Picture of a bluff overlooking the buffalo river.

Happy earth day.

Buffalo River, Arkansas

Just had an IES grant reinstated 13 months after it was terminated. Now THAT is efficiency!

couldn't agree more. author makes it out to be bipartisan then pretty much exclusively quotes AEI. No critical lens whatsoever on how these accountability policies are part of admin efforts to attack and delegitimize higher ed

The Danger of Silence When Academic Freedom Is Under Threat Inaction from rank-and-file workers enabled government censorship during the Red Scares.

This column by @bakerdphd.bsky.social rocks

It also encouraged me to take out No Ivory Tower from the library

This is really cool to see.

Feels like we've reached a tipping point in higher ed where college sports (mostly football & basketball) rep colleges in name only and make tons of $$ even as resources for actual college missions are gutted

Hope to see more of this from big names in college athletics

would love to see the citations :)

i'm new to the profession but, man, there's so much expertise on campus. why use funds on big consulting firms

Notes from faculty meeting with college admin this am

faculty member: what's the university doing to increase seed funds for faculty research given federal cuts?

admin: we're working with boston consulting group to strategize

me (internally): why not use the money for consulting for seed grants?

should also mention paper is open access!

Expanding school counseling: The impacts of California funding changes Counselors are a common school resource for students navigating complicated and consequential education choices, but most students have limited access…

me and @cmulhern.bsky.social's paper on school counselors is out in econ of ed review

We find more funding for counselors in California in the 2000s increased grad rates, college enrollment & school climate

in short: counselors improve student outcomes and we should invest more in them!

NYC’s small landlords say they won’t survive Mamdani plan to freeze rent New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani has criticized landlords and vowed to freeze what tenants in rent-stabilized apartments pay monthly.

When I lived in nyc, my 'small' landlord raised my rent well beyond inflation every year. when i asked why, they said it was to help cover increased costs of maintaining their vacation home in vermont

Cue the quasi experiments

link.springer.com/content/pdf/...

Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education terminates 16 OU degree programs, suspends 3 others The Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education approved the termination of 16 and the suspension of three OU degree programs Friday as part of the board's comprehensive review of programs

Most 'deleted' programs are in the humanities, following bills from UT, OH and IN that require workforce demand justifications.

The survival of programs in higher is increasingly tied to perceptions of workforce demand, a problem I write at length about in Higher Ed Handbook. Link in comments

will be interesting to see if the courts can eventually provide us with a clear definition of professional programs...thanks for putting this together

our dept. at the university of arkansas is hiring a tenure-track AP of adult and lifelong learning. feel free to dm if interested

it is a huge bummer that only super rich people will be able to go to world cup games in the US. 2k just to get in the stadium is insane

Headline from NPR on the growth of the school shooting industry

One of the most American headlines I've ever seen

Uniform Policy | Jennifer C. Berkshire Democrats must come up with a defense of public schools that goes beyond bloodless workforce preparation

This is spot on from @jenniferberkshire.bsky.social . It’s soul sucking to constantly frame education as workforce training.

It’s also not clear that going all in on this narrative has or will offer k12 and higher ed more stability and support

Survey: College Students’ Views on AI Key findings from Inside Higher Ed’s student survey on generative AI show that using the evolving technology hasn’t diminished the value of college in their view, but it could affect their critical th...

"Relatively few students say that generative AI has diminished the value of college"

interesting how the loudest voices championing AI in higher ed never seem to be students and faculty 🤔

Majority of college students say they will be affected by Trump’s new tax bill: ‘Honestly, I’m cooked’ Survey shows 60% of students say they would personally feel impact of bill that sets new caps on borrowing

Crazy numbers from US News & World Report survey:

35% of students are thinking about cutting back on their studies
32% about changing degrees
31% about completing school abroad
26% about enlisting in the military for financial support

How Trump’s War on Higher Education Is Hitting Community Colleges

Since NYT spends 99% of the time talking about elite colleges, its worth highlighting when they put out a great piece on community colleges.

CCs are already under resourced, and the trump cuts to higher ed will limit opportunities for social mobility thru these institutions

Epic!

These are the kinds of stats every college and opposition policymaker should be using daily to restore funding and improve public perceptions of higher ed

It’d be cool if Trump threw a curve ball and forgave all student debt thru executive order just to mess w/ SCOTUS

For sure. If Knicks could take care of the ball and make fts it would be closer, but pacers are def the better team

Spotted in Philly:

“For JD Vance”

Attaching a Dollar Amount to the Culture Wars at School Culture wars create legal and operational expenses for schools. A recent report tallies up the cost.

Attaching a dollar amount to the culture wars at school - another $3 billion that could have gone to actually helping students instead of directing resources to combat "small groups of individuals who used threats and misinformation for political advantages."

More than 50 universities under investigation as part of Trump's anti-DEI crackdown More than 50 universities are being investigated for alleged racial discrimination as part of Trump's campaign to end DEI programs that his officials say exclude white and Asian students.

Every college is on the list at this point, no sense believing otherwise

Austerity comes for private higher ed. Public higher ed might not be too far behind