FEDS TELL MED SCHOOLS TO STOP DISCRIMINATING. Seriously, can all these institutions please just stop engaging in racial discrimination? Just judge people as individuals. You have admission and hiring processes to allow for precisely that. Until they can make this happen, nobody has any reason to believe anything they say.

THE GREAT UN-WOKENING MEETS THE CAMPUS RESISTANCE: On carbon neutrality at Duke, in this case, but expect plenty more.

MARK BAUERLEIN ON HOW ENGLISH PROFS SHOT THEMSELVES IN THE FOOT. I wanted to take Shakespeare in college. I couldn’t–too few open courses on that, plenty on fringe weirdness. Now English majors are endangered.

“WHY DO COLLEGES MAKE PEOPLE UNHAPPY?” These people can ruin literally anything.

“OUR DEPARTMENT’S FINAL MISSION.” From Secretary of Education Linda McMahon.

THE RATIONAL BASIS TEST IS AN UNCONSTITUTIONAL KLUDGE. So argues Clark Neily for Cato, and the argument is not crazy at all. In fact, I am a little embarrassed it hadn’t occurred to me before.

WHY JOHNNY [WON’T] READ, COLLEGE EDITION. Man, my kids are so doomed.

WHY AREN’T COLLEGE PRESIDENTS SAYING MORE ABOUT TRUMP? There are reasons, good and bad, but the article overlooks the fact that many of them know their power is built on a throne of unlawful discrimination and censorship.

WHAT IS GOING ON WITH UNITED HEALTHCARE? Billionaire Bill Ackman is over here doing deep dive journalism that the media won’t do. The way United Healthcare is acting about its rep calling a doctor out of surgery to hassle her about coverage is weird, any way you slice it.

COLLEGE CLOSURES: A BLESSING IN DISGUISE? I’d love to see a few conservative billionaires pick up some campuses for cheap. The demand for a place where people can just be “normal,” 80s-90s-type college kids is far greater than the supply.

ONGOING RACIAL DISCRIMINATION BY ‘THE PHD PROJECT”? 11 universities in NC, and many others across America, are paying $3,000-$5,000 a year to be part of a group holding conferences that specifically exclude whites and Asians.

Grutter and the subsequent 25 years of lies about racial preferences has been nearly as destructive to race relations as the previous iteration of “separate but equal.” It’s probably O’Connor’s greatest mistake.

NORTH CAROLINA LEADING THE WAY ON CAMPUS FREE SPEECH POLICIES. Lots of unironically good news. But as Professor Stephen Porter points out in “I’ve declared war on DEI at NC State,” you’re going to see plenty of resistance to actually following the rules.

IF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN IS GIVING UP ON DEI, DEI IS REALLY IN TROUBLE. U of M has been one of its most prominent boosters, historically.

AI TEACHING INTELLIGENT DISAGREEMENT ON CAMPUS. And it seems to work. I for one welcome this particular set of AI overlords.

CRUSHING FREE INQUIRY MAKES ALMOST NOBODY HAPPY, YET IT KEEPS HAPPENING. From an outside look at FIRE’s faculty survey of 6000+ profs: “Things are actually pretty bad all around. Anywhere from 20 percent (research topics) to 56 percent (email and social media) of all faculty reported self-censoring in some context.”

UNIVERSITY ‘INSTITUTIONAL REVIEW BOARDS’ ARE OUT OF CONTROL. “In one study, researchers sent three versions of an application for a proposed study to university IRBs. When the topic of the proposed study was discrimination against short or obese applicants in hiring, the proposal sailed through IRB approval. However, an identical study on discrimination against women or minorities was denied about half the time, and about two-thirds of proposed studies on discrimination against white males were not approved.”

GEORGIA JOINS STATES SHUTTING DOWN CAMPUS DEI PROGRAMS. I share the concerns many have that they are just moving the efforts to places where they can be hidden more easily. I am sure a lot of that will happen. At the same time, I think many will be surprised just how much the most destructive parts of DEI relied on being the established religion in our institutions.

2 MINUTES UNTIL THE LIKELY SUPREME COURT RULING ON TIKTOK. Whatever they decide, and whatever you may think of TikTok, setting the deadline at January 19 was a ridiculous stunt. If the national security concerns were so profound and obvious that they warrant banning a whole platform, they’d be just as obvious on January 21.

UPDATE: The decision is out. The Court upheld the ban, but they don’t seem all that happy about it.

REFORMERS ASK: WHAT’S THE ACTUAL GOAL OF HIGHER ED? Students overwhelmingly say it’s to get a job. But it’s not efficient at delivering on that, and that’s not the traditional goal of higher ed (nor, in my opinion, should it be–that should be K-12 and tech schools.) So what are we going for? Interesting thoughts here.

THREE-YEAR MED SCHOOLS ARE COMING. IS DOOM NIGH? I’m of two minds on this. On one hand, med school appears to have a lot of pointless scut work that is meant not to educate but to weed people out. On the other, you do have to worry about lowered standards. That said, your perspective on doctors changes a bit when you get older and you realize that the dude who was no smarter than you are and who you last saw doing a keg stand at “The Hazards of Duke” party in 1997 is now a respected cardiologist.

HIGHER ED REFORMS TO CHEER FOR IN 2025. I do a lot of Title IX stuff and I didn’t know that the Biden admin was planning to apply Title IX to name, image, and likeness money for college athletes. (The suggested reform is stopping that, BTW.) Putting access to those billions in the hands of the Title IX apparatus is a nightmare scenario.

WHAT TODAY’S ECONOMICS STUDENTS AREN’T LEARNING ABOUT ECONOMICS. Yeah, I know, it’s tempting to say “everything…”

HISTORY CENSORSHIP AT GEORGETOWN. This is why nobody “trusts the experts” — scholars no longer judge one another on expertise.

NC GOVERNOR’S SCHOOL SUMMER PROGRAM IS MISEDUCATING ELITE HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS. Another miserable DEI takeover ruins a valuable institution for gifted kids. I attended Duke’s TIP program in the early 90s in high school and it was life-changing for me. Duke killed it off thanks to COVID and the “racial reckoning.” But would I have sent my kids anyway? They would have loved the 90s TIP. Today? I’m not so sure.

DOGE SHOULD ELIMINATE THE AIR FORCE. IT’S USELESS. They had one job–keep the bad guys out of our airspace. Unknown “car-sized” drones are flying all over NJ and NY and they do nothing. How is this not a bigger story?