Vanderbilt Gets It Right

When campuses across the U.S. erupted in vandalism and unrest after the October 7, 2023 attacks on Israel, Vanderbilt University maintained order on campus, unlike many other colleges. When Charlie Kirk was murdered last month, Republican and Democratic students at Vanderbilt issued a joint statement condemning the killing. The school doesn’t take positions on foreign or domestic policy.

With much of higher education in crisis, it’s fair to say that the university’s chancellor, Daniel Diermeier, is doing something right. He has long been a champion of political neutrality and believes in maintaining open forums. “This means that we have the most open possible environment for our students and faculty to explore ideas without fear of retribution and censorship,” he tells Neetu Arnold. “It means, in practice, that our registered student organizations or faculty can bring to campus any outside speaker they want.”

Read their conversation.

Democrats have been insisting that Congress reverse spending cuts from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act—specifically, health care for illegal immigrants. But both parties are exaggerating the bill’s cuts, Chris Pope writes.

“Its main changes were to narrow slightly eligibility for federally funded health benefits for legal immigrants, while trimming the permitted federal matching rate for ESUA [Emergency Services for Undocumented Aliens] spending to align it with that for most traditional Medicaid beneficiaries,” he explains. “Both the capacity of hospitals to claim federal funding for general uncompensated care, and that of states to claim waivers to distribute Medicaid funding according to broad ‘population health’ objectives, were largely undiminished.”

Read his analysis.

Last month, Representative Ro Khanna spoke at ArabCon, an Arab American convention in Dearborn, Michigan.

Panelists there joked about reporters repeatedly asking whether they condemn the October 7 attacks. One speaker said that the leaders of the Holy Land Foundation, who were convicted of supporting terrorism, were “incredible, generous, kind, beautiful men”; another said that she never condemns Palestinian resistance.

Khanna said that while he doesn’t agree with everyone who spoke at the conference, he does believe in free speech. “Despite his distancing,” Stu Smith writes, “Khanna’s appearance—and position as a rising star in his party— raises questions about the Democrats’ appetite for reining in their extremist wing.”

Read Smith’s take on the event.

“It remains a fundamental truth of criminal-justice policy that to strengthen public safety, the highest-propensity offenders must be incapacitated,” Jakob Dupuis writes. While almost half of all prisoners have at least ten prior arrests, just 5 percent of the population goes to prison in their lifetime. That means it is crucial for policymakers to stop that 5 percent, he argues.

“An offender with multiple prior felonies of any class, or with a limited number of more severe felonies,” Dupuis writes, “should receive sentencing enhancements that apply the maximum term of incarceration of the class of felony above the class with which he is convicted.”

Read his take.

Is the Democratic Party being pulled too far left—or is moderation making a comeback? Jesse Arm, Charles Fain Lehman, and Rafael Mangual discuss the recent government shutdown and the role of the filibuster in shaping legislative outcomes. They analyze tensions in the Democratic Party between radical grassroots movements and centrist pragmatism. And they examine the rise of the “abundance bros” and what this techno-optimist movement says about our current politics. 

“Thank you for this insightful article and for sharing your experiences. At last, a discussion of poverty from someone who experienced it firsthand.

All too often the question of how society deals with poverty comes down to two mindsets: those who believe a ‘beneficent’ government handing out free money by the truckload is the solution, and those who blame the poor for their own misery.

Maybe it’s time to stop listening to pundits, podcasters, and activists and start listening to the people who live in the trenches of poverty. Despite popular myth, few, if any, of them want to be poor and few, if any, are truly helped by a cradle-to-grave welfare system.

There has to be a better way. We’re just not trying hard enough. We’re too caught up in clickbait, soundbites, and election cycles. In the meantime the poor, especially children, go hungry and homeless.”

Photo credit: John Lamparski / Stringer / Getty Images Entertainment via Getty Images