National Free Speech News & Commentary

Commentary: One Down, Six to Go

June 02, 2025 1 min read

James Bacon
The Jefferson Council

Excerpt: “Conservative students at the University of Virginia,” a fourth-year student once confided to me, “know who all the conservative professors are. … All seven of them.”

That was only a slight exaggeration. Through my work with the Jefferson Council I have identified a dozen faculty members openly identifying as conservative and/or libertarian out of roughly 1,700 faculty members. I have met three or four more not yet willing to come out of hiding.

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Trump’s Attacks Threaten Much More Than Harvard

May 30, 2025 1 min read

Greg Lukianoff
The Atlantic

Excerpt: On May 22, the Department of Homeland Security stripped Harvard University of its Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification, instantly jeopardizing the visas of nearly 6,800 international students—27 percent of the student body.

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Commentary: Once, International Students Feared Beijing’s Wrath. Now Trump Is the Threat.

May 29, 2025 1 min read

Sarah McLaughlin
FIRE

Excerpt: American universities have long feared that the Chinese government will restrict its country’s students from attending institutions that cross Beijing’s sensitive political lines.

Universities still fear that consequence today, but the most immediate threat is no longer posed by the Chinese government. Now, as the latest punishment meted out to the Trump administration’s preeminent academic scapegoat shows, it’s our own government posing the threat.

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Major Accreditor Reconsiders DEI Requirements

May 29, 2025 1 min read

Erin Shaw
Heterodox Academy

Excerpt: A win for open inquiry has appeared amidst relentless uncertainty in higher education. The Western Association of Senior College and University Commission (WSCUC), the accreditor of most universities in California and Hawaii, is reconsidering the diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) requirements for accreditation in light of the Trump Administration’s executive order on accreditation.

Though the total banning of all things “DEI” represents another political intrusion on academic freedom, dropping DEI as an accreditation requirement allows more space for freedom of thought in higher education as institutions are no longer bound to a particular partisan orthodoxy.

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Commentary: The Missing Link in Higher Ed Reform

May 28, 2025 1 min read

John D. Sailer
City Journal

Excerpt: The challenge of higher education reform can be boiled down to one issue: the talent pipeline. If we can reconfigure the academic talent pipeline and ensure that those who believe in the classical mission of the university both choose academia and prosper in it, then the reform movement will succeed. If not, no list of policies, from securing campus free speech to dismantling DEI offices, will restore public trust in our universities.

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State Dept. Will Vet Student Visa Applicants’ Social Media

May 28, 2025 1 min read

Johanna Alonso
Inside Higher Ed

Excerpt: The Trump administration is planning to implement a policy that would require all student visa applicants to undergo social media vetting, according to a cable sent by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Politico reported Tuesday. All new student visa interviews have been paused in preparation for the new policy.

“The Department is conducting a review of existing operations and process for screening and vetting of student and exchange visitor (F, M, J) visa applicants, and based on that review, plans to issue guidance on expanded social media vetting for all such applicants,” the memo reads, according to a copy published in full on social media by independent journalist Marisa Kabas.

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