Religion has always been a key element of American higher education, including today. Compulsory chapel is gone, for the most part, but religion is present institutionally on most campuses in the form of chaplaincies in many forms and, more extensively, in co-curricular life.

You can't yet identify any trends in the settlements. First, because there are too few of them. Second, identifying trends implies a unified and coordinated plan from this administration, and that would be total fiction. Federal action will remain as unpredictable as it has been so far.

The only good news about the disabling of the Department of Education is that, at least so far, "the distribution of Pell Grants and federal student loans has remained largely unaffected."

In the case of LSU the primary political intervention has been over the running of its athletic program, so the intervention has focused on the university's entertainment program, which is more a public matter, rather than academic or research programs.

Happy 78th birthday to US Senator Mazie Hirono, the first Asian-American woman elected to the Senate, the first US senator born in Japan, and the nation's first Buddhist senator. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mazie_H...

It's the college students who must juggle jobs and families, and who have no family history of college attendance, who are the heroes to honor.

“There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things.” Niccolò Machiavelli

"When you’re blessed with intelligence you’re also cursed with the ability to use it to concoct intricate – and often false – stories about why things happened. Especially stories justifying why you, Mr. Smartypants, made a mistake." www.collaborativefund.com/blog/why-sma...

The African Free School was founded in New York City on this day in 1787 to provide education to children of enslaved people and free people of color. It counted many early African American leaders among its alumni. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African...

Happy 210th birthday to George Boole! Boolean logic gates now form the building blocks of all digital computing devices, including the one in front of you.

From all appearances, Harvard's board chair knows the role of the board and stays focused on board level issues. "How do we advance the mission and stand by the guiding principles of our community? We have tried to ask hard questions and act with humility and curiosity in answering them."

The BBC notices what we too often take for granted. Campuses are unique places worth appreciating.

The case for having a "resume of challenges." It's reminds me of the Booker T. Washington quote that “success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed.”

The first of the government sponsored Indian boarding schools, the Carlisle Indian School, opened today in 1879. The goal was cultural genocide: “to lay aside his savage customs like a garment and take upon himself the habits of civilized life.” calendar.eji.org/racial-injus...

Ebony magazine was first published eighty years ago today. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebony_(...

Columbia University's compliance reporting to the Federal government and the "independent monitor" is beginning. There are no clear criteria for deciding whether the data indicates compliance with the government's vague and ideological "standards."

Journals, foundations, and universities are all making more concerted efforts to offer evidence of the benefits of basic research conducted by universities.

As commentaries and media reports focus on institution having enrollment challenges, places like Idaho State University are doing very well. Thank you for asking! www.idahostatejournal.com/news/local/b...

BENGAL BOOM: ISU enrollment skyrockets with biggest incoming class in 13 years | Local | idahostatejournal.com www.idahostatejournal.com/news/local/b...

It's a great pleasure to make fun of the institutions too many believe are at the top of the prestige ladder. Welcome to Featherstone University! " Our requirements aren’t hurdles; they’re filters, ensuring only the elite pass through."

Government shut downs disproportionately harm Native Americans, including obligations that are supposed to be funded by treaty.

"Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing." Albert Schweitzer

The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, painted by Michelangelo, was shown to the public for the first time on this day in 1512. "Without having seen the Sistine Chapel one can form no appreciable idea of what one man is capable of achieving." –Goethe en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sistine...

Today in 1961 fifty thousand women in 60 cities participated in the inaugural Women Strike for Peace (WSP) against nuclear proliferation. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_S...

It's the first known land transfer nationwide from a Catholic institution to a tribal nation in the name of reparations.

Everything has unintended consequences, and the political attack on Harvard is no exception. The political attack exposed the lack of faculty governance for the university as a whole, which was never necessary previously because the individual Harvard schools had significant autonomy.

Financial challenges are painful but also bring opportunity. Cornell is taking the opportunity to refresh processes that are likely to have become overly complicated or that addressed needs that are no longer as important as they once were.

Those with "some college, no degree" are a very significant opportunity for colleges and universities if those institutions are prepared to adapt to meet the needs of those prospective students.

With some notable exceptions, there is a direct correlation between an institution's dependency on Federal support (and visibility) and its willingness to speak out. The greater your dependency, the more circumspect you are.

While some say accreditors stifle innovation, they actually stifle exploitation of students. www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

The evidence is mounting of the negative impact of the Supreme Court decision. Decades of effort to overcome centuries of racism are being erased.

Mentoring is probably the most important teaching function of faculty, and is too often overlooked.

Eighty years ago today, Jackie Robinson of the Kansas City Monarchs signed a contract for the Brooklyn Dodgers to break the baseball color barrier.

"When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us." Helen Keller

Classic New Yorker cartoon by Matthew Stiles Davis

One challenge for management and auditors is deciding what to tell audit committees so that they can effectively perform their oversight function. That isn't as easy as it might seem. www.richardchambers.com/the-art-of-d...

On this day in 1998 South Africa's the Truth and Reconciliation Commission presented its report. The Commission confronted South Africa's bitter racist past and created space for the transition to democracy. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truth_a...

Terror is the most consistent and reliable way for the dominant culture to control those who are perceived to threaten it. www.insidehighered.com/news/student...

Anxiety among college students is nothing new. What is new, since colleges and universities improved access, is that new students are surprised and unprepared for what college is really like, and how institutions too often aren't able to provide sufficient support to those students.

“If your dreams do not scare you, they are not big enough.” Former Liberian President (and Nobel Laureate) Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is 87 today. www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace...

Settlements and court orders do not necessarily mean that Federal funding is restored. Restoration has been haphazard. The government doesn't communicate with institutions, or coordinate with them, except, on occasion, through social media pronouncements.

For presidents who have presided over a closing, their stories are deeply moving. They did their best to keep the mission alive. They presided over tragedy, listening to anger and sadness born of grief. And, like most presidents, they received little gratitude or empathy themselves.

On this day in tech history in 1969, he first-ever computer-to-computer link is established on ARPANET, the precursor to the Internet. One of the many benefits of Federal R&D spending. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARPANET

As the basketball season begins, I’m remembering the New York Rens, likely the best professional basketball team of all time.

The first universities were established at the dawn of the Middle Ages and they have endured ever since, changing not because of short-term political shifts but because of longer term changes in cultural and economic needs over time. Innovation has always been a key component of the DNA.

“Whenever change outside of an organization is greater than change within an organization, that organization will ultimately fail.” - Peter Drucker

Private colleges and universities are a vital part of the culture and economy of a state. In New York, recognizing the importance of maintaining facilities, there is a program that matches $3 of institutional money with $1 of public funds.

An associate professor of English describes the joy, complexity, messiness, and lovableness of the university. Also why presidents can't create unity at such a place.

‘Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!’” The Statue of Liberty was dedicated on this day in 1886. www.nps.gov/stli/learn/h...

Congratulations to St. Norbert College on its path to continued financial sustainability. It is wisely adding programs in addition to deletions. Strategy is about making choices and seizing opportunities.