Read @arneduncan.bsky.social @ambpressman.bsky.social "When institutional self-preservation replaces moral leadership, universities abandon their core mission. This is a striking abdication of responsibility..from leaders entrusted with educating the next generation of citizens." wapo.st/4qomlXe

Read @aoscott.bsky.social "His larger point, though, is that to flout the guarantee of habeas corpus — as he insists the current deportation policy has done — is to threaten the integrity of the American constitutional order itself." And yes, "Jesus wept." www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Read @mollyjongfast.bsky.social on so many “His transactional amorality actually seemed to add to his appeal to people who were convinced that the rules didn’t apply to them.” www.nytimes.com/2026/02/07/o...

Read @ezrakleinbot.bsky.social “Trump’s aides flatter him and lie to us. They indulge his constant distraction and so they too are constantly distracted. They are dominated by him and so they seek to dominate us.” www.nytimes.com/2026/02/01/o...

"Professors are fighting an asymmetric battle against the tide of anti-intellectualism, illiberalism and bad-faith complaints, and will be for the foreseeable future." www.nytimes.com/2026/01/28/o...

Georges gave me life changing advice & support. May his memory be a blessing www.nytimes.com/2026/01/20/o...

“Those who instead choose violence destroy the possibility of learning and meaning. Those of us who choose learning must call out violence, especially when it is sanctioned by our own government.” @aacu.org @mollyjongfast.bsky.social @velshimsnow.bsky.social www.wesleyan.edu/about/news/2...

"You shouldn’t be able to pepper spray [protestors] or execute them on the street because you don’t like what they stand for…this is an aberration." Wesleyan University President @msroth.bsky.social speaks with @velshi.com on the latest rebuke of Trump's attack on college protestors #HigherEd

"although many uni presidents are accommodating the president by cloaking themselves in neutrality, other higher education leaders, including those at @georgemasonu.bsky.social, @princeton.edu, Bard, @harvard.edu & @mountholyoke.bsky.social, are resisting federal pressure" www.ms.now/opinion/will...

.@[email protected] “These were pictures of the state deploying violence confidently and with open disinterest for the niceties of process or protocol — the expression of power as an end to itself. To some, it was horrifying; to others, it was exhilarating” www.nytimes.com/2026/01/25/m...

Authoritarians “want to make educational institutions into places where you don’t have free thinking, critical thinking, & curiosity, as you would in democracies. Instead, the education institution itself becomes a place that breeds the values of authoritarianism” www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/202...

"Recent ICE attacks...make this a sober holiday, indeed…The march toward authoritarianism is only successful if we get out of its way. Dr. King didn’t get out of the way, and he has inspired millions to struggle for a more just and democratic world." #MLK www.wesleyan.edu/about/news/2...

Had so much fun talking with this wonderful @wesleyanuniversity.bsky.social alum. We need more Maggie Nelson & more Wesleyan!

A federal judge denounced the Trump admin’s crackdown on pro-Palestinian college activists as an “unconstitutional suppression of free speech." Wesleyan President @msroth.bsky.social says, "you shouldn't be able to punish protesters because you don't like the fact that they're protesting."

My take @velshimsnow.bsky.social "That is authoritarianism: we have to name it, call it out…and then we have to stop it. The fact that the president wants something does not mean that something has to happen.…We’ve always known this in this country" youtu.be/tbc4sq0InNE?si… via @aacu.org @aaup.org

Read @polgreen.bsky.social “Operation Metro Surge” …is an occupation designed to punish and terrorize anyone who dares defy this incursion and, by extension, Donald Trump’s power to wield limitless force against any enemy he wishes.” www.nytimes.com/2026/01/19/o...

“as the outrages pile up, as the silence persists..small acts of destruction &wretchedness begin to..threaten..the principles &freedoms upon which the whole system rests. Eventually, silence becomes not a choice but a requirement, &by then it is too late to speak.” www.chronicle.com/article/wher...

“Trump’s penchant for theatrics &bombast, his obsession with status &his use of power to enrich himself and his family — all these are characteristic elements of this darker ideology. Machtpolitik is realism gone wrong...” www.nytimes.com/2026/01/09/m...

Read @johnathanchai There is no objective standard of conduct that could possibly explain why beating police officers is peaceful but attempting to flee from them is terrorism. This is not an oversight, but the essence of Trumpism www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

Read @jamellebouie.net "There are many ways to diagnose the state of the nation, but if there is a sickness eating away at American democracy, it is our culture of elite impunity. Trump is at once a symptom of this disease and its apotheosis" @nytopinion.nytimes.com www.nytimes.com/2026/01/06/o...

On this sad anniversary “Pride in idiocy has been the hallmark of this administration, from the stoked resentment against anyone with an education to the arrogant rejection of basic public health precautions” www.insidehighered.com/views/2021/0...

“many higher ed leaders display a striking obsequiousness in the face of power &money…falling over themselves to show they can follow the priorities of the president. While preaching civility on campus, these schools are practicing servility in the face of growing authoritarianism.” @aacu.org

“While preaching civility on campus, these schools are practicing servility in the face of growing authoritarianism." @aacu.org @aaup.org @thefireorg.bsky.social @acls1919.bsky.social @aclu.org @cato.org @aceducation.bsky.social @wesleyanuniversity.bsky.social @washingtonpost.com

We can reject sycophancy in #HigherEducation “we should look for examples of people who just say “no,” refusing to cave to social pressures or power moves intended to force us to live at odds with our values.” wapo.st/4jgWdf5 @aacu.org @aceducation.bsky.social @wesleyanuniversity.bsky.social

“the six American winners of science Nobels this year, three were born outside the United States. In this century, the émigré fraction of U.S. Nobels in physics, chemistry and medicine now stands at 40 percent.” www.nytimes.com/2025/12/10/s...

