Teaching and Learning
The Science of Motivation (Cindy Nebel, Learning Scientists, June 5, 2025): There are aspects of motivation that are out of our hands. But there are things that we can do to support motivation in the classroom and to keep it going, even when the student would rather be anywhere but here.
How to Facilitate Enriching Learning Experiences (Bonni Stachowiak, Teaching in Higher Education, June 5, 2025): 46-minute podcast sharing information by Tolulope Noah on her book, Designing and Facilitating Workshops with Intentionality (Routledge, 2025).
What Professors Want to Know About AI and Teaching (Beth McMurtrie, June 5, 2025): People are hungry for practical information on how to understand AI and its relationships to learning. Some insights from the third annual Teaching and Learning with AI conference.
How Students Use Generative AI Beyond Writing (Aileen Wanli Lam, Faculty Focus, June 4, 2025): Students are increasingly using AI for presentations.
Making the Arts a Pillar of Undergraduate Education (Steven Mintz, Inside Higher Ed, June 3, 2025): Creating, performing and analyzing the arts should become more central to the college experience.
My Journey in Alternative Grading: From Curiosity to Clarity (Sarah Barringer, Faculty Focus, June 2, 2025): My first attempt at alternative assessment didn’t go very well. I failed to appreciate the value of clear expectations and the inescapable necessity that my students needed to walk out of my class with a grade. I struggled to make my system transparent, to emphasize growth over perfection, and to implement a good rubric.
The Benefits of Delaying Course Feedback (Beckie Supiano, Chronicle of Higher Education, May 29, 2025): Shares some readers’ experiences with the timing of student course evaluations.
Learning Assistant Programs (University of Virginia): The Learning Assistant (LA) model is a powerful, evidence-informed approach that embeds trained undergraduates into classrooms to support active learning, guide group work, and provide peer mentorship.
Cheating Ourselves: From the Frontlines of AI and Education (Lew Ludwig, Center for Learning & Teaching, Denison University, June 2025): Some missteps, misunderstandings, and the very human process of trying to teach and lead in a moment that feels like the rules are continually rewritten.
Higher Education and the Trump Administration:
Academic Freedom, DEI, Admissions, and Speech
What Is Replacing DEI? Racism (Richard Amesbury, Chronicle of Higher Education, June 5, 2025): The Trump administration’s assault on diversity reflects its vision of a racially tiered society.
[Indiana] AG Rokita Scrutinizes DEI Policies at Butler and DePauw Universities (WRTV, June 4, 2025): Rokita sent letters that raise concerns about potential violations of federal and state civil rights laws as well as issues related to the institutions’ nonprofit statuses.
Education Dept. Says Native History Doesn’t Count as DEI (Sara Weissman, Inside Higher Education, June 2, 2025): The Department of Education reassured tribal education leaders that Trump administration officials recognize the federal government’s trust and treaty obligations to tribes and won’t categorize Indigenous history as a banned DEI topic.
MIT Class President Barred From Graduation Ceremony After Pro-Palestinian Speech (John Branch, New York Times, May 31, 2025): “MIT supports free expression but stands by its decision…” said a school spokesperson.
Why Anti-Jewish Discrimination on Campuses Might Not Violate Title VI (Kate Hidalgo Bellows, Chronicle of Higher Education, May30, 2025): Trump’s campaign against higher ed relies on the idea that antisemitism and anti-Zionist discrimination violates federal civil-rights law. That’s not always true, two professors say.
Universities in the Crosshairs
Judge Halts Trump’s Proclamation to Suspend New International Student Visas at Harvard Hours After University filed Amended Lawsuit (Andy Rose, Emma Tucker, and Devan Cole, CNN-US, June 5, 2025): The judge set a hearing for mid-June to hear arguments over whether she should block Trump’s proclamation indefinitely.
Trump Pushes to Restrict Harvard’s International Students from Entering U.S. (Michael C. Bender, New York Times, June 4, 2025): President Trump said on Wednesday that he would prevent Harvard University’s international students from entering the country, an aggressive move the school called “illegal.”
Columbia University Fails to Meet Accreditation Standards, Education Department Alleges (Dan Mangan, CNBC, June 4, 2025): The Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights notified the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, an accrediting institution that the private New York university belongs to, of the alleged violation of federal antidiscrimination laws.
