A loved-up Iranian couple was sentenced to more than 10 years in prison for dancing in a viral video that angered the Islamic state’s ruling regime.
Astiyazh Haghighi, 21, and her fiance Amir Mohammad Ahmad, 22, were seen in the clip taking a romantic twirl in front of the Azadi Tower, one of Tehran’s main landmarks.
They were busted in early November because women are not allowed to dance in public in Iran, let alone with a man, Agence France-Presse said.
Haghighi also appeared in the video without a headscarf, in solidarity with protests over the September death of Mahsa Amini, 22, after her arrest for not abiding by strict hijab rules.
Haghighi and her beau were this week each sentenced to 10 1/2 years in prison by a revolutionary court in Tehran, the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) said.
The couple — both popular on Instagram — were convicted of “encouraging corruption and public prostitution” as well as “gathering with the intention of disrupting national security,” the court stated.
Astiyazh Haghighi and Amir Mohammad Ahmad danced with Haghighi’s hair flowing free and in defiance to rules against women dancing in public.UGC/AFP via Getty Images
They were also banned from using the internet and from leaving Iran, the reports said.
Sources close to their families said they’d been deprived of lawyers during the court proceedings, AFP said.
Haghighi is reportedly in the notorious Qarchak prison for women outside Tehran, whose conditions are regularly condemned by activists, AFP said.
It was just the latest crackdown on those protesting the regime’s brutality against women that has seen at least 14,000 arrests, according to the United Nations.
In November, just a few months into the brutal crackdown of protests, Volker Türk, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, said Iran was “now in a full-fledged human rights crisis.”
The protests, using the slogan #WomanLifeFreedom, started in September when Amini died in the custody of morality police who took her in for “inappropriate attire.”
Authorities say she suffered a heart attack after being taken to a station to be “educated,” but her family said she did not have heart problems and was covered in bruises.
Hundreds of people have been killed in the unrest so far — with some protesters put to death — while thousands more have been arrested, including high-profile journalists and Iranian personalities.
The hijab became mandatory four years after the 1979 revolution established the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley will announce the launch of her 2024 presidential campaign in the coming weeks, according to a report.
Haley, who served in the Trump administration as the ambassador to the United Nations, will reportedly declare her intention to seek the Republican presidential nomination at a Feb. 15 event in Charleston, South Carolina, according to the Post and Courier newspaper.
She would join her ex-boss, former President Donald Trump, as the only other Republican to formally enter the 2024 presidential fray.
Haley’s expected announcement in two weeks comes as no surprise. The former South Carolina governor has teased a run at the White House for months, despite at one point saying that she would never run against Trump, 76, for president.
Haley will join former President Donald Trump as the only other Republican to enter the 2024 presidential field. AFP via Getty Images
“Yes, I think I can be that leader,” Haley told Bret Baier on Fox News’ “Special Report” when asked about her presidential ambitions.
“I was – as governor, I took on a hurting state with double-digit unemployment, and we made it the beast of the Southeast. As ambassador, I took on the world when they tried to disrespect us. And I think I showed what I’m capable of at the United Nations,” she said, touting her record.
“So, do I think I could be that leader? Yes,” Haley told Baier, adding, “I have never lost a race.”
Trump said he spoke to Haley about running and encouraged her to do so.Getty Images
At 51, Haley is 25 years younger than Trump, and during her Jan. 19 interview with Fox, she argued that it is time for a younger generation of leaders in Washington.
“When you’re looking at the future of America, I think it’s time for new generational change,” she said. “I don’t think you need to be 80 years old to go be a leader in D.C. I think we need a young generation to come in, step up, and really start fixing things.”
Trump told reporters over the weekend that Haley reached out recently and informed him that she was considering launching her campaign.
“She called me and said she’d like to consider it, and I said, ‘You should do it,’” Trump said.
