Administrators at Metropolitan State University of Denver have determined that a professor who forced his students last fall to recite a satirical anti-American pledge of allegiance that characterized America and Republicans as racist, homophobic, sexist and anti-poor did absolutely nothing wrong.

“The university concludes there was no violation of the students’ first amendment rights, and that the faculty member exercised his right to academic freedom, and considers this matter closed,” campus officials have determined as a result of a probe into the matter.

Last December, Professor Charles Angeletti’s assignment made national headlines after Steven Farr, a freshman at Metropolitan State University, told news outlets that it offended him.

“So we started the pledge and then the professor insisted that we weren’t speaking loud enough, so he had the class restart the pledge,” Farr told Fox News. “And I looked around and — when a professor asks you to do something, it’s kind of like when your boss at work asks you to do something – so most people were participating. I, however, was not.”

The controversial pledge stated:

“I pledge allegiance to and wrap myself in the flag of the United States Against Anything Un-American and to the Republicans for which it stands, two nations, under Jesus, rich against poor, with curtailed liberty and justice for all except blacks, homosexuals, women who want abortions,
Communists, welfare queens, treehuggers, feminazis, illegal immigrants,
children of illegal immigrants, and you if you don’t watch your step.”

After Farr spoke out about the incident, the university began an inquiry. Soon after, they quietly released their not-guilty verdict in mid-December. When The College Fix contacted the campus earlier this week to find out the results of the inquiry, a media spokesperson pointed to their online statement on the matter.

Angeletti and Farr did not respond to requests from The College Fix seeking comment this week.

The university’s inquiry that cleared the professor of any wrongdoing consisted of officials conducting interviews with Farr, Angeletti, and a “random sample of students who withdrew from and remained in the course.”

“Farr was the only one who cited Angeletti’s teaching methods as the reason for dropping the course,” officials stated. “The interviews concluded that the anti-pledge written by Matt Groening, creator of ‘The Simpsons,’ was disseminated to the class. Angeletti confirmed that he has been using the anti-pledge in his course for more than 20 years, and that he provides a ‘critical approach’ handout on the first day of class that asks students to list 10 reasons ‘why I am proud to be an American’ and 10 reasons ‘why I am not proud to be an American.’ Angeletti confirmed that the anti-pledge was intended to be proactive and spark dialogue in the classroom.”

“To date, no student has submitted a complaint,” the university continued. “In general students were complimentary of Angeletti as a professor. All but Farr said he encouraged open dialogue and differing opinions in the classroom.”

Yet this outcome contradicts other findings.

For example, Farr said in an interview with Fox News that when he asked Angeletti “if his class was going to be at all objective, or just his subjective political opinions,” the professor replied “his class would be entirely subjective.”

On RateMyProfessors.com, a website that allows students to anonymously critique professors, students have given Angeletti a 4.0/5.0 teacher rating. However, there are more than sixty comments, and many discuss Angeletti’s biased teaching patterns.

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The last seven minutes of Anthony Robles’ wrestling career came to an end as he hobbled to the center of the mat, the referee raised his hand high, and millions of viewers witnessed history.

Born with one leg, no one imagined Robles would finish his senior year at Arizona State University’s Division One wrestling program with a 36-0 record and ultimately become a NCAA national champion.

That was in March 2011. Today, he is a motivational speaker, and often shares with high school and college students how he became a champion.

What millennials can learn from his journey is not only how to overcome obstacles and the value of hard work, determination and perseverance – but that the victimhood mentality so prevalent today is detrimental to success.

In a speech at Grand Canyon University’s wrestling camp shortly after he won the title, he didn’t talk to the athletes about how he tried to rise to the top of the sport with only one leg. It didn’t even come up.

He only spoke of how he became a better wrestler, period, and he did it by emanating champions and sticking to it – even when he wanted to quit. He did more. He pushed harder. He stayed longer.

“Wherever you go, whatever is it – if you have that dream in your head, just stick with it,” he told the students. “Just have a national champion mindset. Just tell yourself, you’re a champion. Whatever you do, you’re a champion. It will help you. You start believing in it.”

