Attempts to appease political and pseudo intellectual critics has been a dominant trend in higher ed over the last decade—to the point of cooperating with unprecedented levels of state/federal censorship of teaching + research and political interference in university self-governance.
Washington Post article on STEM cuts at federal agencies. NSF tops it at -42%!
“Between January 2025 and February 2026, STEM and health employees at science-focused agencies saw nearly 15,000 jobs cut. The rate outpaced cuts among other federal workers.”
OPM data - Figure from Wash Post article 19 April. (Where US science has been hit hardest.)
NSF at -42%!
this is just a warmed over david duke speech from 1990
I have written elsewhere that academics demanding pay and credit for public engagement is a neoliberal trap. People need jobs, healthcare, housing, and education. This includes artists and writers of all kinds. Employed academics don't need micropayments and merit points for doing public engagement.
Another example demonstrating that the federal science and research ecosystem is being seriously damaged regardless of what’s ultimately appropriated
"Mission Aborted: How NASA Illegally Implemented the President's Budget Request Without Congressional Approval" - Minority Staff Report Prepared for Members of the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, US House of Representatives - April 2026
Just released: "Mission Aborted: How NASA Illegally Implemented the President's Budget Request Without Congressional Approval" - Minority Staff Report Prepared for Members of the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, US House of Representatives democrats-science.house.gov/imo/media/do...
It was old family lore that all the Swedes ended up in Rockford because it was the end of the train line. But this always confused me growing up, because Rockford didn't have a passenger train (in my lifetime)!
Elite higher ed has many problems, but the key factor driving down trust is political. Look at the graph - backlash against costs, admissions, etc. can't explain the changes we see. We should still reform our institutions and refocus on our core mission, but blindly blaming ourselves is abuser logic
Nothing in this report indicates that this Yale committee is even aware of the existence of public 4-year colleges. When laying out the higher ed landscape they only mention "large public land-grant institutions" and "community colleges", leaving out the institutions that serve 70% of US undergrads.
Members and staff of AAPT and AAS are on Capitol Hill today advocating for science and STEM education funding! Join them by requesting a meeting with your local congressional office: ow.ly/eiBR50YJTeh #WeekofAction #SaveScience 🔭
@aas.org
Two workshop participants sit at a table discussing ideas while working on a laptop during a collaborative session.
Have expertise in #astronomy education that you'd like to share with the AAS community through a workshop? The AAS Education Committee is now accepting Letters of Intent for the 2027 funding cycle. Letters are due 24 April. aas.org/posts/news/2...
It was confounding to see senior Yale faculty nod to the protection they have from tenure.. and then use that security to publicly self immolate.
The national media is eating up this report as justification for perpetuating the lie that universities themselves - as opposed to decades of attacks from the far right authoritarian party - are responsible for eroding trust in higher education. You can almost hear them salivating at the chance.
No one is going to close Yale if the anti-university flames are fanned even higher. But small public colleges are put at real risk by this largely manufactured narrative. It would help us all out if the wealthy, elite institutions would at least refrain from reinforcing the attacks on higher ed.
I'd invite the members of the Yale committee to read up on RPUs -- maybe pay one a visit! We already have highly inclusive admissions, we don't load students up on debt, and we are great stewards of public funds (i.e., we operate on a shoestring). aascu.org/resources/is...
Yale was founded in 1701 to educate students “for Publick employment both in Church and Civil State.”10 Like most colleges at the time, it was then a small, private, and religious institution. Over the next three centuries, higher education in the United States was transformed by the founding of large public land-grant institutions, by the rise of the research university with an emphasis on graduate study and professional training, by the creation of community colleges, and by a dramatic expansion in both the size and nature of the nation’s student body.
Regional public 4-year colleges don't get a mention in the Yale committee's description of higher ed in the US, but those apparently invisible institutions provide 70% of undergraduates in the US with an affordable & accessible education.
Scene from When Harry Met Sally, with Meg Ryan saying "Is one of us supposed to be a dog in this scenario? Who is the dog? Who is the dog? I am? I am the dog?"
Scene from When Harry Met Sally, with Meg Ryan saying "If anyone is the dog, you are the dog"
Yale is not remotely representative of the greater US higher education ecosystem, but they could at least try to be champions for it. FFS www.nytimes.com/2026/04/15/u...
A very furry black and yellow caterpillar on a car tire
A cute Eastern tent caterpillar that I relocated to a safer spot today 🐛
And Eastman kind of sputtered, as if it were too obvious to mention, but finally said: "Well, they're teaching kids in school that they can be any gender they like!"
So now: he still has the freedom, if he likes, to choose his gender. But he can't practice law in CA.
🎉
Today's class topic is massive star evolution, so I'll get to share this fun song about the massive WR star R136A1, by my talented friend Conor Loughridge of the Wiggly Tendrils 🔭🎶 thewigglytendrils.bandcamp.com/track/r136a1...
"These people are my enemies. I have only ill will for this project and wish them failure, because this vision for a future of postsecondary education is a recipe for mass immiseration and public disempowerment."
Our neighborhood in WAVL still holds weekly potlucks around the drive-up water distribution station that one neighbor built to share their well water after Helene. No one could forget the generosity and cooperation we found during that time as a community. I expect the trauma bonds in MN will last.
Starlink 34343 failed on Mar 29 in a fatal energetic event which raised its apogee by 30 km and generated observed (but so far uncataloged) debris. Since then the orbit has undergone natural decay. Current orbit is 547 x 574 km.
"[Bessent] was a leading member of the SFM group, which profited by $1 billion on Black Wednesday, the British pound sterling crisis. In 2013, he made SFM another $1.2 billion by betting against the Japanese yen." 🤔https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Bessent
Yes!!
The camera on my phone is shattered -- but you can get the gist.
This blooming mountain azalea(?) on campus today smelled so amazing that it stopped me in my tracks. Seriously, every human and bee in Asheville needs to smell these flowers.
