Me (stepping out of a time machine in 1982 Vancouver): Excuse me, sir, Mr. Gibson? Can I call you Bill? Listen, I need you to be much less morally ambiguous. In your fiction sir. Every third sentence be like "AND THAT WAS BAD!" It's important. For the future.
Eric Geller@ericjgeller.com · 7h agoThe Trump administration is looking into the controversial idea of empowering private companies to "hack back" at adversaries, a top DHS official said at Black Hat today.
Where's that thread about how books are made of trash these days 😑
"So can AI make metadata management easier? I DON'T FUCKING CARE. It's ruining lives. It's ruining our industry. It's ruining what we love about books. GTFO with your metadata."
Maris Kreizman@maris.bsky.social · yesterdayI wrote about a frustrating, brilliant novel that deals with how devoid of connections and curiosity the world has become, and then, fittingly, I wrote (again) about how AI is ruining the book publishing industry. www.themarisreview.com/the-maris-re...
The fees set over a decade ago were a modest increase on the previous funding which had itself been largely stagnant for years. It was enough to start investing properly, then. A decade later, it's several thousand pounds per student per year below the inflated current costs.
Glen O'Hara@gsoh31.bsky.social · 16h agoUniversities cannot make money teaching home undergrads or doing funded research. Indeed, those run at a large loss. Only teaching international students make sense in any way. The logical endpoint is taking only international students, reducing research and moving many ops out of the UK altogether.
See also the proportion of junior female academics organising seminar series, taking on additional student support roles (oh it me), attending EDI workshops...
Catherine Frieman@cjfrieman.bsky.social · yesterdayI am not that old. In the early years of my career before i comprehensively put my foot down i would regularly find books in my work mailbox with notes from male colleagues instructing me to copy this chapter or that for them
Here a compilation of stupid things library consultants have said to me in solidarity with library pals at Lambeth Libraries where genius consultants has decided that a qualified head of library service post isn't really essential.
Gotta make it clear that if the incarcerated don’t have rights, then none of us have rights. Rights only matter when you’re hated, when you’re in trouble, when basic dignity is at risk. They are not markers of being better than someone else.
they want to humiliate you. it's not enough that you have to knuckle under. they need you to feel bad and resign yourself to this system. they won't even let you take out a loan to do something that might have value that can't be measured in money.
The New Republic@newrepublic.com · 2d agoPresident Trump is banning students majoring in degrees that don’t make enough money from taking out college loans. Degrees for social work, art, religious studies, teaching aides, and music will be hit the hardest. trib.al/aaAEu6v
Such a waste. Thinking of my friends & colleagues in History & across Hums. UH History is where I really learned *how* to teach & how to drive my teaching with my research. A dept that really cared about their students. So many brilliant & talented people in my old dept.
Glen O'Hara@gsoh31.bsky.social · 4d agoSo it's farewell to the History subject area at the University of Hertfordshire, not the first nor the last to go. One of the best departments in the country, just extinguished like a snap of the fingers. Think of the waste. (1/2)
Social workers do incredibly vital work but we don't pay them enough to pay back their student loans so we'll solve this by taking away their student loans
The New Republic@newrepublic.com · 2d agoPresident Trump is banning students majoring in degrees that don’t make enough money from taking out college loans. Degrees for social work, art, religious studies, teaching aides, and music will be hit the hardest. trib.al/aaAEu6v
IMO it’s a big problem that people think meritocracy in higher education = a more diverse student body at Oxbridge, as opposed to fewer people caring about the symbolic value of Oxbridge in the first place.
Great reporting from our student journalists at the Duke Chronicle on increases for the most highly paid Duke employees in the wake of unnecessary massive layoffs: www.dukechronicle.com/article/duke...
As cost-cutting began, Duke’s highest-paid employees took big raises
Tax filings reveal administrators, including President Vincent Price and Provost Alex Gallimore, saw their compensation rise in fiscal year 2025. Managers of Duke’s endowment and standout athletics co...
dukechronicle.com
Lowest number of graduate job openings since 2020. This is a core labour market problem that universities cannot fix, but routinely get the blame for.
UK graduate job openings fall to lowest level since pandemic
Indeed’s findings point to challenge facing Andy Burnham to boost youth unemployment and cut welfare bill
ft.com
In 50 days time our members will be taking 5 weeks of strike action. We call for the redundancy process to be stopped! Executives want 200 jobs to go (187FTE). Due to resignations and retirements, and non-staff savings, they are 35FTE from their staffing target. Stop this cruel, flawed process.
Reminder that unis/academic staff are judged on graduate employment rates so we will be both blamed (sometimes as individuals!) and punished for this. Yet another of the many things that we are forced to take responsibility for despite having no control over it.
Margot Finn@eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 3d agoNew graduate posts down 7% from last year's figures, at lowest level since 2020. Overall UK job postings are down 11% since the start of the year. This decline stretches across almost all occupations. War in Middle East and AI adduced as potential drivers.
