The University of California (“UC”) is one of the most left-leaning education institutions in America, a legacy going back to the 1960s Free Speech Movement. However, in a major change, the UC regents are reining in, although not entirely stopping, employees who use the UC system’s website to post their political statements.

Two UC campuses—Los Angeles and Davis—were at the forefront of the pro-Hamas campus protests that arose when Israel responded to the October 7 massacres and kidnappings. This was a bit weird, given that UCLA used to be the most Jewish of all the UC campuses (both students and faculty), while Davis was, famously, the most staid. But no longer. They’d joined Berkeley and Santa Cruz for radicalization and Riverside and Irvine for antisemitism. It’s the UC way.

Image by AI, imagining what a “studies” class in the UC system might look like.

Now, though, things are changing. Maybe it’s because most Americans don’t like virulent Islamo-leftist antisemitism. Or maybe it’s because calmer heads, watching the attempted assassination of a presidential candidate and recognizing the potential for societal collapse if that were to happen, have decided that enough is enough.

We don’t need to know the reason. It’s enough to know that UC has decided that its employees can no longer use primary UC internet pages as personal political platforms, although (shamefully, to my mind) they can still use secondary pages to trumpet their private political views:

The University of California Board of Regents voted Thursday to ban employees from posting political statements on the homepages of university websites, saying such comments could be interpreted as the university system’s official view.

Political statements and personal opinions will be allowed on secondary pages and must include a disclaimer saying they don’t represent UC’s official views under the new policy. University employees can also post political opinions on their personal university webpages or social media accounts.

[snip]

Recently, political opinions have mainly been posted on the homepages of ethnic studies departments and carried pro-Palestinian messages.

A message on the homepage of the UC Santa Barbara’s Department of Feminist Studies that remained online Thursday expresses support for Palestinians and criticizes the University of California for its “numerous attacks on free speech.”

“The faculty in the Department of Feminist Studies are unflinching lovers of freedom and proud members of the collectives at UCSB fighting for Palestinian liberation and an end to the genocide in Gaza,” the message says.

Since the above article was published, it seems that the Department of Feminist Studies at UC Santa Barbara has removed its angry little tirade about being silenced. However, I must share with you the departmental information on the homepage so you can get a sense of who and what these pro-Hamas people are: They are the kind of people Hamas would gleefully slaughter.

You noticed, I hope, that taxpayers and parents are paying for “twelve core faculty [and] 50 affiliated faculty members,” all in service of that toxic, cultural Marxist garbage. That doesn’t even count the support staff keeping this feminist studies department alive.

I checked out the bios for those “twelve core faculty” members, and have summarized below the main information on those pages. Many have long personal statements that are...well, kind of stunning in their cultural Marxism and pure narcissism (i.e., their studies are all about validating themselves and their fetishes).

Edwina Barvosa has a Ph.D. and M.A. from Harvard, an M.A. from Cambridge, and a B.A. from Pomona College. Her areas of study are “Political Philosophy & Social Theory, Identity & Intersectionality, Chicana/Latina Feminist Thought, Race, Ethnicity and Politics, especially U.S. Latina/o Politics, [and] Gender Studies.”

Eileen Boris, a 1960s-era feminist, has a Ph.D. and an M.A. from Brown, and a B.A. from Boston University. Her specialties are “Labor Studies, Gender, Race, Class, Women's History, [and] Social Politics.”

Debanuj DasGupta has a Ph.D. from Ohio State, an M.A. from the University of Akron, and a B.A. from the University of Calcutta. His specialization is “Transgender Studies, Queer Theory, Transnational Feminism and Sexuality Studies, Queer Migration Studies, South Asia Studies, International Development and Human Rights, Scholar & Activist Methodologies,” while his areas of study are “Racialized regulation of space, immigration detention, Queer migrations and the global governance of migration, Sexuality, [and] HIV.”

Jigna Desai has a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota, and to B.S.s from MIT. Her specializations are “Queer of Color Critique, Women of Color Feminisms, South Asian Diasporic and Migration Studies, Asian American Studies, Critical University Studies, Critical Disability Studies, Public Engagement and Humanities, [and] Media Studies.”

Caleb Luna has a Ph.D. from UC Berkeley and a B.A. from the University of Texas. His specializations are “fat studies, queer of color critique, performance studies, media studies, disability studies, [and] women of color feminisms.”

Mireille Miller-Young has a Ph.D. and M.A. from NYU and a BA from Emory. Her specializations are “Black Cultural Studies, History of Sexuality, [and] Pornography and Sex Work.”

Laury Oaks has a Ph.D. and M.A. from Johns Hopkins, and a B.A. from the University of Illinois. Her specializations are “Sexual and reproductive politics; health advocacy movements; feminist analysis of public health, medicine and science; [and] qualitative research methods.”

Matt Richardson doesn’t list any academic credentials. However, his interests are “Black feminist studies, queer studies, trans studies, literature/cultural studies and film studies,} and his specializations are “Black queer theory, Trans theory, Black feminist theory, Literature and cultural criticism, LGBTQ history, [and] Culture and film theory.”

Leila J. Rupp, another 1960s-era feminist, has a long discursive bio that explains her long path to degrees through a variety of leftist college programs. Her specializations are “Women’s Movements, Sexualities, [and] Transnational History.”

Jennifer Tyburczy has a Ph.D. from Northwestern, an M.A. from the University of Texas, and a B.A. from the University of North Carolina. Her specializations are “LGBTQ Studies, queer theory, genders and sexualities, race and nation, performance studies, social justice, transnational American studies, popular culture, ethnography, cultural politics, political economy, visual art and culture, [and] museum and archive studies.”

And then there’s Jane Ward, the Department Head, who has a Ph.D. from UCSB. Her specialties are “Feminist and queer theory; sex practices; sex cultures; dismantling the patriarchy; creating feminist futures; [and] witchcraft.”

The problem isn’t that these people (all of whom are a microcosm of all the “studies” departments across the UC system) are still allowed to publish their politics on secondary pages within the UC’s official website. It’s that they have jobs at all. In my opinion, they’re crackpots who harm the young minds in their classrooms.