This analysis of how ideas spread in the early scientific revolution, from person to person and place to place, lines up so nicely with @alliemorgan.bsky.social's 2018 paper on the diffusion of scientific ideas via modern faculty hiring networks epjdatascience.springeropen.com/articles/10....

“There is just one way to save yourself, and that’s to get together and work and fight for everybody.” – Woody [Text: Woody quoted in “Woody Guthrie: A Life,” Joe Klein, 1980, Alfred A. Knopf.]

"All of you workers everywhere, you will see, you will know, who’s on your side, who’s working and fighting for you." – Woody [Text: Quoted in “Woody Guthrie: A Life,” Joe Klein, 1980, Alfred A. Knopf.]

Building a playlist for music to meet the moment, I’ve only just discovered this sweet 2m40s from early in The Mountain Goats’ discography: themountaingoats.bandcamp.com/track/color-... “They came in by the dozens, walking or crawling / Some were bright-eyed, some were dead on their feet…”

This is a high-quality take on trustees in @insidehighered.com, incl. Toor's comparison of boards + profs: "As with faculty development, those who are eager to get better at their jobs attend learning sessions and those who most need training rarely show up." www.insidehighered.com/opinion/view...

"The world disappoints, but the universe never does." - Priyamvada Natarajan, Professor of Astronomy at @yale.edu

“Yet [Mordecai] firmly said that he would sooner shut down his university than allow anyone to dictate what its STUDENTS COULD OR COULD NOT LEARN.” Is there a more crisp defense of academic freedom? This framing by @jelaniya.bsky.social seems unassailable. www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

It has been loads of fun and is super popular (full auditoriums). It also happens to be very little work to organize. If you'd like to offer Guess Lectures at your institution, I wrote up a set of instructions to make it easier for you. Reach out with questions! docs.google.com/document/d/1...

Recently recommended because the transcripts of confidential search committee meetings "will occupy real estate in your brain forever": When Two Bodies Are (Not) a Problem: Gender & Relationship Status Discrimination in Academic Hiring, by @larivera.bsky.social advance.charlotte.edu/wp-content/u...

“Brown Professor Avoids Defunding by Adding ‘For Bombs’ to Research Abstract” by Ray Theon “At press time, Norman was encouraging a colleague in the Africana Studies Department to add ‘for white people too’ to the title of her upcoming talk.” thenoser.com/article/Brow...

A statement from @bigtenacademic.bsky.social: That "mutual defense compact"? It's still not going to happen. btaa.org/big-ten-acad...

Perhaps there are proportionally fewer white men on Harvard's faculty because the 👏old 👏ways👏were👏 discriminatory--white men were OVERrepresented. Now (thanks to DEI?) processes are 👏less 👏discriminatory. (❤️ @emmajanepettit.bsky.social for White-Lewis insight, too.) www.chronicle.com/article/facu...

A truly wonderful experience for me, thanks to @dartmouthartsci.bsky.social & the inimitable @faculty.bsky.social & his team (I miss Dustin already!)

I'm inspired by these faculty who, many times over the course of a difficult year, found time away from the constant pressures of their work/lives to rethink + reinvent the "Ivy Plus" norms (+ other powers/privileges) they've inherited. #selfpromotion facultyadvancement.duke.edu/news/strengt...

This by @guttergeek.bsky.social is required reading for anyone who thought a "NATO-like" defense compact at @bigtenacademic.bsky.social was viable. (TL;DR: It's not.) campus-novel.ghost.io/the-big10-mu...

Also by @garceslm.bsky.social + @jackiepedota.bsky.social: Universities must collectively invest in faculty capacity to navigate legal pressures + disrupt suppression. Include a history lesson on academic freedom because minoritized scholars are less protected. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

In "We're on Our Own Out Here," @jackiepedota.bsky.social + @garceslm.bsky.social show how silence from university leaders—not bills per se—pushed faculty to self-censor race teaching + research. But not if president, provost, dean, chair, sr. faculty speak out. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Another banger by @aaronclauset.bsky.social + @jenniebrand.bsky.social: When early-career researchers work in diverse teams, they're more likely to build their own diverse teams in the future — helping to break the usual pattern where people mostly work with others who are similar to themselves.

🧪 Reports from inside NSF - staff were informed another huge set of grants were terminated today, that NSF will have at least a 50% total RIF, & no Acting Director has been appointed. So, who is leading NSF? #SciSky @science.org @scinews.bsky.social @aaas.org @aeraedresearch.bsky.social

“How randomisation has changed the British Academy’s approach to research funding” 🧪

See this explainer from @bostonu.bsky.social: www.bu.edu/teaching-wri....

I was an altar boy in a parish convulsed by the "agony of the sex-abuse crisis". The Church's many failures of contrition pushed me out; Francis called me back. But to Douthat, compassionate, pastoral leadership is weak. It wasn't JP2 or Benedict, but Francis who ended "infallibility's mystique".

