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dreaminginthedeepsouth · 13 days

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House Republicans launch multiple investigations into college protests

Four GOP committee chairs are probing pro-Palestinian campus activism.

New GOP move: discredit and defund the nation's major research universities and move funds to private, religious schools like Liberty University and Hillsdale, the new GOP models for higher education.

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LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

May 2, 2024

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

MAY 03, 2024

More than 2,000 people have been arrested at protests on college and university campuses around the country opposing Israel’s military strikes on Gaza since the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel by Hamas, and the subsequent humanitarian crisis there. It is unclear how many of the protesters are students, as many of those arrested have not been affiliated with the universities, or how many of the arrests will result in charges—sometimes arrests at protests are designed simply to clear an area.

The roots of today’s protests lie in an investigation by the Republican-dominated House Committee on Education and the Workforce, chaired by Virginia Foxx (R-NC). The committee announced the investigation on December 7, two days after its members spent more than five hours grilling then-president of Harvard University Claudine Gay, then-president of University of Pennsylvania Liz Magill, and president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sally Kornbluth on how their universities were handling student protests against Israel over its military response to Hamas’s attack of October 7.

Led by Elise Stefanik (R-NY), Republicans on the committee insisted that the universities were not protecting Jewish students. The university presidents responded that they deplored antisemitism, that students had the right to free speech, and that they took action against those who violated policies against bullying, harassment, or intimidation. But in their defense of free speech, they admitted both that hate speech against Jews and others is sometimes protected and that they had sometimes made bad calls.

The Republicans’ interest in protecting Jewish students on campus overlapped with their opposition to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives that they associate with Democrats. Burgess Owens (R-UT) said DEI initiatives protect Black students at the expense of others. “I just remember a couple of years ago when we were dealing with Black Lives Matter,” he said. “Try to talk about Blue Lives Matter, Jew Lives Matter, Arab Lives Matter—they call it racist. It’s time for us to focus on what’s happening on your campuses.”

Stefanik called the testimony “pathetic” and, along with 74 other members of Congress, demanded that Gay, Harvard’s first Black president, resign. On January 2, following accusations she had plagiarized scholarly work, she did. Her resignation followed that of Liz Magill. “TWO DOWN,” Stefanik wrote on social media.

Two days after the university presidents’ testimony, Stefanik announced that the House Education and Workforce Committee would be investigating universities. “We will use our full Congressional authority to hold these schools accountable for their failure on the global stage,” she said.

On February 12 the committee informed Columbia it was next up. Columbia University president Nemat "Minouche" Shafik had been unable to testify with the other presidents in December and gave her testimony to the committee on April 17, along with co-chairs of the Board of Trustees Claire Shipman and David Greenwald and former dean David Schizer over the university's response to antisemitism.

In an April 16 essay in the Wall Street Journal, Shafik wrote that “antisemitism and calls for genocide have no place at a university…but that leaves plenty of room for robust disagreement and debate.” She said she prioritizes “the safety and security of our community” and that while the attack of October 7 had a "deep personal impact" on the Jewish and Israeli communities, there was also a "humanitarian catastrophe" in Gaza, and the war was "part of a larger story of Palestinian displacement." She explained that Columbia had defined a space for protests to enable those they upset to avoid them.

Opening the hearing, committee chair Foxx said: “Since October 7, this Committee and the nation have watched in horror as so many of our college campuses, particularly the most expensive, so-called elite schools, have erupted into hotbeds of antisemitism and hate.” Stefanik called out tenured professor Joseph Massad of the Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies department, who called the October 7 attack a “stunning victory.”

Shafik responded by condemning the professor’s statements. “Trying to reconcile the free speech rights of those who want to protest and the rights of Jewish students to be in an environment free of harassment or discrimination has been the central challenge on our campus, and many others, in recent months…. We do not, and will not, tolerate antisemitic threats, images, and other violations…. We have enforced, and we will continue to enforce, our policies against such actions,” she said.

Ilhan Omar (D-MN) questioned Shafik about discrimination against pro-Palestinian protesters. She noted that Israel-born assistant professor Shai Davidai was accused of harassing pro-Palestinian students; Shafik said they have had more than 50 complaints about him and he is under investigation.

On April 17, the same day the Columbia officials testified, pro-Palestinian protesters organized by Columbia University Apartheid Divest (a self-described “coalition of student organizations that see Palestine as the vanguard for our collective liberation”), Students for Justice in Palestine, and Jewish Voice for Peace set up a camp at the university. It garnered little attention; the April 18 New York Times did not mention it. According to Sharif, the school warned protesters they would be suspended if the encampment was not removed. They stayed. On April 18, according to New York mayor Eric Adams, Columbia officials called in New York City police to disband the protest. They arrested more than 100 people, including Representative Omar’s daughter, a Columbia student. The arrests were peaceful.