An uphill battle

Robles’ journey to his national championship match wasn’t easy. As a high school wrestler, many teammates and opponents didn’t take him seriously. However, Robles knew his calling.

“God made me for a reason, and I believe that reason was for wrestling,” he told USA Today.

But there were plenty of naysayers. People who scoffed, who only saw a victim, only saw the handicap.

In an interview with the Jimmy V Foundation, Judy Robles recalls her son’s earliest experience on the mat: “I went in the stands and my son threw down his crutches and he hopped to the middle of the mat. There’s this scrawny little kid, my son, and I was so proud of him. But this woman was laughing. It broke my heart.”

Over countless hours of training, Robles began to wrestle in a way that was unstoppable.

Some saw Robles’ missing limb as a disadvantage at first, then they changed their mind.

“When he first started it was like ‘oh, poor thing,’ you know, or ‘good for him, he’s trying,’ ” his mother said. “Then, as he started winning, it was ‘Well he’s got an advantage because he’s got all that upper body strength and people can’t get low enough.’ And I’m like ‘No, the kid just figured out how to beat you guys.’ ”

Go time

In March 2011, at the NCAA Division One wrestling tournament in Philadelphia, many knew it was Robles’ time to shine. Defending 125-pound champion Matt McDonough (Iowa) was the wrestler to beat, and Robles could then show the world that even physical differences – what some might consider disabilities – cannot stop faith, determination, drive and talent.

Ranked as the No. 1 seed entering the tournament, it was imperative Robles made a statement in the first round. Robles came out strong when matched against Matthew Snyder (UVA). By staying low, Snyder was forced to play by Robles’ rules and he failed miserably. In the second period, the referee ended the match due to a technical fall—Robles ultimately won by mercy rule with a score of 17-1. Similarly, Robles defeated Steven Keith (Harvard) in the second round with a technical fall.

The quarterfinals and semifinals were not a breeze, but Robles managed to defeat Jarrod Patterson (Oklahoma) and Ben Kjar (Utah Valley) to enter the finals.

Kjar, known for his upper body strength as well, had matched Robles on his knees in the neutral position instead of staying on both feet.

“He [Kjar] was definitely the strongest opponent I’ve ever faced,” Robles told USA Today. “But the coaches and I came up with a good strategy before the match just to stay patient.”

Finally, racing down the red carpet on crutches and with the crowd roaring, Robles entered the most important match of his college career—a match that would decide whether he would go undefeated, whether he would be remembered, and whether he would be labeled a champion.

“For anybody to give Anthony any credit, it had to be the best of the best,” his mom told the Jimmy V Foundation.

Robles and defending 125-pound champion McDonough meet at the center of the mat, shook hands, and stared at each other intensely. After the ref blew the whistle, each opponent tried to anticipate one another’s moves, but Robles acted as if he owned the mat.

He forced McDonough to wrestle out of his comfort zone. Unlike Kjar, McDonough struggles—McDonough and Robles have never faced each other on the mat before, and McDonough discovers quickly it is difficult to transition and shoot on an opponent without a leg. The moment Robles lowers his center of gravity, it is evident McDonough tries to grab the leg, but nothing is there. The notion of disbelief is present as the defending champion looks as if he’s never wrestled a day in his life when paired against Robles.

With strong head position and wrist control, Robles snaps down McDonough to his knees, turns the corner sharply, and impressively succeeds as the referee grants Robles two points. The crowd roars, and in the first minute of the match McDonough is left stunned.

McDonough is now in the worst position to be in this sort of match: underneath Robles. Through upper body pressure and brute strength, Robles managed to stay on top of the defending champion and fight for riding time. Once riding time is confirmed, Robles punishes McDonough through the use of a tilt, earns back points, and tilts again before the first period comes to an end.

Ultimately, the final score sat at 7-1, and Robles basked in the glory – his hand raised by the ref, the crowd roaring, the undefeated record.

Read More at The College Fix

ISLA VISTA – The text from UC Santa Barbara sophomore Joselin Hernandez was gut-wrenching: “My friend is dead.”

