September 2025 - gslisadjuncts@lists.qc.cuny.edu

Gslisadjuncts FW: Weekly digest of federal government actions and discussion thereof related to higher education
by Emily Drabinski 29 Sep '25

29 Sep '25

From: Larissa Swedell <Larissa.Swedell(a)qc.cuny.edu> Date: Saturday, September 27, 2025 at 10:05 AM Subject: FW: Weekly digest of federal government actions and discussion thereof related to higher education From: UFS and FGL discussion list <UFS-FGL(a)LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU> on behalf of John Verzani <John.Verzani(a)CSI.CUNY.EDU> Dear All, Please find a partial summary of some of the actions taken by the federal government as relates to Higher Education in general and CUNY in specific in the past week. Thanks JC and BE for contributions this week. Quote of the week: > the Trump administration isn’t your garden-variety conservative. The attacks they have unleashed on higher education are of historic proportion. What they’re putting on the table resembles an extinction event for the sector. So we have to fight for the survival of higher education. [AAUP President] [Also can be read here: https://cunytracker.github.io/CUNYTracker/sep-26.html<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://cunytracker.github.io/CUNYTracker/sep-2…>] ## Protests * NO KINGS in New York City 10/18 12-2 https://www.mobilize.us/nokings/event/838831/<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.mobilize.us/nokings/event/838831/__…> ## Zoom calls * Scholars at Risk US Mid-Atlantic Regional Conference https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/event/sar-us-midatlantic-conference/<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/event/sar-us-mid…> (Thanks BE for sharing) > The event, titled “Working Together to Protect Scholars and Promote Academic Freedom,” will feature SAR programming on both local and global responses to pressures on academic freedom. The meeting will offer networking opportunities, reflections on responses to attacks on higher education in both the US and worldwide, the launch of SAR’s Free to Think 2025 report, and most notably, the launch of SAR’s 25th Anniversary year themed “Truth Matters.” ## How best to describe the times we are in * NYTimes: The Trump Vengeance Tour Is Coming to a Stadium Near You https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/23/opinion/media-trump-ellison-murdoch-kirk…<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/23/opinion/medi…> (Not so much about higher education, but a recommended read.) > “Donald Trump’s goal,” Larry Diamond, a fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution, wrote by email, "is to create a Hungarian-style pseudo-democracy, in which he and his movement can rule indefinitely through unfree and unfair elections and utter dominance of the media and civil society landscapes, while still claiming that they are the democratic embodiment of the 'will of the people.'” > "Everything Trump has been doing of late follows that authoritarian playbook of trying to eviscerate checks and balances, eliminate independent oversight actors, and use state power to punish and terrify critics, so they will self-censor. He is even going after the same philanthropy — the Open Society Foundations — that Orban went after." > Trump’s favorability ratings have fallen from 50.5 percent during his first week in office this year to 46.1 percent on Sept. 22, but that has not deterred him. Just the opposite: Trump, his vice president, his aides and his cabinet members initiate daily attacks on the left, some illegal, some unfounded, but all damaging and costly. > Trump’s actions, Westwood [a political scientist at Dartmouth] wrote, “are now escalating into a direct assault on the institutional infrastructure of the left.” However, Westwood continued. “this is more than a rhetorical move; threatening the 501(c)(3) status of these foundations aims to choke off the financial lifeblood of a vast network of opposition groups, effectively criminalizing dissent.” > Goldstone [professor of public policy at George Mason]: We are now a country in which people can lose their jobs for making the wrong joke; where universities, media, and law firms have to defend themselves against lawsuits and investigations that threaten to bankrupt them; where people in America (even American citizens) can be rounded up, arrested, and put in detention if they have the wrong accent or work at the wrong kind of job, and where masked ICE agents and uniformed national military patrol the streets of our major cities. ## Shared governance * On Title VI, Discrimination, and Academic Freedom https://www.aaup.org/reports-publications/aaup-policies-reports/topical-rep…<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.aaup.org/reports-publications/aaup-…> (Thank ET for sharing this most necessary critique of the current abuse of Title VI evaluation. This is a long, worthwhile read that I hope to summarize in blog format. For now, here are a few of the recommendations.) > 1. Faculties, administrations, and governing boards must refuse to comply with unlawful federal government demands based on Title VI investigations that impinge on institutional autonomy, faculty academic freedom (including the faculty’s role in governance), student academic freedom, and freedom of expression of faculty members, students, and staff. > 2. Administrations and governing boards must publicly affirm their commitment to defending academic freedom—defined as the protection of teaching, research, and intramural and extramural speech—and support faculty members under attack. > 3. Administrations and governing boards must respect the importance of faculty involvement in shared governance processes when creating or changing institutional policies and in determining responses to governmental demands for information or institutional actions. They must entertain faculty resolutions that protect unpopular teaching and research as well as controversial speech and forms of expressive activity. > 5. Faculties, administrations, and governing boards must not engage in anticipatory obedience, including by eliminating programs; scrubbing websites; removing particular words or phrases from syllabi, course materials, and course titles and descriptions; or reporting on community members—faculty members, staff, or students— whose political speech or intellectual work may make them targets for governmental discipline or deportation. Pressure from politicians, donors, and trustees must be resisted because it creates a slippery slope for other forms of censorship and control. (Also) https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2025/09/23/aaup-accuses-tru…<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes…> * Is the AAUP Too Partisan? Its President Doesn’t Think So. https://www.chronicle.com/article/is-the-aaup-too-partisan-its-president-do…<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.chronicle.com/article/is-the-aaup-t…> > “We’re taking it to the courts and the streets — and we need you.” So reads the subject line of an April email from the American Association of University Professors, authored by its president, Todd Wolfson. > The sentence encapsulates the 110-year-old membership organization’s approach to the second Trump presidency. It has filed lawsuits challenging the administration’s aggressive higher-ed agenda — most recently to contest what it called the “attempt to unlawfully stifle free speech” within the University of California system. Wolfson has advocated for a vigorous defense of the sector, saying in a recent interview that (nonviolent) “militant job actions” may be necessary. > Before the presidential election, Wolfson, who is on leave from his job as an associate professor of journalism and media studies at Rutgers University’s New Brunswick campus, called then-vice presidential candidate JD Vance a “fascist” — a judgment he’s not backed away from since. > The courts are an important place to try to stop the Trump administration’s attempt to illegally refashion higher education to mirror, or at least lean towards, the ideological leanings of the Trump administration, which I would say are radically right-wing leanings. We do not think that lawsuits are enough, but they’re one critical tool. > The next ruling we expect is the AAUP v. [Secretary of State Marco] Rubio ruling. Our hope is that it will be really clear that people like President Trump or Secretary of State Rubio will not be allowed to threaten deportation because of the political speech of students or faculty or staff. That lawsuit is meant to protect the freedom of speech of people in our sector. > First and foremost, they [general decline in public trust] exist because people like Ron DeSantis [Florida’s Republican governor] and Chris Rufo, [a right-wing anti-DEI activist], have been speaking very loudly, unfairly disparaging higher education for a very long time, without the appropriate response from higher-education workers, higher-education institutions. We’ve heard a message from a radical right-wing regime that is attempting to smear higher education, and doing a good job of it. So of course if they are over and over putting out a negative message about higher ed, then people are going to consume that message, and there hasn’t been a response to that message that’s been effective. > We’re an economic engine. We’re a health-care engine. We’re a technological-innovation engine. And there’s one more thing that I really think is important to remind ourselves of: Kids go to college so that they can get a job and imagine that they’re going to do a little bit better than their parents. Skyrocketing tuition and skyrocketing student debt have made it so that higher education is a difficult choice for students. AAUP believes that public higher education should be free, and so we want to fight for that. We have plenty of money to do that. We have plenty of billionaires who now are becoming trillionaires that can help us pay for this, if the most wealthy are taxed a bit more. > No, I don’t think ‘progressive.’ What AAUP defines itself as is an organization that believes that higher education should be a common public good for everyone. We align ourselves with the vast majority of Americans of any political stripe who need education for their kids, their families, in order to move forward in this country. > First and foremost, the Trump administration isn’t your garden-variety conservative. The attacks they have unleashed on higher education are of historic proportion. What they’re putting on the table resembles an extinction event for the sector. So we have to fight for the survival of higher education. > So you’re saying to me AAUP is partisan, because the Trump administration is slapping higher ed and we’re standing up and fighting back? No. No. We are standing for what we always stood for, which is a powerful higher-education sector that leads to innovation and social mobility and is a bedrock of democracy. > It’s them — the radical right wing — that is politicizing higher ed. We will not shrink from that. If people have a problem with that, then they can get in line with Trump and Chris Rufo, and that’s fine. But we are gonna stand up for our institutions, and we are gonna be proud and loud about it. > The AAUP has a very clear agenda. We are going to fight over the budget right now and try to get fully funded NIH [National Institutes of Health], NSF [National Science Foundation], NASA [National Aeronautics and Space Administration]. We are going to fight to make sure that the TRIO program, which supports first-generation college kids, is fully enshrined in this budget. ... Then we are going to pivot from there and put out a proactive vision for the future of higher education. ## Academic freedom * Angelo State May Ban Pride Flags, Pronouns and Preferred Names https://www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty-issues/academic-freedom/2025/09…<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty-iss…> > Employees at Angelo State University in Texas could be fired for displaying a pride flag or discussing any topic that suggests there are more gender identities than male and female. > Spokespeople for Angelo State have not confirmed or denied details of the policies reportedly discussed at meetings Monday between faculty, staff and institutional leaders. But, local news magazine the Concho Observer reported that the policies would ban discussion of transgender topics or any topics that suggest there are more than two genders. (Also, which says this is a done deal) https://www.chronicle.com/article/a-public-university-in-texas-bans-discuss…<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.chronicle.com/article/a-public-univ…> * Angelo State Allows LGBQ Discussions, Holds Firm on Anti-Trans Policies https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2025/09/25/angelo-state-all…<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes…> > As of Monday, conversations and content about transgender identities are still prohibited, but employees are allowed to use students’ preferred names, display rainbow flags in their offices and on their cars, and talk about lesbian, gay, bisexual and queer identities, according to emails from department heads to faculty obtained by Inside Higher Ed. > None of the policies are formalized in writing, and that is purposeful, said Brian Evans, president of the Texas Conference of the American Association of University Professors. The guidance only changed after faculty brought up questions about the policies, which deans took back to the provost and university counsel. Final details about what is and is not allowed and how the rules will be enforced are still under discussion. ## Freedom of expression * Conservative are targeting speech. More teachers may lose their jobs. - The Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2025/09/20/conservatives-target-te…<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2025/0…> > A day after a video of the exchange began circulating [Texas A&M Children's Literature class], the instructor was fired, the department head and dean were removed from their posts, and the Justice Department said it would look into the matter. Ten days later, as cries from the right continued to echo across the internet, the university president said he was resigning, bringing the tenure of a retired four-star general to an unexpected and abrupt halt. > Now the state lawmaker who led the campaign against them says he’s being inundated with tips about what he characterized as offensive efforts to indoctrinate students. “This is just the start,” Texas state Rep. Brian Harrison, a conservative firebrand, told The Washington Post. “I hope this puts the fear of God into every university president and chancellor in Texas.” > Over the past several years, conservatives have focused on reshaping teachings of race, gender identity and sexual orientation, leading to a spate of state laws regulating what educators can say and to the firing of a number of teachers. That campaign mushroomed this month as conservatives pushed to oust people they say have gone too far in criticizing Charlie Kirk, the conservative activist who was fatally shot at Utah Valley University last week. > So far, the Texas Education Agency has received 281 complaints about teacher comments in the wake of Kirk’s killing, with staff still reviewing them, spokeswoman Jake Kobersky said Friday. He said the agency had not yet punished any of these teachers, though some districts have acted and the state might step in as well. > Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said she sees no end in sight to the scrutiny of teachers’ speech. Kirk’s killing was horrible, she said, but does not justify going after teachers who have a diversity of opinions. * NYTimes: The Firing of Educators Over Kirk Comments Follows a Familiar Playbook https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/22/us/firing-educators-kirk-free-speech.htm…<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/22/us/firing-ed…> (With background on Brooklyn College's non-reappointment of four adjunct faculty members for "conduct") > The American Association of University Professors, an organization founded to defend academic freedom, said it was aware of retaliation against about 60 professors and teachers in connection with critical comments they made about Mr. Kirk or people mourning him. > Faculty First Responders, an organization that works with the association to advise educators who are the victim of doxxing and harassment campaigns, has reached out to 35 academic workers in the past week, most of them professors, whose comments about Mr. Kirk have been spread in right-wing media, according to Heather Steffen, the group’s director. > The Texas Education Agency has said it is investigating hundreds of employees at elementary or secondary schools for similar reasons. > If they choose to mount a legal fight, fired employees of public institutions, which are bound by the First Amendment, probably have better chances of prevailing in court than those fired from private institutions. > Proponents of academic freedom see the current crackdown on professors as an assault on freedom of expression that echoes dark periods in American history. At Brooklyn College, where four adjunct professors were dismissed this year for their pro-Palestinian activism, a faculty union called the movement to curb educators’ speech the “New McCarthyism.” > One of the four, Corinna Mullin, who was an adjunct professor of political science, said that recent developments show that academic freedom is not a universal right but a conditional privilege. > “And it seems that it’s granted or withdrawn based on the context of our speech — those who echo power are shielded,” said Dr. Mullin, who was arrested during a police raid on a Gaza Solidarity encampment at City College in 2024. Trespassing charges against her were later dropped. > She said she believed that activists on the right will continue to expand their attacks to take in “all speech on the left associated with social justice, racial justice, all these uncomfortable truths that challenge power in this country.” > In several instances, Mr. Kirk has used the First Amendment to sue universities that tried to block his organization’s campus presence. > But critics have argued that Mr. Kirk’s promotion of free speech was riddled with hypocrisy. Matthew Boedy, a professor at the University of North Georgia who has written a book that focuses heavily on Mr. Kirk, “The Seven Mountains Mandate,” called Mr. Kirk’s stance “an empty support of free speech.” * Professor in court fight over Charlie Kirk post is temporarily reinstated https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2025/09/25/charlie-kirk-shooting-prof…<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2025/09/2…> > A federal court on Wednesday temporarily reinstated a University of South Dakota professor [a tenured art professor that described Kirk on facebook as a “hate spreading Nazi.” ]who was put on administrative leave after making negative comments on social media about Charlie Kirk on the same day that the conservative activist was shot. (Also) https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2025/09/26/court-order-rein…<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes…> ### Anti-woke/anti-DEI is simply racism * NYTimes Gift Article: The Grand Strategy Behind Trump’s Crackdown on Academia https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/25/opinion/trump-academia-victim-may-mailma…<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/25/opinion/trum…> (hard-to-get-through interview with Mary Mailman the right hand person behind Stephen Miller's attempted assault on higher education, though the interviewer, Ross Douhat, doesn't bother to bring that up...) > Douthat: What is wrong with the American university? Mailman: I don’t think it’s every university, but I would say the biggest one that comes for me is a culture of victimhood — a glorification of victimhood — that is ultimately bad for Western civilization and bad for the country. > Mailman: It’s not necessarily that they are victims but that they should be victims. That it’s good to be a victim. That in admissions, what is it better to be? It’s better to be in a minority class, whether that’s a sexual minority class, whether that’s a racial minority class. There’s something