Clinton and Obama Struggle for Power

by Sheldon Richman

Many Americans are spellbound by the historic contest for the Democratic presidential nomination between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Forgetting the political context, it is indeed something spectacular, even inspiring. A woman and a black man have reached a pinnacle that just a few years ago seemed impossibly far off.

If it were happening outside politics, it would be something to appreciate.

But we can’t forget the political context, and it’s the nature of that context that should keep us from truly rejoicing in Clinton’s and Obama’s achievements.

For more on this commentary, go to The Future of Freedom Foundation

Oregon student senate committee may have conducted illegal meeting

Eugene, Ore. — A University of Oregon student Senate committee disregarded the state's open meetings law, according to student government President Sam Dotters-Katz.

The Associated Students of the University of Oregon Senate Over-Realized Committee conducted a meeting May 13 to begin evaluating student groups' requests for access to the university's over-realized fund. The fund, which accumulates as enrollment unexpectedly increases, built up more than $735,000 for the 2007-08 academic year. The meeting, according to Dotters-Katz and Oregon Daily Emerald Editor in Chief Laura Powers, violated Oregon's public reports and meetings law.

For more on this article, go to The Student Press Law Center

Bayless bowing out as WVU-Tech provost June 30

This article originially appeared in the May 29 edition of The Charleston Gazette, and is reprinted with permission.

By Veronica Nett, Staff writer

After three years at the helm of West Virginia University Institute of Technology, Charles Bayless will retire next month to pursue research in energy and coal at WVU.

Bayless announced Tuesday he will retire as campus provost June 30.
He said he plans to work on a volunteer basis in WVU's National Research Center for Coal and Energy - a field he said he is truly interested in and is excited about working in.

"I'm probably more useful there than I am here," he said.

Bayless was appointed as president of WVU-Tech in 2005. His title changed to campus provost when the school became a division of WVU in July 2007 (the school had been a regional campus of WVU since 1996).

A Kanawha County native, Bayless earned an electrical engineering degree from Tech in 1968 and both a master's degree in engineering and a law degree from WVU.

Bayless may be best remembered for his attempt to move WVU-Tech's engineering program to the Dow Technology Park in South Charleston. Gov. Joe Manchin announced the plan in his 2006 State of the State address, but public outcry from some faculty, students and Montgomery-area residents scuttled the proposal.

"It's about time," Gail Harlan, a member of the group Take Back Tech, said of Bayless' resignation. "We're just tickled to death that they got rid of him."

Bayless acknowledged there is no love lost between him and some Montgomery community members. "They have hardly begun to forgive me for trying to move Tech to Charleston," he said.

Still, he said his decision did not stem from pressure from the Montgomery community. He said he came to WVU-Tech with the attitude that he would "stay until I can fix it."

"I believe that I've accomplished what I came here to do," he said. "In the past three years, we've been able to provide our students with a state-of-the art engineering laboratory and new residence hall and dining facilities that were desperately needed. We've increased state funding by $1.8 million a year, and our application numbers for next fall are very strong."

Bayless credited Take Back Tech as an instrumental force behind WVU-Tech securing $3.2 million in funds from the Legislature for upgrades to the school's engineering program.

"I do appreciate what they have done," he said.

Associate provost Scott Hurst, who will serve as interim provost, said enrollment at WVU-Tech has stabilized, but the institution is still losing There's about a $1 million deficit," he said.

Since 2002, WVU-Tech has seen a 20.8 percent drop in enrollment, according to a report by the state Higher Education Policy Commission.

About half of that is from the loss of community college students, Hurst said. A 2000 law said community and technical colleges must be independent of four-year colleges. WVU-Tech's community college was accredited in 2004.

The Legislature is also conducting an audit of WVU-Tech's finances.

In June, Take Back Tech filed a lawsuit alleging WVU had failed to live up to its statutory obligation to produce a specific plan for WVU-Tech. Kanawha Circuit Judge Irene C. Berger agreed in January and gave WVU officials until May 1 to come up with a plan.

WVU-Tech officials, however, have yet to submit a master plan to the WVU Board of Governors for approval. Hurst hopes to have one together by the end of July.

Harlan said Take Back Tech members have met repeatedly with Hurst and back his appointment as interim provost.

The state is always the enemy

by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.

The web loves nothing more than a good brawl, so people often write me to ask me to respond to a critic of LewRockwell.com or the Mises Institute. There's certainly no shortage of them, and they come from the left, the right, and everything in between.

My first thought on the request is that the archive speaks for itself, and a response would amount to little more than reprinting. And yet the criticisms in themselves are interesting because often they come from people who liked one thing we said and then felt betrayed by another thing we said, so we get praise for the first thing and attacked for the second thing.

For more on this op/ed, go to LewRockwell.com

The importance of borders

by Walter Block

Doctors without borders. Journalists without borders. Educators without borders. Librarians without borders. Rivers without borders. Potters without borders. Hydrogeologists without borders. Facilitators without borders. Builders without borders. Life without borders. Students without borders. Veterinarians without borders. Friends without borders. MBAs without borders. Words without borders. Dogs without borders (see here). Mexicans without borders. Slavery without borders. Dumping without borders (see here).

These are only some of the quickly burgeoning groups that share the same last (two) name(s), "without borders."

What is going on here? What accounts for this new "without borders" initiative? What do all these groups have in common? Do they resemble each other in any way apart from choice of appellation? And, where are the "libertarians without borders?"

At first glance, these groups are as dissimilar as they can be. What, after all, do doctors, reporters and Mexicans share apart from their humanity, of course? But, by digging a little deeper we are able, at least, to hazard an informed guess as to what is going on.

