streaks of lightning across night sky with orange and purple tones

Two Teachable Moments

BY CAPRICE LAWLESS Teaching moment #1: One student was hit by lightning while on the job. Another one (who works at a deli) watched her boss banging on the restroom door as he yelled at the co-worker inside (whom she and others could hear was vomiting) that she needed “to finish up and get back…

In Defense of Jason Hill and His Critics

BY JOHN K. WILSON DePaul ethics professor Jason Hill has sparked controversy with an essay harshly denouncing Palestinians. You might think this is the point where we start talking about protesters demanding his firing, but the reality is quite different. One radio show host denounced the “DePaul weak-minded students calling for censorship of a respected…

German shepherd dog with lolling tongue in front of chain-link fence

Responding to Conservative Watchdogs

BY MATTHEW BOEDY When some conservative media outlet contacts you, with a picture of a lecture slide or assignment from your course, implying a bias against their conservative agenda, do you respond? If so, how? I am not imagining a hypothetical scenario. The headlines of conservative websites such as Campus Reform and College Fix suggest…

Solidarity Notices

POSTED BY MARTIN KICH Walkouts Held at 3 Seattle Community Colleges to Protest Funding Crisis Faculty, staff and students at South Seattle College, Seattle Central College and North Seattle College participated in walkouts on their campuses from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday [April 16]. They say state funding has dropped, causing tuition to rise to…

Florida Survey Proposal Raises Academic Freedom Concerns

BY HANK REICHMAN Last year the AAUP’s Committee on Government Relations released a report, “Campus Free-Speech Legislation: History, Progress, and Problems,” which concluded that campus free-speech laws and academic freedom are “false friends.”  Nevertheless, such legislation continues to advance in several states.  Especially troubling is a proposal that has moved out of committee in the…

Yesterday in Colorado–and Elsewhere

BY MARTIN KICH Yesterday, teachers, parents, and students across Colorado were spared any sort of repeat of the Columbine massacre, but as the anniversary of that horrible tragedy approaches, they, and all of us, were reminded of just how vulnerable our schools remain. Indeed, the same can be said about the vulnerability of most of…

Middlebury College’s “Snowflake” Administration

BY HANK REICHMAN When I saw the headline this morning on Inside Higher Ed, “Another Speaker Unable to Appear at Middlebury,” I immediately thought, “Haven’t those students learned that shutting down speakers is not only wrong but counter-productive?”  Two years ago Middlebury students famously shouted down conservative speaker Charles Murray and a faculty member was…

He’s Gotten a Degree from MIT

POSTED BY MARTIN KICH At a House committee hearing on “The Need for Leadership to Combat Climate Change and Protect National Security,” Kentucky Congressman Thomas Massie was questioning former Secretary of State John Kerry. Kerry is regarded as an expert on climate change who helped to develop the Paris climate accord. He has criticized President Trump…