Which is not to say the meeting itself hasn't been great. @maxkozlov.bsky.social did a stellar job organizing our panel on reporters' and PIOs' jobs when academics are more reluctant to talk on the record, with Alex Bates of the Ohio State U., @lquinnphd.bsky.social and @hayleysmith.bsky.social

Francie Diep@franciediep.bsky.social · 2w ago

At @oregonstate.edu for #SciWri26, but as a higher-ed reporter, here's the real highlight: A corner in the alumni center with president's reports, course catalogs, and yearbooks dating back to 1899!!

At @oregonstate.edu for #SciWri26, but as a higher-ed reporter, here's the real highlight: A corner in the alumni center with president's reports, course catalogs, and yearbooks dating back to 1899!!

OK but also there's some very important cat news!! www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/arti... Isn't it neat how wild cats often move so much like housecats do? See the video at the top of the story page. via @jetjocko.bsky.social

Meet the First New Cat Species Discovered in 100 Years

A small, spotted tiger cat from Bolivia may just be the beginning of a wave of new small cat species.

nationalgeographic.com

Maybe you've seen some of the big public moves the government has made lately, cracking down on colleges' foreign ties. Meanwhile, I learned, it hasn't been briefing colleges on threats the way it used to, even during the first Trump administration: www.chronicle.com/article/are-...

Are Foreign Ties Just the Latest Excuse to Punish Colleges?

Association leaders say the second Trump administration has been slow to update them on threats posed by overseas collaborations, but it’s unclear whether that’s been deliberate — or just one effect o...

chronicle.com

The rumors are true. @shenandoahkate.bsky.social and I are starting a newsletter! This is for decision makers -- department chair, associate director, or college president, etc. -- and we'll be break down how they manage the tough calls on campus. Sign up here: www.chronicle.com/newsletter/d...

Decision Points

Decision Points is a knowledge community for the next generation of higher-ed leaders. Delivered every Tuesday.

chronicle.com

Speaking of records requests, don't miss my colleague @shenandoahkate.bsky.social's look inside how the original recipients of Compact 1.0 discussed the letter: www.chronicle.com/article/afte...

Asked to Sign Trump’s Compact, Universities Coordinated Behind the Scenes

Hundreds of pages of public records from the University of Virginia offer a glimpse of how institutional leaders talked with one another after the October government missive.

chronicle.com

This is a very good, very interesting account of the social media/records request battle between the founder of the Classic Learning Test and the College Board. Congrats to @fairtest.bsky.social and @ryanequinn.bsky.social on an enviable kicker: www.insidehighered.com/news/admissi...

CLT Founder Escalates Social Media War on College Board

The Classic Learning Test’s CEO accused the SAT provider of being behind a Texas open records request, but didn’t provide proof. He’s objecting to releasing information and threatened retaliation.

insidehighered.com

I reported from a rally at Yale yesterday, urging the university to stop negotiating with Trump (www.chronicle.com/article/yale...). As it was designed to, the event provoked an interesting response from Yale, following protest rules newly enforced after the 2024 pro-Palestinian campus movement. 🧵⬇️

What’s Behind the Rule-Defying Campus Resistance Against a Yale Trump Deal

Students, faculty members, and alumni joined in an unauthorized demonstration.

chronicle.com

Yale continues to be an interesting case study in anti-Trump deal resistance. I attended a demonstration today, deliberately planned to break Yale's protest rules, where students, faculty and alumni called for no deal and looser protest rules, among other demands: www.chronicle.com/article/yale...

So what exactly did it mean for the AAU and university presidents to have worked with the Trump administration on Compact 2.0? I learned some more details: www.chronicle.com/article/coll...

College Leaders Play Down Their Involvement in ‘Compact 2.0’

Their insistence that they didn’t help draft the letter points to big research universities’ tough balancing act in dealing with the federal government.

chronicle.com

Want to learn more about how the Dept. of Ed is thinking about Compact 2.0? Here's a Q&A based on almost my entire conversation with the official I interviewed yesterday: www.chronicle.com/article/radi... #academicsky

‘Radical Reform’: A Trump Official Details the New Plan to Get Colleges to Change

Jonathan Pidluzny spoke to The Chronicle on the administration’s statement of priorities for higher ed, and why “silence would speak volumes.”

chronicle.com

Francie Diep@franciediep.bsky.social · 2mo ago

I wrote about the 'Compact 2.0' that the government offered yesterday: www.chronicle.com/article/for-.... I got: • A Dept. of Ed official to talk about goals ("radical reform") • AAU's president to respond to reports that AAU collaborated with the Trump administration on this Hope you'll read!

I wrote about the 'Compact 2.0' that the government offered yesterday: www.chronicle.com/article/for-.... I got: • A Dept. of Ed official to talk about goals ("radical reform") • AAU's president to respond to reports that AAU collaborated with the Trump administration on this Hope you'll read!

For Higher Ed, Trump’s Compact 2.0 Is Either an Olive Branch or a Gloved Fist

The White House has promised there will be no direct penalties — or rewards — for making the statements asked for, but some are skeptical.

chronicle.com

It's been a year since Columbia signed its historic deal with the Trump administration. What's higher ed learned from its example? (For one thing, no one else signed anything as comprehensive or expensive.) By @erickelderman.bsky.social, Shea Vance and me: www.chronicle.com/article/the-...

