📣✨ Call for Proposals! ✨📣 The Futures Initiative (FI) is now accepting proposals for team-taught graduate courses (AY 2026–2027) 🎓🤝 🗓️ Preliminary deadline: Feb 27, 2026⏰ 🔗 Apply via link in bio! #FuturesInitiative #CUNY #TeamTeaching #GraduateEducation #HigherEdEquity

🎙️🌈 FI Podcast — Episode 3 is here! 🌈🎙️ In Episode 1:3, our incredible guests Dr. Matt Brim and Dr. Kevin Nadal, Ph.D., with Dr.Shelly Eversley: 👉 Why is Queer Studies for everybody? 📅 Premiering December 16 ▶️ Watch on our YouTube channel: lnkd.in/eDg5hEFi 🎧 Or listen wherever you get your podcasts!

📣✨ Call for Proposals! ✨📣 The Futures Initiative (FI) is now accepting proposals for team-taught graduate courses (AY 2025–2026) 🎓🤝 🗓️ Preliminary deadline: Feb 28, 2025 ⏰ 🔗 Apply via link in bio! #FuturesInitiative #CUNY #TeamTeaching #GraduateEducation #HigherEdEquity

🔥🔥🔥 Big news! The FI HASTAC Scholars now has its own Instagram account: @hastac_official 📲✨ 🤝🤝🤝 Meet the HASTAC Scholars Co-Directors ✨ @belizeanlinguist ✨ @tatibertolucci Follow along for: 📚 highlights from HASTAC Scholars events 🎤 scholar spotlights & voices #CUNY #HASTACScholars

🎉❤️ WE DID IT! THANK YOU! ❤️🎉 ❤️We hit $12,000 in donations!❤️ 💛 Although Giving Tuesday has officially ended, our donation link is still open until December 31st!  👉 Donation link: https://www.givegab.com/campaigns/futures-initiative-cuny-tuesday-campaign  #GivingTuesday #CUNY #PublicEducation

FINAL CALL: Scan the QR code or click the link in bio to apply for the 2026-2027 HASTAC Scholars Program by EOD today, December 5th! #education #highereducation #stem #stemeducation #science #technology #humanities #fellowship #scholarship #academia #collaboration

@lizbethdsantana.bsky.social : “It's for everyone...to understand students need to be celebrated.” #uwff

Lesly Ramirez Melchor: “Talking about immigration doesn't always have to be bad.” #uwff

@lizbethdsantana.bsky.social: “Learning how to navigate this ethically, but it's about putting [immigrants'] voices at the center.” #uwff

What does solidarity look like across immigrant and non-immigrant communities in academic spaces? #uwff

Cynthia Carvajal, PhD: “It's important for U.S. citizens to know this information.” #uwff

Sunisa Nuonsy: “It is a privilege to not talk about [immigration].” #uwff

Lesly Ramirez Melchor: “You're gonna be surprised by how many students want to talk about current political news.” #uwff

How can universities build structural and relational forms of support that go beyond “inclusion”? #uwff

What changes in immigration or education policy most impact students today? #uwff

Sunisa Nuonsy: “It's crucial that K-12 educators know about immigration.” #uwff

Cynthia Carvajal, PhD: “As statuses are being revoked, folks are really falling in and out of these benefits.” #uwff

Sunisa Nuonsy: “I became a reflection of my family when they arrived in the U.S.” #uwff

Our University Worth Fighting For event, Learning Without Borders: Immigrants Transforming Higher Education, is starting in one minute! Follow along using #uwff

🚨⏰ Happening in 1 Hour! ⏰🚨 💪✨We’re getting ready for Learning Without Borders: Immigrants Transforming Higher Education 🎓🌍   ☕ Light refreshments will be served! 🗓️ Time: 4:30 PM -6 PM  📍 Location: The Segal Theatre, The Graduate Center, CUNY  🔗 Register below to catch the last seat!

🎙✨ Episode #2 is live! What does academic freedom really mean, and why now?  Deep convo w/ Moustafa Bayoumi & Michelle Fine, hosted by Shelly Eversley 🔥💬 👉 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ba842N-OJCI&list=PLs4s4YzyzpmGp8pMRWPxR9H4rds1715Cm\ 🎧 Please subscribe! 🔔 #AcademicFreedom #HigherEd #CUNY ✊🏽🗽

DEADLINE EXTENDED: Join a New Generation of Innovative Scholars – Apply for the 2026-2027 HASTAC Scholars Program! Scan the QR code or click the link in bio to apply! #education #highereducation #stem #stemeducation #science #technology #humanities #fellowship #scholarship #academia #collaboration