better to being underrepresented, to being somehow downtrodden, that should be treated as preferential or better. > but the whole idea of treating people differently based on whether they are oppressed or oppressors, and if it’s seen as Meghan Markle — why does she want to appear like a victim? > Mailman: Yeah, there is an executive order that discusses universities. Specifically, Title VI says that for any federally funded educational institution, they can’t discriminate on the basis of race or national origin. This has been used both on the antisemitism front, which is national origin and race, and then also on what people broadly describe as the D.E.I. front. And so if you’re going to be federally funded, then we’re going to make sure that you don’t discriminate on the basis of race. > Douthat: Pause there for a moment. First of all, how did you pick which schools you sent letters to? > Mailman: So I think we primarily relied on the Department of Education to pick what they either knew, based on complaints that have been received, and you had House investigations. A lot of this information was public, here and there. It was in government databases. Some of them are just very out loud, like the U.C. system. So I think there was some flag waving by certain universities. > Douthat: I mean, also, the federal government doesn’t actually have the power to shut down Harvard University. > Mailman: No, but in theory — > Douthat: But you can defund Harvard. > Mailman: Right. And what’s Harvard’s special thing? It is that it’s, in theory, a leader, and the question is: A leader in what direction? > Mailman: Right, and that’s always an option. If anybody thinks that any of this is too burdensome, especially very well-funded universities, then just do none of it. Just be Hillsdale. And it’s funny, because for research — I mean, people don’t really understand the massive amount of money that goes to research. It’s billions and billions. Harvard right now has something like $7 billion of promised grants. These are huge, huge numbers. But if all of the research was good, something that was going to cure cancer, then a donor would love to fund that. I mean, to be the person that cured cancer? > The problem is not whether the government should or shouldn’t be funding cancer research — it absolutely should — but the unwieldiness of it has led to basically an unchecked situation. I think it is actually proper to have a right sizing, where universities are relying on the federal government to a certain extent, where these are things that are maybe not close to a breakthrough and that there is an opportunity for the private sector to spend money in ways that are beneficial to society. > Mailman: Wealthy people funding universities, funding science, funding our future is something that has history in this country. > So I think there’s a recognition. It’s all — of course, there’s no recognition of fault. These are settlements. But by paying some of this back, I think there is, somewhat for the public, a sense of acknowledgment of wrongdoing. Not a legal sense but sort of a moral sense (Really, not sure that is how the payee feels) > Not only that, but to the extent you have universities that are just hotbeds of radicalism, that’s not good for the student. That’s not good for the culture. That’s not good for the campus. That’s bad for the country. So that is all true. And I think the administration believes that intellectual diversity is a key factor to a good university that we would send our kids to. > Douthat: I think that’s right, just based on my own experience living in a college town and speaking to people who work in higher education. There is some degree, first, to which the Trump administration is pushing on an open door and also some degree to which leaders of universities are happy to say, “Oh, we didn’t want to do this, but the Trump administration made us do it,” but in fact, it’s something that they themselves want to do. (I could keep going here, but the whole interview is just too much, though I can't resist adding this) > Mailman: It’s not a full comparison of all universities across the nation. But at the end of the day, Harvard reacted to a letter that asked for a few simple changes with a lawsuit that basically said: Instead of us showing any amount of good faith effort to commit ourselves to the policies that are important to the United States, we’re going to instead say we refuse to even answer you. These are billions of federal dollars, and I think that the funder of that can ask for a basic relationship. ## Visas * Are CUNY visa applicants being told no? Reports from one CC are that of 192 new international student admissions 92 were denied. * Trump administration to add $100,000 fee for H-1B visas - CBS News https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-h1b-visa-bill-100000-fee/<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-h1b-visa-bil…> (This is hopefully going to be found illegal, because otherwise it will *seriously* impact faculty hiring.) > The Trump administration is adding $100,000 to the existing fee for H-1B visa applications, taking aim at a program that is used to attract highly skilled workers to the U.S. > President Trump signed an executive order late Friday adding the new visa application fee and barring H-1B workers from entering the U.S. unless they had made the $100,000 payment. (Also) https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/19/us/politics/trump-h-1b-visas-fee.html<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/19/us/politics/…> https://www.chronicle.com/article/what-trumps-100-000-fee-for-skilled-worke…<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.chronicle.com/article/what-trumps-1…> * International-student enrollment is sagging at many U.S. universities, particularly at the master’s level https://www.wsj.com/us-news/education/international-student-enrollment-decl…<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.wsj.com/us-news/education/internati…> > International-student enrollment is sagging at many universities, particularly at the master’s level. School officials cite the Trump administration’s summer pause on visa appointments followed by increased scrutiny of applicants, along with other policies aimed at shrinking the number of international students. Some say shifts in the technology job market are also decreasing demand abroad for certain graduate programs. > The U.S. enrolled a record 1.1 million international students in 2023-24—who contributed $43.8 billion to the U.S. economy through tuition, food and living expenses, according to NAFSA: Association of International Educators. > “I feel I’m now in the middle of nowhere,” said Elham Shamiri, an Iranian citizen who has been trying to obtain a visa to start a Ph.D. program in chemistry at the University of Vermont. She and hundreds of other Iranians have been asking politicians to carve out an exception for students with admissions offers. “We have nothing to do with politics,” Shamiri said, and shouldn’t be conflated with terrorism. “We are just students truly committed to research.” (Also) https://www.insidehighered.com/news/global/international-students-us/2025/0…<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.insidehighered.com/news/global/inte…> ### NSF * Under Trump, NSF faces worst crisis in its 75-year history | Science | AAAS https://www.science.org/content/article/under-trump-nsf-faces-worst-crisis-…<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.science.org/content/article/under-t…> > The White House has ordered the $9 billion agency to abandon long-running programs, terminate more than 2000 grants, and reverse decisions on what to fund next based on the administration’s political agenda, which excludes diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts and climate change research. NSF is also making radical changes in its daily operations, including sharply reducing its reliance on top academic scientists on loan from their institutions and realigning the agency’s entire grantmaking apparatus to conform to Trump’s priorities (see sidebar, below). > Many science policy experts say those changes move NSF away from its founding principles, laid out in a 1945 report to then-President Harry Truman, to maintain U.S. leadership in science by funding the best ideas across all fields and training the next generation of researchers. That compares with the more targeted missions of most government agencies, such as advancing energy, health, or space exploration. But both of NSF’s goals, as put forward by Vannevar Bush in his seminal report that led to NSF’s creation in 1950, have lost support under Trump. > “This administration doesn’t buy the idea that the government’s investment in basic research buys us anything useful,” one former senior NSF official says. “And if they don’t agree with Bush’s assumption, then why bother to even have an NSF?” > Keivan Stassun, who was named to NSB in January 2023, sees DOGE operating as the ultimate decision-maker at NSF, in tandem with the White House Office of Management and Budget. And OMB, he says, has discarded NSF’s well-regarded system of choosing the most worthy proposals. “If OMB is using anything like NSF’s merit review criteria,” says Stassun, an astrophysicist at Vanderbilt University, “that has not been communicated and is certainly not apparent to me.” > For more than 4 decades, NSF has supported a network of institutes that bring together top mathematicians and rising stars for in-person workshops to explore a range of hot topics and spark new areas of research. “The math institutes are the crown jewels of our portfolio,” says mathematician Juan Meza, former director of NSF’s math division, which spends roughly 15% of its annual budget on the network. “They support the entire mathematical community.” > The Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics (IPAM) at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) has been part of that network since 2000 and is known for bridging the gap between academia and industry by working on problems that appeal to both theoretical and applied mathematicians. ... On 27 July, NSF issued an embargoed press release announcing it would fund seven institutes in the network, including IPAM, which would get another $17 million over the next 5 years. But when the news became public a week later, IPAM wasn’t on the list. (Read the article for other specific examples of cuts ... AI ... water and oil.) ### NIH * NYTimes: ‘The Power of Science to Solve Problems Is Almost Limitless’ https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/22/opinion/jay-bhattacharya-nih.html?smid=n…<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/22/opinion/jay-…> (A sane washing of the NIH director's comments) ## Federal Agencies ### DOE/OCR * The Ed Department Hasn’t Even Begun to Fight (opinion) https://www.insidehighered.com/opinion/views/2025/09/22/ed-department-hasnt…<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.insidehighered.com/opinion/views/20…> > Despite high-profile federal actions against universities like Columbia University; the University of California, Los Angeles; and others over the past few months, many higher ed watchers, including me, have been waiting for the other shoe to drop. While civil rights investigations, demands for massive settlements, cuts to grant funding and threats to institutional accreditation have led to real-world consequences, no institution has lost access to federal student loans. > But—as Friday’s announcement that Harvard University had been placed on heightened cash monitoring status shows—that could change quickly. And regulatory actions by the previous administration increase the likelihood of the Trump administration’s success if they choose to flex the powers provided to them. > Biden’s regulatory changes were significant. For example, the regulations expanded the department’s interpretation of standards around an institution’s administrative capability to participate in the federal student loan program. If not satisfied to the department’s liking, these regulations grant the agency the power to kick colleges out of the loan program or make continued participation financially impossible. > The department also has the power to conduct an invasive review of an institution’s administrative capability if it determines that the college was subject to a “significant negative action” by another federal or state agency. Notably, the Biden administration did not provide a meaningful definition of what constitutes a “significant negative action.” Arguably, even the pulling of a single federal grant, for any reason, would satisfy this provision. > And this is just the beginning. Other changes to institutional financial standards create more ways for McMahon to turn the screws. This includes a minimum requirement of a 10 percent letter of credit—that is, a demand that colleges convince a private lender to back 10 percent of the total amount of federal student aid funds received by the institution each year—if the department merely suspects certain violations. Additional violations compound the required amounts, and there is no cap on what the agency can demand. > While some colleges may be able to weather this fiscal hit, the vast majority would not. As a result, the Education Department can effectively destroy a college by making it impossible to find enough backup funding to survive. > Why did the Biden administration create such a powerful set of tools? Their target was for-profit colleges, and they hardly expected that their regulatory overreach would land in the hands of a second Trump administration that would come out swinging against traditional public and private institutions. > So, what can colleges do about this? > For investigations based upon past events, institutions should prepare protocols for responding to government inquiries and strengthen their records-retention processes and procurement procedures. > To insulate a college from future actions, reviewing internal compliance standards and procedures in light of these new regulations, as well as updating staff training, can help avoid some painful headaches. > Over the past decade, the department has successfully closed colleges down based upon far weaker versions of the current regulations. Today, colleges that get crosswise with the Trump administration should prepare for an assault on their student loan eligibility, because it may be coming. * ED Wants Grants to Advance “Patriotic Education” https://www.insidehighered.com/news/government/politics-elections/2025/09/1…<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.insidehighered.com/news/government/…> > Last week, Education Secretary Linda McMahon outlined a new plan for how her department would promote “patriotic education” by adding it to the list of priorities that can drive decisions for discretionary grants, including those that support programs at colleges and universities. > “It is imperative to promote an education system that teaches future generations honestly about America’s Founding principles, political institutions, and rich history,” McMahon said in a statement about the new proposal. “To truly understand American values, the tireless work it has taken to live up to them, and this country’s exceptional place in world history is the best way to inspire an informed patriotism and love of country.” > McMahon’s other priorities for grant funding include evidence-based literacy, expanding education choice, returning education to the states and advancing AI in education. ### HHS * The Other Office for Civil Rights https://www.insidehighered.com/news/diversity/2025/09/24/hhs-civil-rights-a…<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.insidehighered.com/news/diversity/2…> > In June, in an escalation of the Trump administration’s pressure on Harvard University to bow to its demands, a federal Office for Civil Rights announced that the institution was violating federal law. > The office released a nearly 60-page report accusing Harvard of “deliberate indifference” to ongoing discrimination against Jewish and Israeli students, which is illegal under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. “OCR’s findings document that a hostile environment existed, and continues to exist, at Harvard,” the office said in an accompanying news release. > But this wasn’t the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights. It was an office of the same name within the Health and Human Services Department that’s been playing a more public role as part of Trump’s crackdown on higher ed. Officials who served in previous administrations said agencies used to generally defer to the Education Department when it came to civil rights issues in higher ed. But since Trump retook office, colleges and universities are facing increased pressure from probes by HHS and other agencies enforcing the new administration’s right-wing interpretation of civil rights. > For universities, Trump’s HHS OCR represents a new threat to their funding if they’re accused of promoting diversity, equity and inclusion; fostering antisemitism; or letting transgender women play on women’s sports teams. > “As we feared, the Trump administration is abusing civil rights tools to advance a radical and divisive agenda that aggressively hoards access to education, living wage jobs, and so much more,” the NAACP Legal Defense Fund said in a statement. “Unfortunately, HHS and many other federal agencies are being used as one of the vehicles to carry out that agenda.” > "There are 13 federal agencies with external civil rights enforcement, of which HHS is one, and it’s relatively large.” [former director of the Education Department’s OCR ] ... “The administration has used every agency in a contemporaneous, simultaneous assault on universities,” ... “It’s unnecessary to do what the administration is doing now, unless one is operating like a mob boss,” (After listing several examples the article ends with) > Lhamon, the former Education Department OCR head, said what the administration has called civil rights investigations into Harvard, Columbia and other universities aren’t really investigations. She noted the administration has used a “mob theory” by going ahead and pulling HHS and other funding from multiple institutions before the investigations are over. > Instead, she said, this is “an assault on universities, which is a very different thing from ensuring compliance with the civil rights laws as Congress has enacted them.” ## Institutional assaults ### Admissions * Why Did College Board End Best Admissions Product? (opinion) https://www.insidehighered.com/opinion/views/2025/09/22/why-did-college-boa…<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.insidehighered.com/opinion/views/20…> > Earlier this month, College Board announced its decision to kill Landscape, a race-neutral tool that allowed admissions readers to better understand a student’s context for opportunity. After an awkward 2019 rollout as the “Adversity Score,” Landscape gradually gained traction in many selective admissions offices. Among other items, the dashboard provided information on the applicant’s high school, including the economic makeup of their high school class, participation trends for Advanced Placement courses and the school’s percentile SAT scores, as well as information about the local community. > If College Board was worried that somehow people were using the tool as a proxy for race (and they weren’t), well, it wasn’t a very good one. In the most comprehensive study of Landscape being used on the ground, researchers found that it didn’t do anything to increase racial/ethnic diversity in admissions. Things are different when it comes to economic diversity. Use of Landscape is linked with a boost in the likelihood of admission for low-income students. As such, it was a helpful tool given the continued underrepresentation of low-income students at selective institutions. > While race and class are correlated, they certainly aren’t interchangeable. Admissions officers weren’t using Landscape as a proxy for race; they were using it to compare a student’s SAT score or AP course load to those of their high school classmates. Ivy League institutions that have gone back to requiring SAT/ACT scores have stressed the importance of evaluating test scores in the student’s high school context. Eliminating Landscape makes it harder to do