January 19, 2021 A political science professor emeritus at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign warns about a new “intellectual plague” that could take over universities. “The toxic ideas that have corrupted today’s universities all began as tiny, obscure musings before escaping from the laboratories,” Robert Weissberg ( right) wrote in an essay for Minding the Campus. He said the next disease to worry about is the proliferation of programs in “hate studies.” “This incipient plague embraces the very essence of totalitarianism—the criminalization of thinking,” Weissberg said. “Out with criminal behavior, in with thoughtcrime.” The professor mentions Bard College as one supporter of hate studies. It has a fall 2020 “Hate Studies Initiative.”