👏 👏 👏FI is proud to share once again that Dr. @Cathy N. Davidson’s #McGraw Prize in Education was celebrated with a full-page ad in #TheNewYorkTimes.  👏👏👏 A well-deserved recognition of her incredible impact on higher education.  #HigherEducation #EducationLeadership #innovation #equity #cuny

🚨 Event Reminder — Next Tuesday! 🚨 Join us for Learning Without Borders: Immigrants Transforming Higher Education, part of The University Worth Fighting For series by the Futures Initiative 💪🎓 ☕ Light refreshments will be served! #FutureInitiative #CUNY #LearningWithoutBorders

💪✨We’re thrilled to announce our incredible speakers for Learning Without Borders: Immigrants Transforming Higher Education 🤩 Join us for an inspiring conversation about courage and the impact of immigrant scholars who are reshaping higher education. ❤️RSVP below to secure your seats!❤️

🚨 ANNOUNCEMENT ALERT! 🚨 The Future Initiative is back with another event in The University Worth Fighting For series 💪 🎓 Learning Without Borders: Immigrants Transforming Higher Education 💥 Stay tuned for our speaker reveal and content drops! #FutureInitiative #LearningWithoutBorders

🚀 Exciting news! FI’s very first podcast, “Why Innovation Needs Equity,” is now live! 🎧 Tune in now and be part of the dialogue that’s shaping the future. 👉 Check out the QR code— you can watch on YouTube or listen anywhere you find your podcasts! #WhyInnovationNeedsEquity #Innovation #Equity

🎉 Welcome our new Futures Initiative Fellow: Vallerie Matos! 🎉 👏👏👏 Vallerie is an English PhD Candidate at the CUNY Graduate Center, researching Sound Studies, Glossolalia, and Afro-diasporic literature. We’re excited to have her in our community!  #Welcome #FuturesInitiative #CUNY

🎉 🎉 🎉 Welcome our new Futures Initiative Fellow: Oliver Silverman! 🎉🎉 🎉 👏 👏 👏Oliver is a PhD Candidate in Political Science at The Graduate Center, CUNY, researching the history of utopia and the connections between classical political ideas and revolutionary thought.  #FuturesInitiative

📢 Call for Applicants: CUNY Peer Leaders Program 💡 Are you a motivated and collaborative undergraduate at one of CUNY’s 2- or 4-year campuses? The CUNY Peer Leaders program is now accepting applications! 📅 Apply by Tuesday, September 30, 2025: futuresinitiative.org/2025/09/12/t...

👏 👏 👏 Congratulations to Cathy N. Davidson, founding director of the Futures Initiative and senior advisor on transformation to the CUNY chancellor, who has been awarded the 2025 Harold W. McGraw, Jr. Prize in Education! mcgrawprize.com/news-events/... #HigherEducation #Equity #CUNY #McGrawPrize

We close by celebrating @cathyndavidson.bsky.social for her bold leadership and unwavering commitment to higher education—and for 10 transformative years of the Futures Initiative. Here’s to a legacy of innovation, justice, and public good.

Another blind spot in higher ed: failing to grasp the deep value of diversity. We define excellence narrowly and ask diversity to prove its worth—while taking homogeneity as the norm. It’s time to question who defines excellence and why.

Higher education has as its mission to serve the public good—but rarely stops to ask how the public defines it. One of our biggest blind spots is assuming our definition is shared. To rebuild trust, we have to listen—especially across difference.

@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

"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.

Challenging times can open space for imagination. In moments of crisis, resistance, endurance, and imagination become essential—not just to survive, but to transform. These moments can be the catalyst for long-overdue change in our institutions. #FutureOfHigherEd #TransformHigherEd

Hunter College President Nancy Cantor calls for creating shared spaces—not controlled by universities or communities alone, but co-created together.

To shape the future of higher ed, we must co-create with communities - not drop in grant by grant, but commit for the long haul. It’s about shared spaces, visibility, and building together. That can be revolutionary!

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!"

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

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

We start our event with a powerful question: What does it mean to defend higher education and cultural institutions for the public good—not just for today, but for generations to come? #FutureOfHigherEd

We are LIVE: The Future of Higher Education!

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

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!!

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

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!

We just finished the amazing conversation with @alondra.bsky.social and @cathyndavidson.bsky.social, and @hastac.bsky.social area directors Dr. Jade E. Davis and Dr. Kevin Healey. We will be sharing the recap of the conversation on our website soon.

@alondra.bsky.social reminds us that expertise is often weaponized to exclude. So, we must reject the notion that only technical experts should shape AI policy. When it comes to its usage in schools, educators, parents, students, and citizens must have a voice.