Historians: Quibbling Over Exact Definition Of Concentration Camp Sign Of Healthy Society https://theonion.com/historians-quibbling-over-exact-definition-of-concentration-camp-sign-of-healthy-society/

If you’re wondering why your friends in academia are a little on edge right now, it’s because an eighteen-year-old who hasn’t done the reading, doesn’t look at the assignment, and has does no critical thinking skills more complex than “because I think it’s in the Bible” can literally end your career

Faculty and students demand answers from UC Berkeley following suspension of Peyrin Kao www.dailycal.org/news/campus/...

“Anyway, best of luck to Weiss in playing DMCA whack-a-mole with the video of the story. The segment lives as online samizdat now. Thanks to Weiss’ censorship, it may very well wind up being the most-talked-about CBS News story this year.” 💅🏼💅🏼💅🏼 Hoo boy. archive.ph/2025.12.23-0...

“It appears administrators have created a narrative of infringement by stretching campus policy in order to fit their political agenda — establishing an impetus for an astonishingly severe and undue punishment for Kao’s advocacy about Palestine.“ www.dailycal.org/opinion/edit...

We’re living in an age of intense right-wing victimhood. Despite dominating political institutions, finance, and, yes, higher ed, the right is always complaining about being oppressed, silenced, & persecuted while they oppress, silence, & persecute everyone else.

“Respondent authors in commercial markets make about $25k per year. If the attorneys in this case rake in an average of $6500/hr, that means the law firms, with about four hours’ worth of work, would be earning the equivalent of those authors’ annual income.”  www.authorsalliance.org/2025/12/19/b...

“The Trump war on knowledge and universities is an opportunity to undo our own maladaptations, which rest on bipartisan consensus that social resources should go disproportionately to elites because they uniquely know how to maximize returns on investment.” utotherescue.blogspot.com/2025/12/line...

Congress’s three favorite lines: 1. Sorry we can’t do anything, we’re in the minority 2. Sorry we can’t do anything, we need a supermajority 3. Sorry we can’t do anything, our party’s in the White House and we have to support the president

“Once, universities saw their computational power exploited by researchers working for the DoD. Today, universities are being infiltrated by a commercial industry that exploits students and faculty as data mines, test subjects, and a perpetual supply depot of future users, all for their own profit.”

cars ruin cities

"In suspending Peyrin Kao, UC Berkeley has not simply violated an instructor’s freedom of political expression. It has shown itself to be a willing proponent of the brave new world for which the genocide in Gaza stands as testament and warning. " www.dailycal.org/opinion/op-e...

New measure of academic impact just dropped: number of citations received to papers that chatgpt created and fraudulently attributed to you.

UC-AFT is committed to defending our members and our community against ideological control tactics. We will fight first and foremost to strengthen and protect academic freedom as a policy and a principle at UC—and we call on each and every one of our members to join us. @ucaft.bsky.social

We as a union believe that we have the right to be safe from scapegoating and punishment for our political questions, critiques, values, and beliefs, whether they show up in our conversations with students, on our clothing, or through our lived embodiment. @ucaft.bsky.social

UC-AFT has filed a formal grievance, per our union contract, which protects all lecturers from unfair and unwarranted disciplinary action. We are confident that the grievance process will resolve in Peyrin and UC-AFT’s favor. @ucaft.bsky.social

We express our outrage at EVCP Benjamin Hermalin’s recommendation to suspend UC Berkeley lecturer Peyrin Kao for his free speech and expression. We call on Hermalin to immediately reverse it. Read the full letter from the UC-AFT Bay Area Chapter: ucaft.org/news/letter-... @ucaft.bsky.social

“These recurring instances of the ‘Palestine exception,’ wherein policies are selectively applied to quell speech and action that would fly under the radar for a myriad of other causes, is a dire threat to the very foundation of free speech.” www.dailycal.org/opinion/op-e...

“Removing a student or faculty member from internet access would have more or less the same effect as suspending or terminating them.” www.authorsalliance.org/2025/12/17/u...

The AI-Copyright debates seem to return again and again to the same myths about both copyright law and AI training. We tackled these head-on in an infographic earlier this year. The "piracy" and "theft" stuff is some of the most insidious brainrot in 21C tech policy.

The ACM Digital Library, where a LOT of computing-related research is published (I'd say at least 75% of my own publications), is now not only providing (without consent of the authors and without opt-in by readers) AI-generated summaries of papers, but they appear as the *default* over abstracts.

"The students are facing potential discipline that could range from a private reprimand to being required to withdraw from the school" Instead of removing the guy who was buddies with a sex trafficker, they're investigating and going to discipline students who drew attention to it? Insanity.

