by Staff Reporter | Apr 28, 2024 | Education, News
By Staff Reporter |
A University of Arizona assistant professor who moonlights as a drag queen, Harris Kornstein, pushed children to support Hamas during a recent drag story hour with Valley Families for Palestine, arranged by Queer Storytime for Palestine.
Kornstein encouraged the crowd of children to chant “Free Palestine!” as a response to: “If you’re a drag queen and you know it…” during a performance this week.
Palestinians don’t tolerate LGBTQ+ individuals, especially Hamas. Anyone involved in those lifestyles in the area risks persecution and violence at minimum, even death.
Valley Families for Palestine, an activist coalition located in the Connecticut River Valley, privatized their social media accounts after Kornstein’s video went viral.
Also involved in the drag story hour were Sarah Prager, an LGBTQ+ author; Hannah Moushabeck, a queer author and Palestinian supporter; Jewish Voice for Peace Western Mass; Booklink Books; MassEquality; Parasol Patrol at Western Mass; and Western Mass Mask Bloc.
Kornstein, who goes by the drag name “Lil Miss Hot Mess,” often does his drag performances for minors in other states in addition to drag story hours.
Kornstein is also a board member for Drag Queen Story Hour, and author of two books marketed to children normalizing drag lifestyles: “The Hips on the Drag Queen Go Swish, Swish, Swish,” and “If You’re a Drag Queen and You Know It.”
Drag Queen Story Hour is a national organization with state chapters that emerged from Michelle Tea, a leftist author from San Francisco who launched it out of her desire almost 10 years ago to raise her toddler in “queer culture.”
In a 2021 research paper, Kornstein defended the creation of Drag Queen Story Hour as a means of allowing children to explore “queer pedagogy” and engage in “queer imagination” from a young age. The latter term, Kornstein said, enhanced child development through play as praxis, aesthetic transformation, strategic defiance, destigmatization of shame, and embodied kinship. Kornstein noted that drag queen engagement with children would lead to normalization of the practice.
“Within this complex political landscape, [Drag Queen Story Hour] seems to uniquely thread the needle between queer activism and broad cultural acceptance,” said Kornstein.
At the University of Arizona, Kornstein taught in the College of Humanities Public & Applied Humanities. Up until he went on research leave last year, Kornstein served as an assistant professor for the Institute for LGBTQ+ Studies, School of Art, School of Information, and Graduate Interdisciplinary Program in Social, Cultural, and Critical Theory.
Kornstein was able to go on leave thanks to a $60,000 grant from the Biden administration’s National Endowment for the Humanities. That funding is going toward a book project theorizing queer and transgender strategies of countering “surveillance capitalism” through observations of drag queens, transgender taxi drivers, cruising gay men, witchcraft, “mystical intuition,” and “gay hanky codes.”
Last December, the University of Arizona awarded Kornstein the Chatfield Impact Award — an honor for exemplary teaching, research, and service — for which he received $5,000.
Kornstein auctioned his books for a “Books for Palestine” fundraiser last November.
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by Elizabeth Troutman | Apr 28, 2024 | Education, News
By Elizabeth Troutman |
Almost 30,000 students will graduate from Grand Canyon University later this month, marking the third time the school has produced this many alumni in a year.
“We are blessed to be able to celebrate the accomplishments of another record class of graduates who are meeting the needs of today’s workforce and fulfilling their purpose as servant leaders throughout the world,” GCU President Brian Mueller said in a statement.
On April 25-26, GCU will hold commencement ceremonies for 5,388 traditional students on the Phoenix campus, while the 23,597 graduating online students will have commencement May 1-3. The total number of students in the graduating class is 28,985, including those who completed their degrees in Summer 2023, Fall 2023, and projected graduates from Spring 2024.
In the 2022-23 year, 29,116 students graduated, while 30,000 graduated in the 2021-22 year.
“While enrollment numbers and graduation numbers are declining nationwide, we have continued to produce a significant number of graduates who are impacting industries throughout the country,” Mueller said.
