RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://thefederalist.com/2020/09/16/leftist-hostility-makes-university-of-chicagos-intellectual-diversity-pledge-a-joke/

The University of Chicago administration and department heads violate the Chicago Principles by using their powerful positions to impose their far-left political beliefs.

A July statement by the University of Chicago English Department faculty announced “For the 2020-2021 graduate admissions cycle, the University of Chicago English Department is accepting only applicants interested in working in and with Black studies.”

The English Department’s move to block other areas of intellectual exploration was picked up this week by major news outlets, creating a lot of negative press for the university. While many were shocked by the English Department’s statement, as a third-year student at the University of Chicago, I was not.

Ironically, the University of Chicago prides itself on what they call the “Chicago Principles,” a mission statement claiming a commitment to protecting free speech and encouraging open debate. The publication of the Chicago Principles garnered the university a lot of media attention, kudos from parents concerned with leftist orthodoxy, and set the University of Chicago apart from other elite universities in its efforts to create an environment of political and ideological tolerance on campus. The principles have even been adopted by other schools. 

Unfortunately, in practice, the University of Chicago is hardly a bastion of free speech and political tolerance. It socially and academically rewards groupthink. This summer university departments and administration officials have imposed their politics on the campus community, further emboldening a left-wing mob of students who routinely bully conservatives into silence. 

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/exclusive-education-department-opens-investigation-into-princeton-university-after-president-deems-racism-embedded-in-the-school

The Department of Education has informed Princeton University that it is under investigation following the school president’s declaration that racism was “embedded” in the institution.

President Christopher Eisgruber published an open letter earlier this month claiming that “racism and the damage it does to people of color persist at Princeton” and that “racist assumptions” are “embedded in structures of the University itself.”

According to a letter the Department of Education sent to Princeton that was obtained by the Washington Examiner, such an admission from Eisgruber raises concerns that Princeton has been receiving tens of millions of dollars of federal funds in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which declares that “no person in the United States shall, on the ground of race, color, or national origin, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”

Eisgruber’s letter branding the 274-year-old university racist came after a summer of unrest rife with race riots and an open letter from hundreds of Princeton faculty members who wrote, “Anti-Black racism has a visible bearing upon Princeton’s campus makeup.” The admission was followed by dozens of “anti-racist” policy change demands. Among them were calls for select faculty race quotas and to “reconsider” the use of standardized testing for admissions.

Now, the Education Department has sent a formal records request as it pursues its investigation. Its main point of contention is whether Princeton has lied to the public with its marketing and to the department in its promise not to uphold racist standards, in accordance with receiving federal funds.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/2020/09/u-chicago-english-dept-wont-accept-anyone-unless-daniel-greenfield/

The cultural revolution decimating academia and turning it into a hollow shell for radical indoctrination only grows more crudely shameless with each cycle.

It’s not enough to just jettison Shakespeare or rename buildings. No, you will only be allowed to work with Black Studies.

A memo from what used to be the University of Chicago English Department.

For the 2020-2021 graduate admissions cycle, the University of Chicago English Department is accepting only applicants interested in working in and with Black Studies. We understand Black Studies to be a capacious intellectual project that spans a variety of methodological approaches, fields, geographical areas, languages, and time periods.

Considering U of C’s influence in this area, that’s significant.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/09/provocative-plo-diplomat-saeb-erekat-named-fisher-ari-lieberman/

The Future of Diplomacy Project at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs announced last week that Saeb Erekat will serve as a Fisher Family Fellow for the upcoming 2020-21 academic year. Erekat is a Palestinian diplomat, who’s held various senior posts within the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority. As a Fisher Family Fellow, Erekat will mentor students and give virtual seminars, and will presumably impart his knowledge and expertise on the state of Palestinian affairs and its international relations, including those it maintains with Israel.

Harvard could not have picked a worse choice. Erekat has a long record of mendaciousness and historical revisionism, and can best be characterized as an unrepentant congenital liar. He’s also an outspoken apologist for Palestinian terrorism and has dabbled in conspiracy theories laced with anti-Semitic overtones.

