The University of Maryland has agreed to pay Palestine Legal and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) $100,000 after the university first defended, but then briefly tried to reschedule, a rally on the anniversary of Hamas&#8217;s October 7, 2023 attacks by a campus group that advocates &#8220;the right of Palestinians to carry out armed struggle.&#8221;
The public university&#8217;s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter “will spend every dollar we receive from the $100,000 penalty for banning our vigil on organizing and supporting the movement for a free Palestine,” group member Daniela Colombi said in a <a href="https://www.cair.com/press_releases/palestine-legal-cair-announce-historic-100k-settlement-from-u-of-maryland-for-unlawfully-suppressing-pro-palestinian-student-speech/">statement</a>.
&#8220;Capitulating to bad faith, anti-Palestinian pressure will cost you,&#8221; Ahmad Kaki, a CAIR attorney, added, calling it a &#8220;transparent censorship attempt&#8221;—although even as CAIR fought for the right of students to demonstrate on October 7 on free speech grounds, it tried to force the university&#8217;s medical school to <a href="https://jewishinsider.com/2025/01/umd-medical-school-stands-by-israeli-surgeon-after-cair-played-role-canceling-his-talk/">cancel</a> a lecture by an Israeli surgeon.
CAIR noted that the Maryland public institution agreed to pay the anti-Israel group even as the Trump administration has extracted <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/columbia-university-retreats-as-trump-scores-historic-220m-settlement">massive</a> <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/ucla-will-pay-6-million-to-settle-antisemitic-discrimination-complaints">payments</a> from other universities for failing to protect Jews from antisemitism on campus. 
 University president Darryll Pines had in fact gone to great lengths to allow Students for Justice in Palestine to rally on the anniversary of the terror attack — an event advertised as &#8220;honor[ing] the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/university-of-maryland-will-let-anti-israel-group-hold-oct-7-rally">150,000+ martyrs</a> who have lost their lives within the past year&#8221; — including his personally echoing the false claim that Israel had killed 150,000 people, which not even Hamas contended.
But that freedom appeared to extend only to certain groups. In an email obtained by the Daily Wire, Pines threatened to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/u-of-maryland-prez-said-anti-israel-protesters-could-rally-on-10-7-then-threatened-to-call-police-on-jew-for-complaining">call the police on a Jewish woman</a> if she did not stop emailing faculty and staff with complaints about antisemitism.
When Jewish critics raised that double standard by wondering how Pines, who is black, would respond if it were a KKK rally instead of an anti-Israel rally, or confederate flags instead of Palestinian ones on the campus&#8217;s central quad, the rhetorical device seemed to go over Pines&#8217; head: he took it as a literal assertion that there was actually a KKK rally planned for October 7, and suddenly his prior First Amendment concerns no longer seemed to apply. 
Patricia Perillo, the University of Maryland’s Vice President of Student Affairs, later said in an affidavit that “on August 26, 2024, an individual emailed University President Darryll J. Pines, who is Black, advising that if the University was going to permit SJP’s event to go forward, ‘then my Klan Rally with sheets and a noose are also approved.’”
Pines cancelled all events on October 7, not because of his aversion to the anti-Israel event, but because of what he suggested was anti-black racism and threats by Jewish people, requiring the cancellation of events to protect the safety of the Palestine activists, according to prior Daily Wire reporting and CAIR&#8217;s summary of the lawsuit.
&#8220;The University <a href="https://palestinelegal.org/s/Defendants-Opposition-to-Plaintiffs-Motion-for-TRO-and-PI.pdf">responded to CAIR and Palestine Legal’s lawsuit</a> by claiming that it was forced to cancel all events due to racist threats from pro-Israel individuals, who had threatened to organize a KKK rally and come to campus armed if SJP’s vigil was allowed to proceed. At the hearing, University of Maryland Police Chief David Mitchell testified that pro-Israel individuals even threatened UMD President Darryl Pines’ family and used the N-word,&#8221; CAIR said in its statement heralding the settlement.
But the postponement of all October 7 gatherings on campus was short-lived. Despite Pines&#8217; general sympathy to the group, SJP sued his university in federal court, backed by lawyers from CAIR. On October 2, U.S. District Judge Peter J. Messitte wrote that the Palestinian group would suffer &#8220;irreparable harm&#8221; if it could not congregate on that date to mark &#8220;what it calls Israel&#8217;s most recent &#8216;genocidal campaign,'&#8221; and ordered the event <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/federal-judge-says-university-must-let-anti-israel-group-hold-oct-7-event">reinstated</a>.
In its statement on the settlement, CAIR cast the planned event as a &#8220;vigil&#8221; somberly mourning the deaths of people in the Israel-Hamas war, but that is not what contemporaneous documents indicate. SJP&#8217;s national headquarters had called for a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/this-student-group-is-calling-for-a-week-of-rage-beginning-october-7">&#8220;Week of Rage&#8221;</a> coinciding with the anniversary of the Palestinian terrorist group&#8217;s slaughter of 1,200 Israelis. 
An application for reserving campus space, filed August 1, contained only a nine-word description of the event (&#8220;One year since the genocidal bombing campaign in Gaza&#8221;), according to documents obtained under public records laws, and Jewish critics have raised questions about whether the group failed to properly comply with the university&#8217;s rules for getting events approved, which would have given Pines a mechanism for blocking the event. 
Pines dismissed complaints from Jews by claiming that the group had &#8220;condemned the horrific attack by Hamas,&#8221; but a Daily Wire review of SJP&#8217;s social media showed no such sentiment. SJP instead said on Instagram that it supports the “<a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/C_WntvnPe2D/?img_index=5">right of Palestinians to carry out armed struggle,</a>” and “unequivocally states that the Zionist state of Israel has <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/C9yDEB3PJv6/?img_index=5">no right to exist</a>.” 
Pines was so invested in defending the anti-Israel group that he resorted to academic misconduct, sending a Jewish critic what he said was original &#8220;faculty research&#8221; from Middle East scholars on campus that proved that the Palestinian flag was not objectionable. The Daily Wire found that what he called the &#8220;consensus opinion from these faculty scholars,&#8221; whom he claimed he personally consulted with, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/university-of-maryland-president-plagiarized-from-chatgpt-to-justify-anti-israel-oct-7-rally">actually came from ChatGPT</a>.
That misrepresentation spurred The Daily Wire to check Pines&#8217; past academic work for plagiarism, and it found that nearly one-third of a 5,000-word paper was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/university-of-maryland-president-copied-rocket-science-paper-from-aussie-student">copied and pasted from an Australian student</a>, who was never referenced anywhere in the paper. There was evidence that Pines (or his co-author) had not accidentally mixed up someone else&#8217;s work with their own, because the British spellings in the Australian version had — with one exception that was missed — been changed to the American versions.
Pines acknowledged &#8220;recurrent language&#8221; but denied misconduct, and the state&#8217;s university system opened a review into his academic integrity. Ten months later, the review panel has <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&amp;source=web&amp;rct=j&amp;opi=89978449&amp;url=https://www.thebaltimorebanner.com/education/higher-education/university-of-maryland-darryll-pines-plagiarism-AHZESFHKN5HA5DLTEF32CER46E/">issued no findings</a>.
The University of Maryland did not answer The Daily Wire&#8217;s questions, but said in a statement that &#8220;the litigation in federal court has been mutually resolved through a settlement agreement with no admission of liability by the University.&#8221;
&#8220;UMD SJP is a registered University student organization in good standing which has had more than 100 events on campus since October 7, 2023, for which it consistently followed the University’s policies and procedures governing such events,&#8221; it added. &#8220;The University reiterates its support for the First Amendment and particularly making campus space available for individuals and groups of all viewpoints to share their opinions pursuant to its Guidelines for Expressive Activities and the First Amendment. The University takes very seriously its responsibilities for the safety and security of all University students and other members of its community.&#8221;
A top senator this week <a href="https://www.cotton.senate.gov/news/press-releases/cotton-to-long-investigate-cair-for-ties-to-terrorists">called</a> for CAIR&#8217;s tax-exempt status to be examined due to its &#8220;ties to terrorists.&#8221;

UMD Students for Justice in Palestine / Instagram

University of Maryland Will Pay Anti-Israel Group That Planned Campus Rally On October 7

