What is a university to do when they've committed to going "all in on AI" before they had any idea what they were getting themselves into ... or whether their students even wanted it. Some thoughts on the growing disconnect between business and university leaders and their employees and students.

All-In

The greatest trick the AI overlords ever pulled was convincing the world that AI replacing human labor and creativity was inevitable.

campus-novel.ghost.io

It has become a truism that universities “must re-earn the public trust.” What distrust as exists today is the result of 1) expense 2) an unstable future 3) a national policy of for-profit medicine & extraction energy & 4) a concerted program of propaganda designed to erode public trust in higher ed

New post on @campus-novel.bsky.social where I continue to try and think my way through the hype, promise, and existential threat posed by AI, in higher education and beyond. campus-novel.ghost.io/towards-a-hu...

Towards a Human-Powered AI

Part 2. AI, Take the Wheel This is part of a series of meditations on the crisis and opportunities presented by AI in higher education and beyond. I use AI. I am fascinated by it. I also believe that...

campus-novel.ghost.io

Starting a series of ambivalent posts designed to help me and other Humanities and related academic types develop a healthy working relationship with AI

Towards a Human-Powered AI

Part 1. The Cardsharp in the Room The very nature of thinking is "but." Things are complicated. It’s “and,” “but,” “either” — it’s all those things. – Susan Sontag, 1979 Heading into this new acad...

campus-novel.ghost.io

I agree with Keith of course. But clearly they are NOT allowed to say them, judging from the rash of firings and suspensions without due process, including at public institutions where faculty free speech rights are protected from state impingement

Chronicle of Higher Education@chronicle.com · 12mo ago

Opinion | The academic-freedom expert Keith Whittington weighs in on the rash of recent firings.

The rampant violations of academic freedom and intrusions on extramural speech are escalating rapidly. Faculty members have the right to speak or write as citizens, free from institutional censorship or discipline. Expression of opinion as a citizen does not constitute grounds for dismissal.

Clemson fires two more faculty members over Charlie Kirk comments

Clemson leaders had come under increased pressure from people online as well as South Carolina Republican politicians to take action.

wcnc.com

Faculty and university senates are dying. At Campus Novel I try and make the case for why everyone—and not just faculty — should be freaking out

A Crossroads for Shared Governance

I used to like to point out that all top public universities have faculty or university senates. As of September 1, I can no longer make that claim. Over the summer, Texas passed SB 37, which dramati...

campus-novel.ghost.io

My grim latest

The Culling and the End of Empathy

I lost a week to work travel and so did not post my weekly bulletin updating the ongoing assaults on higher education. It is almost impossible to keep up even without a lost week, but I want to captur...

campus-novel.ghost.io

Time to recommit to academic freedom and the responsibilities and privileges that come with it. Which means it is time to remind ourselves what those are. Here is a contribution towards that shared endeavor.

To Teach and Research without Fear, Part 1: Academic Freedom

Since well before the current crisis, I have been concerned by how little understanding there is among many faculty regarding academic freedom, first amendment rights (free speech), their limits, and ...

campus-novel.ghost.io

When people wonder what is motivating the destruction of of liberal democracy and its core institutions, this is it. They have seen the data and they are planning for their ongoing power in the world to follow

Climate crisis on track to destroy capitalism, warns top insurer

Action urgently needed to save the conditions under which markets – and civilisation itself – can operate, says senior Allianz figure

theguardian.com

Our students are being targeted without explanation, without any wrongdoing, without due process

5 Ohio State University international students have visas revoked by Trump administration

Ohio State University is the latest college to report having international students whose visas were revoked by the Trump administration.

dispatch.com

Jared Gardner@guttergeek.bsky.social · last yr.

I wrote this last sunday and it feels like a year ago already

Pro-Death Administration

The federal government is reviewing up to $9 billion in federal funding for Harvard and its affiliates, representing the third Ivy League institution to face this threat in the last few weeks (Columbia largely acceded, while Penn is TBA).

