A federal appeals court ended a Vermont statute that barred state vouchers from funding religious education.As Campus Reform reported in February, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second District granted an injunction requiring Vermont&rsquo;s Dual Enrollment Program to give funds to a student attending a Roman Catholic high school. Previously, the student was denied access to the funds due to the religious nature of her education.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16720"></a><a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16720">[RELATED: VICTORY: Federal appeals court rules in favor of Vermont parochial school student]</a>The court confirmed that she was denied access to the program &ldquo;solely because of her school&rsquo;s religious status.&rdquo;On June 2, the <a href="https://adflegal.org/about-us">Alliance Defending Freedom</a> &mdash; the world&rsquo;s &ldquo;largest legal organization committed to protecting religious freedom&rdquo; &mdash; <a href="https://adfmedia.org/case/ah-v-french">announced</a> that the same court struck down the twenty-one-year-old law entirely.The court&rsquo;s <a href="https://adfmedialegalfiles.blob.core.windows.net/files/AH-MandamusOpinion.pdf">opinion</a> said that the Supreme Court reminded states four years ago that it &ldquo;has repeatedly confirmed that denying a generally available benefit solely on account of religious identity imposes a penalty on the free exercise of religion that can be justified only by a state interest of the highest order.&rdquo; Accordingly, &ldquo;a state cannot justify discrimination against religious schools and students by invoking an &lsquo;interest in separating church and State more fiercely than the Federal Constitution.&rsquo;&rdquo;In a statement from the ADF, legal counsel Paul Schmitt celebrated the court&rsquo;s ruling: &ldquo;Today the court powerfully affirmed the principle that people of faith deserve equal access to public benefits everyone else gets.&rdquo;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17297"></a><a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17297"></a><a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17297">[RELATED: Student who says he was BANNED FROM CAMPUS after questioning microaggressions is suing in federal court]</a>&ldquo;Once Vermont chose to subsidize private education, it could not disqualify some private schools solely because they are &lsquo;too religious,&rsquo;&rdquo; he remarked. &ldquo;For too long, Vermont unconstitutionally forced families to choose between exercising their religion or enjoying a publicly available benefit.&rdquo;Schmitt told Campus Reform that the Supreme Court has now made clear that &ldquo;governments cannot deny religious schools or their students access to public benefits programs just because the schools are religious.&rdquo; Based on Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia v. Comer and other cases argued by the ADF, &ldquo;the government cannot punish families and take away their benefits just because they choose religious schools.&rdquo;&ldquo;Nearly twenty current Rice Memorial High School students now have access to the tuition program because of the Second Circuit&rsquo;s intervention,&rdquo; Schmitt added. &ldquo;And because the Court of Appeals has stopped school districts from discriminating, many more families are inquiring about sending their children to the school. Although the precise number of students cannot be known, we can safely say that countless families&rsquo; lives have been impacted by the more than two decades of religious discrimination in Vermont.&rdquo; Follow the author of this article on Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="http://twitter.com/BenZeisloft">@BenZeisloft</a>

A federal court struck down a Vermont law that prevented state vouchers from funding religious education.

UPDATE: Federal court scraps law excluding religious students from Vermont voucher program

VIDEO: Students say the American flag symbolizes oppression

The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign could start considering faculty members&rsquo; devotion to &ldquo;diversity, equity, and inclusion&rdquo; when offering promotions.The Office of the Provost recently announced that the &ldquo;promotion and tenure process for tenure-stream faculty members&rdquo; will serve to &ldquo;reflect the evolving strategic priorities and current practices&rdquo; of the university. Three &ldquo;Task Forces&rdquo; &mdash; including the &ldquo;Task Force on the Revision of Promotion and Tenure Guidelines&rdquo; &mdash; released a proposed update to <a href="https://comm9revisions.illinois.edu/">Communication #9</a>, the school&rsquo;s primary source for information on its tenure policy.An FAQ <a href="https://comm9revisions.illinois.edu/faq/">page</a> from the site addresses the question: &ldquo;Will I be penalized for not doing DEI work?&rdquo;The site informs professors interested in tenure opportunities that although they will &ldquo;not be penalized if they are not doing DEI work,&rdquo; they will &ldquo;still need to prepare the DEI statement so that they can think about what they are already doing around DEI and what they will do in the future.&rdquo;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17492"></a><a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17492">[RELATED: Stockton University students must now take two antiracism courses to graduate, costing up to $6700]</a>&ldquo;For faculty who are currently heavily engaged in DEI efforts,&rdquo; continues the statement, &ldquo;this is an opportunity for them to share what they have been doing. Their DEI efforts will be considered as a strength in the evaluation process.&rdquo;According to the university, all faculty will eventually be &ldquo;expected to make DEI efforts,&rdquo; which will &ldquo;be part of the evaluation process.&rdquo;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17318"></a><a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17318">[RELATED: Louisiana introduces bill to ban teaching of Critical Race Theory topics like &#39;institutional racism&#39;]</a>Another question &mdash; &ldquo;What if my research is an area that is not relevant to DEI?&rdquo; &mdash; is addressed in the same fashion.&ldquo;Regardless of their area of expertise, all faculty are expected to make efforts toward enhancing DEI,&rdquo; says the university. &ldquo;There are many ways to make DEI efforts &mdash; for example, integrating work by scholars from groups historically marginalized or underrepresented in academia into your curriculum, including and effectively mentoring undergraduate and graduate students in your research group, and attending workshops to develop your DEI work so that it is more effective. How individual faculty decide to make efforts toward enhancing DEI will vary.&rdquo;Campus Reform reached out to the University of Illinois; this article will be updated with any response.&nbsp;Follow the author of this article on Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/Jess__Custodio">@Jess__Custodio</a>

The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign might weigh faculty members’ efforts toward 'diversity, equity, and inclusion' when offering tenure.

Promotions at University of Illinois might depend on professors' devotion to DEI 

Conservative and Liberal Student Organizations:Conservative Organizations:&nbsp;Turning Point USA, Young Americans for Freedom, Young Americans for Liberty, Students for Life, Network of Enlightened Women, Students for Concealed Carry On Campus, and College Republicans at Virginia TechLiberal Organizations:&nbsp;Young Leftists, Young Democratic Socialists of America, United Feminist Movement, and Young Democrats at Virginia Tech.OpenSecrets Data on Virginia Tech Employee Political Donations:&nbsp;96.10%&nbsp;of Virginia Tech employee donations have been towards Democratic campaigns, while only 3.90% of employee donations have been to Republican candidates, according to data from <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/virginia-tech-university/recipients?id=D000030848">OpenSecrets</a>.Foundation for Individual Rights in Education Rating:Virginia Tech has a <a href="https://www.thefire.org/schools/virginia-polytechnic-institute-and-state-university/">yellow light</a> rating. According to FIRE, &quot;Yellow light colleges and universities are those institutions with at least one ambiguous policy that too easily encourages administrative abuse and arbitrary application.&quot;<img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/campus.reform//176222zwDemocrat.jpg" class="fr-fic fr-dii">Stories by Campus Reform about Virginia Tech:<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16888">Virginia Tech uses federal COVID aid money to refund students $100 &nbsp;</a>Virginia Tech is using federal aid money to refund students their transportation fee for Blacksburg Transportation, the local bus system.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=9934">RAs forced to attend LGBTQ event</a>Residential Advisors at Virginia Tech were forced to attend an LGBTQ event on-campus and take a photo or they would face consequences for their absence.&nbsp;Stories about professors at Virginia Tech:<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16018">Virginia Tech. prof says phrase &#39;American people&#39; is racist, so is beer</a>Virginia Tech Sociology Professor, David L. Brunsma, has claimed that beer and the phrase &ldquo; the American people&rdquo; are racist.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=5787">Virginia Tech professor compares Israel to extremist Islamic group ISIS</a>Steven Salaita, English professor at Virginia Tech, stated that &ldquo;<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Israel?src=hashtag_click">#Israel</a> and<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ISIS?src=hashtag_click">&nbsp;#ISIS</a> are but two prongs of the same violent ethnonationalism.&rdquo; in a tweet.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16947">Teaching assistant docks point on conservative student&#39;s Black Panther essay: &lsquo;White people cannot experience racism&rsquo;</a>After asking why she received a low grade for her essay on separatism in an International Studies course, a Virginia Tech student was told that &ldquo;white people cannot experience racism.&rdquo;&nbsp;Stories about questionable policies at Virginia Tech:<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17212">Virginia Tech faces new lawsuit over alleged free speech violations</a>Speech First filed a lawsuit against Virginia Tech in April 2021 on the basis of infringements of the first and fourteenth amendments, including the bias response team.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17270">Virginia Tech claims to follow the science on COVID...but it does just the opposite</a>After announcing that they would be following new Virginia COVID mandate lifts, Virginia Tech revoked its statement and expressed that it would be upholding previous indoor restrictions.

