"Here’s the reality: If you, as an administrator or professor, care little about whether the education you offer is a quality product, and if you have little faith in the transformative power of that education, then these kinds of changes are going to be acceptable to you."

Dennis Hogan@dennismhogan.bsky.social · 3w ago

Many faculty have been sounding the alarm about the problems generative AI poses for student learning. Strangely, some higher ed administrations seem have emerged as major AI boosters. Why? As I write in the latest @hedgehogreview.bsky.social it's a labor story: hedgehogreview.com/issues/the-f...

Spent some time at a small forge in Missouri- a nice 2 week residency that gave me access to forges and power hammers, and enameling for both copper and cast iron. I went with more parts than plans, left with 2 sculptures built and lots of bits to play with. Ran an aluminum casting workshop, too!

And here’s my latest install in Bella Vista Arkansas- this one (Number 114) is all fabricated and cast aluminum. The central column has lived through a few incarnations before arriving here.

I posted prelim shots, but never the installed work. Here she is, Number 113 in the series, in downtown Springfield, MO. She’ll be up on site for the year.

Thinking about why women might not want to use a product that has forced itself into every software interface to confidently shout things that are wrong

blair@blairaf.com · 2mo ago

One of the more misogynistic takes currently trending in the AI policy space is "women use less AI than men because they have less tech literacy" Ok but have you considered that women use less AI than men because we have more tech literacy?

No public service (education, health care, public transit, postal service etc.) should be run like a business. Business only serves investors. Public services serve the people. All of them.

David M. Perry@lollardfish.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Don’t run universities like a business run it as a public good

Gearing up to go places! Prepping this cast iron and steel sculpture to travel for install.

I want to do my part in raising awareness. Texas's Big Bend is set to receive new border security infrastructure, including >100 mi of border wall cutting through Big Bend National Park. Kristi Noem just waived 28 environmental protection laws and regulations to expedite this construction. 🧵 1/4

Texas' Big Bend braces for border wall in national park, worrying local Republicans and Democrats

Locals say the rugged land is enough of a barrier and they're concerned about the impact on the environment and homeowners as the Department of Homeland Security forges ahead.

nbcnews.com

So this. “The so-called “inefficiencies” of the higher-education sector are…the essence of the experience. It is what faculty, students, parents, and alumni most appreciate about higher education and its transformative potential…” Summary 🧵 1/

And Oklahoma just murdered it’s Regional public university system. The second executive order signed today pushes for 90 credit hour undergraduate degrees and ties faculty employment to student job placement and wages after graduation. www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty...

Tenure Eliminated at Oklahoma Colleges

Regional and community college professors will no longer receive tenure; research university faculty are spared, with some exceptions.

insidehighered.com

Well, last night was a nice night. Had an opening in Tulsa, 3 person show with work exploring connections to land, space, and time. I showed from my new bodies of work, so considerably less steel and iron than usual. Still present, still work about work, but with natural materials and found media.

"This promise of an AI future, is really just a collective anxiety that wealthy people have about how well they're gonna be able to control us in the future." - @tressiemcphd.bsky.social with an absolute mic drop moment about AI bullshit. Incredible words. Listen to all of it!

Higher education, if done right, will transform you into a LIFELONG learner. I am curious about so many things because my curiosity was cultivated in college. A BA/BS is only the beginning. You should be reading, visiting museums, going to concerts, debating and discussing things for LIFE.

You can’t handle the truth Charlie Brown.

Popehat@kenwhite.bsky.social · 9mo ago

All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain, Charlie Brown.

It's about that time of year again....

The Dept of Education is now accepting comments on a proposed rule that would overhaul Public Service Loan Forgiveness, and make it too expensive for students to go into work that threatens the Trump administration Folks have til *Sept. 17* to oppose the changes ballsandstrikes.org/legal-cultur...

The Trump White House Is Trying to Price Law Students Out of Public Service

A proposed Department of Education rule would make borrowers ineligible for loan forgiveness if the administration doesn’t approve of their work.

ballsandstrikes.org

Installed number 106 from my Biomechanical Evolution series, an outdoor sculpture, on 3 year loan yesterday- 2 cast iron columns and fabricated steel. She seems happy in her new temporary environment.

Art historian weighing in to say instead of using AI to make sh*t up about Hopper's work, you could instead look at the actual sketches he made for a painting like Nighthawks—freely available online—& use your own brain to get real insight into his artistic process whitney.org/collection/w...

Drew Harwell@drewharwell.com · last yr.

You know that classic Edward Hopper painting evoking isolation and despair? We used AI to make it look terrible for no reason

Societies never know it, but the war of an artist with his society is a lover's war, and he does, at his best, what lovers do, which is to reveal the beloved to himself and, with that revelation, to make freedom real. -Baldwin

I wonder how much it would cost to pay teachers and other frontline academics properly, and hire assistants for them as well And would that amount be greater than the total amount being spent to stuff AI down everyone's throat in the hope of "saving money" and "maximizing profit"

Shannon Mattern@shannonmattern.bsky.social · last yr.

“…faculty members will be able to click an icon that connects them with various AI features…, like a grading tool, a discussion-post summarizer… Canvas’s parent company, Instructure, is also in partnership w/ OpenAI… so instructors can use generative-AI technology as part of their assignments.”

I love that @sarahebond.bsky.social points out that the tech and crypto bros can’t read history books without erasing queerness, which is everywhere in the ancient world.

Why Does Elon Musk Have Such a Straight View of Antiquity?

Musk and other conservatives often omit the role of queer soldiers in ancient military successes when extolling the virtues of Greek warriors.

hyperallergic.com

The bulk of tech bros and people with inherited wealth do not fundamentally understand skilled labor at all because they have always been in a position to fail up, and they assume that they are actually the high performers and that everybody else is more incompetent than they are.

put your toluene and dichloromethane-fed corn in your maga-branded instant pot and REJOICE for you are an american goddamn citizen

🏴🚩 Trans Kafka (any pronouns) 🍉🍉🍉 IS A REAL HUMAN PERSON!@alexpetrovnia.bsky.social · last yr.

*screams unendingly and piercingly in ecotoxicologist* cleantechnica.com/2025/06/12/t...

This is one of the most profound essays I’ve read in years. You don’t need me to tell you that Hanif Abdurraqib is one of the finest writers of our time, but this essay in particular is a hard-won offering. Please read it and share with people you love.

In Defense of Despair

The feeling is most commonly framed as an end point, a level of despondency that cannot be overcome. But it doesn’t have to be so.

newyorker.com

Outdoor sculpture rotation- moved from Sculpture Walk Springfield in Missouri to Bella Vista, Arkansas. All fabricated aluminum. Me for scale. I still like this piece.

It’s turtle-dodging season on the roads around here.

we need to start making some things socially unacceptable again, maybe if we start small we can work our way back up. it is unacceptable to throw litter. absolutely no exceptions whatsoever. unacceptable

The Trumpists were never against "elites." They were only ever against the idea that expertise and authority are built on study, practice and impact, instead of bloodline, divine right, or intrinsic merit. They see themselves as fundamentally better than other people and need others to see it too.

I was notified that I got tenure yesterday, and my students made me this. This is better than the official letter.

New iron casting exhumed from her bonded sand mold this weekend. Cast at the National Conference for Cast Iron Art and Process, poured off my students’ competition furnace. This was made by direct carving into the mold waste from a cast iron skillet mold, and I’m so pleased it.