so. ### Harvard * NYTimes: Harvard’s Former President Criticizes Its Approach to Trump https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/19/us/harvard-claudine-gay-trump.html?smid=…<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/19/us/harvard-c…> > Harvard’s former president, Claudine Gay, offered a blunt assessment of the university’s current administration this month, criticizing it for complying with demands from the Trump White House. > “The posture of the institution seems to be one of compliance,” Dr. Gay said in an address on Sept. 3, first reported in The Harvard Crimson, the student newspaper, on Friday. “This is distressing, not only for those of us who are on campus and facing the consequences directly, but also for all of those in higher ed who look to Harvard for leadership and guidance.” > “The number of $500 million is arbitrary, and it will solve nothing,” Dr. Gay said. “There is no justification.” * NYTimes: Trump Officials Question Harvard’s Stability, Saying Federal Inquiries Raise Financial Risk https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/19/us/politics/trump-harvard-financial-risk…<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/19/us/politics/…> (This can't be a serious request, almost any single building alone is worth more than the 36M reported.) > The Trump administration on Friday opened a new front in its pressure campaign on Harvard University, demanding proof of the financial stability of the nation’s oldest and wealthiest college as well as a guarantee that federal debts will be paid if the school “closes or terminates classes.” > Still, the administration is insisting on a guarantee of more than $36 million, representing about 30 percent of the federal financial aid that has flowed to the university during the past year, because of financial risks posed by more than a dozen government investigations targeting the university. > The aggressive actions from the Trump admini stration come as negotiations between Harvard and the White House have stalled over a landmark settlement that would restore the university’s research funding and resolve the multitude of federal investigations aimed at addressing a perceived liberal bias on campus. > The letter from the student aid office also said Harvard’s sale of $750 million in bonds in April, layoffs of staff over the summer and a salary freeze initiated this year “call into question the ability of Harvard to meet its financial responsibility obligations.” (Also) https://www.insidehighered.com/news/government/student-aid-policy/2025/09/1…<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.insidehighered.com/news/government/…> https://www.chronicle.com/blogs/the-trump-agenda/trump-administration-turns…<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.chronicle.com/blogs/the-trump-agend…> * ED Gives Harvard 20 Days to Provide Admissions Info https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2025/09/23/ed-gives-harvard…<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes…> > The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights said Friday that it issued a letter giving Harvard University 20 days to submit documents related to admissions that it says the university has been refusing to provide. > “Despite OCR’s repeated requests for data, Harvard has refused to provide the requested information necessary for OCR to make a compliance determination,” the office continued, adding that the university will “face further enforcement action” if the information is not provided. ### Texas A&M * ‘Heartbreaking’ and ‘Cruel’: A Texas State Professor on His Firing and Why He’s Suing https://www.chronicle.com/article/heartbreaking-and-cruel-a-texas-state-pro…<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.chronicle.com/article/heartbreaking…> > Alter, an associate professor of history at Texas State University, was perplexed. He knew remarks he had made at a conference three days earlier about a hypothetical “overthrow” of the U.S. government, documented on the internet, had provoked an online campaign against him, but the last time he checked, the posts had received very little attention. > This stunning turnaround time is at the core of Alter’s lawsuit against the university, which he filed Tuesday and shared with The Chronicle. In Alter’s telling, he was fired “without an ounce of due process,” a loaded term in the American judicial system but one that carries an added weight for someone of Alter’s status: He was tenured — as of 10 days before his firing. > When he began his remarks on that Sunday, Alter introduced himself by name and by his membership with Socialist Horizon, one of the groups organizing the conference, and his union, the Texas State Employees Union. Alter told The Chronicle said he was “very conscious” not to identify himself as a Texas State professor, and while a participant identified Alter’s employment as part of an “innocuous conversation” about how many teachers Texas State educates, Alter would probably have been just another participant had it not been for Borysenko. > An online influencer who calls herself an “anti-communist fascist leading the revolution against the revolution,” Borysenko recorded Alter’s remarks in full. The next day, September 8, she uploaded several videos across social media, including YouTube and X, with pointed captions identifying Alter and her interpretation of his remarks. * Partisan Fury Got Him a Presidency. And Then It Took Him Down. https://www.chronicle.com/article/partisan-fury-got-him-a-presidency-and-th…<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.chronicle.com/article/partisan-fury…> > Welsh was hastily named A&M’s interim president in 2023 after the proposed hiring of a new journalism director, Kathleen O. McElroy, infuriated conservatives who saw her as a champion of the kinds of diversity programs that, in Texas, were already on the outs. Replacing M. Katherine Banks, who had resigned the A&M presidency over the McElroy ordeal, Welsh faced a politically tricky task: making himself both palatable to conservatives, who were skeptical of creeping liberalism at A&M, and acceptable to beleaguered university faculty, who felt academic freedom was under threat. For a while, at least, Welsh seemed to pull it off. > In recent days, however, Welsh’s juggling act fell apart. In trying to appease both conservatives and faculty, he managed to satisfy neither. The politics that engulfed Welsh are indicative of a larger national trend, in which college leaders are struggling — to varying degrees — to uphold fundamental values of institutional autonomy and academic freedom in the face of a broad conservative effort to reshape higher education. Very few, it seems, are striking a balance that pleases either side. > This [several dismissals] still was not enough. Harrison continued to make media appearances and post about the events, often tagging the Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, and the Texas A&M University System chancellor, Glenn Hegar. Abbott-appointed regents, Harrison wrote, were “pushing transgender indoctrination on students.” The state’s lieutenant governor, Dan Patrick, said last week that Welsh “did not handle the recent situation … as he should have,” but said his fate should be left up to the regents. > It was the regents, along with Hegar, who announced Thursday that Welsh would resign. But it was Harrison [Republican state elected] who took the credit, telling The Texas Tribune that his social-media posts hastened Welsh’s resignation. Swift action like this, Harrison told the outlet, is what “I firmly believe Texans want.” ### West Point * Professor sues West Point, says the academy is restricting free speech | AP News https://apnews.com/article/west-point-lawsuit-first-amendment-professor-a4d…<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://apnews.com/article/west-point-lawsuit-f…> > The U.S. Military Academy at West Point is banning opinions by professors in the classroom and some books and courses in a crackdown that violates the First Amendment, a law professor at the military school said in a lawsuit Monday seeking class action status. > Bakken also noted in the lawsuit that he has a contract with a publisher for a book that is critical of some aspects of West Point and doesn’t want to seek approval from the school’s leadership prior to its publication because “it is very likely such approval will be withheld.” > Bakken’s lawsuit said the school began to scrutinize faculty speech after a January executive order from President Donald Trump to “carefully review the leadership, curriculum and instructors of the United States Service Academies and other defense academic institutions.” > The lawsuit said the academy in the spring withdrew books from its library, removed words and phrases from faculty members’ syllabi, eliminated courses and majors and threatened or punished faculty members for teaching, speaking and writing without prior approval from the school. > During the summer, the academy removed information about faculty members’ published books, articles, essays and scholarship entries from all faculty members’ webpages on the school’s website, the lawsuit said. It also directed instructors not to express opinions in the classroom, it said. ### UCLA * Federal judge orders Trump to restore $500 million in frozen UCLA medical research grants - Los Angeles Times https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-09-22/rita-lin-federal-judge-…<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-0…> > A federal judge Monday ordered the Trump administration to restore $500 million in UCLA medical research grants, halting for now a nearly two-month funding crisis that UC leaders said threatened the future of the nation’s premier public university system. > Lin’s order provides the biggest relief to UCLA but affects federal funding awarded to all 10 UC campuses. Lin ruled that the NIH grants were suspended by form letters that were unspecific to the research, a likely violation of the Administrative Procedure Act, which regulates executive branch rulemaking. > In addition to the medical grant freezes — which had prompted talks of possible UCLA layoffs or closures of labs conducting cancer and stroke research, among other studies — Lin said the government would have to restore millions of dollars in Department of Defense and Department of Transportation grants to UC schools. > Lin explained her thinking during a hearing last week. She said the Trump administration committed a “fundamental sin” in its “un-reasoned mass terminations” of grants using “letters that don’t go through the required factors that the agency is supposed to consider.” > Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the UC Berkeley law school, worked with Polsky and argued the case in front of Lin. (Also) https://www.chronicle.com/blogs/the-trump-agenda/500-million-in-grant-fundi…<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.chronicle.com/blogs/the-trump-agend…> https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2025/09/24/judge-restores-a…<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes…> ### George Washington University * The Campus With a Front-Row Seat to Trump’s Attack on Higher Ed https://www.chronicle.com/article/the-campus-with-a-front-row-seat-to-trump…<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.chronicle.com/article/the-campus-wi…> > The influx of officers and troops can leave the impression of a campus under siege, an impression also reinforced by less visible interactions. The day after President Trump announced the deployment of the National Guard in Washington, GW received a letter from the Justice Department announcing it had found the campus administration responsible for “deliberate indifference” to the “hostile environment” for Jewish, American-Israeli, and Israeli students and faculty. > A week after the DOJ letter [Department of Justice’s “deliberate indifference” letter in August] was published, the GW student socialist organization released its own demands, co-signed by 45 student organizations, and posted an open letter about them. The six demands include banning all external law enforcement from campus, refusing compliance and capitulation with the Trump administration, and calling for the university to publicly declare its support for free speech. The demands also call for more communication and guidelines from the university regarding interacting with ICE and immigration authorities. ## Blowback * U.K. Weighs Streamlining Visa Process for Researchers https://www.insidehighered.com/news/global/2025/09/26/uk-weighs-streamlinin…<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.insidehighered.com/news/global/2025…> > The U.K. is reportedly considering removing fees for its global talent visa in response. The Campaign for Science and Engineering (CaSE) warned that high visa costs are already a significant barrier but said it is not the only change that needs to be made. ## Higher Education as a Public Good * Colleges have had a tough year. Confidence in them is rising. https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2025/09/24/college-confidence-poll…<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2025/0…> > But a national poll [Vanderbilt Unity Poll], released Wednesday signals a shift [increase in confidence]: Nearly half of respondents said they had “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in higher education. Nearly 80 percent said that a college education is very or somewhat important for a young person to succeed. > That question, like others, reflected a split along party lines, with 87 percent of Democrats and 68 percent of Republicans expressing that a college education has some importance for success. > The real divide was expressed by the 20 percent of respondents who said they identify with President Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement. | Group | no confidence | some confidence | confidence | |:-----:|:-------------:|:---------------:|:----------:| | MAGA | 31 | 45 | 24 | | Dems | 21 | 10 | 69 | | Indies| 18 | 37 | 45 | ## And just because it is fun * NYTimes: Eric Adams, Donald Trump and the Case That Broke American Justice https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/20/opinion/trump-eric-adams-corruption.html…<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/20/opinion/trum…> (Not fun but is very informative about reported corruption in our own backyard.) > The purported corruption ran from the grand scale of global politics to the most parochial, penny-ante payoffs. Ingrid Lewis-Martin, a former top aide whom Mr. Adams describes as his “sister,” was indicted on money laundering and bribery charges for allegedly calling in favors in exchange for a bit part in an MGM+ streaming show and cash that her son used to buy a new Porsche. > And it swept up almost every department in Mr. Adams’s administration — especially, and most importantly, the New York Police Department. The culture of impunity described in dozens of lawsuits, indictments and whistle-blower complaints was so widespread that one of the mayor’s own former police commissioners sued him for enforcing what the commissioner characterized as a culture of “lawlessness.” > Mr. Adams, a former police captain, has called himself the department’s “overbearing dad.” He installed his former cop friends at the top levels of the department and of his administration generally. Many of them padded out their entourages and gave their buddies cushy assignments and huge overtime payouts. > She responded with a shocking accusation in a complaint to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission: Her boss, the chief of department, Jeff Maddrey, had pressured her into serving that overtime with him at 1 Police Plaza, where he repeatedly sexually abused her. “I keep saying, ‘stop, stop, stop, stop, stop.’ And he just kept on,” the lieutenant, a 19-year veteran of the force and a mother of three, recalled, heaving with tears, in a televised interview last March. “This guy is a monster.” She said Chief Maddrey, a friend and an ally of Mr. Adams’s for more than 20 years, demanded a kickback from the overtime pay and even told her to pay for a vacation for him and his wife. > After the lieutenant came forward with her accusations, nude videos of her circulated on police group chats. Then the Police Department tried to claw back the overtime money that her predator boss allegedly coerced her into taking. * “I’m a former creationist. Here’s why ‘follow the science’ failed. The moment I finally admitted that Darwin was right didn’t feel liberating. It felt like grief.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/09/22/muslim-missionary-evolut…<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/09…> (Thanks BE!) > As an 18-year-old Muslim missionary, I enrolled at University College London intent on destroying the theory of evolution. I arrived on a mission: I wanted to prove that Charles Darwin was wrong. Like so many other creationists, I believed scientists were either lying to us or they were so biased that they were unknowingly misreading the data. The only way to dismantle their theory was to inspect the data for myself and prove it wrong. > Two decades later, I am an evolutionary biologist. Working on a documentary about our species’ 300,000-year-old story made me reflect on my own evolution — and how, when you ask people to do something simple such as “believe the science,” you might actually be asking them to pay an almost unimaginable price. > By and large, we share the opinions of our tribe. So when we ask people to believe in climate modeling or vaccine science, what we are really asking people to do is choose between their community’s beliefs and an abstract dataset. It’s a direct referendum on the people they know and love. Most people will not betray their tribe for a stranger in a lab coat. > In biological terms, this is an extremely rational predisposition — or, put another way, it’s human nature. And it’s the main reason simply shouting “trust the science” will never truly change people’s minds. > In many ways, I traded a warm religious community for a cold and often selfish secular world. > Understanding these dynamics can illuminate the current quagmire of science and politics. When people of faith and political conservatives see their views mocked, dismissed or ostracized, they begin to see science not as a method but as a tribe they’re not a part of. And once science becomes just another tribe, its authority collapses. > In the 13 years since I left my missionary world, many Muslims have embraced evolution. That progress didn’t come from outsiders or even nonpracticing Muslims like me; it came from scholars, thinkers and activists who argued for the compatibility of Islam and evolution. It is why we must tolerate religious and, for that matter, right-wing viewpoints more. Not only is more robust science achieved when all biases are represented, but the perception of left-wing atheists having a monopoly on science is a disaster. The best ambassadors to skeptical communities are people from within those communities. > Evolution is the underlying assumption of biology; nothing in the field makes sense without it. It should trouble us that so many people still reject it. Paradigm shifts are possible, although parting with the beliefs of one’s tribe is an enormous decision. Empathy for that hesitation, not scorn for it, is the way forward. ---- Again, some links are behind paywalls. The shortened wapo links are gift articles; the Chronicle links should be available through a CUNY library. I have online access to the WSJ articles through CUNY. These digests are now archived at https://cunytracker.github.io/CUNYTracker/<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://cunytracker.github.io/CUNYTracker/__;!!…> CUNY Tracker<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://cunytracker.github.io/CUNYTracker/__;!!…> CUNY Tracker An unofficial, curated, partial summary of some of the actions taken by the federal government as relates to Higher Education in general and CUNY in specific. Each written as weekly digests sent to CUNY UFS Senators and FGLs. If you have stories/reports you would like me to include in anticipated future digests, please send along via an email to me directly (john.verzani(a)csi.cuny ... cunytracker.github.io *********************************************