CAMPUS PROFILE: Virginia Tech University

Late night host Bill Maher spent a monologue railing against the university system in the United States.&ldquo;Now that graduation season has ended and we won&rsquo;t be spoiling anyone&rsquo;s big day, let&rsquo;s talk about what higher education in America really is: a racket that sells you a very expensive ticket to the upper middle class&rdquo; opened the comedian&#39;s &ldquo;Real Time with Bill Maher&rdquo; episode on June 4.&nbsp; <blockquote>Is it really liberal for someone who doesn&#39;t go to college and makes less money to pay for people who do go and make more? <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/LiberalGrift?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#LiberalGrift</a> <a href="https://t.co/aF1cNZ0CZF">pic.twitter.com/aF1cNZ0CZF</a>&mdash; Bill Maher (@billmaher) <a href="https://twitter.com/billmaher/status/1401035004579225600?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 5, 2021</a></blockquote> Maher ripped President Biden&rsquo;s American Families Plan for asking taxpayers to &ldquo;pony up hundreds of billions&rdquo; for free college proposals. He noted that liberals &ldquo;see more school the way Republicans see tax cuts as the answer to everything.&rdquo;Maher asserted that due to their regressive nature, free college proposals contribute to income inequality and other areas of concern for the Democrats. <a href="https://campusreform.org/article?id=17009"></a><a href="https://campusreform.org/article?id=17009">[RELATED: Universities make out like bandits with Biden&#39;s $1.9 trillion COVID package]</a>&ldquo;I know free college is a left-wing thing, but is it really liberal for someone who doesn&rsquo;t go to college and makes less money to pay for people who do go and make more?&rdquo; he asked.&ldquo;Colleges have turned into giant luxury daycare centers with overpaid babysitters anxious to indulge every student&#39;s whim,&rdquo; Maher continued. As examples, he cited luxury water parts at Texas Tech, the fact that one-third of college students report studying for less than five hours per week, and courses that fixate on the topic of racism &mdash; or, in Maher&rsquo;s words, &ldquo;You Owe Me an Apology 101.&rdquo;Pointing out that the percentage of college students who receive A&rsquo;s has increased from 15 percent to 45 percent in the last six decades, Maher quipped that grade inflation is not due to college students &ldquo;getting smarter.&rdquo; <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17269"></a><a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17269">[RELATED: POLL: Over 40% of Harvard profs say that school&#39;s standing is worsening]</a>Maher also decried the heavy financial burden levied upon students and professionals by universities, which serve as gatekeepers to most industries.&ldquo;In the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church famously sold indulgences, which were just tickets to Heaven that you could buy,&rdquo; continued Maher. &ldquo;Well, now another priesthood of academia sells a different ticket to heaven, and because it&rsquo;s so necessary, colleges can charge whatever they want.&rdquo; Follow the author of this article on Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="http://twitter.com/BenZeisloft">@BenZeisloft</a>

Maher also called American universities in America 'a racket that sells you a very expensive ticket to the upper middle class.'

Bill Maher criticizes campus liberals, American university system in scathing monologue

Less than three months after Howard Bauchner, editor-in-chief of Journal of the American Medical Association,&nbsp;accepted a subordinate&#39;s resignation for questioning whether racism is embedded in American society, he is stepping down after publicly doubting the notion of &quot;structural racism.&quot;In a June 1 <a href="https://www.ama-assn.org/press-center/press-releases/ama-announces-transition-jama-editorial-leadership">statement</a>, the American Medical Association announced that Bauchner would step down by the end of the month.Bauchner declared that he took &ldquo;responsibility&rdquo; for the comments after a tweet promoting the podcast episode stated that &ldquo;no physician is racist.&rdquo;<blockquote>Thread on <a href="https://twitter.com/JAMA_current?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@JAMA_current</a>: (JAMA has complete editorial independence from AMA so this would not come to me or my team for review) The podcast/tweet are/were wrong, absolutely appalling &amp; at its very core is a demonstration of structural &amp; institutional racism. I am furious. 1/ <a href="https://t.co/o82H8dgR5v">pic.twitter.com/o82H8dgR5v</a>&mdash; Dr. Aletha Maybank (@DrAlethaMaybank) <a href="https://twitter.com/DrAlethaMaybank/status/1367501829433683968?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 4, 2021</a></blockquote> <blockquote>Statement from Howard Bauchner, MD, Editor in Chief JAMA and The JAMA Network <a href="https://t.co/A1AJNnMWB4">pic.twitter.com/A1AJNnMWB4</a>&mdash; JAMA (@JAMA_current) <a href="https://twitter.com/JAMA_current/status/1367546743789862912?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 4, 2021</a></blockquote> Campus Reform earlier reported that Deputy Editor Edward Livingston resigned in March after making the controversial claims on the publication&#39;s podcast. At the time, Livingston directed his resignation to Bauchner. <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17190&utm_campaign=CampusWire&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=120501613&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_6JevV2hJO_4BRWDgAYTy0HAn-EZQRNqGc8Y_xcUbqj8lwdQX7q0fSpf4aGUJbd5utk89AXnXYqgbIT3JHOoREtIYp3A&utm_content=120501613&utm_source=hs_email"></a><a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17190&utm_campaign=CampusWire&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=120501613&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_6JevV2hJO_4BRWDgAYTy0HAn-EZQRNqGc8Y_xcUbqj8lwdQX7q0fSpf4aGUJbd5utk89AXnXYqgbIT3JHOoREtIYp3A&utm_content=120501613&utm_source=hs_email">[RELATED: Medical journal forces out editor who questioned &#39;structural racism.&rsquo; Professors rejoice.]</a>This month&#39;s statement included an apology from Bauchner: &ldquo;I remain profoundly disappointed in myself for the lapses that led to the publishing of the tweet and podcast. Although I did not write or even see the tweet, or create the podcast, as editor-in-chief, I am ultimately responsible for them.&rdquo;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16395">[RELATED: American Medical Association declares racism a &lsquo;public health threat&rsquo;]</a>&ldquo;I share and have always supported the AMA&rsquo;s commitment to dismantling structural racism in the institutions of American medicine,&rdquo; Bauchner continued, &ldquo;as evident by numerous publications in JAMA on this issue and related subjects, and look forward to personally contributing to that work going forward.&rdquo;Bauchner had served as editor-in-chief of JAMA since 2011.Campus Reform asked the American Medical Association whether the group told Bauchner to draft the second apology message. Spokesman Robert Mills acknowledged receipt of the question and refused to comment.Follow the author of this article on Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="http://twitter.com/BenZeisloft">@BenZeisloft</a>

The journal's deputy editor resigned in March for similar comments. 

UPDATE: Second resignation this year at presitigious medical journal after editor questions woke anti-racist narratives

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) were guest speakers &nbsp;at &ldquo;<a href="https://www.bu.edu/articles/2021/ayanna-pressley-elizabeth-warren-to-headline-forum-on-antiracism-as-health-policy/">Antiracism as Health Policy: Race, COVID-19, and Policy Reform</a>,&quot; a virtual forum from April 5-7 at Boston University with <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Lora; font-size: 18px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; display: inline !important; float: none;">Ibram X. Kendi.&nbsp;&ldquo;The work of anti-racism must be embedded in our work every single day,&rdquo; Rep. Pressley <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yd_DMTaIH40">explained</a> to Kendi during the second part of the lecture series.As explained on Boston University&#39;s website, the event intended to &ldquo;examine the deep-rooted racial disparities in health that have been exposed and exacerbated by the pandemic and discuss how to best address racial inequities through research, policy, and action.&rdquo;<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/yd_DMTaIH40"></iframe>Rep. Pressley stated that the health disparities between her Black and White constituents &ldquo;did not happen by chance.&rdquo; Rather, they were created by &ldquo;policy violence.&rdquo; Therefore, modern lawmakers must be &ldquo;every bit as prescriptive, precise, and intentional in legislating justice, and legislating equity, and legislating healing.&rdquo;&nbsp;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17170">[RELATED: Ibram Kendi brings his &#39;antiracist book festival&#39; back to BU]</a>Warren examined the legacy of &ldquo;generations of structural racism&rdquo; in the medical system.<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Em-pDfZlRQU"></iframe>&ldquo;I think that it&rsquo;s just finally time for us to acknowledge the health impact of structural racism,&rdquo; said Sen. Warren. &ldquo;And that means treat structural racism like we would treat any other public health problem or disease. That means invest into research, into its incidence, into symptoms, into causes, and finding ways to treat and to cure it.&rdquo;&ldquo;We know that there is a public health impact of racism,&rdquo; she added. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s time for us now to say that openly and begin to make real change.&rdquo;&nbsp;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17456">[RELATED: New Hampshire universities defend their ability to teach Critical Race Theory]</a>Kendi referred listeners to Sen. Warren&rsquo;s <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/senate-bill/4533/text">Anti-Racism in Public Health Act</a> which, as Sen. Warren explained, is meant to address &ldquo;racial disparities in health outcomes&rdquo; at the federal level to override &ldquo;fifty-one different public health, state-level systems&rdquo; that create inconsistencies in reporting race-related data.Campus Reform reached out to Boston University, Rep. Pressley, and Sen. Warren for comment; this article will be updated accordingly.Follow the author of this article on Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="http://twitter.com/BenZeisloft">@BenZeisloft</a>

Ibram X. Kendi also discussed Sen. Warren's 'Anti-Racism in Public Health Act of 2020.'