No, Trump Is Not Pulling Columbia’s Accreditation (Eric Kelderman, Chronicle of Higher Education, June 4, 2025): Here’s what you need to know.
Why Trump Is Really Going After Harvard (David Smith, Guardian, June 1, 2025): If the US’s oldest university bends the knee, the door to authoritarianism opens and democracy fades, experts warn.
White House Targets Harvard Again with Social Media Screening of All Foreign Visitors to School (Joseph Gedeon, Guardian, May 30, 2025): The Trump administration has ordered US consulates worldwide to conduct mandatory social media screening of every visa applicant seeking to travel to Harvard University, with officials instructed to view private accounts as potential signs of “evasiveness”.
Judge Blocks Trump Administration Effort to Ban Foreign Students at Harvard (Susan Syrluga, Washington Post, May 29,m2025): Students are already reporting visa denials and revocations and seeking to transfer, according to a university official.
International Students and Scholars
International Students Hit with Back-to-Back Orders (Liam Knox, Inside Higher Ed, June 6, 2025): Trump issued two orders Wednesday night that could deal a major blow to international enrollment. One targets Harvard; the other restricts travel from more than a dozen countries, raising alarms across higher ed.
What the New Travel Ban Means for Higher Ed (Karin Fischer, Chronicle of Higher Education, June 5, 2025): President Trump aimed his presidential pen once again at international education, signing a pair of orders late Wednesday: one putting in place a long-anticipated travel ban and the other a second attempt to prevent Harvard University from enrolling foreign students.
Trump Administration’s Ideological Vetting of Fulbright Scholars Raises Alarm (Karin Fischer, Chronicle of Higher Education, June 4, 2025): The 11th-hour vetoes of grantees overrule foreign governments that jointly select and fund recipients of the prestigious scholarship.
Why This Is the Most Damaging Time to Restrict Student Visas (Karin Fischer, Chronicle of Higher Education, June 4, 2025): In recent years, seven in 10 student visas have been issued in the four-month period from May to August.
Where International Students Stand Now (Liam Knox, Inside Higher Ed, June 3, 2025): After a series of court losses spurred Trump officials to change course on their international student agenda, they’ve returned with a slate of new and devastating policies.
Attacks on Chinese Students Could Wreak Havoc on Higher Ed (Liam Knox, Inside Higher Ed, May 30, 2025): The Trump administration’s latest effort to revive its student deportation campaign could drastically curtail the largest population of international students in the country.
Judge Intends to Block Trump Effort to Stop Harvard from Enrolling Foreign Students (Dana Goldstein, New York Times, May 29, 2025): A federal judge in Boston said on Thursday that she would temporarily block President Trump’s effort to prevent Harvard from enrolling international students, part of the administration’s all-out battle to undermine the university’s finances and global influence.
Extra Credit Reading
They Don’t Want to Learn About the Middle East (Alex Boodrookas, Inside Higher Ed, June 5, 2025): Being canceled by my hometown library speaks to the incredible breadth of censorship faced by Middle East scholars.
Five Steps to Defend Higher Ed (Kevin R. McClure, Chronicle of Higher Education, June 3, 2025): How to stand up for academe in this era of constant attacks from federal and state governments.
The First Casualty in the War Against Elite Universities (Evan Mandery, Politico, June 2, 2025): Liz Magill goes deep, for the first time, on how a congressional hearing on antisemitism fueled her resignation from the University of Pennsylvania — and launched a broader war on higher ed.
Private-Equity Wealth Is Growing on the Most Prestigious University Boards, Study Finds (Francie Diep, Chronicle of Higher Education, June 2, 2025): “That’s become a political vulnerability,” one researcher said.
Why Does Trump Keep Saying Harvard Teaches Remedial Math? (Sara Randazzo, Wall Street Journal, May 31, 2025): The notion rocketed across social media then jumped to the White House. Harvard says it doesn’t add up. (See if you can answer questions from the course.)
Future Imperfect
Trump Wants Grant Makers to Become Political Appointees (Kathryn Palmer, Inside Higher Ed, June 5, 2025): Officials say the policy, which would make it easier to fire thousands of government employees, is designed to increase accountability. But experts say it would increase corruption and threaten the nation’s health and economy.
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)