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It’s back-to-school season once again. And thanks to President Donald Trump, universities are back on the right track and ditching leftist dogma. 
Under the Trump administration, woke indoctrination doesn’t fly. <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/columbia-university-agrees-to-trumps-demands-to-ban-masks-empower-campus-police">Columbia</a> and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/harvard-open-to-paying-500m-settlement-amid-trump-crackdown-on-campus-antisemitism">Harvard</a> — those ivory towers of elitism — got pummeled by Trump for the antisemitic and anti-American nonsense that flourished on their campuses last year. 
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/columbia-university-retreats-as-trump-scores-historic-220m-settlement">Columbia</a> and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/harvard-open-to-paying-500m-settlement-amid-trump-crackdown-on-campus-antisemitism">Harvard</a> both recently gave up their fights against Trump and agreed to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to settle allegations of antisemitism and discrimination. And just this week, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/ucla-will-pay-6-million-to-settle-antisemitic-discrimination-complaints">UCLA</a> also agreed to settle a $6 million lawsuit brought by Jewish students, alleging that the university allowed antisemitism on its campus.
Campus antisemitism and university <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/ending-illegal-discrimination-and-restoring-merit-based-opportunity/">DEI programs</a> took a gut punch from our president, and the transgender nonsense is in retreat. Along with targeting woke Ivy League schools for their alleged discriminatory practices, Trump is also pursuing states that allow men to compete against women in high school and college sports. 
That’s right, Trump isn’t going to look the other way while male athletes like Lia Thomas jump in a pool and beat talented women. The Trump administration has already pressured <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/department-of-education-says-california-violated-title-ix-threatens-legal-action">California</a>, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-admin-freezes-maines-federal-funds-over-men-in-womens-sports">Maine</a>, and <a href="https://subscriber.politicopro.com/article/2025/06/trump-administration-escalate-probe-into-minnesota-transgender-athletes-00403144">Minnesota</a> to put an end to the transgender sports insanity.
Conservatives are winning numerous battles right now, but the war over our education isn’t over. 
Even under Trump in 2025, schools and universities across the country could still try to push ideas like diversity, equity, and inclusion; white privilege; and LGBT craziness — and they’re being more sneaky about it. 
Think your school or your kid’s school is immune to leftist influence? We hope so, but don’t let your guard down. Even administrators at universities in heavily Republican states have recently bragged about how they still pursue DEI. 
Take <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-video-vanderbilt-administrator-caught-saying-dei-remains-part-of-what-we-do?author=Zach+Jewell&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=EXCLUSIVE+VIDEO%3A+Vanderbilt+Administrator+Caught+Saying+DEI+Remains+%E2%80%98Part+Of+What+We+Do%E2%80%99">Vanderbilt University</a> and the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/university-of-tennessee-department-head-boasts-of-dei-flying-under-the-radar-in-red-state?topStoryPosition=undefined&amp;author=Zach+Jewell&amp;category=Exclusive&amp;elementPosition=0&amp;row=1&amp;rowHeadline=Top+Stories&amp;rowType=Top+Stories&amp;title=University+Of+Tennessee+Department+Head+Boasts+Of+DEI+Flying+Under+The+Radar+In+Red+State">University of Tennessee</a>, for example: two colleges in a red state, where employees were exposed earlier this month for admitting that DEI hasn’t really gone away — it’s just gotten a new name. 
If that’s happening in Tennessee, who knows what teachers, professors, and administrators will try to get away with in places like New York and California once the school year starts. 
Teachers, professors, and administrators are doubling down, weaving their ideologies into lesson plans and campus policies with surgical precision. But here’s the good news: parents, students, and everyday Americans are waking up. The battle lines are drawn, and we must continue the fight with vigilance and resolve. 
Speaking of standing tall against the woke onslaught, do you know any students about to head back to school? Arm them with gear that fights back against campus insanity. <a href="https://www.jeremysrazors.com/products/gen2-p5-1year-kit-1?selling_plan=3795681493?utm_campaign=back-to-school&amp;utm_content=20250730&amp;utm_source=editorial">Jeremy’s Razors Precision 5 1-Year Supply</a> delivers barber-grade blades that&#8217;ll keep them sharp for the entire academic year. The <a href="https://www.jeremysrazors.com/collections/hair-body/products/all-day-set?selling_plan=3028484309?utm_campaign=back-to-school&amp;utm_content=20250730&amp;utm_source=editorial">Hair &amp; Body Bundle</a> ensures they can wash the liberal indoctrination right off after those mandatory &#8220;diversity&#8221; seminars. For the ultimate rebellion against campus conformity, grab <a href="https://www.jeremysrazors.com/products/legendary-razor-bundle?utm_campaign=back-to-school&amp;utm_content=20250730&amp;utm_source=editorial">The Legendary Bundle</a> — because legends don&#8217;t bow to woke professors and administrators. And yes, we&#8217;ve got the <a href="https://www.jeremysrazors.com/products/womens-2gen-upgrade-1yr?selling_plan=4060971221?utm_campaign=back-to-school&amp;utm_content=20250730&amp;utm_source=editorial">Women&#8217;s Razor 1-Year Bundle</a> for the fierce ladies who refuse to let biological males steal their scholarships and championships. These aren&#8217;t just personal care products — they&#8217;re weapons in the war against collegiate cowardice.
This school year, don’t just send your kids to class — send them prepared to stand tall against the woke onslaught. The future depends on it.
<a href="https://www.jeremysrazors.com/collections/back-to-school-2025?utm_campaign=back-to-school&amp;utm_content=20250730&amp;utm_source=editorial"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-954563 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/JR-Legend-P5_1Year-Back-to-school-Shop-Now-1x1-compressed-576x576.jpg" alt="" width="576" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/JR-Legend-P5_1Year-Back-to-school-Shop-Now-1x1-compressed-576x576.jpg 576w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/JR-Legend-P5_1Year-Back-to-school-Shop-Now-1x1-compressed-300x300.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/JR-Legend-P5_1Year-Back-to-school-Shop-Now-1x1-compressed-150x150.jpg 150w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/JR-Legend-P5_1Year-Back-to-school-Shop-Now-1x1-compressed-768x768.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/JR-Legend-P5_1Year-Back-to-school-Shop-Now-1x1-compressed-1536x1536.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/JR-Legend-P5_1Year-Back-to-school-Shop-Now-1x1-compressed.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 576px) 100vw, 576px" /></a>
Jeremy&#8217;s Razors shares common ownership with The Daily Wire.

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Trump Crushes Woke Colleges, Ignites Meritocracy’s Epic Comeback

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Wokeness

The following excerpt is taken from “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Persistence-Ideological-Lie-Daniel-Mahoney/dp/1641773731">The Persistence of the Ideological Lie: The Totalitarian Impulse Then and Now</a>,” by Daniel J. Mahoney (Encounter Books).
* * *
<h3>The Crisis Of The West Reconsidered</h3>
From Sydney to London to untold numbers of American college campuses, we hear incendiary cries for destroying the Jewish state, for a new Jihad or global intifada, all in the name of a purportedly noble and just “anticolonialist” struggle. Tens of thousands march in major European cities and with frenzied glee defend the indefensible. “From the river to the sea,” cry the mobs of Islamists, Palestinians, activists, and radicals, shamelessly announcing their own genocidal sympathies and intent.
The so-called crisis of the West is nothing new. In 1949, the political philosopher Leo Strauss lamented that the main currents of social science in the United States, and in the Western world more broadly, could not understand tyranny for what it was since they were blindly committed to the absurd position that “facts” had nothing to do with “values.” He added that a social science that could not speak reasonably — and forcefully — about the evil that is tyranny (especially in its modern ideological forms) was no better than a medical science that could not name and describe cancer. In the following decade, Raymond Aron and Hannah Arendt brought the full arsenal of political philosophy to bear on the “novel” form of tyranny that was totalitarianism and, in the process, mourned the indulgence of so many intellectuals toward it.
In 1964, James Burnham published a still-potent and relevant book called “The Suicide of the West,” where he took aim at Western self-hatred, romanticism about what would soon be called the Third World (some of which came to resemble “Caliban’s kingdoms,” in the striking and provocative words of Paul Johnson), and the degeneration of a once-noble and hardy liberalism into rank sentimentality, free-floating compassion, and a suicidal preference for our murderous and tyrannical enemies over our sometimes-imperfect friends and even our own country and civilization.
<div id="attachment_953015" style="width: 394px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Persistence-Ideological-Lie-Daniel-Mahoney/dp/1641773731"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-953015" class="wp-image-953015 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MixCollage-28-Jul-2025-10-13-AM-1245-384x576.jpg" alt="Credit: Encounter Books/Studio Dixon" width="384" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MixCollage-28-Jul-2025-10-13-AM-1245-384x576.jpg 384w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MixCollage-28-Jul-2025-10-13-AM-1245-200x300.jpg 200w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MixCollage-28-Jul-2025-10-13-AM-1245-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MixCollage-28-Jul-2025-10-13-AM-1245-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MixCollage-28-Jul-2025-10-13-AM-1245-1365x2048.jpg 1365w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MixCollage-28-Jul-2025-10-13-AM-1245-1360x2040.jpg 1360w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MixCollage-28-Jul-2025-10-13-AM-1245-scaled.jpg 1707w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 384px) 100vw, 384px" /></a>Credit: Encounter Books/Studio Dixon</div>
By 1970, the great English writer and journalist Malcolm Muggeridge wrote with eloquence and biting wit about “The Great Liberal Death Wish” in a seminal 1970 essay by that same name in Esquire. Muggeridge saw in the decayed liberal mind a perverse preference for nihilistic self-flagellation that led to the systematic “depreciating and deprecating” of “every aspect of our Western way of life.” God and all moral certitudes were dethroned even as a “Praetorian Guard of ribald students, maintained at the public expense,” were “ready at the drop of a hat to go into action, not only against their own weak-kneed bemused academic authorities, but also against any institution or organ for the maintenance of law and order still capable of functioning, especially the police.” These words could have been written in the summer of 2020 amidst the violence, mayhem, and ritualistic self-flagellation that followed the death of George Floyd, or in the hours and days after the savage Hamas assault on Israeli innocents on October 7, 2023. Muggeridge went on to opine that if and when the West falls, it will not be the result of a barbarian invasion nor the murderous enmity of Communists, fascists, and Nazis, but because of the suicidal death wish of a liberalism gone badly awry. It is hard to say that Muggeridge was wrong.
The better liberals, humane and decent people, are rightly shocked by professors, students, and activists who celebrate or apologize for the savage nihilism of Hamas or who think that these cruel ideologues and terrorists, heedless to the lives of their own people, whose deaths they relish for the propaganda value, somehow represent the legitimate interests of the Palestinian people. But what reason do we have for being surprised? English departments everywhere have given up teaching literature and humane letters and now specialize in the hate-filled jargon that defines “postcolonial” studies and discourse (more on this to come). “Intersectionality” is the order of the day — everyone who desires to be ideologically correct must unthinkingly parrot demands for CRT, gender ideology, abortion on demand, environmental extremism, sympathy and support for radical regimes and ideologies, contempt for religion and traditional morality, and a hatred of the West — above all for Israel, which is freely and ludicrously compared to apartheid South Africa and, most obscenely of all, Nazi Germany. DEI departments on most campuses enforce this new regime in a totalitarian spirit that is hardly “soft” or benign. For too long, economistic and anti-intellectual conservatives thought this had little to do with the “real world” and still proudly sent their children to utterly corrupt but still-prestigious universities and liberal-arts colleges. But as the journalist Andrew Sullivan likes to say, “We are all living on campus now.”
Political correctness has been omnipresent for many years now, but somehow former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman, the quintessentially “moderate” politician, just noticed: after witnessing the temerity of the University of Pennsylvania’s response to its mob of anti-Semitic agitators, he decided he could no longer be a benefactor of the corrupt institution. He is a decent human being, and I am glad he is appalled by the fact that UPenn was incapable of truly, unequivocally condemning what Hamas so brutally did to innocents on October 7, 2023. But why precisely was he surprised? UPenn was only being itself when it shamelessly indulged the enemies of Israel — and Western civilization. This is a university that took down, as if in a parody of political correctness, a picture of William Shakespeare in its English department. It regularly encourages every manifestation of crude, ritualistic anti-Western and “anticolonial” ideology.
The institution has long hounded conservative and other independent-minded faculty (and students) for not toeing the party line. Progressive ideology requires absolute fealty to the cause. To be sure, many Arabs and Palestinians (and their Western sympathizers) casually give way to Jew-hatred. But progressives hate Israel mainly because they hate themselves and the Western world of which they are a part, though that self-loathing has quickly given way to fierce and crude anti-Jewish rhetoric and behavior. A figure long at the head of this charge, the radical intellectual and celebrated linguist Noam Chomsky, once accused Cambodian refugees of exaggerating the “excesses” of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge and wrote a foreword to a book by the French Holocaust denier Robert Faurisson. Chomsky had no real deep affinity for monstrous regimes, but he was adamantly committed, and remains committed, to the view that the United States, and the Western world more broadly, is the primary author of evil in the world. Chomsky embodies the reductio ad absurdum of self-flagellating radicalism. On the left, he is still perversely celebrated as a courageous truth teller.
Writing in “The Abolition of Man” in 1943, the Christian apologist and man of letters C. S. Lewis wondered why our contemporary “men without chests,” who had abandoned both reason and faith, who confused moral judgment with mere emotivism, and who belittled the virile virtues and the essential connections between reason and a spirited regard for liberty and civilization, were surprised by the inevitably destructive consequences of their doctrines. In words that stick to memory and that are as relevant as ever, Lewis writes:
<blockquote>In a sort of ghastly simplicity, we remove the organ and demand the function. We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honour and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful.</blockquote>
Those false liberals who actively supported the progressivist degradation of our colleges and universities ought to be ashamed of themselves.
Those who marched with the totalitarian Marxists and Maoists of BLM (and who now predictably cheer Hamas on) in the summer of 2020 — including foolish white progressives such as Senator Mitt Romney — are complicit in the madness that has taken hold of our political culture. They are also fools, naïfs.
As the Russianist Gary Saul Morson argued in a powerful piece that appeared in The Wall Street Journal (“Dostoevsky Knew: It Can Happen Here,” October 18, 2023), those ideologues and intellectuals who justify the unjustifiable would do it to us if they had the chance. As Morson argues, the militant “anticolonialism” that is regnant today on our campuses and in bien-pensant intellectual circles is only the latest totalitarian ideology to justify the destruction of their “designated enemies.” And the soft leftists — the naïve fellow travelers — always go first. One thinks of the politically correct bourgeoisie in Saint Petersburg, as described so vividly in Solzhenitsyn’s “The Red Wheel” (March 1917), who proudly wore red and waved red flags (for two hundred years the color of the radical Left) to display their fine feelings and progressive leanings. They were the first to be condemned as class enemies and marched off to the camps in Lenin’s new totalitarian dispensation. It is high time for their American counterparts to be mugged by reality before it is too late for them — and for the rest of us.
* * *
This excerpt from “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Persistence-Ideological-Lie-Daniel-Mahoney/dp/1641773731">The Persistence of the Ideological Lie</a>” is published by permission from Encounter Books.
Daniel J. Mahoney is professor emeritus at Assumption University (where he taught from 1986 until 2021), senior fellow at the Claremont Institute, and senior writer at Law and Liberty. He has written extensively on statesmanship, French political thought, the art and political thought of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, conservatism, religion and politics, and various themes in political philosophy. His 2022 book, “The Statesman as Thinker: Portraits of Greatness, Courage, And Moderation” (Encounter Book was awarded the Paolucci Prize for Conservative Book of the Year by ISI in 2023.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

