Massachusetts liberal arts college laments ‘heartbreaking reality’ and says financial pressures to blame
A Massachusetts liberal arts college is set to close permanently due to low enrollment and financial problems.
The board of trustees of Hampshire College, a small liberal arts school in Amherst founded in 1965, pointed to “financial pressures” that have been “compounded by shifting external factors”.
Continue reading...Effort to curb grade inflation, by limiting top marks to 20% of students in a course, is opposed by most students
Harvard’s faculty is set to vote next week on a faculty committee proposal to cap the number of A grades per course in an effort to curb grade inflation.
The proposal, which was first reported earlier this year by the Harvard Crimson, Harvard’s student newspaper, would cap A grades to 20% of students in a course, with an allowance for four additional As. It also would introduce a new internal “average percentile rank” system, which would rely on raw scores rather than grade point average (GPA) to determine honors and awards.
Continue reading...Autopsy reveals James ‘Jimmy’ Gracey’s injuries consistent with repeatedly hitting breakwater’s rocks, Spanish media report
A University of Alabama student who was found dead in Barcelona after going missing while vacationing evidently fell into the sea by accident in view of surveillance cameras – and an autopsy revealed injuries on his body that were consistent with having repeatedly struck a breakwater’s rocks.
Such details about James “Jimmy” Gracey surfaced in the Spanish media as a spokesperson for police in Barcelona told the Associated Press that “all signs point” to the 20-year-old’s death as having been inadvertent.
Continue reading...Sociology faculty are refusing to alter syllabi, even as state targets how race, gender and inequality are taught
Across Florida universities, some sociology professors are quietly choosing not to alter their courses in response to new state guidelines restricting how topics like race, gender and sexuality can be discussed. Rather than rewriting syllabi or removing foundational material, as the new demands would call for, they say they are continuing to teach their classes as designed. The professors view the preservation of their curricula not as an act of defiance, but as a professional responsibility to provide students with a full and rigorous education.
In late January, Florida’s department of education introduced what many professors are calling a censored sociology textbook for use in the state’s public colleges and universities, along with a list of proposed guidelines at state schools, restricting various discussions related to systemic discrimination, gender and sexual identity, race-conscious remedies, and the structural causes of inequality. Faculty members say this move reflects a broader effort to narrow academic freedom in higher education and follows several years of legislation aimed at reshaping public university curricula under the banner of combating “woke ideology”.
Continue reading...Purdue says no ban on Chinese students exists, but reportedly rescinded dozens of offers after warnings from legislators
Several universities have scrapped partnerships with Chinese institutions in recent months as a direct result of pressure from US legislators. But no university appears to have gone as far as Purdue University in Indiana.
Students and faculty at the public university say that an unofficial policy is in effect to automatically reject students from China and a number of other countries altogether.
Continue reading...WilmerHale to conduct review following new revelations about Leon Botstein’s dealings with convicted sex offender
Bard College’s board of trustees has retained the outside law firm of WilmerHale to conduct an independent investigation into communications between Jeffrey Epstein and the college’s longtime president Leon Botstein.
WilmerHale’s will conduct an “independent review” of the “full scope of these communications”, financial contributions connected to Epstein, and any related matters, the board said in an announcement on Thursday evening.
Continue reading...Agreement will also end series of investigations of university over school’s alleged failure to fight antisemitism
Northwestern University has agreed to pay $75m to the US government in a deal with the Trump administration to end a series of investigations and restore hundreds of millions of dollars in federal research funding.
Donald Trump’s administration had cut off $790m in grants in a standoff that contributed to university layoffs and the resignation in September of Northwestern’s president, Michael Schill. The administration argued the school had not done enough to fight antisemitism.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Ramsi Woodcock, who calls for an ‘end’ to Israel and military intervention against it, says the university violated his first amendment rights
A tenured law professor sued the University of Kentucky on Thursday after he was banned from teaching and from the law school for comments he made about Israel, including characterizations of the state as a “colonization project” and calls for the world to wage war against it.
In a lawsuit filed in federal court, Ramsi Woodcock, an antitrust law scholar, argued that the public university violated his first amendment and due process rights when it abruptly placed him under investigation in July, just days after he was promoted to full professor, over allegations that he violated university policy – including anti-discrimination rules that incorporate a widely disputed definition of antisemitism.
Continue reading...One armed person detained as historically Black school shooting comes amid rising violence at homecoming events
At least one person was killed and six others wounded in a shooting at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania late on Saturday, as students and alumni celebrated homecoming at outdoor festivities at the historically Black university, authorities said.
A person who had a firearm was detained, and officials are investigating the possibility that there was more than one shooter but don’t believe there is any active threat to the campus, Chester county’s district attorney, Christopher de Barrena-Sarobe, said during a brief news conference early on Sunday.
Continue reading...Police decline to comment on injuries or possible suspects but early reports say one person in critical condition
A shooting near Howard University has left at least four people shot, police in Washington DC said.
The shooting happened as thousands descended on the campus for homecoming celebrations.
Continue reading...Editors at the Indiana Daily Student say administration’s move to control news content amounts to censorship
Indiana University has ordered its student-run newspaper, the Indiana Daily Student (IDS), to cease printing new editions and fired the school’s director of student media, who also served as the paper’s adviser, according to multiple reports. Students at the school are criticizing these moves as censorship.
