By all means, call out problems! But we also need to start talking about why the academy is necessary and good, not just about its flaws.

Today in Teaching in Higher Ed

A hill I will die on

Just horrifying to watch once excellent universities voluntarily destroying themselves.

A Forbes article about a father who killed eight children, with an embedded prediction widget inviting people to speculate on whether "Congress will pass new gun safety legislation before 31st December 2026"

ghoulish

DG The Daily Galaxy A 10-Year-Old Girl Wrote to NASA Asking Them to 'Restore Pluto to a Planet,' and NASA's chief Replied with Four Words No One Expected

"No. They know why."

Someday, with luck and hard work, she will have a name too.

just write it terrible for five minutes and see where it goes. or write questions to yourself into the draft—“what the fuck goes here, i don’t know, but it’s something about blah blah this will sound smarter later” is acceptable rough draft material

Come join the 2027 SPSP Misinformation & Belief Science Preconference Committee! You would serve for 3 years: 1 as Future Co-Chair, 1 as Co-Chair (Cameron Kay and Sze Yuh Nina Wang), and 1 as Past Co-Chair (me & @jgranadossamayoa.bsky.social). If you are interested, apply by 05/01/2026! Link below!

Why Yale’s term paper on what’s wrong with college gets a ‘D-’ | Will Bunch An Ivy League university's report on the loss of faith in higher ed ignores what really killed the American Dream of college.

That Yale report on what's wrong with U.S. college saw some trees (high cost, unfair admission, etc.) but missed the forest: the 60-year right-wing crusade to undermine higher ed, from slashing budgets to stifling speech

How to really fix college. My new column www.inquirer.com/opinion/yale...

Y'all are gonna lose your minds when you hear about horses.

🧵 that demonstrates the social and economic policies that would allow us to foster and support the development of genius, as opposed to the eugenic idea that it is innate and genetic

The “Censorship Industrial Complex” was all projection. Someone tell Michael Shellenberger lol. Someone tell Jacob Siegel! 😂

Totally, not defending ed schools writ large. But I also know a lot of really good quant researchers in that space who've done a lot to push back on Jo's claims. I think there are incentive issues that affect who becomes popular & influential that work against quality (just like in business schools)

Cover of report "Mission Aborted: how NASA illegally implemented the president's budget request without congressional approval. Minority staff report, prepared by members of the committee on science, space, and technology, us house of representatives, April 2026

This report came out today by minority staff of the House science committee on how three NASA missions were aborted due to NASA illegally following the FY26 president's budget request instead of congressionally approved budget. Very important reading. 🔭🧪 democrats-science.house.gov/staff-report...

Oh no, I'm so sorry Joe. Glad you're starting to find some answers.

I don't know about that. I think IES funded some really high quality quant studies. But like any field where there's strong external pressures working against research quality (schools pay a lot of money for curricula, professional development and consultants) you end up with a lot of shit.

Oh, good to know. I preordered the book so have a copy but haven't started any projects yet. It's such a great collection of projects!!

Me: Higher ed is in terrible shape
Fact check:

oooof.. anyone know of any successful appeals of a submitted NIH proposal being "administratively withdrawn"?

Ugh, sorry Gary

Dungeons & Dragons Crochet: A Book of Many Patterns A Book of Many Patterns

Got lots of street cred from the DnD group today when someone posted the new crochet book and I said that I online knew one of the designers. @bextraordinary.bsky.social you're famous!! The group is obsessed with the owlbear.

bookshop.org/p/books/dung...

This is nuts, including MSG’s legal threats against Wired. When I wrote about a fan banned by MSG surveillance, flaks tried to circumvent The Verge’s on-background policy. When I noted they declined to speak on the record, they sent me some…. truly wild emails.
www.theverge.com/news/637228/...

Who Gets a Guggenheim? This Professor Has An Answer Education and public policy professor Dominique Baker looked at 30,000 Guggenheim recipients to determine how influential institutional affiliation is in determining who gets one of the prestigious fe...

Cool interview about my latest work conducted with my "co-collaborator and husband, RTI International research analyst @chrisbennettedu.bsky.social." (never gets old)

We talked about why this work matters, some of potential solutions, and what's next. 1/

www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty...

The combo of the laundry basket, the owl muppets, and the parent projecting “touch my babies and I kill you immediately” is really working here

The circle of death is:

Cut faculty (or non-replace) so you offer fewer classes so fewer people enroll so you cut faculty so you offer fewer classes so fewer people enroll so then the market has spoken.

Added a new extra credit question for my Cognition in the Real World seminar exam - "My favorite reading was ________ because ________." Very fun to see what stuck out to students and the then pass along the kudos to the authors.

Highlighted in red: "Political interference is inappropriately shaping or interfering in the conduct, management, communication, or use of science for political advantage or such that it undermines impartiality, nonpartisanship, or professional judgement"

"HHS works to promote a culture of scientific integrity by creating an empowering environment for innovation and protecting scientists and the process of science from inappropriate interference. Scientific findings and products must not be suppressed, delayed, or altered for political purposes and must not be subjected to political interference or inappropriate influence. The responsible and ethical conduct of research and other scientific activities requires an environment that is safe and free from harassment and discrimination" Highlighted in red are "suppressed, delayed, or altered for political purposes", "subjected to political interference", and "inappropriate influence."

"HHS works to promote a culture of scientific integrity by creating an empowering environment for innovation and protecting scientists and the process of science from inappropriate interference. Scientific findings and products must not be subjected to interference or inappropriate influence and must not be inappropriately suppressed, delayed, or altered. The responsible and ethical conduct of research and other scientific activities requires an environment that is safe and free from harassment and discrimination." Highlighted in green are "subjected to interference or inappropriate influence" and "inappropriately suppressed, delayed, or altered."

Text, with "political" highlighted in red to indicate removal: I. Protecting Scientific Processes Scientific integrity fosters "honest scientific investigation, open discussion, refined understanding, and a firm commitment to evidence" (OSTP 2010). It also enables consideration and documentation of differing scientific opinions. Practices that support scientific integrity may include peer review and open science. Science, and public trust in science, thrives in an environment that prevents political interference and inappropriate influence from impacting scientific data and analyses and their use in decision making. It is the policy of HHS to: 1. Prohibit political interference or other inappropriate influence in the design, proposal, conduct, review, management, evaluation, communication about, and use of scientific activities and scientific information. Prohibit inappropriate restrictions on resources and capacity that limit and reduce the availability of science and scientific products (e.g., manuscripts for scientific journals, presentations for workshops, conferences, and symposia) outside of normal budgetary or priority-setting processes or without scientific, legal, or security justification. 3. Require that leadership and management ensure that covered individuals engaged in scientific activities can conduct their work objectively, free from political interference or other inappropriate influence, and free from retaliation.

HHS just published an update to its Scientific Integrity Policy. Notably, it has removed the concept of political interference, and no longer calls it out as something specifically to be prevented.
www.hhs.gov/sites/defaul... (deletions in red, insertions in green)

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