Education Briefs
A female student at the University of Oklahoma (OU) was assigned a 650-word essay in reaction “to an article about how people are perceived based on societal expectations of gender,” for which she received zero points because she made the case that traditional gender roles should not be considered stereotypes. Turning Point USA posted on X that the student, Samantha Fulnecky, cited scripture in support
of her position that “eliminating gender in society would be ‘detrimental’ because that would put people ‘farther from God’s original plan for humans.’” Her essay further identified “the erosion of ‘gender’ roles” as the source of the problem, which she said articles like the one she was assigned attempt to do. Her professor, Mel Curtis, a transgender man who presents as a woman, claimed Fulnecky did not follow his guidelines for the paper and that she “failed to use empirical evidence.” He called parts of her essay “offensive.” Turning Point USA’s post read in part: “We should not be letting mentally ill professors around students.... Professors like this are the very reason conservatives can’t voice their beliefs in the classroom. Kudos to Samantha for leading by example and standing up for what she believes in.” A WorldNetDaily article noted that a rant by Curtis against Fulnecky’s paper prompted Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt to order the university’s board of regents “to make certain students are not being punished for their faith.” Thus far, the professor has been removed from the classroom and placed on administrative leave pending “the finalization” of an investigation. Stitt said: “The 1st Amendment is foundational to our freedom and inseparable from a well-rounded education. The situation at OU is deeply concerning. I’m calling on the OU regents to review the results of the investigation and ensure other students aren’t unfairly penalized for their beliefs.”
Indiana is poised to require its public colleges and universities to prove their new degree programs “demonstrate a commitment to upholding American values” before they can be implemented. Jaryn Crouson of the Daily Caller News Foundation reported on November 25 that Indiana’s Commission for Higher Education is implementing “a new process for program proposals that requires schools to prove a course’s curriculum cultivates 
‘civic responsibility’ and promotes a ‘commitment to the core values of American society’” in order to gain approval. According to Indiana Public Media, institutions of higher education in the state “have already cut nearly 20% of programs due to low enrollment and completion.” One such casualty is Purdue University-Fort Wayne’s “Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies” program, for which many parents are undoubtedly grateful. Indiana’s Republican Governor, Mike Braun, has indicated his displeasure with the leftist programming at many institutions, which he said “has pushed companies to stop requiring post-secondary degrees, believing they no longer carry the same weight they once did.” Braun’s administration has embarked on a course to ensure college degrees “are worth their price.” Crouson reports that in January, the governor signed an executive order “banning the taxpayer funding of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs and initiatives at all state agencies,” and particularly any “training, instruction, procedures, or programming” that endorses “preferential treatment of one person’s particular race, color, ethnicity or national origin, over that of another person.”
The Trump Administration’s crackdown on immigration may already be making higher education more accessible to American students, particularly at elite schools. The Washington Examiner explained how American universities have been pressured in recent decades to expand undergraduate enrollment even as the enrollment of foreign students 
exploded. Foreign students often pay higher tuition, and foreign cash has carried the day for many years. “Now,” writes the Examiner, “thanks to President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown,” some of these same institutions are finally serving more Americans — democratizing access and “opening transformational opportunities to thousands of students who were previously shut out.” This is particularly the case at elite universities where class sizes have been kept low to maintain prestige despite increasing numbers of applicants and despite the disappointment many parents feel at the infiltration of “woke” curricula and professors at America’s “best” schools. As the Examiner puts it, these universities successfully fill seats with “high-paying international applicants,” while American students run into “a bottleneck that suppresses upward mobility and weakens the nation’s domestic talent pipeline.” With the Trump Administration limiting student visas and restricting international enrollment, a degree of fairness may be restored for qualified U.S. students. The Examiner observes: “By reducing their dependence on international students, these institutions are being forced to serve the nation that built and sustained them in the first place.”
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