No, Vanderbilt, You Cannot Use State Power to Restrict Liberty

Our nation’s large private research universities have perfected a rather ingenious scam. They’ve lobbied state legislatures and Congress so effectively that they annually receive hundreds of millions of dollars in state and federal taxpayer dollars while at the same time escaping state oversight by pleading protection — as “private” organizations — from the prying eyes of the very taxpayers who keep them in business. In this manner they’re not that much ... Continue Reading

Filed in: Free Speech | by David French | 4:35 PM Aug. 10, 2012

An Outbreak of “Common Sense” on Campus

For more than a year, Christian student groups have been battling for their most basic religious liberty rights at Vanderbilt University – in the absolute heart of the Bible Belt in Nashville, Tennessee. In the face of overwhelming opposition from students, from alumni, and even from the state legislatures, Vanderbilt insists on requiring student groups to be open to leaders who don’t share the group’s faith or ideology. This nonsensical policy requires Jewish groups to be op... Continue Reading

Filed in: Free Speech | by David French | 2:40 PM Apr. 25, 2012

Schools that Used to Favor Openness are Becoming Closed and Dogmatic When it Comes to Traditional Religious Groups

Not long ago, the university was seen as a world apart—an idyllic enclave where our studious youth learned the virtues of citizenship, cheered hard for the football team, and read the great classics of Western thought. The “ivory tower” was more an observation than the insult the term has become, an almost monastic reference to a place where thought was free and knowledge ruled. Nostalgia, of course, is deceptive-life was rarely as good (or bad) as we remember. However, nearly... Continue Reading