Warren and Pressley make charges of 'policy violence,'  'public health impact of racism' at Kendi's CRT forum 

<a href="https://www.professorcarolanderson.org/"></a> <a href="https://www.professorcarolanderson.org/"></a><a href="https://www.professorcarolanderson.org/">Dr. Carol Anderson</a>, chair of Emory University&rsquo;s Black Studies Department and author of such works as &quot;White Rage&rdquo;, recently published a new book where she argues that &quot;[the Second Amendment] was designed and has consistently been constructed to keep African Americans powerless and vulnerable.&quot; The book, &quot;<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Second-Race-Fatally-Unequal-America/dp/1635574250">The Second: Race and Guns in a Fatally Unequal America</a>,&quot; was released on June 1 by Bloomsbury. In an <a href="https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2021/05/30/us/second-amendment-guns-anti-black-anderson-blake/index.html?__twitter_impression=true">interview</a> with CNN on May 30, Anderson said that the 2016 shooting of Philando Castile initially inspired her to begin work on the volume. Later in that interview, Anderson attributes the lack of firearm restrictions following the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary shooting to an &ldquo;underlying fear that if there are real gun safety laws then Whites will be left defenseless against these Black people.&rdquo; &ldquo;Here was a Black man who was pulled over by police,&rdquo; Anderson said of the shooting &ldquo;who followed NRA guidelines in letting the police officer know that he had a license to carry a weapon. And that led to Philando Castile being shot dead.&rdquo; Anderson went on to criticize the National Rifle Association for not issuing a sufficiently strong statement on the shooting.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17515"></a> <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17515"></a> <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17515">[RELATED: &lsquo;Jim Crow 2.0&rsquo;: Emory faculty outraged at new election reform bill]</a> Anderson <a href="https://www.professorcarolanderson.org/the-second">claims</a> on her website that the work is neither &ldquo;pro-gun&rdquo; nor &ldquo;anti-gun&rdquo; but rather seeks to explore the &ldquo;citizenship rights and human rights of African Americans.&rdquo; The book description <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Second-Race-Fatally-Unequal-America/dp/1635574250">states</a> that &ldquo;the right to bear arms has been consistently used as a weapon to keep African Americans powerless&rdquo; and that &ldquo;measures to expand and curtail gun ownership [are] aimed disproportionately at the African American population.&rdquo; &ldquo;Blackness, it would seem, is the threat that must be neutralized and punished&rdquo; the description continues. In an NPR <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/06/02/1002107670/historian-uncovers-the-racist-roots-of-the-2nd-amendment">interview</a> regarding the book, Anderson argues that the founders of the United States were motivated to arm White citizens, fearing a slave rebellion similar to the one that occurred in Haiti some years prior.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=13534"></a> <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=13534"></a> <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=13534">[RELATED: Journalism school prof: &#39;I&#39;m sick to death of the Second Amendment...&#39;]</a>While left-leaning media including the New Yorker&nbsp;and&nbsp;The New York Times&nbsp;have <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/28/books/review/the-second-carol-anderson.html">praised</a> Anderson&#39;s book, not all reactions have been positive. A member of the Emory College Republicans, who has requested to remain anonymous for fear of reputational damages, disagreed with many of Anderson&rsquo;s conclusions. Addressing the impetus behind Anderson&rsquo;s book, the student pointed out that Philando Castille &ldquo;did not comply with [the] officer,&rdquo; and was &ldquo;reaching for [an] unknown object.&rdquo; The College Republican also took issue with Anderson claiming White people oppose gun control out of fear of Black violence. &ldquo;Anderson is literally implying the logical conclusion of the racial conflict theory she professes: A race war. This is a disgusting point of view,&rdquo; the student stated. In addition to this, they claimed Anderson is hypocritical for both a California law that prohibits open-carry and a Texas law that allows it universally.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=15415"></a> <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=15415"></a> <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=15415">[RELATED: Prof: &#39;The Constitution is racist&#39;]</a> &ldquo;Dr. Anderson is gravely mistaken,&rdquo; the student continued. &ldquo;She espouses and teaches critical and conflict theories in their racial derivations, which are descended from Marxist class-conflict theory.&rdquo; At the time of publication, Anderson has not responded to&nbsp;Campus Reform&rsquo;s request for comment.Follow the author of this article on Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="http://twitter.com/RobertSchmad" style=" text-align: start;">@RobertSchmad</a>

Repressing slave revolts and ensuring Blacks remained oppressed post-emancipation, Anderson argues, were motivating factors behind support for the Second Amendment. 

Emory Professor: The Second Amendment 'was designed' to keep 'African Americans powerless and vulnerable' 

Dr. Brandi Adams is a newly-hired assistant professor at Arizona State University and has already recommended a summer reading based on Critical Race Theory.&nbsp;&quot;Right now, I&rsquo;m working on a chapter for a collected volume on the relationship between premodern critical race theory and book and reading history,&rdquo; Adams said in an <a href="https://news.asu.edu/20210520-creativity-add-your-summer-reading-list-insight-new-asu-professor">interview</a> with the university.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17608">[RELATED: Albion College makes Kendi&#39;s &lsquo;How to Be an Antiracist&rsquo; required reading for first-year students]</a>Adams&#39; recommendations, which she enumerated in the interview, include: American Spy, by Lauren Wilkinson; the Broken Earth series, by N. K. Jemisin;&nbsp;Pachinko, by Min Jin Lee; and&nbsp;The Old Drift, by Namwali Serpell.ASU brought on Adams as part of a &quot;<a href="https://news.asu.edu/20210309-5-new-faculty-join-asus-department-english-arizona-center-medieval-and-renaissance-studies">cluster hire</a>&quot; that the school touted for the new professors&#39; ethnic backgrounds.&nbsp;ASU&#39;s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ayannathompson.com/raceb4race">Ayanna Thompson</a>, a professor of English, coordinated the cluster hire.&nbsp;<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Lora; font-size: 18px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; display: inline !important; float: none;">&ldquo;With the five BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and people of color) scholars joining our seven other early modernists, ASU will have the strongest Shakespeare program in the country,&rdquo; Thompson said to the ASU website.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17569">[RELATED: New anti-racism requirements coming for Cornell University students and faculty]</a>Thompson also spearheads <a href="https://acmrs.asu.edu/RaceB4Race" style=" text-align: left;">RaceB4Race</a>, an &quot;ongoing conference series&quot; at the university &quot;for scholars of color working on issues of race in premodern literature, history, and culture.&quot; The website also states that &quot;RaceB4Race centers the expertise, perspectives, and sociopolitical interests of BIPOC scholars, whose work seeks to expand critical race theory.&quot;Campus Reform reached out to Dr. Adams and ASU for comment; this article will be updated accordingly.

The new professor is 'working on a chapter for a collected volume on the relationship between premodern critical race theory and book and reading history.'

