Oh goodness. The UNC Board of Governors is now requiring every campus to form “compliance committees” to audit whether hiring, training, and departmental practices are sufficiently ideologically neutral. www.theassemblync.com/education/hi...

The latest in the fed attack on higher ed, & why collective response is critical. How one campus, one faculty member, responds sets precedent for us all. Higher ed leaders + their faculty need each other, within and across institutions. More on #MADC strategy here: tinyurl.com/55kv7b2z #AcademicSky

“I’ve never heard of anything like this in K-12 or higher education. The full scope of the monitor’s role is not even clear. Will this person be policing what is taught? Who is hired? Who is admitted? This is dangerous.”

WU-TANG FOREVER 👐🏽

Summers opposes (most) government control of Harvard, but encourages Harvard central admin's consolidating power. A crisis exploited. #AcademicSky @aaup.org

Are we - higher ed folk of various sorts - able to agree that Jim Ryan should NOT have resigned? Please discuss. #AcademicSky

I've got Mark Twain's line in my head about this - in part because shared governance is a group effort, not a gift. (Maybe more a team sport really - qigong meets mixed martial arts.) I say a bit more about that here: tinyurl.com/bdeadd4r #AcademicSky @aaup.org #sharedgovernance

Re-watching The Handmaid's Tale as validating documentary vs. apocalyptic sci-fi.

The feds tying $ to civility is a red flag combo. Higher ed leaders: please don’t use this to curry fed favor | chase dollars | tighten control on your campuses. Civility-&-civics-as-compliance (to the govt, of your community) is not leadership, something I wrote more on here: tinyurl.com/2j9bmf7t

I deeply respect Cornel West. But this piece, like so many calls for "civility" in higher ed, aims faculty & students without examining leaders' arguably greater role in shaping the conditions that make such engagement possible. I try to unpack that part of things here: tinyurl.com/2j9bmf7t

Higher ed presidents' not standing up, not standing together (#MADC), and not standing with their institutional communities (#sharedgovernance) will mark the end of American universities and colleges.

I haven't posted in a while because I'm doubting the impact of anything. The UVA president's resignation put me over the edge from a higher ed standpoint. A longer-form piece somewhat on that: tinyurl.com/2j9bmf7t

We feed you. They hunt us.

I was a Michigan undergrad in the late '80s when anti-apartheid shanties became a feature of the "Diag." We - administrators, faculty & students - must TOGETHER figure out how to balance avoiding harm (different than hurt) w/ preserving voice. Hint: "civility" (tinyurl.com/5fjh9nuj) is not it.

The seeming lack of faculty input here is alarming. With fed attacks, higher ed needs collective defense across institutions + inclusive strategizing w/in them. Faculty, esp. those most impacted, must help shape responses or we risk undermining the academic freedom we aim to defend. #AcademicSky

These are the proactive steps states need to be taking right now. Another thing: every Democratic governor needs to have a sit-down now with the state adjutant general to carefully review that person's understanding of their responsibilities to their state, its citizens and the federal constitution.

I got involved in faculty governance 5 years ago because libraries and IT were both vectors of corporate influence over the core functions of the university that went mostly unnoticed by faculty. And now here they just come out and say it in the NYT. It’s not too late to get involved, y’all.

‪Appreciate @drkevinrmcclure.com's/ @chronicle.com's coverage of faculty organizing, but a major example was omitted: one campus sparked a collective academic defense effort that spread to 60+ university senates in 3 months. It's now a movement, and a testament to faculty power. #MADCs

In this new piece, I reflect & invite your thoughts on the urgent need to reclaim full-spectrum, not methodologically siloed, MSW education. I share ideas and models already in use, explore barriers to doing this work, and invite an exchange about what’s working in your own SW training experiences.

This is going to be an unusual and busy summer for "academic year faculty." LET'S GO

Big hypocrisy for such a little man.

For your Friday contemplation or edification

Great idea: Leadership Now is adding "business voices into the conversation about the future of US universities" by organizing a public letter "to highlight how critical higher education is to America’s global competitiveness." Share with your fave biz execs. (Thanks, @jonathancornick.bsky.social!)

It's academic summer - which for me in '25 includes projects to defend higher ed, examine principles & practices of shared governance, and envision fuller spectrum social work education & practice. My segue into the last topic below, with Part 2 here: www.linkedin.com/pulse/legisl... #CSWE #NASW

An important piece, esp. as we see higher ed "civility" initiatives resurfacing. There's speaking one's truth that others reject, how you speak it (alleged civility), & how you listen to and really hear others (empathy). We can't well get to the last two if we deny challenges related to the first.

Jon Stewart said it very well: “He’s accepting a plane from people he would expel from Columbia University.”

Yes indeed.

This list and the article summarizing it (see end of thread) is going straight into my Fall SW Practice w/ Communities & Organizations syllabus #socialworkeducation

Jesus.

Momentary remedy from the persistent sensation of getting nothing done or fixed: replace window screens. Hugely satisfying, highly recommend! (YMMV if yours don't need replacing.) (Yes, I later cut off the extra.)

As a undergrad Women's Studies major and now mom of a son, this has been on my mind since his birth 21 years ago: how to raise a (esp. white/straight/cis) boy to feel loved, and as warranted protected, but not entitled.

To track mutual academic defense compact organizing generally!

From Hillsdale's Prez: "We ask no special favor. We only ask that our independence be respected.” Every time a college cuts a side deal, it does so with just its own leverage, and sets precedent & norms that all others may have to live with. We need to defend independence ... together. #AcademicSky

Free speech on college campuses must mean that people can debate issues of U.S. government policy without government security forces assuming those people are possible terrorists and targeting them for arrest.

"If higher education — and the rest of American civil society — doesn’t stand with Harvard’s international students now, they may find themselves alone when Trump comes for them next." Our students are literally watching. There is no neutral institutional position. We must act together, now. #MADC

This framing is all wrong Our international students are not a “crucial funding source” They are our STUDENTS They are the reason we EXIST We teach STUDENTS

This is just one example of how a Mutual Academic Defense Compact #MADC could function - facilitating coordination (and strategic expertise sharing) between member universities/colleges to support the targeted member, and arrive at a solution that best serves the affected students.

Universities around the country should enter agreements with Harvard taking over Harvard students for their I20s, but allowing them to keep attending Harvard classes.

"The reason for that pause... is to review all its standards to 'ensure that we remain in compliance with federal law,' following Pres. Trump’s recent executive order on accreditation." @cswe.bsky.social, @naswsocialworkers.bsky.social, SSW deans, these are fundamental threats to SW ed. Thoughts?

How many more existential threats will it take before university leaders agree to defend higher education collectively (and publicly so, and with their faculty, staff, and students)? #MADC #AcademicSky

These starter packs are a great link to academic resisters - go.bsky.app/Vna55kk go.bsky.app/5hEmcTw go.bsky.app/5UzhWQR

Mutual Academic Defense Compact Resolutions - a kind of NATO for universities to stand against Trump- at universities are spreading! www.umass.edu/senate/madcs...

We also need to talk about the power of higher ed search firms. They shape job postings, recruit & vet applicants, advise on who's "good." They guide the process behind the scenes w/ admin, & search committees can’t compete with firms' quiet influence. We need to address this transparency problem.

Join the conversation on mutual academic defense!

Social work educators: this is not good.

‼️Action item for Columbia affiliates‼️ We urgently need to stand up for shared governance at Columbia! Please sign our petition in support of CU-AAUP’s recommendations for moving forward — grounded in democratic values: bit.ly/cu-defend-sh...