Every semester, I pose a question to my students: Why are you here? Would you prioritize deep learning, even if it meant a lower grade, or chase the highest grade, even at the cost of true understanding? They almost always claim learning matters most. But I’m growing skeptical that they actually mean it. Those words […]
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There is a sense, when reading Allen Guelzo and James Hankins’ The Golden Thread: A History of Western Civilization, Volume I: Christianity and the Ancient World, that one is being invited into a conversation that has all but disappeared in our age. For decades, Western civilization courses have been dismantled in schools and universities, replaced […]
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Every September, the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg Public Policy Center releases its annual survey on Americans’ knowledge of the Constitution. The survey has, for nearly two decades, charted the ebb and flow of civic awareness in the United States. The latest results, released recently, suggest that something unusual is happening: Americans are remembering—or perhaps relearning—how […]
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Our society has become obsessed with science, engineering math, and technology (STEM)—not only in the name of progress but also because we have deemed reading and writing almost wholly unimportant. According to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the number of humanities bachelor’s degrees awarded to graduating seniors across American universities decreased by approximately […]
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Editor’s Note: The following is an article originally published by AEI on September 11, 2025. It is crossposted here with permission. Charlie Kirk is dead. The founder of Turning Point USA was fatally shot by a sniper while speaking at Utah Valley University. Authorities are investigating the killing as a politically motivated assassination. For years, Kirk warned that escalating […]
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Shortly after the brutal murder of Charlie Kirk on a Utah college campus, one of my sons, who lived in France for several years, sent me a photo of a group of protestors holding placards that read, “Je suis Charlie.” Meaning, I am Charlie. The photo was from January 2015, when Islamic terrorists murdered several […]
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Editor’s Note: The following excerpt is from an article originally published by the Observatory of University Ethics on September 9, 2025. The Observatory translated it into English from French. I have edited it, to the best of my ability, to align with Minding the Campus’s style guidelines. It is crossposted here with permission. In the joy […]
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Watching the Cross, on Calvary, about 3 PM or so, the Roman centurion recognized the truth: “This man truly was the Son of God!” This thought comes to mind watching the coverage of the assassination of Charlie Kirk in the last twenty-four hours. I did not know him, nor was I a follower of his. […]
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Editor’s Note: The following is an article originally published by the College Fix on September 09, 2025. It is crossposted here with permission. Grand Valley State University’s (GVSU) Frederik Meijer Honors College has shifted toward a “social justice” orientation in both its curriculum and admissions in an effort to increase racial diversity, according to emails recently obtained […]
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In response to my recent Martin Center article, “The Emptiness of Antisemitism Studies,” George Leef wrote in National Review and posed the question: “Can American universities take antisemitism seriously?” His framing perfectly captured the larger stakes of the problem. My original piece—later reprinted in Minding the Campus and by the Canadian Institute for Jewish Research—showed […]
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In Season 5, Episode 7 of Gilmore Girls, Rory Gilmore—ever the ambitious Yale student journalist—follows whispers and cryptic clues to the Life and Death Brigade, a secret society of Yale’s wealthy elite known for their reckless, over-the-top spectacles. Her way in comes through Logan Huntzberger, the heir of a media dynasty and a core member […]
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It’s been 24 years. September 11, 2001, was a Tuesday, but what I recall just as vividly is what happened the day before. The week of September 10-15 was to be “Palestinian Awareness Week” at the University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst). Everything changed on Tuesday morning, but on Monday afternoon, we had no idea […]
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Editor’s Note: The following is an article originally published by the National Association of Scholars on September 10, 2025. It is crossposted here with permission. We are appalled at the murder of Charlie Kirk. He was a decent man, a father and husband, a patriot, a Christian, and a force to be reckoned with in opposing the radical left […]
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Editor’s Note: The following is an article originally published on Gatestone Institute on August 26, 2025. With edits to match Minding the Campus’s style guidelines, it is crossposted here with permission. “The hate of the Jews,” Safra Catz, CEO of the U.S. technology giant Oracle, pointed out in 2024, “is the most ancient and continuous hate […]
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The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) has once again taken the pulse of free expression on American campuses—and the patient’s health is declining. In its sixth annual College Free Speech Rankings, based on more than 68,000 student responses across 257 schools, FIRE reports that 166 institutions earned an “F” for their speech climate, […]
