Higher Education News From Around The Web
Dan Mithcell’s UCLA Faculty Association Blog:
- by UnknownFrom Forbes: A group of the nation’s leading research universities has requested that a federal judge allow them to file a legal brief supporting Harvard University’s lawsuit against the Trump administration over more than $2 billion in frozen federal grant money. The 18 institutions requesting permission to file an amicus curiae (or “friend of the […]
- by UnknownFrom the Harvard Crimson: The Harvard Medical School renamed its diversity office and announced changes to several major diversity, equity, and inclusion programs [last] Wednesday in the latest rollback of diversity infrastructure at Harvard. In a morning email to affiliates, HMS Dean George Q. Daley ’82 wrote that the changes were part of an effort […]
- by UnknownThe legislature has to pass a "budget" by June 15 under the state constitution. However, court decisions have given the legislature the power to determine what a budget is. So it can pass something, call it a budget, and continue to negotiate with the governor.Nonetheless, we now know something about what the legislature wants for […]
- by UnknownWe continue to note the seeming paradox of more state cash coming in than projected and yet a budget squeeze. From Jason Sisney of the LAO:May Income Taxes Beat Forecast. Preliminary data from the state’s tax agencies show that May 2025 personal and corporate income tax revenues beat the May Revision projections for that month […]
- by UnknownA lawsuit challenging federal research grant cancellations has been filed by three researchers at UC-San Francisco. This is a "private" effort rather than a filing by UC or the Regents. However, one of the lawyers filing the suit is UC-Berkeley law dean Erwin Chermerinsky. And it is filed on behalf of the three plus "all […]
Chris Newfield & Michael Meranze’s Remaking the University
- by Chris NewfieldAmsterdam, the Netherlands, on May 28, 2025The foundation I direct, the ISRF, had particularly good annual board meetings at the end of May, in Amsterdam as usual. I then got food poisoning, which was a uniquely energy-draining experience that lasted a week. My advice is never ingest campylobacter bacteria for any reason, which seems to be what […]
- by Chris NewfieldIrvine, California on May 25, 2018 by Trevor Griffey, UC Irvine. How does it feel to be laid off unnecessarily? June 1 is the deadline for University of California (UC) campuses to reappoint lecturers, who teach one third of all undergraduate classes at UC, for the 2025-26 school year. Our union, UC-AFT, expects hundreds of UC instructors across […]
- by Chris NewfieldSanta Barbara on December 24, 2023 In the May Revision of his January budget proposal for 2025-26, California Governor Gavin Newsom cut his cut to the two state university systems. CSU Chancellor Mildred García wrote, “The May Revision reduces proposed cuts to the CSU to 3% or $143.8 million of ongoing funding – down from the […]
- by Chris NewfieldBattery, New York on November 2, 2022 Trump’s opening blitzkrieg has happened, the first defenses are in place, and the colossal damage has been done. What are the university system’s next moves?More lawsuits. I was ecstatic about the May Day lawsuit against the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). It’s seeking to block the DOGE decimation of grants, workforce, and programs. Plaintiffs […]
- by Chris NewfieldSan Francisco Bay on October 20, 2017 Deadlines collide and last week I wrote three pieces, with a common preoccupation of “Reversing Helplessness,” the title of my ISRF Director’s Note for May. I’ll come back to this issue over the next few days. On Friday I was interviewed by email by Kathryn Palmer at Inside Higher Ed. The […]
Here are the latest posts from the Berkeley Faculty Association:
- by Michael BurawoyOn May 14, John A. Pérez, Chair of the Board of Regents, and Michael V. Drake, UC President, made a joint statement, congratulating Governor Newsom for “proposing the largest state investment in UC’s history.” The statement waxed enthusiastic about the transformative impact of the revised budget. Reading between the lines and examining the often–elusive details, […]
- by Michael BurawoyShared governance, the concept of administration and faculty making policy and decisions together, has a long history at Berkeley. Our campus’s Academic Senate has more power than most such bodies across the country: the Budget Committee plays a central role in determining FTE, granting tenure and promotion, and other Senate committees control curriculum and set […]
- by Michael BurawoyJust in time for Mother’s Day, parents with children in campus childcare faced plans for increased tuition, shorter hours, and reduced staff next fall. Meanwhile, UCOP is putting the final touches on an improved paid family leave program that is still worse than that of comparable employers throughout the state. Why is the University of […]
- by Michael BurawoyIn early April, the UC unveiled their “Proposed Revisions for UCPD” plans. One proposal is the creation of “Systemwide Response Teams”—in effect, a UC paramilitary force that can be mobilized in response to protest actions, and to provide crowd management and “riot control.” These teams would be armed with body armor, chemical agents, and explosive […]
- by Michael BurawoyThe lecturers’ union (UC-AFT) and UCOP have been bargaining over a new contract for more than two years, with little to show for it. Despite the legal obligation to bargain in good faith, the UCOP negotiators have refused to bargain on basic issues, while regularly demonstrating their disrespect for their UC-AFT interlocutors. Senate faculty who have […]
National higher education blogs of interest, starting with AAUP’s Academe Blog:
- by Hank ReichmanPOSTED BY HANK REICHMAN Jay Bhattacharya, appointed by President Trump to head the National Institutes of Health (NIH), first gained national notoriety as a principal author of the so-called Great Barrington Declaration of 2020, which condemned the NIH for ignoring calls to mostly cease pandemic-related precautions. Now over 300 NIH staff have published the Bethesda…
- by Hank ReichmanBY HANK REICHMAN On May 25, the Black Flag Action Group, formed by scholars at Israeli colleges and universities, issued an important Urgent Call to Action demanding the heads of Israeli academic institutions “speak out” and “act immediately” to stop the war on Gaza. By May 31 the Call had collected over 1,400 signatures. As…
- by Jonathan ReesBY JONATHAN REES I’m borrowing the title for this post from a Lewis Black rant on the Daily Show, but it’s this news from the New York Times that should give us all more reason to be unrelentingly hostile to AI: OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, has a plan to overhaul college education—by embedding its…
- by Matthew BoedyBY MATTHEW BOEDY Recently my public university system in Georgia announced that all syllabi in our 25-school system would be made public through a searchable database. This fall “core” classes and those in the college of education will have syllabi public and others phased in after that. Georgia is not the first state to mandate…
- by Jonathan ReesBY JONATHAN REES This post is about the biggest threat to the jobs of college professors in America today. No, not that guy. Not the guy with the chain saw either. I’m writing about that other subject that you’re sick of reading about because it just makes you depressed. I first wrote about AI for…