Strange Fondue

Early this morning I witnessed* how unremarkable men decided ¿Why not us? and left their corpses on the green as testimony to how truly effed up the situation had become. *a reenactment of

Jim Nantz inadvertently predicting the @uhoustonclass.bsky.social loss here. We sure will 'Remember the Alamodome,' Jim. We sure will.

“Race is, in many ways, a superseding factor... Being a person of color, being Black, or being someone who comes from an underrepresented ethnic group like Latinos leads to poorer outcomes.” -- @jamiemerisotis.bsky.social, CEO, @luminafoundation.bsky.social www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

As my mentor at Harvard told me 20 years ago: if you compromise your integrity, you have nothing.

Solid coverage by @mzahneis.bsky.social on this NATO-inspired agreement gaining steam among faculty senates. I’m not sure though that state schools can (or can politically) spend their residents’ tax + tuition dollars on defending faculty at out-of-state schools... www.chronicle.com/article/thes...

In economics, mentoring Ph.D. students and new doctorates from historically underrepresented minority groups appears to boost their probability of ultimately holding a tenure-track or tenured position. www.nber.org/papers/w33689

This is a well-sourced (e.g. @cantb.bsky.social) @bostonglobe.com piece on the demographic cliff in Massachusetts by @jonmarcusboston.bsky.social, one of the best #highered journalists I've met: www.bostonglobe.com/2025/04/09/magazine/massachusetts-colleges-face-enrollment-drop-higher-ed-crisis

This phenomenon is attributed to the ‘86 ADEA by Congress ending mandatory retirement for faculty. In “The Faculty Factor,” Conley, Finkelstein & Schuster (2016), respected #highered scholars, make a compelling, ADEA-compliant case that *tenure* should end @ age 70, converting to 5yr NTT contracts.

There may be a role for @bigtenacademic.bsky.social to play, but this is likely not it. It’s a mature (67yo), high-functioning consortium w/$12M+ in rev & a HQ in Champaign, but it’s largely does prof dev, communities of practice & shared services, w/occasional forays into research (e.g. CTE). /1

Go Coogs! I have never in my life experienced quite this feeling.

Hey @ethanris.bsky.social thanks (really!) for turning this idea into a good read! slate.com/life/2025/04...

“if we are to preserve our value and our meaning, we cannot let our caution overtake our purpose.” President Michael Kotlikoff, @cornelluniversity.bsky.social: “I’m Cornell’s President. We’re Not Afraid of Debate and Dissent.” www.nytimes.com/2025/03/31/o...

The @bigtenacademic.bsky.social is a proud member of the Association for Collaborative Leadership (ACL). Hang together or hang separately.

Hang together, or hang separately. The power of the consortium.

Which dean would you want leading your school/college? In a polemic, one blames "politically active junior faculty" for "getting ahead" by "attracting controversy": www.compactmag.com/article/how-... In a checklist, one shows how to offer faculty some grace: www.insidehighered.com/opinion/care...

If you're looking for "the case for intervening to advance diversity and inclusion," the Head of the Division of Medical Ethics at @nyumedpostdocs.bsky.social has a few for you.

I like to imagine a world in which presidents of power conference universities warn that if cuts to NIH, NSF, et al. proceed, they’ll have no choice but to reallocate all (all) athletics spending into faculty research to protect the core mission, longevity of the academic enterprise.

All-time desert-island top-ten hall-of-fame higher-ed scholars here. Congrats to them and the other awardees!

“Don’t just do something, stand there.” - White Rabbit

According to today's FAQ from ED, the following themes in a class discussion at a university would be "less likely to create a racially hostile environment," meaning they are not outright banned / in violation in Title VI.

To all of the colleges and universities who complied in advance: Page 6: "Whether a policy or program violates Title VI does not depend on the use of specific terminology such as 'diversity,' 'equity,' or 'inclusion'".

ICPSR at University of Michigan has been one of the longest-running secure data archives in the world and is stepping up to the challenges being presented in the current U.S. environment to keep government data as a resource for researchers and policymakers. isr.umich.edu/giving/suppo...

Since the 1990s, Bolman & Deal have been at the heart of the curriculum at the Harvard Institutes on Higher Education (@harvardeducation.bsky.social). If your college admin, dean, provost, president has done MDP, MLE, IEM, they (should) speak these four frames!

“The most successful partnerships move at the speed of trust. And trust begins with respect.” This from @dwhittle12.bsky.social, whose team at the Environmental Defense Fund also received an award today from @aaas.org. “We’re going to keep showing up.”

“Get involved. Do it today. Because you can’t hang out.” - Mary Woolley, president of @researchamerica.bsky.social, in a panel moderated by @holdenthorp.bsky.social at the @aaas.org meeting in Boston today.

The ARC Network’s the 2025 ADVANCE Equity in STEM Community Convening has been canceled. www.equityinstem.org

Republican students reporting "a lot of trust" in: 🎓Professors: 44% 👮Campus safety: 44% Republican students reporting "not much trust" in: 🎓Professors: 11% 👮Campus safety: 14% Story: www.insidehighered.com/news/student... Data tables: data.generationlab.org/InsideHigher...