Newsletter
August 4, 2025
Stanford Suspends Two Undergraduate Houses After Title VI Investigations
Excerpts (boldface added):
. . . .
“According to the University statement, several reports were filed with the Title VI Office against Kairos after ‘students participating in an extracurricular activity in the house were asked to leave and told, among other things, that the presence of Zionists in the group was making residents of the house uncomfortable.’ ...
“With regards to [Enchanted Broccoli Forest], the Title VI Office said an email sent by EBF’s RAs in June to incoming residents was deemed exclusionary toward white students and male students.
“Part of the email read: ‘Enchanted Broccoli Forest is historically dedicated to uplifting the voices of queer people of color, and thus is committed to being a place of refuge for those who are black, brown, gender-marginalized, and FLI. If you are white/white-passing, or if you are a man, do understand that you are being invited into space that wasn’t and isn’t made for you. We welcome you to this community, however ask that you acknowledge and are cognizant of the space you are occupying, and how, by nature, your presence may suffocate.’ ..."
Full article at Stanford Daily and also covered at Stanford Review.
Editor’s note: With the hundreds of administrators and staff in Residential Education; Dean of Students; Community Standards; SHARE; Vaden; Provost; Office of Inclusion, Community and Integrative Learning and, separately, Office of Inclusion, Belonging and Intergroup Communication (the latter of which has just been disbanded per this article in Stanford Daily) and an unknown number of other such offices throughout the campus, how is it possible that noninclusive and discriminatory actions like these were taking place, and possibly for many previous years and not just this most recent year? And if the administrators and staff in all of these and other offices throughout the campus knew about these and similar attitudes and actions, why didn’t they raise concerns or, alternatively, did these offices, intentionally or inadvertently, actually condone these types of noninclusive and discriminatory attitudes and actions?
From Stanford's compliance manual: “Adherence to this Code also requires that any suspected violations of applicable standards, policies, laws or regulations be brought to the attention of the appropriate cognizant office.”
See also the letter to all students dated September 17, 2024 from both the provost and the vice provost for student affairs regarding Title VI, bias and related matters. See also “Stanford’s Program re Title VI/Bias” at our Stanford Concerns webpage.
Discriminatory Hiring Practices at Cornell
Excerpts (link in the original, boldface added):
“I’m filing a complaint against Cornell University for racial discrimination.
“This isn’t a political stunt or publicity grab. It’s a last resort in response to a gross injustice that destroyed the career I spent more than a decade building. It’s about holding accountable a powerful institution that violated the law, abandoned its principles, and discriminated against me because of my race.
“I’m an evolutionary biologist, a liberal and a first-generation college graduate. I dreamed of becoming a scientist for as long as I can remember. I pursued that passion for more than 12 years -- earning a doctorate from the University of California, Santa Barbara and completing a postdoctoral position at Pennsylvania State University. Along the way, I was awarded a competitive NSF Graduate Research Fellowship and published nearly 30 peer-reviewed papers in leading academic journals. For my career stage, I was among the top in my field.
“I applied to countless tenure-track positions across the country in 2019 and 2020. One of those applications went to Cornell, for a position in their Neurobiology and Behavior department. Unknown to me, a few months later Cornell initiated a separate search for a faculty member in evolutionary biology -- my exact field -- but kept it confidential. Internal emails now show this was no accident.
“Last month, the America First Policy Institute released internal Cornell emails showing the university conducted an effort to recruit what the search committee referred to as a ‘diversity hire.’ One committee member described the process bluntly: ‘What we should be doing is inviting one person whom we have identified as being somebody that we would like to join our department and not have that person in competition with others.’ ...
“This discriminatory practice, conducted in coordination with Cornell’s Office of the Provost -- led at the time by current Cornell President Michael Kotlikoff -- violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of race.
“Let my case serve as a warning that there is a price for violating civil rights.”
Full op-ed at WSJ.
See also “Music Professor Obtains $725,000 Settlement Resulting from Attacks for His Views re Music Theory” at Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism: “When professors face career destruction for engaging in scholarly debate and university administrators cave to activist pressure rather than defend intellectual freedom, students are taught that thoughtful dissent leads to punishment. They learn that conformity is safer than critical thinking, that ideological purity matters more than rigorous inquiry, and that courage is punished while cowardice is rewarded.” More about the controversy here.
DOJ Memo Outlines Unlawful College and University Practices
Excerpt (links in the original, boldface added):
“‘Race based scholarships,’ ‘preferential hiring,’ and other DEI initiatives are ‘unlawful practices,’ the Department of Justice warned in a recent memo.
“The [July 29, 2025] memo ‘clarifies that federal antidiscrimination laws apply to programs or initiatives that involve discriminatory practices, including those labeled as Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (‘DEI’) programs,’ according to a news release.
“Much of the memo specifically focuses on education policies that are ‘unlawful’ or may be.
“The memo lists several examples of ‘unlawful practices.’ ...”
Full article at College Fix. See also Inside Higher Ed. Also, for current and future reference, we have posted a PDF copy of the DOJ memo here.
1 in 2 Graduates Say Their College Major Didn’t Prepare Them for Today’s Market
Excerpt (link in the original, boldface added):
“As today’s college graduates struggle to start a steady career, 1 in 2 Americans say their college major didn’t prepare them for the job market, according to a June 18 report from Preply.
“Beyond that, 1 in 6 Americans who went to college said they regret it. When thinking about their college experience, college graduates said their top regrets included taking out student loans, not networking more and not doing internships.
“One of the main concepts of seeking higher education after high school is that college will prepare you for the rest of your life. While some graduates leave their alma mater feeling prepared to enter the workforce and begin their career, others feel underprepared,” according to the report.
“In a survey of more than 1,700 Americans with an undergraduate degree, 29% said they wished they picked a different major, and 18% said they regretted the institution they attended....”
Full article at Higher Ed Dive.
Samples of Current Teaching, Research and Other Activities at Stanford
Click on each article for direct access; selections are from Stanford Report and other Stanford websites.
Antibody Enables Stem Cell Transplants Without Toxic Side Effects
Virtual Scientists Help Solve Complex Biological Problems
Designing Fair and Trustworthy AI Systems
Competing Issues re Antidepressants for Kids and Teens
“A university is fundamentally about inquiry. That means putting the intellectual and educational mission first.” -- Former University of Chicago President Robert J. Zimmer