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Chicago Tribune
6 days ago
- Politics
- Chicago Tribune
Jonathan Zimmerman: Why higher education needs diversity in viewpoints
At a court hearing in Boston on Monday, Harvard University charged the Donald Trump administration with violating the university's free speech rights. The White House had threatened to cut Harvard's funding unless the school took action to insure 'viewpoint diversity' in its different departments. You can't have a free university — or a free country — if the government is telling you which viewpoints you need to enhance or suppress, Harvard argued. As one of its lawyers told the court, that's a 'blatant, unrepentant violation of the First Amendment.' He's right, and I hope the court agrees. But I also hope that Harvard — and the rest of higher education — uses this moment to broaden viewpoint diversity, especially in our classrooms. The White House shouldn't force it upon us, which is clearly unconstitutional. Instead, we should widen it ourselves. That's because our first duty is to open students' minds. And that won't happen if we're closing them off to different ways of seeing the world. In a recent study of 27 million college syllabuses collected by the Open Syllabus Project, scholars at Claremont McKenna College showed that professors rarely assign readings that take contrasting perspectives. For example, classes requiring Michelle Alexander's influential book 'The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarcertation in the Age of Colorblindness' — which blames white racism for the war on drugs — almost never assign texts by authors such as Michael Fortner, who claims that African Americans were a key constituency pressing for draconian drug laws. Likewise, professors who assign Palestinian scholar Edward Said's 'Orientalism' — which connects Zionism to Western ideas of cultural superiority — rarely pair it with 'Occidentalism,' by Ian Buruma and Avishai Margalit, who argue that the West is caricatured by intellectuals around the world. The point here isn't that that Alexander and Said are wrong and their critics are right. It's that our students won't learn — or learn well — if we expose them to just one or the other. And they certainly won't learn if our universities fail to protect faculty members who dissent from the conventional wisdom. That sends the message that there's one way to think, which is the enemy of real education in all times and places. Between 2000 and 2022, universities sanctioned nearly 1,080 professors for speech that is 'protected by the First Amendment,' according to the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. And since the Hamas attack on Israel in October 2023, 40 professors have been investigated by universities for pro-Palestinian speech, and nine have been fired. That's our own fault. As Harvard told the court on Monday, the government shouldn't be telling us which professors to hire and fire based on its perception of their viewpoints. But nor should universities judge people according to their politics. All that should matter is the quality of their research and teaching. Alas, we haven't always adhered to that principle. At Harvard, for example, the prominent biologist Carole Hooven became a campus pariah in 2021 after she told Fox News that gender could take any number of forms, but there were just two biological sexes: male and female. The director of her department's diversity and inclusion task force denounced Hooven's 'transphobic and harmful' comments. Graduate students refused to serve as teaching assistants for her popular course about hormones. And nobody atop Harvard's administration spoke up for Hooven, who suffered severe mental health challenges and eventually resigned. The issue came up in the fateful 2023 congressional testimony of Harvard President Claudine Gay, who was asked why 'a call for violence against Jews' is 'protected speech' but saying that 'sex is biological' isn't. Gay, who stepped down a few weeks later, replied that Harvard supports 'constructive dialogue, even on the most complex and divisive issues.' Please. The meaning of sex is a hugely complex and divisive issue, but the university didn't support Hooven's efforts to dialogue constructively about it. Instead, it hung her out to dry. If you're the kind of professor who is outraged by the dismissal of pro-Palestinian scholars, you need to speak up for people like Hooven. Otherwise, you don't really believe in free speech; you just want freedom for the speech you like. And you're also echoing the Trump administration, which doesn't want real dialogue either. In a social media post following Monday's court hearing, the president called Harvard 'anti-Semitic, anti-Christian, and anti-America.' He has a right to his opinion, of course. But he has no right — none — to impose it on anyone else. As Harvard argued in its court filing, the First Amendment doesn't allow the government to 'advance its own vision of ideological balance.' Nor should it penalize us for expressing views that the president doesn't share. But we owe it to our students to advance viewpoint diversity on our own, no matter what the court rules. Anything less will imitate Trump, all in the guise of resisting him.