A Yahoo News/YouGov poll released in December found Haley favored for president in 2024 by 5% of Republicans and GOP-leaning independents, well behind Trump and Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who were supported by 42% and 47%, respectively.
But more recent polling has found less support for the former Trump administration official.
Polls conducted by Emerson College, Morning Consult, and Harvard CAPS/Harris in January all tally 3% support for Haley in 2024.
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who is considering a 2024 White House run of his own, stirred controversy involving Haley earlier this month, when an excerpt from his new book accused her of scheming with Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump to oust then Vice President Mike Pence and become Trump’s No. 2.
Pompeo writes in “Never Give an Inch,” that Haley “played” John Kelly — then the White House chief of staff — by showing up to a supposed one-on-one Oval Office meeting with Trump with the president’s daughter and son-in-law in tow.
“As best Kelly could tell, they were presenting a possible ‘Haley for vice-president’ option,” Pompeo writes. “I can’t confirm this, but [Kelly] was certain he had been played, and he was not happy about it. Clearly, this visit did not reflect a team effort but undermined our work for America.”
Haley denied the bombshell accusation in an interview with Fox News, saying, “It’s really sad when you’re having to go out there and put lies and gossip to sell a book.”
But Pompeo is standing by his claim, telling CBS during an interview last week that he was told the story “was true” by both Kelly, and former senior White House adviser Kellyanne Conway. He also suggested that the former UN ambassador left the Trump administration once things became difficult.
“They were coming at all of us pretty hard. And so, everyone was saying get out, quit, run – Ambassador Haley didn’t decide to stay, she decided to leave,” Pompeo told the news outlet.
In the limited, randomized study, researchers analyzed the brains of 25 adults via magnetic resonance imaging. After studying the participants’ “functional connectivity” after contact, the study authors concluded that exposure to the diesel exhaust “yielded a decrease in functional connectivity” compared to filtered air.
Noting that they only analyzed the short-term effects, the study authors suggested that such a reduction in brain connectivity could be “detrimental” to the human body.
Their findings come at the same time as researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology showed that poor air quality can inhibit the cognitive function of chess players.
Researchers from MIT discovered that the board game players performed “objectively worse” when exposed to poor-quality air, making more “suboptimal” choices during game time.
Diesel exhaust exposure could impair cognitive abilities, one study suggests.Getty Images
“We find that when individuals are exposed to higher levels of air pollution, they make more mistakes, and they make larger mistakes,” study co-author Juan Palacios, an economist at MIT’s Sustainable Urbanization Lab, said in a statement.
The researchers analyzed 121 chess players throughout three seven-round tournaments in Germany in 2017, 2018 and 2019, which comprised more than 30,000 chess moves. Using sensors to gauge levels of various air components, researchers studied how the change in air quality affected the players’ performance.
They used software to analyze the moves made during the games, finding that when opponents were under time constraints and facing poor-quality air, their decision-making became even worse.
“We find it interesting that those mistakes especially occur in the phase of the game where players are facing time pressure,” Palacios said. “When these players do not have the ability to compensate [for] lower cognitive performance with greater deliberation, [that] is where we are observing the largest impacts.”
In another study, chess players’ ability to make proper decisions on the board was impaired.Getty Images
But the repercussions of the phenomenon extend far beyond the checkered board.
While the study measured air quality’s impact on game play, it has “strong implications for high-skilled office workers,” the authors wrote, and such data can provide pertinent information to officials making decisions about environmental clean-up.
If poor air quality affects chess players who have spent countless days, weeks and months preparing their craft, then it can affect anyone else.
“There are more and more papers showing that there is a cost with air pollution, and there is a cost for more and more people,” Palacios added.
A 2020 study suggested that New Yorkers experienced a large percentage of premature deaths due to poor air quality in 2018. The experts blamed pollution that traveled from thousands of miles away and found its way to the Big Apple.
“It’s not like you have to live next to a power plant,” Palacios said. “You can live miles away and be affected.”
