Member News

After seeing his student-athletes lose to a biological male during a sporting event this past weekend, Dr. Wayne D. Lewis Jr., president of Houghton University, issued a strong statement against biological males participating in women's sports.  The statement, titled "In Defense of Women's Athletics," is a lengthy call to action from Lewis, the sixth president of the private Christian university in upstate New York.  "Biological males’ participation in women’s athletics is wrong," wrote Lewis, the first African-American president of the university. 

Following months of demonstrations and turmoil, American University (DC) adopted a new set of policies for the spring semester. As of January 25, all protests inside university buildings are banned. Posters or signs on university property must be “welcoming and build community.” And student organizations need to be open to all students. American’s regulations — which the administration casts less as wholly new policies than as enforcing existing ones — were among several changes from the university that were intended to respond to alleged reports of antisemitism on campus. They came a week after two Jewish advocacy groups filed a complaint with the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights that included reports of swastikas drawn on dorm doors and videos of students ripping down and defacing posters about Israeli hostages.

Dorm door decorations are emerging as the next battleground in the fight over academic freedom and free speech at Barnard College (NY).  As at many schools, Barnard students often use their dorm doors to display a bit of personality. A walk around the freshman dorms early this week found sorority pledge signs, Lunar New Year decorations and a pinned-up loose-leaf paper asking: “Who’s your celebrity crush?” But students had also posted stickers and slogans supporting the Palestinian cause and naming the war in Gaza as a genocide. “Zionism is terrorism,” one student’s door sticker said.

Notre Dame College announced that it will close at the end of the spring semester. The college has also worked out agreements so that students can finish their education at nine other colleges and universities. The South Euclid college, which first opened in 1922, cited financial challenges in its closing announcement. Notre Dame said it has dealt with declining enrollment, rising costs and significant debt — and that these challenges lead the college’s board of trustees to decide to close the institution.

The Albert Einstein College of Medicine (NY) will now be tuition-free for all students, thanks to a historic $1 billion gift from a former faculty member and board chair. The donation comes from Ruth Gottesman, who after joining the faculty at the Bronx, N.Y.-based Einstein in 1968 developed widely used tools to screen children for learning problems and launched an adult literacy program. Gottesman, 93 years old, and her husband, the late billionaire-investor David “Sandy” Gottesman, were longtime donors to the medical school, and Ruth Gottesman serves as chair of its board of trustees.