Homes are for families — not private equity!

sounds bad

We've got a new article about abuses in higher ed financial aid's weird world of discipline and punish: California takes students' tax refunds to pay private colleges for dubious debts imposed on students when they're financial aid is revoked because they fail to complete an academic term.

Kevin Warsh wants to ban any research like this by the Federal Reserve.

I'm testifying this morning at the Little Hoover Commission hearing on Institutional Student Debt in California about debt collection and tax offset issues. Hearing starts at 9:30am PT with @charlieeaton.bsky.social as the first witness. You can watch live here: lhc.ca.gov/report/new-s...

The overlap of offshore wealth and higher ed funding has been an issue since the 80s unfortunately. Great research resource is @charlieeaton.bsky.social www.goodreads.com/en/book/show...

Did not think of University of Utah as a poster child for elite embeddedness -- how prestigious social organizations like university boards provide connections that elites use to defend their economic status...

Glad folks are founding our paper useful. Much of our data is also available here: github.com/HigherEdData...

Vitamin i seems pretty effective to me.

always on point from @charlieeaton.bsky.social Elite universities should forge a new social contract with disenchanted Americans, not with the oligarchs behind Trump's "Compact." open.substack.com/pub/charliee...

Hiked premiums haven't even gone into effect yet

"Shadow student debts" is a much better term for what we've normally called institutional student debts or sundry debts. Nice contribution. @debtcollective.bsky.social @dalie.bsky.social ir.library.louisville.edu/cgi/viewcont...

President Trump just eliminated federal funding for Hispanic Serving Institutions in higher ed. Our new paper "White Flight in Higher Education?" has insights on the politics of racial avoidance behind Trump's assault on these schools. Open access in: @soceducation.bsky.social.

This intra-elite power struggle has implications for efforts to save freedom and democracy in the US. I'm looking forward to thinking with this piece.

"The size of the Supreme Court... has been changed in the past through ordinary legislation. Between 1863 and 1869, Republicans changed the Court’s size three times: first adding a tenth seat to give Abraham Lincoln an extra appointment." 1 /3

I don't see how democracy survives if the next Democratic president does not unpack the court.

What could possibly go wrong?

So a president who has military parades for his birthday is anti war?

I was Ruben Gallegos curious until he voted for this bill.

My latest: Trump's war on universities is not a bottom-up assault responding to working class resentment. It is driven by tensions between techno-financial elites, their professional workforce, and the elite universities that embedded the rise of both groups.

Down is up. War is peace. Dictatorship is democracy.

I hope they televise this show trial.

This is truly something to behold.

Social scientists have called this out for a while. From my own work to Latrica Best, Aaron Panofsky, Evelyn Hammonds, Reanne Frank, Alondra Nelson, Jonathan Kahn, Oliver Rollins, Rina Bliss, Ruha Benjamin, Troy Duster, & many more. Race as proxy fails because racial groups are not a genetic reality

To my surprise, my book is on sale for just $3.99 on Kindle! With big endowments under fire and elite universities fighting for their lives, the book tells part of the story for how we got here.

I did an interview on Elite Embeddedness & why financiers like to be university trustees. @Chronicle.com also spoke to financier & Penn trustee Scott Bok who said we got it right: “[It's] a networking business. It’s useful... to be on a board that has people from all kinds of different industries.”

Coverage of the important work by @charlieeaton.bsky.social & colleagues about private equity in higher ed 👇

From a different angle, it gives you a peek at the dynamics @charlieeaton.bsky.social and Albina Gibadullina discuss in their recent paper on the rise of financiers on university boards.

From an Odd Lots episode last month, here's the head of hedge funds at Blackstone discussing tapping the Brown alumni network when he was the CIO of the endowment there. omny.fm/shows/odd-lo...

Just say no.

I guess I should have seen this coming

I increasingly struggle to imagine any way out the US authoritarian turn that doesn't involve the next Democratic President unpacking the Supreme Court.

So much winning.

This is absolutely terrible news. With the shifting regulatory climate (i.e., antivax ratfuckery), Moderna has withdrawn their application for their eagerly anticipated COVID-flu combo vaccine. This vaccine offered better protection than getting each shot separately. h/t @merz.bsky.social

Career ending mistake.

Police should never be allowed to detain anyone for free speech, especially not for a respectful private conversation.

If anything is to come of this, you’d want clear language from Schumer and Jeffries *now*: Dems won’t vote for any legislation this Congress that includes a provision to waive paygo. They will let the Republican Medicare cuts go into effect if Republicans pass their tax cuts.

What could possibly go wrong?

This is what university leaders need to be saying on the steps of Congress every day, with cancer patients standing beside them. Otherwise, nothing will stop Trump's research funding cuts from being made permanent in his big budget cut bill.

University of Chicago! I will be in town Thursday to give this lecture open to the public. Hit me up!

Private equity has long been more things than we realized.

Back at @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social for Neilfest to honor Neil Fligstein's retirement!

Our EEPA paper on the media's role in shaping our understanding of student loans, race, and racism is here! Email me if you don't have access & want a copy. One of my fav papers for a few reasons but, most of all, it's my first paper with my husband 😍 journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.3102/...

Why is IHE publishing a press release?

“If I am approved, UF will remain a campus where all students are safe, where differing views can be heard and where the rule of law is respected.” Doubtful.

NSF was founded largely out of fear of the Soviets overtaking us in technology and the space race. Without it, we probably can’t remain competitive with China.

Financialization has both created both vulnerabilities and resources for universities - including social ties to elites. Now is the time to leverage these ties.

The lawsuits write themselves.