Year: 2025

UK Supreme Court Answers, ‘What Is a Woman?’—Colleges Should Pay Attention

The question “What is a woman?” has become one of the most contentious debates in modern politics and culture. From transwomen winning women’s college championships in hurdles and swimming or being admitted into sororities, to conservative commentator Matt Walsh’s documentary What Is a Woman?, to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s now-famous statement during […]

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Spare a Thought for the Shuttered Small College 

New Jersey City University (NJCU) recently announced a plan to merge with nearby Kean University. The announcement comes after years of financial mismanagement and shrinking enrollment. NJCU is lucky. A merger is much better than going out of business outright, a fate that has recently befallen several historic institutions, including Limestone University, which closed after 160 years in […]

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AI’s Bias: Glitch, Agenda, or Both? Why Students Can’t Trust It Blindly

As artificial intelligence (AI) models continue to expand their capabilities and their usage spreads, more cases of bias are emerging. It is essential to determine whether its biases are valid or have been introduced by human interference, whether deliberate or accidental. Once we know the source of the bias, we can hopefully find remedies. AI […]

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‘Globalizing the Intifada’ Targets Western Civilization

Editor’s Note: The following article has been previously published on the Front Page, the Boston Herald, and CT Insider. With edits to match Minding the Campus’s style guidelines, it is posted here with permission.  “Globalize the Intifada.” This is the malevolent mantra, using the Arabic word for “uprising” or “struggle,” that Hamas supporters in America […]

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AI’s Higher Ed Takeover Is Not Inevitable

The proliferation of artificial intelligence (AI) on campus has engendered a chorus of doom and gloom among conservative commentators. Daily Wire host Matt Walsh, citing a survey from the Guardian showing a sharp rise in AI cheating, said recently that “AI has killed what was left of the education system. It’s over.” But is that […]

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Woke Orthodoxy Creeps In Through the Backdoor—These Laws Change the Locks

Editor’s Note: The following excerpt is from an article originally published by Diogenes In Exile on June 23, 2025. With edits to match MTC’s style guidelines, it is cross-posted here with permission. Reclaiming Education: Three Legislative Fixes to Push Back Against Ideological Capture It may be difficult to focus on the arcane issues of higher education with the […]

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What Costs $55 Million? CA’s Restorative Justice Program Teaches Prisoners About ‘White Supremacy’

The debate on whether “going soft on crimes” reduces recidivism and improves rehabilitation is at best unsettled. A 2023 meta-analysis suggests “minimal support for the effectiveness of restorative justice programs in reducing recidivism.” There are also grim realities of rising urban crimes following California’s passage of Proposition 47, which enacted sweeping criminal justice reforms to […]

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NSF Staff Says ‘Not in Our Building!’ Over HUD HQ Move-In—Did They Break the Law?

On Wednesday, June 25, 2025, Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Scott Turner announced the relocation of HUD headquarters to Alexandria, Virginia, where National Science Foundation (NSF) staff are currently sited. As NBC4 Washington reported, NSF employees promptly staged a protest, filling the hallways in Alexandria, chanting, shaking their fists, and forcing HUD’s press announcement […]

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Professors Work Less Than You Think—and Students Pay the Price

One of America’s most perceptive and productive scholars of our nation’s education system is Frederick M. Hess of the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). He, along with an associate, Richard Keck, has produced a tremendous study, “Putting ‘Education’ Back in Higher Ed,” for AEI. A rarity these days: I agree with virtually every word they said. […]

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Why Some College Subjects Are Harder—And What Students Are Doing About It

For many college students, course difficulty doesn’t always reflect effort or intelligence. An English major might breeze through novels but panic during a chemistry midterm. A biology student may ace molecular pathways but dread every writing assignment. These struggles aren’t signs of inadequacy—they reflect the mental pivot students must make between disciplines. What seems “hard” […]

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Ohio Crushes Woke Profs’ Revolt, Signs Law to Depoliticize Colleges and End DEI

Ohio SB 1, which will do an extraordinary amount to depoliticize Ohio’s public higher education system, strengthen intellectual diversity, and restore its accountability to Ohio policymakers and citizens, well and truly will become law. Governor Mike DeWine signed SB 1 into law at the end of March. Since then, Ohio professors organized a petition campaign […]

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The Scopes Trial Centenary: Evolution and Culture in 1920s America

July 2025 will mark the centenary of the famous Tennessee “Scopes monkey trial.” This is the fourth and last article in a series leading up to the centennial events in Dayton, Tennessee, the site of the trial. Read the first in the series here, the second here, and the third here.  Just what was the Scopes […]

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Colleges Pledge Institutional Neutrality but Support LGBT ‘Pride’

Editor’s Note: The following is an article originally published on the College Fix on June 24, 2025. With edits to match Minding the Campus’s style guidelines, it is crossposted here with permission. More than half of the American colleges and universities that pledged to remain neutral on hot-button political issues posted in support of LGBT “pride” this June, […]

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The Changing Face of Anti-Semitism in the U.S.