Critical Race Theory motivates summer reading list, 'cluster hire' at ASU 

Amid pressure from LGBTQ activists, the U.S. Department of Justice amended a court filing stating they would &quot;vigorously&rdquo;&nbsp;defend religious school&#39;s exemption from laws which allow religious schools that are, in part, funded by the government to discriminate against LGBTQ individuals.The new filing, as the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2021/06/09/biden-justice-lgbtq-lesbian-gay-christian-college-university-bostock-equality-act/">Washington Post&nbsp;</a>reported on Wednesday, the DOJ removed &quot;vigorously&quot; as a term to describe their approach to defending the exemption, but kept the usage of the word &quot;adequate&quot; to describe their approach.&nbsp;&quot;The Department of Justice, which is responsible for defending federal statutes in court, will adequately defend against the legal challenges the Religious Exemption and its application,&quot; the updated <a href="https://context-cdn.washingtonpost.com/notes/prod/default/documents/6dabb638-b538-46ee-b90c-ccd25e325b70/note/ab56eb4e-59cc-443e-9f0f-a25d9e5427f3.#page=1">filing&nbsp;</a>states.According to The Post, the move shows that the Joe Biden administration possibly exerted their force on the Department of Justice to remove the language.<a href="https://context-cdn.washingtonpost.com/notes/prod/default/documents/115fbd13-ca87-4b50-94c8-820afea69daa/note/0372d954-88c4-4fb5-9567-ac0b25e0973f.#page=1">Hunter v. the U.S. Department of Education</a>, as <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17173">Campus Reform</a> reported in March, includes 40 students who are suing the U.S. Department of Education with the goal of putting an &quot;end to the U.S. Department of Education&rsquo;s complicity in the abuses and unsafe conditions thousands of LGBTQ+ students endure at hundreds of taxpayer-funded, religious colleges and universities.&rdquo;Under Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972, religious education institutions are exempt from anti-discrimination laws; therefore the DOJ has to step in to defend them. However, this prevents religious institutions from entering the lawsuit themselves.&nbsp;The Council of Christian Colleges and Universities previously said in a<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/context/cccu-intervention-motion-filed/c8c0b51f-9f3e-4687-84a3-4d6dad0cbf7d/?itid=lk_inline_manual_20">&nbsp;May motion</a> that they could not trust the Biden administration to defend the schools&rsquo; beliefs and &ldquo;may be openly hostile to them.&rdquo;&nbsp;According to the article, Shirley Hoogstra, president of the Council of Christian Colleges and Universities, said that she was relieved at the DOJ&#39;s filing, as it signals that the government will defend religious exemptions. However, she said that Christian schools that could be impacted by the lawsuit should have their own representative present during hearings.

 An amended DOJ court filing on anti-LGBTQ discrimination laws  removed 'vigorously' from a previous submitted version.

Biden's DOJ walks back intent to 'vigorously' defend religious school exemptions in  anti-LGBTQ discrimination laws 

VIDEO: 1776 Commission vice-chair sounds the alarm on teaching revisionist history in schools

The term &ldquo;Caucasian&rdquo; is now facing cancel culture, thanks to Columbia University.&nbsp;The Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University released&nbsp;<a href="https://www.vagelos.columbia.edu/education/academic-programs/md-program/curriculum/guidelines-promoting-anti-bias-and-inclusive-curriculum">guidelines</a>&nbsp;to promote &ldquo;an anti-bias and inclusive curriculum&rdquo; that encourages people to refrain from using the term &ldquo;Caucasian&rdquo; to describe a White person.&nbsp;&quot;Eliminating the use of outdated and imprecise terms, e.g., &#39;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/05/13/the-long-history-and-slow-death-of-a-word-used-to-describe-everyone-from-turks-to-the-chinese/">Oriental</a>&#39; to describe an Asian person or &#39;Caucasian&#39; to describe a white person,&quot; the guidelines state.This is not the first time that higher education has targeted the term.&nbsp;In 2020, <a href="https://med.umn.edu/bio/med-ed-faculty-advisors/andrea-westby">Andrea Westby</a>, an&nbsp;assistant professor in the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health at the University of Minnesota, wrote an&nbsp;<a href="https://med.umn.edu/news-events/time-phase-out-caucasian">article</a>&nbsp;titled &quot;Time to Phase Out &#39;Caucasian.&#39;&quot; The Columbia University guidelines link to Westby&#39;s article, in which she argues that &ldquo;literally speaking, &lsquo;Caucasian&rsquo; refers to people from the Caucasus mountain region, which includes Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, parts of north Iran, and central southern Russia.&quot;&nbsp;Westby also said in the article that by using &quot;Caucasian&quot; to describe White people, society is &ldquo;prioritizing [the] comfort of White people.&rdquo;Campus Reform reached out to Westby for comment in an email. She replied, stating that &ldquo;&lsquo;Caucasian&rsquo; is a historically and geographically inaccurate descriptor for White people, so it would be preferable to use &quot;white&quot; or specific geographically correct ancestry terms (Euro-American, etc).&rdquo;Such critiques are neither rare nor new among scholars.&nbsp;Carol Mukhopadhyay, whom Westby references, wrote a 2008 book&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sjsu.edu/people/carol.mukhopadhyay/papers/Getting-Rid-of-the-Word-Caucasian.pdf">chapter</a>&nbsp;titled &quot;Getting Rid of the Word &#39;Caucasian&#39;&quot; that argues term &quot;erases&quot; the &quot;ancestry, cultural traditions, and experiences&quot; of those from the Caucuses.&nbsp;More recently, Susan Rinderle, a consultant that Westby also cites, <a href="https://www.workforce.com/news/6-reasons-not-say-caucasian" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">claimed</a> in 2014 that &quot;at its root, &lsquo;Caucasian&rsquo; is <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/07/sunday-review/has-caucasian-lost-its-meaning.html?_r=0">a pseudo scientific term used to create distance</a> from race discussion or racial identification.&rdquo;Campus Reform&nbsp;reached out to the Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, Mukhopadhyay, and Rinderle but did not receive a response in time for publication.&nbsp; Follow the author of this article on Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/opheliejacobson">@opheliejacobson</a>

Professors and researchers across disciplines have criticized the term, arguing it is imprecise and problematic. 

Columbia University: Don't call White people 'Caucasian'

A federal government child education program hosted a group of professors to discuss &ldquo;anti-racism.&quot;Head Start, a program of the Department of Health and Human Services, &ldquo;<a href="https://eclkc.ohs.acf.hhs.gov/">Early Childhood Learning &amp; Knowledge Center</a>&rdquo; produced a webinar series entitled &ldquo;Advancing Racial and Ethnic Equity&rdquo; in the fall of 2020. The lectures&rsquo; goal was to promote &ldquo;anti-bias and anti-racism strategies Head Start and Early Head Start programs can use in their practices, services, and systems.&rdquo;Over 3,000 Head Start staff members <a href="https://eclkc.ohs.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/video/transcripts/002392-cdie-spotlight-on-hr-systems.pdf">registered</a> for the lectures, according to a transcript of the event.<iframe src="https://www.scribd.com/embeds/511158467/content?start_page=1&view_mode=scroll&access_key=key-vYa6fKsbaV0HQXvsBS45"></iframe> <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17388"></a><a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17388">[RELATED: San Diego State researcher runs &lsquo;anti-racist&rsquo; day care]</a>Among other guest speakers were Emory University public health professor <a href="https://sph.emory.edu/faculty/profile/index.php?FID=camara-jones-8843">Camara Jones</a>, University of North Carolina assistant diversity director <a href="https://fpg.unc.edu/people/jenille-adams-morgan">Jenille Morgan</a>, and California State University-Long Beach child development professor <a href="http://web.csulb.edu/colleges/chhs/departments/fcs/docs/TAndersonwebpagebio.pdf">Treshawn Anderson</a>.Morgan and Anderson&rsquo;s <a href="https://eclkc.ohs.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/video/attachments/anti-bias-teaching-learning-environments-slides.pdf">presentation</a> discussed ways in which educators could promote &ldquo;racial equity in early childhood systems.&rdquo; Employees were encouraged to apply a &ldquo;racial equity/economic justice lens&rdquo; to their practices while recognizing that &ldquo;structural arrangements are interconnected and resist change.&rdquo;Debunking the &ldquo;myth&rdquo; that &ldquo;children are colorblind&rdquo; and &ldquo;do not see race,&rdquo; the presentation declared that &ldquo;race is one of the earliest emerging social categories&rdquo; for newborn babies.Teachers were therefore told that &ldquo;anti-bias early learning environments begin with you!&rdquo;The presentation listed &ldquo;four core goals of anti-bias education&rdquo; &mdash; &ldquo;identity,&rdquo; &ldquo;diversity,&rdquo; &ldquo;justice,&rdquo; and &ldquo;activism.&rdquo;In the final <a href="https://eclkc.ohs.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/video/attachments/health-disparities-responding-lens-race-ethnicity-slides.pdf">presentation</a>, Jones, who formerly served as president of the American Public Health Association &mdash; asserted in a video shown in the webinar that &ldquo;health inequities are not accidental.&rdquo;To describe this reality, Jones <a href="https://eclkc.ohs.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/video/transcripts/002441-health-disparities-race-ethnicity.pdf">used</a> the analogy of preventing people from plummeting off a cliff. She explained that resources are not always equally available: &ldquo;At some parts of the cliff, the ambulance at the bottom may have a flat tire, or maybe there&#39;s no ambulance there at all. Maybe there&#39;s no net nor fence. And usually at those parts of the cliff, the people are being pushed closer to the edge.&rdquo;Jones exhorted attendees to &ldquo;recognize and dismantle racism, sexism, and the other big systems that assign value and structure opportunity in ways that undermine some groups more than others but hurt us all.&rdquo;Campus Reform&nbsp;reached out to Head Start, Morgan, Anderson, and Jones; this article will be updated with any comment. Follow the author of this article on Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="http://twitter.com/BenZeisloft">@BenZeisloft</a>

The 3,000 attendees were encouraged to apply a 'racial equity/economic justice lens' to their work. 