In April 2002, the Israel Defense Forces launched a counter insurgency campaign to rout Palestinian terrorist forces from the densely populated West Bank city of Jenin. Terrorists affiliated with Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade had transformed the city into a terror hub. Jenin was macabrely referred to as the suicide capital of the West Bank due to the many suicide bombers who had domiciled there.

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/rick-moran/2020/09/13/students-at-expensive-private-skidmore-college-demand-art-professor-be-fired-for-watching-pro-cop-demonstration-n924862

An art professor at Skidmore College in upstate New York wanted to see how the unrest in America is affecting his community. So he attended a “Back the Blue” rally to see what was happening. He didn’t go to the rally as a participant. He went as an observer. He was there for about 20 minutes.

“Given the painful events that continue to unfold across this nation, I guess we just felt compelled to see first-hand how all of this was playing out in our own community,” the professor said.

But do you think that mattered to the mob now calling for his head?

The art professor, David Peterson, was apparently observed at the rally, which immediately triggered the triggerable snowflakes. They demanded he be fired for “engaging in hateful conduct that threatens Black Skidmore students.”

Reason.com:

“The Petersons weren’t wearing pro-police T-shirts,” notes Churchill. “They weren’t carrying a banner, holding a sign or waving a black-and-blue flag. They appear to just be listening. But merely listening to an opinion that some Skidmore students find objectionable is apparently enough to get a professor in hot water.”

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/rick-moran/2020/09/13/trigger-warning-the-american-flag-is-sensitive-content-at-baylor-university-in-texas-n924987

Every September 11, the Young Conservatives of Texas place a flag memorial in a prominent place on campus as a way to remember the victims of 9/11.

But this year, the YCT ran afoul of the mob who forced school authorities to place a warning sign in front of the display.  The sign cautioned the easily triggered of “sensitive” content.

Daily Caller:

“The Young Conservatives of Texas at Baylor are highly disappointed in Baylor’s conduct in this matter. We have consistently proven that we are dedicated to conducting a respectful and apolitical 9/11 memorial and have never even asked to put our name with this event,” Baylor YCT Chair Jake Neidert told the DCNF.

“At the end of the day, Young Conservatives of Texas stands for Principles over Party, and today Baylor made a 9/11 memorial out to be a sensitive partisan and political event. Memorializing 9/11 isn’t political or sensitive, it’s distinctly American,” Neidert added.

Ah, my precious children. The fact that it’s “American” is the reason it’s “sensitive.”

I’ve never been able to understand the mindset that simply seeing the American flag or anything “American” should trigger anyone. It’s simple-minded to be triggered in the first place and we should expect more from people attending an institution of higher learning.

A critical component of democracy is education. The perpetuation of our political institutions, as Abraham Lincoln warned in Springfield, Illinois on a January evening in 1838, is not a given. Passion, he warned, can be our enemy. “Reason, cold, calculating, unimpassioned reason must furnish all the materials for our future support and defense.” It is to teach one to reason, to think, to calculate that universities exist. 

In his 1916 book Democracy and Education, the educational reformer John Dewey argued it is education that allows youth to become productive members of society. Franklin Roosevelt said that “the real safeguard to democracy is education.” It is a sentiment that has been expressed by hundreds of politicians and philosophers over the years. Today, in a risk adverse world, schools, colleges and universities weigh needs of students to learn versus fear of COVID-19 and lawsuits that might ensue. Nevertheless, online learning is no substitute for in-person classrooms.