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How The Liberal Death Wish Birthed A New Totalitarianism

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NASHVILLE, Tenn.—A Vanderbilt University administrator was caught on camera admitting that the school is actively pursuing diversity, equity, and inclusion goals in violation of President Donald Trump&#8217;s executive action cracking down on colleges pushing the leftist DEI agenda.
G.L. Black, the Vice Provost for Student Affairs and Dean of Students, said last month that the school remains &#8220;thoughtful around DEI work&#8221; and its &#8220;focus on belonging and building communities and sustaining communities and access and resources,&#8221; according to a video obtained by The Daily Wire.
&#8220;All the things that I would say are components of DEI work are part of what we do,&#8221; Black added. &#8220;Even if we don&#8217;t label everything as DEI work.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
Footage obtained by The Daily Wire shows the <a href="https://twitter.com/VanderbiltU?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@VanderbiltU</a> Vice Provost for Student Affairs admitting that the university continues to push DEI, &#8220;even if we don&#8217;t label everything as DEI work.&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/MZbv8enIgf">pic.twitter.com/MZbv8enIgf</a>
— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDailyWire/status/1948423032411688999?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 24, 2025</a></blockquote>
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Along with being nationally recognized for its pre-law and business programs, Vanderbilt — located in Nashville, Tennessee — is also a leading medical school, <a href="https://news.vumc.org/2024/03/11/school-of-medicine-in-top-10-in-nih-funding-survey-2/#:~:text=Vanderbilt%20University%20School%20of%20Medicine,of%20the%20last%2010%20years.">receiving</a> hundreds of millions of dollars in funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Last year, Vanderbilt ranked 10th in the country in total research support from the NIH.
After taking office in January, President Trump signed multiple executive orders targeting DEI practices in the federal government and at federally funded colleges and universities. In one executive <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/ending-illegal-discrimination-and-restoring-merit-based-opportunity/">order</a>, Trump blasted DEI policies, saying they &#8220;undermine our national unity, as they deny, discredit, and undermine the traditional American values of hard work, excellence, and individual achievement in favor of an unlawful, corrosive, and pernicious identity-based spoils system.&#8221;
Vanderbilt told The Daily Wire that it remains &#8220;fully compliant with all applicable federal and state laws&#8221; and added that it is &#8220;aware of recent covert recordings by external groups on university campuses nationwide.&#8221;
&#8220;Any comments by individual employees that suggest otherwise do not reflect university policy and are being reviewed through appropriate channels,&#8221; the university said.
Vice Provost Black did not return a request to comment from The Daily Wire.
After publication of this article, Vanderbilt released a statement saying that it hired the law firm Baker Donelson, which &#8220;will be tasked with reviewing the specific circumstances related to the recordings and identifying steps the university can take to ensure all employees fully understand the university’s policies and consistently act in accordance.&#8221;
&#8220;The university will review the findings and recommendations of the report and take any appropriate follow-up actions,&#8221; the statement added. &#8220;As part of our protocol, staff involved will step back from regular responsibilities to allow the review to unfold.&#8221;
The Education Department told The Daily Wire that Vanderbilt is already under investigation &#8220;for allegedly engaging in race-exclusionary practices in their graduate programs.&#8221; That <a href="https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/office-civil-rights-initiates-title-vi-investigations-institutions-of-higher-education-0">investigation</a>, which was announced in March, also targets 44 other universities nationwide. The Education Department alleges that Vanderbilt&#8217;s PhD Project, which focuses on providing networking opportunities for PhD students, “limits eligibility based on the race of the participants.”
&#8220;We expect all academic institutions that receive taxpayer support to abide by federal law and will continue to vigorously hold violators accountable,&#8221; the Education Department added.
Another Vanderbilt employee was recently caught on camera saying that the university&#8217;s DEI agenda has remained unchanged, even if the name has changed, Fox News <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/watch-dei-efforts-were-rebranded-2-red-state-colleges-skirt-trump-orders-staffers-admit">reported</a>. She said the new names for DEI help &#8220;clue people in.&#8221;
&#8220;At one point, you know, everybody, like different universities, were under investigation for their, like, DEI practices and stuff like that. So, that&#8217;s why I think the naming has changed,&#8221; said Ivie Carmouche, an academic coach at the university&#8217;s Center for Student Wellbeing.
&#8220;We&#8217;re in the Center for Student Wellbeing — like I said, we have things that clue people in and let people know that this is a safe space for everybody,&#8221; she added. &#8220;Belonging and Communities is like as close to that DEI work you can probably get. Previously, they were the Center for Social Justice and Identities.&#8221;
Yet another Vanderbilt employee was recently caught discussing the school&#8217;s DEI policies and ripping Republican Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn.
&#8220;We have this one, gosh I think she&#8217;s a representative or something like that, and I just heard that she may run for governor. And I&#8217;m going, oh God, help us,&#8221; said Janet Roberts, Vanderbilt&#8217;s Peabody Facilities Manager. &#8220;She&#8217;s ridiculous.&#8221;
&#8220;We are heavily supported by federal funding &#8230; we&#8217;re not advertising diversity and inclusion lectures,&#8221; Roberts added. &#8220;We&#8217;re flying under the radar.&#8221;
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🚨BUSTED: <a href="https://twitter.com/VanderbiltU?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@VanderbiltU</a>&#39;s Janet Roberts was CAUGHT ON CAMERA disparaging Sen. Marsha Blackburn and hiding the school&#39;s DEI practices. 
&quot;God help us&#8230;[<a href="https://twitter.com/MarshaBlackburn?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MarshaBlackburn</a>&#39;s] ridiculous&quot;
&quot;We are heavily supported by federal funding&#8230;[so] we&#39;re not advertising diversity and… <a href="https://t.co/CIxV6FCrwe">pic.twitter.com/CIxV6FCrwe</a>
&mdash; Townhall.com (@townhallcom) <a href="https://twitter.com/townhallcom/status/1948057680871886969?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 23, 2025</a></blockquote>
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Blackburn on Wednesday wrote to Vanderbilt University Chancellor Dr. Daniel Diermeier to express her &#8220;concern regarding reports that Vanderbilt University is concealing its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs instead of fully complying with President Trump’s executive action to end wasteful DEI programs in educational institutions,&#8221; The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-blackburn-warns-tennessee-universities-against-hiding-dei-programs-behind-coded-language">reported</a>.
&#8220;Renaming woke DEI programs to circumvent compliance and public scrutiny degrades the educational experience of your students and the trust placed in institutions of higher education like Vanderbilt,&#8221; Blackburn added. &#8220;As a beneficiary of federal funding, Vanderbilt has a responsibility to align with the President’s executive order and return to a focus on providing quality education to your students. Instead of rebranding harmful, woke DEI initiatives, woke DEI initiatives, Vanderbilt should focus on the important work of research and workforce development that the institution does so well.&#8221;
Administrators at two other Tennessee universities, the <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/watch-dei-efforts-were-rebranded-2-red-state-colleges-skirt-trump-orders-staffers-admit">University of Tennessee</a> and <a href="https://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2025/07/16/belmont-university-is-hiding-illegal-aliens-on-campus-n2659728">Belmont University</a>, were recently caught on camera discussing their respective institutions&#8217; DEI goals.
This article has been updated to include an additional statement from Vanderbilt.