Memri
07-07-2025
- Politics
- Memri
Lebanese Researchers Hussain Abdul-Hussain and Hicham Bou Nassif Urge Lebanon to Pursue Peace, and Accept Israel's Existence: Syria Is Ahead of Lebanon in This Respect
Lebanese researchers Hussain Abdul-Hussain and Hicham Bou Nassif advocated for peace with Israel during a June 26, 2025 appearance on MTV (Lebanon). Hussain Abdul-Hussain, an Iraqi-Lebanese researcher based in Washington, D.C., said that the Iran–Israel war revealed Iran to be a 'paper tiger,' noting that Iran only fought for 12 days, while Lebanon fought Israel for 13 months, from October 2023 to November 2024. He argued that Shiites in Lebanon must now recognize that they have been used by the Iranians for years, and he called on all Lebanese, especially Shiites, to embrace a new phase of peace and prosperity. Abdul-Hussain added that Syria was already ahead of Lebanon in this regard and said he wished Lebanon would follow the examples of Jordan and Turkey. Jordan, he noted, has benefited economically, in terms of security and rule of law, from its peace treaty with Israel, while Turkey maintains diplomatic ties with Israel despite Erdoğan's fiery rhetoric. Hicham Bou Nassif, a political science professor at Claremont McKenna College, said that Lebanon must not allow itself to become a battleground for other nations' wars and should reach a settlement with Israel. He said his research showed that claims Israel covets Lebanese land and water resources are false. While acknowledging that peace may be unpopular, Bou Nassif said he hopes Lebanon can reach a peace agreement with Israel, or at the very least, return to the 1949 Armistice Agreement. He emphasized that Lebanese must come to terms with Israel's existence and said that the 'eternal enmity' toward Israel must come to an end.
The Hill
21-06-2025
- Politics
- The Hill
Newsom's stock rises after clash with Trump
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) is seeing his name rise toward the top of potential 2028 contenders following his fight with President Trump over the unrest in Los Angeles. In the wake of immigration protests that roiled the city and prompted Trump to send in the National Guard without Newsom's approval, the governor has framed himself as the face of resistance to Trump's second-term moves, energizing Democrats and upping his 2028 primary chances in a recent Morning Consult poll. But Democrats also acknowledge Newsom faces an uphill climb as he handles the end of his tenure as governor and navigates the nation's polarized political climate. 'He's doing really well among Democrats, both in California and throughout the nation. He's getting a boost in 2025,' said John Pitney, a politics professor at Claremont McKenna College in California. 'Unfortunately for him, a presidential nomination won't happen until 2028.' Newsom, who emerged during Trump's first administration as a leader of the Democratic resistance, started the year with what appeared to be a friendlier approach to the administration and a GOP-controlled Washington. He struck a conciliatory tone as he lobbied Trump for aid after catastrophic wildfires ravaged California in the winter, and then he made headlines with the launch of a podcast hosting prominent Trump supporters. The moves were a pivot toward the center amid speculation about whether he would launch a 2028 bid. But when Trump responded to protests this month over Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids by sending in hundreds of National Guard troops against Newsom's objections, the governor embraced the face-off. In fiery speeches, TV appearances and social media posts, Newsom has cast Trump's moves in California as executive overreach and warned of an existential fight for democracy, drawing ire from the right. He dared Trump's border czar Tom Homan to arrest him, which Trump later said he'd support. 'Trump is trying to destroy Democracy. Do not let him,' Newsom wrote in his first post on a new Substack page this week. The protests and the clash between the leaders have carried political risks for both sides of the aisle, but they've also intensified the spotlight on the term-limited governor long suspected of having national ambitions. Polling on 2028 is sparse. But in a Morning Consult survey taken June 13-15, as the LA protests were dying down, 11 percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents said they would back Newsom in a 2028 primary, up from 5 percent who said the same in March. Former Vice President Kamala Harris was still the clear front-runner, with 34 percent support, but her backing ticked down 2 points from March — while Newsom overtook both former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.). Newsom has so far stayed quiet about the speculation and his future plans. But he has signaled the door is open to a potential presidential run. 