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Gslisadjuncts FW: Weekly digest of federal government actions and discussion thereof related to higher education
by Emily Drabinski 22 Sep '25

22 Sep '25

From: UFS and FGL discussion list <UFS-FGL(a)LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU> on behalf of John Verzani <John.Verzani(a)CSI.CUNY.EDU> Dear All, Please find a partial summary of some of the actions taken by the federal government as relates to Higher Education in general and CUNY in specific in the past week. (Reading this at https://cunytracker.github.io/CUNYTracker/sep-19.html<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://cunytracker.github.io/CUNYTracker/sep-1…> will show the big table at the end with real formatting.) Thanks to K, VAC for sharing stories this week. The aftermath of a murder has reached farther faster than could have been imagined. This week the Freedom of expression category is far to full of items. ## Op eds * Thoughts on Education and Freedom as Fall Begins (opinion) https://www.insidehighered.com/opinion/views/2025/09/12/thoughts-education-…<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.insidehighered.com/opinion/views/20…> > As a Jewish teacher and university president, it pains me to see the fight against antisemitism used as a cudgel with which to attack centers of teaching and research. I’ve been very aware of antisemitism since I was a little boy,...I am genuinely startled, though, by the ways Christian nationalists in the American government use Jew hatred as a vehicle to advance their authoritarian agenda. That’s what we are witnessing today: the exploitation of anti-antisemitism by a White House determined to extort money and expressions of loyalty from higher education. > This environment is threatened by the enormous pressure the federal government is putting on higher education to “align its priorities” with those of the president. I am worried about the normalization of this authoritarian effort to reshape the ecosystem of higher education. Too many opportunists and collaborators have been responding by noisily preaching neutrality or just keeping their heads down. > Some faculty, student and alumni groups, however, have begun to stand up and make their voices heard. Whether refusing to apologize for diversity efforts or simply standing up for the freedom of scientific inquiry, there is growing resistance to the administration’s attempt to control civil society in general and higher education in particular. > We don’t want the government thinking for us, telling us what the president’s priorities are so that we can imitate them. We want to learn to think for ourselves in the company of others, leaving behind a dependence on authority. Authoritarians would see us impose immaturity upon ourselves. As the new school year begins, we in higher education must redouble our efforts to model and defend the enlightenment ideals of education and freedom—while we still can. ## Freedom of expression * Staff Members Fired, Grad Student Punished for Cheering Charlie Kirk’s Death https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2025/09/12/staff-members-fi…<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes…> > Late Wednesday, a student affairs administrator at Middle Tennessee State University was fired after posting “insensitive” remarks on Facebook in response to Kirk’s death. > “Looks like ol’ Charlie spoke his fate into existence. Hate begets hate. ZERO sympathy,” Sosh-Lightsy wrote in a Facebook post ... Tennessee senator Marsha Blackburn, a Republican, called for Sosh-Lightsy’s firing on X, > On Thursday afternoon, University of Mississippi chancellor Glenn Boyce confirmed the firing of an unnamed staff member who he said “re-shared hurtful, insensitive comments on social media regarding the tragic murder of Charlie Kirk.” > At Baylor University, officials distanced the university from a graduate student who wrote “this made me giggle” in response to a social media post sharing the news of Kirk’s death. > The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression is monitoring which universities are censoring employee speech, said Lindsie Rank, director of campus rights advocacy at FIRE. “It may not be moral to speak ill of the dead, but it is protected by the First Amendment so we’re going to be keeping our eyes open for those situations,” she said. * 6 More Faculty, Staff Removed for Kirk Comments https://www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty-issues/academic-freedom/2025/09…<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty-iss…> > Republican politicians and other conservatives are calling for employees, including those in higher ed, to be terminated for their social media posts about Kirk's killing. > At least eight faculty and staff members have been fired or suspended so far for comments they made * Workers are getting fired, placed on leave over Charlie Kirk posts https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/09/12/workers-fired-charlie-ki…<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/09…> * NYTimes: Right-Wing Activists Urge Followers to Expose Those Celebrating Kirk Killing https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/12/us/politics/charlie-kirk-shooting-firing…<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/12/us/politics/…> > and at least one Trump administration official have actively encouraged people to scour the internet for remarks celebrating the killing and to expose those who have posted them online. > Christopher Landau, the deputy secretary of state, issued a separate call on Thursday morning, asking his more than 200,000 followers on X to reach out to him with information about “foreigners who glorify violence and hatred.” > A Secret Service employee was placed on administrative leave after stating on Facebook that Mr. Kirk had “spewed hate and racism on his show,” > After Michael Mann, a prominent climate scientist who works at the University of Pennsylvania, reposted a message referring to Mr. Kirk as the “head of Trump’s Hitler Youth,” Dave McCormick, the state’s Republican senator, called it “despicable” and urged the university to “take immediate, decisive action.” > Rose Pugliese, a Colorado state lawmaker who is a Republican, asked Gov. Jared Polis, a Democrat, on Thursday to fire a state employee who had accused Mr. Kirk online of being “a white man who spews horrid” words “against every marginalized community.” > Representative Clay Higgins, Republican of Louisiana, said that he planned to use “Congressional authority” to force tech companies to “ban for life” any person who “belittled the assassination of Charlie Kirk.” > John C. Phelan, the secretary of the Navy, posted a message saying that sailors or Marines found to be “displaying contempt toward a fellow American who was assassinated” would be “dealt with swiftly and decisively.” > Tim Weninger, a professor at the University of Notre Dame who studies the ways social media is used to dehumanize people and incite violence, described the targeting campaign as a new front in online rhetoric. “I haven’t seen something like this on social media in America, really ever — it’s a unique moment,” he said. > Anastasios Kamoutsas, the commissioner of education in Florida, said in a memo to state superintendents on Thursday that some teachers had made “despicable comments” about Mr. Kirk’s killing and that he intended to investigate every teacher who posted vile, inappropriate messages. (Also) * Right-Wing Activists Are Targeting People for Allegedly Celebrating Charlie Kirk’s Death https://www.wired.com/story/right-wing-activists-are-targeting-people-for-a…<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.wired.com/story/right-wing-activist…> * MAGA’s Doxing War Over Charlie Kirk Is Already Going Off the Rails | The New Republic https://newrepublic.com/post/200472/maga-doxxing-charlie-kirk-going-off-rai…<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://newrepublic.com/post/200472/maga-doxxin…> > Ali Nasrati, 30, said he hadn’t posted anything about Kirk but was still publicly doxed over an account using his name and photograph that made posts mocking the right-wing activist, > Other instances of doxing appear to have been prompted by unverified information. Ryan Fournier, the national chair of Students for Trump, was forced to walk back accusations of anti-Kirk comments against an elementary school teacher in Wisconsin. “ > On Sunday night, an anonymous website collecting reports of anti-Kirk “political extremism” said it had received more than 63,000 submissions. * Doxing Campaign Endangers Faculty and Free Speech https://www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty-issues/academic-freedom/2025/09…<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty-iss…> > The force and scale of the doxing campaigns—and the speed with which institutions have moved to suspend or terminate their targets—paints a grim picture of free speech rights on public college campuses. Widespread doxing as a political tool to punish universities and academics is not a new phenomenon, but right now it’s particularly virulent, explained Keith Whittington, a professor at Yale Law School and an expert on free speech. “The size of the activity, the pressure campaign and the … short period of time is highly unusual,” he said. “Universities feel like they’re under intense pressure to mollify right-wing activists and try not to draw negative attention from the [Trump] administration.” (This *is* happening at CUNY) * Texas State professor fired for comments at socialism meeting | The Texas Tribune https://www.texastribune.org/2025/09/10/texas-state-university-professor-fi…<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.texastribune.org/2025/09/10/texas-s…> (Also) * A Tenured Professor Spoke Hypothetically About Overthrowing the Government. He Was Fired 3 Days Later. https://www.chronicle.com/article/a-tenured-professor-spoke-hypothetically-…<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.chronicle.com/article/a-tenured-pro…> > A Texas State University professor was fired days after he made remarks the institution’s president described as advocating for “inciting violence,” becoming the second faculty member in the state this week to be swiftly terminated following the release of a viral video. > But experts say there’s an important distinction between the two cases: The Texas State faculty member was an associate professor with tenure, which typically grants several layers of due process before termination, while a Texas A&M senior lecturer who was terminated earlier this week didn’t have the same protections. Two people with knowledge of the situation confirmed to The Chronicle that the Texas State professor had earned tenure at the start of this academic year. > The Texas State Employees Union, of which Alter is a member, said that he was fired “without a hearing or any meaningful opportunity to respond,” and that he only found out about his termination when Damphousse publicly announced it. > The speed of Alter’s termination was legally dubious, higher-ed legal experts told The Chronicle, and violated the principles of academic freedom. While there have been many examples in the past dozen years of social-media campaigns calling for professors to be disciplined or even fired over their speech, Texas State’s near-instant decision to dismiss a tenured professor is rare, said Samantha Harris, a lawyer who defends college professors in disciplinary proceedings. > “What Texas State is doing seems to me to be so obviously unlawful — and so likely to lead to a successful lawsuit — that they must be more afraid of something else, like running afoul of the political priorities of state or federal officials,” Harris said. * University of Tennessee looks to terminate faculty member over social media post | wbir.com https://www.wbir.com/article/news/local/downtown-ut/ut-employee-charlie-kir…<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.wbir.com/article/news/local/downtow…> > The University of Tennessee announced it placed one of its faculty members on administrative leave and is beginning termination proceedings against her after Tennessee lawmakers began looking into a social media post claiming she celebrated Charlie Kirk's assassination on social media. * Clemson U. Touted Free Speech After 3 Employees Posted About Charlie Kirk. Then It Reversed Course. https://www.chronicle.com/article/clemson-u-touted-free-speech-after-3-empl…<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.chronicle.com/article/clemson-u-tou…> (Ditto) * Employees and Students at These Colleges Have Been Punished for Comments on Charlie Kirk’s Death https://www.chronicle.com/article/employees-and-students-at-these-colleges-…<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.chronicle.com/article/employees-and…> > A pattern has emerged: The college employee or student says something negative about Kirk — mostly online, but occasionally in class or on campus. State and congressional lawmakers and right-wing social-media accounts amplify the comments and advocate for the colleges to take disciplinary action. Some lawmakers have threatened to pull funding or enact other consequences if the colleges don’t fire the employees. (Map of 24 faculty, 13 staff, 3 students; see appendix) * Opinion | The Assassination That Broke Campus Free Speech https://www.chronicle.com/article/the-assassination-that-broke-campus-free-…<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.chronicle.com/article/the-assassina…> > This was already a theme before Kirk’s murder. Texas A&M University fired a lecturer seemingly at the behest of the governor after politicians objected to the content of her children’s-literature class. Texas State University fired a history professor for his personal advocacy of the organization of a revolutionary socialist party that would aid the working class to “overthrow” the United States government. > But the pressure to patrol speech on college campuses has since reached new intensity. An assistant dean in the Office of Student Care and Conduct at Middle Tennessee State University was fired for a “callous and insensitive” social-media post after Kirk’s death. An English professor at Cumberland University was fired after a U.S. senator called attention to his posts about “a Nazi getting shot.” An art professor at the University of South Dakota was fired after calling Kirk a “hate-spreading Nazi” after his murder. A College of the Sequoias biology professor is under investigation for allegedly telling his class that he hoped Kirk’s whole family would meet the same fate. A Guilford Technical Community College English instructor was fired for praising the assassin to her class. An audio-technology professor at Clemson University has been suspended for mocking Kirk’s death in social-media posts. > Public colleges are legally constrained by the First Amendment in how they can respond to demands to punish students and employees for hateful, morally depraved, or politically incendiary speech. Private colleges have more flexibility, though many have voluntarily tied themselves to First Amendment norms through their own policies. Everyone on campus, including senior university officials, should understand what speech is — and is not — protected under such rules. > Given the misinformation about First Amendment rules routinely spread in public discourse — including by university officials — it is worth clarifying that in the United States, constitutional protections for speech are expansive, a fact not always reflected in the official statements from colleges. Texas State University suggested that speech that “advocates for inciting violence” is unprotected. Clemson claimed that the right to free speech does not extend to expression that “incites harm or undermines the dignity of others.” The chairman of the board at Southern University implied that “distasteful statements” about death are “tantamount to participating and inciting violence and spewing hate,” and thus unprotected. None of this is really true. * NYTimes: The Kirk Crackdown Is Underway https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/16/opinion/trump-charlie-kirk-crackdown.htm…<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/16/opinion/trum…> > President Trump and his allies are capitalizing on the assassination of Charlie Kirk to open up fresh attacks on liberal institutions, donors and foundations. They seek to portray many on the left as traitors. > Trump and his allies have long exploited “emergencies” to push divisive measures. Now he claims that left-wing terrorism is a greater threat than terror perpetrated by the right, a demonstrably false assertion. > Trump and his MAGA followers have not just turned Kirk’s murder into a political weapon; they are trying, with some success, to use it to build a national movement to publicly out everyone who criticized Kirk on social media after his death. They are also trying to persuade employers to fire Kirk’s critics. > Trump and