Vanderbilt

EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: Vanderbilt Administrator Caught Saying DEI Remains ‘Part Of What We Do’

Department of Education

Nashville

Tennessee

Trump Administration

Vanderbilt University

The &#8220;Big, Beautiful Bill,&#8221; backed by President Donald Trump, fulfills one of Republicans&#8217; most provocative promises: to tax universities with massive endowments. The tax would help reduce the United States deficit by taxing multibillion dollar institutions of privilege as if they were hedge funds with classrooms attached — which critics say institutions like Harvard are.
The version of the bill passed by the House would institute hefty taxes on &#8220;net investment income&#8221; for universities with the largest endowments, topping out at 21% for colleges with endowments equivalent to more than $2 million per student. Colleges with endowments less than $500,000 per student wouldn&#8217;t be taxed, while those with endowments between $500,000 and $750,000 per student would be taxed 1.4%, with two other rates in between.
But the <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/1/text">language</a> is not just designed to punish colleges that Republicans say have become liberal political organizations; it is written in a way that could benefit Americans by significantly increasing the slots available at high-level universities for citizens, rather than foreigners.
The calculation of endowment per student counts only students from the United States. So, one of the ways colleges can avoid taxes is by ensuring that more of their slots go to Americans. If a college has a $1 billion endowment and 1,000 students, that works out to $1 million per student, which would fall under a 7% tax rate. But if half of those students are foreigners, the rate would actually be based on dividing $1 billion by 500 students, resulting in a $2 million figure — and a much higher tax rate.
In some ways, the massive flow of foreigners to American colleges mirrors the surge in immigrants crossing the southern border. According to <a href="https://opendoorsdata.org/annual-release/international-students/">Open Doors</a>, which tracks international scholarship, more than 1.1 million foreigners studied at American colleges in the 2023-24 school year, up 7% from the previous year. The number of foreign graduate students was at &#8220;an all-time high,&#8221; it said, at 500,000. Most of the students came from India and China, and the highest growth rate came from sub-Saharan Africa.
The group said New York University had more than 27,000 international students, while Northeastern University had 21,000 and Columbia had 20,000. According to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/data/how-many-foreign-students-are-every-us-college-2025-05-22/">Reuters</a>, 42% of students at Carnegie Mellon were foreign, while the rate was 39% at Northeastern and Columbia, and 34% at NYU.
Universities say they prefer to admit foreign students because they are often wealthy people paying full tuition, and their progressive tuition model relies on charging high prices for some to subsidize financial aid for poor people.
But Republicans say that makes it more difficult for Americans to gain admittance to American schools at all, and that colleges get preferential tax treatment and significant government funding on the premise that they are educating American taxpayers.
Open Doors said that 55% of the foreign students pay for school using foreign money, typically from their family, while 41% are funded with money from the United States. In half of those cases, the money comes from the colleges, often through &#8220;federal government research grants disbursed to the student through the institution,&#8221; it said.
Republicans also say using American universities to train and conduct research by foreigners poses national security concerns. A common way that people begin residing illegally in the country is by coming on a student visa, and then never leaving when it expires. Mohammad K. Dabous of Jordan, for example, was arrested for allegedly ramming a truck through the gates of the Quantico military base after <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/illegal-who-tried-to-infiltrate-quantico-was-let-into-country-to-attend-u-s-college">overstaying a student visa</a>.
Giving foreigners, instead of Americans, a significant number of slots at elite institutions also leads to the argument that we need high immigration to staff the country with <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-h1-b-jobs-that-prove-the-visa-program-badly-needs-reform">doctors and engineers</a>, because there aren&#8217;t enough Americans with the necessary training.
The percentage of foreign students at some universities has become so high that instead of the American way of life rubbing off on a few visitors, antisemitism and third-world blood feuds have become a part of a dominant culture. Columbia, with its sizable international population, was at the epicenter of anti-Israel and anti-Western unrest, with Muslim immigrants radicalizing privileged Western leftists.
The &#8220;Big, Beautiful Bill,&#8221; which awaits passage by the Senate, would also overhaul how student loans are administered, forcing <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/heres-how-the-big-beautiful-bill-sticks-it-to-universities-that-churn-out-unemployed-debtors">colleges to eat the costs of bad bets when students can&#8217;t pay their loans</a>—in turn putting pressure on colleges to lower tuition, admit only qualified students, and deemphasize useless majors.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/george-washington-university-antisemitism-lawsuit">U.S. Diplomat Training Ground Let Antisemites Take Over Its Faculty, Lawsuit Says</a>

Pro Palestine Columbia students continue occupation of campus

How The Big Beautiful Bill Would Push Colleges To Educate Americans, Not Foreigners

Taxes

The “One Big, Beautiful Bill,” backed by President Donald Trump and awaiting passage in the Senate, would revolutionize how colleges distribute student loans, disincentivizing schools from saddling students with debt for degrees that don’t lead to employment.
The move would not just provoke left-wing colleges that have been a thorn in Republicans’ side, but also provide a practical, good-governance change that could save taxpayers billions and prevent people from being saddled with student loan payments they can&#8217;t afford.
Under the bill, colleges will have “skin in the game,” meaning if they churn out dropouts or graduates with a particular major who can&#8217;t afford to pay their student loans, the college will have to eat those costs. That makes it in their interest to discourage people from going into debt for programs in useless or low-quality fields, admitting students who are unlikely to be able to complete a useful program, or charging such high tuition that the increase in earnings isn&#8217;t worth it.
Colleges will no longer be able to admit an endless stream of people who take $150,000 in student loans for a gender studies degree when half of them default on their loans and stick taxpayers with the bill. Schools will have to reimburse the federal government for missed loan payments based on the percentage in a “program of study,” meaning a major within a particular school, who drop out or don’t see increased earnings based on the degree.
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A “value-added earnings” amount is calculated for graduates of each program based on their median salary four years after completing an undergraduate or doctoral degree, or two years after an associate’s or master’s degree. It looks at how much higher that salary is than 150% of the poverty level for those with undergraduate degrees, or 300% of the poverty level for people with graduate credentials. The number is further adjusted based on the cost-of-living in the metro area of the university, even though graduates may not be working in that region.
How much money schools have to repay is based on the relationship between total tuition cost and value-added earnings. Divide the median value-add by median cost of attendance. That&#8217;s the percentage of missed principal and interest payments that taxpayers will eat. Colleges must reimburse the government for the rest.
Let’s say a class of students spends four years earning degrees in critical race theory, with tuition of $50,000 a year, totaling of $200,000. Four years after that, at 26 years old, they are making a median of $30,000 in their jobs. The poverty level is $15,650, so college graduates should be expected to make more than 150% of that, or $23,475. That means the CRT program has value-added earnings of $6,525. Divide that by the cost of attendance, and you get 3%. When those graduates failed to make loan repayments, the colleges would have to eat 97% of the revenue that would otherwise be lost by taxpayers.
Left-wing colleges have also put taxpayers and impoverished young people at risk by lowering admissions standards — often in the name of diversity, equity, and inclusion — to the point where huge portions of those admitted aren&#8217;t capable of college-level work and wind up dropping out. Then, they default on their loans since they incur costs but do not earn a degree.
The <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/1/text">Big Beautiful Bill</a> would force colleges to own the results of their admissions decisions, with a separate reimbursement rate for missed student loan payments by people who dropped out of a given academic program. Colleges would have to reimburse the government for dropouts&#8217; missed loan repayments based on the percentage of community college students who didn&#8217;t graduate in six years, and other students who didn&#8217;t complete the program within 150% of its expected time.
Let&#8217;s say a disreputable college is admitting people with abysmal math SAT scores, and using them as cash cows to pay reams of administrators and faculty who claim they&#8217;re making math majors out of them. All of the students are impoverished and pay tuition using student loans, and six years later, only half of them actually graduated. The other half defaulted on their student loans, missing a combined million dollars in payments per year. The school would have to reimburse the federal government for half of that amount, or $500,000.
The bill&#8217;s education provisions are aimed not just at mitigating taxpayers&#8217; losses, but correcting the root cause: colleges should not admit people who are likely to drop out, and they should not encourage people to take on debt to major in things like art history. If they do offer majors that don&#8217;t lead to gainful employment, they can protect their bottom line by making sure tuition is low, making it easier to hit the required ratio.
The rates are calculated only based on people who take student loans, so if people really want to major in dance, knowing that most of them won&#8217;t make money, they can do so if they pay using private sources of funding. Colleges are also empowered to protect themselves the same way banks do when making an investment they know is risky, by limiting the amount of student loans people can use for particular majors.
The bill also stops students from taking out huge amounts of student loans. That comes after President Joe Biden waived billions of dollars in loan repayments, even though a court told him he didn’t have the authority. Democrats pushed the initiative by highlighting the sob stories of people who had hundreds of thousands of dollars in student loans, and whose lives have been ruined as a result.
Republicans say the best policy solution is making sure people never get in that situation to begin with. The bill caps lifetime federal student loans to $200,000, plus $50,000 in federal loans in a parent&#8217;s name. That will provide a strong disincentive for colleges to raise tuition, because they would lose out on many prospective customers if they do.
It also prevents the president from using executive orders or regulations that “would result in an increase in a subsidy cost.” Typically, when Democrats have tried to make college more affordable by subsidizing more of the cost, colleges simply raise tuition by that amount and pocket the proceeds.
&#8220;Colleges should have a stake in their students’ success and be responsible for reimbursing taxpayers for a portion of their losses if students don’t see financial value from enrolling in an institution and can’t repay,&#8221; Republicans on the House Committee on Education and Workforce said.
&#8220;Students, families, and the federal government pay tens, sometimes hundreds, of thousands of dollars in tuition while many degrees offer students no additional value but leave graduates with debt. Too many are left worse off than if they never enrolled in the first place.&#8221;

Pro-Palestinian-Student-Protests-at-Columbia-University

Here’s How The Big Beautiful Bill Sticks It To Universities That Churn Out Unemployed Debtors