It came after six people were fatally stabbed and shot, and many others injured, in the UC Santa Barbara college town of Isla Vista on Friday night, where a 22-year-old man went on a killing spree before ending his rampage with an apparent fatal gunshot wound to the head, authorities say.

“As a student, this outrages me because IV is a place that many call home,” Hernandez told The College Fix about the roughly half-square mile coastal college town. “For someone to barge in, not only to intentionally kill but harm those that were simply trying to enjoy their night, is appalling.”

“This man, whoever he was, does not deserve to be talked about,” Hernandez added. “He’s a mass murderer and that’s all I have to say about him.”

Hernandez is one of the many UC Santa Barbara and Santa Barbara City College students who are shocked and angry in the wake of shooting massacre in their community.

In interviews with The College Fix on Saturday, students living within the college town situated just north of UC Santa Barbara said they are stunned, still trying to grapple with their strong emotions in the wake of the tragedy.

The alleged assailant is 22-year-old Santa Barbara City College student Elliot Rodger, who posted a YouTube video saying the motivation for his planned attack was that he was lonely, upset that women did not find him attractive. He promised to give them a “day of retribution.”

UC Santa Barbara freshman and sorority member Sierra Kalman said she can’t believe what took place.

“I am shocked and in disbelief that anyone would do this in our beloved community,” she said, adding, “our community is already coming together to mourn the losses of the victims.”

Students said they are saddened by the horrific incident, and it will take time to heal. There’s talk of vigils, and UCSB officials sent emails to parents and students Saturday letting them know counseling services are available.

“My colleagues have been working throughout the night to provide support to our students, and those efforts will continue today and throughout the coming days and weeks,” Michael Young, vice chancellor for student affairs, said in the email. “Counselors and student affairs staff members are at the campus’s Student Resource Building today for those wishing to speak with someone in person.”

As news of the tragedy spreads, UC Santa Barbara Sophomore Cody O’Connell said his university is sure to take another serious hit to its reputation, noting “I am deeply saddened and outraged by the event.”

“It is extremely tragic,” he said, “and does not reflect Isla Vista or UCSB students as a population.”

Many students also expressed their gratitude to law enforcement for their rapid response. Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown told reporters that from the time the first 9-1-1 calls came in to the time the suspect was dead at the scene was ten minutes.

“Residents should be able to trust our emergency services and police officers to keep us safe, since they were able to save a lot of lives and take down an active shooter efficiently,” said UC Santa Barbara sophomore Cody Sturges. “With Isla Vista crimes continuing to increase, I have complete faith in law enforcement and thank them for helping protect Isla Vista.”

Friday’s massacre comes in the wake of a riot that broke out during a massive “Deltopia” block party in Isla Vista in April. Hundreds were arrested and police deployed tear gas to disperse the crowd of drunken rioters.

Similarly, much of Isla Vista was thrust into chaos Friday night, students said, adding the shooting spree incited fear, confusion and utter chaos. Friends frantically texted friends and posted updates on social media outlets as word spread and panic grew.

“It was a hectic mess of cop cars, fire trucks, ambulances,” UC Santa Barbara Junior Zoe Slayton tells The College Fix. “The violence was in multiple locations so it was confusing to piece together the whole story based on texts and calling friends.”

The suspected gunman is 22-year-old Santa Barbara City College student Elliot Rodger, son of a “Hunger Games” assistant director. Rodger allegedly killed six students and hospitalized seven before he was found dead at the scene of a fatal gunshot wound to the head, initial reports indicate.

Before the rampage, Rodger posted a retribution video online revealing his motivations, specifically targeting sorority girls and popular students, saying he felt they never gave him the attention he deserved.

Read More at The College Fix

SANTA BARBARA – Alice Gilbert can vividly recall her first day of class last fall in a black studies course called “The Obama Phenomenon” offered by Professor Otis Madison at UC Santa Barbara.

