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jellywombat.bsky.social
@jellywombat.bsky.social
12 followers 20 following 13 posts
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Reposted
aaup.org
AAUP University of Nebraska - Lincoln is packing the Board of Regents meeting RIGHT NOW to say no to a $27.5 million budget cut and to the closure of 4 academic programs!

Catch the livestream of the meeting and the testimonies of organized UNL higher ed workers here👇

nebraska.edu/news-and-eve...
December 5, 2025 at 4:21 PM
Reposted
aaup.org
"Restrictions in Texas, Florida, Hungary & elsewhere are not isolated. They're part of a long battle over what truths will shape the next generation. When universities choose openness, societies move forward. When they choose silence, societies fracture."
bletiecq.bsky.social Bethany Letiecq @bletiecq.bsky.social · 8d
www.universityworldnews.com/post-mobile....

Faculty senates, legal organisations, student groups and international networks must challenge restrictions. Courts must overturn unconstitutional measures. Universities must adopt strong academic freedom charters and support scholars under pressure.
When universities choose to be silent, societies fracture
Texas A&M University’s restrictions on teaching race or gender reinstall an older moral architecture, asking universities to prepare students fo...
www.universityworldnews.com
December 1, 2025 at 3:10 PM
Reposted
aaup.org
Billionaires, who quite often do not see education as a common good, should not be guiding higher education policy.

“I kind of yearn,” Mr. Nassirian said, “for the gilded age when billionaires satisfied their extracurricular interests by collecting Fabergé eggs and prized ponies.”

#DefendHigherEd
Wealthy People Have Always Shaped Universities. This Time Is Different.
www.nytimes.com
November 24, 2025 at 1:41 PM
Reposted
aaup.org
Solidarity to all students & higher ed workers across the country standing up to build a better future today!

#DefendHigherEd
November 7, 2025 at 2:13 PM
Reposted
actioninhighered.bsky.social
“From attacks on academic freedom to the defunding of life-saving scientific research to arresting peaceful student protesters, Trump’s higher ed policies have been catastrophic for our democracy. We’re excited to build a coalition of workers & students fighting back."
– AAUP president Todd Wolfson
November 4, 2025 at 5:11 PM
Reposted
aaup.org
BOOM!

After over a thousand students, faculty, & workers gathered on campus to demand a rejection of Trump’s bribe,

UVA SAYS NO LOYALTY OATH!

✊🏼✊🏿✊🏻✊🏾

M.I.T. ☑️
BROWN ☑️
PENN ☑️
USC☑️
UVA ☑️

This is People Power in Action.

#DefendHigherEd
We reject the compact. Large crowd gathered in protest Big crowd with signs reading “Don’t Fold” “Don’t Surrender”
October 17, 2025 at 9:19 PM
Reposted
kathleenclark.bsky.social
A master class from MIT in responding to authoritarian overreach:

Your “premise … is inconsistent with our core belief that scientific funding should be based on scientific merit alone.
… America’s leadership in science & innovation depends on independent thinking & open competition for excellence.
Dear Madam Secretary, I write in response to your letter of October 1, inviting MIT to review a "Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education." I acknowledge the vital importance of these matters. I appreciated the chance to meet with you earlier this year to discuss the priorities we share for American higher education. As we discussed, the Institute's mission of service to the nation directs us to advance knowledge, educate students and bring knowledge to bear on the world's great challenges. We do that in line with a clear set of values, with excellence above all. Some practical examples: • MIT prides itself on rewarding merit. Students, faculty and staff succeed here based on the strength of their talent, ideas and hard work. For instance, the Institute was the first to reinstate the SAT/ACT requirement after the pandemic. And MIT has never had legacy preferences in admissions. • MIT opens its doors to the most talented students regardless of their family's finances. Admissions are need-blind. Incoming undergraduates whose families earn less than $200,000 a year pay no tuition. Nearly 88% of our last graduating class left MIT with no debt for their education. We make a wealth of free courses and low-cost certificates available to any American with an internet connection. Of the undergraduate degrees we award, 94% are in STEM fields. And in service to the nation, we cap enrollment of international undergraduates at roughly 10%. source: https://orgchart.mit.edu/letters/regarding-compact • We value free expression, as clearly described in the MIT Statement on Freedom of Expression and Academic Freedom. We must hear facts and opinions we don't like - and engage respectfully with those with whom we disagree. These values and other MIT practices meet or exceed many standards outlined in the document you sent. We freely choose these values because they're right, and we live by them because they support our mission - work of immense value to the prosperity, competitiveness, health and security of the United States. And of course, MIT abides by the law. The document also includes principles with which we disagree, including those that would restrict freedom of expression and our independence as an institution. And fundamentally, the premise of the document is inconsistent with our core belief that scientific funding should be based on scientific merit alone. In our view, America's leadership in science and innovation depends on independent thinking and open competition for excellence. In that free marketplace of ideas, the people of MIT gladly compete with the very best, without preferences. Therefore, with respect, we cannot support the proposed approach to addressing the issues facing higher education. As you know, MIT's record of service to the nation is long and enduring. Eight decades ago, MIT leaders helped invent a scientific partnership between America's research universities and the U.S. government that has delivered extraordinary benefits for the American people. We continue to believe in the power of this partnership to serve the nation. Sincerely, Sally Kornbluth
October 10, 2025 at 2:47 PM
Reposted
aaup.org
When students, faculty, and our communities are united to fight for our universities, for the common good, and for our democracy, nothing can stop us!

