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Jackie Pedota (she/her/ella)

@jackiepedota.bsky.social

32 Posts1180 Follower 398 Folgt

Dominique Baker @bakerdphd.bsky.social · last wk.

"...findings that 3 [insts] violated civil rights law by tolerating antisemitism were predetermined by political priorities that blew past the evidence and cast aside standard investigative procedures..." Reading the whistleblower statement and taking rage breaks www.ms.now/news/frame-u...

Whistleblower says probes into antisemitism at colleges were ploys to harass and strip millions

A former Justice Department lawyer says the Trump investigations squeezed Ivy League universities for millions before they were even concluded. A top Democrat is demanding answers.

ms.now

Inside Higher Ed @insidehighered.com · 2w ago

Judge Dismisses Trump’s Antisemitism Lawsuit Against Harvard The decision is a blow for the administration, which has engaged in a yearslong battle with the Ivy League institution. https://bit.ly/3TUvPiA #EDUSky #AcademicSky #HigherEd

James M. Thomas (JT)@insurgentprof.bsky.social · 2w ago

A guy taking a job at The Atlantic to write either anecdotes of his own limited experience at a tiny liberal arts college or straight up falsehoods about higher ed more generally is just…not interesting. It’s boring, and unserious.

Dominique Baker @bakerdphd.bsky.social · 4w ago

Me on the AAU "The AAU claims to be comprised of America’s leading research unis...But if the member presidents choose the guise of institutional neutrality as a way to gain political cover, they may now be leading higher ed toward greater authoritarianism." www.insidehighered.com/opinion/colu...

How Elite Colleges Aided Censorship During the Red Scares

Powerful organizations during the Red Scares crafted a world where “academic freedom” was conditional on political allegiance.

insidehighered.com

Dana R. Fisher (aka the Apocalyptic Optimist)@fisherdanar.bsky.social · last mo.

Yesterday, @asanews.bsky.social announced that, due to cuts in funding from the National Science Foundation, it will no longer run its Dissertation Research Improvement Grants. The consequences of these funding cuts to science and the future research capacity of the US will be staggering.

AAUP @aaup.org · last mo.

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

Texas Conference of the AAUP @texasaaup.bsky.social · last mo.

UT Austin doubles down on denial of tenure to leading borderlands tech scholar: “In an emailed statement to Inside Higher Ed, a UT spokesperson said, ‘Tenure is privilege, not a right.’” www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-t...

Border Surveillance Scholar Denied Tenure at UT Austin

Border-surveillance scholar Iván Chaar López was denied tenure at the University of Texas at Austin after being recommended by more than 30 scholars, The Austin-American Statesman reported.

insidehighered.com

AAUP @aaup.org · last mo.

"What I found most encouraging in the ruling was the rejection of Florida’s claim that paying faculty members’ salaries gave the state the right to control their classroom speech. The opposite decision would have fundamentally changed public higher education."

How the Stop WOKE Act Ruling Strengthened Academic Freedom

A conversation with Tim Cain, an academic freedom expert and professor of higher education at the University of Georgia.

insidehighered.com

Dominique Baker @bakerdphd.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Look at that collective action at Yale! And good on faculty at other institutions for sharing what they've learned!

Screenshot of article which reads: Because Yale had until recently escaped direct scrutiny from the Trump administration, Yale’s AAUP members have had a year to learn from its peers and prepare. Last fall, they recruited two faculty members from the law school, Ahmad and Marisol Orihuela, to serve as their general counsels. They also met over Zoom with colleagues from Brown, Columbia, and Harvard Universities. All had been offered deals by the Trump administration.

Screenshot of article which reads: From them, the Yale faculty members learned several strategies. They brought together colleagues from different disciplines, who might be affected differently by a deal, to understand each other’s worries. Otherwise, a researcher whose lab would be devastated by a federal funding freeze might not naturally be aligned with an instructor who would be silenced by provisions against the teaching of certain concepts. The Yale members heard that once dealmaking started, they would probably be shut out and hear little from the university administration. They learned to build relationships with other Yale constituencies, such as the student government. That preparation helped the groups mount opposition to a proposed deal quickly.

