National Free Speech News & Commentary

The Editors
National Review

Excerpt: It was a great racket while it lasted, but so-called diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives have spent the last year in retreat — compelling the practitioners of discriminatory “social justice” to conduct a flailing rearguard action in a flight to more defensible terrain.

Michael Poliakoff
Forbes

Excerpt: In 1931, Winston Churchill mocked the prime minister, Ramsay MacDonald, as a “boneless wonder.” The last couple weeks on campus have already given us too many such specimens whose tergiversation and ethical compromise are yet more egregious.

Wise institutions have steadily, especially since October 7, recognized, albeit late, the wisdom of the University of Chicago’s 1967 Kalven Committee: Report on the University’s Role in Political and Social Action. Written amidst the desperate turmoil of the Vietnam war, it counsels “a heavy presumption against the university taking collective action or expressing opinions on the political and social issues of the day, or modifying its corporate activities to foster social or political values, however compelling and appealing they may be.”

Kyle Ingram and Korie Dean
Raleigh News & Observer

Excerpt: The UNC-Chapel Hill Board of Trustees voted to divert millions of dollars spent on diversity, equity and inclusion programs into public safety instead, ahead of an expected policy change statewide to restrict DEI.

At a special meeting Monday morning, the board unanimously moved to reallocate the $2.3 million that the university spends on DEI programs toward police and other public safety measures as part of its annual budget approval process. The university’s operating budget totaled more than $4 billion in the previous fiscal year.

Robert Parham
The Free Press

Excerpt: If you are graduating from college this year, I suspect you’re not too familiar with George Carlin. So before you become inflamed about the (intentionally) harsh title, let me tell you I plagiarized it from Carlin, who was one of the best American comedians of the last 100 years. His show You Are All Diseased is available on YouTube, and it is so good that I was willing to start by alienating you a bit just to plug it here. You’re welcome. It is especially recommended if you’re in any kind of altered state of mind.

Abigail Anthony
National Review

Excerpt: Nearly 2,000 people who claim to be Columbia University alumni have signed a letter pledging to “withhold all financial, programmatic, and academic support” from the institution until it meets the demands of anti-Israel protesters, claiming that $77 million in donations is at risk.

The letter, addressed to Columbia president Minouche Shafik and the school’s trustees, expresses support for the protesters who oppose the university’s “continued collaboration with the Israeli government’s ongoing genocidal violence against Palestinians.”

Michelle N. Amponsah and Joyce E. Kim
Harvard Crimson

Excerpt: Members of the pro-Palestine encampment rejected a proposal from interim University President Alan M. Garber ’76 to end their two-week occupation of Harvard Yard and avoid receiving involuntary leave of absence notices, according to an Instagram post published shortly after midnight on Friday by the group leading the encampment.