Federal government hosted professors' talks on anti-racist education for young children

Amherst College has hired an outside consulting firm to analyze the need for armed police on its campuses.The <a href="https://www.bizjournals.com/boston/news/2021/05/25/amherst-college-hires-consulting-group-to-study-ca.html?cx_testId=40&cx_testVariant=cx_22&cx_artPos=4#cxrecs_s">Boston Business Journal</a>&nbsp;reported that&nbsp;Amherst College President Carolyn &quot;Biddy&quot; Martin is reconsidering &quot;what campus safety should look like&quot; at the school. This decision comes after hundreds of students <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20210428145415/https://www.amherststudent.com/article/students-walk-out-in-protest-after-police-killing-of-daunte-wright-aas-and-bsu-demand-abolition-of-acpd">marched</a> in support of abolishing the police.Amherst&#39;s <a href="https://www.amherst.edu/news/news_releases/2021/4-2021/students-hold-three-hour-black-minds-matter-protest?fbclid=IwAR0bfFBHFsH9fx-8HsqVTnVzMSvWQmljHFYSltE7Ok3WTrIschNdfnva8vU">Black Student Union</a> organized the April 13 protest and later demanded that the college abolish its police department, a move also supported by the Amherst Association of Students.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17440">[RELATED: Pomona College student government passes resolution supporting the defunding of clubs supporting Israel]</a>&nbsp;Martin released a <a href="https://www.amherst.edu/amherst-story/president/statements/node/799957">letter</a> on May 10 stating that &quot;for many, particularly Black and Brown students, the presence of armed officers creates anxiety and distress.&quot;&ldquo;We will be doing a lot of work on that throughout the summer,&rdquo; wrote the president. <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17470"></a><a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17470">[RELATED: Ralph Northam signs bill forcing some Virginia universities to start reparations scholarships]</a>The upcoming summer work follows Amherst&#39;s 2020 &quot;<a href="https://www.amherst.edu/news/antiracism/anti-racism-plan-new">Anti-Racism Plan</a>,&quot; a college project to redirect funds away from the campus police department and to &quot;student staff&quot; and &quot;mental health services.&quot;&nbsp;Amherst announced an update to the plan on its website this past March. The college stated that a &ldquo;new group of non-armed Community Service Officers (CSOs) will be created to perform much of the public safety, security, and service work with funds shifted over a reasonable period of time to the CSO program.&rdquo;Campus Reform reached out to Amherst College who have not commented yet.&nbsp;Follow the author of this article on Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/ajmunguia23">@ajmunguia23</a>

The college has already directed funds away from its police department as part of a year-long project. 

Amherst College is considering student groups' call to abolish police department 

The Gates Foundation gave Brown University nearly $1 million to fund a tutoring program embracing the concepts of &ldquo;implicit bias,&rdquo; &ldquo;systemic racism,&rdquo; and &ldquo;privilege.&rdquo;The Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University <a href="https://www.browndailyherald.com/2021/06/02/gates-foundation-grants-annenberg-institute-999260/">received</a>&nbsp;$999,260 from the Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates&#39; nonprofit in May. The funds are designate for the university&#39;s National Student Support Accelerator initiative.&nbsp;Brown University <a href="https://www.annenberginstitute.org/news/national-student-support-accelerator">announced</a> the National Student Support Accelerator in November 2020 as a <a href="https://studentsupportaccelerator.com/sites/default/files/Toolkit_for_Tutoring_Programs_0.pdf">toolkit</a> for K-12 tutoring during the COVID-19 pandemic.&nbsp;Among the toolkit&#39;s guidelines are suggested criteria for tutors&#39; comprehension of systemic racism and antiracist theory. The document states that tutor &quot;candidate pool[s] should reflect the backgrounds of the students being served&quot; as well as an &quot;acknowledgement of intrinsic bias&quot; among hired tutors. <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17311"></a> <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17311">[RELATED: George Soros gives $500 million to tiny college]</a> The Gates Foundation is active in supporting campus initiatives with social justice bents. For instance, the organization gave $1 million to &ldquo;A Pathway to Equitable Instruction&rdquo; &mdash; an initiative from several universities and local governments to address &ldquo;barriers to math equity&rdquo; by offering resources to &quot;develop an anti-racist math practice.&rdquo;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16895"></a> <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16895"></a> <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16895">[RELATED: 2+2=5? Bill Gates funnels $1 MILLION to push &#39;math is racist&#39; narrative]</a> Likewise, the Gates Foundation gave American University $150,000 to create &ldquo;antiracist&rdquo; learning environments across the United States.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=15825"></a> <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=15825"></a> <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=15825">[RELATED: AU receives $1.1 million from Bill Gates Foundation, others for &lsquo;antiracist&rsquo; learning]</a> The Gates Foundation has also extensively <a href="https://www.gatesfoundation.org/How-We-Work/Quick-Links/Grants-Database">funded</a> teacher&rsquo;s unions and left-leaning think tanks such as the Center for American Progress. Campus Reform reached out to the Gates Foundation and Brown University for comment; this article will be updated accordingly. Follow the author of this article on Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="http://twitter.com/BenZeisloft">@BenZeisloft</a>

Brown is among several schools and liberal organizations that the Gates Foundation has funded. 

Gates Foundation funds Brown University's K-12 tutoring initiative that presses 'implicit bias,' 'systemic racism,' 'privilege'

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed new bills into law on June 7 that target Chinese influence in the Florida education system.The bills, <a href="https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2021/7017">HB7017</a> and <a href="https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2021/1523">HB1523</a>, take aim at corporate espionage, criminal activity, and foreign influence. As Campus Refrom&nbsp;reported earlier this year,&nbsp;a professor University of Florida received $1.8 million while hiding his ties with the <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16780">Chinese Government</a> and a separate case of a <a href="https://www.news4jax.com/news/local/2020/09/15/jacksonville-woman-pleads-guilty-to-conspiracy-smuggling-to-china/">Jacksonville</a> woman.<a href="https://campusreform.org/article?id=17590"></a><a href="https://campusreform.org/article?id=17371">[RELATED: Analysis finds that Penn raises 26% of its foreign contributions from Chinese sources]</a>Gov. DeSantis <a href="https://thefloridachannel.org/videos/6-7-21-signing-of-hb-1523-hb-7017/">stated</a> that &ldquo;All we are doing today is saying, Enough is enough. We&rsquo;ve got to start fighting back and so the state of Florida is doing that.&quot;Christina Pushaw, the governor&#39;s press secretary, told Campus Reform&nbsp;that &ldquo;The CCP and its collaborators have no place in Florida&rsquo;s universities, or really, anywhere in Florida. This legislation effectively bans &#39;Confucius Institutes&#39; from operating in Florida.&quot;A <a href="https://www.flgov.com/2021/06/07/governor-ron-desantis-signs-groundbreaking-legislation-to-combat-theft-of-floridas-intellectual-property-by-foreign-countries/">press release</a> from the office of Gov. DeSantis states that the bills requires &ldquo;universities and colleges to disclose foreign donations and grants of $50,000 or more to the State University System Board of Governors or Department of Education&rdquo; &nbsp; <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=11182"></a><a href="https://campusreform.org/article?id=17541">[RELATED:EXCLUSIVE: Contracts reveal US universities &#39;must&#39; accept CCP&rsquo;s &#39;assessment&#39; on &#39;teaching quality&#39; at Confucius Institutes]</a>The laws aim to vet all entities in Florida including states, corporations, and universities. In 2019, the last Confucius Institute in Florida was <a href="https://www.politico.com/states/florida/story/2019/09/06/miami-dade-college-is-shutting-down-its-confucius-institute-1174166">shut down</a> at Miami Dade College.&nbsp;At the announcement of the bill signing, State Representative Erin Grall stated &ldquo;Colleges, universities and public entities in Florida must be held to a high standard of disclosure and transparency when they are accepting gifts &mdash; especially from a foreign adversary,&rdquo; according to the press release. Follow the author of this article on Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/ajmunguia23">@ajmunguia23</a>

Spokesperson for the governor stated that 'this legislation effectively bans 'Confucius Institutes' from operating in Florida.'

