The end of the university as we know it?
“It is an attack on the conditions that allow free thought to exist. We may not yet know its full cost, but we will feel its consequences for decades”
But where is the resistance?
I welcome quantification of opportunities to streamline #higherEd!
In addition to that @USNews quantification of bloat from mission creep (from #edu and #research to entertainment, sports, etc.), there is bloat from disproportionately recent increases in #regulation on #science:
This regularly-updated plot from the #CouncilOnGovernmentalRelations makes it clear:
> more than 60% of the regulatory burden over the past 30ish years were been added in the final 10 years of that period.
https://www.cogr.edu/changes-federal-research-requirements-1991
Of course, the "bullsh..." jobs referred to in the top-level post go beyond mission creep and regulatory burden. Many unnecessary internal jobs and external contracts (consulting, branding, surveying, "learning management...", etc.) cost embarrassing amounts of money. And the people in these jobs with authority to purchase such services are incentivized to hide the embarrassing costs in opaque finance reports, severely hindering quantitative estimates of "bullsh...".
"College presidents do not need to become pundits. But they do need to defend the core mission of their institutions when it is under attack. University leaders would help themselves, and the country, by emerging from their defensive crouches and making a forthright case for inquiry, research, science and knowledge."
What could this look like?
The most direct way for #highered and #academia to hit back is through military contracts and biotech.
Basically, R1 schools would need to halt all cooperation with the government and starve them of tech transfer and technical competencies they need to maintain national security and compete with rivals.
Ask Americans, would they like to see China vault head ahead of them and assume the mantle of global hegemon because Trump wanted to own the libs?
I am saying it once more.
If #academia and #highered do not QUICKLY develop a coordinated strategy of resistance, then MAGA will pick them off one by one.
“Half of this stuff you can’t just do and the other half is insane,” said Joseph Howley, a professor of classics at Columbia. “If the federal government can show up and demand a university department be shut down or restructured, then we don’t have universities in this country.”
Letter from Trump admin officials telling #Columbia to abandon any semblance of academic freedom, internal due process, etc.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/12ogIcvdLniO9fYl2wyLVj4ON0Ke2rL0n/view
(attribution: shared on Bsky by Jameel Jaffer, Knight 1A Inst director at Columbia)
Global Collaboration and Academic Freedom
A commentary has been published on University World News following the discussion "Perspectives on Academic Freedom" at #OSICU2024 The article explores how international collaboration can help strengthen academic freedom.
Available here: https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20250311091253781
Mentions of research on Bluesky cross 30,000 items for the first time. March 11th (yesterday): 31,444 posts citing research. All Time High #AcademicSky #HigherEd #IDSky #Altmetrics
"Protesters arrested during peaceful walkout at #Cornell University"
“The first protester, who spoke about Livni’s alleged war crimes, left peacefully when asked but was still arrested.”
Hello #CSUN attendees! Where are my #HigherEd folks? Let’s be friends! It looks like there is a fireside chat tomorrow at noon on “Accessibility and education”. I hope to meet you there. #accessibility
Yale Library and Poorvu Center Collaborate on #AI Literacy Framework For Faculty; & More AI Headlines https://www.infodocket.com/2025/03/11/ai-roundup-a-survey-of-large-language-model-empowered-agents-for-recommendation-and-search-towards-next-generation-information-retrieval-building-a-disability-inclusive-ai-ecosystem-a-cross-disabi/ #libraries #ailiteracy #highered
I saw that #highered article going around saying, essentially, that LLMs have created a generation of cheaters. Not a fan of LLMs, but it's far more accurate to say they've democratized cheating. Wealthy college students have always had the option to have someone else write their papers.
The pandemic’s impact on #education runs deeper than an embrace of remote learning. New research shows growing mistrust of #teachers, reversing the praise they received during lockdowns. https://theconversation.com/5-ways-schools-have-shifted-in-5-years-since-the-covid-19-246449
#COVID19 #highered #edsky
“By these actions, by their willingness to scapegoat and vilify the pro-Palestine student movement, these institutions have invited their enemies in, becoming testing grounds for the authoritarianism that threatens our nation.”
https://truthout.org/articles/as-ice-jails-palestinian-protester-universities-must-commit-to-academic-freedom/
I wonder at what point Nazis decided it would be amusing to use accusations of anti-Semitism as the front for destroying higher ed?
Davis, Cal, UCSB, and UCSD are on their hit list.
Sad – though not surprised – to see what was anticipated almost a decade ago is now the norm in some places.
https://manifold.umn.edu/projects/the-uberfication-of-the-university
According to the University and College Union, nearly two-thirds of essential tutorial teaching at Oxford is carried out by academics employed on precarious short-term contracts or paid by the hour in a manner akin to Uber-style gig economy work.
“They compared our work to bedroom fitters, security guards and cleaners, and I kept thinking: ‘Yes, and all those people have no chance of fighting the gig economy, but we do.’”
Hey folks, I'm adding this pinned post on advice from @FediTips
(whom I recommend you follow)
My interests are #HigherEd, #education in general, #SciFi, how people network through #SocialMedia (less the biz/marketing stuff, though I make exceptions).
I'm more active on Bluesky, tbh. I'm @ harmonygritz.bsky.social. You'll find my longtime "rainbow" profile image from Twitter/X there.
Here we go —> Recently graduated #Columbia pro-#Palestine organizer Mahmoud Khalil gets grabbed by feds in his university-owned apartment.
#FreePalestine #FuckColumbia
#Gaza #GazaGenocide
#HigherEd #Academia
#Fascism #FightFascism
#mazeldon #jewdiverse
#AntizionismIsNotAntisemitism
#FreeMahmoudKhalil
https://bsky.app/profile/jameeljaffer.bsky.social/post/3ljxatjpwr22u
Cornell researchers used marine spatial planning, a method that evaluates the use of ocean space and the needs of the ocean’s users, to map areas off the northeastern U.S..
The researchers used publicly available geographic information system data and #opensource software to evaluate more than 7,000 locations, identifying 52 feasible aqua-farming sites off the coast of Maine.
#OpenScience #OpenResearch #EdTech #HigherEducation
https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2025/02/researchers-find-sweet-spot-wave-powered-fish-farms
Research software produced at University of Twente, Netherlands, will be globally available and reusable through a new #opensource sharing policy.
Open sourcing research software speeds up research time considerably and can help save money.
