Teaching and Learning
Making Class Participation Grades Meaningful (Benjamin Rifkin, Inside Higher Ed, January 22, 2025): A call for incentivizing preparation for class discussions and making expectations for student engagement more transparent.
Assume the Best: Trust-Based Strategies for Empowering College Students (Mindith Rahmat, Faculty Focus, January 22, 2025): Trusting students does not mean ignoring accountability; it means designing courses, policies, and practices that build their confidence and skills while treating them as equal partners in their education.
Helping an Instructor in Trouble (Tony’s Teaching Tips/Patreon, January 22, 2025): Supporting an instructor who is potentially in trauma can be one of the most stressful parts of our work. It’s a lot to juggle: we need the project to be successful and students to have a positive learning experience. Holding together our relationship with that instructor makes all of that possible.
The Cheating Vibe Shift (Jack Stripling, Chronicle of Higher Education, January 21, 2025): With ChatGPT and other AI tools, cheating in college feels easier than ever — and students are telling professors that it’s no big deal.
All Things AI
College Leaders Are Divided on the Risks and Benefits of Generative AI (Beth McMurtrie, Chronicle of Higher Education, January 23, 2025): A new survey highlights how much work is needed to prepare faculty members and students to understand AI tools.
Affirmative Action and DEI
Trump Calls DEI Programs ‘Illegal’ and ‘Immoral’. Here’s How He’s Ending Them (Andrea Hsu, NPR, January 23, 2025): Federal agencies were also told to send agency-wide notices “asking employees if they know of any efforts to disguise these programs by using coded or imprecise language.”
The End of the DEI Era (John Hendrickson, The Atlantic, January 16, 2025): As Donald Trump returns to the White House, a newly emboldened anti-DEI bloc has gained powerful allies.
Academic Freedom and Speech on Campus
Harvard Agrees to Adopt a Broad Definition of Antisemitism to Settle Two Lawsuits (Tovia Smith, NPR, January 22, 2025): Harvard will adopt a broad definition of antisemitism, which considers certain cases of anti-Zionist or anti-Israeli criticism as antisemitism. Critics say the definition is overly strict and wrongly conflates the two, and will stifle free and open academic inquiry.
Toward a Democratic Academic Freedom (Will Clark, Inside Higher Ed, January 22, 2025): Understanding academic freedom as a collective faculty responsibility provides a basis for protecting academic rights.
Education Policy in the New Administration
Trump Has Issued a Blitz of Executive Orders. Some Could Affect Higher Ed (Jasper Smith, Chronicle of Higher Education, January 21, 2025): The new administration’s clear opposition to DEI could prompt colleges to preemptively revisit their diversity offices and programs.
Extra Credit Reading
The Hidden Utility of the Liberal Arts (Scott Carlson and Ned Laff, Chronicle of Higher Education, January 21, 2025): Why they often fail to make their case, and how they can.
How Wealthy Universities Favor the Rich (Liam Knox and Josh Moody, Inside Higher Ed, January 21, 2025): Documents released in an antitrust lawsuit show how some elite colleges gave well-connected applicants a leg up in admissions. Are these practices ongoing?
Hopes and Fears: Higher Ed Leaders Sound Off on Trump’s Return to Power (Bob Moser, Inside Higher Ed, January 20, 2025): IHE asked some of academia’s leaders to identify their highest hope—and biggest worry—for the sector in the next four years.
‘There Needs to Be a Rousing Defense of the Sector’ (Len Gutkin and David Wescott, Chronicle of Higher Education, January 16, 2025): Steven Brint talks Trumpian dystopia, the administrator-activist alliance, and the role of higher ed’s political center.
Parallel Processes (Hannah Zeavin, n+1, Winter 2025): The Palestine Exception in the classroom and the clinic.
Future Imperfect
Colleges No Longer Protected from Immigration Raids (Kara Arundel, Higher Ed Dive, January 21, 2025): The U.S. Department of Homeland Security lifted the practice of avoiding immigration enforcement at locations where students gather. [See, as well, Trump Administration Reverses Policy Parring Immigration Raids at Colleges (Katherine Knott, Inside Higher Ed, January 23, 2025).]
A Murky Setback for DACA (Sara Weissman, Inside Higher Ed, January 22, 2025): An appeals court ruled that DACA is unlawful but limited the scope and stayed the ruling, so students shouldn’t see any immediate changes.
Arkansas Governor Says Professors Should Be Fired If They Are ‘Indoctrinating’ Students (Andrew DeMillo, AP News, January 14, 2025): “Arkansas students go to our colleges and universities to be educated, not to be bombarded with anti-American, historically illiterate woke nonsense,” Gov. Sanders told members of the predominantly Republican House and Senate.
Conferences and Webinars
What Works in 2025? Building for the Future of Higher Education. The Center for Innovative Pedagogy at Kenyon College invites presentations on teaching and learning for a hybrid conference May 28-29, 2025. This conference is an opportunity for faculty and academic support professionals to share their experiences innovating for the classroom. Proposals should include an explanation of how sessions would apply to the teaching of undergraduates in small colleges and universities. Organizers will consider all proposals that would apply to undergraduate education at a small college or university, but encourage proposals in these areas:
-
- approaches that build community and belonging in the classroom
- creative connections between different disciplines across the curriculum
- experiential opportunities and real world applications for the liberal arts
Propose a presentation at https://forms.gle/aU8u6A1G4s1kbdxu6. Deadline to submit is Friday, March 15. Presenters will be notified of their acceptance status by March 29.
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)