Florida Governor DeSantis signs two bills to curb Chinese influence on American higher ed 

The Florida State Board of Education is expected to pass <a href="http://www.fldoe.org/core/fileparse.php/19958/urlt/7-1.PDF" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">a rule</a> today that will ban the teaching of Critical Race Theory at the K-12 level. Several professors are opposing the measure, saying that students should be taught Critical Race Theory before they even arrive on campus.&nbsp;The rule being considered today is part of Gov. DeSantis&#39; larger push against Critical Race Theory at all levels.Per <a href="https://www.wtxl.com/news/local-news/desantis-hopes-to-block-critical-race-theory-from-florida-classroooms">WTXL Pensacola</a>, DeSantis said at a press conference in late May,&nbsp;<blockquote>&quot;&quot;When they try to look back and denigrate the founding fathers, denigrate the American Revolution, doing all these different things that even very liberal historians say is not supported by the facts. So, I think what we need is we need the constitution back in classrooms, we need to make sure civics is a priority, but it needs to be taught accurately. It needs to be taught in a fact-based way, not an ideological-based way...If we have to play whack-a-mole all over this state stopping Critical Race Theory, we will do it.&quot;</blockquote>Some of the strongest opponents of the rule can be found on college campuses. Dr. Dana Thompson Dorsey, an education professor at the University of South Florida, told the <a href="https://www.heraldtribune.com/story/news/politics/state/2021/05/28/desantis-pushes-new-rule-limiting-how-race-taught-florida-schools/7439371002/">Herald-Tribune</a>, &ldquo;Critical race theory has nothing to do with hating America, but has everything to do with being true and honest about the history of the United States.&rdquo; Dr. Dorsey has previously worked with colleges as a racial equity consultant.&nbsp;Professor Michelle Jacobs, who has taught Critical Race Theory at the University of Florida Law School, told&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wcjb.com/2021/03/25/educators-react-to-desantis-civics-plan-excluding-critical-race-theory/">WCJB</a>&nbsp;that understanding civics requires learning about race. However, the rule would not stop any student from learning about race and history. &nbsp;The proposed rule says that classroom instruction must &quot;be factual and objective, and may not&nbsp;suppress or distort significant historical events, such as the Holocaust, and may not define American history as something other than the creation of a new nation based largely on universal principles stated in the Declaration of Independence.&quot; The rule also directs teachers to have discussions &quot;appropriate for the age and maturity level of the students.&quot;&nbsp;As Gov. DeSantis plays &quot;whack-a-mole&quot; to stop Critical Race Theory, he will have his work cut out for him in higher education.&nbsp;The University of Miami&nbsp;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=15563" style=" text-align: left;">requires diversity training</a>&nbsp;for all students, as does the&nbsp;<a href="http://statements.ufl.edu/statements/2020/june/another-step-toward-positive-change-against-racism.html" style=" text-align: left;">University of Florida</a>.&nbsp;Miami Dade College&nbsp;<a href="https://www.mdc.edu/asa/documents/competencies/pdf/EDF2085%20Intro%20to%20Diversity.pdf" style=" text-align: left;">teaches future teachers</a>&nbsp;to be &quot;agents of social change&quot; and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.mdc.edu/asa/documents/competencies/pdf/CJE2400%20Race%20and%20the%20Criminal%20Justice%20System.pdf" style=" text-align: left;">teaches CRT in the criminal justice program</a>.&nbsp;<a href="https://thecenter.fsu.edu/diversity/diversity-inclusion-certificate" style=" text-align: left;">FSU</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.usf.edu/business/certificates/diversity-equity-inclusion/index.aspx" style=" text-align: left;">USF</a>&nbsp;both offer certificate programs in diversity, equity, and inclusion - teaching their students to be CRT practitioners.<strong style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Lora; font-size: 18px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Follow the author of this article on Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="http://twitter.com/AngelaLMorabito" style="text-decoration: none; color: var(--red); font-weight: 600; font-family: Lora; font-size: 18px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">@AngelaLMorabito</a>

Supporters of Critical Race Theory, particularly on college campuses, are opposing Gov. DeSantis' push to end the flow of taxpayer dollars to Critical Race Theory instruction.

Florida education board to ban CRT, with support from Gov. DeSantis and opposition from professors

VIDEO: Students Urge Supreme Court To Side With Student On Campus Free Speech Case

Drawing funds from a program meant to address absenteeism among disadvantaged students, the Oregon Department of Education paid $50,000 to &ldquo;1619 Project&rdquo; founder Nikole Hannah-Jones for two virtual speeches.<a href="https://www.libertyineducation.org/blog/the-oregon-department-of-educationpaid-50k-for-two-nikole-hannah-jones-webinars"></a><a href="https://www.libertyineducation.org/blog/the-oregon-department-of-educationpaid-50k-for-two-nikole-hannah-jones-webinars"></a><a href="https://www.libertyineducation.org/blog/the-oregon-department-of-educationpaid-50k-for-two-nikole-hannah-jones-webinars">Oregonians for Liberty in Education</a> &mdash; a group that works to maintain parental control over schooling in Oregon &mdash; submitted a public records request for the amount that the Oregon Department of Education paid Hannah-Jones for speeches delivered on May 7 and May 13.The event &mdash; &ldquo;<a href="https://www.pdxteachers.org/1619">1619: Centering Black History and Black Futures in Oregon</a>&rdquo; &mdash; lasted for one hour and thirty minutes. The latter event &mdash; &ldquo;<a href="https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/ORED/bulletins/2d87265">A Discussion with Nikole Hannah-Jones on Centering Black Students and Families</a>&rdquo; &mdash; lasted for two hours.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16123"></a><a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16123"></a><a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16123">[RELATED: 1619 Project writer Nikole Hannah-Jones says American flag outside childhood home &#39;embarrassed&#39; her]</a>Oregonians for Liberty in Education shared with Campus Reform the response from Oregon Department of Education Rules Coordinator Jeremy Wartz to its request. Wartz explained that the agency paid Hannah-Jones $25,000 for each event &mdash; an average wage of over $14,000 per hour of speaking time.Wartz explained that staff members &ldquo;authorized the expenses in line with the goals of the program and given the deep need for focal student groups, including Black students and their families, to feel a sense of connection at this time and to support educators in creating the conditions for culturally responsive pedagogy and practice.&rdquo;However, Wartz acknowledged that the funds paid to Nikole Hannah-Jones came from &ldquo;<a href="https://www.every-day-matters.org/">Every Day Matters</a>&rdquo; &mdash; a program focused on addressing chronic absenteeism among disadvantaged children.&ldquo;Diverting funds from &lsquo;Every Day Matters,&rsquo; ODE&rsquo;s program to provide practical solutions to support showing up for school, is concerning,&rdquo; notes Oregonians for Liberty in Education on its website. &ldquo;The program provides toolkits for teachers and families so at-risk students can connect to services and learn executive function skills and healthy habits. Is ODE claiming kids will skip school until the New York Times is put in charge of curriculum?&rdquo;When asked why they drew funds specifically from Every Day Matters, Oregon Department of Education Communications Director Marc Siegel told Campus Reform that &ldquo;centering the experience of Black students and families helps Black students feel valued, reflects Blacks contribution in American history which creates Black student&rsquo;s sense of belonging in the classroom.&rdquo; Accordingly, &ldquo;feeling welcome in the classroom boosts attendance, which boosts academic performance.&rdquo;&ldquo;At the center of Oregon&rsquo;s work on equity is attention to what it means to belong and to create conditions in school engagement that support student belonging,&rdquo; continued Siegel. &ldquo;The experiences of Black students and families can and must be centered in our state, including the fullness of Black histories and Black futures.&rdquo;Siegel told Campus Reform that &ldquo;385 educators&rdquo; attended the May 7 event; for the programming on May 13, 225 people &mdash; 38 students and parents, as well as 187 educators &mdash; were in attendance.Campus Reform&nbsp;recently reported that the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill hired Hannah-Jones to work as a journalism professor.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17518"></a><a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17518"></a><a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17518">[RELATED: REPORT: UNC journalism school backs off plan to give tenure to author of debunked &lsquo;1619 Project&rsquo;]</a>Campus Reform revealed that the university is paying Hannah-Jones $180,000 per year.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17529"></a><a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17529"></a><a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17529"></a><a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17529">[RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: Nikole Hannah-Jones UNC offer letter lists $180,000 yearly salary]</a>Campus Reform reached out to Hannah-Jones to ask whether she was aware that the Oregon Department of Education drew her payment from Every Day Matters and whether she accordingly plans to return the funds.&nbsp;Follow the author of this article on Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="http://twitter.com/BenZeisloft">@BenZeisloft</a>

The agency took the funds from an initiative meant to cut absenteeism among disadvantaged students.