In late 2023, the Society spent a day with Hertfordshire’s historians. We saw the quality, creativity and distinctiveness of teaching, research and engagement. We were told by a (now departed) senior manager that History was ‘a portfolio the university will guard very carefully’. bit.ly/4hLediN
Glen O'Hara@gsoh31.bsky.social · 4d agoSo it's farewell to the History subject area at the University of Hertfordshire, not the first nor the last to go. One of the best departments in the country, just extinguished like a snap of the fingers. Think of the waste. (1/2)
*Government: we need a sense of place and stronger regional policy to bring us together! *Also government: it's okay to shut this local uni campus in an area of high deprivation! *Thick-as-mince country. No joined-up thinking anywhere. 🇬🇧 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
University of Essex's Southend campus shuts and staff say goodbye
The university says the closure is due to financial pressures, leading to 400 staff redundancies.
bbc.co.uk
Definitely the case here. In two weeks we find which 9 of 12 in my group will be gone. The other 3 will then have a month to prepare and find hourly-paid replacements for all the classes across two degrees. And supervise 25 PhDs. Plus admin and pastoral care and research. Management doesn’t care.
Glen O'Hara@gsoh31.bsky.social · 4d agoIf you're arriving at uni this autumn, or maybe dropping your kids, remember that there could be a ghostly phalanx of absent redundant staff, lost modules and degraded degrees making it a very unhappy place. It may *look* the same, but it won't *be* the same. www.ft.com/content/e5b0...
To help relieve work stress, don't answer emails on the weekend. Also on weekdays after 5 PM turn off your email. On Mondays, don't log into your email until after noon. Before logging in on Tuesday burn your computer and erase your identity. By Wednesday morning gather supplies and escape into the
A deeply damaging, unethical model designed to dismantle the university and rebuild it as a corporation. It’s caused a crisis in Australia and its causing a crisis in the U.K. Sad to see Irish universities watching the chaos and happily following suit. youtu.be/quc24Ot9Qwgr
Universities $1.8 billion consultancy spending under wraps | Four Corners Documentary
YouTube video by ABC News In-depth
youtu.be
I see some people are reading this post as being about Exeter but it’s referring to the University of Hertfordshire. And that’s Owen’s point. Less coverage about the axe falling there but it’s equally sad.
Owen Davies@odavies9.bsky.social · 4d agoSo a whole lot of my talented Humanities colleagues are now unemployed as of today. A lot of understandable concern over Exeter. But for over two decades my Hums colleagues were in the top quartile for their research contribution to society. History top 10. Now gone with only a national whisper.
a lot of what the right does nowadays is create an emotional support system for bigots. bigotry will offend and alienate people in your life, so the right looks provides a counterweight that lavishes you with praise.
It’s been available for a little while now, but today is the official publication day for THE NEW OLD STYLE: ANACHRONISM IN CONTEMPORARY COMICS! I’m proud of this book, and hope you’ll consider purchasing it or recommending it to your local or campus library.
The New Old Style - Nebraska Press
The New Old Style explores how the deliberate use of cartooning styles that mimic those of the early twentieth century has paradoxically become one of the mo...
nebraskapress.unl.edu
Dr. Tiffany Willoughby-Herard put her body on the line to protect students fighting for Gaza & police assaulted her. Instead of protecting her, UC Irvine has stripped her faculty role & her health benefits. Please sign petition, write a letter, signal boost robindgkelley.substack.com/p/in-support...
In Support of Dr. Tiffany Willoughby-Herard
Most academics in the U.S., as well as activists resisting the genocide in Gaza, are familiar with the case of Professor Tiffany Willoughby-Herard, a renowned Global Studies scholar at the University ...
robindgkelley.substack.com
An amazing public service! Adding to my syllabus now!
jessamyn@librarian.bsky.social · 5d agoI work at a public library. People who want to use AI seem to have no trouble doing so. People who don't want to use AI have a harder time. I crowdsourced and then finalized this document "How to disable or avoid intrusive AI" and then gave it a short URL: notoai.org Please pass along if it's useful
"Researchers at the University of Chicago studied the impact of removing police and shifting to restorative practices at CPS high schools and found declines in school-based arrests and high-level discipline violations. Students said they felt a stronger sense of safety and belonging."
Chicago to slash funding earmarked for schools that replaced police with restorative justice programs
At the same time CPS is cutting funding for Whole School Safety Plans, the district plans a new push to help all schools implement a 2024 policy that requires social-emotional learning, maintaining at...
chalkbeat.org
"For others, the issue isn’t politics alone. They’re avoiding schools in states where they wouldn’t feel safe due to a lack of gun control, abortion access or trans rights." A really nice piece that also talks with students who attend college in states with restricted healthcare.
19thnews@19thnews.org · 5d agoFor generations, students chose colleges based on factors like their academic reputation, tuition costs or social scene. But in today’s divided nation, politics has emerged as a rising influence on where young people pursue higher learning.
If they want a lot of books, MIT is closing three libraries 😑
404 Media@404media.co · 5d agoCiting backlash, ISBNdb removed its webpages about training AI, denied ever buying, scanning, or selling a book for AI training, and said the site was a "test of market interest."
