"• The Trump Administration targeted private universities — canceling $400 million in grants and contracts to Columbia University; pausing $175 million for the University of Pennsylvania; and Johns Hopkins cut research after losing $800 million in USAID grants
• Trump began dismantling Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and Radio Free Asia"
#Musk #Trump #Republicans #DOGE #fascism #destruction #chaos #universities #research #grants #USAID #VoiceofAmerica
/14
Dutch researchers get questionnaires from the US government about political views – if you are a European scientist who has received such a letter, please DM me.
https://www.staff.universiteitleiden.nl/announcements/2025/03/researchers-advised-not-to-respond-to-us-questionnaire #Trump #sciencepolicy #universities #university #research
The Office for Students is warning, among missed international student recruitment targets & increased costs, there is a growing likelihood one or more universities may go bankrupt.
Now, this warning has been made regularly over the last decade & while there is a crisis across the sector, no University has actually gone to the wall... yet
But, at some point given the stresses & strains it seems likely one or more will... and then the OfS will be picking up the pieces!
#universities
h/t FT
More of this please. Much more. Christopher Eisgruber, President of #Princeton speaks up: "The attack on #Columbia is a radical threat to scholarly excellence and to America’s leadership in research. #Universities and their leaders should speak up and litigate forcefully to protect their rights."
More of this please. Much more. Christopher Eisgruber, President of #Princeton speaks up: "The attack on #Columbia is a radical threat to scholarly excellence and to America’s leadership in research. #Universities and their leaders should speak up and litigate forcefully to protect their rights."
The #US is home to the best collection of #research #universities in the world. Those universities have contributed tremendously to America’s prosperity, health, & security. They are magnets for outstanding talent from throughout the country & around the world.
The #Trump admin’s recent attack on #ColumbiaUniversity puts all of that at risk, presenting the greatest threat to American universities since the Red Scare of the 1950s.
By Christopher L. Eisgruber
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/03/columbia-academic-freedom/682088/?gift=guxsrl_dAdXUP9zqbQPWxd-dIYlBRWpmLVXNH5Dyk7w&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share
“Reductions to federal support for research at universities and other institutions under President Donald Trump are dimming young scientists’ prospects, cutting off pathways to career-building projects and graduate programs.
Universities are cutting back offers of admission for graduate students due to the uncertainty.”
"Not only is silence in the face of mounting authoritarianism morally objectionable, but, as the Columbia case suggests, it’s not working. Columbia’s leadership made repeated concessions to right-wing critics, only to be the first to come under attack.
Remaining silent will not protect us — but it does come with at least two major costs."
https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2025/3/14/enos-levitsky-harvard-columbia-trump/
It comes from a loose coalition of #archivists & #librarians, who are standing athwart #history & yelling “Save!” They belong to organizations such as the #InternetArchive, which co-created a project called the End of Term Web Archive to back up the federal web in 2008; the Environmental Data & Governance Initiative, or #edgi; & #libraries at major #universities such as #MIT & the University of #Michigan.
An essential read about the fascistic evisceration of #universities: "What is really happening here is an attack on the American faith in knowledge as a value and a public good that has served us well." -- Professor Meghan O'Rourke
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/16/opinion/university-defunding-trump-rufo.html
An essential read about the fascistic undoing of #universities: "What is really happening here is an attack on the American faith in knowledge as a value and a public good that has served us well." -- Professor Meghan O'Rourke
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/16/opinion/university-defunding-trump-rufo.html
Update. Good advice from #MichaelIgnatieff, past President of the Central European University in Budapest and Vienna (2016-2021): "How a University Fights an Authoritarian Regime. Viktor #Orbán came for me. Donald #Trump is coming for you. Here’s what to do."
https://www.chronicle.com/article/how-a-university-fights-an-authoritarian-regime
(#paywalled)
"You’re going to need an alliance that pulls together American families, employers, unions, companies, the whole network of people and institutions beyond your campus who understand that the universities of America are critical to everything that is good about the country: its commitment to freedom, its devotion to excellence, its leadership in science and medicine. This alliance is going to have to get political — to reach across red state and blue state, identify the members of Congress from both sides of the House who understand why universities matter to their communities, to the American economy, and to America’s deserved reputation for excellence. Don’t mince words. It’s too late to play nice. Call a spade a spade. Convince enough Americans that the administration’s strategy deserves only one name: vandalism."