Oregon Dept of Education raided student absentee program funding to pay Nikole Hannah-Jones $50,000

Over 900 students and nearly 100 students groups at Harvard university signed a <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/u/0/d/1NtNoEeGoHUFPhUJJxhw0EXKJTpC0n9fi_bXrx3YbVYU/mobilebasic">statement</a> condemning Israel for &quot;state-sanctioned violence against Palestinians.&quot;The students expressed &nbsp;&ldquo;outrage at the latest wave of Israeli state-sanctioned violence against Palestinians&quot; in the May 12 document, which contains no mention of Hamas. Alleging that &ldquo;Israel has implemented several forms of hegemonic rule over Palestinian lives&rdquo; since its establishment, the students told their classmates that &ldquo;it is important to challenge the current biased and misleading narrative on Palestine.&rdquo;Rena Nasar First is executive director of campus affairs at StandWithUs, a pro-Israel educational organization. She told Campus Reform, &quot;it is appalling that students at a top institution in the country have resorted to promoting a misinformed and deceitful statement against Israel, the only Jewish state in the world.&rdquo;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17007"></a> <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17007"></a> <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17007" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: Students for Justice in Palestine calls for impeachment of pro-Israel Jewish student, backs down after lawyers get involved]</a> Labeling Israel as an &quot;apartheid&quot; state, the letter told students that Harvard &ldquo;likely has billions invested in companies profiting off Israeli apartheid&rdquo; and therefore must make &ldquo;a public statement rebuking Israel&rsquo;s excessive use of force against Palestinian civilians.&rdquo; Nasar First explained that &ldquo;this document is anti-Semitic because it is a deliberate attempt to cover up the genocidal goals and actions of Hamas while only focusing on Israel&#39;s response.&rdquo;&ldquo;By leaving out context, the statement paints a biased and inaccurate caricature of Israel and the conflict,&rdquo; Nasar First remarked. &ldquo;The statement attempts to erase 3,000 years of Jewish indigenous identity in Israel, and denies the Jewish right to self determination. Moreover, this statement fails to acknowledge the genocidal antisemitism of Hamas, a recognized terrorist organization backed by Iran, and their recent firing of over 4,000 rockets indiscriminately targeting Israeli civilians in apartment buildings and kindergartens.&rdquo; Among the groups that signed the statement was the Palestine Caucus at the Harvard Kennedy School, the Harvard College Palestine Solidarity Committee, Harvard Out of Occupied Palestine, Fossil Fuel Divest Harvard, and the Black Student Union.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16849"></a> <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16849"></a>Student groups supportive of Palestine often campaign against American economic relations with Israel. At the University of California-Irvine, for example, student government members passed a resolution encouraging the University of California system to cut all ties with firms operating in Israel.&ldquo;History teaches us that violence always begins with words,&rdquo; Nasar First noted. &ldquo;Harvard students must recognize that manipulative and hateful words have consequences.&rdquo; <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16997"></a> <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16997" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: UC-Irvine student gov passes &#39;shameful&#39; new anti-Israel resolution]</a> Campus Reform reached out to Harvard University for comment; this article will be updated accordingly. Follow the author of this article on Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="http://twitter.com/BenZeisloft">@BenZeisloft</a>

The students pressed Harvard to cut ties from businesses that work with Israel.

Hundreds of Harvard students condemn Israel in statement that omits any mention of Hamas 

Cornell University&rsquo;s Faculty Senate voted to mandate anti-racism educational requirements for students and faculty.The new curriculum will include &quot;literacy&quot; and &quot;skillset components.&quot; The Faculty Senate also encouraged &quot;an experimental roll-out phase&quot; for the requirement, which involve multiple departments across the university. The <a href="https://theuniversityfaculty.cornell.edu/faculty-senate/archives-and-actions/current2-draft/wg-s-final-report-feedback/">resolution</a>, which passed by 17 votes on May 18, cited a university <a href="https://cpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/blogs.cornell.edu/dist/3/6798/files/2021/05/S_Modified_Final.pdf">report</a> declaring an intent for students to &ldquo;become critical thinkers and lifelong learners in all matters that concern race, indignity, ethnicity, and bias, and who thrive and lead across diverse groups and communities in a multiracial democracy.&rdquo; <a href="https://campusreform.org/article?id=17314"></a> <a href="https://campusreform.org/article?id=17314"></a> <a href="https://campusreform.org/article?id=17314">[RELATED: Stanford newspaper tweeted movie reference deemed racist; will now subject ENTIRE STAFF to &#39;anti-bias training&#39;]</a> Likewise, the resolution endorsed a related <a href="https://cpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/blogs.cornell.edu/dist/3/6798/files/2021/04/F-Report_FINAL-3.pdf">report</a>, which declares that faculty &ldquo;must understand structural racism and the forces of systemic bias and privilege.&rdquo; While the resolution passed 58-41, 20 faculty members did not vote while another 7 chose to abstain. <a href="https://campusreform.org/article?id=17318"></a> <a href="https://campusreform.org/article?id=17318"></a> <a href="https://campusreform.org/article?id=17318">[RELATED: Louisiana introduces bill to ban teaching of Critical Race Theory topics like &#39;institutional racism&#39;]</a>This vote follows the Faculty Senate&#39;s <a href="https://theuniversityfaculty.cornell.edu/faculty-senate/archives-and-actions/current2-draft/comments-on-final-draft/">approval</a> of a new &quot;Antiracism Center,&quot; which the body voted for 101-12. The new center <a href="https://cpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/blogs.cornell.edu/dist/3/6798/files/2021/04/C-OnePager-1.pdf">aims</a> to promote &quot;change through the undoing of settler colonialism, white privilege, and other forces that perpetuate systemic racism and bias.&rdquo; Campus Reform reached out to Cornell University for comment; this article will be updated accordingly. Follow the author of this article on Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/ajmunguia23">@ajmunguia23</a>

The announcement follows a successful push for an 'Antiracism Center' at the university. 

New anti-racism requirements coming for Cornell University students and faculty

Cornell University&rsquo;s Department of Literatures in English restructured its major requirements to remove the students&rsquo; &ldquo;liability when it comes to the question of race.&rdquo; Currently, the department has three <a href="https://english.cornell.edu/english-major-guide#requirements-for-the-major">requirements</a>: three courses &ldquo;in which 50% or more of the material consists of literature originally written in English before 1800,&rdquo; two courses &ldquo;at the 4000 level and above,&rdquo; and three courses that &ldquo;must form an intellectually coherent &lsquo;concentration.&rsquo;&rdquo; However, as student newspaper <a href="https://cornellsun.com/2021/05/13/department-of-literatures-in-english-plans-to-change-major-requirements/">The Cornell Daily Sun</a> reports, the department will add a new requirement for the 2022-2023 school year that forces students to examine English literature beyond the scope of the United States and Europe.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17341"></a> <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17341">[RELATED: Ivy League university moves to allow students to drop classes on LAST DAY]</a> English Department Chair Caroline Levine told The Cornell Daily Sun that although &ldquo;the freedom for students&rdquo; in the current curriculum &ldquo;is nice,&rdquo; it could also become &ldquo;a liability when it comes to the question of race.&rdquo; &ldquo;When students seek famous authors without realizing the rich literary tradition of places like Caribbean, for example, it compounds the status quo,&rdquo; she added. Professor Mukoma Wa Ngugi believes that the change will help with efforts toward &ldquo;decolonization.&rdquo; &ldquo;There is the philosophical dimension of decolonization, and there is also the pragmatics of times we are living in and what they are demanding,&rdquo; Ngugi told The Cornell Daily Sun. &ldquo;We want students who are truly aware of their fields, ones that we ourselves would hire now.&rdquo; As&nbsp;Campus Reform reported in November, Cornell&rsquo;s English department changed its name to the &ldquo;department of literatures in English&rdquo; to challenge &ldquo;structural forms of racism.&rdquo;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16112"></a><a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16112"></a> <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16112"></a> <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16112">[RELATED: To fight racism, Cornell renames its English department]</a> The change was meant to combat the &ldquo;conflation of English as a language and English as a nationality.&rdquo;When asked for comment, Levine told Campus Reform&nbsp;that their work is &quot;serious intellectual labor&quot; that Campus Reform readers &quot;do not recognize.&quot;&quot;I&rsquo;d really prefer it if you didn&rsquo;t cover our curricular changes, though of course you are free to do so. Your readers do not recognize our work as serious intellectual labor that is done in good faith, and the hatred they are ready to hurl at us is both frightening and unfair,&quot; Levine said. Campus Reform&nbsp;reached out to Ngugi, and Cornell University for comment; this article will be updated accordingly. Follow the author of this article on Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="http://twitter.com/BenZeisloft">@BenZeisloft</a>

Department chair believes that the current curriculum introduces a 'liability when it comes to the question of race.'

