Pre-summer library stock up!

“The dismantling of Harvard’s diversity offices arrived at Harvard College on Wednesday as websites for centers serving minority students, LGBTQ students, and women disappeared suddenly and without fanfare.” www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...

Cool paper with an great title. Across the world, boys are much more likely to overestimate their math ability than girls. People from high SES backgrounds do the same www.iza.org/publications...

About 250 years ago, an unassuming structure on the campus of William & Mary, housed the Williamsburg Bray School, making it the oldest known building where enslaved and free Black children were formally educated. It is now, on Juneteenth, open to the public.

On Juneteenth, This Williamsburg Schoolhouse Finds a New Life

Beginning on Juneteenth, a restored Virginia schoolhouse where enslaved and free Black students were taught to read is on view in Colonial Williamsburg.

trib.al

I am becoming a bit of a higher ed history nerd. Old photos and records of women's sports are some of my favorite docs. Check out this fun photo of the 1904 Smith College hockey team and their mascot, Max, curtesy of Smith Special Collections.

I don't have an #NSF grant, but I have spent the past 17 months collaborating with 5 students analyzing open access data from another team's NSF-funded project. Fed investment in education & science is critical for our society, and the benefits are widespread. These cuts have long term implications.

Costa Samaras@costasamaras.com · last yr.

This shameful dismantling of NSF will materially affect the nation's economy, health, national security, and environment. The NSF spokesperson didn't go on the record with their name because they know it's wrong. A coward. www.science.org/content/arti...

Surprise surprise! Allowing scientists to have continuity and security in their funding lets them focus on research and ask big questions that require long term support to answer, and that are most likely to have big impacts for humanity. TIL. 🧪

Nature@nature.com · last yr.

Innovation takes time US scientists who received renewals from the NIH over the past four decades produced more novel research than those who didn’t https://go.nature.com/44oKEwV

President Donald Trump’s administration has pulled close to $10.2 million in federal grants from AmeriCorps projects in Philadelphia, jeopardizing the future of 11 community service programs.

Philly lost $10.2 million in the latest round of DOGE funding cuts to AmeriCorps

The cuts targeted eleven education programs, including CityYear, Teach for America, and Joyful Readers.

inquirer.com

Harvard’s website changed to feature research and impact: www.harvard.edu. I know they are private and the literal most well resourced institution in the US, but if you know how hard it is to make even the smallest edit on a college website, this is even more impressive.

Harvard University

Harvard University is devoted to excellence in teaching, learning, and research, and to developing leaders who make a difference globally.

harvard.edu

Gutting. From the Tallahassee Democrat.

Interesting new research suggesting one reason women are less likely to major in STEM, economics, and business is that they expect to face labor market discrimination later in those fields (so that the return to such majors is lower). www.nber.org/papers/w33680

Harvard has set an example for other higher-ed institutions - rejecting an unlawful and ham-handed attempt to stifle academic freedom, while taking steps to make sure students can benefit from an environment of intellectual inquiry, rigorous debate and mutual respect. Let’s hope others follow suit.

If you don't feel like scouring my skyline for all the places I've talked about why encouraging profligate & uncritical use of "AI" in education & public life is is so so so very bad, you can read more on what makes this situation so dangerous & problematic here: afutureworththinkingabout.com?p=5899

Dr. Damien P. Williams has to go the way his blood beats@wolven.blacksky.app · last yr.

So OpenAI is actively marketing ChatGPT to students during college finals season in the U.S. We've talked many (many) times before about the kinds of harm that can come from giving over too much epistemic and heuristic authority over to these systems, but additionally, there's been at least three…

Pieces like this are why I'm concerned about the ability of students to get financial aid on time in the fall...and for some small colleges to make payroll as a result. Even if there is no intent to cut aid, there don't seem to be the staff to handle inevitable issues that arise.

Education Department Staff Struggle After Mass Layoffs

The Trump administration said its sweeping cuts would eliminate bloat at the department. Staff say the “chaotic” process has stalled essential functions and left remaining employees with unmanageable ...

insidehighered.com

In case you wanted to know some of my thoughts on how student loans would be affected by all this nonsense...here you go! Gift link. www.wsj.com/personal-fin...

In addition to being morally wrong this is also just plain old wrong as shown by research by @kevinshih.bsky.social www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Do international students crowd-out or cross-subsidize Americans in higher education?

Recent growth in international enrollment at U.S. universities has raised controversy. While critics accuse international students of displacing Ameri…

sciencedirect.com

Georg Weizsäcker@georgweizsaecker.bsky.social · last yr.

"Last week, Vance said foreign students at elite U.S. universities are 'not just bad for national security,' but also 'bad for the American dream, for American kids who want to go to a nice university but can’t because their spot was taken by a foreign student.'" www.politico.com/news/2025/03...

AERA has just learned that all restricted-use NCES data licenses will be cancelled, possibly as early as March 20. We urgently request that all AERA members and others in the research community with restricted-use licenses take these two actions: www.aera.net/Research-Pol...

