Article here. Excerpt:

'A pressing dilemma is troubling the budget departments of Intel, the chip and microprocessor giant. Should they invest in STEM education, to cultivate the next generation of American geniuses? Or should they blow all their cash on finding people with the right skin colour and genitals?

It shouldn’t be a difficult choice. But apparently it is. The company recently announced that it’s pulling $6 million in sponsorship for the Science Talent Search, just months after memos leaked to the Oregonian indicated that they’d have to slash budgets by $300 million across business groups.

Does that $300m number sound familiar? It should: it’s the same amount Intel pledged “diversity” efforts, including the widely derided Feminist Frequency, just a few months ago.

Story here. Excerpt:

'Last week on the Northern Kentucky University campus, a female student carried a mattress on her back around the campus to call attention to her issues with how the university dealt with a sexual assault complaint.

Today, at noon, a group of students organized a peaceful protest, urging a demonstration to support survivors of sexual and domestic violence.
...
A flyer distributed to encourage student participation suggested carrying a mattress, a pillow or other symbol and the taping of a red X on clothing to show support. The flyer added, “Domestic abuse, sexual assault, and rape have all been an alarmingly large part of American society, particularly on college campuses. Society blames the victims, so the victims can often be driven to self-harm and suicide. . .This peaceful protest is a way to give a HUGE middle finger to the perpetrators of these crimes, many of which may in fact share classes with us.”'

Article here. Excerpt:

'At a congressional hearing on campus sexual assault, Colorado Rep. Jared Polis suggested that expelling students based solely on the idea that they might have committed a crime is an acceptable standard. And the hearing audience applauded him.

Polis, a Democrat, was discussing due process and standards of evidence as they apply to colleges and universities adjudicating sexual assault. Currently, colleges must be only 50.01 percent sure that an accusation is valid before punishing an accused student (more on that later). Polis began advocating for allowing colleges to use a lower standard than that.

"I mean, if there's 10 people that have been accused and under a reasonable likelihood standard maybe one or two did it, seems better to get rid of all 10 people," Polis said. "We're not talking about depriving them of life or liberty, we're talking about their transfer to another university."

For this, the audience applauded.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'During a House Education and Workforce Committee hearing, Democratic Congressman Jared Polis said that even if a whopping 80% of accused campus rapists are innocent, it was still better to kick them all out of school.

“I mean, we’re talking about a private institution,” he said. “If I was running one, I might say, ‘Well you know even if there’s a 20-30% chance that this happened, I would want to remove this individual.”

Freedom for Individual Rights in Education policy director Joseph Cohn responded by telling Polis that the sort of standard he was discussing would be highly unlikely to pass the due process requirements that public universities must legally abide by.'

Contact info for Rep. Polis is here. Feel free to let him know what you think of his position.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Two studies done by the University of Washington show that one potential impediment to girls becoming IT pros is the "geek" stereotype of the IT pro, especially in the classroom.

A study conducted at the University of Washington and published in the Journal of Educational Psychology in August showed that girls might actually choose not to take introductory computer classes because the rooms in which they are conducted might be too "geeky." For the study, 269 14- to 18-year-olds were shown photos of two classrooms. One room had Star Trek and videogame posters on the walls and other "geeky" decor. The other had posters of art and landscapes on the walls and live plants in the room. Other than the decor, the rooms were identical.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'A Marine Corps study that found all-male ground combat units more effective than teams that included women has raised new concerns about the Pentagon's push to open all jobs to women next year.

A summary of results released Thursday from the unprecedented study showed that all-male ground combat squads were faster, stronger and more lethal in most cases than units that included women.The women also suffered higher injury rates during physically demanding training.

The Marine Corps and other services face a deadline the Pentagon has set for requiring military branches to open all specialties to women, including infantry and special operations forces, beginning next year.

The services have until the end of this month to request an exception to the order for some occupations.

The Marine Corps has not yet said whether it will request a waiver, but the study's results are likely to fuel a growing debate over including women in ground combat jobs.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Women will one day outnumber men in the Senate and when that happens, government will work better, Sen. Claire McCaskill said Wednesday.

And if women want to succeed in politics, they need to get over the “disease to appease” and be hyper strategic, the Missouri Democrat told a crowd of about 150 students at George Washington University. One thing they don’t have to do? Give up plans to have a family.

“I have not been a perfect mother, but the notion that you cannot do this job and be a mother is just BS,” McCaskill said.

Article here. Excerpt:

'David Cameron has now pledged to take in 20,000 refugees from Syria over the next five years, and singled out vulnerable children and orphans. This wasn't limited to one side of the political spectrum. Before his announcement, the former Labour Home Secretary David Blunkett called on the Government to take 25,000 refugees over the next sixth months, and said that Syrian women and children should be given priority.

