OUT TODAY, the AAUP just released the first comprehensive account of how the Trump administration has taken the same playbook it's used on law firms & foreign governments & turned it on American universities. US higher ed has, in effect, become a target of a massive extortion racket. 🧵

New Report on Extorted Compliance Charges “Massive Extortion Racket” Against Higher Ed

A new AAUP report, "Extorted Compliance: A Threat to Institutional Autonomy, Academic Freedom, and Shared Governance," exposes how the Trump administration has extended its pay-to-play approach to gov...

aaup.org

"Writers have been using me long before AI. I am the punctuation equivalent of a cardigan—beloved by MFA grads, used by editors when it’s actually cold, and worn year-round by screenwriters. I am not new here. I am not novel. I’m the cigarette you keep saying you’ll quit."

The Em Dash Responds to the AI Allegations

“Writers have been using me long before the advent of AI. I am the punctuation equivalent of a cardigan—beloved by MFA grads, used by editors when it’s actua...

buff.ly

Call for Chapters: Femininities in Video Games Edited by Dr Stephanie Harkin (RMIT University) & Heather Blakey (University of Western Australia) Palgrave Macmillan femininityinvideogames.my.canva.site

Higher ed watchers: this will have major ripple effects because writing/comp is such a key part of every college student's general ed curriculum. Heads up to K-12 teachers in @ncte.org too. www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty...

NCTE Dissolves 77-Year-Old Composition Association

The National Council of Teachers of English’s decision was met with swift backlash from Conference on College Composition and Communication members, who say their organization is vital to advancing co...

insidehighered.com

c.org/p2K45cVsbC

Sign the Petition

Halt Dissolution of CCCC and Call for Transparency from NCTE #SaveCCCC

c.org

I’m still piecing the story together, but we should see it in the context of our society gutting its intellectual future: DOGE dismantling of vital research, the corporate university squeezing its faculty, right wing attacks on schools. CCCC was a point of resistance to that which must be protected.

The Cs was a place where precarious academic workers could dream of a better higher ed, as well as make it. Adjuncts and community college faculty were especially welcomed rather than just being stigmatized for where/how they taught. I loved hearing people’s 4Cs report backs!

Email and request refunds: customer-service@ncte.org #NCTE I can’t this weekend. But I’ll develop my email and do it first thing and then I’ll share folks who allow me to share their refund requests and we’ll divest.

There it is. #CCCC #NCTE

Official NCTE email arrived just after 5:00 pm saying that after years of attempts to work with CCCC, the NCTE Executive Committee decided to "de-charter its special topics conference CCCC." 💔

Thanks, RSA leaders, for saying it. I hope the powers that be at @ncte.org are listening to their peers more carefully than they seem to be listening to their members.

If you haven't had a chance to write the NCTE EC members, it's not too late. They are meeting today, and the more they hear from us about how important CCCC is to us, the better! These emails are all publicly available. Be focused and respectful.

Does anyone know when the vote happens at NCTE? Is there still time to write them?

Below is the initial public statement on NCTE’s intention to dismantle our organization written by the CCCC EC, which includes one rep each from the “cultural identity caucuses,” including ours. docs.google.com/document/d/1...

CCCC EC Quick Response July 23

Public Facing Statement To be Shared With the General CCCC Membership We, members of the CCCC Executive Committee, were alarmed to learn of the NCTE Presidential Team’s plans to dissolve CCCC, which ...

docs.google.com

Update: I have a meeting for next Friday. The subject line of the email is "Meeting about CCCC 2027 next Week." There were no details in the email. I'll share once I have the meeting with the NCTE presidential team.

Devastating news this morning for our field. This piece I wrote sums up what CCCC meant to me: wacclearinghouse.org/repository/e...

Donnie Johnson Sackey@donniejsackey.bsky.social · 2w ago

A couple hours ago, I woke up to messages about CCCC being dissolved and absorbed into NCTE's College Section. I don't know what this means for the 2027 conference, but I do know it'll be different, if it's held at all.

the SUNY council on writing passed two new resolutions, including this one against AI "grading" sunycouncilonwriting.org/resolution-o...

