Chicago Daily Observer

It is assumed by most conservatives that big name universities are, for the most part, institutions run and staffed by leftists. This assumption is also, for the most part, true. Thanks mostly to the work of the DePaul Conservative Alliance, DePaul University has been shown to be a hotbed of liberal activism. . Perhaps, as a new report to be published by the Alliance will show, the “Largest Catholic University in America” acts as a foe to alternative ideas because of who makes up the university itself.

Leftists are found everywhere in DePaul’s ivory tower––from the highest levels of university administration to the bustling cubicles of staffers. But as with most universities, the most amount of leftists reside in the classrooms. The usual culprits are not only in the political science, sociology, and philosophy departments, but also surprisingly in the mathematics, nursing, and computer departments. Leftist professors have managed to ... Read More...

DePaul University has always been part of Chicago. What was once the school under the “el” is now the “Largest Catholic University in America.” Even now, a DePaulite’s education is bound tightly to the city itself. However, post-1968 the school began to resemble Chicago in too many unflattering ways. It saw the increasing population of Jews and Muslims and charted a course away from Vincentian evangelization and towards a new “vincentianism” or some post-modern, baseless form of interfaith with a scattered, quiet mentioning of Christianity. While at DePaul’s campus in May of 2007, and after reading through the course requirements for DePaul’s Catholic Studies major, George Weigel quipped, “Only a school in Chicago would accept either ‘Intro to Catholicism’ or ‘Catholicism in Chicago’ as its base course.”

What happened is that the university lost its base course. Societies don’t like vacuums and Chicago began to fill the culturally bankrupt campus ... Read More...

Just before Christmas in 2005 an FBI informant, posing as an al-Qaeda member, met with Narseal Batiste and discussed plans to build an Islamic army. Batiste, a former FedEx truck driver, wanted to wage a jihad “just as good or greater than 9/11.” His targets: the FBI building in Miami and Chicago’s Sears Tower. The most iconic symbol of Chicago’s ingenuity, innovation, and prosperity is a fitting sign of human progress––one that seemed to beg an attack from the jihadists. Just as the World Trade Centers stood at the center of American economic power, the Sears Tower is filled with some of the best Midwestern marketers of global capitalism.

Had the Tower on 233 South Wacker Drive been demolished by these American jihadists, it would have hearkened back to Chicago’s perseverance in October of 1871. The ... Read More...

Almost one month ago, I wrote of an ensuing battle at Loyola University Chicago, the city’s Jesuit university. The “Campaign to Stop Killer Coke,” a fringe leftist organization wielding scurrilous accusations of misconduct by Colombian Coca-Cola bottlers, was unable to boot Coca-Cola off the Loyola campus. In a university-wide email sent on Monday afternoon, Loyola students were informed of President Rev. Michael J. Garanzini’s decision to accept his Vending Committee’s recommendation extending Coca-Cola’s contract past its July 2008 expiration.

In addition to extending the Coca-Cola contract, Loyola inked a new contract with Cadbury Schweppes, which produces such drinks as 7UP and Dr. Pepper. Turning back the Left, this decision kept Coca-Cola beverages and added more choice to the free market. This isn’t the first time the anti-Coke movement has come up short on Chicago campuses. In 2006, it lost a year-long battle at DePaul University. The largest Catholic university in ... Read More...

I recently had the pleasure of seeing the new Unforgiven of Western films: a remake of the 1957 Delmer Daves classic, 3:10 to Yuma. It is set in the post-Civil War rural west, where Dan Evans, a poor rancher, is indebted to a local railroad owner. While herding cattle, Evans and his sons happen upon a robbery undertaken by the notorious Ben Wade. Following an encounter with Wade, Evans finds and tells the bounty hunter the likely destination of Ben Wade and his gang. After finding Wade in a saloon, they arrest him and decide to put him on a train leaving from the town of Contention for a sentencing in Yuma. At first, Evans’ only reason for going along is to earn some money, but despite this, Evans has a certain sense of duty––to his family, to his land, and to himself––which perhaps developed from within the ol’ Western ... Read More...

Loyola University-Chicago has been treated to left-wing student drive called “The Campaign to Stop Killer Coke.” Since universities grant beverages access in return for financial concessions as a regular part of their activities—the money going to worthwhile student activities—the “Campaign to Stop Killer Coke” has mounted a media campaign to influence business decisions by the university. But the “Killer Coke” campaign has egg on its face when the facts are examined. .

The hyperbolic campaign insists certain facts are “undisputed.” Such is not the case. It claims Columbian Coca-Cola bottlers, with the help of “death squads” trained by the United States military, are murdering union organizers…that eight bottler employees were killed between 1990 and 2002; all were targeted by right-wing paramilitary groups funded by Coca-Cola bottlers…and finally that Coca-Cola’s bottlers provide poor working conditions, poor wages, and work aggressively to abridge freedom of association. All of this might justify a ... Read More...

What features of the American landscape are most recognizable from 30,000 feet in the air? Next time you’re on a flight somewhere, look out the window. You’ll see farm plots and church steeples, first. Nowhere could this be seen more vibrantly than in the midwest. This fusion of agrarianism and faith is nowhere more embodied in a candidate for president than with Sen. Sam Brownback.

Brownback is a native Kansan and won’t hesitate in telling you he was born on a farm. . The farm represents everything about America to Brownback: its vastness, fertility, potential, and life. Working his parents’ farm gave Brownback the sense that personal initiative and human ingenuity is vital to prosperity.

Brownback’s respect for the American work ethic extends to his days in the Senate. Brownback has signed the Americans for Tax Reform pledge to oppose all tax increases. He’s one of the few candidates who ... Read More...

Absolutely nothing. “Nothing” seems to be the best word to describe this pseudo-academic. Thankfully, DePaul University recognized this full well when it denied his application for tenure. The University’s decision was subsequently confirmed by Finkelstein’s predictable, obnoxious behavior. But for those who know Finkelstein or who have followed his polemical career, this is nothing new. Finkelstein has been denied tenure twice before, and both times he asserted some kind of “political motive” or “outside pressure” influence. For those who know how a tenure process is carried out, both accusations are categorically unfounded and laughable––there, add that word to the definition of Finkelstein’s scholarship.

Indeed, his anti-climactic press conference, which closed the book to his DePaul career, was pitifully comical. His remarks were frequently interrupted by loud construction noises on the near-by DePaul campus. After reading a prepared statement to approximately 70 or 80 people, most of whom were non-DePaul students, ... Read More...

After a year of trying to get equal time (at least) for conservative ideas on the campus, it has become my impression that no other group in America could be more ignorant or out of touch with the world than the university faculty. DePaul University in Chicago is no different. What was once a site for discovery and insight has now become a festering swamp of mock-openness, selective siversity and morally bankrupt values. Who would have thought that the so-called “Largest Catholic University in America” would proudly institute a Queer Studies minor? Why did the university administration hjeed leftist urges to cancel a Coca-Cola contract? Why did DePaul’s president feel it necessary to create a “Free Speech Task force?”

Clearly something had to be done and here’s what I did: not all at one time, not perfect but attainable. I decided that on a campus where the Left went unchallenged, ... Read More...