George Packer
The Atlantic
Excerpt: Kirk was killed on a college campus in Utah, seated under a tent with the slogan “Prove Me Wrong,” facing a crowd of several thousand people, debating anyone who wanted to approach and challenge him. He kept up this practice—part recruitment, part provocation, part entertainment—throughout his years as Turning Point USA’s leader.
He was using his freedom of speech, and if his style was aggressive, divisive, sometimes mocking, losing his life this way was no less an assault on everything that democracy’s remaining believers should hold dear. Those who disagreed with Kirk ought to be able to deplore what he stood for and also the violence that killed him.
Tyler Austin Harper
The Atlantic
Excerpt: Since the release of ChatGPT, in 2022, colleges and universities have been engaged in an experiment to discover whether artificially intelligent chatbots and the liberal-arts tradition can coexist. Notwithstanding a few exceptions, by now the answer is clear: They cannot. AI-enabled cheating is pretty much everywhere. As a May New York magazine essay put it, “students at large state schools, the Ivies, liberal-arts schools in New England, universities abroad, professional schools, and community colleges are relying on AI to ease their way through every facet of their education.”
Miriam Elman and Mark G. Yudof
Inside Higher Ed
Excerpt: In sports competitions, someone has to draft the rules and make critical judgments about their enforcement. Was the runner out or safe at home? Did a defensive player trip the dribbling guard? Should the tush push be banned? So too for the professions: lawyers, physicians, accountants and others. In higher education, the American Association of University Professors for many decades has been the gold standard for impartiality. No more.
In a recent disturbing interview published in Inside Higher Ed, the AAUP’s president, Todd Wolfson, made it unmistakably clear where the organization stands at a time when antisemitism on college campuses is spiking—against both students and Jewish faculty, whom the AAUP purports to represent.
Foundation for Individual Rights in Expression
Excerpt: Charlie Kirk was shot during an event at Utah Valley University today. Details of the incident are still unfolding.
Political violence is never an acceptable response to speech. Free speech allows us to settle our differences peacefully and is essential to a free and democratic society.
Our thoughts are with Charlie Kirk and his family.