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Million Student March Demands ‘Free College Now’

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#MillionStudentMarch activists want their demands met now — free college, the dissolution of all existing college debt, and a $15 per hour minimum wage for campus workers. They plan to demonstrate for this economic justice on campuses nationwide Thurs., Nov 12, emboldened by a perceived victory of forcing out the University of Missouri’s president through student protests.

They roared on Facebook: “This is PROOF that when we strike, we win!,” referencing the consolidated student hunger strikes over purported racism that led to President Tim Wolfe’s resignation. Million Student March asserts 100 campuses nationwide will participate in their Nov. 12 day of social justice fueled by crushing student debt, the mantra of solidarity and the heartbeat of socialism.

College, they say, is a basic human right, not a privilege. The Million Student March website gripes: “The United States is the richest country in the world, yet students have to take on crippling debt in order to get a college education. We need change, and change starts in the streets when people demand it. With students, college graduates, and workers united we can build a movement capable of winning debt-free college for all and a $15 minimum wage for all campus workers!”

U.S. college student loan debt exceeds $1.3 trillion, topping credit cards and auto loans, only second to home mortgages. The Wall Street Journal says the average student owes over $35,000 in loan debt by the time they graduate. Keely Mullen, one of the national event organizers, laments her anticipated $150,000 loan debt post-graduation. She insisted the only way to be competitive in today’s job market was to “take on an enormous amount of debt in order to get a college degree.”

She told U.S. Uncut students plan to cross-organize with other activist groups as part of their activism. “The student movement will have to link arms with labor unions, the national Fight for $15, the Black Lives Matter movement, and all other progressive social movements.” She added: “It won’t be quick or easy, but the power of the people united around clear and just demands is capable of achieving anything.” (Read more from “Million Student March Demands ‘Free College Now'” HERE)

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Zip It: GOP Students ‘Intimidated’ on Campus, Say Views Less Tolerated

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The rise of the Tea Party and a rowdy 2016 Republican presidential primary has done little to boost conservative speech on the nation’s college campuses where right-leaning students say they feel intimidated and their views sneered at.

In a poll sponsored by Yale University’s William F. Buckley Jr. program, 800 national undergrads said that by a nearly two-to-one margin, colleges were more tolerant to liberals. Pollster Jim McLaughlin of McLaughlin & Associates, found that 37 percent felt school more tolerant of liberals views, just 20 percent of conservatives, and 36 percent equally tolerant.

And while students believed their schools do a good job to bolster intellectual diversity, half, or 49 percent, said they have “often felt intimidated to share beliefs other than their professors.” And 50 percent felt intimidated to share their thoughts with students whose views differ.

And just in case there is any question that the liberal view is important and dominant on campus, consider this other poll result from McLaughlin’s survey: 30 percent of liberal students believe the First Amendment is “outdated.” Only 10 percent of conservative kids think that.

He said in an interview that some students are protesting with their feet, transferring to schools where they do feel free to express their views. (Read more from “Zip It: GOP Students ‘Intimidated’ on Campus, Say Views Less Tolerated” HERE)

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Almost One-Third of College Students Misidentify First Amendment

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A national survey measuring the opinions of U.S. college students on the issue of free speech on college campuses was released today by The William F. Buckley, Jr. Program at Yale, which sponsored the poll.

The 2015 Buckley Free Speech Survey, which was conducted by nationally respected pollster, McLaughlin & Associates, revealed a wealth of information about how college students view rights and topics such as: The First Amendment; speech codes; academic freedom; trigger warnings; “political correctness;” and intellectual diversity, among other things. The national survey of 800 undergraduate students was conducted online and respondents were carefully selected and screened from a nationwide representative platform of individuals who elect to participate in online surveys.

The survey can be viewed here.

“The William F. Buckley, Jr. Program at Yale was founded to increase intellectual diversity on the Yale University campus and beyond, and this survey shows that we have a great deal of work to do,” said Buckley Program founder and executive director Lauren Noble. “The survey results confirmed some of what we expected, but they also revealed troubling surprises. It is the opinion of the Buckley Program that university campuses are best served by free and open speech, but, lamentably, that opinion is anything but unanimous, the survey shows.”