Student Loans

A university known for training American diplomats let an anti-Israel activist group operate out of its international affairs school, leading to rampant antisemitism on a campus where more than one in four students is Jewish, a lawsuit said.
Jewish students in May sued George Washington University in federal court for violating the Civil Rights Act and breach of contract, giving 180 pages of examples of shocking antisemitism on campus. The school allegedly refused to hold perpetrators accountable, misled Congress about it, and treated Jews differently from other minorities.
George Washington traded academic inquiry for activism when, in 2019, its Elliot School of International Affairs agreed to <a href="https://gwtoday.gwu.edu/middle-east-studies-association-moves-gw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">house</a> the Middle East Studies Association (MESA), an activist group dedicated to boycotting Israel, the lawsuit said. That led to an explosion of activist professors and one-sided events at the school’s Washington, D.C., campus near the State Department, it said.
The suit comes amid efforts by the federal government designed to crack down on antisemitism and conduct detrimental to national security at American universities. “Because GWU accepts taxpayer money, it has a legal obligation under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to ensure that students of every race, color, and national origin enjoy their academic studies free from a hostile environment,” the suit <a href="https://www.holtzmanvogel.com/uploads/ECF-001-52225-Soffer-v-GWU-Complaint.pdf">said</a>.
MESA “developed and disseminated programming deliberately designed to incite anti-Zionist hostility within the GWU community,&#8221; the lawsuit reads. &#8220;These activities were billed as legitimate academic inquiry, but they systematically suppressed intellectual diversity and ensured that students were not exposed to any pro-Israel perspectives or a full, accurate account of Jewish history,&#8221; it added.
George Washington purportedly <a href="https://www.meforum.org/middle-east-studies-association-expelled-from-64631" target="_blank" rel="noopener">cut ties</a> with MESA in late 2023. But by then, its staff had blended with the Elliot School of International Affairs’ Institute for Middle East Studies (IMES), which hosted “unrelenting anti-Zionist and antisemitic events in the wake of the October 7th terror attacks.”
IMES faculty included William Youmans, associate professor of Media and Public Affairs and the Director of the Institute for Public Diplomacy and Global Communication, who was a founding leader of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and publicly defended Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind behind the October 7 terror attack, the suit said.
It also included Ilana Feldman, a professor of Anthropology, History, and International Affairs, who was on MESA’s board and who tried to get an anthropology group to boycott Israel. Feldman “negotiated with the GWU Administration on behalf of” anti-Israel protesters who took over campus. She also led a panel where a MESA member said that recognizing that Israel is genocidal is a “litmus test to even be affiliated with Palestine study.”
Youmans and Feldman did not reply to requests for comment.
IMES partnered with the Middle East Research &amp; Information Project, a group that described “the U.S. and Israel’s war machine on one side and the ‘Resistance Axis’ and popular anti-normalization movements on the other,” referring to Iran and U.S.-designated terror groups like Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis, the suit said.
After Hamas&#8217; October 7, 2023, terror attack, IMES hosted a series of talks and refused proposals for pro-Israel academics to take part, betraying the idea that it is an academic group founded on open inquiry, the suit said.
“Every IMES event surrounding Israel has been, and remains, explicitly hostile toward Israel,” the suit said.
A week after the terror attacks, it hosted a panel about “Palestinian resistance groups,” using euphemism for Hamas despite it being designated a terrorist organization by the same State Department for which many George Washington grads will go on to work.
“During the panel discussion, IMES faculty members Ilana Feldman, Michael Barnett, and Arie Dubnov; MESA members Shay Hazkani and Laila El-Haddad; and IMES invitee Yousef Munayyer, all justified the October 7th attacks by Hamas, which included murders, rapes, and abductions, as legitimate acts of resistance in response to a foreign colonial regime,” the suit said.
The school began using students’ tuition to pay academics to try to convince Jews to betray their own religion, with IMES organizing events such as “The Colonizing Self” and screening the film “Israelism,” about two young Jews who discover that “the Jewish institutions that raised them not only lied, but built their Jewish identity around that lie.” Students were given extra credit to attend a screening of the film.
At an IMES event, MESA president Asli Bali claimed Jews had “ultra loyalty to a national imagined identity and participation in an imagined community.”
<h2>Campus-wide.</h2>
Antisemitism among George Washington faculty soon spread beyond IMES, the suit said.
“For instance, the GWU American Studies department sent a department-wide email to its students mobilizing them toward an anti-Israel ‘Freedom Seder’ that likened the Warsaw Ghetto uprising to Palestine Liberation efforts, specifically the release of Palestinian terrorists from Israeli prisons.”
George Washington&#8217;s Political Science Department gave an award to student Vidya Muthupillai, who “was featured on the website wearing a Keffiyeh, and whose bio publicly stated her intent to pursue a legal career as a ‘movement lawyer to protect and defend anti-imperialist, anti-Zionist, decarceral, and all communities fighting for liberation.’”
Its History Department’s social media account said of anti-Israel protesters, “History will absolve this movement and justice will prevail!” More than 100 George Washington faculty members signed a letter supporting anti-Israel students who unlawfully created an encampment in the campus square.
Psychology professor Lara Sheehi taught a mandatory diversity class where she assigned reading that referred to Jews as white supremacists, the suit said. She said it was not possible to be a good psychologist and a Zionist, called Israelis “genocidal f—ks,” and told a student, “It’s not your fault you were born in Israel,” <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.280890/gov.uscourts.dcd.280890.1.0.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the suit</a> said.
Jewish students complained, but MESA defended Sheehi and faulted the students who complained, it said. An investigation commissioned by the school cleared Sheehi and instead resulted in discipline against the complainants, it said, until the Department of Education ordered it to undo that discipline.
Sheehi has since left George Washington to teach in Qatar, the nation that harbors the leadership of Hamas, the lawsuit indicated.
“Through the present day, entire GWU academic departments continue to sponsor and invite their students to anti-Israel events that distort Jewish history,” it said.
As recently as last month, a professor brought in a lesbian feminist guest lecturer who was Jewish to lecture on an unrelated topic, and a student took over the class and demanded that the lecturer denounce Zionism — with the professor siding with the student and apologizing for inviting a Jewish academic, the suit said.
<div id="attachment_925819" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-925819" class="wp-image-925819 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/GettyImages-2151295867-864x576.jpg" alt="" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/GettyImages-2151295867-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/GettyImages-2151295867-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/GettyImages-2151295867-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/GettyImages-2151295867-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/GettyImages-2151295867-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/GettyImages-2151295867-1800x1200.jpg 1800w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/GettyImages-2151295867-1200x800.jpg 1200w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />The statue of George Washington at the university that bears his name , May 6, 2024. (Photo by Allison Bailey / Middle East Images via AFP)</div>
<h2>&#8220;Hamas is me. Hamas is you.&#8221;</h2>
The suit also seeks accountability for George Washington administrators’ timidity in enforcing laws and rules after anti-Israel protesters took over central areas of campus for weeks.
On October 24, 2023, the school’s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter projected “glory to our martyrs” on a library named after a Jew. The school suspended the SJP chapter, over the objections of MESA’s president, but it didn’t suspend its leaders, and they immediately began operating a different group with the same name.
Hundreds took over the central quad of campus for two weeks in April 2024, drawing borders that said “No Zionists” and “Settlers go back home, Palestine is ours alone.” So-called marshals identified Jewish students and forced them to leave, the suit said. The protesters did not seek to ascertain the political beliefs of these Jews, targeting them based solely on their religion, it said.
One of the first speakers was Osama Abuirshaid, the head of American Muslims for Palestine, who “has written articles for the website of Hamas’ military wing,” the suit said.
Protesters defaced the university’s statue of George Washington, and as Dean of Students Colette Coleman watched passively, one described that their goal was to weaken America, saying “when you destroy Zionism you really weaken the White House…Hamas is me. Hamas is you,” the suit said.
When a Jewish mother and father were visiting their child on campus, 40 protesters surrounded them and chanted “Zionists get out,” with one protester attempting to strike the mother, the suit said.
The group held noisy protests during finals week in violation of campus rules, but university administrators “capitulated” to protesters.
“A protest leader called out over a microphone: ‘Unless Dean Colette Coleman is here to meet our demands, get the f&#8211;k out of our liberation zone.’ She acquiesced and left,” the suit said.
At one point, students unfurled a seven-story-high Palestinian flag on a campus building. George Washington did not suspend the students responsible, but only put two on probation.
The protest later moved to outside of a residence hall, and Jewish students who had just finished taking exams were unable to return home “with nowhere to go and no one to protect them,” the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit said professors “openly encouraged these perpetrators by forgoing important class time to laud or even attend the protests,” with onetime IMES director Youmans saying “students enact what we teach” and professor Imani Cheers saying “liberation movements start with the young.”
“The faculty’s encouragement and indoctrination of students fueled the animus that led to the encampment on GWU’s campus,” with twenty to thirty faculty and staff linking arms to protect the protesters, the suit said.
<div id="attachment_925821" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-925821" class="wp-image-925821 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/GettyImages-2150145969-864x576.jpg" alt="" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/GettyImages-2150145969-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/GettyImages-2150145969-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/GettyImages-2150145969-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/GettyImages-2150145969-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/GettyImages-2150145969-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/GettyImages-2150145969-1800x1200.jpg 1800w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/GettyImages-2150145969-1200x800.jpg 1200w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />Students broke through the barricades set up around their Gaza solidarity encampment by the university administration. (Photo by Allison Bailey / Middle East Images via AFP)</div>
<h2>Double standards.</h2>
Students ruthlessly targeted incoming university President Ellen Granberg, leading the school to cancel her July 2023 inauguration ceremony due to “safety risk,” and holding it virtually instead.
Granberg directed Jews to avoid the main campus square instead of ensuring their safe passage, the lawsuit said, despite laws requiring federally-funded schools to take steps to end harassment and hostile environments.
“The irony here, of course, is that when students begged President Granberg to ensure their safety while on campus, she declined and instead instructed the students themselves to stay away from the threats permeating the University. When President Granberg herself became the subject of potential criticism or harassment, she capitulated to the very students promoting hostility—rather than holding them accountable for their threats and disruptive conduct,” the suit said.
When Granberg and other administrators ventured near the encampment, they were protected by a squad of police officers. Still, Granberg said the university didn’t have the resources to bring the protesters to heel, the lawsuit said. If it “lacked the resources to maintain order, GWU should have tapped a tiny fraction of its $2.5 billion endowment and hired officers and security,” it said.
Granberg claimed that George Washington could take no action against anti-Jewish protesters unless it was something that “the FBI would arrest someone for,” despite protests routinely violating D.C. law and university rules.
But George Washington took swift action in 2019 against microaggressions deemed insensitive to black students, including suspending all sorority activities after one sorority member made an off-color joke about a plantation. One professor was driven off campus after he requested permission from students to read a historic text with the n-word, even though he did not say the word.
The university suspended only a single student despite months of antisemitic unrest, according to the lawsuit.
“GWU’s double standard (punishing hate directed toward all groups except Jewish and Israeli students) underscores the legal and moral violation,” the suit said. “It promptly investigates discrimination against minorities other than Jews and Israelis, and then metes out serious discipline to offenders.”
The only advocates for Jews at George Washington have been congressional Republicans. The suit said the university gave Congress false information about its response to antisemitism.
For example, on November 15, 2023, shortly after Hamas’ October 7 terrorist attack, a student threw a rock at a truck that said “JewBelong,” shattering its glass. George Washington found the student responsible, but did not suspend or expel him. It falsely told Congress the truck was a “doxing truck,” the suit said.
A Jewish student studying Arabic and Hebrew Language and Culture said on October 7, other students, including SJP President Lance Lokas, “stared, laughed, and pointed at her in a taunting fashion in front of the professor, who said and did nothing.” Lokas later allegedly spat at the student, who filed a report against him but was told by GW administrators that they would not pursue discipline, the suit said. GW falsely told Congress the case was closed because it was a case of mistaken identity, the suit said.
A George Washington spokesman said in a statement that “We take the concerns of the students who filed the lawsuit extremely seriously. We condemn antisemitism in the strongest terms and have taken, and continue to take, robust action to support our Jewish and Israeli students and community.”