Most would agree that a failure to open schools and colleges is harmful to students. However, there are some administrators and professors (as well as a few students) who are vulnerable, either because of age or comorbidities, so universities should proceed with caution. There are, however, some who want to keep the pandemic alive for political purposes, a view endorsed by mainstream media. A New York Times article last Sunday was headlined: “A New Front in America’s Pandemic: College Towns.” The article, which focused on the University of Iowa, reported there were “about 100 college communities around the country where infections have spiked in recent weeks as students returned for the fall semester” – a self-evident truth, as students did return to campuses. The article did add that “there has been no uptick in deaths in college communities,” but they failed to mention a subsequent decline in instances. For example, in Iowa City, there was a spike on August 27 and 28 (1,467 and 2,632 cases respectively), but, left unmentioned, by September 1 the number was down to 612 and on September 7 at 408, in line with where it had been before students returned to the campus. The headline was provocative and deceptive.

https://www.algemeiner.com/2020/09/10/california-governor-urged-to-veto-bill-mandating-antisemitic-curriculum-for-high-school-students/

Dozens of organizations sent an open letter on Thursday to California Governor Gavin Newsom demanding that he veto a recently‐passed bill that would require high school students in his state to study an ethnic studies curriculum that is viewed by many as being biased and antisemitic.

The bill, AB 331, mandates courses derived from the new Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum (ESMC), which has aroused intense protest from parents, politicians and advocacy groups.

The letter, organized by the AMCHA Initiative and signed by 80 organizations, expressed concern “that classes taught using this curriculum will become vehicles for highly controversial, one-sided political advocacy and activism that will both subvert the educational mission of our schools and incite bigotry and harm against many students.”

“We are especially concerned that the anti-Jewish and anti-Zionist ideological orientation of Critical Ethnic Studies … will foster a toxic climate for Jewish and pro-Israel students throughout the state, and foment harm against them,” the letter continued.

https://spectator.org/nyu-bds-anti-israel/

As the fall semester starts, it’s time to speak out against the college’s shameful indoctrination of students.

New York University is no longer content to be the second most important anti-Zionist campus in New York City. Columbia University, with its Center for Palestine Studies, has first place locked up. But lately my alma mater has accelerated its anti-Israel activism in an apparent attempt to out-Palestine Columbia, albeit with a cast of lesser-known BDS ideologues.

Columbia has earned the appellation “Ramallah on the Hudson,” but NYU is working overtime to become the Gaza of Greenwich Village.

At the core of NYU’s transformation is the Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies, the central hub connecting over a dozen other departments, initiatives, projects, centers, and clubs that demonize Israel and rationalize Palestinian and Iranian atrocities.

The Kevorkian Center seems to have united the entire NYU arts and humanities complex into an institution that inculcates hatred for Israel, advocates for Palestinians, and teaches skepticism of American greatness.

Among the Kevorkian associates are the Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies Department, the Social and Cultural Analysis Department, the Skirball Center for the Performing Arts (and its “Practitioners in Residence” associates), the Iranian Studies Initiative, the NYU Abu Dhabi Institute, NYU’s chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and the Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), NYC Solidarity with Palestine, NYU Out of Occupied Palestine, and Israel Apartheid Week. Another associate, the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, employs noted anti-Israel activist Helga Tawil-Souri and Hamas/Hezbollah apologist Arun Kundnani.

https://amgreatness.com/2020/09/09/private-school-primacy/

With schools set to reopen, it’s time for parents to choose how best to proceed with their children’s education in our COVID-obsessed country. If there is no in-school option, how many will stick with online education from their local public school? And how many will opt to home school or select a private school, many of which will have traditional learning or at least more rigorous online learning?

While it is too soon to have a definitive answer, here are a few bones to chew on. According to a recent Civis poll, about 40 percent of parents of k-12 students nationwide say that they have “disenrolled their children from the school they were originally supposed to attend this year, in response to school reopening plans.” And of those who have removed their kids, 20 percent have signed them up at a private school.

Here in southern California, school districts are taking a hit, though primarily in lower grades. As reported by the Los Angeles Times Howard Blume, kindergarten enrollment in LAUSD is down 14 percent from last year.

Many who choose private schools will soon discover the difference between them and the public school variety. A recent survey conducted by Dick Carpenter and Josh Dunn, professors at the University of Colorado, speaks volumes. They found that in the spring, 89 percent of private school children received live, online instruction by their teachers, but only 56 percent of public school children did. They also report that 65 percent of private school parents said their teachers “graded student assignments and those grades played an important part in the overall assessment for the year,” but that was true for just a third of public school children.