Highlights from the 2015 Buckley Free Speech Survey include:

Forty-nine percent (49%) of survey participants said they have often felt intimidated to share beliefs that differ from their professors, including 14% who said “frequently” and 35% who said “sometimes”;

Exactly half (50%) said they have often felt intimidated to share beliefs that differ from their classmates, including 16% who said “frequently” and 34% who said “sometimes”;

The majority of students (53%) say their professors have often used class time to express their own views about matters outside of coursework, including 14% who say “frequently” and 38% who say “sometimes”;

Greater than six in ten (63%) say political correctness on college campuses is either a “big problem” (19%) or “somewhat of a problem” (44%);

Fifty-five percent (55%) of students say they are aware of “trigger warnings” and 63% would favor their professors using them, while 23% would oppose;

By a 52-42% margin, students say their college or university should forbid people from speaking on campus who have a history of engaging in hate speech;

Seventy-two percent (72%) of students surveyed said they support disciplinary action for “any student or faculty member on campus who uses language that is considered racist, sexist, homophobic or otherwise offensive”;

When students were asked to identify the amendment that deals with free speech, 68% correctly cited the First Amendment. One in three (32%) incorrectly listed another amendment;

The majority (52%) said that the First Amendment does not make an exemption for hate speech and that all speech is protected under the First Amendment. One in three (35%) say that hate speech is not protected under the First Amendment;

By a 73% to 21% margin, students say the First Amendment is an important amendment that needs to be followed and respected rather than an outdated amendment that can no longer be applied in today’s society and should be changed.

Liberal students are more likely than conservative students to say the First Amendment is outdated, 30% to 10%, respectively;

By a nearly two to one margin, students said their school is generally more tolerant of liberal ideas and beliefs than conservative ideas and beliefs, 37% to 20%. Thirty-six percent (36%) said their school was equally tolerant of both.

Private school students are more likely than public school students to say their school is more tolerant of liberal ideas, 43% to 35%, respectively;

Ninety-five percent (95%) of all college students say the issue of free speech is important to them, including 70% who say it is “very important”;

By a 51% to 36% margin, students favor their school having speech codes to regulate speech for students and faculty.

Eight in ten believe that freedom of speech should either be less limited (38%) on college campuses or there should be no difference (43%) compared to society at large. Just 16% say freedom of speech should be more limited;

When given a choice, just one in ten (10%) say colleges, universities and government should regulate free speech more. A slight plurality (46%) says free speech is important, but there should be exceptions to every rule and 42% support freedom of speech in all cases;

Seven in ten (72%) say their college or university should be doing more to promote policies that increase diversity of opinions in the classroom and on campus;

Almost nine in ten (87%) agree that there is education value in listening to and understanding views and opinions that they may disagree with and are different than their own;

Those surveyed were:

Political party: 42% Democratic, 26% Republican, 29% independent;

Ideology: 44% liberal, 32% moderate, 20% conservative, and

Race/Ethnicity: 54% white, 15% African American, 14% Hispanic/Latino, 8% Asian, 7% one or more.

POLL METHODOLOGY

McLaughlin & Associates conducted a national survey of 800 undergraduate students from September 19th to 28th, 2015. All interviews were conducted online and respondents were carefully selected and screened from a nationwide representative platform of individuals who elect to participate in online surveys.

Data for this survey have been stratified by age, race, sex and geography using the National Center for Education Statistics 2014 Report to reflect the actual demographic composition of undergraduate students in the United States.

Because the sample is based on those who initially self-selected for participation rather than a probability sample, no estimates of sampling error can be calculated. All surveys may be subject to multiple sources of error, including, but not limited to sampling error, coverage error and measurement error.

However, a confidence interval of 95% was calculated in order to produce an error estimate of +/- 3.4% for the 800 respondents. This error estimate should be taken into consideration in much the same way that analysis of probability polls takes into account the margin of sampling error. The error estimate increases for cross-tabulations. Totals may not add up to exactly 100% due to rounding.

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Press release from The William F. Buckley, Jr. Program at Yale.

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Washington State Announces It Will Not Allow Professors to Ban Words They Don’t Like

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3358232491_512bc5a84eAfter a national uproar over a Washington State professor who threatened to mark down or even fail students who used words such as “illegal aliens,” “tranny,” or referring to men and women as “male or female,” campus officials on Monday came out in strong support of free speech, pledging to “modify” syllabuses that ban words.