'I'm not thinking about running, but it's a path that I could see unfold,' he told The Wall Street Journal amid his latest feuding with Trump. Pressed on the question by guest Dr. Phil on the 'This is Gavin Newsom' podcast earlier this month, the governor said 'fate will determine that' and noted that he's got his 'hands full' for the next couple years. Democratic strategist Maria Cardona stressed that Newsom's resistance to GOP policies is part of the job description as governor of a big blue state like California — and not necessarily an 'auditioning' for higher office. Still, she said his public sparring with Trump about the protests 'certainly doesn't hurt' his future prospects. 'It highlights and it gives faith to the base of the Democratic Party, independents, frankly, also to common-sense Republicans … that there is fight in the opposition, that there are people willing to confront Trump and go toe to toe with him,' Cardona said. Newsom's high-profile resistance also comes at a key point for the party, as Democrats regroup after a devastating election last year, noted California Democratic strategist Steven Maviglio. 'Democrats are desperate for a leader, and I think he's had his 15 minutes, and that helped him rocket to the top of the latest polls,' Maviglio said. But a swell of energy three years before an election would be hard for any prospective candidate to maintain, experts noted, and Newsom faces some unique hurdles if he ends up pursuing the presidency. For one, California has increasingly become a target of the right, and the protests have given Republicans scenes of chaos to point to as they argue that Democrats are soft on crime and immigration. 'It's both a strength and a weakness … California is 20 percent of the country, so he's got a lot of name ID. He's a major national figure, just by virtue of the fact that he's the governor of a huge state,' said Matt Bennett, Democratic strategist and co-founder of centrist think tank Third Way. 'It's a weakness because California is perceived, fairly or not, as being very blue, very liberal. And he was mayor of San Francisco, which is even more blue and more liberal. So I do think he's got things in his past that are going to make it difficult for him to escape the stereotypical view of Democrats,' Bennett said. The protests are also unlikely to be Newsom's last brush with Trump, and the governor may need to further tweak his approach to help his state get what it needs, noted Pitney, the professor at Claremont McKenna College. 'Whether it's another set of wildfires, an earthquake, mudslides, something bad is going to happen. We know that that is part of living in California. And when that happens, we're going to need federal help, and at that point, he's going to have to turn on the mute button,' Pitney said. To that point, though, some are also questioning whether Newsom's effort to shift gears between conciliatory and confrontational with Trump could be a political liability moving forward. 'His weakness is that he's been all over the map in terms of his relationship with Trump,' Maviglio said. 'He tried to be the accommodating moderate for a few months, and that wasn't working. So now he's become the anti-Trump, and he gained steam from that. But this is precisely why he's not trusted by the progressive wing of the party or the moderate wing, because he's all over the map, and it's been inconsistent.' Bennett, on the other hand, shrugged off concerns about the shift in tone, arguing that Trump is so 'mercurial' in his own right that those engaging with him are 'going to be [as] all over the map as he is.' 'I think that Newsom's fight with Trump is good for him and his standing with the party. He has been resolute and tough, and I think that's probably helping him,' Bennett said. Yet another complication, though, is that Trump won't be on the ballot in 2028 — and opposition to him may not end up as a defining issue. If Newsom does decide to run, he'd have to navigate that new territory, while also dealing with a potentially tricky gap between his exit from the governor's mansion and the election. 'It's always a tough balancing act for governors and others, especially governors who tend to be term limited … to figure out what to do with that awkward year between them leaving office and running for president, and how do you stay relevant?' Bennett said. 'That is a challenge for anyone who's out of office when they go to try to run for president, and it's tough to do.'