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Higher education, legacy media, and the broader left have long wielded “anti-discrimination” as both philosophy and policy—not to foster debate, but to silence critics, distort established terms, and advance an anti-Western agenda. Since October 7, anti-Semitism suddenly could no longer be discussed without bringing up “Islamophobia” in the same venue. Leave it to the Ivy […]
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Join the National Association of Scholars on Monday, September 15, at 2:15 p.m. ET for what promises to be a lively discussion on anti-Semitism, violence, and “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) in higher education. This webinar is hosted by NAS in anticipation of the upcoming NAS DEI Anti-Semitism Study. It will explore the possibility that […]
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Editor’s Note: The following is an article originally published on the College Fix on September 8, 2025. With edits to match Minding the Campus’s style guidelines, it is crossposted here with permission. Conservative election integrity advocates praised the Trump administration for rescinding a Biden-era guidance that allowed Federal Work-Study funds to be used to employ students to perform election jobs. […]
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Academia is best understood as a social institution that thrives on what the French-American polymath Rene Girard called mimetic desire. According to Girard, humans are born with biological drives that steer us towards what we need to survive and procreate; however, beyond subsistence, our desires are shaped by the culture and models around us. The […]
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The headline on this epistle is from a great satiric song written in the middle of the last century by the late humorist and Harvard grad Tom Lehrer. Harvard has indeed been fighting the federal government fiercely this year, scoring a major victory last Wednesday when an Obama-appointed federal district judge, Allison Burroughs, declared that […]
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On September 2, Higher Ed Dive reported that the University of Chicago (UChicago) is embarking on a $100 million cost-cutting plan. The plan includes laying off up to 150 members of its staff and freezing admissions to 19 doctoral programs in the 2026–27 academic year—almost all of which are in the liberal arts and humanities, […]
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The world is changing quickly. In the 2010s, computer science was considered one of the most “marketable” majors. Nowadays, it has an increasingly high unemployment rate. Philosophy on the other hand, once the caricature of a “useless” major, is now being praised by people like Marco Argenti, the CIO of Goldman Sachs, who stated in April […]
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A delightful summer read—well, anytime read actually—is Scottish author Muriel Spark’s 20th-century novel, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1961), which also has an excellent 1969 film adaptation featuring Dame Maggie Smith. Set in an Edinburgh girls’ school during the 1930s, the story follows a group of students mentored by the unconventional if melodramatic teacher, Jean Brodie. The girls are known […]
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Texas State University (TXST) recently held its second annual “Sex in the Dark” event, an anonymous question-and-answer panel that promised to “create a comfortable environment for students to learn and ask questions about sex, sexual health, and relationships.” Hosted by Healthy Cats–Peer Educators and Students Against Violence, the August 27 event began with a resource […]
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Last week, Robin Westman shot up the Annunciation Catholic school in Minneapolis, Minnesota, killing two children and injuring eighteen more people, including fourteen children. As details of the case emerged, it became clear that the circumstances of the shooting were more complex. Robin Westman was, in fact, Robert Westman and had legally changed his name […]
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Editor’s Note: The following is an article originally published on the College Fix on September 3, 2025. With edits to match Minding the Campus’s style guidelines, it is crossposted here with permission. Young college graduates face a job market that is “deteriorating rapidly” as even the unemployment rate for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) and business fields […]
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Recent conflicting statements between President Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, combined with reports of student deportations, have created widespread confusion about America’s current policy on international students. Contributors to Minding the Campus have already critiqued Trump’s remark that he would allow 600,000 Chinese students into the country, and have argued that the administration […]
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Author’s Note: This article is from my weekly “Top of Mind” email, sent to subscribers every Thursday. For more content like this and to receive the full newsletter each week, enter your name and email under “SIGN UP FOR OUR WEEKLY NEWSLETTER, ‘TOP OF MIND,’” located on the right-hand side of the site. On Sunday, the […]
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Idaho’s House Bill 264, Protecting the Privacy of Women, was signed into law in April. The legislation requires “covered entities”—including correctional facilities, domestic violence shelters, and state educational institutions—to designate restrooms, changing areas, and dormitories exclusively for either males or females. Access to these spaces is restricted based on a person’s biological sex. Two transgender […]
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Editor’s Note: The following is an article originally published by the National Association of Scholars on September 2, 2025. It is crossposted here with permission. The Trump administration has rolled out the welcome mat for Chinese students. A few months ago, when Chinese President Xi Jinping held a meeting with President Trump regarding the ongoing trade war between China […]
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