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#universities

54 posts48 participants3 posts today
Public
DoomsdaysCW

#Trump upends #DOJ's #CivilRightsDivision, sparking 'bloodbath' in senior ranks

Trump's hand-picked head of the division has outlined priorities that are dramatically at odds with the way past administrations have enforced #CivilRights law.

April 23, 2025, 7:29 PM EDT
By Ken Dilanian

Excerpt: "Founded in 1957 after the passage of the 20th century’s first major civil rights legislation, the Civil Rights Division has always been subject to the policy preferences of the president, and enforcement priorities tend to differ in Republican and Democratic administrations. But there is no precedent for the changes that have been made over the last three months, which are far more consequential than anything that occurred in Trump’s first term, current and former officials say.

" 'I was there almost 18 years, and what’s happening now is basically the opposite of what we’ve been doing,' said a veteran lawyer who recently left the department. 'In the first Trump administration, they engaged with us as attorneys. The political appointees were normal lawyers. Sometimes we persuaded them and sometimes they disagreed, but there was always a conversation about why and what the law required. That is not happening.'

"In the Biden administration, the Civil Rights Division convicted 180 police officers of violating people’s civil rights, according to Justice Department records. It also prosecuted a variety of high-profile hate crimes cases, including one against the Texas man who targeted Mexicans when he killed 23 people at a Walmart in El Paso and the Pennsylvania man who killed 11 congregants at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh.

"Among the many settlements over racial discrimination, the division secured reforms at Hawkins County Schools in Tennessee, where an investigation found that incidents of harassment — including a mock 'slave auction' to sell Black students to their white counterparts and a 'monkey of the month' campaign to ridicule Black students — created a racially hostile environment. On voting rights, the division successfully challenged an Arizona law requiring people registering to vote to list their birthplaces and provide proof of citizenship.

"Current and former employees say many of those enforcement actions are unimaginable under the new regime.

" 'They are withdrawing everything we’ve done and taking the opposite side on voting rights, for example,' said a recently departed Civil Division lawyer. 'This is not ‘Oh, we want to do more religion cases’ or ‘We don’t want to do creative redlining cases.’ This is abandoning everything that we have done in the past. They are actively anti-civil rights. This didn’t happen in Trump 1.'

"Dhillon took office April 7, but the changes had already been underway. So far the Civil Rights Division has suspended investigations of police abuse and launched probes into whether Los Angeles is violating people’s gun rights and whether American #universities are tolerating antisemitism. The division was also involved in the lawsuit filed last week accusing the state of #Maine of violating the law by allowing #TransgenderAthletes to participate on women’s sports teams."

Read more:
nbcnews.com/politics/justice-d

#TrumpIsABully #TrumpIsARacist #Fascism #AmeriKKKa #USPol
#CharacteristicsOfFascism #TrumpIsAWhiteSupremacist #BlackLivesMatter

NBC News · Trump upends DOJ's Civil Rights Division, sparking 'bloodbath' in senior ranksBy Ken Dilanian
Public
George Macgregor

The #Trump administration of lunacy continues its quest to take the #USA back to the Dark Ages -- and again demonstrates zero understanding of #scholarship. Y'know, concepts like 'evidence', 'peer review', 'empiricism' (!?!?).

I guess I'm just astonished that so many US citizens are taking this insidious trolling lying down. I know many aren't. But some are. C'mon compadres, where is the 'Tea Party spirit'?!

nytimes.com/2025/04/25/health/ #NEJM #research #universities

A letter from a Washington prosecutor accused the publication of partisanship “in various scientific debates.”
The New York Times · ‘Vaguely Threatening’: Federal Prosecutor Queries Leading Medical JournalBy Teddy Rosenbluth
Public
Benjamin Carr, Ph.D. 👨🏻‍💻🧬

#Trump vs. #Science
American research thrived under a patronage system that funnels congressionally approved dollars to #universities, #nationallabs and institutes. Knowledge factory employs tens of thousands of researchers, draws talent from around world and generates scientific breakthroughs and #NobelPrizes.
#Facts are #elite, facts are fungible, facts are false. And once nothing is true, anything can be true.
Now some American scientists are looking for the exits.
nytimes.com/2025/04/25/briefin

Inside a lab at the Harvard School of Public Health.
The New York Times · Trump vs. ScienceBy Alan Burdick
Public *
petersuber

#Indiana #Republicans just executed a sudden takeover of #IndianaUniversity without any legislative debate.
indystar.com/story/news/politi

"Over the course of 36 hours at the tail end of the three-month legislative session, Indiana lawmakers made significant policy changes that fundamentally alter how state universities conduct themselves. These changes ― among them, giving Gov. Mike Braun sole appointing power over Indiana University's board of trustees, subjecting tenured faculty to "productivity" quotas that could lead to termination, dissolving the decision-making power of faculty governance organizations ― were never the subject of a filed bill or amendment and saw no opportunity for public testimony."

In Indiana, the governor is Republican and both chambers of the legislature are controlled by Republicans.

#Academia #Universities #USPol #USPolitics
@academicchatter

The Indianapolis Star · 'Complete takeover': Lawmakers exert control over university policy in 11th hourBy , The Indianapolis Star
Continued thread
Public *
kali

and leave me alone with your freedom-of -speech BS. freedom isn't free, bitch.

literally like the town square in life of brian. every possible idiot gets a say!

do you even understand that now your funding is being cut bc of turnips like sachs telling people jill fucking stein has an actual chance to win the US election? the #science isn't really sciencing, u know.

invited clowns to every level of society & now you wondering why you have a circus.

#USpol #science #university #universities.

