Why Evolution is True is a blog written by Jerry Coyne, centered on evolution and biology but also dealing with diverse topics like politics, culture, and cats.
This article from The Liberal Patriot Substack has been making the rounds, perhaps because it argues, using data, that—regardless of efforts from both the Right and Left to quash free speech and academic freedom— higher education “seems to have turned a corner” on wokeness. (If you don’t like the word, suggest another.) The university culture, … Continue reading Have we reached peak woke?
Now that the horrors committed by Hamas in Israel are being revealed in detail, colleges and universities are issuing statements about the Israel/Palestine war. As I adhere to the University of Chicago’s Kalven Principles of institutional neutrality, I don’t think any such statements should take sides, even though I think that there’s a clear right-and-wrong … Continue reading How uber-Woke colleges respond publicly to the horrific slaughter, rape, and kidnapping by Hamas
I’ve spent a lot of time writing and working to try to get colleges and universities—especially mine—to refrain from issuing official political, ideological, or moral statements save under exceptional circumstances. Freedom of speech is a sine qua non for a decent university, and that goes along with a university not trying to stifle or chill … Continue reading Chair of Stanford’s Department of Computer Science sends out woke and confusing email affirming his department’s virtue
Although the word “woke” and its derivatives seem to trigger some readers, I still can’t find a good substitute. I just read Andrew Doyle’s new book, The New Puritans: How the Religion of Social Justice Captured the Western World, and I see that that Doyle doesn’t much like “woke” either. (His book is a good … Continue reading Pamela Paul’s funny (and trenchant) op-ed on campus free speech (trigger warning: many harmful words!)
This article at Inside Higher Ed (click on screenshot below) describes the contents of a four-page letter sent to Joe Biden and Kamala Harris by 40 educational associations asking for the Prez and Vice-Prez to undo many of the changes to U.S. colleges and universities enacted by the Trump administration. In general, the request is … Continue reading Educational organizations urge Biden to get more woke about education, but many of their recommendations aren’t great
Two days ago I reported that the University of Southern California’s (USC’s) School of Social Work had highlighted the word “field” as a racist term, for it was used in the phrase “field hand”, referring to enslaved people forced to do agricultural labor. Below is part of the memorandum issued by the School’s “Practicum Education … Continue reading USC’s highlighting of “field” as a racist word perplexes the students
For a long time, The University of Chicago has been in the top 5 schools in the “free-speech” rankings of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE). Last year we were #1, and our average ranking has been #4. This, plus the fact that over 85 schools have adopted a version of Chicago’s “free … Continue reading FIRE’s new college free-speech rankings: Chicago plummets to #13, but many “elite” schools are at the bottom, with Harvard, rated “abysmal”, holding down last place
While “land acknowledgments”—in which organizations admit that they’re operating on land stolen from indigenous people—are becoming quite common, I have no truck with them. They are paragons of Woke virtue signaling: an admission that one’s predecessors did wrong, but are never accompanied by reparations or attempts to give the land back. In other words, you … Continue reading University of Washington professor disciplined for posting a non-compliant “land acknowledgment” on his syllabus, sues the university.
