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The University of Chicago is promoting an event with a professor who is the author of a new book, titled Dying of Whiteness: How the Politics of Racial Resentment Is Killing America’s Heartland. 

Vanderbilt University professor Jonathan Metzl, whose book is scheduled to debut in March, will give an April 1 talk at the University of Chicago.

The event’s description displays the Amazon description for Metzl’s book. 

[RELATED: Santa Clara dorm urges students to ‘S-Know your Whiteness’]

“In the era of Donald Trump, many lower- and middle-class white Americans are drawn to politicians who pledge to make their lives great again,” the description reads. “But as Dying of Whiteness shows, the policies that result actually place white Americans at ever-greater risk of sickness and death.”

"White Americans...must reject the racial hierarchies that promise to aid them but in fact lead our nation to demise," the description adds.

The description states that, in the book, Metzl looks at how race controversy resulted in certain state laws in mostly rural states, such as pro-gun laws in Missouri and objection to Obamacare in Tennesee.  

On his website, Metzl writes that “being a gun violence expert, a professor, and a psychiatrist is a unique combination that allows me to speak and write about gun violence in America, and in particular to address stereotypes that link guns with race or mental illness, or that blame mental illness for mass shootings and other gun crimes.”

[RELATED: CUNY cuts class calling for ‘Abolition of Whiteness’]

The University of Chicago event will be hosted at 57th Street Books, an independent bookseller in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood. The bookstore frequently hosts events with authors from across the political spectrum.

Follow the author of this article on Twitter: @VSnitsarUSA

Read more: https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=11770

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American University in Washington, D.C. is hosting an event on Feb. 1 on "antiracist" grading with a professor who serves as director of a writing center which argues that American grammar is a "racist," "unjust language structure."

The seminar, titled, "Grading Ain't Just Grading: Rethinking Writing Assessment Ecologies Towards Antiracist Ends," will be led by University of Washington-Tacoma professor Asao Inoue, who previously published an essay titled, "A Grade-less Writing Course that Focuses on Labor and Assessing," in which he argues in favor of "dispens[ing] almost completely with judgments of quality when producing course grades." 

"I argue that a productive way to design and teach a first-year writing course is to conceive of it as labor – and calculate course grades by labor completed – and dispense almost completely with judgments of quality when producing course grades," Inoue writes in an essay summary on Academia.edu.

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"This is my ideal writing course, and allows me to cultivate a more critical, democratic community. It shares responsibility and negotiates most of the work in the course with students, as well as the terms by which that work is done," he adds. "Finally, it operates from an assumption about assessing writing (in all its forms) that allows students to democratically address difference and see acts of assessing as acts of reading, critical judgment, and writing."

The Feb. 1 event will consist of one "plenary session," titled, "The Language Standards That Kill Our Students: Grading Ain't Just Grading." There will also be three separate "breakout sessions," entitled "Creating Antiracist Writing Assessment Ecologies in Writing Courses," "Rethinking Standards of Writing Intensive Course Rubrics," and "Problem-Posing the Nature of Judgement in Writing Intensive Courses." 

Inoue serves as both a professor at UW Tacoma, as well as the director of the school's writing center. A poster in the writing center claims that American grammar is a "racist," "unjust language st

Read more: https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=11768

Being pro-life on college campuses isn't easy. 

Just ask any of the thousands of protesters showing up Friday in Washington, D.C. for the annual March for Life. While the environment at the March for Life is welcoming to pro-life students, they face a much different reality back on their college campuses. 

Here are just a few examples of pro-life discrimination and pro-life display vandalism stories that Campus Reform reported last year. 

1. Vandals destroy crosses at Ohio campus pro-life display

The Miami University of Ohio Students for Life chapter organized a pro-life display that was vandalized four times in five days.

The “cemetery of innocents” display contained 250 white crosses with a sign reading “each cross represents 10 babies that die by abortion each day.” After each instance of vandalism, the pro-life students set up the display again. 

“I believe this incident demonstrates a lack of civil discourse on college campuses, and it is a direct result of a lack of respect for the Constitution, and particularly, the First Amendment,” the pro-life club president told Campus Reform.

[RELATED: 5 most outrageous professor statements of 2018]

2. College admin warns students of 'disturbing' pro-life display

North Dakota State University Vice Provost Laura Oster-Aaland sent out an email to all students warning them of a “disturbing” display by the Students for Life club.

“It is possible that this display may contain images that could be disturbing to some members of our community,” the provost’s email said. “This email serves to inform you that these activities will be taking place, should you desire to avoid the area.”

Provost Oster-Aaland was then serving as a district chairwoman for the Democratic Party. The “disturbing” display, which was approved by the university, contained literature about late-term abortion. 

3. Christian college bashes pro-life speech by guy conceived by rape

Wheaton College, an Evangelical Christian institution, publicly denounced comments made by pro-life, African-American Ryan Bomberger, who had been invited to speak on his experien

Read more: https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=11661

Students at Yale University can now change their registered gender status to “non-binary” through the school’s Student Information System.

Yale University announced through an email that students can now register to identify their gender as “non-binary,” as a result of policy changes for the school regarding transgender individuals on campus, according to the Yale Daily News. Students can log on to the school's Student Information System and choose from three gender choices: "M" for male, "F" for female, or "N" for nonbinary.

[RELATED: 'Clown world'? WSU now allows student ID name changes]

The new policy is in response to a petition, launched in November, from Yale’s LGBT community to President Peter Salovey. The petition called on the university to offer more rights for transgender students at Yale. The petition came in the wake of the Department of Health and Human Services' plans to change the rules of Title IX to refer to gender as an unchangeable trait. 

Including the nonbinary gender option, according to Dean of Yale College Marvin Chun, is being utilized for Yale and the technology at the school “catch up with current understanding and practice of gender,” according to the Yale Daily News. But some  students voiced concerns about not removing any reference to the gender binary. 

[RELATED: Stanford hosts open house for all-gender locker room]

“If Yale cared to support [gender nonbinary]/[gender nonconforming] students, they might consider materially divesting from the gender binary, rather than providing an additional category to an already essentialized construction," student Casey Odesser told the Yale Daily News.

Campus Reform reached out to Yale University for additional comment regarding the new policy, as well as the Yale College Republicans, for their take on the new policy, but did not receive responses in time for publication.

Follow the author of this article: Jesse Stiller

Read more: https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=11766