Of all graduates, 15,580 completed their undergraduate degree, and 13,405 were graduate students earning master’s or doctoral degrees.
The Honors College had 682 graduates, raising the total to more than 2,500 since the college started in 2013.
In the 2023-24 academic year, enrollment at GCU surpassed 25,000 on the Phoenix campus, with another more than 92,000 studying online. Additionally, GCU grew from nine to 10 colleges when the College of Science, Engineering and Technology split into two, forming the College of Engineering and Technology and the College of Natural Sciences.
GCU also opened a physical location for its Grand Canyon Theological Seminary in the fall. The 17,000-square-foot Seminary offers GCU’s Master of Divinity program and provides a meeting space for local pastors.
The Phoenix-based university also created the Center for Workforce Development and added two more Accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing program sites, bringing the total number of sites to six. GCU is on track to open three more sites in the 2024-25 academic year.
Mueller attributed the growth to students, faculty, and above all, God.
“That is a testament to the extraordinary power of education when delivered creatively across multiple platforms and taught from a Christian worldview perspective,” Mueller said. “It is also a reflection of both our outstanding students and the support they receive from our faculty and staff.”
Elizabeth Troutman is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send her news tips using this link.
by Elizabeth Troutman | Apr 27, 2024 | Education, News
By Elizabeth Troutman |
Students at Arizona State University reportedly held anti-Israel demonstrations on campus Friday.
Videos shared by local free speech advocate Ann Atkinson on X show students yelling “Free, Free, Free Palestine” on the Old Main Lawn, which was covered in tents, signs, and protesters.
Arizona State police handcuffed multiple people amid the protest. Protesters started to form a group in front of Old Main near College Avenue and University Drive on the ASU campus around 9 a.m.
ASU prohibits encampments on property that are outside of university-sanctioned activity.
“Individuals found setting up unapproved encampments will be directed to dismantle them immediately,” an ASU spokesperson told ABC15. “Failure to comply may result in being trespassed from campus and possible arrest. We prioritize the safety and well-being of the campus community and uphold policies to ensure a welcoming environment for everyone.
When police first approached the scene Friday morning and ordered the students to stop protesting, demonstrators chanted, “Hey Hey, ho ho, those damn pigs have got to go.”
Arizona State University joined various universities and other academic groups in issuing a statement in support of Israel in October following the initial Hamas attack, which killed around 1,200 Israelis and foreigners.
“We are horrified and sickened by the brutality and inhumanity of Hamas,” the statement read.
The protestors issued a list of demands asking the university to change its pro-Israel stance.
Demands included asking ASU to issue an official statement condemning the zionist genocide of Palestinians; disclosing all investments made with student money; divesting from companies tied to Israel or complicit in the occupation of Gaza; ending partnerships with groups tied to Israel; providing amnesty for students and faculty disciplined for supporting Palestine; and ending investigations on pro-Palestinian groups.
The protestors demanded that ASU President Michael Crow immediately resign and called for the ASU police to be abolished.
Atkinson suggested that protesters may have wanted to clash with the police.
“Current reporting indicates the protesters did not follow basic rules and are being accused of trespassing,” she said on X. “You would think organizers of a protest like this, which is supported by some ASU faculty and community organizers, and is also set up across the street from the university presidents office, would be smart enough to follow the rules. Perhaps their objective was a conflict with police.”
ASU is one of many schools to face unlawful anti-Israel protests from students.
More than 100 students were arrested last Thursday at Columbia University. Since then hundreds of students have set up similar encampments from California to Massachusetts.
Students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill organized tents, tarps, and air mattresses in a central courtyard, while students at the Fashion Institute of Technology in Manhattan set up an encampment Thursday inside the college’s Goldman Center.
Police arrested 36 people Thursday night when hundreds of Ohio State University students, faculty, and community members set up tents outside the student union. Almost 60 were arrested after protests at the University of Texas.