Here is their statement:

PULLMAN, Wash. – Washington State University deeply values the tenets of freedom of expression for every member of our community, including all students, faculty and staff. Those First Amendment rights are reinforced in our policies, procedures and practices. Open dialogue, vigorous debate and the free exchange of ideas, as well as the language used to convey these ideas, are at the core of who we are as a higher education institution.

Over the weekend, we became aware that some faculty members, in the interest of fostering a constructive climate for discussion, included language in class syllabi that has been interpreted as abridging students’ free speech rights. We are working with these faculty members to clarify, and in some cases modify, course policies to ensure that students’ free speech rights are recognized and protected. No student will have points docked merely as a result of using terms that may be deemed offensive to some. Blanket restriction of the use of certain terms is not consistent with the values upon which this university is founded.

Free speech and a constructive climate for learning are not incompatible. We aim to cultivate diversity of expression while protecting individual rights and safety.

(Read more from “Washington State Announces It Will Not Allow Professors to Ban Words They Don’t Like” HERE)

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UNC’s ‘Literature of 9/11’ Course Sympathizes With Terrorists, Paints U.S. As Imperialistic

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towers-explode-2An English class offered at UNC Chapel Hill this fall called “Literature of 9/11” explores the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks from the perspective of radical Islamists and those who view America as an imperialist nation.

The reading assignments for the class, which includes poems, memoirs and graphic novels, present terrorists in a sympathetic light and American political leaders as greedy, war hungry and corrupt, according to a review by The College Fix.

The readings mostly focus on justifying the actions of terrorists – painting them as fighting against an American regime, or mistaken idealists, or good people just trying to do what they deem right. None of the readings assigned in the freshman seminar present the Sept. 11 attacks from the perspective of those who died or from American families who lost loved ones.

“ENGL 72: Literature of 9/11” is taught by Neel Ahuja, an associate professor of English, comparative literature, and geography at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

“Neel grew up in Topeka, Kansas. He studied transnational cultural studies at the University of California, San Diego and gender studies at Northwestern University, where he was a student organizer and labor solidarity activist,” according to his online faculty bio. (Read more from “UNC’s ‘Literature of 9/11’ Course Sympathizes With Terrorists, Paints U.S. As Imperialistic” HERE)

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College Professors Threaten Bad Grades for Saying These ‘Hateful’ Words

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college_studentsMultiple professors at Washington State University have explicitly told students their grades will suffer if they use terms such as “illegal alien,” “male,” and “female,” or if they fail to “defer” to non-white students.

According to the syllabus for Selena Lester Breikss’ “Women & Popular Culture” class, students risk a failing grade if they use any common descriptors that Breikss considers “oppressive and hateful language.”

The punishment for repeatedly using the banned words, Breikss warns, includes “but [is] not limited to removal from the class without attendance or participation points, failure of the assignment, and— in extreme cases— failure for the semester” . . .

Much like in Selena Breikss’s classroom, students taking Professor Rebecca Fowler’s “ Introduction to Comparative Ethnic Studies” course will see their grades suffer if they use the term “illegal alien” in their assigned writing.

According to her syllabus, students will lose one point every time they use the words “illegal alien” or “illegals” rather than the preferred terms of “‘undocumented’ migrants/immigrants/persons.” Throughout the course, Fowler says, students will “come to recognize how white privilege functions in everyday social structures and institutions.” (Read more from “College Professors Threaten Bad Grades for Saying These ‘Hateful’ Words” HERE)

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This University Advises Campus to Avoid Using Word ‘American’

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Campus officials across the nation have labeled the phrase “America is the land of opportunity” offensive, but the madness does not stop there. Even the word “American” is a problem to some campus officials now.

A “Bias-Free Language Guide” posted by the University of New Hampshire declares the word American “problematic.”

“North Americans often use ‘American’ which usually, depending on the context, fails to recognize South America,” the guide states. “American assumes the U.S. is the only country inside these two continents.”

The guide recommends terms such as “U.S. citizen,” “resident of the U.S.” and “North American or South American” as “preferred.”