So far this hasn't proved controversial – everyone seems to agree that young people and women require the most attention. But we must be careful not to forget that this is a humanitarian issue, and one that affects an entire population. Otherwise, the message we're sending is that the lives of Arab men do not matter.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Last summer, the Harvard law professor Janet Halley sat down at her dining-room table to look through a set of policies that her university created for handling complaints of sexual assault and harassment. Halley had taught this area for years, and she was interested to see what the university came up with. The new rules were released amid pressure from student-led groups of rape survivors and their advocates, who demanded that schools across the country do more on behalf of victims. Harvard was also responding to years of calls for change by the Obama administration. Just eight months earlier, Valerie Jarrett, a senior presidential adviser, called for a ‘‘more victim-centered’’ campus approach to dealing with the problem of sexual assault.

Article here. Excerpt:

'The Senate committee that handles education issues held a hearing this summer on campus sexual assault that didn’t feature any advocates for due process or rights for accused students.

Those advocates had to submit testimony for the record, rather than have the opportunity before a national TV audience to explain the plight of students falsely accused of assault.

Its House counterpart’s higher education subcommittee is holding a hearing tomorrow on campus sexual assault that at least features one advocate of due process, Joe Cohn of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.

But the rest of the witness list suggests he’ll be in the minority.'

Link here. Excerpt:

'Dad’s Business operates in the Playford Council area and has a strong community development focus. It aims to foster environments where all young children can have optimal developmental opportunities for their physical, social and emotional growth.

The support offered includes ante and postnatal sessions for young parents and fathers, parenting and activity groups for fathers only, and with their children, and some community event participation and facilitation with a focus on wellbeing messages for fathers and families.

The role involves liaising with community, including Aboriginal community, to ensure that the program meets the needs of the Playford population.

The successful applicant will have strong child development knowledge, including an understanding of the importance of play. Proven experience in engaging vulnerable families, group facilitation and a community development background would be desirable.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'The Education Department, where I used to work, is becoming more and more extreme in how it interprets and applies federal law. Sometimes this comes at the expense of colleges: as a task force of college presidents recently noted in a report to the U.S. Senate, the Education Department frequently makes up new legal mandates out of thin air under the bogus pretense that they are required by some statute, and then imposes them on colleges, without even going through the notice and comment required by the Administrative Procedure Act.

Sometimes, its overreaching comes at the expense of individual people. The Education Department has thumbed its nose at court rulings by creating entitlements for people who make false discrimination and harassment complaints—even though such baseless complaints can make life miserable for the victims of such false allegations (and cause serious problems for the institution they work for or attend).'

Press release here. Excerpt:

'A growing number of legal scholars are expressing concerns over affirmative consent policies that some universities are considering for implementation. The concerns follow recent passage of laws in California and New York mandating such policies on college campuses.

This past week, Tamara Rice Lave of the University of Miami law school wrote on her blog, “I have a problem with legally requiring affirmative consent. I don’t see how making a person prove that her partner consented doesn’t switch the burden of proof to the accused…I find this trend to be extremely troubling.” http://prawfsblawg.blogs.com/prawfsblawg/2015/09/affirmative-consent-and-switching-the-burden-of-proof.html

Story here. Excerpt:

'Photos have emerged of the cage installed in an Australian classroom to hold a 10-year-old boy with autism.

The two-metre by two-metre cage made out of blue fencing, which has a self-closing door and latch, was built in a Canberra classroom on March 10 and removed 17 days later. It was dismantled after the education department was made aware of the "inappropriate structure."

The installation of the cage made national headlines at the time, and an investigation was launched by the Australian Capital Territory's (ACT) Education Directorate. This led a to a report, released Tuesday, which stated the construction was an isolated incident and it was decided by one individual, the principal of the school, who hired an external party to carry out the work.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'A 57-year-old lawyer was accused of “unacceptable and misogynistic behaviour” after he sent a barrister half his age a LinkedIn message complimenting her on her “stunning picture”.

Alexander Carter-Silk was named and shamed on Twitter by 27-year-old human rights lawyer Charlotte Proudman who posted her reply to the message online.

He has since apologised for the message, in which he told Ms Proudman he was “delighted to connect”, adding “I appreciate that this is probably horrendously politically incorrect but that is a stunning picture !!!”

The lawyer, a partner at international firm Brown Rudnick continued: “You definitely win the prize for the best Linked in picture I have ever seen.
...
Her response, which prompted praise on social media, read: “I am on linked-in for business purposes not to be approached about my physical appearance or to be objectified by sexist men.'