Editor’s Note: Once again, it appears that most of the “teaching and learning” happening this past week was taking place in the campus protests that have now spread across the country. Journalists and opinion writers struggled to find the proper frame from which to understand and discuss the events.
Teaching and Learning
Learning from Videos (Althea Need Kaminske, Learning Scientists, May 2, 2024): Whether you’re a student watching lecture videos for class, watching videos as a supplement to your regular coursework, or a life-long learner who simply wants to learn more about the world, the author talks about two strategies that can help you learn more from videos.
What Does an A Mean? (Beckie Supiano, Chronicle of Higher Education, May 2, 2024): Readers weigh in. Also some comments on deadlines.
All Things AI
From Rukhsana Zia and our colleagues at the Center for Learning and Teaching of Forman Christian College in Pakistan, a free 7-session online course on AI developed by their CLT. Given the 9-hr. time difference, attending in person is for early-birds only, but all sessions will be recorded and shared. Please click on Course Schedule & Registration for further information and feel free to contact them at clt@fccollege.edu.pk or dial +92 (42) 99231581 EXT-325. NOTE: They strongly advise completing the free online basic course, “An Essential Guide on AI for Educators,” before starting this course.
Using AI to Help Students Teach in Order to Learn (Anna Cunningham and Joel Nishimura, Inside Higher Ed, May 3, 2024): By changing ChatGPT’s system prompt, we can create content misunderstandings that students can correct.
Yale Freshman Creates AI Chatbot with Answers on AI Ethics (Lauren Coffey, Inside Higher Ed, May 2, 2024): Amid intellectual property and ethics concerns about AI large language models, a student created one based on his professor’s ethics work.
AI Detection Is a Business. But Should It Be Faculty Business? (José Antonio Bowen and C. Edward Watson, Chronicle of Higher Education, May 2, 2024): How many false accusations of cheating are you and your institution willing to accept as collateral damage?
Embracing AI in Education (Aileen Wanli Lam, Faculty Focus, May 1, 2024): Start by taking baby steps and exploring the potential of generative AI for both us and other stakeholders in education.
Dumbledore’s Army (Lew Ludwig, Down the AI Rabbit Hole, April 30, 2024): Ludwig’s short (5-min) audio In this week’s ‘Down the AI Rabbit Hole’ he shares some great resources from the Mollicks at the Wharton School of Business, and makes a revelation about his AI journey as it related to Denison and beyond.
Free Speech and Academic Freedom: The Aftermath of the April 17 House Committee Hearings
News of the ongoing student protests:
More Than 2,000 Pro-Palestinian Protesters Arrested Across US Campuses (Jessica Glenza and Louis Beckett, The Guardian, May 2, 2024): Police arrest more than 200 students at UCLA as law enforcement clears camps at Dartmouth, arresting more than 90 students. [For a different take, here’s the headline from Fox News of the same events: Over 2,000 anti-Israel Agitators Have Been Arrested During Antisemitic Protests of US College Campuses (Lawrence Richard, Fox News, May 3, 2024).]
Columbia Campus in Crisis (Nina Berman, The New Yorker, May 2, 2024): Scenes of dissent and defiance at Columbia University, where scores of students have been arrested for participating in pro-Palestinian protests.
How Colleges Have Responded to Student Encampments (Sonel Cutler, Forest Hunt and Alicia Taylor, Chronicle of Higher Education, May 1, 2024): A report back on 50 campuses and how they handled the protests.
Campus Protests: UCLA Students in Standoff with Police as Demonstrations Spread Across US (Helen Livingstone, Jonathan Yershalmy and agencies, The Guardian, May 2, 2024) More than a thousand supporters at a pro-Palestine encampment in California face arrest by police, a day after it was attacked by pro-Israel counter-protesters.
‘Horrific Acts of Violence’: Demonstrators Spar at UCLA Before Police Move In (Michael Vasquez, Chronicle of Higher Education, May 1, 2024: The University of California at Los Angeles erupted in violence early Wednesday as counter-protesters reportedly accosted the campus’s pro-Palestinian encampment.
Unrest Has Gripped Campuses Across the Country. These Three Colleges Struck Deals with Their Protesters (Erin Gretzinger, Chronicle of Higher Education, May 1, 2024): Brown, Northwestern, Evergreen State College.