Nebraska cops thwarted an active shooter who began firing off rounds of ammunition inside an Omaha Target before he was gunned down Tuesday afternoon, authorities said.
The suspect, armed with an AR-15 rifle, sent shoppers and workers fleeing for cover when he began shooting inside the megastore at around 12 p.m., according to Omaha police.
A potential massacre was averted when the first cops responding to the scene quickly shot and killed the unidentified man, said Omaha Police Chief Todd Schmaderer.
No one was injured, but Schmaderer said the shooter had “plenty of ammunition.” Evidence indicates he fired off multiple rounds, but it isn’t yet known if he fired at anyone, the lawman said.
Cops were at the department store within minutes of 911 calls coming in around noon.
“The first arriving officers went into the building, confronted the suspect and shot him dead,” Schmaderer said at a news conference an hour after the frightening incident.
The suspect was described as a white man in his 30s.
Police officers at the scene of a shooting at a Target store in Omaha, Neb., on Tuesday, Jan. 31.AP
One customer inside Target when shots rang out said the scene was “sheer panic.” When Cathy Mahannah first heard a banging sound, she thought something had fallen until she saw dozens of people sprinting to the exit.
“The moments in that parking lot were terrifying when I heard the shots and thought, ‘Where do I hide? I don’t know what to do.’” the 62-year-old grandmother said, adding she jumped into a car with a stranger in the panicked confusion.
Shoppers and workers fled the Target after shots were fired. AP
Store employee Lauren Murphy said she was in the bathroom when she heard gunshots and quickly texted family and friends she loved them. She put her feet on top of a toilet inside a stall so the shooter wouldn’t see her legs if he entered.
“I was scared that this is how I might die at work,” Murphy, 21, said. “It was just terrifying.”
A police K9 look inside a car in the parking lot at Target. AP
Another 21-year-old worker, Samuel Jacobsen, said a co-worker told him to get out of the store.
“Then my coworker ran by and she said, ‘He’s got a gun, get out!’” Jacobsen said. “I was like, ‘Oh this is real. I have to get out, I have to get out, I have to get out.’”
The Nebraska Target where the incident occurred was temporality closed. AP
Omaha police Lt. Neal Bonacci said in a tweet Target employees helped shoppers make it out of the store safely and the retail workers just went through active shooter training.
Target said that the location would be closed temporarily.
“The store will remain closed temporarily, during which time we will provide our team members full compensation and access to on-site counseling for those who need it,” a spokesperson said in a statement.
The shooting began around noon Tuesday. AP
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives was tracing the weapon to determine whether it was bought legally and where it came from, an agency spokesperson said.
An alleged drunk driver owes his life to a tourist and a Las Vegas cop who ripped him out of his car just seconds before it burst into flames, the department said.
Shocking video of the rescue shows the two men running up to the smoking sedan after it smashed into a median and a palm tree on the Las Vegas strip around 4:30 p.m. Friday.
LVMPD Officer Derek Stebbins and good Samaritan Justin Mouser rushed to pry open the doors as crowds warned that the car was catching fire.
An alleged drunk driver smashed into a median and a palm tree on the Las Vegas strip. LVMPD
A Las Vegas officer and a tourist from Kentucky rushed to pull the man from the car. LVMPD
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The unconscious driver was rescued seconds before the car erupted in flames. LVMPD
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The duo worked together to pull the unconscious driver out of the front seat just before the undercarriage inferno erupted, the footage shows.
The driver was taken to the hospital, where he was charged the same day with a DUI, failure to maintain lane and proof of insurance charges, according to court records obtained by Fox 5 Vegas.
Mouser, a barber from Kentucky who was on a Las Vegas vacation with his wife, told the outlet that Stebbins had yelled at the crowds to stay away from the car, but that he couldn’t help but jump into action.
The driver was charged with a DUI, police records show.LVMPD
“I think the officer would have got him regardless,” Mouser said. “I’m glad the guy’s going to be ok.”
