America’s colleges and universities were once seen as the greatest collection of academic institutions in the world. Places where young adults went to pursue knowledge, speak their minds, and debate their views, especially when those views opposed one another. No longer.
Driven by leftists, America’s institutions of higher learning, the birthplace of the free speech movement, have become Marxist indoctrination centers, where only one view is tolerated. Take an opposing view and you will be canceled, doxed, and possibly expelled.
No wonder applications to colleges and universities have declined while enrollment at trade schools has skyrocketed.
Even worse, today, the prevailing view is one that is grossly anti-Semitic in its support of a terrorist organization that murders indiscriminately; rapes men, women, and children; and even puts innocent babies into ovens, baking them to death in front of their parents, replicating the horrors of the Holocaust.
How did we get here?
The free speech movement began in 1964 at the University of California, Berkeley, of all places, with students protesting the school’s restrictions on campus political activism.
What started as small, peaceful sit-ins and demonstrations grew to a series of huge rallies and protests, demanding that the rights guaranteed by the Constitution apply at Berkeley. These sit-ins and protests led the university to overturn its policies that restricted the content of speech and advocacy on campus.
This spread to other campuses as students protested in favor of civil rights and an end to the Vietnam War.
Then, universities began to change, sliding to the extreme left. Student radicals of the 1960s and ’70s eventually entered the faculty and became administrators.
A 2022 survey of faculty at Harvard showed that more than 80% of its faculty identified as being either liberal or very liberal. Less than 1.5% of professors identified as conservative.
A recent job posting at the University of California, Berkeley, required applicants to provide statements on their contributions to advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Today, neither diversity nor inclusion are tolerated on America’s college campuses, especially if you happen to be Jewish.
Funded by left-wing billionaire George Soros, protests in support of the terrorist organization Hamas have erupted on campuses across the country. They are looking to replace Israel with a terrorist nation, calling for a globalized “intifada,” or uprising. Chants of “from the river to the sea, Palestine shall be free,” echo across our nation’s universities. The slogan is a euphemism for wiping Israel — and Jews — off the map.
Protesters have physically and verbally attacked Jewish students and in some cases even prevented them from attending class. In an increasingly common occurrence, a Jewish Yale student who was covering a pro-Hamas protest at the university reported being assaulted by a protester who supports the terrorist organization.
Administrators at most universities have failed miserably in addressing the protests and the anti-Semitism that accompanies them. And perhaps no three universities have failed worse than Harvard, Columbia, and the University of California.
Harvard’s president, Claudine Gay, was forced to resign after she faced national backlash over the university’s response to the Israel-Hamas war, failing either to condemn Hamas or address a pro-Palestinian, anti-Semitic statement signed by more than 30 student groups.
Before Congress, Gay also said that students calling for the genocide of Jews may not violate the school’s code of conduct.
Columbia has fumbled its response to pro-terrorist protests on its campus since they began. Instead of having protesters illegally occupying the school’s Morningside Heights campus arrested, the administration tried negotiating with them. As of Monday night, protesters had moved from their encampment and into nearby Hamilton Hall, where they have built barricades.
Columbia already capitulated to the protesters by canceling in-person classes and moving all classes to remote learning, effectively surrendering to the mob.
The University of California has also surrendered to protesters, canceling its commencement ceremony, previously scheduled for May 10.
The parent of a University of California senior, who requested to remain anonymous, expressed his and his student’s anger and frustration. “My daughter missed her high school prom and graduation because of the COVID lockdowns. Now she is missing her college graduation because the university would rather bow to people who break the law and support murderers and rapists than the law-abiding students who worked hard, followed the rules, and wanted to celebrate their achievement in front of friends and family.”
This parent’s statement summarizes the situation perfectly. University administrators across the nation would rather punish the students who abide by the law and follow their university’s rules than incur the wrath of those who support rapists and baby-killers.
No wonder applications to colleges and universities have declined while enrollment at trade schools has skyrocketed.
America’s colleges and universities are at a tipping point. Will they re-embrace their historic position of encouraging debate, the free exchange of ideas, and the pursuit of knowledge, regardless of race, creed, color, or political affiliation? Or will they follow the path of the violent mob, continuing down a suicidal path driven by the left?