Public *
kali

dear #USpol #science #university #universities.

I HAVE NO MORE PATIENCE FOR U GUYS.

you keep on housing russian assets and let them give talks about how europe should just befriend ruzzia.

makes me wonder just how deep the ruzzians are into you.

yeah, let's hear jeffrey sach, an economist with 0 professional authority on eastern europe about how eastern europeans should "just befriend #ruzzia."

why should i trust you on anything ever again?!

Public
tgkarounos

Ενδιαφέρον άρθρο για όσους ενδιαφέρονται για την χρήση της τεχνητής νοημοσύνης στην εκπαίδευση.
...
" #Bullshit #universities: the future of automated #education
...
Harry Frankfurt famously defined bullshit as speech characterized by a ‘lack of concern with truth, or an indifference to how things really are’ (Frankfurt 2002: 340; Frankfurt 2005). "
... link.springer.com/article/10.1

SpringerLinkBullshit universities: the future of automated education - AI & SOCIETYThe advent of ChatGPT, and the subsequent rapid improvement in the performance of what has become known as Generative AI, has led to many pundits declaring that AI will revolutionize education, as well as work, in the future. In this paper, we argue that enthusiasm for the use of AI in tertiary education is misplaced. A proper understanding of the nature of the outputs of AI suggests that it would be profoundly misguided to replace human teachers with AI, while the history of automation in other settings suggests that it is naïve to think that AI can be developed to assist human teachers without replacing them. The dream that AI could teach students effectively neglects the importance of ‘learning how’ in order to ‘learn that’, that teachers are also role models, and the social nature of education. To the extent that students need to learn how to use AI, they should do so in specialized study skills units. Rather than creating a market for dodgy educational AI by lowering their ambitions about what they can offer, universities should invest in smaller class sizes and teachers who are passionate about their disciplines. To flourish in the future, just as much as they do today, societies will need people who have learned to think and not—or not just—intelligent machines.
Public
Theodoros G. Karounos

Ενδιαφέρον άρθρο για όσους ενδιαφέρονται για την χρήση της τεχνητής νοημοσύνης στην εκπαίδευση.
...
" #Bullshit #universities: the future of automated #education
...
Harry Frankfurt famously defined bullshit as speech characterized by a ‘lack of concern with truth, or an indifference to how things really are’ (Frankfurt 2002: 340; Frankfurt 2005). "
... link.springer.com/article/10.1

SpringerLinkBullshit universities: the future of automated education - AI & SOCIETYThe advent of ChatGPT, and the subsequent rapid improvement in the performance of what has become known as Generative AI, has led to many pundits declaring that AI will revolutionize education, as well as work, in the future. In this paper, we argue that enthusiasm for the use of AI in tertiary education is misplaced. A proper understanding of the nature of the outputs of AI suggests that it would be profoundly misguided to replace human teachers with AI, while the history of automation in other settings suggests that it is naïve to think that AI can be developed to assist human teachers without replacing them. The dream that AI could teach students effectively neglects the importance of ‘learning how’ in order to ‘learn that’, that teachers are also role models, and the social nature of education. To the extent that students need to learn how to use AI, they should do so in specialized study skills units. Rather than creating a market for dodgy educational AI by lowering their ambitions about what they can offer, universities should invest in smaller class sizes and teachers who are passionate about their disciplines. To flourish in the future, just as much as they do today, societies will need people who have learned to think and not—or not just—intelligent machines.
Public
George Macgregor

The level of vandalism currently being inflicted on #academia within the #USA -- and on the concept of #scholarship more generally -- beggars belief. It feels like the vandalism is irreparable too; rebuilding what has been lost, or even persuading scholars who left in the #Trump exodus to return, is going to take decades. Within a few months the US has become an anti-intellectual paradise.

Major #Education Resource Set to Shut Down This Week
governing.com/policy/major-edu
#DOGE #universities #ERIC

1805_Chicago Schools 256.jpg
Governing · Major Education Resource Set to Shut Down This WeekThe federal Department of Education maintains an open access database of more than 2 million documents dating back to the 1960s. It will cease operating Wednesday due to DOGE cuts.
Public
A Sweet Gentleman

"The academic leaders vowed to resist Trump’s efforts for “retribution, censorship, or deportation.”
The statement was signed by the heads of numerous prominent universities, including Harvard University, University of Pennsylvania, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Yale University, and more."

truthout.org/articles/over-200

Protesters hold signs including 'Harvard: Protect International Students' and 'Stand Up to Bullies!' during a Cambridge Common rally on April 12, 2025, in Cambridge, Massachussetts.
Truthout · Over 200 Higher Education Institutions Pledge to Resist Trump AttacksThe academic leaders vowed to resist Trump’s efforts for “retribution, censorship, or deportation.”…
#USpol#trump#education
Public
Preston MacDougall

With #Cornell and #Yale Presidents signing onto the statement by the #American Association of #Colleges and #Universities opposing the autocratic #Trump restrictions on #AcademicFreedom , the only Ivy League school that has not joined the now 300+ signatories is Dartmouth College, which is more like a #fraternity masquerading as a #HigherEd institution anyway. #ChangeMyMind
cornellsun.com/article/2025/04

#Resist. #DoNotComply and #DoNotCollaborateWithFascists in #USpol.

Kotlikoff Joins More Than 230 Higher Education Leaders in Signing Letter Against Trump’s ‘Political Interference’ - The Cornell Daily SunKotlikoff Joins More Than 230 Higher Education Leaders in Signing Letter Against Trump’s ‘Political Interference’President Michael Kotlikoff signed a statement condemning the federal government’s political interference in universities as “endangering American higher education” this week.
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