If you need inspiration to lift you up so you can keep going, have a listen to this amazing podcast! We need each other now more than ever. Find your people and keep doing what you do. Put love first. feat. @cathyndavidson.bsky.social and @shellyeversley.bsky.social at the @futuresed.bsky.social.

Congratulations to my @cuny.edu colleague, Xuemeng Li, on the publication of her article, "Policy, Attitudes, Design: Promoting the Social Inclusion of Vulnerable Women in Greater China." www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclus... Bravo, Xuemeng! @huntercollege.bsky.social @cunygcsociology.bsky.social

I know I keep saying it but @cuny.edu really is the best, y'all. www.cnbc.com/2025/09/30/b...

I've used student cover letters again this semester, and man these are heartbreakingly beautiful: their commitments to learn & improve themselves despite working multiple jobs; their desire to make space for everyone to speak. They're so genuine & impressive. christinakatopodis.com/pedagogy/stu...

Get your holiday gift wrap and gifts early this year AND help support a public elementary school! 30-40% of every purchase goes to the school to fund educational enrichments like hands-on science, folktale theatre, studio art, yoga and mindfulness! registercw.com/gateway?utm_...

The upside to AI being foisted on educators is maybe we'll see arevolution in pedagogical styles and champion active, engaged, participatory (i.e. real, Freirian, hooksian) learning, K-doctoral. Lots of helpful pre-AI Tips in @katopodis.bsky.social and my www.hup.harvard.edu/books/978067...

Academics! Tell me! What are your favorite AI guidelines, approaches, policies? We're crowd-sourcing favs! padlet.com/huntercolleg...

Really proud of the work that Hunter College's ACERT (@hunteracert.bsky.social) is doing! If you are at Hunter, join us on Zoom for our Lunchtime Seminara, Aug 18-21 @ 12-1pm ET!

Tomorrow is Margaret Fuller's 215th birthday! Celebrate intellectual community and social reform by making a gift to the Margaret Fuller Society. 25% goes to Margaret Fuller Neighborhood House: margaretfullersociety.org/announcement...

So excited to talk with the UW Madison faculty and staff today about active learning and the science behind peer learning! One of today's discussions will be a fishbowl and I can't wait.

We cannot have a single-issue movement because we don’t live single-issue lives. Audre Lorde

@shellyeversley.bsky.social asks for final thoughts: Wallace reflects on the excitement in the room, people are full of conviction; Lowe wants us to assess what we already have in resources & ensure they're accessible to more ppl; Kelly's goal is to make the private public, for public good (1/2)

Shelly Lowe speaks to the question of what higher ed doesn't see. "How do we define 'public good' and how does the public define it? I don't think those definitions are the same. We need to understand the public good when it comes from a conservative angle. We have to." @futuresed.bsky.social

@cathyndavidson.bsky.social speaks about college debt and that most have $40K in debt but for profit college debt is three times that plus higher dropout rates. It exacerbates the problem but we're seeing a push for privatization and that's precisely what we don't want. @futuresed.bsky.social

@cathyndavidson.bsky.social speaks with admiration about people who engage in lifelong learning at CUNY and how many people take courses while holding full time jobs, raising children, or even in their retirement to keep learning and be curious. @cuny.edu

Shelly Lowe laughs about how exciting it is to be in this moment and how staff have said, "We are going to be in the history books for this moment!" And it is a hopeful outlook to think about this opportunity we have right now.

"If funding is going to be tied to politics, we need to be tied to each other. Transform competitive spaces into collaborative ones." - Nancy Cantor, President of CUNY's Hunter College.

How can I be real about the situation we're in and be hopeful? The reality is we need you (graduates). We need all those brilliant, well-trained students. But it takes a lot of fortitude to be hopeful right now. - @cathyndavidson.bsky.social

Nancy Cantor adds that we have to be doing things together. We cannot be an isolated institution competing against one another. We need collaboration. We can't be simply looking for funding for individual agencies. We have to work together. @huntercollege.bsky.social Brava!! Well said!! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

Prof. @shellyeversley.bsky.social reminds us that her ancestors were enslaved, and they had to imagine freedom and see it in their minds before they could create it. This is a moment when we make things, maybe from a ruin, from the challenges in our moment, and think big so we can endure.

Shelly Lowe (Chair of NEH, 2022-2025), remembering her time working with @cathyndavidson.bsky.social as an @barackobama.bsky.social appointee: "What are we doing [in higher education] to ensure that we're putting democracy front and center?" At Futures of Higher Ed (@futuresed.bsky.social)

Maurice Wallace brings up the practice of civil disobedience and its cost. Comrades know (allies may not know) that the practice of academic freedom may cost us something. The question is will we still stand? @futuresed.bsky.social

If we have this perspective you don't also have to have the opposite perspective to everything. That's not interrogating an idea. We have to interrogate ideas & hat's not the same thing. We do have a responsibility to create safe spaces for interrogation. And that is hard to do. -Cantor

"What I can't stand is this idea of neutrality. We can't pretend that global issues that are resting with our homes, students and communities are things we can be neutral about," says Nancy Cantor @huntercollege.bsky.social (lots of claps of agreement in the room)

"Storytelling is as important as science". @shellyeversley.bsky.social about the importance of liberal arts and humanities in Higher Education.