But the department hailed Mouser as a hero whose quick response and being in the right place at the right time “saved his life.”
“He’s just as much of a hero as I am from just wanting to stick around and help get that gentleman out,” Stebbins said.
An Indiana man died after falling off a 70-foot cliff in Puerto Rico while shooting social media videos on Sunday, according to authorities and a report.
Edgar Garay’s submerged body was recovered Monday by Puerto Rico Emergency Bureau divers after he plummeted off the steep coastal cliff near a lighthouse in Cabo Rojo, the US Coast Guard said in a press release.
The body of Edgar Garay was found Monday afternoon. US Coast Guard
The 27-year-old was on a day trip to the southwestern coast when he was last seen alive around 5:37 p.m. near the edge of the cliff, the US Coast Guard said.
Garay’s brother Carlos told WTHR that he was on the cliff with his cousin who warned him repeatedly not to get too close to the edge while shooting a TikTok video.
“My brother has a TikTok account that he loved to upload videos to,” Carlos Garay reportedly said. “Unfortunately, that was what he was trying to do when he was closer to the edge than he should have been.”
The distraught brother told the news station that Garay was found in an underwater cave with massive head injuries from the fall.
“We express our most heartfelt condolences to the family and loved ones of Edgar Garay and pray they find closure and strength during this most difficult time,” said Coast Guard Capt. José E. Díaz in a statement.
A lighthouse near the cliff where the Indiana man fell in Puerto Rico. Getty Images
“We appreciate the efforts of all the Coast Guard, Puerto Rico Police and partner agency emergency responders, especially the Puerto Rico Emergency Management Bureau dive unit that was able to locate Mr. Garay’s body in such a highly inaccessible and challenging environment,” the Coast Guard Sector San Juan commander additionally said.
Aircrafts, including Jayhawk helicopters, and a 154-foot fast response cutter were both used in hopes of finding the Garay. Multiple searches were undertaken Sunday night into Monday before the body was located, the Coast Guard said.
Three Michigan rappers have been missing for 10 days since they were forced to suddenly cancel a show at a Detroit club, officials said.
Armani Kelly, Montoya Givens and Dante Wicker — who met each other in prison — were scheduled to perform at a party at the Lounge 31 bar in Motor City on Jan. 31 but their appearance was scrapped due to equipment failure. The three have not been seen or heard from since that night as multiple agencies have begun investigating.
“We just have a whole lot of unanswered questions that we’re trying to find the answer to,” Detroit Police Cmdr. Michael McGinnis told reporters on Monday. “The fact that the three of them are missing together is very concerning and very alarming for us.”
Kelly, 27, left his home in Oscoda, Michigan around 11 a.m. on Jan. 21 in a gray Chevrolet Equinox, according to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System database. He called family members around 5 p.m. when he arrived in Detroit — about 200 miles south of Oscoda — and said his show had been canceled.
Armani Kelly, 27, last spoke to his family around 5 p.m. on Jan. 21 to tell the show was canceled.Armani Kelly Montoya Givens was among the trio scheduled to perform at Lounge 31 bar in Motor City on Jan. 31 Detroit PD
Kelly told his family he was going to find another place to perform or visit with friends, according to the profile. Givens and Wicker were not yet listed on the NamUS database, however, Detroit Police Department confirmed to NBC News that missing person reports had been filed for both of them.
Lorrie Kemp, Kelly’s mother, filed a report the morning after his scheduled performance. She tracked down his truck with the vehicle’s tracking service to an apartment complex in Warren — about 15 miles north of Detroit. She canvassed the area herself and handed out flyers on Gratiot Street where Loung 31 is located.
According to Kemp, Kelly had picked up the other two men before the concert.
“It breaks my heart. I talked to Dante’s mother and girlfriend and do you know how guilty I feel that my son picked up these other two young men?” Kemp told WDIV.
