October 11, 2024
1 min read
Abigail Anthony
National Review
Excerpt: In early September, Harvard University announced changes to its “doxing” policies, stating that “doxing occurs . . . when a community member publicly shares an individual’s personal information without their permission with the intention and effect of intense harassment.” Unfortunately, the new guidelines provide yet another avenue to censor speech on campus by establishing a framework for a hypersensitive student to punish a university member who publicly stated what that student had done.
Read More October 10, 2024
1 min read
Eboo Patel
Inside Higher Ed
Excerpt: Bravo to the University of Chicago for its $100 million gift in support of free speech. The donation, which comes from an anonymous source, will strengthen the university’s Forum for Free Inquiry and Expression, allowing it to expand quintessential college programs like fellowships and conferences.
You can of course say that these efforts ultimately benefit truth seeking, and I do believe that involving people with a range of identities in philosophical discussions or laboratory experiments results in stronger ideas emerging. But there are other social goals being accomplished as well, including cooperation across difference and social mobility. Why not name a telos that captures all of this?
Read More October 08, 2024
1 min read
Kali Jerrard
National Association of Scholars
Excerpt: Yesterday marked the one year anniversary of Hamas’ invasion of Israel and in the course of the past year, world politics and higher education have irrevocably changed.
While campus protests began anew this semester and pro-Israel professors face cancelation there is a small glimmer of hope. This past year has refocused the efforts of policymakers to right the ship. Moreover, we have seen what can happen when college administrators show real courage and stand up to the mob. Such examples should be reproduced elsewhere. Our colleges and universities may, after all, find a path back to the principles that once made them world class. Here’s hoping.
Read More October 08, 2024
1 min read
Abigail Anthony
National Review
Excerpt: Four Harvard University student organizations released a joint statement on Monday denouncing the university and further claiming that the October 7 attacks on Israel showed “apartheid cannot stand.”
“One year ago today, Gaza broke through Israel's blockade, showing the world that the ongoing Nakba and apartheid cannot stand,” reads the statement released on October 7. “Every day since, the Israeli regime has escalated its 76-year-long occupation into a now 365-day-long genocide.”
Read More October 07, 2024
1 min read
Jerry A. Coyne
Why Evolution is True
Excerpt: Steve Pinker has an op-ed in today’s Boston Globe (title below). It reflects his own ambivalent feelings—which many of us share—on the first anniversary of the October 7th massacre. As I argue below, the article’s title is a bit misleading (granted, he didn’t choose it), but he does defend Israel’s right to defend itself—though to an unknown extent. This is the first piece by Steve that I think could have been tweaked a bit to improve it.
Read More October 05, 2024
1 min read
Zach Montague
New York Times
Excerpt: With a new academic year well underway, more than 60 colleges and universities are still under federal investigation over antisemitic and Islamophobic incidents during the campus protests that swept the United States after the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel, according to the Department of Education.
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