George Washington University

U.S. Diplomat Training Ground Let Antisemites Take Over Its Faculty, Lawsuit Says

D.C.

University of Maryland President Darryll J. Pines defended his decision to allow anti-Israel protesters to rally on the anniversary of October 7 with what he said was original &#8220;faculty research&#8221; that proves that the Palestinian flag does not support terrorism. But the &#8220;research&#8221; was actually copied from ChatGPT, The Daily Wire found.
Pines passed off the text in an effort to justify his decision to allow the university&#8217;s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) to reserve a main campus quad on the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/university-of-maryland-will-let-anti-israel-group-hold-oct-7-rally">anniversary</a> of Hamas&#8217;s attack on Israel to &#8220;honor&#8221; the “martyrs.” Pines sent the text in response to an email from a Maryland resident who inquired if Pines, who is black, would be as supportive of groups flying the Confederate Flag on campus as he is of flying the Palestine flag.
“I have consulted with Middle East Scholars and Historians on our campus regarding the origin and history of the Palestinian Flag. The general consensus opinion from these faculty scholars is as follows,&#8221; Pines wrote.
The four paragraphs that followed — punctuated by a curt “I will not be responding to any further inquiries on this matter” — did not come from faculty scholars, but rather directly from the artificial intelligence service ChatGPT, after being modified to be more pro-Palestinian.
Pines wrote in his first paragraph that “The Palestinian flag is not generally considered a symbol of hate but rather a symbol of national identity, aspiration, and the struggle for statehood and self-determination,” though it “can be viewed differently depending on one&#8217;s perspective.”
When The Daily Wire asked ChatGPT “Is the Palestinian flag a symbol of hate?” the first paragraph of its response said that “its interpretation can vary widely depending on one&#8217;s perspective. For many Palestinians and their supporters, the flag is a symbol of identity, resistance, and the aspiration for statehood and self-determination.”
Pines wrote, and underlined, that “For Palestinians, the flag is a powerful symbol of their quest for self-determination, statehood, and the right to return.”
When ChatGPT was asked “Is the Palestinian flag a symbol of hate or national identity,” it said “For Palestinians, the flag is a powerful symbol of their national identity and cultural heritage. It represents their history, aspirations, and desire for self-determination and statehood.”
ChatGPT does not answer questions the same way each time, but reuses certain phrases. Almost all of the exact phrases in Pines’ email appeared in various orders and permutations when The Daily Wire asked similar questions, or the same question multiple times. The overall structure and tone of the answer is also unmistakably artificial intelligence. That makes it very likely that the text came from ChatGPT, and likely that the AI answer generated at the University of Maryland hewed even more closely to Pines’ email than The Daily Wire&#8217;s attempts to replicate it.
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-791477" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/09/pines-gpt.png" alt="" width="1802" height="3149" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/09/pines-gpt.png 1802w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/09/pines-gpt-172x300.png 172w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/09/pines-gpt-330x576.png 330w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/09/pines-gpt-768x1342.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/09/pines-gpt-879x1536.png 879w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/09/pines-gpt-1172x2048.png 1172w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1802px) 100vw, 1802px" /></div>
His response contained a sentence about how the flag &#8220;was formally adopted by the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) in 1964” (the PLO is a US-designated terror-supporting organization) and has “horizontal black, white, and green stripes with a red triangle on the left.”
ChatGPT says the flag “was adopted by the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in 1964” and has “horizontal black, white, and green stripes with a red triangle on the hoist side.”
Pines&#8217;s original writing and alterations stand out because they are often grammatically incorrect or poorly written. In addition to the unusual capitalization of “Middle East Scholars and Historians on our campus,” Pines added transitional words like &#8220;thus,&#8221; which appear out of place.
ChatGPT concludes: “In summary, while the Palestinian flag can be seen as a symbol of resistance and national identity for Palestinians, its interpretation can be influenced by various political and ideological perspectives. It&#8217;s important to approach such symbols with an understanding of the broader historical and political contexts in which they are used.”
“Thus, the Palestinian flag is primarily a symbol of Palestinian national identity, statehood, and the struggle for self-determination,&#8221; Pines&#8217;s message ends. &#8220;It is not inherently a symbol of hate but is deeply connected to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and thus its meaning can be interpreted differently depending on one&#8217;s political stance. While it may be perceived negatively in certain contexts, especially in Israel, it is recognized globally as the flag of a people seeking statehood and international recognition.”
Pines said that he had personally “consulted” with multiple scholars, implying that he synthesized the “consensus opinion from these faculty scholars.” It is possible that a University of Maryland “Middle East Scholar” used ChatGPT to gather information that was supposedly in his area of expertise, and sent it to Pines representing it as his own work, with Pines then in turn positioning it as his own. Pines did not respond to questions from The Daily Wire.
Pines’s sympathies with pro-Palestinian elements on campus came to the fore after he responded to the Hamas terror attack and pro-Palestine uprisings on college campuses by forming a “MD Joint Presidential-University Senate Task Force on Antisemitism and Islamophobia,” co-chaired by the anti-Israel Muslim professor Shibley Telhami.
There is evidence that Pines is close with, and working closely with, Telhami, including his personal response to the mother of a university student who objected to the anti-Israel views held by task force members.
“It’s LUDICROUS that someone who holds hateful views towards Israel (only democracy in the Middle East) and Jews is Chair of a Task Force on antisemitism,&#8221; the parent wrote to task force members. &#8220;Would you have a KKK Member on this Taskforce?”
Pines threatened to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/u-of-maryland-prez-said-anti-israel-protesters-could-rally-on-10-7-then-threatened-to-call-police-on-jew-for-complaining" target="_blank" rel="noopener">call the police on her</a> for making “inappropriate” remarks. He added, &#8220;Members of our leadership team, and members of the Task Force care deeply about the safety and well being of every member of our campus community. Thus, the Task Force&#8217;s ongoing work is very important, and all of its members are deserving of our utmost respect and support.&#8221;
The mother had not included Pines on her emails, leading her to believe that Telhami enlisted him to respond.
Pines sent the ChatGPT information falsely attributed to &#8220;faculty scholarship&#8221; in an August 28 email to another Jewish resident who pressed him on the SJP rallies. His email also echoed SJP&#8217;s false claim that Israel has killed 150,000 people, and claimed SJP does not support terrorism.
SJP said on Instagram that it “unequivocally stands by international law as it outlaws the indiscriminate killing of civilians and establishes the <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/C_WntvnPe2D/?img_index=5" target="_blank" rel="noopener">right of Palestinians to carry out armed struggle,</a>” and that it &#8220;unequivocally states that the Zionist state of Israel has <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/C9yDEB3PJv6/?img_index=5" target="_blank" rel="noopener">no right to exist</a>.” 
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-790905" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/09/pines-1.jpg" alt="" width="886" height="436" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/09/pines-1.jpg 886w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/09/pines-1-300x148.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/09/pines-1-768x378.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 886px) 100vw, 886px" /></div>
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After The Daily Wire reported on the rally, and Pines’s refusal to cancel it despite the pleading of a campus rabbi, the University System of Maryland, which oversees all state public universities, intervened to ban all campus groups from hosting events on October 7. Pines then issued his own statement on the shutdown, implying that the university was cancelling the rally to protect pro-Palestinian protesters, even though he acknowledged that the police told him there was no evidence of threats to protesters.
Several university presidents have stepped down after enabling anti-Zionism on campus, which often fit with a broader leftist agenda against “colonialism.” One of those presidents, Harvard&#8217;s Claudine Gay, also resigned after journalists discovered she had plagiarized much of her academic writing.