Miller have claimed that the Ford Foundation and George Soros’s Open Society Foundations are financing violence on the left. > The political right in the United States has long tried to argue that the political left is responsible for more violence than the political right. That simply hasn’t been true for decades. Lots of folks have surfaced a lot of evidence to illustrate that the far right has been responsible for more violence in the U.S. than the far left, including violent deaths. [Sam Jackson, a professor of emergency management and homeland security at SUNY-Albany] > Violent far-right extremist have been responsible for 94 of the 108 terrorism fatalities (87 percent) in the United States in the past five years. This included 2022, when 18 of the 19 fatalities occurred during far-right terrorist attacks. > Of the 71 terrorist attacks in 2022, 69 percent were perpetrated by those on the violent far right, 20 percent by the violent far left, 3 percent by Salafi-jihadists and 8 percent by ethnonationalists. [nonpartisan Center for Strategic and International Studies study from February 2024] https://www.csis.org/analysis/global-terrorism-threat-assessment-2024<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.csis.org/analysis/global-terrorism-…> * Some Conservatives Blame Higher Ed for Political Violence https://www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty-issues/academic-freedom/2025/09…<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty-iss…> > While Cox [Utah Governor] took pains [At least for one day] not to explicitly point fingers before receiving more evidence, some conservatives and right-leaning media organizations are blaming higher ed for “political violence” in the wake of Kirk’s death. Referencing the killing—and sometimes what they say are offensive comments various university staff and faculty have since allegedly made about the shooting—they’ve called for defunding universities, increasing the number of conservatives on campus, firing professors and more. (But they go on to name check Kari Lake, Fox News host Rachel Campos-Duffy, editors of The Free Press, The Federalist (Breccan F. Thies), Laura Loomer, Harmeet K. Dhillon, Secretary Linda McMahon, Rep. Nancy Mace, Elon Musk, Stephen Miller, before getting to an AAUP response by it president Todd Wolfson) > “What [Robinson allegedly] did—which we condemn in the strongest possible terms—they have blamed it on left voices, they have blamed it on higher education consistently,” said Todd Wolfson, president of the American Association of University Professors. > Wolfson noted it’s currently unknown why Robinson allegedly shot Kirk, but it seems pretty clear it’s unrelated to universities. > “We’re seeing people making broad claims not based on evidence in order to move forward political agendas, and so I find that very dangerous,” Wolfson said. “I think we need cooler heads to prevail.” * All of This Because of Political Speech https://jacobin.com/2025/09/political-speech-antisemitism-universities-mcca…<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://jacobin.com/2025/09/political-speech-an…> (Brooklyn's Corey Robin Brings CUNY into focus with Berkeley) > In the last three months, four adjunct instructors at Brooklyn College have been fired, and administrators have additionally called in for questioning five full-time faculty and one staff member. > At any time, the Trump administration could ask CUNY to hand over “comprehensive documents, including files and reports” that simply involve these individuals’ “potential connection” to reports of alleged antisemitism. > In my book on fear, I argued that regimes of fear critically depend on two types of individuals: careerists and collaborators. Today the word we hear is “complicity.” What all of these words are meant to suggest is that regimes of fear are never simply top-down affairs. They have a strong bottom-up component as well. > Unfortunately, in our discourse today, including on the Left, that bottom-up element is often construed to be a mob of racist randos on social media or rubes in the red states. But that’s a comfort and a conceit. The truth is that collaborators are particular agents, trusted with discrete responsibility and concrete power at various levels, in multiple institutions, making choices, sometimes for the best of reasons, with consequences that they may not intend but that are likely to result anyway. * Kirk’s Slaying Prompts College Leaders to Speak Out https://www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty-issues/academic-freedom/2025/09…<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty-iss…> > Universities are making exceptions to institutional neutrality policies to issue statements on Charlie Kirk’s death as some take aggressive action against some faculty remarks. > Multiple universities adopted institutional neutrality policies amid the fallout [of the deadly Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks], essentially agreeing to refrain from making statements on political matters and to show more restraint, generally, on issuing statements on current events. > The University of Wyoming adopted institutional neutrality in late 2023. > But last week, President Ed Seidel released a statement “expressing disgust, outrage and sadness at this apparent politically motivated attack” > Although Middlebury does not have an institutional neutrality policy and Baucom [Middlebury President] emphasized he was speaking in his personal capacity, he said that he takes “broad guidance from the University of Chicago’s Kalven principles,” which essentially serve as the bedrock for such policies. But he also noted that the Kalven Report concluded that universities will need to defend their interests and values when “instances will arise” that threaten institutional missions and free inquiry. > While Greenberg [Lawyer at FIRE] said Clemson’s statement ["“We stand firmly on the principles of the U.S. Constitution, including the protection of free speech,..However, that right does not extend to speech that incites harm or undermines the dignity of others.”] was rare, colleges punishing employees for their speech is not. He noted that FIRE is currently receiving tips on “dozens of cases” every day. > “We’re in the cancel culture part of the tragedy cycle,” Greenberg said. * Abbott Targets Students Who Allegedly Mocked Kirk’s Death https://www.insidehighered.com/news/students/free-speech/2025/09/18/abbott-…<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.insidehighered.com/news/students/fr…> > Top Republican politicians have fueled the ongoing national repression of higher ed employees and others who have allegedly made offensive statements about last week’s shooting death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. But Texas governor Greg Abbott has taken the campaign to another level: going after individual students. > Abbott, who has more than 1.4 million followers on X, used that social media website to call for Texas State University to expel a student who appeared to mime Kirk’s shooting at a vigil for Kirk. Shortly after, university president Kelly Damphousse announced that a student in a “disturbing” video “is no longer a student at TXST.” > In another post on X, Abbott applauded Texas Tech University for allegedly expelling and arresting a student. Reposting a photo of the student being handcuffed, Abbott posted, “FAFO,” * McMahon Speaks Out About Kirk’s Death and Campus Culture https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2025/09/18/mcmahon-speaks-o…<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes…> > McMahon began by praising those who have honored Kirk’s memory and the “values he held so dearly,” but she quickly turned her attention to denouncing the “small but vocal fringe” that has “sought to excuse, justify and even celebrate his murder.” > “Alarmingly, many of these advocates of political violence are teachers, professors and administrators,” she said. “Make no mistake, ideological capture can lead to political violence by demonizing people with dissenting views.” * NYTimes: The Dangers of the Charlie Kirk Aftermath https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/18/opinion/trump-vance-bondi-douglassfree-s…<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/18/opinion/trum…> (Good article with these salient quotes from Frederick Douglass) > “No right was deemed by the fathers of the government more sacred than the right of speech. It was in their eyes, as in the eyes of all thoughtful men, the great moral renovator of society and government.” > “of all rights, is the dread of tyrants. It is the right which they first of all strike down ... Thrones, dominions, principalities and powers, founded in injustice and wrong,” Douglass said, “are sure to tremble, if men are allowed to reason of righteousness, temperance, and of a judgment to come in their presence.” > “Equally clear is the right to hear to suppress free speech is a double wrong. It violates the rights of the hearer as well as those of the speaker.” * NYTimes: Trump Pressures Broadcasters Over Critical Coverage, Escalating Attack on Speech https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/18/us/politics/trump-fcc-licenses.html?smid…<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/18/us/politics/…> > President Trump said on Thursday that regulators should consider revoking the licenses of broadcasters that air negative coverage or commentary of him, indicating that his assault on critics’ language is motivated at least in part by personal animus. * NYTimes: Trump Has Freedom of Speech. Do You? https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/19/opinion/trump-freedom-of-speech-crackdow…<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/19/opinion/trum…> > Now he [one guess] is taking his campaign against free speech to a new level by using the assassination of Charlie Kirk as a justification to promise the repression of groups that he describes as liberal. Mr. Trump’s aides are drafting an executive order that could come as soon as this week, The Times reported, and it will most likely target left-leaning organizations. On Monday, Vice President JD Vance mentioned both the Ford Foundation and George Soros’s Open Society Foundations, saying that they benefited from a “generous tax treatment,” the same tax treatment that benefits nonprofit groups like religious charities and the National Rifle Association Foundation. > The intimidation campaign is already having an effect. * NYTimes: We Can No Longer Tell Ourselves This Isn’t Really Happening https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/19/opinion/jimmy-kimmel-trump-media-governm…<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/19/opinion/jimm…> > Until Wednesday’s shocking announcement that ABC was cancelling Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show because of comments he made about Charlie Kirk’s killing, it was possible, if one squinted hard enough, to pretend that a broad free speech crackdown was not underway. The down-the-road cancellation of Stephen Colbert’s late-night show on CBS was chalked up to financial concerns, though anyone in the business not paid to think otherwise believes Mr. Colbert’s elegant skewerings of President Trump and MAGA were the real reason. > The silencing of Mr. Kimmel, following an explicit threat by Brendan Carr, the head of ABC’s regulator, the Federal Communications Commission, is the mask of “free speech” coming off for good. > The complaint about so-called big media, historically, was that it was too commercial. Is it possible that these purveyors of popular culture will ignore the 50 percent or more of this country that want television, film and music that doesn’t feel like it was extruded directly from the president’s brain? ## Funding cuts * ED Reallocates MSI Funding to HBCUs, Tribal Colleges https://www.insidehighered.com/news/institutions/minority-serving-instituti…<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.insidehighered.com/news/institution…> > When the U.S. Department of Education abruptly ended grants for most minority-serving institutions last week, it raised questions about what the department would do with the hundreds of millions of dollars already slated for these programs. The department offered an answer Monday, announcing plans to repurpose funds from programs “not in the best interest of students and families” to historically Black colleges and universities, tribal colleges, charter schools, and civics education. (At CUNY some 35 projects impacted by the new DOE directive and the future funding of those projects is $14.1 million; the amount seriously at risk.) ### NIH * NIH Now On Track to Spend Its Full Budget by Sept. 30 https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2025/09/15/nih-now-track-sp…<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes…> > The National Institutes of Health now appears on track to spend its full $47 billion budget by Sept. 30, the end of the federal fiscal year, STAT News reported Friday. That reflects “a frenzy of grantmaking activity during August,” worth more than $8 billion, STAT noted; the agency was far behind on awarding grants going into the summer, due to delays in the grant review process, the fight over the cap on indirect cost rates and widespread layoffs at the Department of Health and Human Services. > However, STAT’s analysis showed that while the value of the grants awarded is roughly the same, the NIH is funding many fewer new projects this year than in the past. That’s because earlier this year the White House Office of Management and Budget mandated a shift in the way the agency distributes research dollars to a multiyear model, meaning that at least half of all new projects will be funded up front for multiple years rather than receive a new tranche of funding each year. * NYTimes: Trump Is Shutting Down the War On Cancer https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/14/magazine/cancer-research-grants-funds-tr…<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/14/magazine/can…> (Damning story showing the effects of political malfeasance at the NIH) > When America declared war on cancer more than 50 years ago, there was a misguided assumption outside the scientific community that it would be only a matter of years before the disease was eradicated — that defeating cancer would be no different than building an atomic bomb or putting a man on the moon. But there would be no miracle cure: As of this writing, some 40 percent of Americans will be diagnosed with cancer at some point in their life. > According to a recent study in The Journal of Clinical Oncology, every $326 that our government spends researching cancer extends a human life by one year. Now an extraordinarily successful scientific research system — one that took decades to build, has saved millions of lives and generated billions of dollars in profits for American companies and investors — is being dismantled before our eyes. > In a matter of months, the Trump administration has canceled hundreds of millions of dollars in cancer-related research grants and contracts, arguing that they were part of politically driven D.E.I. initiatives, and suspended or delayed payments for hundreds of millions more. It is trying to sharply reduce the percentage of expenses that the government will cover for federally funded cancer-research labs. It has terminated hundreds of government employees who helped lead the country’s cancer-research system and ensured that new discoveries reached clinicians, cancer patients and the American public. And the president’s proposed budget for the next fiscal year calls for a more-than-37-percent cut to the National Cancer Institute — the N.I.H. agency that leads most of the nation’s cancer research — reducing it to $4.5 billion from $7.2 billion. Adjusting for inflation, you have to go back more than 30 years to find a comparably sized federal cancer-research budget. > In the absence of any such plan [neither he nor anyone inside his administration has spoken explicitly about its intention to radically rethink how America funds and directs cancer research], it’s hard not to see the ongoing dismantling of the cancer research system as collateral damage in a larger, partisan war against both the predominantly Democratic scientific establishment and the predominantly Democratic academic institutions where much of the country’s biomedical research takes place. And yet the term “collateral damage” suggests a lack of agency; this has been a deliberate and targeted attack. “They have studied how N.I.H. works, studied it hard and learned it well,” says Sarah Kobrin, head of the Health Systems and Interventions Research Branch at the National Cancer Institute. “And they have put sand in the gears in ways that are very effective, devastating.” * NYTimes: California’s $23 Billion Plan to Restore Federal Cuts to Scientific Research https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/13/us/california-scientific-research-bond.h…<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/13/us/californi…> > Supporters