WHEN WE FIGHT, WE WIN!

@aft @higheredlabor.bsky.social

#DefendHigherEd
aaup.org AAUP @aaup.org · Oct 9
Over 100 Brown U students & 20 faculty members gathered outside
the campus today to demand that the university reject Trump’s loyalty oath compact. Professors & students taped their mouths shut to symbolize the compact’s threat to free speech, #academicfreedom & diversity of thought.
#DefendHigherEd
October 15, 2025 at 8:14 PM
Reposted
aaup.org
Students, faculty, & campus workers are leading this incredible pushback.

We will not back down in defense of higher education & our democracy.

There is an unstoppable wave of unified rejection of Trump’s authoritarian agenda cresting throughout higher education.

Join Us.

#DefendHigherEd
October 16, 2025 at 5:39 PM
Reposted
aaup.org
🚨🚨🚨

And THREE stood up!

Penn has joined MIT & Brown in rejecting Trump’s loyalty oath compact.

When we join together and fight back, WE WIN!

No amount of federal bribery is worth surrendering the freedom to question, explore, and dissent.

LET’S GO!

#DefendHigherEd
@aaup-penn.bsky.social
Penn rejects White House proposal for special funding treatment
With the decision, Penn becomes the third university to decline the offer.
www.thedp.com
October 16, 2025 at 5:24 PM
Reposted
therealnews.com
“Trump has been able to make this spectacle where you have disorder on one side and him on the other, and he can constantly encroach upon the civil rights of Americans by convincing us that this disorder is so systemic that only he can fix it.”
'Spectacle of disorder': How ICE creates the chaos ICE, cops, and the military are called in to 'fix'
"Trump has been able to make this spectacle where you have disorder on one side and him on the other, and he can constantly encroach upon the civil rights of Americans by convincing us that this disor...
therealnews.com
October 14, 2025 at 2:40 PM
Reposted
aaup.org
"Once you start teaching loyalty instead of critical thinking, you stop creating scholars & you start creating followers. That's not the America we signed up for."

#noloyaltyoaths
#academicfreedom
October 14, 2025 at 12:54 PM
Reposted
isaackamola.bsky.social
Great piece @insidehighered.com by Robert Post and Tom Ginsburg about the considerable threats posed by Trump's (extortion) "compact" with 9 universities. @aaup.org

www.insidehighered.com/opinion/view...
A Compact for Control (opinion)
No self-respecting institution of higher education should accept the Trump administration’s unconstitutional terms, Robert Post and Tom Ginsburg write.
www.insidehighered.com
October 7, 2025 at 3:05 PM
Reposted
aaup.org
NO LOYALTY OATHS IN HIGHER ED!

Trump's attacks on our universities are an attempt to consolidate power. This loyalty oath directly undermines our right to academic freedom & goes against every democratic principle our country should uphold.

Please click below, sign, & share.

#DefendHigherEd
University Administrations: Reject Trump's "Loyalty Oath" Compacts
The Trump administration is trying to blackmail schools to let him and his unqualified bureaucrats run our schools. They want to dictate what schools teach, who they admit and hire, what researchers s...
actionnetwork.org
October 7, 2025 at 4:37 PM
Reposted
willbunch.bsky.social
#SayTheirNames

Wounded: Jose Andres Bordones-Molina

On life support: Miguel Ángel García-Hernandez

Dead: Norlan Guzman-Fuentes

What the Trump regime desperately wanted to keep secret about the Dallas ICE shooting, and why