Elizabeth Troutman is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send her news tips using this link.
by Daniel Stefanski | Apr 26, 2024 | Education, News
By Daniel Stefanski |
Another legislative solution to protect Arizona women and girls was vetoed by the state’s Democrat governor.
This week, Governor Katie Hobbs vetoed SB 1182, which would have “mandate[d] a public school provide a reasonable accommodation to a person who is unwilling or unable to use a multioccupancy shower room designated for the person’s sex, [and] provide[d] private cause of action to an individual who is denied a reasonable accommodation or who encounters a person of the opposite sex in a public school multioccupancy shower room as specified” – according to the overview from the Arizona House of Representatives.
In her veto letter, Hobbs was brief in her explanation to Senate President Warren Petersen, writing, “As I have said time and time again, I will not sign legislation that attacks Arizonans.”
Senator John Kavanagh, the bill’s sponsor, was irate about the governor’s action. He stated, “Girls should not be forced to shower with boys in our taxpayer-funded public schools. It’s utterly disgusting that Democrats, who are out-of-touch with reality, continue to push gender neutrality upon our children, endangering their safety and well-being just to politically platform off a small population they pretend to care about. All students, not just transgender kids, deserve to feel safe and deserve to have privacy when they’re naked in a shower. This was a reasonable bill that a majority of Arizonans agree with.”
The longtime northeast valley lawmaker added, “Unfortunately, because of this partisan driven veto by our Governor, our daughters, granddaughters, nieces, and neighbors will continue to be subjected to not only embarrassment, but sexual assaults and harassment in the event a boy who’s claiming to be a girl is allowed into their female-only showers. I encourage Arizona parents, women, and girls to reach out to the Governor and our Democrat state lawmakers and demand they respect their privacy rights. Change will only happen if we continue to speak out and push back against these injustices our women and girls continue to endure at the hands of Arizona Democrats.”
When the legislation was considered before the full Senate chamber in February, it passed along partisan lines, 16-13 (with one member not voting). After the proposal was transmitted to the House, it was approved 31-28 (with one vacancy) earlier this month – also along partisan lines. Since it was amended in the House, the bill made its way back over to the Senate for concurrence, receiving a 16-14 green light.
On the Arizona Legislature’s Request to Speak system, a representative from the Center for Arizona Policy endorsed the legislation. Representatives from Stand for Children, Arizona Education Association, American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona, Save Our Schools Arizona, Arizona School Boards Association, Arizona Center for Women’s Advancement, NARAL Pro-Choice America, National Council of Jewish Women Arizona, Children’s Action Alliance, Planned Parenthood Advocates of Arizona, Stonewall Democrats of Arizona, the City of Tucson, and Human Rights Campaign, signed in to oppose the bill.
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
by Elizabeth Troutman | Apr 23, 2024 | Education, News
By Elizabeth Troutman |
The largest Christian university in the U.S., Grand Canyon University (GCU), defended itself against “disturbing and defamatory” public comments made by the U.S. Department of Education Secretary Miguel Cardona.
“Mr. Cardona’s inflammatory comments, which are legally and factually incorrect, are so reckless that GCU has no choice but to demand an immediate retraction,” the statement says. “He is either confused, misinformed or does not understand the actions taken by his own agency.”
At the House Appropriations Committee hearing last week, Cardona said “we are cracking down not only to shut them down, but to send a message to not prey on students.”
The Goldwater Institute filed a lawsuit on behalf of GCU in February due to the Biden administration imposing a $37 million fine on the school. The conservative think tank claims the administration has refused to provide documents that explain why it fined GCU.
“GCU has been asked repeatedly why it believes it is being targeted by federal agencies of the Biden Administration,” the school’s statement reads. “Here’s what we can tell you: Mr. Cardona’s inflammatory comments make very clear the Department of Education’s intentions and their disdain for institutions that do not fit their ideological agenda. What’s also clear is that ED has no lawful grounds to carry out those intentions based on their disingenuous and factually unsupportable allegations.”
