On the Campus

A scale

COVID propaganda could be a great communications lesson (but probably won’t be at URI).

By Justin Katz | October 13, 2022 |

Professor Renee Hobbs specializes in media literacy education for the University of Rhode Island Harrington School of Communication and Media.  This tweet of hers therefore struck me as indicative of misplaced focus: An important note of specificity is needed:  Paxlovid skepticism is only a communication failure for those who wish to promote it (for profit,…

Rudolf von Alt's Library of the Palais Lankorovnski

To Brown’s Ross Cheit, Republicans can’t simply participate in society.

By Justin Katz | May 24, 2022 |

Over the course of a day, readers of Twitter brush off many such tweets, but in this case, the writer is Ross Cheit, a political science professor at Brown University who was, until recently, the chairman of the state Ethics Commission: I imagine that anything that a GOP operative has in their possession can also…

The entrance to the Graduate Center Bar at Brown University

Brown University teaches aristocrats how to enforce their privilege.

By Justin Katz | May 23, 2022 |

There is no question that this young man, who is apparently on his way to a cushy six-figure job in the near future, has learned how to leverage his power and privilege to muster a defense of his personal honor: The Graduate Center Bar apologized on April 27 for removing three black students who were…

A communist monument

Proposals for new college taxes prove institutions should be wary of left-wing alliances.

By Justin Katz | April 13, 2022 |

Legislation from socialist state Representative David Morales should be a warning to institutions (whether non-profit organizations or for-profit businesses) about furthering the power of progressives: Industry leaders and university officials in Rhode Island were outraged after a bipartisan slate of lawmakers recently introduced a bill that would allow host cities to impose taxes on endowments…

Zakary Pereira

Should we question whether Zakary Pereira can tolerate students and constituents?

By Justin Katz | February 24, 2022 |

Imagine a young Christian Rhode Islander running for office with a team of Republican candidates of the Make America Great Again mold taking to Twitter to say: The LGBTQs are coming for the Christian community. Who will look out for our best interests, if not ourselves? Run for office.  Support local Christian candidates.  Fight back.…

A masked figure shushes silence

Coming to the edge of permissible reality is an unnerving experience.

By Justin Katz | February 9, 2022 |

Is it possible to make it literally impossible for politically incorrect truths to be spoken?

Luca Signorelli, The Preaching of the Antichrist

Don’t Ivy League professors understand the power of ideas implicitly?

By Justin Katz | January 31, 2022 |

Brown sociology professor Hilary LevyFriedman presents us with an interesting philosophical and sociological question: Like, seriously: “Not a single kid has died in a mass reading, yet they’re banning books instead of guns.” As far as I can tell, the quoted text is an uncited retweet of BlackKnight10k, whose deep insight has had a healthy…

A wave engulfs a lighthouse

Letting racial wounds heal is a choice we have to make.

By Justin Katz | January 29, 2022 |

Going through links I’d flagged for comment, I came across a Fox News article by Danielle Wallace after Winsome Sears — “the first Black woman elected to statewide office in Virginia’s history” — won her campaign for lieutenant governor: [She] attributed her victory to voters being sick of seeing Black and White people pitted against…

A water drop and ripples

College loan forgiveness is a policy to give money to the advantaged.

By Justin Katz | January 21, 2022 |

Brad Polumbo writes: Few causes are as central to the progressive movement as student debt “cancellation” (which really means taxpayers absorb the burden of $1.7-plus trillion in student debt). But yet another study just confirmed that there’s actually nothing “progressive” about student debt cancellation at all. A new analysis from the liberal-leaning Brookings Institution finds…

A water drop and ripples

URI went ahead and revoked its honorary degrees to Michael Flynn and Rudy Giuliani.

By Justin Katz | January 21, 2022 |

One interesting sidebar to watch (maybe) is whether any of the local journalists reporting on the development will bother to find and quote any URI graduates who disagree with the move.  I added the parenthetical “maybe” to cover the unlikely event that they actually do.  It’s echo chambers all the way down.