University of Maryland President Darryll Pines (Photo by Mark Goldman/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

University Of Maryland President Plagiarized From ChatGPT To Justify Anti-Israel Oct. 7 Rally

Palestine

Plagiarism

University of Maryland President Darryll J. Pines threatened to call the police on a Jewish woman for emailing criticism of the school’s response to anti-Semitism, the same week he said freedom of speech meant he couldn&#8217;t stop an anti-Israel group from reserving a campus quad on the anniversary of Hamas&#8217;s October 7 attack, according to emails obtained by The Daily Wire.
The emails show that on August 24, Pines emailed the woman — the mother of a student, who had never emailed the president — asking her to halt all communications with members of the school&#8217;s anti-Semitism task force, lest he &#8220;pursu[e] further action, including, without limitation, seeking the assistance of our University of Maryland Police Department.&#8221;
On August 28, Pines replied to another Maryland resident who expressed concern about the university granting Students For Justice in Palestine (SJP) a reservation to take over nine acres in the center of campus for an October 7 event, similar to one held on the second day of school honoring Palestinian &#8220;martyrs.&#8221; In the email, Pines defended the group, saying it “simply wanted to exercise their first amendment and free speech right to honor those Palestinian lives that have been lost as a result of this conflict.&#8221;
Pines in the email echoed SJP&#8217;s false claim that &#8220;approximately 150,000 lives [have been] lost during this conflict.” Even Hamas estimates the total number killed to be 40,000.
A day after Pines defended SJP&#8217;s planned event, The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/university-of-maryland-will-let-anti-israel-group-hold-oct-7-rally">reported</a> that the president had approved the event over the objections of the campus rabbi, who conveyed the concerns of Jewish parents and students to Pines. On September 1, the University System of Maryland <a href="https://www.usmd.edu/newsroom/news/2427">intervened</a>, prohibiting all student groups from hosting events on October 7.
The same day, Pines sent an <a href="https://president.umd.edu/articles/remembering-the-one-year-anniversary-of-october-7-2023">email</a> to the university community suggesting the planned SJP event was cancelled to ensure the &#8220;safety&#8221; of the protesters, even though he acknowledged that &#8220;UMPD has assured me that there is no immediate or active threat to prompt this assessment.&#8221; His email did not describe why the October 7 date was significant except to say that it was the “upcoming one-year anniversary of October 7, 2023.”
The University of Maryland was one of several American schools whose campuses were wracked with anti-Semitism in the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel that left more than 1,200 dead. In response, Pines announce the creation of a task force dedicated to fighting both anti-Semitism and Islamophobia — though there was no evidence of rampant Islamophobia on campus. The task force included a number of anti-Israel voices, including co-chair Shibley Telhami, who has accused Israelis of poisoning Arabs’ drinking water and smashing children&#8217;s toys, among other claims.
Pines&#8217;s task force also excluded some pro-Israel voices who were nominated, such as Gilad Chen, a Jewish professor, and Jeffrey Herf, a Holocaust expert.
All of this led one Jewish mother of a University of Maryland student to reach out to the task force, pressing it for information about its actions and raising concerns about its composition and asking where the boundaries of acceptable anti-Israel activity would be drawn. After becoming frustrated by a lack of information, she eventually called attention to Telhami&#8217;s social media posts and said &#8220;It’s LUDICROUS that someone who holds hateful views towards Israel (only democracy in the Middle East) and Jews is Chair of a Task Force on antisemitism!!!!  Would you have a KKK member on this Taskforce?&#8221;
The Daily Wire is withholding the names of the parent, and the other Maryland resident who contacted Pines. The parent told The Daily Wire that &#8220;the hypocrisy of it all is shocking,” and that Pines&#8217;s missive only proved the “double standard” that she and other Jewish community members pressed him about.
“There was nothing [harmful in my emails], it was literally begging for accountability,&#8221; she said. &#8220;You established a task force and announced it, and now we’re just asking who’s on it, what’s it doing and when is it being rolled out?”
Pines, who did not respond to a request for comment, did not address the parent&#8217;s questions. Rather, he went on the attack, the emails show.
“It has come to my attention that you have recently sent several emails to certain members of our leadership team and faculty, as well as to the co-chairs of the UMD Joint Presidential-University Senate Task Force on Antisemitism and Islamophobia,&#8221; Pines wrote. &#8220;It is our view that those communications contain INAPPROPRIATE remarks and UNFOUNDED accusations, and otherwise reflect unacceptable behavior by any member of our community.&#8221;
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-790903" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/09/pines-2.jpg" alt="" width="886" height="916" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/09/pines-2.jpg 886w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/09/pines-2-290x300.jpg 290w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/09/pines-2-557x576.jpg 557w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/09/pines-2-768x794.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 886px) 100vw, 886px" /></div>
“Immediately cease and refrain from sending any further communications to any members of the Task Force in connection with their work,&#8221; Pines added. Please know that should you fail to comply with this request, we will consider pursuing further action, including, without limitation, seeking the assistance of our University of Maryland Police Department (UMPD).&#8221;
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-790905" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/09/pines-1.jpg" alt="" width="886" height="436" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/09/pines-1.jpg 886w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/09/pines-1-300x148.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/09/pines-1-768x378.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 886px) 100vw, 886px" /></div>
Meanwhile, Pines&#8217;s email to the other resident&#8211;which he also fired off after that resident suggested that Pines, who is black, would have a different standard for speech aimed at blacks compared to speech aimed at Jews&#8211; seemed to contain &#8220;inaccurate&#8221; claims of its own.
Pines claimed that SJP “have both publicly and on social media condemned the horrific attack by Hamas that happened last fall on October 7, 2024 [sic].”
The Daily Wire reviewed the University of Maryland SJP chapter&#8217;s Instagram posts dating back to the terrorist attack and found none condemning Hamas or the terrorist attack. The group posted nothing on October 7, and the next day posted a “demand” that the university boycott and divest from Israel. It subsequently called the Israeli army “war criminals” using a “charade of self-defense” and demanded “Hands off Rahah Now,” referring to the location where Hamas was keeping an American hostage, who it later killed.
In a <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/C9yDEB3PJv6/?img_index=5">“statement of views,”</a> the SJP chapter said in July that “UMD SJP unequivocally states that the Zionist state of Israel has no right to exist,” and that Palestinians have “the right to resist.&#8221;
“SJP unequivocally stands by international law as it outlaws the indiscriminate killing of civilians and establishes the <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/C_WntvnPe2D/?img_index=5">right of Palestinians to carry out armed struggle</a>,” the group wrote this week on Instagram.
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“UMD SJP will NOT back down to threat by Zionists. We will remain committed to advocating for Palestine and we will still find ways to <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/C_bTHNQvMM3/?igsh=Zzh4d2gzMWJqb3pr&amp;img_index=5">honor the martyrs</a> of this genocide and mark one year of resistance! WE WILL NOT STOP,” it added soon after.
“We honor the lives of all martyrs of this genocide,” it said, saying “over 186,000 Palestinians [sic] have been brutally murdered by the Zionist entity within the past year.”

U of Maryland Prez Said Anti-Israel Protesters Could Rally On 10/7—Then Threatened To Call Police On Jew For Complaining

In the wake of the pro-Hamas protests and threats against Jewish students at numerous universities across the nation, two Christian colleges issued an open letter to Jewish students, welcoming them and slamming the hate and violence directed at them.
The presidents of Indiana Wesleyan University, which has 14,000 students, and Colorado Christian University, which has 10,000 students, released the letter on Wednesday, the same day Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to address the United States Congress.
“To our Beloved Jewish Brothers and Sisters,” IWU president Jon S. Kulaga and CCU president Eric K. Hogue began. “We write to express our profound shock and indignation in response to the surge of hate and violence directed against Jewish and Israeli individuals on university campuses across the United States earlier this year.”
“We want to make it clear to our nation and the world that our Christian institutions will not tolerate this behavior,” they continued. “ We also want to express our profound concern that the terrible events we all witnessed at the end of the 2023-2024 academic year are already being forgotten. What we have all seen reveals a profound problem in the culture of many institutions, a problem which must be addressed.”
“For centuries, the academy has stood as a beacon of enlightenment, embodying the Judeo-Christian values of tolerance, freedom, and human dignity,” they noted. “Yet, in recent days, what we have seen is an insidious darkness encroaching upon the academy. It is a darkness emblematic of other terrible periods in history.”
“History warns us, now,” they declared.
Then they turned to the hatred that had been expressed toward Jews on other campuses, writing:
<blockquote>
Revered institutions have professed a commitment to inclusion even as they welcomed clubs like Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), which spread antisemitism openly. These groups not only refused to condemn the horrendous atrocities of October 7, 2023, but they celebrated them as legitimate acts of resistance beginning on October 8th. Is it any wonder that eventually, the activities of SJP and organizations aligned with them ignited an inferno of violence and hate on countless campuses?  No student club should be allowed to celebrate and justify such violence on any campus. They will not be allowed to do so on our campuses.  We are profoundly grieved by the loss of civilian life in this war, as in all wars. Still, it is morally clear to us how this all began on October 7, 2023.
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“All university administrators must take decisive action to root out the seeds of hatred on their campuses before roots of hate take hold in academic communities,” they urged. “We call upon all seminaries and universities to review their commitment to upholding Biblical principles of inclusivity and diversity. Institutions should recommit themselves to creating and sustaining an environment on their campuses conducive to learning, modeling these values to all higher education institutions.”
They concluded, “Finally, we want to extend a heartfelt invitation to Jewish and Israeli students to join us on our campuses. You will be welcomed, and you will be safe.  We stand with you in solidarity and thank you for your community’s stewardship through many centuries of the values underpinning our institutions.&#8221;

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‘You Will Be Welcomed, And You Will Be Safe’: Two Christian Colleges Denounce Anti-Semitism, Welcome Jewish Students