The Herald Scotland
11-06-2025
- Politics
- The Herald Scotland
Trump, Newsom each find support and face risks in immigration debate
"In a way, it benefits both Trump and Newsom. Trump's core supporters love dramatic displays of force, and they hate California," John Pitney Jr., a politics professor at Claremont McKenna College, told USA TODAY. "Progressive Democrats hate Trump. They've been leery of Newsom's outreach to conservatives, and his recent statements shore up support on his left." But there are also political threats to both men if the protests drag on, which could make each look ineffective. The additional risk to Newsom's presidential aspirations in 2028 is that other Democrats could come away looking more powerful, such as Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer or Maryland Gov. Wes Moore. "Politically, at least, Newson is in the trickier spot here," William Howell, a political scientist at the University of Chicago, told USA TODAY. Trump campaign on immigration enforcement and has long criticized California Trump and the GOP have long portrayed California as the epitome of bad governance. They've recently poured the blame on Newsom, who was first elected as governor to the nation's most populous state in 2019 and now is in his second term. California's high taxes, homeless problem and other issues have provided the GOP with political fodder for years. "Donald Trump wants to portray California as the epitome of an America gone wrong," said Sonoma State University political science professor David McCuan. The clash between protesters who burned cars, threw rocks and shot fireworks at authorities plays into the GOP's portrayal of California as chaotic. The situation revolves around an issue - undocumented immigration - where Trump believes he has a mandate from voters for mass deportations and strong border security. "Illegal immigration was on top of voters' minds across the country in 2024," said Mark Bednar, a former senior House GOP leadership aide. "And it should shock no one that President Trump is working around the clock to address it." Newsome accuses Trump of political overreach Newsom has condemned the violence, but the pressure from the GOP shows the difficult situation he's in trying to criticize Trump's actions as overreach while also maintaining order in his state. "Newsom, meanwhile, has clear incentives to stand up to Trump and decry his autocratic excesses, which explains his vocal opposition," said Howell from the University of Chicago. "But if he harbors national political ambitions, which he plainly does, then Newsom needs to avoid aligning himself with the most extreme members of the Democratic Party." Matt Lesenyie, a political science professor at California State University Long Beach political, said Newsom is at a "huge disadvantage" against Trump on this issue. "A lot of people, not just Newsom, get hurt with Trump because they let him pick the fight," Lesenyie said. "I think it's too late for Newsom or (Los Angeles Mayor) Karen Bass... this is going to turn into a war of images." Surrogates fuel the political fires The California confrontation has spread far beyond the state's boundaries. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, told reporters June 10 that Newsom "ought to be tarred and feathered" for "standing in the way of the administration carrying out federal law." In the Oval Office with Trump, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Californians "should never elect him into a leadership position ever again." Trump added: "The governor's a nice guy but he's grossly incompetent." Trump told reporters later in the day he's "always had a good relationship" with Newsom and had a 16-minute phone conversation with him, but that "he just doesn't do a very good job." "We have an Olympics coming up," Trump said of the 2028 games. "We have a lot of people all over the world watching Los Angeles. We've got the Olympics, so we have this guy allowing this to happen." Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pennsylvania, said in a social media post June 9 he stands for "free speech, peaceful demonstrations and immigration - but this is not that." "This is anarchy and true chaos," he said. "My party loses the moral high ground when we refuse to condemn setting cars on fire, destroying buildings, and assaulting law enforcement." But other fellow Democrats have rallied to Newsom's defense. Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware, the top Democrat on the Senate subcommittee responsible for the Pentagon's budget, said "warfighters are not political tools meant to patrol the streets of our own cities or to suppress the political views of their fellow Americans." "I trust local law enforcement, Mayor Bass, and Governor Newsom when they say that violence won't be tolerated and that they are able to handle these protests without the military," Coons said. "What President Trump is doing is not only unneeded. It has made the situation much worse." Those competing visions on how to handle the protests were on full display during a June 10 House hearing featuring Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who faced a question from Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-California, seeking justification for using the military for civilian law enforcement. "Why are you sending warfighters to cities to interact with civilians?" Aguilar asked. Hegseth replied that Trump "believes in law and order.'
