Cooper Battle
banner
chbattle.com
Cooper Battle
@chbattle.com
Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Willamette University. Bio-organic chemist.
Someone else posted a copy of the email, you can see it here: bsky.app/profile/viji...
February 5, 2025 at 11:33 PM
Every PI at every institution was notified via email this morning. There is no record online, because there is also now no record on HHMI's website that the IE3 program ever existed: every webpage and news article on it has been scrubbed clean.
February 5, 2025 at 11:32 PM
It's a good reminder for people that private foundations can pull your funding at any point for any reason. Anyone with HHMI funding (or who is applying for it) should keep that in mind moving forward.
February 5, 2025 at 11:31 PM
I'm sure this is related to the EOs, but since HHMI is a private foundation they are not beholden to these EOs like they would be to the USSC decision on affirmative action. Linking all efforts to improve inclusivity in education to "affirmative action" is not a useful or correct framing.
February 5, 2025 at 10:13 PM
Yup. It funded groups of schools to work collaboratively on things like building pathways for CC students to 4-year schools, improving introductory science pedagogy, and developing methods of measuring and improving inclusive pedagogy.
February 5, 2025 at 10:11 PM
If you're not familiar with the program and what it does, why are you making fairly definitive statements about what "programs like this" do?
February 5, 2025 at 10:07 PM
These programs have no tie at all to affirmative action, and HHMI even brought out some top-shelf education lawyers last summer to talk to the IE3 community about why the IE3 program was not impacted by the affirmative action ruling. These programs fund pedagogical and curricular development.
February 5, 2025 at 10:05 PM
And I'm hopeful that as a group we can continue a lot of the work sans funding. Grateful to have been able to work with you, as well.
February 5, 2025 at 9:18 PM
Not anymore: they've stripped all of the language around inclusivity from most parts of their website. But what this program did that others didn't was focus on undergraduate education: CC/University partnerships, introductory science education, and inclusive pedagogy.
February 5, 2025 at 9:17 PM
They didn't. They chose to do it, they were not forced.
February 5, 2025 at 9:16 PM
We haven't gotten a lot of guidance. We can use what we have left this year, but they fund 1 year at a time and no more funding will be coming.
February 5, 2025 at 7:43 PM
Same. And... it makes me worried. Especially with how thoroughly they've scrubbed any mention of the program.
February 5, 2025 at 7:40 PM
Came out by email to people with the grant this morning. The website is already gone, along with all of the announcements of institutions / PR / etc.
February 5, 2025 at 7:28 PM
Yup. David Asai was such a leader in this field, and it's been culled almost as soon as he stepped down.
February 5, 2025 at 7:25 PM