of the proposal said it would effectively create a state version of the National Institutes of Health or the National Science Foundation, two of the nation’s largest institutional funders of scientific and public health research. The move follows California, Washington and Oregon’s announcement that they would form a health alliance to review scientific data and make vaccine recommendations for their residents, in an attempt to bypass vaccine skeptics in the Trump administration. > The plan to back scientific research calls for lawmakers to pass, and for voters to approve in a 2026 ballot measure, a proposed $23 billion in bonds, financing that will allow the state to make grants and loans to universities, research companies and health care organizations. > It would be the largest state effort of its kind, and is considerably more aggressive than one floated in Massachusetts in July, when Gov. Maura Healey made a $400 million proposal for research there. ### NEH * NEH grant to fight antisemitism is largest ever, signaling Trump-era shift https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/2025/09/16/neh-grant-tikvah-je…<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/20…> > The grant was not part of a competition, and Tikvah was invited to apply, according to two people with direct knowledge of the grantmaking process > Tikvah is a New York-based think tank and nonprofit that describes its mission as advancing “Jewish excellence and Western civilization through education and ideas.” The group has been associated with conservative U.S. politics. At an upcoming conference, it will award prizes to right-wing commentator Ben Shapiro, Free Press editor Bari Weiss and former Republican adviser Dan Senor. > One of the people said the NEH has justified the large awards because of limited staff resources at the agency, which drastically slashed its workforce in June. (I have other answers more in line with the Occam's razor principle) ### DOE * Education Department Ends Grant Funding Worth $350 Million for Minority-Serving Colleges https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/10/us/politics/linda-mcmahon-federal-grants…<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/10/us/politics/…> (Thanks K!) > U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon announced Wednesday that she was halting $350 million in federal funding for some of America’s most diverse colleges and universities, saying programs aimed at supporting specific enrollment requirements for minority students were inherently racist. * NYTimes: Trump Redirects Millions to Historically Black Colleges, Charter Schools https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/15/us/hbcus-trump-administration-funding.ht…<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/15/us/hbcus-tru…> > The Trump administration on Monday announced that it would inject nearly $500 million into historically Black colleges and tribal universities, a windfall funded largely by cuts to programs elsewhere for minority students. > The administration will also redirect money to other political priorities for President Trump, including an extra $137 million for American history and civics education and $60 million more for charter schools. > To pay for the changes, the administration cut money from other parts of the education budget The details of the changes were described by three people familiar with the department’s plans who insisted on anonymity to speak about private discussions. > The biggest cut, announced by the department last week, is a $350 million hit to programs that support minority students in science and engineering programs, schools with significant Hispanic enrollment, and other federal grants at minority-serving institutions. > President Trump has routinely sought to align himself with historically Black colleges and universities as a way to earn good will from Black voters, who have long been skeptical of his leadership. * Education Dept. Halts Funds to Programs for Deafblind Students Over DEI Concerns — ProPublica https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-dei-students-education-deaf-blind-…<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-dei-st…> > The U.S. Department of Education has pulled funding for programs in eight states aimed at supporting students who have both hearing and vision loss, a move that could affect some of the country’s most vulnerable students. > The programs are considered vital in those states but represent only a little over $1 million a year in federal money. Nonetheless, they got caught in the Trump administration’s attacks on diversity, equity and inclusion, with an Education Department spokesperson citing concerns about “divisive concepts” and “fairness” in acknowledging the decision to withhold the funding. > “I was told that apparently the administration is going through past grants and two words were flagged: One was transition and one was privilege,” Klenz said. “Transition — transitioning from childhood to adulthood. Privilege came up because a parent wrote a glowing review of staff that said what a privilege it was to work with them.” ProPublica obtained a copy of the grant application and confirmed that those words were included. ## Federal Agencies * Trump Administration Withholds Millions for TRIO Programs https://www.insidehighered.com/news/government/student-aid-policy/2025/09/1…<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.insidehighered.com/news/government/…> > this month, the Trump administration has frozen hundreds of millions of dollars in TRIO grants, creating uncertainty for thousands of programs....Over all, the Council for Opportunity in Education, a nonprofit advocacy group that focuses on supporting TRIO programs, estimates that the Trump administration has withheld about $660 million worth of aid for more than 2,000 TRIO programs. > Roughly 650,000 college students and high school seniors will lack vital access to academic advising, financial guidance and assistance with college applications if the freeze persists, they say. ### DOE/OCR * Provosts Agree Antisemitism on Campus Is a Problem https://www.insidehighered.com/news/diversity/religion/2025/09/12/provosts-…<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.insidehighered.com/news/diversity/r…> > The judge who delivered a legal win to Harvard University in its battle with the Trump administration wrote in her opinion last week, “We must fight against antisemitism, but we equally need to protect our rights, including our right to free speech, and neither goal should nor needs to be sacrificed on the altar of the other.” > It seems most provosts would concur: In Inside Higher Ed’s forthcoming annual survey of College and University Chief Academic Officers with Hanover Research, 88 percent of some 478 respondents agree that antisemitism is a problem in higher education today. But just 20 percent agree that recent federal interventions into campus climates, such as those seen at Harvard and Columbia University—which are unprecedented in scope and speed, and have resulted in the suspension of billions of dollars in unrelated research funding—may be justified. > Nadell [ Patrick Clendenen Chair in Women’s and Gender History at American University and author of the new book Antisemitism, an American Tradition] continued, “It’s also really important to understand that the leadership of the Republican Party had, well before Oct. 7, been planning an attack on the university.” And there’s “no question, as I see it, that antisemitism has become instrumentalized to do something that the administration and the current leadership has long wanted to achieve.” > “This administration is hiding the ball, making it even more combative and more difficult,” Gellman-Beer [a civil rights compliance consultant who handled all manner of shared ancestry complaints under Republican and Democratic administrations through the Office for Civil Rights’ Philadelphia branch] said. “The administration is changing the legal standard with every new letter that comes out. It’s confusing, and it makes senior leaders not necessarily have trust in the process and trust in this administration that what they’re doing is to help the school.” ## Institutional assaults ### Harvard * Lutnick: Trump Wants Harvard to Build Vocational School https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2025/09/12/lutnick-trump-wa…<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes…> > While President Trump has proposed slashing the federal workforce development budget, a potential settlement between Harvard University and the Trump administration could involve the a plan to use $500 million the government is demanding to build vocational schools, Bloomberg reported Thursday. > “If Harvard settles with Donald Trump, you know what he’s going to do with the $500 million?” Lutnick said. “He’s going to have Harvard build vocational schools. The Harvard vocational school, because that’s what America needs.” ### UCLA * Trump Proposes $1.2B Fine in UCLA Settlement Letter https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2025/09/16/trump-proposes-1…<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes…> > The Trump administration is looking to fine the University of California, Los Angeles, $1.2 billion for the institution’s alleged practices of antisemitism, according to the Los Angeles Times. > The fine is just one element of Trump’s 28-page settlement proposal to the university; other provisions include overhauling the institution’s admissions procedures and hiring practices as well as its policies surrounding athletics, scholarships, gender identity and discrimination, the Times reported. In exchange, the Trump administration would release about $500 million in stalled research grants from the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Energy. > The paper also noted that the letter seemed thrown together quickly, contained a number of typos and made erroneous references to other universities. (re-read that last quote. Is this really possible?) ### UC Berkeley * UC Berkeley shares 160 names with Trump administration in ‘McCarthy era’ move | US universities | The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/12/uc-berkeley-trump-administr…<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/12…> > The University of California, Berkeley has given the Trump administration the names of 160 faculty members and students as part of an investigation into “alleged antisemitic incidents”, a move a targeted scholar likened to a “practice from the McCarthy era”. > UC Berkeley, a top-ranked public institution, sent a letter to affected members of campus last week disclosing that university lawyers had included their names in reports to the Department of Education’s office for civil rights (OCR). The education department has been targeting colleges across the country as part of Donald Trump’s aggressive crackdown on pro-Palestinian activism, international students and academic freedom. > Judith Butler, a prominent feminist philosopher and queer theorist, received the letter from David Robinson, UC Berkeley’s chief campus counsel, which said OCR was investigating “allegations of antisemitic harassment and discrimination” and “required production of comprehensive documents”. > Butler, a Jewish scholar who has been critical of Israel, said on Friday that they had questioned Robinson about the disclosures and said he provided no information on the specific allegations. > “We have a right to know the charges against us, to know who has made the charges and to review them and defend ourselves,” they said. “But none of that has happened, which is why we’re in Kafka-land … It is an enormous breach of trust.” (Also) https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/13/us/politics/trump-berkeley-antisemitism-…<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/13/us/politics/…> (Also) https://www.chronicle.com/article/uc-berkeley-hands-over-160-names-to-the-f…<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.chronicle.com/article/uc-berkeley-h…> ### University of California System * NYTimes: University of California Leaders to Meet as Trump Increases Pressure https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/17/us/university-of-california-berkeley-reg…<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/17/us/universit…> > University of California leaders, besieged by a billion-dollar demand from the Trump administration, will meet Wednesday as they weigh how to confront Washington’s campaign to remake American campuses. > The consequences of that effort have become increasingly vivid inside the university, which has been contending with an uproar over its decision last month to comply with federal investigators’ request for information. The university gave the Department of Education the names of scores of students and employees connected to allegations of antisemitism, a move that infuriated people throughout the 10-campus system after word of it emerged this month. > The disclosure deepened the sense of turmoil inside U.C., which is facing an escalating effort from the Trump administration to force changes to one of the nation’s largest and most distinguished university systems. The full Board of Regents has not met in public since mid-July, and the Trump administration’s tactics have gathered far greater force since then. > For example, the government demanded last month that the university pay about $1.2 billion to settle accusations of antisemitism at its Los Angeles campus, and it has pressured administrators there to accept conditions that include steps to ensure “that foreign students likely to engage in anti-Western, anti-American or antisemitic disruptions or harassment are not recruited or admitted.” > Ahead of Wednesday’s regents’ meeting in San Francisco, Mr. Milliken acknowledged in a statement that threats to the system could metastasize and warned that the federal authorities were “pursuing investigations and actions in various stages against all 10 U.C. campuses.” > In a statement on Tuesday, the system’s general counsel, Charles F. Robinson, argued that the university had only followed its regular practice of responding to “information requests arising from audits, compliance reviews and investigations.” Mr. Robinson said the university had also made sure to comply with “applicable privacy laws.” > “U.C. will continue to meet its legal obligations,” he added, “while exploring all legal avenues to safeguard the privacy and trust of our community members.” > But the litigation from the workers’ groups nevertheless underscored the measured approach that U.C. has adopted so far. Some inside the university are wary of taking steps that could further rile the Trump administration, which has repeatedly cut federal funding to universities to try to bring them to heel. > Like other major American universities, U.C. relies on vast sums of federal funding to operate. More than $7 billion goes to research and federal student aid, Mr. Milliken noted this week, while roughly $10 billion more flows from the Medicare and Medicaid programs. (U.C. has six academic medical centers.) * Groups sue administration over funding freeze at University of California https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2025/09/16/groups-sue-administrati…<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2025/0…> > The complaint was filed Tuesday in federal district court by the American Association of University Professors, Democracy Forward, and numerous other labor unions and organizations that represent tens of thousands of faculty members, students and staff members across the large public university system. > The lawsuit details numerous demands, also reported Monday by the Los Angeles Times, made by the Trump administration of UCLA. They include eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion programs; ceding control over university admissions, hiring and curriculum to an outside monitor; reporting student disciplinary records; and other measures. > The Trump administration has sought to exert ideological control over higher education, the lawsuit contends, “through a scheme of targeting, bullying and unconstitutional actions aimed at institutions of higher education across the country.” (Also) https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2025/09/17/california-union…<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes…> ### Texas A&M * Texas A&M president resigns after instructor’s firing over gender teachings https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2025/09/18/texasam-president-resign-m…<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2025/09/1…> (Thanks VAC) > Welsh took over at Texas A&M two years ago after M. Katherine Banks retired as university president in the wake of a scandal involving the botched hiring of journalism professor Kathleen McElroy. That job offer provoked backlash from the Texas GOP because of McElroy’s work on