‘These Terms Are Just Absurd’: How One University Disciplined Professors Accused of Assisting an Encampment (Kate Hidalgo Bellows, Chronicle of Higher Education, April 30, 2024): No contact with colleagues. No representing the institution. Six faculty members at Washington University in St. Louis have been placed on leave with detailed restrictions.
Abrupt Changes to Protest Policies Raise Alarm (Liam Know, Inside Higher Ed, April 30, 2024): Indiana University changed a 55-year old policy on student assembly hours before protesters set up an encampment. Free speech advocates are worried.
As Police Clear Encampments, Professors Arrested Along with Students (Ryan Quinn, Inside Higher Ed, April 30, 2024): Videos have gone viral of faculty members being taken to the ground, zip-tied, and led away by police.
Universities Face an Urgent Question: What Makes a Protest Antisemitic? (Katherine Rosman, New York Times, April 29, 2024): Pro-Palestinian student activists say their movement is anti-Zionist but not antisemitic. It is not a distinction that everyone accepts.
A Small Campus in the Redwoods Has the Nation’s Most Entrenched Protest (Jonathan Wolfe, New York Times, April 29, 2024): Pro-Palestinian protesters have occupied the administration building at California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt for the past week and forced a campus closure until May 10.
Here’s Where Pro-Palestinian Protests Have Embroiled U.S. Campuses (Anna Betts, New York Times, April 28, 2024): A crackdown on demonstrators at Columbia University in New York spawned a wave of activism at universities across the country, with more than 800 arrests.
Divest? Call the Cops? Presidents Grapple With How to Respond (Josh Moody, Inside Higher Ed, April 29, 2024): Some leaders have directly engaged protesters as encampments crop up on campus. Others have sent in the police, leading to violent arrests and sharp criticism.
House Reps Want Antisemitism Monitors for College Campuses (Katherine Knott, Inside Higher Ed, April 29, 2024): Colleges and universities that receive federal funding could be subjected to monitoring for antisemitism under a new House bill that a duo of Republican and Democratic lawmakers plans to introduce.
What the ‘Antisemitism Awareness’ Bill Could Mean for Higher Ed (Katherine Knott, Inside Higher Ed, May 3, 2024): The House voted Wednesday to codify a broad definition of antisemitism into federal law. Supporters say it’s necessary to protect Jewish students. Critics worry that it could chill free speech on campus. See, as well, House Passes Bill Aimed to Combat Antisemitism Amid College Unrest (Barbara Sprunt, NPR, May 2, 2024): The Antisemitism Awareness Act would see the adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism for the enforcement of federal anti-discrimination laws regarding education programs. [You might want to read along with these: Bill to Combat Antisemitism on Campuses Prompts Backlash From the Right (Annie Karni, The New York Times, May 2, 2024) and Gaetz Under Fire for Defending Antisemitism Vote with Antisemitic Trope (Kelly Garrity, Politico, May 1, 2024).]
Will Academic Freedom and Campus Free Speech Survive? (Ryan Quinn, Inside Higher Ed, May 3, 2024): Faculty and free expression groups are sounding alarms about threatened limitations and crackdown on professors’ speech and student protests.
Biden Denounces Violence on Campus, Breaking Silence After Rash of Arrests (Peter Baker, May 2, 2024): President Biden defended the right to dissent but made clear that he believed too many of the demonstrations had gone beyond the bounds of free speech.
Student Activism as a Catalyst for Institutional Reflection (Steven Mintz, Inside Higher Ed, May 2, 2024): How recent protests are redefining educational priorities, policies, and practices.
America’s Colleges Are Reaping What They Sowed (Tyler Austin Harper, The Atlantic, May 2, 2024): Universities spent years saying that activism is not just welcome but encouraged on their campuses. Students took them at their word.
New Battle Lines Drawn in Congressional Fight With Colleges (Katherine Knott, Inside Higher Ed, May 1, 2024): House Republicans are escalating their scrutiny and criticism of colleges and universities and planning a wide swath of investigations of institutions in response to student protests.
Those Who Preach Free Speech Need to Practice It (Will Creeley, The Atlantic, April 30, 2024): Too many leaders, on campus and in government, are failing to uphold the First Amendment rights they claim to champion.
Debating Israel’s Future, One Week at a Time (Beth McMurtrie, Chronicle of Higher Education, April 30, 2024): A political-science course at Johns Hopkins U. wrestles with the questions tearing campuses apart.