The Long Shadow of Columbia’s Deal With Trump

A year later, enforcement is uneven and suspicions remain.

chronicle.com

What is going on with sociology?? Some say it's getting politicized, Florida banned it from gen ed... Get caught up with this interesting and thorough story by @stephaniemlee.bsky.social: www.chronicle.com/article/the-...

The War for Sociology

A contest to lead the American Sociological Association distilled the field’s many conflicts. One was foremost: Should scholars be activists?

chronicle.com

My colleague @ngluckman.bsky.social and I wrote a profile of Jennifer Mnookin, the incoming president of Columbia University. Fairly or not, Columbia has become a chaotic poster child for everything wrong with higher ed. Can Mnookin repair the community, and how? www.chronicle.com/article/can-...

Can Jennifer Mnookin Heal Columbia?

One of higher ed’s most skilled negotiators arrives at one of its most fractured campuses.

chronicle.com

I'm in both a neighborhood moms WhatsApp group and an extensive email chain subject-lined something along the lines of "Re: Rat activity in the alley" and I just want to know when I became such a middle-aged Northwest D.C. person

This is fascinating because the governor is a Democrat and the legislature is strongly Republican.

Eric Kelderman@erickelderman.bsky.social · 6mo ago

www.chronicle.com/article/is-k...

🍿 www.chronicle.com/article/an-i...

An ‘Inappropriate Relationship’ Sank Ohio State’s Leader. A New Report Spills the Details.

Ted Carter pushed over a dozen employees to try to assist in the business ventures of a personal associate, Krisanthe Vlachos.

chronicle.com

Charles Koch's donor network, a foundation that's also funded the ADL and World Central Kitchen, a former union lawyer... these are among the donors I found who give to efforts to teach college students to dialogue better: www.chronicle.com/article/meet...

Meet the Donors Funding the Civil-Dialogue Boom at Colleges

They represent a range of political leanings and have distinct motivations.

chronicle.com

The spokesperson for NYU's Law School emailed me last month because he had written a novel that's a sendup of elite law schools. Sometimes the universe delivers gifts packaged just for you. Here's my mini-review and Q&A with the author: www.chronicle.com/article/the-...

The Spokesperson for NYU Law Wrote a Novel Skewering Law Schools

He doesn’t have any hostility toward law-school rankings, the author said, nor toward academe.

chronicle.com

can you teach something at Texas A&M? just follow this flowchart. www.chronicle.com/article/insi... via @jasperjsmith.bsky.social and @mzahneis.bsky.social

Is there a conservative hiring boom right now in higher ed? And how might it shape the future of the culture of academia? I took a look at the data (such as it is) and talked with more than a dozen people about what they're seeing: www.chronicle.com/article/the-...

The Strange New Job Market for Conservative Scholars

Right-leaning academics are in demand. Does that amount to intellectual diversity?

chronicle.com

I've been clearing my closet of a clothes-moth infestation, an extremely heebie jeebies-inducing activity. But tonight, as I was unrolling scarves, looking for eggs and larva (ughhgh), I had the idea that I was looking for "wormsign" and it made me feel marginally better

U. of Alabama yesterday suspended two student magazines, one about fashion and one about Black culture, suggesting that they're discriminatory. I got more details about the suspensions, plus some interesting expert quotes: www.chronicle.com/article/a-un...

A University Shuts Down 2 Campus Magazines Because They Might Look Like DEI

The suspensions are the latest in cuts to programs that would seem to support minority students. Experts say the moves violate the First Amendment.

chronicle.com

Hey, did you know @chronicle.com started a Compact Live Updates page today? www.chronicle.com/article/comp... That said, @cantb.bsky.social's summary below is pretty good. (Just missing USC, also out.)

Aaand more about the meeting today with compact recipients who haven't responded yet + others:

The Wall Street Journal@wsj.com · 12mo ago

Exclusive: The Trump administration is reaching out to more universities about its funding-advantage proposal after several early invitees rejected it.

White House officials are meeting this afternoon with representatives from the five remaining original recipients of the higher-ed compact that have not yet responded: www.insidehighered.com/news/governm... Nice scoop by @knottkatherine.bsky.social for Inside Higher Ed.

White House to Meet With Universities Regarding Compact

The scheduled meeting follows increasingly forceful pushback to the wide-ranging proposal.

insidehighered.com

This is an eye-opening Q&A about being a college president today. We all know it's a tough job. Still, I was surprised by depths of some of the challenges these two faced: www.chronicle.com/article/two-...

‘Two People Are in Jail Because of Threats Against Me’

Jonathan Holloway and Ana Mari Cauce on the physical and psychological toll of leading a university in 2025.

chronicle.com

In the last two days, Brown, Penn, and USC have joined MIT in declining the Trump administration's compact for higher education. You can see all of @chronicle.com's compact updates here: www.chronicle.com/package/trum...

The Trump Compact

Colleges weigh the government’s latest proposal, which promises an edge in federal funding.

chronicle.com

My latest with @mzahneis.bsky.social: Dartmouth is close to saying "no" to the current compact, I learned. The decision comes as gov. officials are circulating that the compact is open to all, in what higher-ed advocates call a test of the sector's collective will: www.chronicle.com/article/dart...

Dartmouth’s President Balks at Trump Compact, Sources Say, as Feds Expand Offer to ‘Any Institution’

Sian Leah Beilock has told faculty members she won’t sign the document as written. Meanwhile, the White House’s broader proposal has shifted discussion about the deal.

chronicle.com