Texas Conference of the AAUP @texasaaup.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Faculty groups sued Texas Tech Chancellor Brandon Creighton + the system’s regents Wednesday, asking a federal judge to block classroom restrictions they say have censored professors who teach about race, gender identity and sexual orientation + intentionally discriminated against Black faculty.

Texas Tech sued over limits on race, gender instruction

The lawsuit asks a federal judge to halt the restrictions as discriminatory, improperly vague and a violation of free speech.

texastribune.org

Chris Geidner @chrisgeidner.bsky.social · 2mo ago

BREAKING: Eleventh Circuit, on a 2-1 vote, upholds injunction blocking Florida from enforcing its 2022 Stop WOKE Act in the university context. The majority opinion is from Judge Britt Grant, a Trump appointee: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Before GRANT, LAGOA, and WILSON, Circuit Judges.
GRANT, Circuit Judge:
"Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech." U.S. Const. amend I. The First Amendment, incorporated against the States in 1868, is this country's written commitment to the idea that freedom of speech is essential to freedom of thought, and that both are essential to maintaining our liberty. The Supreme Court has long been clear that teaching and scholarship are due some measure of protection under the Amendment. But how much? And in what contexts? That Court has not had to say, but this one is now put to the test. The State of Florida legislated a broad set of speech restrictions banning certain viewpoints relating to race, color, sex, and national origin in various settings. The provision at issue here bars Florida's educators from promoting or endorsing those distavored ideas when instructing students. Its prohibition applies not only in primary and secondary education, where states traditionally exercise a great deal of control, but also in public colleges and universities, where the state government's role has been far more limited.
When several groups of professors challenged Florida's new restrictions, the State cast about for an existing case or doctrine that could support its speech ban in the university setting. Finding none, it tried to marry public-employee speech cases with government speech doctrine, resulting in a new rule: if the

government pays a professor's salary, it has total control over her classroom speech.
That is not a blessed union. Florida's salary-for-speech rule is a breathtaking assertion of power to ban unpopular ideas from public discourse in the very places the State's own statutes recognize as centers of inquiry-classrooms where students are trusted to puzzle through ideas that are good and bad, easy and hard, ideally getting ever closer to the truth. This new rule also runs headlong into the Supreme Court's repeated, if imprecise, endorsements of academic freedom. If the First Amendment offers any boundary of protection at all for public university classrooms, this statute crosses it.
Nor does this Court's leading academic speech precedent,
Bishop v. Aronov, demand the outcome Florida seeks. 926 F.2d 1066 (11th Cir. 1991). In fact, it counsels the opposite. The restriction in that case was imposed by one university, against one professor, relating to speech about one thing— personal religious views that got in the way of the course's well-understood parameters.

That precedent makes clear that universities and even other government entities have crucial authority to shape curricular content, discipline teachers, and take other steps to guide and govern postsecondary education. But the speech ban Florida's political leaders seek to impose here is different in both nature and degree from these ordinary concerns. The rule Florida developed for this case does not withstand scrutiny.
11 Case: 22-13992
Document: 156-1 Date Filed: 07/07/2026 Page:
22-13992
Opinion of the Court
5
The ideas Florida targets may well be noxious. Or maybe
not.
Either way, in this context the First Amendment trusts students to figure it out for themselves. We affirm the district court's preliminary injunction.

