“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...

Spoke with @audiecornish.bsky.social about how White House wants schools to sign loyalty oaths…an anathema to American values & what has made #HigherEducation great. @cnn.com @aacu.org @aceducation.bsky.social @thefireorg.bsky.social @sykescharlie.bsky.social players.brightcove.net/225767975400...

Compact (for excellence) with the East Wing. #highered

Read David Brooks “Yes, Trump is launching an assault on democracy. But what worries me more is what has happened over the last few decades to the rest of us. There has been a slow moral, emotional and intellectual degradation” www.nytimes.com/2025/10/23/o...

Read @kevincarey1.bsky.social on the importance of preserving liberal arts colleges www.nytimes.com/2025/10/22/o...

“Long civil rights historiography seeks not merely to extend timelines or diversify our memory but to excavate submerged political possibilities…and to understand the conditions under which they were abandoned or foreclosed.” www.nytimes.com/2025/10/19/b...

Read @Davidfrenchjag.bsky.social “Every year, this cultural trend reinforces itself. Decency becomes rarer, and decent people feel more isolated.” www.nytimes.com/2025/10/19/o...

Reading #Genesis with Rabbi Sacks on #NoKings Day: "Nothing could have been more radical than to say that not just kings and rulers appear in God’s image. We all do. Even today the idea is daring: how much more so in an age of absolute rulers with absolute power."

“the enormous power of the federal government is being deployed [for]establishing loyalty to the leader in Washington. The assault on higher ed is part of a broader campaign against institutions in civil society whose legitimacy has not depended on the White House” www.thebulwark.com/p/colleges-u...

My take on the invitation to join the President’s Loyalty Club: “Those who resist the new Gleichschaltung will argue that faculty and students should never have to sacrifice their freedom and autonomy to align with the leader in the White House.” @aacu.org www.thenation.com/article/poli...

This Sukkot: A Time for Peace A time for seeking and a time for losing, A time for keeping and a time for discarding; A time for ripping and a time for sewing, A time for silence and a time for speaking; A time for loving and a time for hating; A time for war & a time for peace. Ecclesiastes

“America is now in a dangerous period, in which the president can order investigations and indictments against his enemies. Mr. Trump is criminalizing Americans’ ability to challenge their leaders.” www.nytimes.com/2025/10/10/o...

“a shame that by throwing in her lot with the Ellisons, Rowans, Schwarzmans &[those]abetting Trump’s destruction of the American republic, Weiss is betraying the principles of decency &democracy she so..admirably struck a blow for in her resignation letter.” www.newstatesman.com/ideas/2025/1...

Henry J Farrell “The best defense… is solidarity among groups who disagree ferociously on many questions, but who agree on the need to keep America democratic and rebuild institutions and social connections to make democracy more robust.” www.nytimes.com/2025/10/08/o...

Bryan Stevenson is a national treasure: “We dishonor those who came before us if in this moment of crisis we remain silent...I don’t think it’s just unempathetic. I don’t think it’s just cowardly. I think it’s dishonorable.” @eji.org www.nytimes.com/2025/10/08/u...

woke research by out of touch professors www.nytimes.com/2025/10/07/s...

"The White House is dressing up its compact as a reasonable corrective to what it views as problems in campus culture. Let no one be deceived. This proposal imposes govert censorship on academia. It is anti-American, & it weakens our democracy by devaluing academic expertise" @acls1919.bsky.social

Looking forward to being back in San Francisco later this month Why Higher Ed Should Stand up to Trump, with Michael Roth www.commonwealthclub.org/events/2025-...

Sounds like #HigherEd "lawyers who used to uphold the standards of the legal profession are compromising them to adapt to the Trump era" @aaup.org @aceducation.bsky.social @aacu.org @cato.org @chronicle.com @wesleyanuniversity.bsky.social @mollyjongfast.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2025/10/06/m...

How authoritarianism works: “But many of them..don’t want to speak on the record. These are people with stature…custodians of the American Bar….But now they’re worried about retribution, for their law firms or their family members, if they draw Trump’s ire” #highered www.nytimes.com/2025/10/06/m...

My take on Compact for Collaboration: “Federal funding for universities should never depend on a loyalty oath...The health of our democracy depends on the freedom to work with the federal government without having to follow the ideological dictates of those in power.” www.wsj.com/us-news/educ...

Next phase of authoritarian attack on #HigherEd, loyal oaths in exchange for benefits @aaup.org @chronicle.com @insidehighered.com @thefireorg.bsky.social @aceducation.bsky.social @aacu.org www.nytimes.com/2025/10/02/u...

Read @davidfrenchjag.bsky.social “Trump has initiated another era of American regression. He isn’t replacing D.E.I. with merit. He’s replacing it with sycophancy and malice.” www.nytimes.com/2025/10/02/o...

Jonathan Biss “if we lose our capacity to focus deeply on music, we lose one of the greatest gifts we are granted as human beings. .. In our splintered, combustible world, this immersion is the path of most resistance, and a gift beyond words.” www.nytimes.com/2025/09/28/o...

Big news from @SusanSvrluga: The White House embraces affirmative action (for ideological loyalists) @aceducation.bsky.social @aacu.org @cato.org @aaup.org @thefireorg.bsky.social @wesleyanuniversity.bsky.social wapo.st/3KqjcXB