That’s because before his introductory lecture was over, the scholar “warned Ted Cruz-supporting ‘teabaggers’ to get the hell out of his classroom before he sent them home to their mother in a body bag,” Gilbert said in an email interview with The College Fix.

“The comment is from memory, however there were other students with me in the class who can attest to them,” Gilbert said. “When Professor Madison made his comments in the very first lecture, I was taken aback and offended.”

Gilbert said as a conservative student, she enrolled in the course to broaden her horizons and learn about the president from a perspective other than what she is normally exposed to, but dropped it after Madison’s remarks.

She never complained to administrators.

“He did not target me by name, so I did not feel that there was a lot the school could do based on a student just being offended by something said in class,” said Gilbert, a junior and statewide College Republican student leader.

Gilbert is telling her story now as part of the new social media campaign #MyLiberalCampus, in which students post anecdotal evidence describing when their conservative beliefs have been disregarded or denigrated by professors or peers.

The effort, launched by the College Republican National Committee, strives to highlight the discrimination and intolerance conservative students face everyday on campuses nationwide. So far, more than 350,000 people have engaged in the conversation.

As for Madison, who is listed as a “lecturer” on his faculty profile, in an email to The College Fix, he offered a different recollection of the first “The Obama Phenomenon” lecture he taught last fall.

The following is his verbatim response:

No. I said that any conservative ideas were welcome but they had to be academic ideas. That tea party non sense like “Obama is a Nazi, Communist, Muslin elitist would not be tolerated and that I would destroy those concepts. You cannot be a Nazi, a communist, a Muslim, and an elitist at the same time. These are philosophically contradictory concepts. If on the other hand you wanted to discuss Obama’s politics that would be welcome. I said, for example, that there is very little difference between Obama and George Bush as it relates to the recovery from the recession. Both moved in the direction of TARP.

Thus, people who wanted to argue the above nonsense should take another class or tune in to the Fox news bobble.

Madison first debuted “The Obama Phenomenon” in fall 2010, and it is slated to be offered again this summer.

Asked to describe the class, Madison said it looks at President Obama’s personal background in the “context of Black political philosophy.”

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Prolifers who display graphic images of aborted fetuses to tout their message are like “domestic terrorists” who invade communities and make women feel unsafe, said a UCSB student and active supporter of a feminist studies professor recently charged with battery after an altercation with prolife demonstrators at the university.

“They are domestic terrorists, because the definition of a terrorist is someone who terrorizes,” said UCSB sophomore Katherine Wehler, a theater and feminist studies major, in an interview with The College Fix.

“That’s exactly what those girls were doing,” she said of young prolife demonstrators on campus who are at the center of the controversy. “They were making us feel very unsafe on our campus outside one of the busiest places during the busiest week of the quarter.”

Wehler is among a large contingent of students who have come out in support of the professor, while other students have condemned the educator’s actions.

Early last month, feminist studies Professor Mireille Miller-Young led a small mob of students against pro-life demonstrators holding graphic signs. The mob chanted “take down the sign,” then Miller-Young and two students grabbed one of the signs and ran off with it, eventually engaging in a physical altercation with one of the 16-year-old demonstrators who tried to retrieve the stolen sign.

Miller-Young has been charged with misdemeanor theft, vandalism, and battery, and recently pleaded not guilty.

The incident has made national headlines and divided the UCSB community, with dueling petitions launched in support and against Miller-Young. But the petition in support of the feminist studies professor has gained significantly more signatures – nearly 2,000 compared to about 150 signatures.

Wehler, who has taken a class taught by Miller-Young, said she feels strongly the educator did the right thing because the pro-life activists made the campus uncomfortable for students.

“The last thing we need are these people invading our community,” she said.

Students stand in solidarity with Miller-Young because they feel there should have been “trigger warnings” for the images the pro-life activists presented in the free-speech zone.

“I have a lot of feminist friends that went to them [pro-life protesters] with an educated academic response, because they were extremely triggered by these images, and the activists were saying this is for ‘women’s rights,’” Wehler said. “As feminist scholars and activists, we were insulted to hear that their cause is for women’s rights, because we felt personally attacked as women. Then, we were repeatedly called murderers. That is not okay.”