The Education Department’s conduct extends normal regulatory activity, the statement says.
“It epitomizes the weaponization of federal agencies’ power against a private Christian university,” according to the statement.
GCU is confident an impartial court of law would exonerate it from the allegations.
“GCU’s intent is to fight these accusations all the way to the Supreme Court if necessary,” the statement says. “The Department of Education’s intent, based on the frivolous nature of its accusations and defamatory statements from ED officials, seems to be to damage the university’s reputation, use its ‘findings’ as a rationale to seek loan forgiveness for students under the borrower’s defense to repayment program and impose unprecedented fines and legal fees. In other words, regardless of the inevitable legal outcomes in GCU’s favor, the process becomes the punishment.”
GCU has more than 118,000 students. The Phoenix university says it will continue to thrive.
“With 118,000 students and growing, GCU is thriving and will continue to thrive. In an industry that is struggling and slow to change, GCU has created a model that has allowed it to freeze tuition on its ground campus for 16 straight years, increase diversity and social mobility by ensuring that higher education is affordable to all socioeconomic classes (over 40% of GCU’s ground campus student body are students of color), maintain lower student loan default rates than the national average and lower student debt levels than other private universities, and produce nearly 30,000 graduates in each of the past three years.”
The statement continued, “If a government-run institution produced those kinds of outcomes, it would be applauded. At the largest private Christian university in the country, it draws unwarranted threats from the Secretary of Education and the ire of the federal government.”
Elizabeth Troutman is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send her news tips using this link.
by Daniel Stefanski | Apr 22, 2024 | Education, News
By Daniel Stefanski |
A bill to help increase transparency for Arizona school board elections was vetoed by the state’s Democrat governor.
On Wednesday, Governor Katie Hobbs vetoed SB 1097, which would have “require[d] school district governing board election ballots to include each candidate’s partisan designation as specified beginning January 1, 2025” – according to the purpose from the State Senate.
In her veto letter to Senate President Warren Petersen, Hobbs explained that she had made her decision because the bill “will further the politicization and polarization of Arizona’s school district governing boards whose focus should remain on making the best decisions for students, [and that] partisan politics do not belong in Arizona’s schools.”
Senator Justine Wadsack, the bill’s sponsor, was outraged by the governor’s veto. She released a lengthy statement to call out Hobbs’ action, writing, “In her veto letter, Governor Katie Hobbs stated the school district governing boards’ focus should remain on making the best decisions for students. How can we ensure we’ve elected members that will make the best decisions for students if we don’t know where they stand on important issues? For example, Democrats have voted for things like detrimental mask mandates, extreme social distancing, calling children by different names and pronouns while withholding that information from their parents, and exposing our kids to inappropriate and vulgar content. In the past, we’ve also had Arizona school boards vote to ban educators based on their conservative Christian beliefs. Republican values, on the other hand, lie in protecting our children from harmful mandates, inappropriate content, and woke ideology, while empowering parents to take an active role in their child’s education. By vetoing this bill, Governor Katie Hobbs is conveniently pushing to protect the radical Left ideology infiltrating our schools.”
Wadsack added, “School boards are some of the most important elections we have in our communities. They’re the closest to our children, and our local school boards govern issues that impact the education and well-being of our families. We should be able to access this information without having to dig and deduce.”
On the Arizona Legislature’s Request to Speak system, representatives from the Arizona Free Enterprise Club, Opportunity Solutions Project, A For America, and Arizona Department of Education, had signed in to support the proposal. Representatives from Arizona Association of County School Superintendents, Arizona School Administrators, Southern Arizona Leadership Council, Arizona Education Association, and Save Our Schools Arizona, opposed the legislation.
The bill had first passed the Arizona Senate in February with a 16-10 vote (with four members not voting). It then was approved by the Arizona House earlier this month with a 31-28 vote (with one seat vacant).
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
