Like most Americans, I was sickened by the senseless violence and destruction across the country this weekend, just as I was sickened by the murder of George Floyd. In recounting the terrible acts this past week, let me start at the top, with the evil and incompetence of Donald Trump. In…
BY JOHN K. WILSON I am often skeptical of the importance of surveying students about the First Amendment. “The First Amendment on Campus 2020 Report: College Students’ Views of Free Expression,” a new report just released this week of a survey in late 2019 by Gallup and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation…