It’s dissertation defense season. Some questions I often ask:
What are your research questions?
Why should anyone care?
What’s your framework?
What’s next after the PhD?

What do others ask at defenses?

The Postliberal University An urgent exploration of the political and social conditions that shape contemporary higher education governanceIn the 2010s, many state governments began to...

At long last, The Postliberal University is available for pre-order! hep.gse.harvard.edu/979889557111...

Some folks are sending students to use claude to teach themselves how to code for class instead of just...teaching the students to code. So now I'm giving them extra resources so they can actually learn.

Higher ed programs should teach more about history/philosophy/sociology of science

Uh, I was just on a panel at the ACE conference in which I asked a co-panelist, “will we see immigration action on campus?” [I knew the answer was yes]

🥹 Thank youuu Dr. Johnson!

It is an honor and privilege to get to be in community with you and the rest of the Virginia Tech AANAPISI faculty cohort @academicmarcusj.bsky.social

The rationales for state regulated teaching loads are B.S. The Chronicle of Higher Education’s Megan Zahneis has a story reporting on efforts advanced by conservative groups and red state legislators to regulate faculty teaching loads.

No one is maing the faculty teach so if state sets minimum requirements people will rebuild trust? I call bullshit. open.substack.com/pub/brendanc...

UCSD Can Live Without the SAT (opinion) Selective institutions like the University of California, San Diego are well-positioned to address preparation gaps—after admission.

In this @insidehighered.com op-ed, Julie J. Park (@univofmaryland.bsky.social) examines UC San Diego’s experience with test-free admissions and responds to critics who say that the policy is setting up students to fail.

🔗🔗 Read: www.insidehighered.com/opinion/view...

Incredibly excited to be part of the 2026 @scholars.org ETSP cohort 3! Y’all. My cohort is inspiring. Watch out for us!

I am not being snarky. I need my colleagues who wrote on covid school lockdowns to engage with this. To be as loud as they have been about prior "learning loss." Hell, you can cite Tom & Mark's AERJ paper so you feel better that there's some econ somewhere in your argument.

What's happening in Minnesota is one reason the Reconstruction Amendments banned insurrectionists from holding office. Unfortunately, the originalists on the Supreme Court interpreted the plain language of the amendment to mean its opposite.

Minority-Serving Institutions and the Higher Education Emergency Relief Funds: Federal Funding Allocations and Policy Considerations Abstract. Grappling with challenges stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic, colleges and universities faced the grim realities of serious budget shortfalls. The federal government responded with three wa...

online early publication here:

direct.mit.edu/edfp/article...

Finally, this article was written with the support of the MSI Data Project. Learn more about the MSI Data Project: www.msidata.org

This was a **years-long** process with Drs. Nguyen, Laderman, and Sherman, and we thank the editors and reviewers for their generous and thoughtful feedback, as well as SHEEO @sheeoed.bsky.social for their support 📚

Our brief provides a descriptive analysis of the #MSI provision of each #HEERF by examining allocations across different MSIs, which reveal considerable distribution differences when comparing between two-year and four-year institutions, across designations, and per student at different MSIs

‼️ Did you know: across all HEERF, a little over 1/3 of funded institutions received funding for **two** MSI designations, and between 5% and 7% of institutions received funding for **three** MSI designations?

‼️ Did you know: colleges and universities that were eligible mission-based and enrollment-based Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs) received MSI-specific provisions from HEERF

Remember the Higher Education Emergency Relief Funds (HEERF)? There were three waves (HEERF I, II, and III) 🌊

🚨🚨 NOW AVAILABLE: "Minority-Serving Institutions and the Higher Education Emergency Relief Funds: Federal Funding Allocations and Policy Considerations" in Education Finance & Policy 🚨🚨

In a moment when coalition building is critical, may the release of this brief on dual- and multi-designated HSIs underline how our fates are intertwined.

Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) represent about 1 in 5 colleges and universities in the U.S. And did you know: 1 in 5 of those HSIs are “dual-designated” w/ another classification?

Read Dra. Stephanie Aguilar-Smith (UGA) and my recently released brief: www.acenet.edu/Documents/In...

It’s public 📰

We were selected for the Association for Institutional Research 2025 Charles F. Elton Best Paper Award

…and it absolutely doesn’t escape me how in this moment, this recognition affirms the role/continued importance of critical data collection and analyses 📊

lnkd.in/gt8-7-w5

As Dra. Garcia aptly summarized: Let's do this messy work together. Take a listen, and let us know what you think 🌻

This episode builds on important episodes ft. Dr. Mike Hoa Nguyen (Season 4, Episode 5) and Dras. Stacey Speller, Natalie Muñoz, Dwuana Bradley, and Gina Tillis (Season 5, Episode 2).

It’s out 🎙️“Solidarity Across Multiple MSI Designations"

Even though we recorded this in Feb, this reminder of solidarity, esp. in these times, remains: We need to resist and rise together now... and it all needs to be rooted in relationship.

Spotify:
lnkd.in/gZyu45t7

YouTube:
lnkd.in/gdzmaHfA

what’s your istorya (story)

greeting the start of the spring conference season with the green power suit 💅🏼

Surveillance is *not* safety!

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 workloads.

A week after cutting half its staff, the Education Department reversed course and asked dozens of laid off workers to come back.

It's one of many details staff shared with me about a "chaotic" process they say has paralyzed what's left of the department.
www.insidehighered.com/news/governm...

Hossam Shabat’s Last Article Filed hours before his killing in an Israeli airstrike, journalist Hossam Shabat describes the resumption of Israel's scorched earth campaign in his hometown of Beit Hanoun.

Hours before he was killed by Israel, Hossam Shabat filed his last report for @dropsitenews.com, “Report from the Frontline of Israel’s War of Annihilation.”

We are publishing Hossam’s story along with a deeply moving tribute to Hossam by Sharif Abdel Kouddous:

www.dropsitenews.com/p/hossam-sha...

‘I Want to Stand Up for Higher Ed’: Protesters Rally Against Education Dept. Cuts As demonstrators gathered in Washington, D.C., researchers met across town to discuss the toll that drastic reductions at the agency would have on their work.

Education researchers seriously doubt that the Education Department will be able to maintain the federal data sets after half the agency’s staff was fired. chroni.cl/4bTbeQk