Teaching and Learning
Plugging the Gap: How One College Is Reducing Course Failures (Ashley Mowreader, Inside Higher Ed, July 3, 2025): Through course redesign, embedded TAs and a culture of experimentation, the University of the Pacific is seeing returns on first-year attrition.
Reimagining the Flipped Classroom: Integrating AI, Microlearning, and Learning Analytics to Elevate Student Engagement and Critical Thinking (N.K.L. Silva and N.P.K. Ekanayake, Faculty Focus, July 2, 2025): Today, the flipped classroom is no longer just about moving lectures online but about curating immersive, personalized learning environments.
Democracy Lives in Our Daily Habits (Sarah Stitzlein, Inside Higher Ed, July 1, 2025): Nurturing humility and listening skills in our classrooms and campus interactions can be a powerful tool for strengthening democracy.
A Multiday In-Class Essay for the ChatGPT Era (John Robinson, Inside Higher Ed, July 1, 2025): The author explains how, using Lockdown Browser, he tried to replicate key elements of the traditional take-home humanities essay in a new assignment.
What Happens After A.I. Destroys College Writing (Hua Hsu, New Yorker, June 30, 2025): The demise of the English paper will end a long intellectual tradition, but it’s also an opportunity to reëxamine the purpose of higher education.
When Students Want You to Change Their Grades (James K. Beggan, Chronicle of Higher Education, June 27, 2025): They say “it never hurts to ask.” But it does.
Academic Freedom, DEI, Admissions, and Speech
Jim Ryan’s Resignation Is a Warning (Robert Zaretsky, Chronicle of Higher Education, July 1, 2025): His ouster is the clearest sign yet of a growing authoritarian grip on higher education.
Under Pressure from Trump, UVA President Reportedly Resigns (Jessica Blake, Katherine Knott, Inside Higher Ed, June 27, 2025): The move is a “major blow” to the independence of American institutions, one expert said. James E. Ryan’s departure marks the first time a university has been coerced into removing its leader.
Universities in the Crosshairs
Trump Administration Finds Harvard Violated Civil Rights Law (Michael C. Bender and Alan Blinder, New York Times, June 30, 2025): The university had recently restarted talks with the White House regarding a potential deal after months of fighting in court.
International Students and Scholars
Chinese Students Feel a Familiar Chill in America (Lavender Au, The Atlantic, July 2, 2025): Surveillance, censorship, detention were things to worry about back home. Now they’re here.
Extra Credit Reading
Trump Signs ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ into Law, Ushering in New Era for Higher Ed (Katherine Knott, Inside Higher Ed, July 4, 2025): Experts worry that the law will have a detrimental impact on America’s universities—changing who gets to attend college and how they pay for it.
What to a Political Science Teacher Is July 4? (Jeffrey C. Isaac, Inside Higher Ed, July 3, 2025): A course on the contested meanings of the Declaration of Independence has never been more relevant—or more politically precarious.
Universities: Know your Rights! (David Cole, New York Review of Books, July 2, 2025): Most recently in a flimsy report on antisemitism at Harvard, the Trump administration has been weaponizing discrimination claims to remake the country’s universities. How can they fight back?
What’s Inside the Senate Megabill for Higher Education? (Natalie Schwartz, Higher Ed Dive, July 1, 2025): The chamber narrowly passed its version of the sweeping domestic policy package, which would reshape federal student lending and delay major regulations.
Future Imperfect
Why UVA President’s Resignation Could be a ‘Watershed Moment’ (Jessica Blake and Katherine Knott, June 30, 2025): Ousting James Ryan is a dramatic escalation in the Trump administration’s war against higher ed and sends a chilling message to other university leaders, experts say.
The Republican Plot to Un-Educate America (Astra Taylor, Eleni Schirmer, The New Republic, June 23, 2025): Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” is an extinction-level event for higher education that would annihilate the country’s intellectual potential.
On the Bookshelf
Jessamyn Neuhaus, Snafu Edu: Teaching and Learning When Things Go Wrong in the Classroom (Oklahoma University Press, 2025): 45-minute podcast with the author and Bonni Stachowiak on Teaching and Learning in Higher Ed (July 3, 2025).
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)