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In recent decades, higher education became so hostile to conservative thought that a new breed of colleges and universities emerged to give students and their families a choice more aligned with their values.
Schools like St. John’s College (with campuses in Maryland and New Mexico) and Thomas Aquinas College (campuses in Massachusetts and California), for example, offer a curriculum based on the great books — foundational texts of Western civilization.
Meanwhile, online offerings like PragerU sought to give younger students a grounding in civic education, which has been in decline, despite efforts to improve it in states like Utah.
Can the Trump administration make the same kind of inroads across the board in higher ed?
It’s trying. According to The Chronicle of Higher Education, “the administration is handing out tens of millions of dollars to support faculty positions and expansion efforts for academic programs focused on civics education, history, and Western civilization."
The grants include $10 million going to the University of Texas at Austin to fund 16 professors in “strategy, statecraft, and ‘Great Books’ disciplines,” and another $10 million going to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to help fund an endowment and new professors at its School of Civic Life and Leadership.
Such grants make sense in the year that America celebrates its 250th anniversary, but they are raising eyebrows in academia, still smarting over funding cuts under President Donald Trump as his administration tries to further viewpoint diversity in higher ed.
In another piece, the Chronicle remarked upon “the conservative hiring boom” going on in higher ed as colleges drop requirements for diversity statements and seek to welcome “nonprogressive” job applicants.
Writer Francie Diep quotes an assistant professor at Stony Brook University, Musa al-Gharbi, who said the humanities job market benefits “a normie, moderate person who has some views that don’t align with the left,” not “an enthusiastic Trump supporter.”
Normie, moderate Americans will surely see this as a win.
Truths and untruths on Super Bowl Sunday
Conservatives on social media gleefully pounced on an erroneous report about the adorable child that Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio — otherwise known as Bad Bunny — gave his Grammy Award to during the Super Bowl halftime show.
It was not Liam Ramos, the 5-year-old detained by ICE and later released, but a child actor, Lincoln Fox.
It was a case of something that many people wanted to be true that took off, and later had to be debunked.
A similar thing happened as people upset by the show shared vulgar lyrics that they said Bad Bunny had sung in violation of the FCC’s obscenity rules.
They came to this conclusion by reading Spanish-to-English translations of Bad Bunny songs. But not all of the obscene lyrics being shared were sung during the Super Bowl show.
Even the newsletter of James Golden (better known to Rush Limbaugh fans as Bo Snerdley) was careful not to make this claim. Golden simply posed the question “Were Super Bowl halftime lyrics X rated?” and noted that this was something people, including Florida Rep. Randy Fine, were talking about.
Fine has formally requested an FCC investigation, saying the “degenerates” behind the show must be held accountable.
The problem is, Fine and other people objecting to the purported obscene lyrics did so by sharing excerpts of them online — giving them wide exposure. In objecting to filth, they spread filth. (A similar dilemma was faced by news outlets last week when they had to decide whether to share the racist image in the president’s widely condemned social-media post that referenced Barack and Michelle Obama.)
A USA Today Network report said Spanish-speaking reporters had reviewed the totality of the lyrics sung at Levi’s Stadium, and said that some of the lyrics being shared online weren’t part of the show. The report noted that one online translation of the show included expletives and sexually explicit lines, but said “one of the reporters said Bad Bunny often mumbled through the expletives or cut off the word entirely.”
If the transcript I viewed is correct, the lyrics do seem to be a violation of FCC standards. But at the same time, it’s hard to believe that, given the uproar over this show, the FCC wouldn’t have strongly reacted in real time.
In 2014, an article in The New York Times noted that the proliferation of Spanish programming in the U.S. was posing regulatory challenges for the FCC, which only acts in response to complaints. If enough complaints come in, and they are substantiated, NBC may have a bigger fine coming than the $550,000 one assigned to CBS after the infamous “wardrobe malfunction” in 2004.
Then again, that fine was ultimately thrown out, which makes it seem like there’s little incentive for performers to keep things clean.
More happenings at The Washington Post
Earlier this month, I wrote about the layoffs at The Washington Post and why so much of the reaction had to do with Jeff Bezos’ personal wealth. Now we’ve learned that the newspaper’s publisher and CEO, Will Lewis, has also departed, presumably at Bezos’ behest.
Per CNN, in a note to the staff, Lewis thanked Bezos for his “support and leadership” and said, “The institution could not have a better owner.”
The union representing Washington Post employees, in a statement posted on X, called Lewis’ departure “long overdue” and said Bezos “must immediately rescind these layoffs or sell the paper to someone willing to invest in its future.”
Recommended Reading
As birth rates continue to decline, Naomi Schaefer Riley looks at the issue through a personal lens: the experiences of three aunts who were alone late in life.
“Our declining birth rates mean that there will be many more aunts like mine in many more families. These are not ‘childless cat ladies’ to be derided. ... They are women who have been told by our culture that they can find fulfillment on their own — or maybe with a partner — in their careers."
A tale of three aunts in a time of declining fertility
With Presidents Day upon us, it’s a good time to consider why Ronald Reagan, America’s 40th president, is so universally beloved. David Harmer explains:
“In five of the past nine presidential elections, the winning candidate failed to secure a majority of the popular vote. In only one of the nine did the winner clear 52%. Yet within living memory, one candidate won election in a landslide, won reelection in a larger landslide and won increasing public esteem in the years after leaving office. That candidate was Ronald Reagan.”
Happy birthday, Ronald Reagan. Here’s why we miss you
Meagan Kohler reflects on a troubled relationship between mother and daughter and what she wishes she had done differently now that her mother has passed.
“Anger and blame are not just feelings; they’re also muscles we strengthen. Just as our bodies change by adapting to the work we habitually ask them to do, so it is with our minds and hearts.”
When I made my mom a monster, it was me I ultimately hurt
End Notes
With every Super Bowl comes the complaint that it isn’t held on Saturday in order to give the nation a day to recover.
It’s kind of like daylight saving time — everybody is unhappy about it, but nobody can seem to do anything about it.
But next year we get a reprieve from the pain, according to USA Today.
The 2027 Super Bowl will be held on Feb. 14, Valentine’s Day, for the first time in its history. And the next day, Feb. 15, is Presidents Day.
So if you are blessed with a job that gives you Presidents Day off, you’ll get a Super Bowl holiday, too. That’s a little something to look forward to for those of us suffering NFL withdrawal.
As always, thank you for reading and being part of the Right to the Point community. You can email me at Jgraham@deseret.com, or send me a DM on X, where I’m @grahamtoday.