University of Chicago Archives - The Florida Capital Star

Commentary: Taxpayer U

March 7, 2024 Florida Capital Star Staff

The college horror stories are endless. A mandatory Title IX training session at Harvard instructs students that “fatphobia” and “cis-heterosexism” perpetuate violence and that using the wrong pronouns constitutes abuse. Yet, hatred against Jews is tolerated at the school.

In California, community colleges teach that if someone claims they are not a racist, they are in denial and that colorblindness “perpetuates existing racial inequities and denies systematic racism.” A Michigan college held a “queer” abortion stories event earlier this year. The once-venerable University of Chicago is planning to host a “kink and consent” workshop for students, in which the practice of sex play with ropes will be taught.

Poll: Number of Americans Who Fear They Will Not Reach the American Dream Is on the Rise

July 9, 2023 Florida Capital Star Staff

In a recent survey, a rising number of Americans say that they do not think they will ever achieve the American Dream.

As reported by the New York Post, the poll by NORC – University of Chicago saw 75 percent of overall respondents say that they felt they had either achieved the Dream or were on their way to achieving it. However, 24 percent said that they feel the Dream is out of their reach, and that America is no longer the “land of opportunity.” In the previous year’s poll, only 18 percent shared this sentiment.

Florida Universities Record Students’ Preferred Pronouns

May 31, 2022May 30, 2022 Florida Capital Star Staff

Public universities in Florida are allowing students to add their preferred pronouns to various forms of university identification.

In Fall 2021, for example, USF student newspaper The Oracle reported on the school’s plan to begin allowing students, faculty, and staff to add preferred pronouns to their USF IDs.

The purpose of these new policies is to make campuses more inclusive and welcoming, University of South Florida [USF] Student Government (SG) Lt. Governor Kiara Brooks told Campus Reform.

Lack of Vitamin D Increases Risk of Severe COVID, According to Study

February 20, 2022February 19, 2022 Florida Capital Star Staff

Vitamin D deficiency was linked to worse health outcomes for COVID-19 patients, including higher risk of death, a new study found.

Israeli scientists from Bar-Ilan University and the Galilee Medical Center found a strong connection between vitamin D deficiencies and negative COVID-19 outcomes. The researchers were able to predict COVID-19 patients’ vitamin D status accurately based on the severity of the disease in a patient, according to the Feb. 3 study.

Commentary: There Is No Room for ‘Privileging Feelings’ in the Marketplace of Ideas

November 22, 2021November 21, 2021 Florida Capital Star Staff

Person holding a phone, group of people taking a photo together

In 2015, the University of Chicago issued a statement, referred to as the “Chicago Statement,” in response to “recent events nationwide that have tested institutional commitments to free and open discourse.” Through the statement, the University reaffirmed its steadfast commitment to free speech and expression, including its “overarching commitment to free, robust, and uninhibited debate and deliberation among all members of the University’s community.”

The statement emphasized that:

“[E]ducation should not be intended to make people comfortable, it is meant to make them think. Universities should be expected to provide the conditions within which hard thought, and therefore strong disagreement, independent judgment, and the questioning of stubborn assumptions, can flourish in an environment of the greatest freedom.”

‘Majority of Faculty Agree with Many or Even Most of My Positions’: Canceled Professor Speaks Out

October 11, 2021October 10, 2021 Florida Capital Star Staff

A University of Chicago professor, whose prestigious lecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) was cancelled at the behest of a Twitter mob who disagreed with his viewpoints, warns that “free society is at risk” as “woke ideology” and cancel culture takes hold.

Dorian Abbot, a professor in the Department of the Geophysical Sciences at the University of Chicago, had his appearance at the Carlson Lecture cancelled on Sept. 30 “to avoid controversy” just eight days after a Twitter mob consisting of MIT students, postdocs and recent alumni went after him, according to a written account published on Common Sense by Bari Weiss

For 10 years, Abbot has been teaching and researching climate change and the possibility of life on extrasolar planets, never considering himself a very political person until about five years ago when he noticed a shift in attitude toward discussions involving a difference in opinions, Abbot wrote on Weiss’ Substack.