On the Campus

Part of the mural at URI

What is URI president Marc Parlange covering with his wokeness?

By Justin Katz | January 20, 2022 |

Maybe some people collect them or leverage them for some purpose or other, but honorary degrees from colleges and universities have always seemed pretty useless and ceremonial to me — like a certificate to thank a person for participating in an event. With the latest radical move from the University of Rhode Island’s new president,…

A college class

Documents about waking to wokeness will one day be studied.

By Justin Katz | January 20, 2022 |

One day, somebody will publish a thick collection of documents written by those who have been awakening to, and warning about, wokeness.  Jordan Peterson’s open letter explaining his resignation as a tenured professor will be among its pages (if anybody can afford the rights!).  Some will scoff at Peterson, but this document is the most…

A water drop and ripples

Here’s a great response to demands for student debt cancelation.

By Justin Katz | January 12, 2022 |

Robert Wiblin gets to the economics of student debt cancelation in a dead-on way with this comment: Cancelling student debt is good but we could do more. The government should also tax non-college grads in order to fund a $5,000 annual gift for all college grads as a way to show appreciation for how smart…

A water drop and ripples

It always comes down to confiscation, doesn’t it?

By Justin Katz | January 7, 2022 |

Via Instapundit comes a telling story out of Washington University in St. Louis: Student leaders at Washington University in St. Louis want school officials to evict the “disproportionately wealthy and white” men in campus fraternities and give their buildings to “historically marginalized” groups. Writing in Student Life for himself and almost 50 leaders of WashU student organizations,…

Sign reading "Racism Is A Pandemic"

How did racism become so widely accepted in our society again?

By Justin Katz | January 5, 2022 |

Honestly, I thought the matter was settled.  Judging people and giving them preferential or detrimental treatment based on the color of their skin is wrong.  Segregating people and providing opportunities to different groups based on race is bad. I don’t know how it happened, but one is apt to be called a “racist” for saying…

A water drop and ripples

At some point, maybe URI’s president will do something that makes me more-proud of my alma mater, rather than less.

By Justin Katz | December 10, 2021 |

There he is again.  Marc Parlange is in the Boston Globe stumping for the Democrats’ biggest legislative priority with “Build Back Better can pull Rhode Island out of the pandemic — if we invest in the Blue Economy.” Why did the University of Rhode Island hire a lobbyist and ideologue instead of a leader? Yeah, sure, the…

A water drop and ripples

Harvard’s electoral lawfare program is another “believe your lying eyes” moment.

By Justin Katz | December 2, 2021 |

A network of Democrat and progressive legal teams has developed over the past two decades, and last year it arguably succeeded in frauding Joe Biden into the White House.  Now Harvard University is turning on the spicket to create more, as Mark Hemingway reports for RealClearInvestigations: Reporting the launch of the Election Law Clinic in April,…

A water drop and ripples

Pushback against the assumed privileges of universities is beginning.

By Justin Katz | December 2, 2021 |

Robert Shibley highlights the story of Carl Neuss, whose alma mater, Cornell University, was seeking a donation in the millions from him.  He expressed concern about liberal indoctrination in the college, so the alumni relations folks found a few non-radical professors from among its 1,695 faculty members to talk with the potential donor.  This “best…

Paul Kane painting of a native American encampment

The URI President’s Questionable Claims About Farming and “Unceded Territory”

By Justin Katz | November 29, 2021 |

URI’s newly imported president is casually asserting priorities and history that may undermine his own institution and disrupt Rhode Islanders’ ability to determine their own destiny.

A water drop and ripples

At what point of domination do headlines stop pretending women are just catching up?

By Justin Katz | November 23, 2021 |

So, ho hum, 32 American students were chosen to study at the University of Oxford via Rhodes Scholarships, and surprise, surprise, the AP report amplifies the progressive stories within the story.  But at what point do the headlines stop promoting the disproportionate distribution of prestigious awards to females? The class of U.S. Rhodes scholars for…