University faculty and community members were shocked by the resort to law enforcement at a place known both for learning and debate and for its history. In April 1968, in the midst of the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights Movement, a week of protests after students learned of Columbia’s support for weapons research and its plan to construct a seemingly segregated gym in a nearby community had led New York City police to crush the demonstrations with violence.

In the days after the current arrests, nearly a dozen student and faculty groups released statements or open letters objecting to the police presence on campus and supporting students’ rights to free speech and peaceful protest. The protest encampment sprang back up.

At the same time, Jewish leaders warned that antisemitism was increasing. Rabbi Elie Buechler, of the Columbia/Barnard Hillel and Kraft Center for Jewish Student Life, urged Jewish students to return home for Passover, which began April 22, and to stay there for their own safety.

In the next weeks, protests sprang up around the country, with protesters generally demanding that university administrators divest from investments in Israel or in companies that sell weapons, technology, or construction equipment to Israel, and cut ties to Israeli universities. They have tended to turn their anger against President Joe Biden and his administration, whom they blame for what they call a genocide in Gaza. Universities have responded in a variety of ways, from discussion to armed law enforcement officers.

Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken have insisted that Israel has a right to defend itself from Hamas and have continued to provide Israel with military defenses, whose importance in stopping the war from spreading showed on April 14, when those defenses shot down virtually all of the weapons Iran launched at Israel. They are working hard for a ceasefire, with Blinken currently in the Middle East and a proposal on the table that Israel has accepted but Hamas has not.

The administration has also stood against the initial policy of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s administration to cordon off Gaza without food, water, or electricity, and has pressured Israel into permitting humanitarian aid into Gaza. It has also firmly opposed Israeli plans to attack Rafah, where more than a million Palestinians have taken shelter, and has stood firmly in favor of a Palestinian state, which the protesters have not indicated they endorse.

On April 24, House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) visited Columbia, where he called for Shafik to resign. On Monday, April 29, he and Republican leadership met to discuss how they might reenergize the party and gain traction now that their impeachment effort against Biden and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has flopped, the conference is bitterly split, their control of the House of Representatives has resulted in one of the least productive congresses in American history, and their presumptive presidential nominee is being tried for election interference that involved paying off women with whom he had extramarital sex. They settled on campus antisemitism—although Trump’s open embrace of white nationalists makes this problematic—and the campus protests as a sign that Democrats are the party of disorder.

On that same day, 21 House Democrats wrote a letter to Columbia’s trustees demanding they “act decisively, disband the encampment, and ensure the safety and security of all of its students.” That night, protesters took control of Columbia’s Hamilton Hall, where they broke windows and vandalized furniture. About twenty hours later, police in riot gear arrested them. Arrests across the country climbed.

Yesterday, Representative Foxx announced that her committee’s antisemitism investigation will expand into a Congress-wide crackdown on colleges. In a press conference, she said she had a clear message for “mealy-mouthed, spineless college leaders. Congress will not tolerate your dereliction of duty to your Jewish students. American universities are officially put on notice that we have come to take our universities back.”

Will Bunch of the Philadelphia Inquirer noted that right-wing politicians jumped on the Kent State shootings of May 1970 to defund colleges and universities, while a “law and order” backlash helped to give Republican president Richard M. Nixon a landslide reelection in 1972.

Today, President Biden addressed the protests, saying they “test two fundamental American principles. The first is the right to free speech and for people to peacefully assemble and make their voices heard. The second is the rule of law. Both must be upheld.”

Biden called for lawful, peaceful protests and warned: “Vandalism, trespassing, breaking windows, shutting down campuses, forcing the cancellation of classes and graduations—none of this is a peaceful protest…. Dissent is essential to democracy,” he said, “But dissent must never lead to disorder or to denying the rights of others so students can finish the semester and their college education…. People have the right to get an education, the right to get a degree, the right to walk across the campus safely without fear of being attacked.”

When asked, he told reporters he did not think the National Guard should be involved in suppressing the protests.

Steven Lee Myers and Tiffany Hsu of the New York Times reported today that Russia, China, and Iran are amplifying the protests “to score geopolitical points abroad and stoke tensions within the United States,” as well as to “undermine President Biden’s reelection prospects.”

It is unclear if the protests will continue during the summer, when fewer students will be on campus.