diversity, equity and inclusion programs, which Texas has since banned. > “Today, President Welsh has submitted his resignation, and both the Board of Regents and I agree that this is the right moment for change,” Texas A&M Chancellor Glenn Hegar said > “It was the right decision for him to do for himself, the university, students, and faculty,” said Leonard Bright, a professor at Texas A&M’s Bush School of Government and Public Service, in a text message. “Now, we look to the university and (board of regents) to conduct an earnest search for a replacement who will fully support the values of academic freedom and protect the university from political interference in our classrooms.” (Also) https://www.insidehighered.com/news/governance/executive-leadership/2025/09…<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.insidehighered.com/news/governance/…> https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/18/us/texas-am-president-gender-ideology-co…<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/18/us/texas-am-…> > The case also raised serious questions about academic freedom at Texas A&M and prompted pushback from faculty members who argued that McCoul’s termination was unnecessary and unjust. The American Association of University Professors also released a statement arguing that the “firings set a dangerous new precedent for partisan interference in Texas higher education.” ## Coming attractions? * Charlie Kirk’s Death Is a Catastrophe for Higher Ed---Things were already bad. They’re about to get worse. https://www.chronicle.com/article/charlie-kirks-death-is-a-catastrophe-for-…<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.chronicle.com/article/charlie-kirks…> > Colleges and universities have been under pressure by Kirk and his political allies for years. Turning Point USA launched its Professor Watchlist in 2016 to intimidate professors whom the organizations claims “discriminate against conservative students, promote anti-American values, and advance leftist propaganda in the classroom.” (Full disclosure: I am on the Professor Watchlist myself, apparently on the basis of my scholarship on the conservative movement and the far right and teaching a class on fascism and antifascism.) > But TPUSA’s attacks on academic freedom have paled in comparison to the Trump administration’s assaults on higher education through funding freezes for basic scientific research, legal attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, and the targeting of dozens of universities by the Department of Justice for transparently political reasons. At the University of Virginia, my home institution, DOJ pressure was instrumental in prompting the resignation of the university’s president, Jim Ryan, at the end of June. > It is practically inevitable that there will be dire policy consequences from Kirk’s assassination, regardless of the actual ideology of his killer, because his death fits a pre-existing narrative about left-wing campus radicalism that is already the driver of federal policy. We can expect to see an intensification of the Trump administration’s political and legal battles with universities, even tighter scrutiny for faculty and staff (particularly those teaching controversial or sensitive subjects), and the continued erosion of academic freedom on campuses targeted by the administration. > There is also the very real threat of further violence. Scores of prominent MAGA influencers reacted to Kirk’s death by calling for violence against their political enemies. Chaya Raichik, who runs the infamous LibsOfTikTok X account, which before Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover was suspended multiple times for inciting death threats, declared that “THIS IS WAR.” Musk, for his part, wrote that “The Left is the party of murder.” There have already been consequences: On Thursday, at least five HBCUs in Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, and Virginia locked down their campuses due to terroristic threats. * Chris Rufo Floats Calling in ‘Troops’---The conservative activist says President Trump should consider using the military to dismantle college DEI programs. https://www.chronicle.com/podcast/college-matters-from-the-chronicle/chris-…<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.chronicle.com/podcast/college-matte…> > And for me, the frame of reference is the campaign to desegregate universities in the 1960s, the early 1960s. And your listeners may recall that in fact, the president of the United States, President Kennedy, actually sent in armed … sent in the 101st Airborne troops to forcibly desegregate universities. I think he established an important precedent and I think the president to this day still retains all remedies up to and including parachuting in the 101st Airborne if these universities continue to discriminate on the basis of race, scapegoat students on the basis of race, and segregate students on basis of race. > But the principle is still the same. Discrimination is discrimination, segregation is segregation, scapegoating is scapegoating. And the precedent is still the same. The president under Article II of the Constitution retains the power to enforce the law, to make sure that universities are adhering with the Constitution and the Civil Rights Act. And I’m not saying that the president should send in the 101st Airborne. I’m merely saying that he retains the right to do so under the Constitution and longstanding precedent. ## Tracking projects * NYTimes: What You Need to Know About Police Surveillance https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/09/15/opinion/nypd-surveillance.ht…<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/09/15/…> (Starts with:) > Wherever you go in New York City, there’s a good chance the police are tracking you. Enter the subway system, for instance, and your identity, banking information and location trickle into city databases. (and gets more scary from there.) ---- Again, some links are behind paywalls. The shortened wapo links are gift articles; the Chronicle links should be available through a CUNY library. I have online access to the WSJ articles through CUNY. These digests are now archived at https://cunytracker.github.io/CUNYTracker/<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://cunytracker.github.io/CUNYTracker/__;!!…> ---- Appendix: Data from https://www.chronicle.com/article/employees-and-students-at-these-colleges-…<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.chronicle.com/article/employees-and…> | **College affiliate**<br>`String` | **Action taken**<br>`String31` | **Details**<br>`String` | |---------------------------------------------:|-------------------------------:|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------:| | Clemson U. faculty | Terminated | Reposted on Facebook: “Karma is sometimes swift and ironic. As Kirk said, ‘play certain games, win certain prizes.’” | | Clemson U. faculty | Terminated | Wrote on X: “Racism and white supremacy age you,” in response to a comment saying Kirk looked old at 31. Reposted on X: “According to Kirk, empathy is a made-up new age term, so keep the jokes coming. it’s what he would have wanted.” | | Clemson U. staff | Terminated | Wrote on Facebook: “In a world of Charlie Kirks and Brian Thompsons, be a Tyler Robinson or a Luigi Mangione," adding that Kirk was a “cancer on our constitution that has now thankfully been ameliorated.”\n | | Austin Peay State U. faculty | Terminated | Shared on Facebook: a screenshot of a 2023 Newsweek headline in which Kirk said gun deaths were “unfortunately” worth it to preserve the Second Amendment. | | Middle Tennessee State U. faculty | Terminated | Wrote on Facebook: "Looks like ol’ Charlie spoke his fate into existence. Hate begets hate. ZERO sympathy.” | | Cumberland U. faculty | Terminated | Wrote on Facebook: "Crying about a Nazi getting shot while staying silent about the school shooting in Colorado today is peak Republican." Wrote on Facebook: "On Charlie Kirk: Thoughts & Prayers Oh AND Kharma is a beautiful bitch." | | Cumberland U. staff | Terminated | Wrote on X: "God comes to collect no matter how rich and politically powerful you are. If you live a life of SIN and bask in it, you deserve whatever judgement god deems fit. One less Pedophile supporter on this planet." | | Texas Tech U. student | Expelled | Captured on video at a Kirk vigil: "F--k y'all homie dead, he got shot in the head." | | U. of Mississippi staff | Terminated | Reposted on Instagram stories: Kirk is a "reimagined Klan member" who has "wreaked havoc on our communities," and added, "So no, I have no prayers to offer Kirk or respectable statements against violence." | | U. of Miami staff | Terminated | Reposted on Instagram stories: "What was done to Charlie Kirk has been done to countless Palestinian babies, children, girls, boys, women and men... And whenever it happened... Charlie Kirk came out to say: I love this, I want more of this. The people who did this are great and I love them and they should keep doing it forever. As Malcolm said, the chickens have come home to roost.” | | Florida Atlantic U. faculty | Suspended | Reposted on X: several posts describing Kirk's public statements as racist, anti-gay, and anti-woman. | | Guilford Technical Community College faculty | Terminated | Captured on video during an online class: “I’ll praise the shooter; he had good aim." | | U. of Tennessee at Knoxville faculty | Terminated | Commented on Facebook: "The world is better off without him in it," criticizing Kirk's wife for marrying him. | | Baylor U. student | Terminated | Commented on Instagram: "This made me giggle," under a post about Kirk's death. (Lost a teaching role but remains enrolled as a student.) | | East Tennessee State U. faculty | Suspended | Posted on Facebook: "You can't be upset if one of those deaths in [sic] yours," resharing a 2023 headline suggesting that "some gun deaths" an acceptable consequence of the Second Amendment. Commented on Facebook: "He reaped what he sowed." | | East Tennessee State U. faculty | Suspended | Unknown | | Columbus State U. faculty | Resigned | Commented on a news website: Kirk "spewed hate constantly" and "reveled in putting down younger people," and "his debates were filled with falsehoods, racism, homophobia, and white supremacist rhetoric." (Resigned from two roles but remains on the faculty.) | | Coastal Carolina U. staff | Terminated | Wrote on Facebook: "Saying 'violence is never the answer' ignores reality. Violence freed slaves. Violence stopped Hitler. Violence protects families from attackers when police can't get there in time. The truth is, violence has ended more evils than peaceful words ever have. It's not about whether violence is the answer -- it's about when it becomes the only answer." Wrote on Facebook: a post suggesting that South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace "might not be to far behind." | | Coastal Carolina U. staff | Suspended | Reposted on Instagram stories: "The controversy isn't about being 'politically incorrect,' 'having a difference of opinion,' or 'preaching the gospel,' it is about repeating bigoted ideas on a stage that reached tens of millions." | | Texas State U. student | Expelled | Captured on video at a Kirk memorial event: "Charlie Kirk got hit in the neck, b--ch," gesturing to his neck, and then imitated Kirk falling over after being shot. | | U. of South Dakota faculty | Suspended | Wrote on Facebook: "I don't give a flying f--k about this Kirk person. Apparently he was a hate-spreading Nazi. ... I'm sorry for his family ... But geez, where was all this concern when the politicians in Minnesota were shot? And the school shootings? And Capital Police?" | | Enterprise State Community College faculty | Terminated | Posted on TikTok: criticism of the attention Kirk's death received, saying, "Let us not forget some other children were shot in another f--king shooting today," in reference to a September 10 incident at a Colorado high school. Posted on TikTok: "Am I trying to indoctrinate my students in my liberal, progressive values? Sure the f--k am." | | U. of Arkansas at Little Rock faculty | Suspended | Wrote on Facebook: "I will not pull back from CELEBRATING that an evil man died by the method he chose to embrace. Don't tell people who have been targeted by someone like him how to feel, how not to post, how not to celebrate that he can no longer inflict his brand of evil." | | U. of California at Los Angeles staff | Suspended | Commented on Bluesky: "You can’t force people to mourn someone who hated us — no matter how he died." Commented on Bluesky: "It is OKAY to be happy when someone who hated you and called for your people’s death dies — even if they are murdered.” | | Fresno State U. faculty | Suspended | Captured on video during a class, before Kirk passed away: “You want to know what I think? It’s too bad he’s not dead ... Gonna put my political views right out there. And that’s exactly what I thought. He’s just shot? I was like, he’s not dead. I don’t even know who he is. Just the description of him – it’s like – don’t care.” | | College of the Sequoias faculty | Suspended | Captured on video during a class: "I hope everyone in his family dies, and their children, and their grandchildren, and their grandchildren, and their grandchildren, to eternity." | | Southern U. Law Center faculty | Suspended | Commented on Facebook: "I will 1000% wish death on people like him. He is the epitome of evil, and I have no compassion not even a minute ounce of it for people like him who go around spewing hate the way he does.” | | U. of Kentucky staff | Suspended | Commented on Facebook (citing a quote): "I have never wished a man dead, but I have read some obituaries with great satisfaction. Clarence Darrow." | | U. of Louisville staff | Investigated | Posted on Facebook: A 2023 quote from Kirk about gun violence deaths being “worth it” to protect Second Amendment rights, and wrote alongside, "Presented without comment." | | Mississippi College faculty | Suspended | Posted on Facebook: that Kirk’s killing is like a “Greek tragedy, full of irony and self-fulfilling prophecies," and that Kirk "lived his life advocating for gun rights without concern for gun deaths,” and “died from gun violence." | | Florida Atlantic U. faculty | Suspended | Wrote on X (seeming to address the person who shot Kirk): “You think you are anonymous, you COWARD. You spread your hate speech. We are going to hunt you down. We are going to identify you. Then we are going to make you radioactive to polite society. And we will make you both unemployed and unemployable." | | Montana State University-Northern faculty | Suspended | Wrote on Facebook: "He was a mysogynistic, homophobic, xenophobic asshole. He spread hate. He harmed society. He cut down women at every turn. No, I do not mourn the man" and "Holy shit! Someone shot Charlie Kirk in the neck! Not condoning violence, but maybe people are sick of the garbage he spews, perhaps?" | | Gannon University staff | Terminated | Employee of the university was fired for "deeply troubling social media posts and other inappropriate reactions about the killing of Charlie Kirk" | | Auburn University staff | Terminated | An unnamed number of employees engaged in posting “hurtful” content on social media. The employees in question were terminated for violating "the school’s Code of Conduct," President Christopher Roberts wrote. | | North Idaho College faculty | Suspended | Instructor was placed on leave following "insensitive remarks about the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk" | | Iowa State University staff | Investigated (only) | The Board of Regents gave a two-week deadline for the investigation of a post she wrote on Facebook: “Given Charlie’s previous comments about their ‘necessity’ to protect 2nd amendment rights though, this (expletive) got what was coming and I’m happy he’s rotting in hell now." | | Iowa State University faculty | Investigated (only) | The Board of Regents gave a two-week deadline for the investigation of a post he wrote on Facebook: “Yeah sorry pretty sure we’re all OK with political violence. Every. One. Of. Us.” | | Ball State University staff | Terminated | Posted on Facebook: "If you think Charlie Kirk was a wonderful person, we can't be friends." Described his his death "a tragedy" for his family, but also "a reflection of the violence, fear, and hatred he sowed." | | Ball State University faculty | Investigated (only) | Commented on a social media post: "Feels like karma paid a visit" and “I mean he condoned killing immigrants and trans people. He was quoted as saying mass shootings are the process you pay for the second amendment and it was worth it. Don’t go clutching your pearls… what the hell do you people expect?” | | Emory University faculty | Terminated | A non-clinical faculty member at the medical school made a social media post generating "concern" across the community. The content of the post was not made public by the university. | *********************************************