The university’s directive to halt print editions came just hours after Jim Rodenbush, the school’s director of student media, was terminated, according to a letter from IDS editors.
Continue reading...Universities, law firms and businesses that have changed course should have stood by convictions, says ex-president
Barack Obama took aim at institutions and businesses who made deals or worked out settlements with the Trump administration, noting on a new podcast episode: “We all have this capacity, I think, to take a stand.”
In a talk with Marc Maron on the comedian’s last edition of his long-running WTF With Marc Maron, the former US president said institutions – including law firms, universities and businesses – that have changed course during the Trump administration should have stood by their convictions.
Continue reading...Rutgers University professor who published book on antifa was informed at boarding gate that his trip was cancelled
A Rutgers University professor who taught a course on anti-fascism and was blocked from leaving the US for Spain on Wednesday night, according to media reports, hours after Donald Trump hosted a White House roundtable highlighting the impact of antifa – or “anti-fascist” – far-left activists is now departing.
Mark Bray, an historian who published the 2017 book Antifa: the Anti-Fascist Handbook and has taught courses on anti-fascism at the New Jersey university, posted on the social media platform Bluesky that “Our plane to Spain is in the air!”. Bray was attempting to board a plane at Newark airport when he was informed at the boarding gate that the reservations for him and his family had been cancelled.
Continue reading...Rutgers University professor who published book on antifa was informed at boarding gate that his trip was cancelled
A Rutgers University professor who taught a course on anti-fascism and was blocked from leaving the US for Spain on Wednesday night, according to media reports, hours after Donald Trump hosted a White House roundtable highlighting the impact of antifa – or “anti-fascist” – far-left activists is now departing.
Mark Bray, an historian who published the 2017 book Antifa: the Anti-Fascist Handbook and has taught courses on anti-fascism at the New Jersey university, posted on the social media platform Bluesky that “Our plane to Spain is in the air!”. Bray was attempting to board a plane at Newark airport when he was informed at the boarding gate that the reservations for him and his family had been cancelled.
Continue reading...Kent Broussard joined Louisiana State University’s famed Golden Band from Tigerland after retiring as an accountant
Some dreams live on in time forever, says the summer Olympics anthem considered by many to be the greatest – and living proof of that is a retired accountant who recently enrolled as a freshman at Louisiana State University in his mid-60s to fulfill his lifelong ambition of playing for the school’s famed marching band.
Kent Broussard drew nationwide media attention after being shown on ESPN’s broadcast of the LSU football team’s victory at home against in-state rival Louisiana Tech on 6 September.
Continue reading...Some slammed the agreement with the Trump administration to reinstate $400m in federal funds while others praised it as an ‘excellent outcome’
Columbia University’s long anticipated deal with the Trump administration after months of negotiations has drawn both condemnation and praise from faculty, students, and alumni – a sign that the end of negotiations will hardly restore harmony on a campus profoundly divided since the beginning of Israel’s war in Gaza.
The deal will reinstate $400m in federal funds the administration cut from the university after it accused it of allowing antisemitism to fester on campus. But it will cost Columbia some $220m in legal settlements, as well as a host of new measures that critics warn significantly restrict the university’s independence and will further repress pro-Palestinian speech.
Continue reading...As Harvard’s feud with Trump escalated, so did tensions over an ‘education and Palestine’ issue of a prestigious journal. Scholars blame the ‘Palestine exception’ to academic freedom
In March 2024, six months into Israel’s war in Gaza, education in the territory was decimated. Schools were closed – most had been turned into shelters – and all 12 of the strip’s universities were partially or fully destroyed.
Against that backdrop, a prestigious American education journal decided to dedicate a special issue to “education and Palestine”. The Harvard Educational Review (HER) put out a call for submissions, asking academics around the world for ideas for articles grappling with the education of Palestinians, education about Palestine and Palestinians, and related debates in schools and colleges in the US.
Continue reading...Ruling in the university’s favor would reverse funding freezes that became cuts as Trump administration escalated fight
Harvard University will appear in federal court Monday to make the case that the Trump administration illegally cut $2.6bn from the storied college – a pivotal moment in its battle against the federal government.
If US district Judge Allison Burroughs decides in the university’s favor, the ruling would reverse a series of funding freezes that later became outright cuts as the Trump administration escalated its fight with the nation’s oldest and wealthiest university. Such a ruling, if it stands, would revive Harvard’s sprawling scientific and medical research operation and hundreds of projects that lost federal money.
Continue reading...Mark Warner says school would face slashes to jobs and financial aid if its president did not resign over DEI practices
The University of Virginia (UVA) received “explicit” notification from the Trump administration that the school would endure cuts to university jobs, research funding and student aid as well as visas if the institution’s president, Jim Ryan, did not resign, according to a US senator.
During an interview Sunday on CBS’s Face the Nation, Mark Warner, a Democratic senator for Virginia, defended Ryan – who had championed diversity policies that the president opposes – and predicted that Donald Trump will similarly target other universities.
Continue reading...Pact will help international students finish their studies amid Harvard’s legal battle with Trump administration
Harvard University and the University of Toronto and have announced a plan that would see some Harvard students complete their studies in Canada if visa restrictions prevent them from entering the United States.
The pact between the two schools reflects the tumultuous and “exceptional” politics of the postsecondary world during the second term of Donald Trump.
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