Enjoy this again from one of the "untenured faculty members and staff holding the institution together." (Sobs at markout of the office of diversity, equity, and inclusion) #AcademicChatter #AcademicHumor

Worried about increased surveillance of syllabi & course curricula at your institution? Check out these resources from the Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom to integrate in your course, such as language for academic freedom to put in your syllabus, a teaching module, and a reading list.

This is very good analysis of the present conditions of higher education in the United States. Must read stuff for anyone wanting to protect our institutions of learning.

"As library workers, our words, programs, and actions have weight; and not everything deserves equal promotion and support." Latest piece from Ella Gibson, Ruth Monnier, and I informationmatters.org/2025/12/libr...

SCOOP: 404 Media has obtained material that explains how Tangles and Webloc, two surveillance systems ICE recently purchased, work. One can track phones without a warrant and follow their owners home or to their employer.

New: we've obtained material explaining how an ICE surveillance system, called Webloc, works. Draw shape on a map, see all phones available there, follow them home. All without warrant “This is a very dangerous tool in the hands of an out-of-control agency.” www.404media.co/inside-ices-...

After a white county in South Carolina rejected a data center, developers have sets their sights on a Black community for a proposed data center complex the size of 1,200 football fields

The 5 stages of the ‘enshittification’ of academic publishing #academicSky theconversation.com/the-5-stages...

More than just Plato is being censored.

I'm really proud of this academic freedom syllabus language that the @aaup.org CDAF fellows developed. Having language like this opens up an opportunity to talk with your students about what academic freedom is (and is not). If you add it to your syllabus this semester let me know how it goes!

"...because diagnostic tools have improved dramatically, leading to increased identification. Increased identification is not a sign of manipulation, as The Atlantic article insinuates. It is the result of better science and long-overdue recognition." #HigherEd www.additudemag.com/college-acco...

"The university, for all its faults and shortcomings, not only generates the pioneering ideas that benefit society and contribute to democratic self-government, but also fulfills the innately human drive to understand the world and live a good life." www.chronicle.com/article/univ...

Argh!

Another excellent thread on LLMs. 👇🏼🧵

And there are those who want Gen AI to make major decisions about human beings—even life-or-death ones. When Gen AI is not a human being.

Gift link: www.nytimes.com/2026/01/07/u...

Here is the excellent reply by the A&M professor to the censoring of his course on Plato. Note that he emphasizes that the course does not advocate a race or gender ideology—which is the text of the law in question. 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽

"...because diagnostic tools have improved dramatically, leading to increased identification. Increased identification is not a sign of manipulation, as The Atlantic article insinuates. It is the result of better science and long-overdue recognition." #HigherEd www.additudemag.com/college-acco...

Follow that $$$$$$$$$$$$

"The university, for all its faults and shortcomings, not only generates the pioneering ideas that benefit society and contribute to democratic self-government, but also fulfills the innately human drive to understand the world and live a good life." www.chronicle.com/article/univ...

Trump and Republicans in Congress last year stripped the organization of its $1.1 billion in federal funding, which represented the full amount it was set to receive over two years. www.huffpost.com/entry/latest...

North American bird populations are shrinking most rapidly in the very areas where they are still most abundant, according to a 2025 study in Science. The findings reveal both urgent threats and potential opportunities for targeted conservation and recovery. https://scim.ag/4qwOLyM #NationalBirdDay

FTA: "If you use it, it means you’re replacing people. People who could’ve done the job better. People who actually did the job, and now their work is pilfered and duped." And btw, a detail those hip and cool #librarians mostly ignore in their rush to stay hip and cool by embracing #AISlop. (e)

> My Open Letter To That Open Letter About AI In Writing And Publishing terribleminds.com/ramble/2025/... by #ChuckWendig #AISlop #sloperator #writing #publishing (c)

From the Archives: As a professor, what would you do if you found out your TA was being paid more than you? When this UC-Santa Cruz lecturer found herself in that position, she quit. https://chroni.cl/4aJPlVb

As @jbakcoleman.bsky.social and I wrote, “Every time a scientist abdicates their work to an AI tool, that is a tacit admission that the work is not worth being done by the scientist.” Same goes for instructors.

