A recent Wall Street Journal column entitled, "Shutter Fraternities for Young Women's Good," is part of a larger trend of criticizing and evaluating fraternity culture and has gained recent national attention, Insider Higher Ed reported. The column, written by a former University of Virginia student, condemned all-male fraternities for encouraging the mistreatment and general inequality of college women. Recent incidents of male misogyny in Greek organizations, including hazing incidents at the University of Michigan, a misogynistic email from a fraternity at the University of Southern California and chants of "No means yes! Yes means anal!" by Yale University fraternity pledges, have prompted a slew of nationwide public criticism of fraternities. While some advocate ending the fraternity system altogether, others argue that individual fraternities, not the Greek system as a whole, are to blame, according to Inside Higher Ed. The prevalence of alcohol not the existence of fraternities contributes to a high frequency of rape and assault, according to Mary Koss, a professor at University of Arizona who specializes in sexual violence, Inside Higher Ed reported.
Stanford University's Faculty Senate voted to invite the Reserve Officer Training Corps back to campus for the first time since the Vietnam War, the Los Angeles Times reported. This change was spurred by the end of the "don't ask, don't tell policy," which prohibited gay individuals from serving openly in the military. The decision to reinstate ROTC came after a campus commission report found that ROTC's return to the university would help improve the academic levels of its officer corps, the Times reported. Stanford's Faculty Senate approved the change 28 to 9, with three abstentions. Much of the debate in the Senate revolved around the ongoing ban against transgender people serving in the armed forces, as critics of the decision argued that ROTC's return would discriminate against transgender students, according to the Times.
Students at Harvard's Graduate School of Education are protesting the school's direction following a recent decision not to provide tenure to a specialist in grassroots organizing, The Boston Globe reported. More than 50 doctoral students are demanding that the school redirect its mission, which they argue has lost its focus on social justice issues, according to The Globe. Six professors who focus on diversity and community involvement have left Harvard's School of Education since 2003. The professors' departures were due to not receiving tenure or recruitment offers from other universities. The graduate students involved in the protests expressed the concern that the school's new focus on broader policy concerns would hinder their careers and hurt the school's reputation, The Globe reported.