Dante Wicker and Givens were picked up by Kelly before the trio disappeared. Detroit PD The three men canceled their performance at Lounge 31 due to equipment failure.Google Maps
The distressed mother has already accepted that she may never again see her son, whom she said was turning his life around and taking classes at a local community college.
“I wanna lay him to rest and try to move on,” Kemp concluded.
McGinnis said none of the men’s phones show any activity from the morning of Jan. 22. It remains unclear whether the three even made it to the bar.
“We just have a whole lot of unanswered questions that we’re trying to find out finding answers for so we can find these victims — or these individuals and we don’t know that they’re victims,” McGinnis said. “We want to find them and get them home to their loved ones.”
Former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson called on the US to give Ukraine “what they need as fast as possible” a day after President Biden ruled out the possibility of sending F-16 fighter jets to the war-torn nation.
“This is not the moment to delay any support for Ukraine. This is the moment to double down on our support. Give them what they need, whether it’s the tanks or the long-range artillery fires. They need to kick Putin out of the whole of the territory,” Johnson told Fox News Channel’s Brett Baier Tuesday during an interview on “Special Report.”
Biden, 80, on Monday declared that the US wouldn’t be sending F-16 fighter jets to help Ukraine fend off ramped up Russia attacks. The president told reporters, “No” when asked at the White House if the US would consider sending the warplanes.
Former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson called on the US to give Ukraine more aid. FOX NEWS
When asked explicitly by Baier if he thought Ukraine would be getting F-16 jets despite Biden’s comments, Johnson said the US should “give the Ukrainians what they need as fast as possible.”
“Every time we have said that it will be a mistake to give such and such an item of weaponry, we end up doing it, and it ends up being the right thing for Ukraine,” the former British leader told Baier.
Biden declared that the US wouldn’t be sending F-16 fighter jets to help Ukraine.Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
“I remember being told that it was the wrong idea to give them the anti-tank shoulder-launched missiles. Actually, they were indispensable, and the United States, under Donald Trump, gave them the Javelins as well. They were indispensable in those battles to repel the Russian tanks. People said that we shouldn’t give the HIMARS. I remember having arguments about the multiple-launch rocket systems, the MLRS. Actually, they proved invaluable for the Ukrainians,” he added.
“Save time, save money, save lives. Give the Ukrainians what they need as fast as possible. Get this thing done. Forget about Putin. Go for economic stability, long-term peace and prosperity,” Johnson urged.
Russia’s attacks have increased since the US and Germany pledged tanks to Ukraine. AFP via Getty Images
The former British prime minister, who was one of the first Western leaders to go into Ukraine after Russia’s Feb. 24, 2022, invasion and meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv, said Tuesday that the West needs to “stick with it,” in terms of supporting Ukraine.
Johnson was in Washington, DC, Tuesday and said he met with Sens. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Capitol Hill, where he claimed to have found “a massive amount of bipartisan support” for Ukraine.
“The Abrams tanks are the most capable tanks in the world,” Biden said in remarks from the White House. “These tanks are further evidence of our enduring and unflagging commitment to Ukraine and our confidence in the skill of Ukrainian forces.”
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Four key suspects in the killing of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse were transferred to the United States for prosecution as the case stagnates in Haiti amid death threats that have spooked local judges, US officials announced Tuesday.
The suspects now in custody of the US government include James Solages, 37, and Joseph Vincent, 57, two Haitian-Americans who were among the first arrested after Moïse was shot 12 times at his private home near the capital of Port-au-Prince on July, 7 2021.
Also charged is Christian Emmanuel Sanon, an elderly pastor, doctor and failed businessman that authorities have identified as a key player. His associates have suggested he was duped by the real — and still unidentified — masterminds behind the assassination that has plunged Haiti deep into political chaos and unleashed a level of gang violence not seen in decades.
The fourth suspect was identified as Colombian citizen Germán Rivera García, 44, who is among nearly two dozen former Colombian soldiers charged in the case.