My take in @latimes.com "Obsequiousness and collaboration spread like viruses to weaken our republic, but the choice to support one another and defend our institutions strengthens it" www.latimes.com/opinion/stor... @aacu.org @aaup.org @thefireorg.bsky.social @mollyjongfast.bsky.social @velshi.com

Read @michellegoldberg.bsky.social “Much has been made about the rebirth of gutter antisemitism and racism within the conservative movement. There’s been less public alarm about the resurgence of unapologetic misogyny.” www.nytimes.com/2025/12/09/o...

Read @philklay.bsky.social on the corruption of our souls “I suspect the question the administration cares about is not “is this legal,” “is this a war crime,” “is this murder” or even “is this good for America,” but rather, “isn’t this violence delightful?” www.nytimes.com/2025/12/05/o...

Thanks very much

Read @lioneltrolling.bsky.social "All these phrases: “post-liberalism,” “national conservatism,” etc., etc., are just ways to paper over what’s happening in the here and now: rampant lawlessness, cruelty, & corruption. They allow people to avoid using their judgment about what’s in front of them."

Read @anandwrites.bsky.social “the emails depict a group whose highest commitment is to their own permanence in the class that decides things. When principles conflict with staying in the network, the network wins.” www.nytimes.com/2025/11/23/o...

Read @jenszalai.bsky.social quote @wdavidmarx.bsky.social “This long-term project to rebrand conservatism as cool and transgressive succeeded precisely because we removed cultural invention as a potential countervailing force.” www.nytimes.com/2025/11/21/b...

At Wesleyan University’s “Dialogue for Change: From Conflict to Action” seminar Anna Deavere Smith and @msroth.bsky.social explored how remembering the past and embracing critique sustain democracy and education. “We can’t go forward unless we remember, unless we confront these ghosts.” #HigherEd

The White House has "given viewpoint diversity a bad odor..not because the federal government was looking for ideological diversity, but because they’re looking for loyalty...How do you negotiate with a partner who’s willing to actually destroy what we do well?" www.nytimes.com/2025/11/18/o...

Given the extortionist tactics of the administration, I ask "How do you negotiate with a partner who’s willing to actually destroy what we do well?" @nytopinion.nytimes.com @thefireorg.bsky.social @aacu.org @aceducation.bsky.social @mollyjongfast.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2025/11/18/o...

“the branding of political opponents as extremists and foreign agents collapses all distinctions between opposition and enmity, turning political contest into a struggle for survival and disagreement into an existential threat.” www.nytimes.com/2025/11/17/o...

[email protected] “The ability to connect the past &present is one of the most crucial functions of learning history. A curriculum that ignores these connections promotes a kind of lie by omission. We owe it to our young people not to lie to them anymore www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...

Yes, @ezrakleinbot.bsky.social, not a new question but a challenging one for those who only celebrate "critical thinking": "If you don’t believe in the establishment and you don’t believe in any norms, how do you decide what to believe?" @lioneltrolling.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2025/11/14/o...

"a compulsory..conscription program in which the children of both the rich &poor would spend part of their youth serving the community—would be a thoroughly democratic way to address inequality & rechannel the energies that feed the war machine" Ihttps://www.commonwealmagazine.org/conscription-peace

Mark Wolf “I no longer can bear to be restrained by what judges can say publicly or do outside the courtroom… The White House’s assault on the rule of law is so deeply disturbing to me that I feel compelled to speak out. Silence, for me, is now intolerable.” www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...

Read AO Scott: “Art can’t save us from anything, but we need it as a reminder of something better” www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Anti-antisemitism is out, and now traditional Jew hatred is back. www.wsj.com/opinion/the-...

Same thing is true for leaders of colleges & universities

Read @mashagessen.bsky.social “To be a good citizen of a bad state, one has to do scary things... It is weighing leaving against staying, moral obligation against fear, flying under the radar against taking a risk — and opting for the risk.” www.nytimes.com/2025/11/03/o...

How to organize against authoritarianism “the slow, patient work of talking to one’s neighbors is the only answer. The starting point for both winning an election and fighting fascism were the same, he said: building networks of people in local communities.” www.nytimes.com/2025/10/31/o...

"If we are to have any hope that good ideas will win and bad ideas will lose, we need a wider range of viewpoints… viewpoint diversity is valuable because it disrupts the greatest..enemy of free inquiry, orthodoxy, which intimidates dissenters into silence" www.insidehighered.com/opinion/view...

My take:“We would do well to remember that American civil society has long been the guardian of our freedoms..Leaders in civil society must be steadfast in opposition to extortion under the guise of dealmaking” @aacu.org @aaup.org @thefireorg.bsky.social @cato.org www.chronicle.com/article/amer...

We at @wesleyanuniversity.bsky.social are developing a civics course for high schools to address what @danagoldstein.bsky.social describes here as fear of teaching young people how to think about American history www.nytimes.com/2025/10/27/u...