Pia Deshpande
LightNews LightNews
banner
deshpandepia.bsky.social
Pia Deshpande
@deshpandepia.bsky.social
30 followers 66 following 5 posts
PhD student at UC Berkeley | Previously: CES at @Tufts, @MITelectionlab, @AP, @Politico, @cnn | she/her | pdeshlab.github.io
Posts Replies Media Videos
Pinned
deshpandepia.bsky.social
Pia Deshpande @deshpandepia.bsky.social · Feb 28
Hey! Just overhauled my academic website. You can see it here: pdeshlab.github.io

tl;dr: I'm a Berkeley PhD student in American Politics studying social media, so time here is research(!).

Feel free to reach out!
Pia Deshpande
pdeshlab.github.io
Reposted by Pia Deshpande
donmoyn.bsky.social
It's a minor point amidst the serial violations of due process occurring here, but one of Trump's conditions to Columbia University for retaining funding was to ban masks. But the people sweeping up students are masked armed security officials.
gravelinfluencer.bsky.social Gravel Influencer @gravelinfluencer.bsky.social · Mar 26
Not sure if this has been shared here yet, but this is video of Rumeysa Ozturk's arrest posted by WCVB. It's terrifying.
March 27, 2025 at 3:26 AM
Reposted by Pia Deshpande
brendannyhan.bsky.social
If the government can do this to universities, we don't live in a free society. Five alarm fire.
jameeljaffer.bsky.social Jameel Jaffer @jameeljaffer.bsky.social · Mar 14
I’m told this is a real letter. It basically says, “We’ll destroy Columbia unless you destroy it first.”
March 14, 2025 at 1:50 AM
Reposted by Pia Deshpande
jameeljaffer.bsky.social
I’m told this is a real letter. It basically says, “We’ll destroy Columbia unless you destroy it first.”
March 14, 2025 at 12:02 AM
Reposted by Pia Deshpande
philipncohen.com
I just heard this as well. The entire staff of the National Center for Education Statistics, created in 1867, has been fired.
March 12, 2025 at 1:20 AM
Reposted by Pia Deshpande
adamhsays.com
The Ed. Department's Office for Civil Rights sent letters to 60 additional institutions "warning them of potential enforcement actions" for "violations relating to antisemitic harassment and discrimination" including Harvard, Brown, Stanford, Princeton, UNC, and several UC's
U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights Sends Letters to 60 Universities Under Investigation for Antisemitic Discrimination and Harassment WASHINGTON – Today, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) sent letters to 60 institutions of higher education warning them of potential enforcement actions if they do not fulfill their obligations under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act to protect Jewish students on campus, including uninterrupted access to campus facilities and educational opportunities. The letters are addressed to all U.S. universities that are presently under investigation for Title VI violations relating to antisemitic harassment and discrimination. “The Department is deeply disappointed that Jewish students studying on elite U.S. campuses continue to fear for their safety amid the relentless antisemitic eruptions that have severely disrupted campus life for more than a year. University leaders must do better,” said Secretary of Education Linda McMahon. “U.S. colleges and universities benefit from enormous public investments funded by U.S. taxpayers. That support is a privilege and it is contingent on scrupulous adherence to federal antidiscrimination laws.” The schools that received letters from the Office for Civil Rights include: American University Arizona State University Boston University Brown University California State University, Sacramento Chapman University Columbia University Cornell University Drexel University Eastern Washington University Emerson College George Mason University Harvard University Illinois Wesleyan University Indiana University, Bloomington Johns Hopkins University Lafayette College Lehigh University Middlebury College Muhlenberg College Northwestern University Ohio State University Pacific Lutheran University Pomona College Portland State University Princeton University Rutgers University Rutgers University-Newark Santa Monica College Sarah Lawrence College Stanford University State University of New York Binghamton State University of New York Rockland State University of New York, Purchase Swarthmore College Temple University The New School Tufts University Tulane University Union College University of California Davis University of California San Diego University of California Santa Barbara University of California, Berkeley University of Cincinnati University of Hawaii at Manoa University of Massachusetts Amherst University of Michigan University of Minnesota, Twin Cities University of North Carolina University of South Florida University of Southern California University of Tampa University of Tennessee University of Virginia University of Washington-Seattle University of Wisconsin, Madison Wellesley College Whitman College Yale University
March 10, 2025 at 7:41 PM
Reposted by Pia Deshpande
joshgerstein.bsky.social
BREAKING: Judge blocks Columbia pro-Palestinian protest organizer Mahmoud Khalil's removal from US pending further action on habeas petition. Doc: www.documentcloud.org/documents/25... Earlier: www.politico.com/news/2025/03...
March 10, 2025 at 9:04 PM
Reposted by Pia Deshpande
jakemgrumbach.bsky.social
Literally sending DHS after people for speech
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE MARCH 9, 2025 PRESS CONTACT: DEFENSEPRESS@PROTON.ME Columbia University Student Activist Detained by Department of Homeland Security Following Threats of Deportation of Pro-Palestinian Students The arrest comes on the heels of the Department of State's announcement that it plans to deport students affiliated with pro-Palestine protests. The student, who is Palestinian, is a lawful permanent resident of the United States. NEW YORK, NEW YORK-On March 8, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agents arrested Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian activist and recent graduate student at Columbia University, at his place of residence, an apartment building owned by the university. The DHS agents said that the U.S. Department of State had revoked Khalil's green card. At approximately 8:30 p.m. ET, Khalil and his wife, a U.S. citizen who is eight months pregnant, had just unlocked the door to their building when two plainclothes DHS agents forced their way in behind them. The agents initially refused to identify themselves, instead asking Khalil to confirm his identity before detaining him without explanation. The agents proceeded to threaten his wife, telling her that if she remained by his side, they would arrest her too. Later, the DHS agents stated that the U.S. Department of State had revoked Khalil's student visa, despite the fact that he has a green card, not a visa, and is a lawful permanent resident.
March 9, 2025 at 7:03 PM
deshpandepia.bsky.social
Being a Columbia alumni is waking up every morning and going "I wonder what awful things my university is doing today?" and somehow having your low expectations limbo-ed under. Free Mahmoud Khalil.
March 10, 2025 at 9:38 PM
deshpandepia.bsky.social
This is such a disheartening statement (read: a statement that does absolutely nothing) from @columbiauniversity.bsky.social's president Katrina Armstrong. A green card holder was illegally detained for expressing views the state disagreed with --- and you're calling for unity?
March 10, 2025 at 9:27 PM
Reposted by Pia Deshpande
mayasen.bsky.social
Spare a thought for your green-card holding and naturalized colleagues, many of whom are now doing risk-benefit calculations before speaking on anything that could be considered remotely political
March 10, 2025 at 1:09 PM
Reposted by Pia Deshpande
knightcolumbia.org
Knight Institute Says Threats to Deport Student Protesters Pose “Existential Threat” to Universities