Two Haitian-Americans are among those arrested.AP
Rivera, along with Solages and Vincent, face charges including conspiring to commit murder or kidnapping outside the US and providing material support and resources resulting in death, the US Justice Department said.
Sanon is charged with conspiring to smuggle goods from the US and providing unlawful export information. Court documents state that he allegedly shipped 20 ballistic vests to Haiti, but that the items shipped were described as “medical X-ray vests and school supplies.”
It was not immediately known if the four suspects had attorneys who could comment on the development. The men are scheduled to appear in federal court Wednesday in Miami.
A total of seven suspects in the case are now in US custody. Dozens of others still languish in Haiti’s main penitentiary, which is severely overcrowded and often lacks food and water for inmates.
The case has reached a virtual standstill in Haiti, with local officials last year nominating a fifth judge to investigate the killing after four others were dismissed or resigned for personal reasons.
One judge told The Associated Press that his family asked him not to take the case because they feared for his life. Another judge stepped down after one of his assistants died under murky circumstances.
Moïse was shot 12 times at his private home near the capital of Port-au-Prince on July, 7 2021.AP
Court documents state that exactly two months before Moïse was killed, Vincent texted Solages a video of a cat “reacting alertly” to the sound of gunfire and that Solages laughed, prompting Vincent to respond: “That’s the way Jovenel will be pretty much, but (sooner) if you guys really up to it!”
The document states that Solages responded that “(this) cat will never come back,” and “trust me brother, we definitely working our final decision.”
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Then in June, some 20 former Colombian soldiers were recruited to supposedly help arrest the president and protect Sanon, who envisioned himself as Haiti’s new leader. Rivera was in charge of that group, the documents state.
The plan was to detain Moïse and whisk him to an unidentified location by plane, but that plot fell through when the suspects couldn’t find a plane or sufficient weapons, authorities said.
A day before the killing, Solages falsely told other suspects that it was a CIA operation and that the mission was to kill the president, according to the documents. Shortly before the killing, authorities said, Solages shouted that it was allegedly a DEA operation to ensure compliance from the president’s security detail.
About a year after the killing, US authorities say they interviewed Solages, Vincent and Rivera while they were in Haitian custody and that they agreed to talk.
The assassination has plunged Haiti deep into political chaos and unleashed a level of gang violence not seen in decades.AP
The other suspects already in US custody are Rodolphe Jaar, a former US government informant and a Haitian businessman who was extradited from the Dominican Republic, where he was detained in January 2022.
That same month, US authorities arrested Mario Antonio Palacios Palacios, a former Colombian soldier who was deported by Jamaica after fleeing there from Haiti. While en route to Colombia, he was detained by US officials in Panama during a layover.
Also in January 2022, authorities arrested former Haitian Sen. John Joël Joseph, who also had fled to Jamaica.
Alfredo Izaguirre, a Miami-based lawyer for Palacios, said Tuesday’s arrival of the four other suspects will postpone the trial because they all have to be tried at the same time. He said Palacios had been prepared for the trial to begin in early March, but now it could be postponed for up to four months.
Haiti police say other high-profile suspects remain at large, including a former Supreme Court judge who authorities say was favored to seize power from Moïse instead of Sanon as originally planned. Another fugitive is Joseph Badio, alleged leader of the plot who previously worked for Haiti’s Ministry of Justice and the government’s anti-corruption unit until he was fired, police say.
Emmanuel Jeanty, an attorney for the president’s widow, Martine Moïse, who was injured in the attack and flown to the US for care, did not return a message for comment.
In December, Martine Moïse tweeted that her husband — who also has been accused of corruption, which he denied — had fought against it, which resulted in his assassination. “Despite the blockages, 17 months later, the people are demanding #Justice,” she wrote.
The 64-campus SUNY college system is turning into the Woke University of New York — ordering incoming freshman at all of its colleges they will have to pass a new “Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Social Justice”-themed class to earn a diploma.