My new column www.inquirer.com/opinion/dall...
What the Trump regime doesn’t want you to know about Dallas ICE shooting
The Trump regime's refusal to say the names of the Dallas ICE victims exposes the inhumanity of American fascism.
www.inquirer.com
September 29, 2025 at 12:30 PM
Reposted
nkalamb.bsky.social
Cornell is cancelling a distinguished professor's classes on Gaza and suspending him because of the complaints of a student who previously served in Israel's military surveillance agency and was literally recording the comments of other students in class and deliberately derailing discussion.
Early last semester, Droubi said, students began approaching Cheyfitz with complaints that a graduate student in the “Gaza, Indigeneity, Resistance” class appeared to be recording them, possibly to “gather their names and comments” and intimidate them. “We believe that a student came to the course for the sole reason of surveilling and potentially harming students in the class,” Droubi said. “That ended up proving itself to be true because multiple students came forward and shared their concerns with Professor Cheyfitz.” Cheyfitz said one Palestinian student quit the class after telling him she felt upset and frightened. Current Issue Cover of October 2025 Issue October 2025 Issue According to Cheyfitz, the graduate student often steered conversations away from the assigned readings—which at that point mostly focused on definitions of genocide and international law on Indigenous rights—to defend Israel’s conduct in the war in Gaza and argue with others in the class. “He clearly had not done the readings,” Cheyfitz said. “It was disruptive.” Cheyfitz said he met with the graduate student in late January and spoke to him about concerns from his classmates. During the conversation, he asked the graduate student to drop the course, and by the next class, he did, Cheyfitz said. The graduate student, Oren Renard, a PhD candidate in computer science whose identity was confirmed by other students in the class, previously served in Israel’s elite military surveillance agency, Unit 8200, according to his LinkedIn profile.
September 29, 2025 at 1:13 PM
Reposted
crimethinc.com
The so-called “Gen Z” protests that broke out in Indonesia in August, overthrew the government of Nepal on September 9, and spread to Peru continue to resonate around the world.

Today, protests toppled the government of Madagascar.
A protester throws back a tear gas canister lobbed by riot police during a demonstration denouncing frequent power outages and water shortages, near the University of Antananarivo, Madagascar.
September 29, 2025 at 7:27 PM
Reposted
willbunch.bsky.social
Just looked for, and didn't find, the definitive essay that explains why Gen Z is rising up against corrupt governments from Nepal to Peru to Madagascar, while in the United States they're playing video games and producing the occasional political sniper
September 30, 2025 at 2:10 AM
Reposted
michaelemann.bsky.social
If Koch-funded "news" outlets like the "Daily Caller" lie about things as provably false as this, what else are they lying to you about?
provably false claim by the "Daily Caller", which is funded by the Koch Brothers: https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/The_Daily_Caller
September 30, 2025 at 8:58 PM
Reposted
aaup.org
BREAKING: WE WON!!!
💥 💥 💥

Federal Judge William G. Young ruled today in our lawsuit against the Trump administration that the policy of arresting, detaining, & deporting noncitizen students & faculty members for their pro-Palestinian advocacy violates the 1st Amendment.

Full ruling here:
Findings of Fact & Conclusions of Law – #261 in American Association of University Professors v. Rubio (D. Mass., 1:25-cv-10685) – CourtListener.com
Judge William G. Young: ORDER entered. FINDINGS OF FACT AND RULINGS OF LAW, PURSUANT TO FED. R. CIV. P. 52(A)(Sonnenberg, Elizabeth) (Additional attachment(s) added on 9/30/2025: # 1 Main Document) (J...
www.courtlistener.com
September 30, 2025 at 5:43 PM
Reposted
acyn.bsky.social
AOC: When everyone says makes an exception here or makes an exception there, and then before you know it, you have masked agents roaming the streets of this country that do not feel entitled to identify themselves
October 1, 2025 at 12:37 AM
Reposted
naomiaklein.bsky.social
"There is a war on children"

A clarion call for action and accountability from Dr. Thaer Ahmad who served in Gaza.

He reads the 'will' of a 10-year-old girl who Israel killed, as a way to honour her.

open.substack.com/pub/zeteo/p/...
Doctor Who Served in Gaza Reads the ‘Will’ of a 10-Year-Old Girl Who Was Killed
Dr. Thaer Ahmad gives an emotional statement at a high-level UN event about Israel's war on children in Gaza.
open.substack.com
September 29, 2025 at 10:18 PM
Reposted
aaup.org
"Look, we are a labor union. We’re going to fight & respond to this moment...We're standing for what we always stood for...a powerful higher-education sector that leads to innovation & social mobility & is a bedrock of our democracy."

—Todd Wolfson, AAUP President

#DefendHigherEd
#AcademicSky
Is the AAUP Too Partisan? Its President Doesn’t Think So.
Todd Wolfson has taken heat for some of the organization’s political stances during his tenure. Here’s what he makes of the criticism.
www.chronicle.com
September 23, 2025 at 3:46 AM
Reposted
aaup.org
“We will not allow authoritarians to dismantle higher education. We will not allow billionaires to profit while communities suffer. And we will not allow fear to silence students and workers who speak out.”

— Todd Wolfson, AAUP President

#DefendHigherEd
#HigherEdBenefitsEveryone
@aft.org
September 18, 2025 at 10:12 PM
Reposted
aaup.org
Veena Dubal, AAUP General Counsel noted that "many of the people whose information was released were never informed that they were named in complaints & have no idea what information was released to the federal government. The release of this information has had a chilling effect on campus."
UC Berkeley Hands Over 160 Names to the Federal Government for ‘Potential Connection’ to Antisemitism
The university said it was complying with its legal obligations concerning a U.S. Department of Education civil-rights investigation.
www.chronicle.com
September 13, 2025 at 12:59 AM