“Honoring my colleague means more than words—it means changing the system that failed him so no one else pays the price.” After an UPTE member was killed at UCSF’s Ward 86, we demand a safety plan now, staffing/caseload limits, protected PTO, trauma support, & transparency. upte.org/demands #UCSF

Are you a UC Berkeley faculty or researcher publishing results arising through federal grant funding? Join us January 14, 1-2pm on Zoom for a dive into agency public access policies affecting research publications and data. update.lib.berkeley.edu/2025/12/15/u... @ucberkeleylibrary.bsky.social

“True reform, Haustein and commenters note, would require deeper changes to an academic culture that stresses metrics such as productivity and journal impact factors when evaluating researchers.” www.science.org/content/arti...

"Every single act of gun violence is 100% preventable." Brown University student Mia Tretta talks about the fear and uncertainty of living through Saturday's mass shooting on campus. It was her second school shooting after she survived being shot in the stomach at age 15.

NEW: 9 ex-DOJ lawyers who resigned from antisemitism investigations into UCLA and other UC campuses say they were pressured to find UC guilty of violations in a rushed and politically motivated process. One called it a "fraudulent and sham investigation." www.latimes.com/california/s...

Our latest #ARLviews blog post by @katherinejk.bsky.social & @marjblu.bsky.social revisits the #LibraryCopyrightAlliance (LCA) statement on #AI & #copyright. LCA's founding members—ARL & @amlibraryassoc.bsky.social—represent 300,000+ info pros and thousands of #libraries www.arl.org/blog/revisit...

In the news recently were several reports about the Supreme Court deferring a decision on whether President Trump can fire Shira Perlmutter, Register of Copyrights. The rapid developments over the past few months warrant an update:

“UC Berkeley administrators have violated Kao’s academic freedom and the First Amendment in their shameful punishment of him for his free speech … and they deserve condemnation also for the much larger chilling effect this repression will cause across the UC.” www.insidehighered.com/opinion/colu...

One thing this reporting confirms: the University of California President and high level administration leaders have done little to nothing to protect research funding at the UC. The fight is being brought – and won – by faculty, union workers, and students. www.chronicle.com/article/the-...

I guess it's fitting that it's a reimagined, worse version of someone else's artwork

Some recent film photos, shot on Harman Phoenix II 200.

Some members of the House GOP are trying to cram through (by year's end!) a bill, HR 6028, that reorganizes the Library of Congress and splits off the Copyright Office. It was introduced 28 days ago. No committee has held a hearing!

Chuck Schumer won't say if he opposes regime change in Venezuela. JAKE TAPPER: Do you disagree with President Trump's ultimate goal of regime change in Venezuela? CHUCK SCHUMER: President Trump throws out so many different things in so many different ways, you don't even know what the heck ...

"MIT is planning to eliminate 16 library positions, which would require 12 current employees to be fired. Overall, administrators tasked MIT Libraries with cutting their budget by 5%, or around $1.6 million annually" thetech.com/2025/12/04/m...

“In the absence of any evidence that Kao was grading his students in a biased manner or otherwise pressuring them to agree with him, Zimmerman said, the suspension “seems really draconian.” www.berkeleyside.org/2025/12/09/p...

The @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social suspended a unit 18 lecturer for making a critical statement about Israel at the end of one of his classes last year, after it was over, and for mentioning his hunger strike this year. We need a new free speech movement. www.dailycal.org/news/campus/...

Organized UC faculty sent similar messages in August and September but unfortunately the campaign is still relevant.

Shameful response by UC Berkeley administration. www.dailycal.org/news/campus/...

“Students, faculty, staff and alumni need to create a subversive alternative university lurking within the shadows of the university itself…[it’s] essential because trustees, administrators and wealthy donors ultimately control the structure of universities.” www.insidehighered.com/opinion/colu...

We owe our colleague and friend more than grief. We owe them change, and will fight for it with everything we have. Please read our statement from UPTE President Dan Russell on the tragic passing of a UCSF social worker and UPTE-CWA 9119 member. #UCSF #SF #SocialWorker #WorkplaceSafety

JFC the hate just never stops

So at SJSU, one professor assaulted a student and faced a temporary suspension, and Dr. Sang Hea Kil attends campus protests and gets fired? There is no justification for this. SJSU is a unionized public university. These are battles we really can't concede. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

You may have heard that Trump’s extortion of University of California was defeated in court. But do you know who won this historic case? Spoiler: not a single UC administrator participated. It was all faculty members of the UC Faculty Associations and @aaup.org! Cc: @veenadubal.bsky.social

JFC Oklahoma you fuckin cowards. Now every Jesus-freak right-wing student who can't get a passing grade for a bunch of bible quotes masquerading as an essay is going to file a 1st amendment complaint. You gonna suspend the whole Biology department for teaching about evolution? (Don't answer that)

If only we had a way of knowing where Tom Cotton stands on lawless abuse of the military.

Technology created to do one important thing fails spectacularly in doing said thing.

“An instructor's freedom to teach includes the right to assess student academic performance. We are gravely concerned that a climate of escalating authoritarian assaults on academic freedom is normalizing politicized interference in classroom teaching & learning.” — Todd Wolfson, AAUP President