“Are college job fairs and recruiting doomed as discriminatory activities? In February, a District Court in California ruled that job applicants could maintain a disparate impact claim under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) challenging the practice of recruiting entry-level workers mostly through a program available only to recent college graduates.” Other courts, however, have adopted standards markedly less favorable toward age discrimination plaintiffs. Eric Dreiband of Jones Day discusses in a Federalist Society podcast. More: Roy Maurer, SHRM on PWC (Price Waterhouse Coopers) class action.
Posts Tagged ‘colleges and universities’
Campus climate roundup
- “Explore the unthinkable”: invite a speaker whose message makes you uneasy [Walter M. Kimbrough, Chronicle of Higher Education]
- “The Pseudo-Science of Microaggressions” [Althea Nagai, National Association of Scholars via George Leef, Martin Center]
- Imagine setting out to combat the influence of the Greeks and Romans in American life — by vandalizing college fraternities [Jillian Kay Melchior on University of Texas episode]
- Hereditary intelligentsia and self-actualizing graduate study: “Lessons from Mid-Century Soviet Higher Education” [Alex Usher via Tyler Cowen]
- Some resemblances between “get them off campus” campaigns against George Soros in Hungary, Koch brothers here [Alberto Mingardi]
- “Some who in private were sympathetic to Tuvel, felt compelled to join in the attacking mob.” [Kelly Oliver, Philosophical Salon] More on Rebecca Tuvel/Hypatia furor: Jesse Singal/New York, Daily Nous, Jason Brennan (“Personally, I’d say that failing to fully engage critical theory is a feature, not a bug, of the paper.”), commenter on Singal article (“Hypatia herself, the journal’s namesake, was murdered by a mob in the year 415.”).
Free speech roundup
- “Keeping this case in a pending status gives us one hell of a club” — how Nixon used antitrust to intimidate media [Guy Rolnik, Stigler Center ProMarket] For ruthlessness in bullying hostile press, Nixon and LBJ had nothing on FDR and his New Dealers [David Beito]
- In which I display impatience with Claremont Colleges student no-platformers who signed a letter defending speaker shout-downs and demanding that conservative student journalists be disciplined [Scott Greenfield, more from Heather Mac Donald, earlier on shout-down of Mac Donald] More: statement by FIRE president Greg Lukianoff on situation at UC Berkeley. And: the campus speech wars reach Hood College [my new Free State Notes post]
- Three reasons, none of them flattering, why GOP lawmakers might sign onto wacky tollgate-for-adult-material scheme [Elizabeth Nolan Brown; Ben Collins and Brandy Zadrozny, Daily Beast with more on promoter Chris Sevier and so-called Human Trafficking Prevention Act]
- American Legislative Exchange Council, conservative group of state legislators that has itself been a target of anti-speech campaigns, launches Center to Protect Free Speech with focus on campus speech, donor privacy and commercial speech;
- Flemming Rose: “I’m Not Willing to Sacrifice Freedom of Expression on the Altar of Cultural Diversity” [Reason interview with Nick Gillespie]
- “But is it not shocking that virtuous characters should be defamed?” replied the Baron. “Let their actions refute such libels,” continued the President. An anecdote of Jefferson and Humboldt [David Post]
Higher education roundup
- U.S. Department of Education and Title IX: “The Office for Civil Rights Is Still Out of Control” [KC Johnson]
- Mobility penalty: “The residency requirement in Cuomo’s free tuition plan makes a bad idea worse” [Beth Akers]
- Loyalty oaths? Many colleges now require diversity statements for hiring and promotion [George Leef] Public college expels nursing student for breach of professional ethics code that includes ideological commitments, Supreme Court should review [Ilya Shapiro and David McDonald/Cato, Eugene Volokh on petition for certiorari in Keefe v. Adams]
- Maryland lawmakers move to bar colleges from asking applicants about criminal records [WYPR; Michael Dresser, Baltimore Sun]
- “Colleges and the First Amendment” [video, Federalist Society panel with Michael McConnell, Philip Hamburger, et al.] Eugene Volokh presentation on free speech on campus Reason video, etc.
- “Torch the miscreant, resanctify the community.” Laura Kipnis attends a Title IX trial [Chronicle of Higher Education, (from her forthcoming book); more at Reason]
No-platforming Heather Mac Donald, and the emerging no-go campus
Last week a chanting mob at Claremont McKenna College in California successfully prevented a scheduled speech by prominent conservative author Heather Mac Donald, long a colleague of mine in my days at the Manhattan Institute. I’ve got a new piece at Minding the Campus discussing some of the impediments American universities face in effectively protecting visiting speakers, including one big problem with the threat, which is that much of it is coming from inside the building.