Scholars Strategy Network @scholars.org · 3mo ago

"Compliance ceases to be a fixed legal threshold and becomes an ever-narrowing set of assumptions about political risk," write @jackiepedota.bsky.social (@umassboston.bsky.social), @garceslm.bsky.social (@alliancehighered.bsky.social), and Eliza Epstein in @insidehighered.com:

How Universities Expand the Reach of Anti-DEI Laws (opinion)

Colleges and universities amplify the impacts of anti-DEI laws through the processes they use to (over-)comply with them.

insidehighered.com

Annenberg Institute @annenberginstitute.bsky.social · 3mo ago

📢 A new Inside Higher Ed piece draws on findings from the EdWorkingPaper examining how universities implement anti-DEI legislation and how compliance processes can extend beyond what the law explicitly requires. Essay: bit.ly/3RIxmXT Paper: edworkingpapers.com/ai26-1463

How Universities Expand the Reach of Anti-DEI Laws (opinion)

Colleges and universities amplify the impacts of anti-DEI laws through the processes they use to (over-)comply with them.

bit.ly

Inside Higher Ed @insidehighered.com · 3mo ago

Echoes in the Quad | No One Is Coming to Save Us The realization can either break you or liberate you. By @bakerdphd.bsky.social : https://bit.ly/4usRT0d #EDUSky #HigherEd #AcademicSky

The words "Echoes in the Quad" scattered across geometrics shapes overlaid on a photo of students in a university quad with a green filter overlaid.

Victor Ray @victorerikray.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Nothing says "intellectual freedom" like forcing students to take mandatory conservative indoctrination classes. Shout-out to all the embarrassing academics who believe any of this was in good faith.

A Flagship’s Civics Center Saw Low Enrollment. Now Students Will Be Required to Take Classes There.

A provision in the Iowa state budget will require all students at the University of Iowa to complete two classes at the Center for Intellectual Freedom to get their degree.

chronicle.com

Inside Higher Ed @insidehighered.com · 3mo ago

Opinion | How Colleges Extend the Reach of Anti-DEI Laws Colleges and universities amplify the impacts of anti-DEI laws through the processes they use to (over-)comply with them. By Jackie Pedota, Liliana M. Garces and Eliza Morse Bentley Epstein: https://bit.ly/4dNWUeD #EDUSky #AcademicSky

The letters DEI with chains around them.

American Council of Learned Societies @acls1919.bsky.social · 4mo ago

BREAKING: Federal Judge Rules to Restore National Endowment for the Humanities Funding In Historic Case This afternoon's ruling declared that the mass termination of more than 1,400 grants by the NEH was “unlawful, unconstitutional, ultra vires, and without legal effect.” https://bit.ly/4wmbFg8

Jackie Pedota (she/her/ella)@jackiepedota.bsky.social · 4mo ago

“DEI” bans do more than just defund or remove programs and structures. . . they restrict and delegitimize the knowledge needed to understand and address racial inequities in society.

usnews.com

Omar Valerio-Jiménez @omarvaleriojimenez.bsky.social · 4mo ago

“When academics in more comfortable political climates declare it unethical for the rest of us to remain and to fight, they undercut the solidarity necessary to help move toward the kind of world they want to see.” www.insidehighered.com/opinion/view...

How Not to Talk About Colleagues in Texas, Florida (opinion)

We’re not fighting a lost cause.

insidehighered.com

Akil Bello @akilbello.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Skip the article about/from the employees of the Yale corporation and read this from SUNY Geneseo www.geneseo.edu/enrollment-m...

The College Affordability Crisis is Real, but the Media is Looking at the Wrong Schools

Sturges Hall (Photo by Keith Walters ’11) Opinion By Costas Solomou, Vice President, Enrollment Management Published by the Office of Enrollment Management When Yale University released its Committee ...

geneseo.edu

Jackie Pedota (she/her/ella)@jackiepedota.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Still wild to see my name among this group of incredible scholars! Excited to get to work!

Alliance For Higher Education@alliancehighered.bsky.social · 5mo ago

The 2026-2027 cohort features scholars from across the country whose expertise range from higher education finance, funding, and governance structures to student success, the impact of public regional colleges, access and equity, and public policy:

Dominique Baker @bakerdphd.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Honored to be part of this dedicated crew of scholars

Screenshot of link which lists the fellows:

Dominique J. Baker is an associate professor of education and public policy at the University of Delaware.

Heather McCambly is an assistant professor of education at the University of Pittsburgh.

Denisa Gándara is an associate professor of educational leadership and policy at the University of Texas at Austin.