“In my opinion,” she added, “Professor Miller-Young would never attack anyone as the media suggests unless feeling an invasion of her own personal space like anyone else would in a fight or flight situation. … If the university did decide to revoke her employment, there would be a large uproar because she is so celebrated.”

Read More at The College Fix

A top UC Santa Barbara administrator’s email that alludes to the actions of a feminist studies professor charged with battery against a teenage prolife protestor on campus has prompted controversy, as many have accused the educator’s words of slandering pro-lifers and Christians.

Vice-Chancellor of Student Affairs Michael Young’s March 19 memo focused on how the campus community should address visiting protestors and defended free speech. It represents the only detailed comment administrators have put out on the incident, which has gained national attention.

On March 4, department of feminist studies professor Mireille Miller-Young, whose research emphasis is black studies, pornography, and sex work, was caught on camera assaulting a 16-year-old prolife demonstrator.

In addressing the matter, Vice-Chancellor Young describes anti-abortion demonstrators, who used graphic images of aborted fetuses to make their point, as “outsiders” and “evangelical types” that can ultimately be “disruptive and has the potential to draw us into the kind of conflict that puts at risk the quality of exchange of ideas that is fundamental to the mission of our university.”

“The price of freedom for all to speak is that, at times, everyone will be subjected to speech and expression that we, ourselves, find offensive, hateful, vile, hurtful, provocative, and perhaps even evil,” Young wrote. “So be it! Law and policy ban only an extremely narrow band of speech and expression-“yelling ‘fire!’ in a crowded theatre,” for example, and child pornography.”

“Our Founding Fathers-all white men of privilege, some even slave owners-got it right when designing the First Amendment of the Constitution.”

Although UCSB is a public institution that prides itself on a free speech zone, Young said he views the anti-abortion protesters as a negative reflection to the campus community. 

“And now we are tested once again, outsiders coming into our midst to provoke us, to taunt us and attempt to turn us against one another as they promote personal causes and agendas,” he wrote. 

Young said he believes, however, that freedom of speech must be cherished and students must accept it, saying: “The price we pay to speak our own minds is allowing others to speak theirs, regardless of how oppositional their views are to our own.”

“While it has not always been easy, time and again UCSB students have demonstrated that they can disagree about the critical issues of our time—fundamentally and passionately but within a framework of humanity and civility, respecting the dignity of those whose views they oppose,” he wrote.

Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust, which represents the anti-abortion protestors, denounced Young’s statement.

“Using terms like ‘evangelical types’ he denigrates a group of people for their religious views,” the group stated in a news release. “Had he said ‘gay types,’ ‘black types,’ or ‘Muslim types,’ clearly there would be outrage, as there should be,” the statement read. “Intolerance must be intolerant of all hate speech.”

Read More at The College Fix

SANTA BARBARA – Paper towels have been removed from several dormitory bathrooms at UC Santa Barbara as a first step in a larger effort that aims to banish all disposable squares of absorbent paper from campus dorm restrooms.

Members of the “UCSB Paper Towel Free Project” have doled out small, blue hand towels embroidered with the words “UCSB Zero Waste” in yellow to the affected students, who are expected to carry the hand towels to the lavatory every time they need to take a leak.

The paper towel dispensers that used to hang in the targeted areas now sit empty and unused.

The pilot project – launched in the fall and something students hope to soon implement in all campus dorm bathrooms – is designed to help save the environment and meet the lofty and unrealistic goal of the University of California system to become zero waste by 2020.

However, it remains to be seen whether the undertaking factors in the cleansing habits of the average college student – most of whom didn’t even wash their bed sheets all semester long, let alone remember to carry around a towel to dry their hands.

Why don’t these intrepid student environmentalists install hand dryers? Too noisy, according to the first initial phase of the pilot project.

Apparently they didn’t have the budget for super-quiet or low-energy dryers common these days, but they do have the funds to blow on a bunch of Gaucho-blue towels that likely ended up curled and molding in the corner of most bedrooms.

