Sanctuary city, meet sanctuary campus: Student Workers of Columbia, the Ivy League school's graduate student union that boasts roughly 3,000 members, is in active contract negotiations with university administrators. At the same time, it's demanding those administrators establish a "sanctuary campus" to protect foreign Hamasniks. The university’s response will provide another test of its backbone. An internal document obtained by our Jessica Schwalb indicates they are pressing for the following:
- Shield foreign students from "threat of deportation or detention" by refusing to provide information "to immigration authorities or any federal agency" without a subpoena.
- Stop "surveilling the student body" by barring public safety officials from "patrolling departamental [sic] and organizing spaces on campus" and destroying all protest-related records that include "personally identifying information."
- Expand the international students' office to cover legal fees and housing for "students whose Visas and Green Cards have been revoked."
- Take on the Trump administration through a lawsuit targeting its executive order aimed at countering campus anti-Semitism.
Was that wrong? LaVar Charleston, the University of Wisconsin-Madison's longtime chief diversity officer, has a long rap sheet. He was accused of assaulting a police officer and engaging in a decades-long pattern of research misconduct. Now, he's out as the school's King of DEI for gross financial mismanagement. What a stand-up guy!
Charleston displayed "poor financial judgment" as head of the Division of Diversity, Equity and Educational Achievement, doling out hundreds of thousands of dollars in bonuses "without consultation" and showing an overall "thoughtless attitude in decision-making," finance administrator Rob Cramer wrote in a letter to university officials. That’s one way to put it.
As a result, Charleston is no longer "vice chancellor for inclusive excellence" but remains a university instructor and researcher, albeit one with a much lower salary.
"The letter is the latest in a string of embarrassing revelations about Charleston, who in 2011 was charged with attempting to strangle a police officer," writes the Free Beacon's Aaron Sibarium. "The financial scandal comes as the Trump administration is investigating UW-Madison, along with 50 other schools, for sponsoring race-based fellowships and scholarships."
Grifters gonna grift: The anti-Trump activists over at the Lincoln Project are six years into their plan to achieve "generational wealth." Alas, they're still trying to keep the gravy train rolling, and their elderly fans are not thrilled.
The group, our Andrew Stiles reports, started a new media venture on Substack, Lincoln Square, and asked subscribers to pony up between $100 and $500 for an annual subscription. Fans "weren’t pleased," writes Stiles, "with some starting to suspect that the Lincoln Project might be a massive grifting operation." Gasp!
One commenter, Sherri L., said she "can't watch because me and my husband live off his social security alone." Another identified himself as an "older but EXPERIENCED resistor" who was "feeling left behind." 🙁
Founders Rick Wilson, Stuart Stevens, and Joe Trippi justified the cost by touting "an array of perks, including 'advance access to commentary from leaders in the fight against the sweeping Christo-fascist, authoritarian movement in America,'" writes Stiles. "You can't put a price on that, can you?"
Away from the Beacon:
- Israel kept the strikes on Gaza rolling late Tuesday into early Wednesday—and threatened Hamas terrorists that if they harm Israeli hostages in response, Israel will annex territory in Gaza, according to Israeli journalist Amit Segal.
- Chuck Schumer is down so bad he's taking hits from Kamala’s bestie Gayle King, who interrupted Schumer during an interview on Tuesday to say, "Senator, people don't have faith in the Democrats." Ouch.
- Bucking the trend: The Democratic Party has long thrived in high-turnout elections. No more, according to a new Vox analysis, which found that "if all registered voters had turned out, then Donald Trump would've won the popular vote by 5 points [instead of 1.7 points]."