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College Insurrection Tag

Here at LI, we've been covering the various attempts by the left to use global warming climate change as an excuse for everything from a falsely predicted "bee-pocalypse" to #Brexit to the rise of ISIS (or is that vice versa?). Bored with pointing out how climate change is responsible for everything bad in the world, some progressives have switched over to urging population control in the name of their "settled" science.  This time it's not an intellectual exercise, it's being "taught" by Johns Hopkins' Travis Rieder. NPR reports:
Standing before several dozen students in a college classroom, Travis Rieder tries to convince them not to have children. Or at least not too many. He's at James Madison University in southwest Virginia to talk about a "small-family ethic" — to question the assumptions of a society that sees having children as good, throws parties for expecting parents, and in which parents then pressure their kids to "give them grandchildren." Why question such assumptions? The prospect of climate catastrophe.

Last fall, Louisiana State University (LSU) reached out to University of South Carolina (USC) when their state had epic floods, offering them space and transferring their home stadium into USC's home stadium. Now USC has decided to return the favor as Louisiana faces historical flooding that has killed 13 people:
"LSU was so gracious to assist us in our time of need," South Carolina president Harris Pastides said in a statement. "Now it is our turn to help our SEC friends. I encourage all Gamecocks to drop off items needed for the Baton Rouge flood relief."

Oregon State University will force incoming Freshmen to complete an online program in social justice. If progressive ideas are so attractive and important, why must they always be required? The College Fix reports:
Oregon State to force ‘social justice’ training on freshmen Oregon State University is developing an online course centered on “social justice” that new students will soon be required to take.

Hillary Clinton claims she has no intention of repealing the Second Amendment and her allies in media regularly dispel such notions as the stuff of conspiracy theories. If you ask her young supporters however, you hear a very different story. Campus Reform reports:
VIDEO: Hillary supporters want to repeal the 2nd Amendment Throughout the 2016 campaign, Hillary Clinton has been adamant in her support of gun control—an issue that has dominated the national conversation in the wake of terrorist attacks in Orlando, Paris, Nice, and San Bernardino.

We recently reported that some students at Pitzer College placed an ad for a roommate which specifically requested a person of color. The story set off a firestorm in academia and media as some people wondered if this qualified as racism. Two of the students involved have commented on the story. One claims it's impossible for him to be racist and the other says she just wanted to create a safe space. From AOL News:
Students seeking non-white roommate spark nationwide debate For some college kids, trying to land the perfect roomie can be a complete fail. That's why two students at Pitzer College in California decided to recruit a fourth roommate using Facebook. But, after listing "POC Only" as one of the requirements social media critics gave them a lesson on discrimination.

An advertisement on Facebook for a roommate has sparked a debate about race at a California college that has, in turn, become a national dialogue about race. The Washington Post reports:
In most respects, the roommate-wanted notice seemed routine. Three students at the Claremont colleges in Southern California were looking for a fourth this summer to join them in an off-campus house. They added a caveat in parentheses: “POC only,” they said, using a common abbreviation for people of color. When a classmate challenged that condition, the Pitzer College student who posted the notice on Facebook pushed back. “It’s exclusive [because] I don’t want to live with any white folks,” wrote Karé Ureña, who is black. To some, Ureña’s request was completely understandable following a racially charged year when many students of color had demanded more support from the administration. To others, it was simple racism to exclude potential roommates based on skin color. The thread fit into the heated discussions about race, identity, culture, freedom of speech and campus “safe spaces” that have played out at colleges across the country, from Yale to Missouri and beyond.

The progressive left is apparently intent on confusing and traumatizing children when it comes to "gender identity."  The latest example of this mission is a unicorn coloring exercise in which children are asked to color their unicorn to match the gender they "feel" is their own. The Washington Free Beacon reports:
“Gender Unicorns” that kids can color in to express their “gender identity” are now being distributed in schools across the country. A transgender advocacy group is providing schools with the cartoon of a purple unicorn who appears to be thinking about the LGBT rainbow, causing outrage from parents. . . . The group, Trans Student Educational Resources, says the Gender Unicorn is an upgrade from the “Genderbread Person,” another cartoon graphic about gender identity targeting children.
The gender unicorn coloring page:

While it is not new, there is an intensifying push in progressive circles, particularly among leftist Jews, to blame everything wrong in the Israeli-Arab conflict on the "occupation" of Judea and Samaria (aka the West Bank) by Israel. If only Israel would withdraw, then all would be good, it is claimed. Never mind that there is no evidence the result would be anything other than another launching pad to attack as happened when Israel left Gaza in 2005; or that Muslims will accept any Jewish national entity, regardless of shape, to occupy any portion of what now is Israel. Such facts don't get in the way of the narrative, which assesses terrorism as a result of the "occupation" and plays fast and loose with concepts of international law. (See, The Legal Case for Israel  and The Legal Case for Israel’s ‘Settlements’, as to why the "occupation" is not illegal, nor are the settlements.) This inverted assessment of terrorism is on full display in an Op-Ed in The Providence Journal by Nina Tannenwald, Director of the International Relations Program, and Senior Lecturer in Political Science, at The Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University .

A war has been declared on Israel on campus by faculty and students supporting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. The rallying cry is to blacklist those acting on behalf of Israeli academic institutions or participating in "normalization" events, such as musical and cultural events. On the faculty academic front, we have seen groups such as the American Studies Association and some smaller groups blacklist Israeli academics representing their institutions, as part of a formal academic boycott. That boycott has been declared by the American Association of University Professors to be a violation of academic freedom. There also are many reports from Israeli academics of a silent boycott, in which individual U.S. professors refuse to interact with individual Israeli scholars and students, resulting in denied access to journals for publication and peer reviews. The claim by many pro-BDS faculty members that BDS does not target individuals is an outright lie.

Over the last year, colleges across the country have bent over backwards to accommodate student protests but they're now finding out there are consequences for that. Many alumni donors are making their disapproval known by withholding donations and that should be setting off alarm bells in the office of every college administrator. The New York Times reports:
College Students Protest, Alumni’s Fondness Fades and Checks Shrink Scott MacConnell cherishes the memory of his years at Amherst College, where he discovered his future métier as a theatrical designer. But protests on campus over cultural and racial sensitivities last year soured his feelings.

For years we have been documenting the efforts by anti-Israel activists to stoke racial hatred of Israel through the concept of "intersectionality" - the notion that all revolutionary struggles, particularly against racism, are connected. The almost exclusive focus, however, is Israel.  Hence, Israel is falsely blamed for local police shootings of blacks in the U.S. based upon false and misleading claims I debunked in my post, Exposed: Years-long effort to blame Israel for U.S. police shootings of blacks. The movement to connect Ferguson-to-Palestine launched after the Michael Brown shooting, and has been a singular focus of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) activists ever since. Ferguson Palestine contingent

Prager University has published a new video which is an instant classic. Haverford College student Olivia Legaspi compares her experiences as a college student to her job at McDonald's which gave her the opportunity to attend college and explains why her job was more educational. Legaspi suggests that when she was working at McDonald's, there were no trigger warnings before irate customers complained to her and no safe spaces to which she could retreat.

As of today, Texas' Campus Carry law is effective. Texas' law is not a blanket invite for any and all gun owners to bring firearms on college campuses. Only Concealed Carry permit-holders are allowed to pack heat on campus (minimum age to do obtain a CHL in 21), and even then, certain buildings are off limits. Open carry is not permitted. Private universities were allowed to opt-out of the law, and most did, including Baylor, Texas Christian University, Rice University and Southern Methodist University.