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

#House Republicans #GOP #MAGA extremists #anti-education #liberty university #Hillsdale #higher education #WAPO #Heather Cox Richardson #Letters From An American #Right Wing attacks on education #student protests #war in Israel #DEI #anti semitic

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nando161mando · 2 months

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😮 John Fugelsang:

"Liberty University, a right wing school created by a segregationist who opened whites-only schools, fined $14million for covering up on-campus rapes."

😮😮😮

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impunkster-syndrome · 8 months

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Also hey fun fact the Liberty University Online Academy has a lesson on suicide and how it is bad without giving any crisis resources and just giving you bible verses. Fucking abhorrent and irresponsible. Wish I had a screenshot of this shit but I remember it so vividly.

I also had to read the sex scene in Paradise Lost as an example of a "good" way to have sex in marriage. Literal required reading was smut. Not as if that was heavily triggering and I was crying to the point I just guessed on all the lesson answers because I could not read it due to my own sexual trauma.

#LUOA #ex fundie #liberty university #ex fundamentalist

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jackofalltrades17 · 2 years

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List of people I would like to personally say "fuck you" to in no particular order:

Elon Musk

Mike Pence

Donald Trump

Vladimir Putin

Amy Coney Barret

Brett Kavanaugh

Clarence Thomas

Majorie Taylor Greene

Kanye West

King Charles III

The Falwells of Liberty University

Ronald Reagan or Ronald Reagan's corpse

I'll probably update this at some point but for now this is good.

#politics #Elon musk #Trump #Putin #amy coney barrett #brett kavanaugh #clarence thomas #most of the Supreme Court really even a lot of Senators too #kanye west #ye #King Charles III #falwell #liberty university #ronald reagan #fuck all of you

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jahmeelahlamb · 1 year

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Liberty University

As many of you know, I have been working on my masters and only had one class to go. If any of you where blessed to be in the mind melt with me you know that I blessed so many with my therapy that you had to go and seek one-on-one counseling. Which that in it self was good. After that I was under the watchful eye of Dr. Sherry, therapist to the stars and she was able to get me some hands on experience. A lot of other therapist who wanted to meet me and see if I was the real deal came to me to help me with therapy. Most received hours and supervision by Dr. Sherry and a few got the boot because they weren't there to help they were just there to get the hours. I turned them away. This will help in me getting my Master's in Human Services at Liberty University. I will more then likely be a inspirational speaker like Iyanla Vanzant. Who inspires and motivates.

#iyanla vanzant #liberty university

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the-happy-man · 2 years

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Jerry Falwell Sr was a homophobic televangelist whose endorsement helped Ronald Reagan (a divorced former Hollywood actor) beat Jimmy Carter (a Baptist Sunday school teacher) in the 1980 presidential contest and launch a conservative project that culminated in the demise of the constitutional right to abortion.

#newer news from nowhere #midterms #jerry falwell jr.#christian hatred #religious hypocrisy #devil worship #homophobia #the parasite one percent #p1p #liberty university

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ftblqbs · 1 year

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#liberty university

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athleticperfection1 · 2 years

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Liberty Basketball

#Liberty University #Liberty Flames #basketball girls #college basketball #female athletes #college athletes #athletes in bikinis

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talentondemandnow · 2 years

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Leaders are held to a higher standard.

As an Alumni, I have a great deal of concern over the lack of leadership over the past 12+ years at Liberty University. Jerry Prevo and the entire board knew something was tremendously wrong in the behaviors of Jerry Falwell Jr., yet only one board member had the courage to resign. That person was Mark DeMoss.

Dr. Jerry Falwell Senior used to say the following, relentlessly in chapel when I was a student, 1976-1980.

"Everything rises and falls on leadership."

The fact that the bored ignored red flags including massive hotel bills, jet plane and travel expenses to begin with, has cost LU in huge ways. The Trust of LU is now gone. This could have been prevented.

The entire board and Prevo need to resign and be replaced.

Donors are watching.

Rich Cook

BruceandCindy McCoy

Liberty University Alumni Network

Liberty University Friends

Liberty University

Liberty University Online Programs

Liberty Flames

#liberty university #jerryprevo #cucklife

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ntgospel · 13 days

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Universidade faz evento de adoração para o encerramento de semestre

Confira a novidade em https://ntgospel.com/noticias/educacao/universidade-faz-evento-de-adoracao-para-o-encerramento-de-semestre

Universidade faz evento de adoração para o encerramento de semestre

Segundo a CBN News e com informações do Gospel Prime, no contexto de um clima social cada vez mais polarizado e marcado por conflitos em diversas universidades, a Liberty University se destacou ao realizar um evento de encerramento de semestre permeado por fé e união. No dia 24 de abril, estudantes se reuniram no gramado próximo à União Estudantil de Montview para uma noite de oração, adoração e leitura da Bíblia.