More: Heather Mac Donald’s own account; Andrew Sullivan last month; Steve Bainbridge; John McGinnis.
DC may require child care workers to have college degrees
Among other effects, it will make care more expensive, and will saddle some child carers with unwanted and burdensome student debt. How did humanity ever raise children before there were college degrees? [Washington Post] More: Ryan Bourne, Cato (measure proceeds from debatable premise “that child care should be seen as formal pre-school education rather than whatever parents decide is best for their children”), and follow-up (“policy: restrict supply, then subsidize it”).
Free speech roundup
- “Utah poised to outlaw mentioning people’s names online with intent to ‘abuse’ or ‘harass’” [Eugene Volokh]
- In win for Paul Alan Levy, Eugene Volokh & co., filer of fake R.I. lawsuits aimed at search engine takedown agrees to settle [Consumer Law & Policy, earlier]
- Activists shut down speech at Ontario university by criminal defense lawyer who helped CBC radio host beat sex-assault rap [David Millard Haskell, Toronto Star; Wilfrid Laurier University, Brampton invitation to Danielle Robitaille] More: Richard Reeves and Dimitrios Halikias, Brookings on Middlebury case and the “bad news for free speech.” Related: [walks to window, closes blinds as if somehow to keep Christopher Hitchens from seeing what has happened to Slate]
- North Carolina law prohibits released sex offenders from using Facebook, other social media. Consistent with First Amendment? [Packingham v. North Carolina at the Supreme Court: Cato amicus brief and Ilya Shapiro/Devin Watkins blog post, Federalist Society preview and oral argument podcasts, Issie Lapowsky/Wired]
- Featuring Frank Buckley, Robert Corn-Revere, and Flemming Rose, John Samples moderating: “Cato Panel Discusses Free Speech, Media, and Trump” [Campaign Freedom] And while on the topic of libel laws: “TechDirt deserves a vigorous defense.” [Eric Turkewitz, earlier]
- “Another Convicted Felon Tries To Use The DMCA Process To Erase DOJ Press Releases About His Criminal Acts” [Tim Cushing, TechDirt]
Higher education roundup
- “If this becomes the new normal… the intellectual thugs will take over many campuses….A minority of faculty are cowing a majority in the same way that a minority of students are cowing the majority.” Why Charles Murray is pessimistic following the Middlebury attack [AEI] Frank Bruni on the Middlebury events and “the dangerous safety of college” [New York Times]
- “Faculty and students need to be free to express ideas and viewpoints rather than be penalized for their politics.” [letter from group of Wellesley alumnae]
- Finally! Federal government in January opened door for universities to relax some of their IRB (institutional review board) scrutiny of human-subjects research in low-risk areas not involving medical intervention [Richard Shweder and Richard Nisbett, Chronicle of Higher Education, related Institutional Review Blog] Update: some annotations/corrections from Michelle Meyer;
- “Colorado student expelled for raping his girlfriend, even though both he and his girlfriend both deny the charge.” [Robby Soave/Reason on CSU-Pueblo case, via (and described by) Radley Balko] “End federal micromanagement of college discipline under Title IX” [Hans Bader/CEI, and related] “Maybe I’m drunk, but this doesn’t seem fair” [The Safest Space on “both were drunk, he got charged” poster]
- What, no taxpayer dollars to pursue favored legal causes? North Carolina proposal would bar public universities from representing lawsuit clients [Caron/TaxProf]
- I hadn’t followed the “New Civics” movement. It sounds pretty bad [George Leef, Martin Center]
The ADA takes Berkeley courses offline
Andrew Ferguson on the ADA-inflicted loss of one university’s public treasury of online course materials: “UC Berkeley, needless to say, is deeply involved in the disability rights movement and has gone to great lengths to keep it satisfied.” None of which did it any good facing off against activist groups and the U.S. Justice Department, so now thousands of free lectures and other materials are set to come down. And some historical perspective: “After the ADA the country was much less free but its rulers were much more pleased with themselves.” [Andrew Ferguson, Weekly Standard] More: Hans Bader/CEI, earlier.
“College bro blames school for his drunken punching rampage”
“A New Jersey man convicted of randomly punching fellow students at a Massachusetts university is now suing Endicott College, claiming the school was lax in enforcing underage drinking laws.” [Joshua Rhett Miller, New York Post]