link will work for everyone Harvard Explores New Center for Conservative Scholarship Amid Trump Attacks The Ivy League school has discussed an effort to ‘support viewpoint diversity’ with potential donors, says it ‘will not be partisan’ https://www.wsj.com/us-news/educati...a?st=RVPxNk&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink excerpt: Central to changing campus culture is controlling who is hired and what they teach. Harvard President Garber has said the school won’t cede that authority. An institute would open the possibility of hiring new faculty focused on classically liberal ideas which, on many of today’s campuses, are often read as conservative. Those ideas, in turn, could reinvigorate debate, which even Harvard administrators say has atrophied. more at the link
@Salvy @basso @pgabriel @Rocketeer @Space Ghost @jo mama so a normal scholarship for kids with good grades and a high SAT score
Is college actually worth it anymore? Gen Z isn’t sure, study says https://nypost.com/2025/07/22/lifestyle/this-is-what-gen-z-really-thinks-about-their-college-degree/
Columbia Agrees to $200 Million Fine to Settle Fight With Trump The White House had canceled more than $400 million in research funding to the university, saying it had failed to protect Jewish students from harassment. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/23/...ytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare In-house counsel seems to think these are pretty favorable terms for Columbia given the extent of the Title VI problems Columbia has had
updated assessment one day later: the agreement is out and folks who've read it say that "Columbia is doing a good job of PR," because even though reporting (like above article in NYT) makes it sound like Columbia didn't give away the store, they in fact, "gave away the store."
gift link will work for everyone Trump’s Next Fight With Universities: Racial ‘Proxies’ in Admissions Conservatives suspect colleges are using covert strategies to diversify their student bodies after affirmative action was struck down https://www.wsj.com/us-news/educati...3?st=Ce7n5E&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
this is important Professor cancels class after learning Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce are engaged: ‘I can’t focus’ https://nypost.com/2025/08/27/us-ne...r-swift-and-travis-kelce-announce-engagement/
didn't have this on my bingo card this morning Far-left gun club professor placed on leave after radical group exposed https://nypost.com/2025/09/29/us-ne...t-redneck-revolt-gun-club-membership-exposed/ excerpt: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has placed a professor who is a member of a far-left gun club on administrative leave. “The University of North Carolina has informed Dr. Dwayne Dixon, professor of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, that he has been placed on administrative leave, effective immediately, following recent reports and expressions of concern regarding alleged advocacy of politically motivated violence,” Vice Chancellor for Marketing and Communications Dean Stoyer said in a statement to Fox News Digital Monday afternoon. “Placing Dr. Dixon on leave will allow the University to investigate these allegations in a manner that protects the integrity of its assessment. “Depending upon the nature and circumstances of this activity, this conduct could be grounds for disciplinary action up to and including potential termination of employment according to the standards set forth in the Trustee Policies and Regulations Governing Academic Tenure in the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and pursuant to UNC practice,” the statement continued. more at the link
gift link https://www.wsj.com/opinion/uva-jus...4?st=P3yT6w&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink The UVA Model for a Trump Deal The public university worked out a plan with no fines or monitors and preserves academic freedom. By The Editorial Board Oct. 23, 2025 5:51 pm ET Universities have been in fight mode with the Trump Administration, but it doesn’t have to be that way. On Wednesday the University of Virginia signed an agreement with the Justice Department that pauses all federal investigations against the school, without an enormous ransom or coercive new mandates. The agreement specifies that UVA and the government “affirm the importance of and their support for academic freedom.” It says the agreement should not be read as “giving the United States authority to dictate the content of academic speech or curricula.” That’s an important note for intellectual independence. In return, UVA “acknowledges its obligation as a public institution,” supported by federal funds, “to maintain admissions, employment, discipline and speech policies and practices that prevent the suppression of speech and discrimination based on political viewpoint.” Under the new agreement, Virginia also pledges to meet the standards laid out as “best practices” in the Administration’s July guidance for schools that take federal funding. Under the July guidance, schools that receive federal funding should avoid “unlawful preferential treatment” including race-based scholarship programs or preferential hiring or promotion programs that “prioritize candidates from underrepresented groups.” It also prohibits the use of exclusionary “safe spaces” that imply access only to students “of a specific racial or ethnic group.” Many of the practices specified in the document are already questionable under the Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, but some schools figured they could disguise their noncompliance. The Justice guidance makes that less likely by expecting federally funded schools not to “use proxies for protected characteristics.” That means no narratives about “overcoming obstacles” to signal race or geographic proxies with “intent to advantage or disadvantage” based on race. This is merely asking the school to follow the law. If all goes well between now and December 2028, the Justice Department agrees to “close the remaining investigations [into UVA] and shall pursue no enforcement actions, grant or funding terminations, or monetary fines for alleged violations of Civil Rights Laws that took place” before the agreement. The school will report to the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights on progress each quarter, and interim UVA President Paul Mahoney will have to certify the report “under penalty of perjury.” But the agreement doesn’t require UVA to pay a fine, and there will be no external monitor to police the university’s compliance. In other words, the deal appears to strike a balance that will ensure the university obeys the law without coercive overreach. It looks like a welcome step back from the Administration’s “compact” offer to universities that included far more school governance directives. Give Mr. Mahoney and Assistant AG Harmeet Dhillon credit for finding a way out of the legal showdown while preserving the crucial essence of academic freedom. Appeared in the October 24, 2025, print edition as 'The UVA Model for a Trump Deal'.
gift link, no paywall Cornell Reaches Deal with Trump Administration to Restore Research Funds The Ivy League university had warned of layoffs after the Trump administration stripped it of funds this year. The cuts were among the deepest in higher education. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/07/...e_code=1.zU8.P1w1.AN3YxROyn8po&smid=url-share