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Gslisadjuncts Verification of Enrollment
by Emily Drabinski 16 Sep '25

16 Sep '25

Hi all, The deadline for verification of enrollment rosters has passed. If you haven’t already done so, please take a moment now to verify whether enrolled students are participating in your classes. You can do this by navigating to the Faculty Center in CUNYFirst. Select “VOE Roster” and indicate whether students are participating in your class. Thank you, Emily -- Emily Drabinski Associate Professor and Chair Graduate School of Library and Information Studies Queens College, City University of New York 65-30 Kissena Boulevard Queens, NY 11367-1597 718-997-3629 Book time with Emily Drabinski <https://outlook.office.com/bookwithme/user/649fc09718224602acdaac0cd5a0e57c…>

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Gslisadjuncts Faculty Forum on AI this semester
by Emily Drabinski 16 Sep '25

16 Sep '25

Hi all, Please see this post for information about two seminars to be held this semester in Rosenthal Library. Robin Naughton, Deputy Chief Librarian, is organizing and hosting these conversations. Hope to see some of you there! https://www.qc.cuny.edu/library/2025/09/15/fall-2025-forum-on-faculty-ai-us… berst, Emily -- Emily Drabinski Associate Professor and Chair Graduate School of Library and Information Studies Queens College, City University of New York 65-30 Kissena Boulevard Queens, NY 11367-1597 718-997-3629 Book time with Emily Drabinski <https://outlook.office.com/bookwithme/user/649fc09718224602acdaac0cd5a0e57c…>

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Gslisadjuncts FW: Student Town Hall: October 17th, 7pm
by Emily Drabinski 09 Sep '25

09 Sep '25

Hi all, I have scheduled our fall semester Student Town Hall for Friday, October 17th at 7pm. Please share this invitation with students in your classes. And of course you’re welcome to join us! Best, Emily -- Emily Drabinski Associate Professor and Chair Graduate School of Library and Information Studies Queens College, City University of New York 65-30 Kissena Boulevard Queens, NY 11367-1597 718-997-3629 Book time with Emily Drabinski <https://outlook.office.com/bookwithme/user/649fc09718224602acdaac0cd5a0e57c…> From: Emily Drabinski <Emily.Drabinski(a)qc.cuny.edu> Date: Tuesday, September 9, 2025 at 4:10 PM To: GLISANN <glisann(a)lists.qc.cuny.edu> Subject: Student Town Hall: October 17th, 7pm Dear community, We will hold our fall semester Student Town Hall on October 17th at 7pm. All students are encouraged to join us to hear news from the school and to get updates on Spring 2026 registrations. Bring your questions and concerns—we want to hear from you! Advance registration is requested: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/2HYlCY0aSWatfk6iCxEw9w After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. As always, please let me know if you have any questions or concerns, and I look forward to our mid-semester time together. Best, Emily -- Emily Drabinski Associate Professor and Chair Graduate School of Library and Information Studies Queens College, City University of New York 65-30 Kissena Boulevard Queens, NY 11367-1597 718-997-3629 Book time with Emily Drabinski <https://outlook.office.com/bookwithme/user/649fc09718224602acdaac0cd5a0e57c…>

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Gslisadjuncts FW: QC Writing Center is here to support you!
by Emily Drabinski 08 Sep '25

08 Sep '25

Hi all, See below for support for students and faculty from the Queens College Writing Center. Best, From: Andrea Efthymiou <Andrea.Efthymiou(a)qc.cuny.edu> Date: Monday, September 8, 2025 at 9:00 AM Subject: QC Writing Center is here to support you! The Queens College Writing Center is available to support you in the following ways: 👉 Writing Center Director Andrea Efthymiou can visit one of your department meetings to introduce the Center and speak to faculty about the support we offer students. Please respond directly to this email to request a department meeting visit. 👉 Faculty can request that a tutor visit their class for a brief information session and show students how to make a writing center appointment. Please share this class visit request form<https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=s_BgbwZfCU6XFZiduozH2Le…> with your faculty. 👉 Students can reach the QC Writing Center anytime by making an appointment via our website<https://www.qc.cuny.edu/academics/wc/> or visiting us in person at Kiely 229 during the following hours: Tutoring hours: * Monday & Tuesday 10am-7pm (In-person and online tutoring) * Wednesday & Thursday 10am-5pm (In-person and online tutoring) * Friday 10am-3pm (In-person and online tutoring) * Sunday 10am-3pm (Online tutoring only) Study Hall hours: * Wednesday 5pm-8pm Are your students looking for a tutor with a shared language? Ask us about multilingual tutoring options. Learn more at qc.cuny.edu/academics/wc <https://www.qc.cuny.edu/academics/wc/> or contact us at qc.writing.center(a)qc.cuny.edu<mailto:qc.writing.center@qc.cuny.edu>. Warm regards, Andrea -- Andrea Rosso Efthymiou, Ph.D. (she/her)<https://qcenglish.commons.gc.cuny.edu/people/andrea-efthymiou/> Associate Professor | English Writing Center Director | Queens College, CUNY Co-Editor | WLN: A Journal of Writing Center Scholarship<https://wac.colostate.edu/wln/> Treasurer | National Conference on Peer Tutoring in Writing<https://www.thencptw.org/> 718-997-5687 [A white background with black text and a white oval with a red feather and a letter in the middle Description automatically generated]

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Gslisadjuncts FW: CUNY Alliance to Defend Higher Education (CADHE)
by Emily Drabinski 04 Sep '25

04 Sep '25

See below for information about CUNY Alliance to Defend Higher Education, a new organizing infrastructure intended to address current political and economic conditions in our sector. -- Emily Drabinski Associate Professor and Chair Graduate School of Library and Information Studies Queens College, City University of New York 65-30 Kissena Boulevard Queens, NY 11367-1597 718-997-3629 Book time with Emily Drabinski <https://outlook.office.com/bookwithme/user/649fc09718224602acdaac0cd5a0e57c…> From: UFS and FGL discussion list <UFS-FGL(a)LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU> Date: Thursday, September 4, 2025 at 8:02 AM To: UFS-FGL(a)LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU <UFS-FGL(a)LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU> Dear Colleagues, We write to introduce you to the CUNY Alliance to Defend Higher Education<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://cadhe.commons.gc.cuny.edu/__;!!PxiZbSOa…> [CADHE], a newly formed group of faculty and staff organizing responses to attacks by the federal government on the curriculum and policies at our university and higher education more broadly. Our first initiative is to lobby the central administration at CUNY to adopt a mutual academic defense compact. You might have heard about the mutual academic defense compacts (or MADCs) being established by other university systems<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.standtogetherhighered.org/mutual-ac…>, most notably by the Big 10 universities. Nearly every CUNY campus senate and the University Faculty Senate passed MADCs last academic year<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www1.cuny.edu/sites/cunyufs/committees/…>, and we are working to persuade the Chancellor and Board of Trustees to adopt a university-wide compact. If you would like to learn more about who we are and our perspective please visit our website<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://cadhe.commons.gc.cuny.edu/__;!!PxiZbSOa…> and consider signing up for our mailing list and getting involved<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://cadhe.commons.gc.cuny.edu/get-involved-…>. In solidarity, CADHE Organizing Committee Cristina Bruns, LaGuardia Community College Sarah E. Chinn, Hunter College Jonathan Cornick, Queensborough Community College Beth Evans, Brooklyn College Paul Fess, LaGuardia Community College Jean Halley, College of Staten Island Ernest Ialongo, Hostos Community College Karen Kaplowitz, John Jay College of Criminal Justice Joel Kuszai, Queensborough Community College Douglas A. Medina, Guttman Community College Hillary Miller, Queens College Mojúbàolú Olúfunké Okome, Brooklyn College Philip A. Pecorino, Queensborough Community College Larissa Swedell, Queens College Emily Sohmer Tai, Queensborough Community College Karen Weingarten, Queens College Michael W. Yarbrough, John Jay College of Criminal Justice "Ma la vita a New York è estremamente dispendiosa ed ardua. Occorrono nervi d'acciaio, dosi di pazienza all'infinito e MOLTI DOLLARI." Fortunato Depero in New York to F.T. Marinetti, 31 October 1929. *********************************************

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Gslisadjuncts FW: Participation Invitation– Collections Literature Research
by Emily Drabinski 04 Sep '25

04 Sep '25

See below for information about participating in a research study about teaching collection management in LIS programs. Best, -- Emily Drabinski Associate Professor and Chair Graduate School of Library and Information Studies Queens College, City University of New York 65-30 Kissena Boulevard Queens, NY 11367-1597 718-997-3629 Book time with Emily Drabinski <https://outlook.office.com/bookwithme/user/649fc09718224602acdaac0cd5a0e57c…> From: Brooks, Kat <kbrooks(a)utk.edu> Sent: Thursday, September 4, 2025 8:36 AM To: Brooks, Kat <kbrooks(a)utk.edu> Subject: Participation Invitation– Collections Literature Research * This email originates from a sender outside of CUNY. Verify the sender before replying or clicking on links and attachments. * Hello, I am inviting instructors from ALA accredited information/library science programs to participate in a research study examining literature used in collections focused courses (collection development, etc.) Participants will be asked to fill out a short survey of 6 questions, including a request to share titles or citation information of literature used in their courses. The survey is estimated to take no more than 15 minutes and no personally identifiable information will be collected. Responses will be analyzed to identify trends and themes in the literature supporting the collections element of library instruction. The survey and further consent information can be found via Qualtrics<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/utk.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_0PVtVz…>. Please contact the PI Kat Brooks at kbrooks(a)utk.edu<mailto:kbrooks@utk.edu> or the University of Tennessee, Knoxville IRB office at utkirb(a)utk.edu<mailto:utkirb@utk.edu> with any questions or concerns. Best, Kat Kat Brooks (she/her/hers) Collections Strategist The University of Tennessee, Knoxville 307 John C. Hodges Library 1015 Volunteer Blvd Knoxville, TN 37996 kbrooks(a)utk.edu<mailto:kbrooks@utk.edu> | (865) 974-4936 [cid:8f482def-e6f0-4d4d-ab91-24b3a76f99e0]<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/outlook.office.com/bookwithme/user/a74cd…> Book time to meet with me<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/outlook.office.com/bookwithme/user/a74cd…>

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Gslisadjuncts CUNY Immigration Assistance Program
by Emily Drabinski 03 Sep '25

03 Sep '25

Hi all, Please see the attached flyer for information about services available to students, staff, and faculty from the CUNY Immigration Assistance Program. CIAP is holding a webinar on September 9th to share more information and answer questions. Here is a link to register. Please note that this event is only open to the CUNY community. A CUNY email address is required. https://ybephbsyus.formstack.com/forms/cuny_immigration_assistance_program_… Best, Emily -- Emily Drabinski Associate Professor and Chair Graduate School of Library and Information Studies Queens College, City University of New York 65-30 Kissena Boulevard Queens, NY 11367-1597 718-997-3629 Book time with Emily Drabinski <https://outlook.office.com/bookwithme/user/649fc09718224602acdaac0cd5a0e57c…>

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Gslisadjuncts FW: Brightspace 2.0 Training in Advanced Features
by Emily Drabinski 02 Sep '25

02 Sep '25

Hi all, Sharing information about training in Brightspace that is available to all faculty. Best, Emily -- Emily Drabinski Associate Professor and Chair Graduate School of Library and Information Studies Queens College, City University of New York 65-30 Kissena Boulevard Queens, NY 11367-1597 718-997-3629 Book time with Emily Drabinski <https://outlook.office.com/bookwithme/user/649fc09718224602acdaac0cd5a0e57c…> From: Center for Excellence in Teaching, Learning, and Leadership/Queens College <qcmailer(a)qc.cuny.edu> Date: Tuesday, September 2, 2025 at 10:16 AM To: Emily Drabinski <emily.drabinski33(a)qc.cuny.edu> Subject: Brightspace 2.0 Training in Advanced Features [Image removed by sender.] [Image removed by sender.] From the Center for Excellence in Teaching, Learning, and Leadership (CETLL): This fall, CETLL is offering a series of workshops covering advanced features in Brightspace. Sessions on each topic will be offered twice, in order to accommodate faculty schedules. The first session will take place in person on campus; the second session will be online via Zoom. The first two topics will present an overview for faculty who are new to Brightspace or need a refresher. The remainder of the topics will focus on advanced features of Brightspace. Each session will begin with a demonstration followed by a hands-on period in which you can apply what you learned to your Brightspace course. The schedule and registration links are below. For detailed information, please visit Brightspace 2.0 Training<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/hb4e4idab.cc.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001jm2HmRy…>. Download the flyer<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/hb4e4idab.cc.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001jm2HmRy…>. Schedule of Training Sessions: Brightspace Overview Monday, September 8, 10:30 am-12 noon (in person) Registration: https://forms.office.com/r/KXrAjftNKX<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/hb4e4idab.cc.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001jm2HmRy…> Thursday, September 11, 1-2:30 pm (online) Registration: https://forms.office.com/r/mES4T93n5p<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/hb4e4idab.cc.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001jm2HmRy…> ABCs of Content Monday, October 6, 10:30 am-12 noon (in person) Registration: https://forms.office.com/r/pGXBRkNr6Q<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/hb4e4idab.cc.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001jm2HmRy…> Thursday, October 9, 10:30 am-12 noon (online) Registration: https://forms.office.com/r/ayNL34Luhp<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/hb4e4idab.cc.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001jm2HmRy…> Assessment Thursday, October 16, 10:30 am-12 noon (in person) Registration: https://forms.office.com/r/7L5hPA0piB<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/hb4e4idab.cc.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001jm2HmRy…> Thursday, October 23, 10:30 am-12 noon (online) Registration: https://forms.office.com/r/iWrCtQZetu<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/hb4e4idab.cc.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001jm2HmRy…> Gradebook Monday, October 27, 10:30 am-12 noon (in person) Registration: https://forms.office.com/r/J4ihJwJG3g<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/hb4e4idab.cc.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001jm2HmRy…> Thursday, November 13 (online) Registration: https://forms.office.com/r/zTrkf8RgWe<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/hb4e4idab.cc.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001jm2HmRy…> Additional dates and topics to be announced. [Image removed by sender.] This mail was sent by an automated process. Do not reply to this mail, which cannot accept replies. At the bottom of this email, you will see Constant Contact language that offers the option of using "SafeUnsubscribe" to remove yourself from the email list. We strongly advise you not to unsubscribe because QCmailers may contain critical, timely information you need, such as CUNYfirst attendance and grading information for faculty; Human Resources announcements for faculty and staff; and announcements from the Registrar or Bursar for students. This information may not be communicated in any other way but through QCmailers. Queens College, CUNY | 65-30 Kissena Blvd | Queens, NY 11367 US Unsubscribe<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/visitor.constantcontact.com/do?p=un&m=00…> | Update Profile<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/visitor.constantcontact.com/do?p=oo&m=00…> | Constant Contact Data Notice<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.constantcontact.com/legal/customer-c…> [Image removed by sender. Constant Contact]<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.constantcontact.com/landing1/vr/home…>

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