Describe the historical and contemporary societal factors that shape the development of individual and group identity involving race, class and gender.
Analyze the role that complex networks of social structures and systems play in the creation and perpetuation of the dynamics of power, privilege, oppression and opportunity.
Apply the principles of rights, access, equity, and autonomous participation to past, current, or future social justice action.
While the primary focus is on equity and social justice in the US, courses can also look at what has happened or is currently happening in other countries for comparison, the mandate reads.
Critics say such mandated “equity” training actually flies in the face of goals for racial “equality.”
SUNY Suffolk Community College political science professor Nicholas Giordano slams the university’s new racial equity curriculum as divisive.Courtesy of Nicholas Giordano
“This is nuts,” Nicholas Giordano, a political science professor at SUNY’s Suffolk Community College told The Post. “SUNY is one of the best university systems in the country. Why are they doing this?!”
“DEISJ is a cultural movement, not based on academics. Unfortunately, SUNY responded to the mob.”
Giordano, a fellow at the conservative watchdog group Campus Reform, said the new DEISJ coursework seeks to portray the US as “inherently racist” and tries to undermine the American identity that unifies all citizens by “creating groups and pitting them against each other.”
He said the curriculum seeks to have students “defined by the color of their skin.”
“To tell [minority students] they can’t compete with a white person is insulting and racist.”
Incoming students at Fashion Institute of Technology will be required to take a new diversity and racial equity course to graduate, beginning in the fall. Stephen Yang for NY Post
Incoming freshmen students at SUNY’s flagship Stony Brook U. campus will have to pass a new diversity and equity course in order to graduate. Newsday via Getty Images
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State Conservative Party chairman Jerry Kassar said the new SUNY curriculum is reminiscent of the debate raging over whether “critical race theory” should be taught in the lower grades.
“This is a woke, left wing agenda. It’s disturbing. It’s dangerous,” Kassar said.
“They’re treating everybody as having prejudice. It’s like a socialist, communist state. It’s unbelievable. These ideas are best addressed at home.”
Several other campuses across the country — Drake University, Brandeis University, Villanova University and the University of California system among them — have imposed similar racial equity programs.
Incoming freshmen at SUNY campuses will be required to pass a certified DEISJ course to graduate.
The diversity and equity curriculum was approved by SUNY under former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s then hand-picked chancellor James Malatras, a former aide. AP
SUNY’s Board of Trustees approved the sweeping 25-point “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Act” plan aimed at closing “racial equity gaps” in February of 2021 — while New York was grappling with the once in a century coronavirus pandemic. It was crafted under former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and his hand-picked chancellor, James Malatras.
The press release then said the new policy called on campuses to “Embed Racial Equity into Curriculum and Toward Racial Equity.” The plan also includes updating the criminal justice curriculum.
SUNY Chancellor John King defended the public university’s new “Diversity, Inclusion, Equity and Social Justice” curriculum as necessary in a modern society. AP
SUNY Chancellor John King defended the new DEISJ curriculum and course work as broadening understanding and tolerance.
“Exposure to, and understanding of, diversity is essential to success in our modern society and economy. As a leader in preparing the future workforce and citizenry, SUNY is committed to embedding diversity into the foundation of all it does – from academics to campus life and everything in between,” said King, the former New York State Education commissioner.
“By recognizing and celebrating our diversity and fostering respectful dialogue and debate, SUNY provides students with the world-class education they deserve.”
The SUNY Faculty Senate and Faculty Council of Community Colleges recently issued guidance on approving courses to comply with the new DEISJ requirement.
“Since students need to complete courses prior to transfer or graduation, it is our recommendation that DEISJ content be housed in a single course,” the document says.
The guidance says DEISJ will be embedded across many courses and programs and “most campuses will need to make significant changes to existing curriculum to have courses that fulfill the DEISJ learning outcomes.”
SUNY sources said officials consulted with faculty and students on campuses for months before approving the plan, and there’s a broad support for it.
