In the latest case where a male student sued his college over the unfair procedures it used to expel him, Colgate University in New York will go to trial. So ruled federal district judge Frederick Scullin on April 30. In his opinion, the plaintiff student had presented sufficient evidence of bias against him for the … Continue reading “New Title IX Regulations Restore Due Process–But There’s a Battle Ahead”
College sports are a gigantic entertainment business that have nothing to do with the missions of the schools. Frequently, the highest-paid employee of a school is the football or basketball coach, and the athletics budget is hugely subsidized by fees paid by financially strapped students. Players who read and write at a middle-school level (if … Continue reading “How College Sports Turned into a Corrupt Mega-Business”
As priorities shift in the minds of higher education leaders and students, it’s important to take stock of recent changes on the local and national levels. At the Martin Center, we have our eyes on some reforms at the top of our list for 2020: Jenna A. Robinson, President More Colleges Experimenting with Income Share … Continue reading “Our Hopes for Higher Ed Reform in 2020”
Until 2015, I believed that the Obama administration’s “Dear Colleague” letter, which called for universities to significantly broaden their interpretation of Title IX protections, was merely a way to address the so-called “rape crisis” on American campuses. I doubted the narrative that colleges had rates of sexual assaults that were comparable with warzones, but this … Continue reading “The Totalitarian Impulse in the Title IX Racket”
When college officials violate people’s rights, they run the risk of bringing on lawsuits that can cost their schools a lot of money. The most common instance has been hyper-aggressive Title IX actions where the accused student was presumed guilty and railroaded into suspension or expulsion and later successfully sued over the violation of his … Continue reading “The Oberlin Case Gives College Leaders a Teachable Moment”
Academic postmodernism is no stranger to the idea that classical Enlightenment values such as reason, equal treatment, and individual agency should be cast aside for the sake of racial and sexual grievances. We should denounce reason and science as the legacy of “dead white men”—or so we are told. Western academia has become both ideologized … Continue reading “Identity Politics Versus Basic Logic: Should Colleges Offer Affirmative Action for the Female Majority?”
When Congress wrote the 1972 amendments to the Education Act, it meant to prevent colleges and universities that received federal money from discriminating against students based on sex. Title IX states that schools lose eligibility for federal money if they discriminate against either men or women. Over the years, federal courts have expanded and contorted … Continue reading “Title IX Administers Another Flogging to Campus Free Speech”
Written in 1903, the University of Texas fight song’s opening lyrics are “The Eyes of Texas are upon you/All the livelong day.” Unfortunately, for many on campus, the sentiments expressed are more than just a catchy tune—it’s a frightening reality. Thanks to four policies that the school maintains—a verbal harassment ban, an Acceptable Use Policy … Continue reading “Students’ Speech Chilled at the University of Texas”
An African-American pro-life speaker recently spoke at a Midwestern college and several members of the school’s student government declared the speaker “had made many students, staff, and faculty of color feel unheard, underrepresented, and unsafe on our campus.” On America’s politicized campuses, that hardly is news. However, these were not students at some notoriously leftist … Continue reading “The Coming Crises for Christian Colleges”
Colleges and universities need rules defining unacceptable behavior and how students accused of infractions of those rules will be treated. Because determinations of guilt can have serious, long-lasting consequences, schools ought to ensure that their procedures are fair, approximating the due process of law accorded to defendants in our courts. Crucial to due process is … Continue reading “Why Shouldn’t College Students Have the Equivalent of Miranda Rights?”