Resolution on Human Readers for Student Writing

Resolution on Human Readers for Student Writing June 2026 Student writers at all levels have the right to have their work read, responded to, and evaluated by human experts in the field in which th…

sunycouncilonwriting.org

Cheating is a symptom of an unmet need

Jeff Sharlet@jeffsharlet.bsky.social · 2mo ago

In winter, I spoke at a faculty event about AI. I was alarmed by the range of faculty awareness. Some believe our students are so "good" they'd never cheat. Yes, cheating's wrong. But systems that explicitly or implicitly incentivize cheating--AI does both--will produce cheating. 11/

It feels good to publish a thing and not have to update digital measures, my review file, my other review file, my website and all!

🔗 No-AI Search for Firefox: addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/duckduckgo-no-ai-search/ (2/3)

DuckDuckGo No-AI Search – Get this Extension for 🦊 Firefox (en-US)

Download DuckDuckGo No-AI Search for Firefox. Search privately by default, without AI features.

addons.mozilla.org

It seems that the lesson Mearns is hoping BSU faculty and staff will learn from this is that $225,000 plus legal fees is an acceptable price for improperly firing and violating the constitutional rights of an employee who becomes inconvenient.

Mearns stands by decision to fire Ball State employee over Kirk remarks

A week after posting commentary on the Charlie Kirk murder, Swierc was fired from her job as Ball State's director of health promotion and advocacy.

thestarpress.com

Woman fired from Indiana university over Charlie Kirk post wins $225,000 settlement www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Woman fired from Indiana university over Charlie Kirk post wins $225,000 settlement

Lawsuit filed last year by the ACLU accused Ball State University of violating Suzanne Swierc’s free speech rights

theguardian.com

For the late crowd: YOU are invited to attend our free, 100% online conference Generation Analog 2026 "GREEN" on July 15-16. Keynotes from Alenda Chang (Playing Nature) and Matteo Menapace (Daybreak), as well as dozens of high-quality talks. Register here: www.eventbrite.com/e/generation...

Generation Analog 2026 "GREEN"

Generation Analog is an annual online tabletop games and education conference.

eventbrite.com

So, I'm running an informal survey about LARP and neurodiversity, with a focus on autism and ADHD, because I'm super curious about the intersections as an AuDHD larper. Anyone can fill it out, and anyone can see the results: forms.gle/GHCQFuZbf9Fp...

Informal Survey About LARP and Neurodiversity

This is a super informal survey about live-action roleplaying (LARP) and how it overlaps with neurodiversity, with a focus on ADHD and autism. This isn't formal research, and is just being run by an A...

forms.gle

When people talk about self-censorship, they often focus on campus events or classroom discussions. But self-censorship of research is different and more impt. Big difference btw "I don't want to offend others" to "I don't want to speak truth to power" www.chronicle.com/article/near...

Nearly One-Third of Faculty in Red States Say They’ve Censored Their Research

A new survey of 4,000 academics looked at the effects of state laws barring “divisive concepts” and federal grant cuts.

chronicle.com

I'm not joking when I say mRNA technology is more important than "AI" and it's a tragedy we're throwing billions into one while our government is aggressively defunding the other.

Ignacio Gallup-Diaz@igallupd.bsky.social · 4mo ago

"Pancreatic cancer mRNA vaccine shows lasting results in an early trial: Scientists caution that more research is needed, but nearly all of the patients who responded to the personalized vaccine are still alive six years later."

I don't usually sign emails best but I was, except I signed "beat." Truth.

Today I gave my students some sample papers that were older than them. So I think that means it's time to retire.

Saving this for if I ever get to teach my rhetorics of the university class. LOL. A Message from Your University President on the Recent Hippopotamus Attacks www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/a-m...

A Message from Your University President on the Recent Hippopotamus Attacks

Dear Faculty, Staff, Students, and AI Summarization Tools, I want to express my deepest gratitude for your patience as we explore innovative soluti...

mcsweeneys.net

College writing teachers have spoken, y'all. The CCCC resolution affirming students' and teachers' right to refuse generative AI in the writing classroom passed by an overwhelming majority at the #4C26 Annual Business Meeting this past Friday, March 6. Link to the full resolution below.