Cornell University to 'decolonize' its 'Literatures in English' curriculum

Cornell University is considering a dual degree program with a Chinese university that boasts close ties to the Chinese Communist Party. A <a href="https://cpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/blogs.cornell.edu/dist/3/6798/files/2021/02/SHA.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">proposal</a> from Cornell&rsquo;s School of Hotel Administration would permit students to earn a Master of Management in Hospitality followed by a Master&rsquo;s of Business Administration from the Guanghua School of Management at Peking University in Beijing, China. &ldquo;China is currently seeing explosive growth in the services sector, and is experiencing latent demand for MBAs with a specialized focus in hospitality at the executive level,&rdquo; explains the proposal. &ldquo;Peking University would like to help meet this need.&rdquo;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16483" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"></a> <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16483" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"></a> <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16483" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: American universities have accepted over $24 million from CCP since 2015]</a> The program would be geared toward mid-to-high level working executives in the hospitality industry, who would complete the part-time program over the course of two years. The proposal positively emphasizes the fact that Peking University &ldquo;is considered one of the top two educators in China, and enjoys strong backing from the Ministry of Education.&rdquo; Indeed, the school recently <a href="https://www.wnpr.org/post/chinese-universities-are-enshrining-communist-party-control-their-charters" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">adopted</a> a new charter that cedes academic control to the Chinese Communist Party. In a case that made international headlines, former Peking University professor Xia Yeliang was<a href="https://www.cato.org/people/xia-yeliang" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> fired</a> from his post in 2013 due to his criticism of the Chinese government.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16535" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"></a> <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16535" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"></a> <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16535" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: After attempting to recall students who voted &lsquo;no,&rsquo; Cornell student assembly passes resolution for disarming university police]</a> Despite academic freedom concerns, the program was approved by the School of Hotel Administration&rsquo;s graduate faculty. Nineteen faculty members voted in favor of the program, with two opposing and two abstaining. Richard Bensel, a government professor at Cornell, spoke against the proposal at the faculty meeting. Though he does not believe that the proposal would prevent students from speaking freely in classrooms other than those involved with the program, Bensel told Campus Reform that &ldquo;any classroom with Chinese nationals in it can be monitored by the Chinese government.&rdquo; &ldquo;How much monitoring goes on is impossible to tell but it might be substantial, especially in those areas in which political or social policies are covered,&rdquo; he explained. &ldquo;As for this particular arrangement, I am opposed to restrictions on all intellectual and collaborative exchange that impose a &lsquo;political filter,&rsquo;&rdquo; added Bensel, who said that the Cornell administration is promoting the program as a money-making initiative &ldquo;in which intellectual and collaborative exchange are distinctly secondary.&rdquo; &ldquo;It is for that reason that I cannot help but view the proposal as an endorsement of Chinese policy in Sinkiang and strongly oppose it,&rdquo; he asserted. Cornell University Provost Michael Kotlikoff told Campus Reform that &ldquo;the faculty senate discussion touched on extremely important issues related to our consideration of partnerships with foreign universities.&rdquo; &ldquo;These programs are proposed by the faculty of the colleges, but must adhere to fundamental principles that include explicit protections of academic freedoms and prohibit discrimination against our students, as well as faculty and staff,&rdquo; he explained. &ldquo;Adherence to these principles is reviewed by the Office of the Vice Provost for International Affairs, the University Counsel, and the Committee on Academic Programs of the Faculty Senate.&rdquo; Kotlikoff stated that &ldquo;on the issue of the proposed new dual degree program, my suggestion was that going forward, the full faculty Senate could focus on more general recommendations that would guide college faculty and the university with respect to both our existing and proposed academic programs with a broad array of countries and academic partners.&rdquo; Follow the author of this article on Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="http://twitter.com/BenZeisloft" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@BenZeisloft</a>

One professor told Campus Reform about their concerns with the program.

Cornell considers dual degree program with Chinese university; admin insists academic freedom not threatened

Cornell University&rsquo;s student assembly passed a resolution to disarm the school&rsquo;s police department.Cornell University President Martha Pollack now has the opportunity to approve the <a href="https://assembly.cornell.edu/sites/default/files/sa_resolution_30_-_calling_for_the_disarmament_of_cornell_university_police_department.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">resolution</a>, which would result in Cornell University Police losing the ability to use lethal weapons. According to the student assembly&rsquo;s <a href="https://assembly.cornell.edu/resolutions?field_assembly_name_target_id=7" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">website</a>, the resolution is currently &nbsp;&ldquo;waiting for submission to the president.&rdquo;&ldquo;The policing system in America is rooted in racism, slavery, corruption, and violence, particularly against Black and Brown people, which has been commonplace since the institution&rsquo;s inception,&rdquo; stated the resolution.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16344" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: Cornell offers &#39;person of color&#39; exemption for flu vaccine requirement]</a>Citing the Thirteenth Amendment and the establishment of unpaid labor in prisons, the resolution asserted that &ldquo;to this day, the exploitation of prison labor is continually perpetuated, predominantly targeting Black neighborhoods to sustain these racist systems which disproportionately police and incriminate Black individuals.&rdquo;The authors stated that &ldquo;policing on college campuses started as a way to break up student movements before they grew large enough to effectively pressure the administration to win change.&rdquo;Citing movements to disarm police at Harvard University, the University of Chicago, Portland State University, and Yale University, the student assembly requested &ldquo;immediately disarming the Cornell University Police department of all lethal weapons.&rdquo;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16345" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: Mississippi State prof lectures at Cornell, says collective parenting is &lsquo;better&rsquo; than traditional parenting]</a>As an alternative, the resolution&rsquo;s authors suggest &ldquo;investing into more CAPS staff and making mental health services more accessible to the campus community.&rdquo;A similar vote to disarm Cornell University Police <a href="https://cornellsun.com/2020/12/03/s-a-members-constituents-release-13-recall-petitions-for-reps-who-voted-against-cornell-police-disarmament-in-unprecedented-move/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">occurred&nbsp;</a>in November. Student assembly members, most of whom voted to disarm the police, and other Cornell students filed 14 petitions to have all but one colleague who voted &ldquo;no&rdquo; on &nbsp;the disarm the police resolution removed from their offices.None of the petitions gained enough <a href="https://assembly.cornell.edu/get-involved/input-issues/student-assembly-recall-petitions-fall-2020" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">signatures&nbsp;</a>to initiate the recall process, however.&nbsp;One Cornell undergraduate, who wished to remain anonymous, told Campus Reform that &ldquo;the nightmare that has been our student government over the past couple of years is deserving of media attention.&rdquo;&ldquo;For me personally, I think that I largely would not feel any different regarding my personal safety on campus were CUPD without firearms, though I would feel different if they were entirely without weapons,&rdquo; he explained.&nbsp;&quot;The larger issue at hand here is the ideological foundation from which this resolution is founded, and the means that have been used to advance it.&rdquo;Campus Reform reached out to Cornell University for comment and will update this article accordingly.Follow the author of this article on Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="http://twitter.com/BenZeisloft" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@BenZeisloft</a>

After a similar vote failed in November, student assembly members attempted to invoke recalls on their classmates who voted against disarmament.

After attempting to recall students who voted ‘no,’ Cornell student assembly passes resolution for disarming university police

In a letter to the editor published by <a href="https://cornellsun.com/2020/06/25/letter-to-the-editor-the-safc-should-not-get-involved-in-politics/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The Cornell Sun</a>, one student blasted the Ivy League&#39;s Student Activities Funding Commission after it allegedly gave $10,000 to the Cornell Students for Black Lives fundraiser using mandatory student fees, without first telling the student body.Cornell Students for Black Lives is not a registered student club, according to the letter, but a fundraising group that collected donations to distribute to Black Lives Matter of Greater New York, Communities United for Police Reform, NAACP Legal Defense &amp; Educational Fund, Southside Community Center, and Tompkins County Showing Up for Racial Justice.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=12184" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: Are Cornell student fees resulting in Planned Parenthood $$$?]</a>The groups have advocated in favor of gun control, universal single-payer healthcare, tax reform, abolishing ICE, and defunding police. One of the groups even endorsed Democratic Socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders for president, the letter states.&nbsp;The Cornell Students for Black Lives fundraiser received a donation from the SAFC, which is funded with student fees.&nbsp;According to the letter, written by Cornell student Avery Bowers, Cornell Students for Black Lives &ldquo;received $2,500 more than the highest tier student organization receives in an entire semester&quot; after the SAFC leadership decided to make the donation using mandatory student fees without first advising Cornell students as to where their money was going.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=15078" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: Ivy League law students BOYCOTT conservative professor who criticized Black Lives Matter]</a>The letter states that &ldquo;Cornell students are free to donate their money however they see fit.&quot; Since the SAFC has given the money to organizations with outspoken political objectives, it &ldquo;has broken the trust of every student who is required to pay the fee.&rdquo;&ldquo;Whether one agrees with these positions or not is irrelevant &mdash; they are controversial political issues that the SAFC has no place supporting with student funds,&rdquo; the letter states.&nbsp;&ldquo;It would be just as inappropriate to donate to the NRA, the Federalist Society, or any other conservative group,&quot; it adds.Cornell University student and Campus Reform Correspondent Joe Silverstein said, &ldquo;the fact that money from a mandatory student fee was used to finance a radical political organization like BLM without the consent of the students is disgusting.&rdquo;The Cornell SAFC did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication.&nbsp;Follow the author of this article on Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/KestecherLacey" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@KestecherLacey</a>