News of the Week – March 14, 2025

by | Mar 13, 2025 | News of the Week | 0 comments

Many thanks to Mays Imad, Associate Professor of Biology (Connecticut College) for her hugely informative March 12 presentation to the CLT on “Teaching through Discomfort”). Here are the resources from this event:

Teaching and Learning          

Supporting Non-Major Biology Students: Making the Classroom YOUnique (Jack Sytsma, Robert Bear, and Dr. Eve McCulloch, Faculty Focus, March 12, 2025): By creating a learning environment tailored to various majors, addressing barriers, and demonstrating real-world applications, instructors can make the classroom “YOUnique.”

Tired of Awkward Silences? Upgrade Your Think-Pair-Share (Ashley Harvey, Faculty Focus, March 10, 2025): Discussion bubbles, one-minute timers, and extra credit points.

7 Ways to Support Noncitizen Students and Employees (Ashley Mowreader, Inside Higher Ed, March 10, 2025): A March 5 webinar by the Presidents’ Alliance identified strategies institutions can take to aid undocumented, immigrant, refugee and international students.

Study-Abroad Funding Is Paused, Leaving Some Students Stranded (Vimal Patel, New York Times, March 7, 2025): The Trump administration stopped State Department funding for scholarships like the Fulbright. Weeks later, it is still unclear when it may resume.

Who Is Your Syllabus For? (Beckie Supiano, Chronicle of Higher Education, March 6, 2025): Supiano shares some ideas for making syllabi easier for student to navigate.

Equip Students to Dialog Across Differences Using an AI Guide (Bonni Stachowiak, Teaching in Higher Ed, March 6, 2025): A 50-min. podcast suggesting different ways to help students hear cogent arguments on the other side of their own positions.

Can Student Evaluations Be Made More Representative? Testing Alternative Strategies (Erica De Bruin, Ann L. Owen and Stephen Wu, Studies in Higher Education, February 18, 2025): Results of a randomized experiment at a selective liberal arts college to test whether changes to the prompt or timing at which feedback is solicited will impact the representative nature of student evaluations.

Validity Matters More than Cheating (Phillip Dawson, et al, Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 2024): The authors question the attention given to cheating as a concept and argue that the broader concept of validity is a more important concern.

All Things AI

Expert Thinking and AI (Part 2) (Althea Need Kaminske, Learning Scientists, March 6, 2025): Explores how generative AI, specifically chatbots, are used and how they affect our thinking and development of expertise. [See Part 1 here]

Academic Freedom and Speech

The Coalitions We Need to Defend Open Inquiry (Jackie Pedota and Liliana M. Garces, Inside Higher Ed, March 13, 2025): Their research shows that silence in the face of anti-DEI laws only serves to compound suppression.

Columbia Protest Leader’s Arrest Tests Immigrants’ Free-Speech Rights (Russell Contreras, Brittany Gibson, and Avery Lotz, Axios, March 11, 2025): Federal agents’ arrest of Columbia University protest leader Mahmoud Khalil — a lawful permanent U.S. resident with a green card — is being criticized by free-speech advocates who see it as a chilling escalation of President Trump’s immigration crackdown.

The Diversity Detective (Jasper Smith, Chronicle of Higher Education, March 6, 2025): William A. Jacobson is committed to rooting out race consciousness from higher ed, one program at a time.

Education Policy in the New Administration

There has been a flood of news reports and analysis on the Trump Administration’s plans to reshape education, both higher ed and K-12, including the drastic cuts at the Department of Education. Here are a few linked articles if you want to catch up or save for later:

Extra Credit Reading

30 Charts That Show How Everything Changed in March 2020 (Aatish Bhatia and Irineo Cabreros, New York Times, March 9, 2025): Covid-19 officially began five years ago this week. These charts show its impact.

What Do Republican Voters Want on Higher Education? (Ben Cecil, Third Way, March 6, 2025): Despite frustrations with the system, Republican voters have not abandoned higher education. They do not view colleges and universities as an enemy, and they believe in the value of a degree.

Future Imperfect

Alabama Attorneys Defend Anti-DEI, ‘Divisive Concepts’ Law as Protecting University Rights (Alander Rocha, Alabama Reflector, March 7, 2025): “Course content and classroom instruction are government speech subject to regulation by the university, not by interest groups or the courts,” the attorneys wrote.

These Words Are Disappearing in the New Trump Administration (Karen Yourish, et al, New York Times, March 7, 2025): Agencies have flagged hundreds of words to limit or avoid, according to a compilation of government documents, including “pronoun,” “victim” and “climate science.”

Rights Advocates Concerned by Reported US Plan to Use AI to Revoke Student Visas (Kanishka Singh, Reuters, March 6, 2025): It was reported that the U.S. State Department will use artificial intelligence to revoke visas of foreign students who it perceives as supporters of Palestinian Hamas militants. 

Conferences and Workshops

The Center for Learning and Teaching at Forman Christian College University, Lahore, is excited to offer FREE online professional development series on: Leveling The Playing Field in Higher Education, April 7-16, 2025; Five sessions of 2 hour duration each, spread over 5 days @2-4 pm Pakistan time.

This series of 5 webinars, conducted by 10 international world-class experts, will transform your teaching by:

    • Understanding the multifaceted challenges that affect students’ success
    • Supporting students from different cultures and backgrounds
    • Creating classrooms where every student is valued and included
    • Building strong university connections with local and global communities
    • Using simple, practical strategies to track progress and improve student outcomes

Course Schedule & Register Here (Zoom link will be shared once you register)  

Course benefits:

    • Free, Accessible
    • Online Access to Recordings, Slides, Resources
    • Digital Participation Certificates **only for participants who attend full sessions

Don’t miss the chance to interact with an international community of participants and experts

Feel free to contact us at clt@fccollege.edu.pk or dial +92 (42) 99231581 EXT-325

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)

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