We're hearing from multiple sources that all U.S. Dept. of Ed buildings are closing at 6 p.m. and are closed tomorrow. Email to staff cites "security reasons." "Employees will not be permitted in any ED facility on Wednesday, March 12th, for any reason." @jodiscohen.bsky.social and I are following

I'm appalled by the USDA's decision to pause funding to the University of Maine System. This will hurt our farmers, halt critical research, and impact students throughout Maine. Once again, our state is being targeted for retribution—all because our officials are standing up for the rule of law.

USDA halts more than $100M in funding for University of Maine System programs

The move temporarily pauses USDA funding for Maine's university system after President Donald Trump threatened to cut off the state over Maine's decision to allow transgender athletes to compete in sp...

pressherald.com

NEW: Pregnancy became far more dangerous in Texas after the state banned abortion, according to ProPublica’s first-of-its-kind analysis, which found the sepsis rate for women hospitalized as they miscarried in the 2nd trimester shot up by more than 50%. https://propub.li/43487Tj

Texas Banned Abortion. Then Sepsis Rates Soared.

ProPublica’s first-of-its-kind analysis is the most detailed look yet into a rise in life-threatening complications for women experiencing pregnancy loss under Texas’ abortion ban.

propub.li

Tough to see my alma mater (SUNY Geneseo) and a number of other upstate NY institutions on these lists

Robert Kelchen@robertkelchen.com · 2y ago

Using new IPEDS finance data, I took a look at the public and private colleges that consistently lose money. Forty-nine of the nearly 1,500 four-year institutions with available data lost money in eight or more of the last ten years--not a good sign. robertkelchen.com/2025/01/07/w...

CALL FOR PAPERS The Sociological Quarterly will be publishing an upcoming special issue on student activism. The deadline to submit an abstract is Jan. 15, 2025. For more information on the special issue, and instructions on submitting an abstract, go to think.taylorandfrancis.com/special_issu...

I've been doing follow up interviews with participants from my dissertation about their careers. In college, they chose to be teachers. Today, most plan to leave teaching (or already have). It's a small sample, but a bit sad to see how some of these dreams have unfolded.

Well isn’t this an interesting little piece of PA history—The Steelers and Eagles were once the same team. Here’s the history of the short-lived Steagles. www.inquirer.com/eagles/steag...

The Steelers and Eagles were once the same team. Here’s the history of the short-lived Steagles.

World War II left the Eagles and Steelers short on players — so they combined to form the Steagles, a team that lasted only one year, perhaps in part due to two coaches who couldn't get along.

inquirer.com

UVA Students Resume Campus History Tours Without Officials’ Approval In August, administrators banned the volunteer student guide service from giving university-sanctioned historic tours. Now, the club has decided to go out on its own. #HigherEd #EDUSky #AcademicSky bit.ly/3Bpvyeu

UVA students resume history tours without officials' approval

In August, administrators banned the volunteer student guide service from giving university-sanctioned historic tours. Now, the club has decided to go out on its own.

bit.ly

Doctor's offices doing wild things out here.

Please check out our new article in the Review of Higher Education titled “Behind the Veil”: Unmasking Anti-blackness in Presidential Discourse and Responses to Racialized Incidents. See link: muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl...

The alt doesn't cover what the actual call is so I'm sharing the post and including this link for anyone interested in the history of ed! docs.google.com/document/d/1...

AERA Division F - History and Historiography Mentoring Session 2025

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS AERA 2025 Division F Mentoring Seminar—“Take Refuge in How” This year’s Division F Mentoring Seminar considers the challenges education historians face to make the past releva...

docs.google.com

Alex Hyres@hyres376.bsky.social · 2y ago

We have extended the deadline for the AERA Division F: History and Historiography Mentoring Seminar. The new deadline is December 13, 2024. The session is open to graduate students and early career scholars. See attached for more info. #edhist #histed #edusky @aeraedresearch.bsky.social

New @ #RIHE: Many people study policy adoption, but few study policy discontinuation. #AmyLi & #XiaodanHu find that states show evidence of policy imitation, but not of policy emulation, in the discontinuation of performance-based funding (PBF). doi.org/10.1007/s111...

Goodbye Performance-Based Funding: Policy Abandonment of Performance Funding for Higher Education in the United States - Research in Higher Education

Between 1997 and 2019, 16 out of 41 performance-based funding (PBF) states discontinued their PBF policies for public colleges and universities. Adapting policy diffusion theory to PBF discontinuation...

doi.org

Seconding Robert's rec, Smith's @chronicle.com article below on Knoxville College is excellent, yet quite painful. It should also be considered within the lens of a recent JHE pub shared on here about financial aid systems and whiteness: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Financial Aid as Whiteness as Property: Implications for Research and Practice

In this article, I demonstrate how financial aid is a valued property of whiteness. Utilizing critical race theory, critical race policy analysis, and whiteness as property, I examine how financial...

tandfonline.com

Robert Kelchen@robertkelchen.com · 2y ago

This piece about the struggles of Knoxville College is an important, yet very difficult, read. It's well worth your time.