#Academia #DefendResearch #Universities #USPol #USPolitics
@academicchatter
The US is in such deep, deep shit.
"So far, America’s leading universities have remained virtually silent in the face of this authoritarian assault on institutions of higher education.
"Autocrats — both left-wing and right-wing — always attack universities."
#Trump #Education #Censorship #University #Universities #USPol
https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2025/3/14/enos-levitsky-harvard-columbia-trump/
>50 #universities are being investigated for alleged *racial* #discrimination as part of #Trump’s campaign to end #diversity, #equity & #inclusion programs that his ofcls say *exclude* white & Asian American students.
The #Education Dept announced the investigations Fri, 1 month after issuing a memo warning #schools & #colleges that they could lose federal money over “race-based preferences” in admissions, scholarships or any aspect of student life.
#law #idiocracy
https://apnews.com/article/trump-dei-universities-investigated-f89dc9ec2a98897577ed0a6c446fae7b
@petergleick I often don't understand how this can still surprise anyone: It's the blueprint of every fascist system. We can learn from history that one of the first steps is to eradicate unwelcome #education and critical thinking. After all, how else can people be collectively stupidised by propaganda? @academicchatter
"Helyeh Doutaghi, a scholar in international law, began a new job in 2023 as the deputy director of a project at Yale Law School.
As an activist who had championed pro-Palestinian causes in both published papers and public appearances, Dr. Doutaghi seemed to fit into the left-leaning mission of the Law and Political Economy Project, which promoted itself as working for “economic, racial and gender equality.”
Last week, though, she was abruptly barred from Yale’s campus in New Haven, Conn., and placed on administrative leave. She was told not to advertise her affiliation with the university, where she had also served as an associate research scholar.
Yale officials cited the reason as allegations that she was tied to entities subject to U.S. sanctions. It was an apparent reference to Samidoun, a pro-Palestinian group placed on the U.S. sanctions list last year, after the Treasury Department designated it a “sham charity” raising money for a terrorist organization, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
The decision came three days after a news site, powered at least in part by artificial intelligence, published a story about Dr. Doutaghi’s connections to the group."
Update. "How college presidents are quietly resisting federal attacks on higher education"
https://www.highereddive.com/news/college-presidents-resisting-federal-attacks-higher-education/742074/
"The relative lack of public statements is not a sign of cowardice as some have suggested. It’s that many college presidents have rightly concluded that quiet resistance rather than public protest is a more effective strategy. "
PS: Is quiet resistance working? If so, more power to it. It has to be better than quiet blenching. But does it work better than unquiet resistance? And how would we know?
#Academia #Universities #Trump #USPol #USPolitics
@academicchatter
Update. From @chrischirp: "Censor, purge, defund: how Trump is following the authoritarian playbook on science and universities"
https://christinapagel.substack.com/p/censor-purge-defund-how-trump-following
"Making a list of the actions taken since January 2025 reveals distinct patterns. Just as the administration’s actions as a whole are following an authoritarian playbook, so are the specific ways they are attacking science. I’ve displayed 35 distinct actions in the Venn Diagram below (table of actions with links), grouped into three main categories:
[1] Control of science to align with state ideology; [2] Undermining the independence of universities / suppressing dissent; [3] Maintaining geopolitical / economic goals."
Part-time lecturers at private universities in Japan are fed up with low wages and top-down decision making — but the fear of dismissal is stopping many from raising their voices. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2025/03/10/japan/japan-private-university-lecturers/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=mastodon #japan #fukuoka #universities #education #mext #wages #jobs
“The #Trump administration, at the same time that they’re saying that they’re trying to create a great country, are destroying the sector that’s one of the most critical in having a great, profitable and healthy democratic country.” https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/08/trump-universities-higher-education-cuts #universities #education #science
in