A 34-year-old as a politician: My god he's like a baby. It's like they just elected an infant to be their mayor. A 34-year-old as an athlete: You have to admire the bravery of him attempting that dunk, knowing full well the grim reaper is right behind him.

I actually do want a data center in my backyard so bad I want to grow numb to the endless drone of a million electronic beehives I want to get testicular cancer from people I’ll never meet generating shrek porn in their basements

What's the worst university slogan you've ever heard? Asking on behalf of an unnamed uni that coined "Work. With Flexibility" for a major internal reorg, & has now spent many millions on consultants who--after polling such finalists as "Vital We Are"--has settled on "Next, Forward to Our Future"

Great piece. "...a central and long-running rupture over the foundational mission of civics schools... Should they reform how universities teach by prioritizing civil discourse, or should they add viewpoint diversity by hiring more conservatives?"

fighting within the school of civic life and leadership began before the school existed, and i've got a new story that explains what it's all about there's a ton of new info, so here are a few highlights: www.theassemblync.com/education/hi...

The hottest club in Durham is the real estate office behind q shack

unc just sent out a response from board of trustees chair malcolm turner: "The former Provost’s baseless assault on this volunteer Board and how it conducts its business stands in stark contrast to the widely recognized excellence the University has achieved under this Board’s leadership...

breaking news from unc: former provost chris clemens is suing the university for open meetings and public records violations during their discussion about delaying tenure votes www.theassemblync.com/education/hi...

i teamed up with charlotte ledger to explain the logic behind the queens/elon merger www.theassemblync.com/education/hi...

Scoop: A brand new nonprofit endorsing Durham candidates hasn’t disclosed its leadership—but initially listed an endorsed candidate’s husband’s property as its address, and mirrors her campaign messaging

the turmoil at the school of civic life and leadership has gotten bad enough that the university hired a law firm to investigate www.theassemblync.com/education/hi...

i joined my friends at @wunc.org's the broadside to talk about bill belichick and the impact college football finances have on the rest of the university www.wunc.org/podcast/the-...

This week, The Broadside tackled… what else? The Belichick effect. Big thanks to @scottdochterman.bsky.social and @themhartman.bsky.social for explaining the money-sucking machine behind college athletics. And why winning may not matter when you can’t lose in college football.

My preferred outcome is that the entire Belichick situation becomes funnier and funnier and so far so good

Pretty sure TCU is running an experiment in schadenfreude at this point

god i feel so seen www.nytimes.com/2025/08/22/a...

i know this is "we built a hotel here when they said we shouldn't" but i can't help but read it as "they thought we couldn't colonize them but we sure did"

duke libraries told their staff that the department of slavic and eurasian studies is being eliminated. that's not true. but all their staff were cut. join me on a journey through the misinformation of budget cuts at duke indyweek.com/news/durham/...

There's a house on my dog walk route with 3 Hummers and also a miniature statue of David

it's a very, very fun job in north carolina's best newsroom. please reach out if you wanna join the team--i'm happy to answer any questions!

Why do all evs have the same fancy door handles?

The University of North Carolina System already includes campuses from Cullowhee to Elizabeth City. This spring, it seemed like a UNC campus in Flint, Michigan could be next. www.theassemblync.com/education/hi...

up until april of this year, unc-chapel hill was considering whether to buy a michigan university and run it as a satellite campus www.theassemblync.com/education/hi...

we're cooked

BREAKING: @theassemblync.bsky.social obtained an email in which UNC-Chapel Hill's ex-provost said Chancellor Lee Roberts agreed to the Board of Trustees’ controversial move to delay tenure votes for financial reasons. From me & @themhartman.bsky.social www.theassemblync.com/education/hi...

I interrupt your Friday evening with more UNC drama (really more information about previous drama) www.theassemblync.com/education/hi...

what he said! @eringretzinger.bsky.social and @brappaport.bsky.social killed it with this story

UNC-Chapel Hill leaders revealed a plan on Wednesday to cut approximately $70 million in costs—or 2 percent of its operating budget. From me and @themhartman.bsky.social for @theassemblync.bsky.social www.theassemblync.com/education/hi...

at its meeting this week, the unc board of trustees will discuss a vision for a new colosseum at carolina north big enough to host nfl games bot.unc.edu/wp-content/u...

This story is nuts

the wsj is reporting that duke is in talks over a settlement with the trump administration www.wsj.com/us-news/educ...

i sorta accidentally got some unc athletics spreadsheets that show their brainstorming about how to pay for revenue sharing there are estimates for stadium naming rights, jersey ads, even reducing the number of comp tickets athletes get www.theassemblync.com/education/hi...

i asked our editors in slack if they could assign a story about the history of trans politics from hb2 to today, which is how i found out we already published this terrific Nikolai Mather piece that does just that www.theassemblync.com/politics/tra...

goodbye to the arts and therapy, i guess? www.aei.org/research-pro...

here's your regular guilford college update: they seem to have a firm grasp on the rabbit in the hat, but the hat keeps getting deeper www.theassemblync.com/education/hi...

Hayes had been general counsel to House Speaker Destin Hall when, he said, State Auditor Dave Boliek asked him to take over day-to-day operations of the NCSBE, a political football that had just shifted to GOP control. “Dave is very persuasive,” Hayes said. www.theassemblync.com/politics/ele...

Finally saw the brutalist so I could watch it the way it was intended: on a plane, constantly interrupted by my vomiting daughter

When am talk radio dudes talk about masculinity disappearing, they mean we need more of this magazine.atavist.com/from-antarct...

this @christhompson.bsky.social story from January is the best thing I've read in a long long time defector.com/a-comprehens...

les schtroumpfs

What percent of global email traffic is auto replies sending back and forth to each other?

the university of austin sent an email this spring saying school of civic life and leadership dean jed atkins was a finalist to become their new president. they told me it was sent in error and they recruited him, but he was never a finalist www.theassemblync.com/education/hi...

since @drpattijones.bsky.social asked, some similar numbers for unc: as of june 30, 2024, unc's endowment was $5.6 billion. (there's another $5.5 billion in the system-wide endowment that unc-chapel hill's board helps manage.) $784 million (14%) of the chapel hill endowment is unrestricted

rick kahlenberg is a liberal who was an expert witness against unc's race-based affirmative action because he wants to replace it with a class-based program. i asked him if he regrets allying with conservatives and what advice he has for colleges www.theassemblync.com/education/hi...

according to this philadelphia fed dashboard, 20-4% of the durham-chapel hill gdp, income, and employment come from hospitals and higher ed. www.philadelphiafed.org/surveys-and-...

some numbers for folks curious about duke's finances: as of june 2024, duke had an $11.9 billion endowment. a little over 2/3 of that is restricted in what it can be used for, but $3.4 billion (about 29%) is unrestricted resources.finance.duke.edu/resources/do...

feels like this parenthetical assumption is kinda the whole story here

This is the dadest I've ever been

@renlarson.bsky.social coming in from the top rope with this absolutely killer story www.theassemblync.com/education/hi...