Hunter College President Nancy Cantor reminds us of the importance of doing research embedded with communities: “We need a two-way street—a community of experts with and without formal credentials—who really co-produce solutions.” #FutureOfHigherEd

Shelly Lowe, Chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities, highlights our responsibility to communicate the value of our work: "Higher ed is facing cuts, discrediting, and public distrust—but the public doesn’t know what’s being lost. That’s on us!"

@cathyndavidson.bsky.social remembers co-teaching a class with William P. Kelly at the @thegraduatecenter.bsky.social. Students put up posters around their neighborhoods in their native languages and took people (who have never been to a museum before) on guided tours of the Brooklyn Museum of Art.

Maurice Wallace adds that we need comrades. A comrade is accountable, is called to act. Have we been comrades to the community? Think of the staff and faculty and their communities outside the academy, invite them to bring that into their work on campus and vice versa. @rutgersupress.bsky.social

"This is an All Hands On Deck moment. Everyone needs to be making comrades together in this moment. We have to have the public on our side." Does the public know what grants have been cut? What does that mean to their lives? "We're going to have to take the long road." - Shelly Lowe

GC President Josh Brumberg kicks off the Futures Initiative "Futures of Higher Ed" event at the podium in Elebash Hall. @futuresed.bsky.social @thegraduatecenter.bsky.social

William P. Kelly (President Emeritus of @thegraduatecenter.bsky.social) reflects on what we are defending and remembers a 25+ years mission to rebuild the connection between higher ed and public communities, and make ourselves indispensable to people's lives. A challenge, a charge for all of us.

We need to work with ppl on the ground in our communities to make it clear that the arts & humanities are critical to our health, to our climate science (e.g., flood resistance in NYC) & create a 2-way street to coproduce solutions. -Nancy Cantor (@huntercollege.bsky.social) @futuresed.bsky.social

Starting now! The Future of Higher Education with @cathyndavidson.bsky.social, @shellyeversley.bsky.social, Nancy Cantor (@huntercollege.bsky.social), William P. Kelly, Shelly Lowe, and Maurice Wallace at @thegraduatecenter.bsky.social hosted by @futuresed.bsky.social!

If OpenAI / chatGPT is supposed to do something for the public good, then it could have been rolled out differently to actually serve education and learning rather than overwhelming the education system in the whiplash. Great point by @alondra.bsky.social at today's @futuresed.bsky.social webinar!

This will sound weird but love yourself enough to write your own term papers.

At today's Futures Initiative webinar on AI and the Future of Higher Education, @cathyndavidson.bsky.social quotes Andrew Chee: "Love yourself enough to write your own term papers," @alexanderchee.bsky.social. SO important that we emphasize love, and foster self-advocacy & self-trust in students!!

In today's "AI and the Future of Higher Education," @cathyndavidson.bsky.social mentions former FI Fellow Chris McGuinness and what she has learned about Hugging Face, a "GitHub for AI": huggingface.co @hf.co @futuresed.bsky.social @hastac.bsky.social

“The risks and possibilities of AI aren’t the same in K–12 and college classrooms. And we shouldn’t assume AI is an educational advance—it must be proven, demonstrated, and researched.” @alondra.bsky.social in conversation with @cathyndavidson.bsky.social in our webinar.

We are starting now! Join us!

It's a watch party! We're at the @thegraduatecenter.bsky.social tuning into "AI and the Future of Higher Education" with @alondra.bsky.social & @cathyndavidson.bsky.social hosted by @futuresed.bsky.social and moderated by Jade Davis. @hastac.bsky.social

Join us on May 8th! RSVP HERE: www.eventbrite.com/e/the-future...

Very excited for Thursday's big events! Join us! @futuresed.bsky.social @thegraduatecenter.bsky.social

… and stick around after 5 for pizza, drinks, music, and mingling! tlc.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2025/04/25/t... @thegraduatecenter.bsky.social @futuresed.bsky.social @cunygcps2.bsky.social

FI Faculty Co-Director Dr. Shelly Eversley reminds attendees that we will leave today's Future of the Planet event w/resources to pursue action. She introduces Dr. Megan Henriquez who reminds us that, despite Earth's reputation as the "blue planet," only 1% of Earth's water is drinkable.

Mauricio Gonzalez at today's Future of the Planet event: "Here in New York City, we are spoiled because of the immense reservoirs of water. Most of the world gets alerts about low water levels in their reservoirs. Our understanding of water in NYC is very skewed because we are spoiled."

A gorgeous love letter to the earth and grounding in geological poetics. An excavation of Schoolcraft's lesser known poetry. A must-read!

Victorianism and the Cult of True Womanhood are alive and well, ruining everything authentic and wonderful in the world, from Japanese Third Gender dating back to the 14th Century to this. Great analysis and thank you @jessothomson.co.uk for helping us all to process this in real time.

Back at my fav cafe, continuing to carve out time for the book project as time runs out. New chapter outlined, now diving back into research after 4 years. Despite it all. To spite it all. We are intellectual warriors and we've got to keep going. I #amwriting thanks to @lportwoodstacer.bsky.social!

If you're in need of community & solidarity in the face of ongoing attacks on higher ed, join fellow humanities leaders at the @modernlanguage.bsky.social Summer Seminar (in NYC, May 28-31) or Leadership Institute (virtual, June 23-26). www.maps.mla.org/Seminars