Editor’s Note: The following is an excerpt from an article originally published on Heterodox Stem on June 11, 2025. With (some) edits to match Minding the Campus’s style guidelines, it is crossposted here with permission. Author’s Note: This is a relatively long article for Heterodox STEM, and the theme is puzzling. What does the evolution of anti-Semitism […]

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How Are Student Fees Calculated?

When it comes to higher education in the United States, one of the most frequently discussed topics among students and parents is tuition fees. For those planning to attend college, understanding how these fees are calculated can be both confusing and overwhelming. This blog breaks down the key factors that influence tuition costs, providing clarity […]

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Support for Fabrice Balanche

Editor’s Note: The following article was originally published by the Observatory of University Ethics on April 10, 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. Last April, Fabrice Balanche, a […]

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The Mississippi Miracle Needs a Reality Check

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. “In order to […]

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Reconciling the House and Senate Higher Ed Plans

The reconciliation bill is shaping up to be the boldest legislative change in higher education in decades. But it is still in an early stage, with the House having passed its version, and the Senate hoping to do so soon. Next will come negotiation to work out any differences between the House and Senate versions, […]

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WATCH: Science Gets Bad Budget News, Filling In the Details of Out of Africa, and Sharks Fear the Reaper

In Episode 8 of The Week in Science, I outline the details of the 2026 presidential budget request for science funding, highlighting some new studies that detail the complex migration of humans from Africa. This being the 50th anniversary of the premiere of Steven Spielberg’s movie Jaws, there’s news about the science of sharks, too! […]

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Whom Does Harvard Owe?

The Harvard Crimson has a grammar-challenged headline asking, “Who Does Harvard Owe?” The editors rebuff all those who believe that Harvard owes something to America. Or for that matter, to “Congress,” the media, its alumni, and others on the question of how the university should be governed. The Crimson’s answer boils down to ‘shove off, […]

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Why Lawsuits Against NSF May Backfire

On April 9th, I reported that more than two dozen articles by National Science Foundation (NSF) director Sethuraman Panchanathan had been called out for verbatim copying without citing sources, some of which were copyrighted. Two weeks later, on April 24th, Panchanathan announced his departure from NSF, but did not provide a reason. He returned to […]

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More Students Are Choosing Faith-Based Colleges—Just Don’t Mention the Loans

On Monday, June 9, the American Council on Education (ACE) hosted an afternoon Commission on Faith-Based Colleges and Universities at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. The program featured a keynote address by author and Professor Ryan R. Burge, as well as remarks by representatives from religious schools such as Reverend Robert A. Dowd, President of Notre […]

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The Emptiness of ‘Anti-Semitism Studies’

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published by the James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal on June 13, 2025. With edits to match Minding the Campus’s style guidelines, it is crossposted here with permission. Following the shock caused by the anti-Semitic campus riots of spring 2024, Günther Jikeli spoke up. Jikeli, an associate professor from Germany and one of […]

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ED Launches Investigation into UW for Allowing Male in Sorority

Editor’s Note: The following is an article originally published on the College Fix on June 24, 2025. With edits to match Minding the Campus’s style guidelines, it is crossposted here with permission. To honor its inaugural Title IX month, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights has launched an investigation into the University of Wyoming (UW) […]

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DHS Warns of Domestic Terror Threat—Universities Could Be Ground Zero

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has issued a National Terrorism Advisory System warning. This concerns the potential risks to civilians that could arise from sleeper cells within any domestic institution. Several of our universities—especially elite universities—have been protecting thousands of unknown illegal border invaders, with legal assistance services administered through their law schools, and […]

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All Men Are Created Equal but They Are Not Equal in Any Other Way

“What Is Replacing DEI? Racism” is the title of a recent article in the Chronicle of Higher Education by Arizona State University professor Richard Amesbury. It is provocative, for sure, but also comes across as ignorant since racism is to many people a feature of “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) itself. How can abolishing DEI […]

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WATCH: What Happened to the Liberal Arts? Plus Religious Revival, College Sports, and UVA’s Viewpoint Diversity Problem

In the second episode of VAS News Chat, I join Teresa Manning, Policy Director at the National Association of Scholars and President of its Virginia affiliate, for a conversation on some of last week’s most important developments in higher education. We begin with my recent article on the decline of the liberal arts—and how conservatives […]

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How to Monitor Military Academy Admissions

From the Military Times: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has barred the U.S. military service academies from considering race, gender or ethnicity in their admissions processes, ending the practice of affirmative action upheld by the Supreme Court two years ago. This is an easy order for Hegseth to give. But it will be hard for him, […]

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Are Iran’s Biggest Fans in Our Universities?

Much of the global press is engaged in broad speculation over how Iran will respond to the United States’ recent bombing of its nuclear facilities. Coverage includes warnings about potential domestic fallout and calls for heightened vigilance against possible retaliation by Iranian “sleeper cells” already within the U.S. This overlooks, however, that mainstream partisan political […]

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WATCH: Science Sells Out, Math Gets Political, but the Stars Still Shine

In Episode 7 of The Week in Science, host Scott Turner, Director of Science Programs at the National Association of Scholars, takes on how science strangled its own intellectual independence, why Trump-era budget cuts aren’t the end of the world, and what a new study says about boys, girls, and math. First up: Science magazine […]

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