In an email to The College Fix, Residence Hall Association President Andrew Soriano claims the amount of money spent on the project is comparable to the amount of money spent on filling and refilling paper towels in an academic year. But in this liberal Southern California city of Santa Barbara – in which the City Council recently voted unanimously to ban plastic grocery bags – the consequences of this project far outweigh anything else.

Students are “expected to take it with them to the bathroom when they need to go and wash their hands, and they’re expected to take care of it,” junior Arriana Rabago, an environmental studies major and one of the co-chairs of the project, told The Bottom Line campus newspaper about the hand towels.

Nevermind that nowadays most paper towels are generally made from recycled paper. Nevermind that unbleached recycled paper towels can be thrown away in separate containers then transported to commercial composters.

As for this pilot project, it hardly seems fair that the initial participants were residents of the so-called “environmental floors,” on which students can elect to reside in to be amongst like-minded peers (there’s also a creative arts floor, for example).

One would think that if those presenting this endeavor wanted a real handle on how it would work out they should have used a random sample of average, dorm-dwelling college students.

Here’s the bottom line: taking away the paper towels that some 5,000 freshmen and sophomores living in campus dorms use to dry their hands after they wash them – after they’ve relieved themselves, and touched toilets and bathroom stall doors – and asking them to carry around and use towels instead is unrealistic and – what’s more – unsanitary.

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I recently had the pleasure, along with more than 100 other conservative college students, to visit Rancho del Cielo, a 688-acre ranch tucked away among the Santa Ynez Mountain range northwest of Santa Barbara, California.

For many years, it was home away from home for President Ronald Reagan, and it also played host to Young America’s Foundation’s annual fall conference in early November. At the weekend retreat, my peers and I learned things from a parade of prominent conservative speakers that we could only dream of hearing come out of our professors’ mouths back on our campuses.

Take the speech by Congressman Tom Graves (R-Ga.), who told us “dream big, work hard, and achieve much.”

It’s something we heard a lot about from our parents growing up, but more recently at college we’re taught by leftist professors how this country crushes dreams, institutionalizes racism, and that only with the help of the federal government can we hope to really achieve anything great.

Yet Congressman Graves, who helped lead the fight to defund Obamacare in the U.S. House of Representatives, told us about Reagan’s ideals when describing that battle, saying a free-market solution is the best alternative to Obamacare.

“America is longing for positive, visionary solutions that lead us to the better tomorrow that Ronald Reagan always promised us of,” he said, and we applauded that, heartily.

As a sophomore at UC Santa Barbara, I can assure you President Reagan’s name has been mentioned few and far between by scholars who lead my classes. Ask any other college student, and they’ll probably tell you the same thing.

On the flip side, professors often talk about the negatives of capitalism and suggest federal government reforms and bailouts as solutions, but often fail to mention the corruption of political leaders.

Luckily, during the conference, we heard from New York Times bestselling author Peter Schweizer, who recently penned Extortion: How Politicians Extract Your Money, Buy Votes, and Line Their Own Pockets. He gave us numerous examples of rampant corruption in government, and taught us how officials often line their pockets with money at the expense of the American people.

Just as one example, he cited Rep. Grace Napolitano (D-Calif.), who loaned her own campaign $150,000, charged 18 percent interest, and delayed paying herself back for 20 years. Such corruption, rooted in government expansion, is often ignored on liberal campuses.

And while professors also love to tout President Barack Obama as a hero and saint, we actually learned during our weekend retreat that Obama does not, in fact, earn an ‘A’ in every political category.

Louisiana State Sen. Elbert Lee Guillory, in his speech on grading Obama in political categories, criticized Obama for purposely heightening racial tensions in the country when he called for “justice” in regard to the death of Trayvon Martin, but ignored the malicious murder of an Australian college student a few months later.

Sen. Guillory said skin color should not matter when defending the life of a human being. With this said, attendees wondered why students and scholars held aloft Trayvon Martin posters and hosted vitriolic protests on campus, but did not protest in the case of the Australian.

Read More at The College Fix