ED, HHS, and GSA Initiate Federal Contract and Grant Review of Harvard University

ED, HHS, and GSA Initiate Federal Contract and Grant Review of Harvard University

ed.gov

Why is Trump going after US science? What's the endgame for these attacks? Vance, Rufo, Trump and Republican elites are attacking NIH and manipulating its grants in order to attack American universities. "It's bad, folks." New contributed post at our blog. Please share it w/ your 🧪 colleagues.

Trump is attacking NIH because politicizing funding can force universities to become conservative thinktanks

It's bad, folks. The real war is on free thought in the United States.

altnih4science.substack.com

This week's war news dedicated to our kidnapped students

Weekly War Bulletin: March 30

Yesterday morning the news broke that hundreds of international students had received self-deport emails. This follows the flippant announcement by Secretary of State Marco Rubio that roughly 300 inte...

campus-novel.ghost.io

I am logging the weeks assaults on higher ed as best I can every Sunday. I can’t believe I posted this one only four days ago, given how much has happened since

Weekly War Bulletin March 23, 2025

Every Sunday I will summarize the news from the previous week’s assaults on education. There is a lot, and much of it is frankly hard to face. But I find I need to write it down to keep a running reco...

campus-novel.ghost.io

We have hit a devastating new low here in legislation targeting public higher education. If this becomes a model for other red state legislatures we are facing the end of the arts and humanities

Chronicle of Higher Education@chronicle.com · last yr.

Republican lawmakers cut millions in funding from Utah's public universities. To get it back, universities must overhaul their academic programs. Universities face cutting majors, laying off employees, and potentially eliminating entire colleges. chroni.cl/4hLmK1t

The University of Michigan, long a leader in campus diversity efforts, is closing its DEI offices, laying off staff, and jettisoning a sweeping strategic plan. The president says Trump’s funding threats have added urgency to changes regents were already considering. chroni.cl/424euUz

After Backlash and Trump Edicts, U. of Michigan Shutters DEI Office

The flagship has struggled mightily to recruit and retain students of color, but the scope of Thursday’s cuts still came as a shock to many.

chroni.cl

Today, your colleague is not your rival. Your chair, dean, provost, and president are not your enemy. The enemy is those trying to destroy all we do in higher education. We will disagree on how to meet this moment, but we are in it together or we are not here at all four years from now.

As a Jewish faculty member, one of the most chilling aspects of this moment is the blatantly dishonest "fight against antisemitism" by the same people who still talk openly about "globalists" controlling the markets & media... and seeing how many Jewish colleagues refuse to see it for what it is.

I'm sorry to have missed reporting earlier on this bill that flew through the Utah legislature in 10 days and is now already law. It's a new "civics" center at Utah State with a huge twist: the center will control all general education courses

New Law Gives Civic Center Control of Utah State’s Gen Ed

Utah’s governor signed into law a bill that creates a Center for Civic Excellence at Utah State University and requires that all general education courses be taught by faculty appointed to that center...

insidehighered.com

For nearly 160 years, the National Center for Education Statistics has collected and reported data about educational progress. The center was essentially decommissioned overnight when all but three of its staff members were fired. Here's a look inside the chaos. chroni.cl/4j3CoGG

‘Breathtakingly Irresponsible’: Former Workers Decry Decimation of Education Dept.’s Data Warehouse

Fired NCES and IES employees describe a mad dash to save data that has informed higher-education policy and practice since the days of Abraham Lincoln.

chroni.cl

Notes towards a history of academic freedom, part 1 . Maybe by part 12 I'll have it pinned down 😵‍💫

Notes towards a history of academic freedom (part 1)

The concept of academic freedom in the U.S. famously finds its origins in Germany in the 19th century, and the concept of Lehrfreiheit (freedom to teach) and Lernfreiheit (freedom to learn). Both of t...

campus-novel.ghost.io