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Young people, and young men in particular, are losing faith in the country&#8217;s education system. They are opting out of college in record numbers. This trend has been ongoing for some time, and now it&#8217;s coming to a head. 
For me, this topic is personal. Both of my parents were university professors. Academia put food on our table. I’ve witnessed firsthand the positive effects that a successful and vibrant college can have on small towns and communities. 
But increasingly, this industry is weakening. The financial implications may have yet to be felt, but the writing is on the wall. For the first time in U.S. history, our sons will have less education than their fathers. That statement would have been unfathomable to grandfathers like mine who sacrificed on a daily basis, so that my parents could get college degrees. They did so because the return on investment was clear: Those degrees led to better jobs, which led to more money.
For most college grads though, that is no longer the case. More and more, universities have prioritized short-term profits over the quality of knowledge taught. They favor Left-wing political ideology over long standing pursuits of truth. Here&#8217;s one report from just a few days ago to set the stage:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="006 Fewer Men In College" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/jPLA2blGPV4?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
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According to census data, more women than men have college degrees in this country now. Women are more likely to graduate within four years than men. Women make up 64.4% of <a href="https://www.aacp.org/article/academic-pharmacys-vital-statistics#:~:text=In%202021%E2%80%9322%2C%2013%2C323%20first,percent%20to%20unknown%2Fother%20gender." target="_blank" rel="noopener">Pharmacy students</a>;Women make up 56% of <a href="https://www.jurist.org/commentary/2024/01/women-outnumber-men-in-us-law-school-classrooms-but-statistics-dont-tell-the-full-story/#:~:text=According%20to%20the%20data%2C%2056.25,more%20female%20than%20male%20students.">law school students</a>: ; and as of the 2023-2024 school year, they make up more than 55% of students in <a href="https://www.wiareport.com/2023/12/the-gender-gap-at-medical-schools-in-the-united-states/">medical schools</a>. 
In a 2015 study, using <a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/01/150126125015.htm#:~:text=What%20is%20this%3F,the%20Indian%20state%2C%20Himachal%20Pradesh.">international data</a>, researchers have determined that girls outperform boys in educational achievement in 70% of the countries they studied — regardless of the level of gender, political, economic, or social equality.
Now, for some of these zero-sum percentages to be tilted in favor of women, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. We have an entire country of highly capable females, we need many of them to get degrees and assist in the workforce. This is not a negativity-session on women going to college. As I said, both of my parents excelled in academia. My mother has a PhD. My wife has a high-pressure career. Many of the department heads here at The Daily Wire are capable women, some graduated from college, some didn’t. 
However, those who say, it’s a good sign that more women are doing well in higher education, must also admit, it’s a bad sign that more and more men are doing poorly. Or better yet, let’s understand that living fulfilling lives, and building better families and communities is the ultimate goal, not simply filling up more classrooms, and obtaining more degrees.
Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker was chastised for making this point during his commencement speech at Benedictine College several weeks ago. WATCH:
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It’s barely acceptable to embrace masculine virtue in the NFL anymore, and it’s completely taboo at colleges in this country.
The experts have it all figured out, though. According to them, girls are performing better <a href="https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2014/04/girls-grades" target="_blank" rel="noopener">because they gave higher GPAs</a>. This is why I’ve said for years, we need new metrics for intelligence. We need new identifiers for capability. GPAs, SATs, IQs? Give me one solid mechanic who can fix my car over this year’s entire Harvard class. I mean it. Harvard — once seen as the beacon for collegiate learning across the world — now appears before the Supreme Court to defend enrollment discrimination against Asians. 
Those higher GPAs are merely a symptom of a larger issues. So, what are the issues?
First, personality. Much of the Western world right now will have you believe there is no difference whatsoever between men and women. So much so that one bearded, flannel-wearing man had to traverse the entire planet asking the simple question, “<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/videos/what-is-a-woman" target="_blank" rel="noopener">What is a Woman?</a>”
Dr. Jordan Peterson frequently cites this difference in personality when he speaks about agreeableness. Research shows that &#8220;agreeable&#8221; students tend to get better grades than their IQ would predict. Intuitively, this makes sense. If a student is on the borderline between passing and failing, teachers are going to &#8220;pass&#8221; the agreeable student, and &#8220;fail&#8221; the disagreeable. I can’t help but think of the distinction between Howard Roark and Peter Keating in the novel “The Fountainhead.” If you haven’t read it, you should. Roark, the most uncompromising character, the man who valued integrity above compromise, was expelled from school, while his classmate, who copied all of Roark’s work, became valedictorian.
<h4><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-1399-member-exclusive" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Matt Walsh Show with guest host David Cone on DailyWire+</a></h4>
Another factor, and it shouldn’t be shocking news, is <a href="https://cepa.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/ednext20064_68.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">boys do better with male teachers</a> and girls do better with female teachers. The problem is, <a href="https://usafacts.org/articles/who-are-the-nations-4m-teachers/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">women make up over 89%</a> of elementary school teachers. So many young boys get a slow start. Young boys without fathers, get an even slower start.
While we’re on grade school, how about limiting recess? Eliminating this period may sound like a good idea to some who see it as a waste of time, but its removal has significant ramifications on boys in particular. Researchers in the Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport <a href="https://time.com/4588035/sitting-exercise-reading/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">found</a>: 
<blockquote>The more time kids in [first grade] spent sitting and the less time they spent being physically active, the fewer gains they made in reading and math. &#8230; Among girls, sitting for a long time without moving much didn’t seem to have any effect on their ability to learn.</blockquote>
Anyone who has sons and daughters understands this without needing statistics. 
What makes the topic of men performing poorly in higher learning so much more painful, is that the outcome seems intentional. Western society is prioritizing feminine interests over masculine interests in every facet of society. The goalposts are being shifted to ensure success for some members of our society, but not others. In that, the pursuit of truth, and knowledge, and learning is lost.
And let’s be honest, that learning is not just lost for men. Degrees all across this country are being watered down for every student holding a diploma.
So here are four solutions we must implement to revitalize our higher education system to the standard America needs.
First, pointless curricula that offer no market-place value, and provide no opportunity for students to monetize their learnings, must be eliminated from public universities. The University of South Carolina, for example, has a course called &#8220;Lady Gaga and the Sociology of Fame.&#8221; The sociology professor behind that course told the New York Times that, &#8220;The central objective is to unravel some of the sociologically relevant dimensions of the fame of Lady Gaga.&#8221;
Cornell University, an Ivy League school, <a href="https://bestlifeonline.com/funniest-college-courses/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">offers </a>&#8220;Tree Climbing.&#8221; I&#8217;m not making this up. Cornell says the class will, &#8220;teach you how to get up into the canopy of any tree, to move around, even to climb from one tree to another without touching the ground.” That’s called being six-years-old. Go shadow Tarzan for a day, this shouldn’t be offered at Cornell, private school or not.
Pitzer College offers &#8220;Social Justice Activism;&#8221; Texas A&amp;M offers &#8220;Paintball;&#8221; Denison College offers &#8220;Queer Studies;&#8221; Santa Clara provides lectures about &#8220;The Physics of Star Trek,&#8221; and George Mason has a course that&#8217;s simply called &#8220;Zombies.&#8221; (Personally, having established yesterday that zombies are indeed real, I&#8217;d go with Michigan State&#8217;s version of that course, which is <a href="https://bestlifeonline.com/funniest-college-courses/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">called</a> &#8220;Surviving the Coming Zombie Apocalypse—Disasters, Catastrophes, and Human Behavior&#8221;).
But maybe the worst offender is Bates College in Maine, which offers a class on Whoopi Goldberg called &#8220;Makin&#8217; Whoopi: Goldberg&#8217;s Canon.&#8221;
If you wanted to make college as unappealing as possible to intelligent and ambitious young men, these are the kinds of courses you&#8217;d offer them. And since the information being taught, can just as easily be learned over the internet, what’s really being paid for, what’s really being purchased is the degree. Only those are becoming more and more worthless to employers, because they’ve started to understand that a college degree no longer guarantees, that their new hire possesses a superior set of skills to the non-college grad.
Second solution, we must substantially limit access to federally-backed student loans. Colleges have been given every incentive to hike tuition costs while offering no additional value, knowing that student loan &#8220;forgiveness&#8221; — which is really student loan redistribution — has taken all risk away from borrowers. It&#8217;s the taxpayers — you and me — who are forced to foot the bill.
No money lender in the country would loan a hundred thousand dollars to a 17-year-old kid, even if he had the most exceptional business plan, and jaw-dropping pitch deck. Mark Zuckerberg was getting turned down for pitching Facebook two decades ago, but a similar 17-year-old today can now get a $100,000 loan to study underwater basket weaving without so much as a single sentence explaining how he will monetize this knowledge and pay back the loan. That’s a problem. That’s hurting America.
Third, stop teaching children that college degrees are essential to success. Of course colleges don’t want to hear that, but it’s imperative for the rest of us to explain this to our children. Some kids need trade school. My brother studied aviation maintenance. He can fix airplane engines. It&#8217;s a very important and in-demand skill, if he had only started earlier we might not have planes falling from the sky.
For some people, it&#8217;s important to start working right away, rather than taking what has become a four year vacation, racking up debt along the way. There are interesting and lucrative jobs in this world, that most people know nothing about. You don&#8217;t have to get an accounting degree and become a consultant. That&#8217;s why Mike Rowe and his show &#8220;Dirty Jobs&#8221; is so important. He highlights the beaver relocators and the caviar harvesters and the fossil hunters and the &#8220;doomsday seed bankers&#8221; — jobs most of us haven&#8217;t even heard of.
Even when young people decide to go to college, it&#8217;s important they understand that the most &#8220;prestigious&#8221; degrees don&#8217;t ultimately determine success. As Dave Ramsey <a href="https://www.ramseysolutions.com/retirement/the-national-study-of-millionaires-research" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pointed</a> out, roughly two-thirds of millionaires graduated from public state schools. Only about 8% went to elite private colleges. And 12% of millionaires didn&#8217;t go to college at all.
Finally, it&#8217;s past time to abolish diversity, equity, and inclusion, and affirmative action initiatives that drive no meaningful diversity. Some states have already made that decision, but it needs to go nationwide. The kind of diversity that&#8217;s important is diversity based on ability, and thought, and the geography of a person’s origin in some instances, but not diversity based on immutable characteristics that people can&#8217;t control.
A young kid who shows exceptional promise of becoming a great engineer needs to have that opportunity even though he may come from a low-income family who can’t afford college. Those types of scholarships are important, and they exist for good reason.
I&#8217;ll use myself as an example. I was able to attend the University of Michigan on an athletic scholarship. There’s no way I could have met their academic requirements, or afforded out-of-state tuition to attend that school, but I could play football. That&#8217;s how I contributed. It&#8217;s what I brought to the table. A different skill set than other students. True diversity. And when we end the practice of accepting students based on their metaphysical makeup, despite their lack of readiness for that opportunity, dropout rates will go down significantly for those very students. If you really want to understand this concept to its fullest extent, I encourage you to read Heather Mac Donald’s book, &#8220;The Diversity Delusion.&#8221; It’s poignant, prophetic, Ms. Mac Donald is a brilliant thinker and writer. 
Bottom line, universities should not be four year vacation centers where one explores how decadent and depraved he can behave. Diplomas should not be meaningless pieces of paper that we obtain simply to hang on the wall so we appear smart to all who enter our office.
The goal isn’t to hand out as many degrees as we can. The goal is to pass down, from generation to generation, the most essential knowledge that we possess for the betterment of our lives, our families, and our future generations.

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