Views of the Campus Protests Are Too Broad – and Too Narrow (Philip Bump, Washington Post, April 30, 2024): What happens on college campuses is constantly overestimated in the media. In this case, what’s happening is also being treated incorrectly as a microcosm.
Are We Repeating the Mistakes of the 1960s? (Yalile Suriel, Inside Higher Ed, April 30, 3034): Police-based strategies for containing campus protest fail in balancing safety with student expression.
Don’t Back Student Protestors into a Corner, Former College President Says (NPR-Here and Now, April 30, 2024): Here & Now host Robin Young speaks with law professor and former Brandeis University president Frederick Lawrence about what college presidents are getting right and what they’re getting wrong as campus protests grow in number and intensity over Israel’s war in Gaza.
I’m a Professor. I Never Expected to Be Arrested on Campus (Sarah D. Phillips, Chronicle of Higher Education, April 29, 2024): This madness must end.
Protect the Student Protesters. Don’t Idealize Them (Arash Azizi, Chronicle of Higher Education, April 29, 2024): Today’s student left has inherited some of the worst tendencies of the ‘60s.
Academic Freedom Under Fire (Louis Menand, The New Yorker, April 29, 2024): Politicians despise it. Administrators aren’t defending it. But it made our universities great – and we’ll miss it when it’s gone.
Institutional Neutrality Has Never Been About Politics (Tony Banout, Chronicle of Higher Education, April 29, 2024): Critics f the Kalven principles miss the point.
Colleges Have Gone Off the Deep End. There Is a Way Out (David French, New York Times, April 28, 2024): There is profound confusion on campus right now around the distinctions among free speech, civil disobedience and lawlessness. At the same time, some schools also seem confused about their fundamental academic mission.
Campus Free Speech Is Getting Murky for Republican Governors (Juan Perez Jr, Politico, April 27, 2024): A wave of pro-Palestinian unrest is challenging lawmakers who cemented campus free speech protections in recent years.
Why Gaza Protests on U.S. College Campuses Have Become So Contagious (Amanda Taub, New York Times, April 26, 2024): Experts say the partisan political context in Washington is a driver behind the spread of protests at American universities even as overseas campuses have stayed relatively calm.
Columbia University’s Impossible Position (Conor Friedersdorf, The Atlantic, April 26, 2024): What happens when protest culture and antidiscrimination law keep coming into conflict?
Why Encampments Scare College Presidents (David Jesse, Chronicle of Higher Education, April 26, 2024): They’re weighing free speech against safety – and risking escalation.
Secret Meetings, Social Chatter: How Columbia Students Sparked a Nationwide Revolt (Tim Craig, Hannah Natanson and Richard Morgan, The Washington Post, April 26, 2024): The beginnings of what historians now call one of the most consequential student uprisings the nation has seen in recent times.
Future Imperfect
Louisiana Governor Could Hire University System Presidents Under Proposal (Piper Hutchinson, Louisiana Illuminator May 1, 2024): Bill raises concerns about university accreditation.
Sarah Huckabee Sanders Orders State to Ignore New Title IX Rules (Brooke Migdon, The Hill, May 2, 2024): Following along with Texas and Florida.
Extra Credit Reading
Higher Education at a Crossroads (Steven Mintz, Inside Higher Ed, May 1, 2024): Will we allow a college education to become more stratified, transactional, and vocational, or will we push back and create a model that is more developmental and transformational?
Denied a Second Change at a Normal Senior Year (Callie Holtermann, Sandra E. Garcia, and Frank Rojas, New York Times, April 26, 2024): After Covid ruined high school graduation for the class of 2020, the response to campus protests might upend their college commencements.
Webinars
AI and Personalized Learning: May 8, 2024, 2:00 PM Eastern. AI can foster learning by helping students move at their own pace and in their own way. Join us to discuss how to support faculty experiments that avoid AI pitfalls. Register here.
Have a short article or some news related to teaching and learning at your institution that you’d like to share with colleagues? Send your contribution along to us. Also, please email Colleen Monahan Smith (smith@glca.org) if you have colleagues who would like to receive this weekly report.
Steven Volk (steven.volk@oberlin.edu), Editor
GLCA/GLAA Consortium for Teaching and Learning
Co-Directors:
Lew Ludwig (ludwigl@denison.edu)
Colleen Monahan Smith (smith@glca.org)