Cecilia Orphan is an associate professor of higher education at the University of Denver and founding co-director of the Alliance for Research on Regional Colleges.

Jackie Pedota is an assistant professor of higher education at the University of Massachusetts, Boston.

Raquel M. Rall is an associate professor and associate dean of strategic initiatives at the University of California, Riverside.

Victor Ray is the F. Wendell Miller an associate professor of sociology at the University of Iowa.

Alliance For Higher Education@alliancehighered.bsky.social · 5mo ago

We are proud to launch the Alliance Fellowship Program and inaugural cohort of fellows! The Program includes scholars from across the country and is an investment in the sector's infrastructure, designed to bridge the gap between scholarly research and systems-level change. 🔗 bit.ly/4vpDx2t

W. Carson Byrd @wcbyrdphd.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Important read by @victorerikray.bsky.social about the anti-intellectualism centers popping up at universities across the US. Also critical to point out universities are hypocritically & simultaneously shutting down departments born from ‘movements for broader inclusion in mainstream American life.’

Opinion | Beware conservatives promoting “intellectual freedom”

Victor Ray: This conservative lie about schools like mine is furthering authoritarianism

ms.now

Texas AFT @texasaft.org · 5mo ago

Public universities and community colleges across Texas are being used as toys for political games. We're here to tell them: the futures of our students are not things to be played with. @utaustinaaup.bsky.social @texasaaup.bsky.social @handsoffcentraltx.bsky.social

Zachary Levenson @grundrza.bsky.social · 5mo ago

On Thursday, Florida's Board of Governors removed sociology from the general education curriculum of every university in the state. Chancellor Ray Rodrigues attacked the @asanews.bsky.social as illegitimate. On behalf of sociologists everywhere, I respond to them in today's @miamiherald.com:

Jackie Pedota (she/her/ella)@jackiepedota.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Thrilled to share that we are moving to Boston! I will be joining the University of Massachusetts Boston as a tenure-track Assistant Professor in the Department of Leadership in Education. This accomplishment is truly a reflection of all my friends, mentors, and colleagues who poured into me 💕

Dog sitting on a black couch wearing a Boston Red Sox bandana around its neck

Scholars Strategy Network @scholars.org · 5mo ago

In this @hechingerreport.org op-ed, Julie Park (University of Maryland) says the Supreme Court’s affirmative action ruling has created a "cascade effect" where more Black & Latino students will end up at schools where they are more likely to experience adverse outcomes Read the full op-ed:

Opinion: There’s a ‘cascade effect’ from the Supreme Court’s ban on race-conscious admissions, and it’s hurting Black and Latino students

More will attend schools where they are more likely to experience adverse outcomes.

hechingerreport.org

AAUP @aaup.org · 5mo ago

“Ground zero in an unprecedented nationwide assault on academic freedom & diversity.” A film tracking the conservative takeover of New College of Florida, titled “First They Came For Our College” premiered at SXSW.

Film on the conservative takeover of New College premieres at SXSW, draws pushback from college

A film tracking the conservative takeover of New College of Florida, titled “First They Came For Our College”, has hit the big screens.

wmnf.org

Dominique Baker @bakerdphd.bsky.social · 6mo ago

You ever write something and there are so many parts you hope people engage with that you can't figure out which ones to quote? I'll do a wee thread on the 3rd, and final, essay from my Red Scares series www.insidehighered.com/opinion/colu...

The Danger of Silence When Academic Freedom Is Under Threat

Inaction from rank-and-file workers enabled government censorship during the Red Scares.

insidehighered.com

Texas Conference of the AAUP @texasaaup.bsky.social · 6mo ago

AAUP UT Austin Chapter Pres. Karma Chávez: “It’s going to be bad in every possible way, and students are going to be the biggest losers.” 👇👇 www.thenation.com/article/soci...

What Will Be Left After the University of Texas Destroys Itself?

UT-Austin has collapsed its race, ethnic, and gender studies into a single program while a new policy asks faculty to avoid “controversial” topics. But the attacks won’t end there.

thenation.com