Detalhes do Evento

Local: Gramado próximo à União Estudantil de Montview

Data: quarta-feira, 24 de abril de 2024

Atividades: Oração, adoração e leitura da Bíblia

Líder: Jonathan Falwell, líder da universidade e pastor da Igreja Batista Thomas Road em Lynchburg

Significado do Evento

Celebração da Fé: O evento serviu como um momento para a comunidade da Liberty University celebrar sua fé compartilhada e fortalecer seus laços em Cristo.

Testemunho de Unidade: Em contraste com as tensões e conflitos presentes em outras instituições de ensino superior, a Liberty University ofereceu um exemplo positivo de unidade e comunhão entre seus alunos.

Tradição Anual: A noite de oração e adoração é uma tradição na Liberty University, refletindo o compromisso da instituição com os valores cristãos e a vida espiritual de seus estudantes.

Reações e Impacto

Figuras Públicas: Autoridades como o governador da Virgínia, Glen Youngkin, elogiaram a postura da Liberty University, destacando a importância do amor, do respeito e da liberdade religiosa no ambiente acadêmico.

Líderes Religiosos: Personalidades religiosas como Eric Metaxas e Sean Feucht também expressaram sua admiração pela iniciativa da Liberty University, defendendo a necessidade de colocar Deus no centro das universidades como forma de promover a paz e combater o ódio.

Marcha em Nova York: Inspirados pela Liberty University, Eric Metaxas e Sean Feucht lideraram uma marcha em apoio a Israel na cidade de Nova York, reunindo milhares de pessoas para defender a paz e combater o antissemitismo.

Conclusão

O evento de encerramento do semestre na Liberty University demonstra o poder transformador da fé e da união em um mundo marcado por divisões. A iniciativa da universidade serve como um modelo inspirador para outras instituições de ensino superior, evidenciando a importância de cultivar valores como o amor, o respeito e a compreensão em meio à diversidade.

#antissemitismo #avivamento das universidades #evento de adoração #Leitura Bíblica #Liberty University #Universidade Cristã

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corvikari · 2 months

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Warning: mentions of Sexual Assault, links to professional articles that describe sex scandals, rape, and murder.

It has come to my attention that the online school I attend (you may have heard of it, Liberty University) has been heavily involved in the silencing of Sexual Assault victims, racism, discrimination, and more (Links to various articles as well as the wikipedia page at the bottom of this post).

I am already enrolled in online classes so there is not anything I can do currently (I’m working towards my associates degree), I want everyone to know that I was not aware of this and I am positive that if my parents knew of this they would not want me on Campus (I trust my parents and don’t try to tell me otherwise). Overall this absolutely disgusts me that they have the audacity to call themselves a Christian Institute when all they’re doing is spreading even more hate and disgust towards Christians. I want to reiterate that I am Christian, these people at LU who are allowing this to happen obviously have a twisted mindset of what Christianity is. Even though they may say they believe in God and have accepted Jesus as their savior it does not always show through their actions. I know this won’t fix any pain that LU has caused victims in the past but I would still like to express that I am extremely sorry that you had to go through that, and it is understandable that that may have damaged your faith severely. However, I ask that you understand that not all Christians are like this, there are just those people that make everyone else look horrible and disgusting and perpetuate an awful stereotype. I don’t quite know how to conclude this post other than just to emphasize that I had no prior knowledge of this and I will not be attending in person (I had thoughts but now it just puts a horrible taste in my mouth and it makes me so uncomfortable to think about.)

Links Below:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberty_University

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/virginia/articles/2024-03-05/liberty-university-agrees-to-unprecedented-14-million-fine-for-failing-to-disclose-crime-data

https://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2023-10-03/liberty-university-failed-to-disclose-crime-data-and-warn-of-threats-for-years-report-says

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/22/opinion/liberty-university-scandal-education.html

https://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2024-03-05/liberty-university-fined-record-14-million-under-federal-crime-reporting-law

(P.S: this post may not be as coherent due to the fact that I had just found all of this out today and I am not in a state where I can put it all out on paper just yet, to be honest I could give a whole essay on this and how shocking it is. If this happened in 2014 I would think “Well that’s not okay at all but at least they’re trying to fix things so it won’t happen again” BUT THERE ARE ARTICLES FROM 3 WEEKS AGO ABOUT THIS CRAP! Anyways stay safe, God bless and have a great rest of your day/week 💜)

#liberty university #allegations #i don’t even know #what to say #im just so angry #and upset #the fact that #I found articles about LU while I’m attending currently makes me so sick and uncomfortable #red flags #stay away #ok i’m done #i’m gonna go to bed now #God bless and slp good

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