Statement from @jameeljaffer.bsky.social below and at link.

knightcolumbia.org/content/knig...
March 10, 2025 at 12:09 AM
Reposted by Pia Deshpande
brookejarvis.bsky.social
ProPublica looked into science grants that Ted Cruz's team flagged as "radical" and "neo-Marxist" and, uh.

This would be good comedy if it didn't matter so much www.propublica.org/article/ted-...
"Developing a device that could treat severe bleeding. It seems to have caught the committee’s attention for using the words “victims” — as in gunshot victims — and “trauma.” Creating biosensors to detect infectious diseases. The grant appears to have been tagged for the repeated use of “POC,” an acronym often used for “people of color” but in this context meaning “point of care” — that is, the place where people receive medical treatment — and “barrier,” referring to a part of the biosensor itself. Designing eye-tracking technology for diagnosing and treating concussions. It appears to have gotten flagged for referencing “traumatic” brain injuries and the “status,” meaning the condition, of patients."
March 3, 2025 at 3:45 AM
Reposted by Pia Deshpande
qjurecic.bsky.social
They seem to be feeling some pressure on this
March 3, 2025 at 7:08 PM
Reposted by Pia Deshpande
karenho.bsky.social
breaking the collection of long datasets in science (incl. weather, climate, and cancer research), economics, and other fields, through mass layoffs of federal employees and cuts to NIH funding, will be impossible to recover from, and everyone will suffer as a result, not just people in the US.
February 28, 2025 at 9:32 PM
Reposted by Pia Deshpande
rmac.bsky.social
To go along with our piece today, we published an extensive list of folks associated with DOGE. It builds off and adds to the strong work that Wired, WaPo, ProPublica and other pubs have been doing.

The public has a right to know who is dismantling the government.

www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
Who Is in DOGE? Tracking Its Staffers and Allies in the Federal Government
The Times identified 49 people within the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, a group formed by Elon Musk that in a short few weeks has radically upended federal agencies.
www.nytimes.com
February 28, 2025 at 9:45 PM
deshpandepia.bsky.social
Hey! Just overhauled my academic website. You can see it here: pdeshlab.github.io

tl;dr: I'm a Berkeley PhD student in American Politics studying social media, so time here is research(!).

Feel free to reach out!
Pia Deshpande
pdeshlab.github.io
February 28, 2025 at 11:49 PM
Reposted by Pia Deshpande
reichlinmelnick.bsky.social
Sharing an incredible resource for people looking to follow the legal changes on immigration under Trump. A law professor and numerous students at Yale Law and Stanford Law will be tracking and summarizing every change in immigration policy. immpolicytracking.org/home/
Immigration Policy Tracking Project
A comprehensive and dynamic catalogue of immigration policies issued by the Trump administration since January 2017.
immpolicytracking.org
January 19, 2025 at 2:45 AM