All of these organizations are associated with leftish political philosophy in general, and with support for world government in particular.

For more on this op/ed piece, go to LewRockwell.com

Texas college muzzles concealed handgun protest

Fort Worth, Texas —In a dramatic blow to freedom of expression, Tarrant County College has prohibited its students from wearing empty gun holsters to protest policies that forbid students with concealed carry licenses from carrying concealed handguns on campus.

A TCC administrator told interested students that they could not wear the holsters and could only conduct a protest in the school's tiny and restrictive free speech zone. TCC student and protest organizer Brett Poulos has turned to a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania civil liberties watchdog for help.

"TCC has cast aside decades-old Supreme Court precedent strongly protecting symbolic expression by refusing to recognize its students' right to wear empty holsters to make their point," said Greg Lukianoff, president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.

"The students were using the empty holsters to protest policies that they believe render students defenseless. They have every right to engage in this symbolic protest, and TCC's cynical attempt to ban dissenting views is both shameful and transparent."

To read more, go to FIRE's Website. Also, to find out more about the protest taking place nationwide, including WVU Tech, go to Students for Concealed Carry on Campus.

Teaching about Myanmar through M & M's - Minn. diversity program found to be a political slush fund

Minneapolis, Minn. - Schools in Minnesota are saving money any way they can, including laying off teachers.

But a 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS investigation has uncovered a huge pot of money that just keeps growing.Experts say that money has been budgeted with no clear purpose.

The $85 million program has a lofty goal—enhance diversity in school districts across the state. But our investigation discovered hundreds of thousands of dollars in questionable spending.

For more on this story, go to KSTP-TV 5.

Montgomery colleagues take note - WVU faculty takes stand for free speech

MORGANTOWN - The faculty overwhelmingly defeated another motion that had recommended any faculty member who threatens or intimidates a university employee, board member or other state executive be disciplined or dismissed immediately.

The motion, offered by professor Dallas Branch and rejected 527-23, stemmed from two fliers found in the engineering building last week that used the word "kill.'' The composition and font size were crafted carefully to avoid qualifying as a direct threat, and State Police said last week they did not consider the language criminal.

From a distance it reads, "Kill Joe Manchin,'' although when read closer, does not advocate killing the governor -- just his candidacy for re-election.

But campus Police Chief Bob Roberts said last week he found the language disturbing, as did Branch.

"Faculty colleagues, this is unacceptable. It may be seen as a joke to some,'' Branch said. But after the mass murder at Virginia Tech last year, "Something like this cannot be taken as a joke.''

Two professors opposed the language of the motion as overly broad and warned it could have discourage free speech on campus.

This article is condensed version of a larger Associated Press article found in the May 14 edition of The Charleston Daily Mail. To read that article in its entirety, click here. Also, for more information on what lead to the resolution, click here.

Tech loses $1.2 million in 2007, similar losses expect in '08

This article originally appeared in the April 28 edition of The Charleston Daily Mail, and is reprinted with permission.

by Kelly Halloran, staff writer

West Virginia University Institute of Technology had a $1.2 million deficit last fiscal year, and school officials estimate they'll have a similar budget shortfall this year.

Last year marked the first time the university dipped into the red, after several years of declining enrollment and falling revenue.

The college had had a surplus at least for the previous two years. In 2005, the budget had $1.3 million left over, and in 2006 the surplus amounted to $233,000.

But according to financial statements recently made available on the Higher Education Policy Commission Web site, revenue in 2007 fell $1.2 million short of expenditures.

The deficit is due to declining enrollment and an insufficient accounting structure at the school, Associate Provost Scott Hurst said.

Total enrollment dropped to 1,450 in the fall of 2007, down from 1,474 at the same time in 2006 and 1,539 in the fall of 2005.

Enrollment has been steadily declining since 1992, when it peaked at 2,163 students.

In 2006, worries about falling enrollment and facility problems on the Montgomery campus spurred lawmakers to propose moving the institute's engineering school to a technology park in South Charleston. Backlash from eastern Kanawha County andschool alumni nixed the move, and the state pumped millions into renovations and overhauled the administrative set-up of the entire college.

It's now a division of West Virginia University, which shifts much of the financial and recruitment responsibilities to the Morgantown aministration.

A lingering problem that led to this year's deficit is that Tech had not had a good system of tracking expenses, Hurst said.

"One of the problems we have had when we started to address the problem was getting an accounting structure in place," he said.

The school is attempting to turn things around, Hurst said.

In July, for example, school officials began to look more closely at controlling expenditures, he said.

"We need to not have excess capacity in areas where we do not need it," Hurst said. "I'm talking about non-academic services."

Administrative functions, such as human resources and financial aid, have been moved to Morgantown.

Rather than establishing supervisory roles at the school, officials at the two schools also have agreed to centralize the roles at WVU, Hurst said in an earlier article.

The move will save about $700,000 in the coming year, he said.

The school primarily receives its revenue from tuition and fees, Hurst said.
Only one-third of the school's funding comes from state appropriations.

In a court-ordered plan the school released in February, officials focused on ways to recruit and retain students.

The plan calls for enrollment to increase by about 12 percent to 1,650 by 2012.

One way to do that is to offer more scholarships, Hurst said.

"There are things that we have to do on our campus and services that we have to get in place," he said.

School officials expect to run a deficit in fiscal year 2008 similar to this year's, Hurst said.

They hope to be back in the black in a few years with the help of the changes they are making to the school.

"If you invest in the appropriate things and run a deficit in the process of doing that, sometimes it will turn the fiscal situation around," he said.

The state is conducting an audit on the school this year, but officials are not sure when that will be complete, legislative auditor Aaron Allred said last week.