The core problem with large language model AI programs like Chat-gpt or Grok or Gemini is that their “hallucinations” are a normal part of how they work. Such hallucinations reveal that they have no concept of truth and by definition cannot place value on it.

Guten Abend, gute Nacht ✨️❄️✨️ Der Schnee nimmt kein Ende ☃️ Herrlich hat es heute wieder geschneit und im Wald war es richtig schön. 🥰😍 Habt einen schönen Abend und schlaft später gut.

Devastating. Dissolved for being “woke propaganda.” A lie. CBS, on the other hand…DJT propaganda.

Argh!

A new mandate at Northwestern University to teach international students about the norms of free inquiry and open debate could be helpful, but seems patronizing. https://chroni.cl/3L3gGHE

we need more allies doing stuff like this instead of sharing screenshots of content by white supremacists

In 1950s, targets were teachers—communists, progressives, liberals—and left-wing unions. Now target is the system itself. Its value as public good is redefined as a matter of parental choice (vouchers, charter schools, paid for by public funds), and its principles of equality are being trashed.

Headlines 1/5: ⬩ Congressional Republicans Look to Build on 2025 Higher Ed Reforms via Inside Higher Ed ⬩ Trump’s Next Plan for the U.S. Education System: Lots and Lots of Rules via Politico more: ow.ly/gp6v50Wtv5f

Trump’s war on research isn’t abstract—it’s a brain drain in real time. 🇺🇸 ➡️ 🌍 As billions in grants are canceled and political appointees vet proposals, Europe, Canada, China & Australia are rolling out red carpets for U.S. scientists. www.highereddive.com/news/higher-...

Congressional Republicans are signaling that college cost and accreditation reform will be their top higher ed priorities in 2026, but experts warn they may run out of time and political capital to pass major legislation before the midterms. @insidehighered.com www.insidehighered.com/news/governm...

Also, the number of these people who think late book returners are some sort of malicious evil mastermind people trying to screw other is also INSANE.

You can be a punk library or a cop library; you can care about the people or the stuff. Choose the people. 📚

great job to all these media organizations misleading readers into believing the grok AI bot is in control, not the people turning the dials behind the scenes. we’re three years into this wave of ai hype. how are they still so bad at this?

Asking an LLM to issue an apology-shaped object and thinking it is meaningful, is kind of like telling a d6 that if it rolls a 1 it means you've been accepted into quantum Valhalla and are ready to make that journey, king

Another excellent thread on LLMs. 👇🏼🧵

And there are those who want Gen AI to make major decisions about human beings—even life-or-death ones. When Gen AI is not a human being.

'Over the past couple of years, AI lawmaking has been busiest in the East Asia and Pacific region, in Europe and in individual US states....Meanwhile, the US federal government is bucking the trend by cancelling AI policy work and challenging state-level AI laws.'

Isn’t it weird that ‘basket weaving’ became a right wing trope for fake college courses when it turns out that Basket weaving is an ancient tradition with a lot of history and there’s a huge market demand for traditionally woven baskets.

"Preserving the Past of HBCUs --- A new partnership between Getty Images and the genealogy website Ancestry aims to save the records and photographs of historically Black colleges and universities" May 2026 www.insidehighered.com/news/institu...

TIL... And this librarian loves that she did that.

Indicative of the anti-intellectualism and historical erasure that the powers that be want to push, leading to outright/full scholasticide, which they undoubtedly want.

TIL... And this librarian loves that she did that.

Happy Public Domain Day to all who observe! How will you be celebrating? These books, movies, art and music enter public domain in 2026 : NPR share.google/vioTAsgRjwoE...