USA Today
22-05-2025
- Politics
- USA Today
Salman Rushdie canceled? Pro-Palestinian groups hamper speech for everyone else
Salman Rushdie canceled? Pro-Palestinian groups hamper speech for everyone else | Opinion Salman Rushdie, who survived a brutal knife attack in 2022, canceled a speech at Claremont McKenna College after Muslim students condemned his invitation. Show Caption Hide Caption Assailant who stabbed author Salman Rushdie sentenced to 25 years The man who stabbed and partially blinded novelist Salman Rushdie onstage at a Western New York arts institute in 2022 was sentenced to 25 years in prison. I read novelist Salman Rushdie's harrowing account of his near-assassination about a year ago. It's still etched in my mind. In his memoir 'Knife,' Rushdie described in detail how he almost died in 2022 after being stabbed 12 times by a madman who hated Rushdie's work. The Booker Prize-winning author, who was blinded in one eye and is lucky to be alive, was giving a talk in New York about the value of free expression when he was attacked, which is tragically ironic. Not surprisingly, Rushdie is cautious now about where he speaks and appears in public. So, it caught my attention when I saw that he'd decided to withdraw as this year's commencement speaker at Claremont McKenna College, a private school in California. Rushdie made that call after student and local Muslim groups "condemned" Rushdie's invitation and said it was 'disrespectful' for him to step foot on the campus after he had – accurately – described pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses as supporting a 'fascist terrorist group' (AKA Hamas). This was too much for Rushdie, whose attacker was an Islamic extremist who wanted to murder the author because he had supposedly 'offended' Islam in his 1988 book 'The Satanic Verses.' 'I'm surprised, relieved and happy,' Claremont College Muslim Students Association president Kumail Afshar said after Rushdie backed out in fear. Opinion: I'm sorry Biden has cancer. But lies about his health make the timing suspicious. | Opinion That hardly seems like a victory: The protestors kept an entire campus from hearing from one of the world's most esteemed living writers. Canceling a speaker is not 'diversity and inclusion' Cancel culture and attacks on freedom of speech are nothing new on college campuses. Indeed, the 'diversity, equity and inclusion' mantra of recent years has only made it worse by pitting some people and groups against others. The rampant displays of antisemitism and violence on campuses following the Hamas terrorist attack against Israel in 2023 have made that fact crystal clear. Opinion: Not funny, John Oliver: Standing for religious liberty doesn't equate to 'hate' | Opinion In addition to the Muslim students who couldn't bear the thought of hearing from Rushdie, the Los Angeles branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations inserted itself into the debate. Ahead of the planned graduation speech, the CAIR chapter called on Claremont McKenna College to address students' concerns over Rushdie's 'troubling statements.' 'CMC cannot claim to value diversity and inclusion while dismissing the voices of its students,' CAIR wrote in a statement. In an interview last year, Rushdie had made the following observation: 'I feel that there's not a lot of deep thought happening. There's an emotional reaction to the death in Gaza, and that's absolutely right. But when it slides over towards antisemitism and sometimes to actual support of Hamas, then it's very problematic.' That's a perfectly reasonable analysis of what's been happening at U.S. colleges. Yet, this was too 'troubling' for the Muslim groups. It's hard to see how bullying someone, particularly someone who nearly died while advocating for free speech, into canceling an appearance is anywhere close to 'diversity and inclusion.' Intolerance of other views is antithetical to what our country is all about While the Muslim students have a right to express themselves, this incident is part of a troubling series of campus events where protests purportedly on behalf of Palestinians have turned raucous and violent. Jewish students and faculty have felt afraid. Robert Shibley, special counsel for campus advocacy at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, told me that what happened to Rushdie doesn't fall neatly into the cancellation category since the college didn't withdraw its invitation in response to the backlash. Opinion: Ivy League is still struggling to figure out what's free speech – and what isn't. | Opinion But there's a good reason why it still rubs free speech advocates – and most Americans – the wrong way. 'Are we operating on a level where we are trying to win the battle of ideas simply by silencing the other side or making it impossible or uncomfortable or just generally difficult for the other side to speak?' Shibley said. 'I think that's why things like this stick in a lot of people's craw because you get the sense that this isn't the way a democratic society is supposed to be working out these kinds of issues.' Last week, Rushdie's attacker, Hadi Matar, was sentenced to 25 years in prison. At his sentencing, the judge told Matar that his violence wasn't only against Rushdie, but against free expression as well. 'It goes to the very heart of what our country stands for,' Foley said. I wish Rushdie had spoken at the commencement, regardless of the bullying, though it's perfectly understandable why he didn't. What's unacceptable is the intolerance shown for his right to speak. Ingrid Jacques is a columnist at USA TODAY. Contact her at ijacques@ or on X: @Ingrid_Jacques