Many other innocuous words are also listed on the guide as “problematic,” notes Campus Reform, which first reported on the guide. (Read more from “This University Advises Campus to Avoid Using Word ‘American'” HERE)

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College Professors Instructed to Tell Students: ‘America Is Not the Land of Opportunity’

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By Josh Hedtke. “America is the land of opportunity,” “There is only one race, the human race” and “I believe the most qualified person should get the job” are among a long list of alleged microaggressions faculty leaders of the University of California system have been instructed not to say.

These so-called microaggressions – considered examples of subconscious racism – were presented at faculty leader training sessions held throughout the 2014-15 school year at nine of the 10 UC campuses. The sessions, an initiative of UC President Janet Napolitano, aim to teach how to avoid offending students and peers, as well as how to hire a more diverse faculty.

At the gatherings, deans and department chairs across the UC system have been instructed to be careful using (read: instructed not to use) phrases such as “America is the land of opportunity” or even use forms that provide only “male” and “female” check boxes, among a long litany of supposed microaggressions listed in a document underlying the “Faculty Leadership Seminars.”

The document has drawn little scrutiny until now, when a professor in the UC system pointed it out to The College Fix. The professor chose not to attend the seminars, but myriad materials on the UC Office of the President (UCOP) website give indication as to what sort of lessons were taught there . . .

In another handout, “Tool for Identifying Implicit Bias,” faculty are advised when dealing with a student or researcher that they are particularly impressed with not to express approval with compliments like “It’s clear he’s a rockstar.” The handout also describes “raising the bar” as “elitist.” (Read more from “College Professors Instructed to Tell Students: ‘America Is Not the Land of Opportunity'” HERE)

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Michelle Obama’s Speeches to Grads Major in Racial Resentment, Identity Politics

By Nicole Haas. Michelle Obama just can’t stop widening the wedge between a divided America, and has found a captive audience for the mission.

The first lady continues to treat 2015 graduates to commencement speeches featuring racial resentment and identity politics, this time depressing young grads near her home in Chicago’s South Side.

“Wherever you go next, wherever you go, you all encounter people who doubt your very existence—folks who believe that hardworking families with strong values don’t exist on the South Side of Chicago, or in Detroit, or in El Paso, or in Indian Country, or in Appalachia,” she told the crowd at King College Prep High School on Tuesday.

“They don’t believe you are real,” she added to drive the point home.

It’s hardly the kind of inspiration one would think to blow under the wings of fledglings getting ready to fly the coop. (Read more from this story HERE)

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Disgusting: Strip Club Seeks Young High School Grads for Employment [+video]

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Rick Marzullo was talking about ads recently posted outside his strip club, located near Interstate 15 and Charleston Boulevard. One sign reads, “Now auditioning the class of 2015,” another, “Pay your way through college.”

“We all know the economy isn’t that great, [and] it’s hard to find jobs sometimes. This is an open door for young women 18 years old and up to come and make some good money,” Marzullo said.

Marzullo said his club is always looking for entertainers, and with the cost of tuition continuing to rise, more and more women are turning to stripping to foot the bill. Girls can make up to $1,000 per night, according to Marzullo.

FOX5 Vegas – KVVU

“Hundreds that are either in college or that have worked their way through college [strip or have stripped], and like I said, without one penny of debt, not having to take out student loans, not having to borrow money from family or friends or taking out loans from banks,” Marzullo said.

The sign has gotten a lot of attention as hundreds of thousands of people pass by it daily. (Read more from “Disgusting: Strip Club Seeks Young High School Grads for Employment” HERE)

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You’ll Never Guess Who College Students Think Is More Evil Than Lenin, Stalin, and Mao

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We all know today’s college students have their heads filled with radical, liberal indoctrination at U.S. universities. American higher education is a socialist bastion where college professors act like gods in their classrooms and often tolerate no dissent.

One would expect that brainwashing to have its effect on those with pliable minds. Such is the case, considering the results of a recent study. The Libertarian Republic reports:

A research group conducted an international study among college students, asking them to rank 40 historical figures positively or negatively.

The study is called “‘Heroes’ and ‘Villains’ of World History Across Cultures.” In the final ranking, former US President George W. Bush was ranked as the 4th most evil, more villainous than Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin, and Mao Zedong.

This is sad, but predictable given the left-wing tripe college students are fed today in what masquerades for history and political science on colleges campuses. (Read more from “Guess Who College Students Think Is More Evil Than Lenin, Stalin, and Mao?” HERE)

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