Teaching and Learning
Does Your Syllabus Sound Like You? (Beckie Supiano, Chronicle of Higher Education, March 20, 2025): Supiano describes two tools, from Baylor and MIT, respectively, that faculty can use to examine and improve their own syllabi. Both tools described are open access.
Supporting Undocumented Students in Higher Education (Bonni Stachowiak, Teaching in Higher Ed, March 20, 2025): Jesús Campos shares his story as an undocumented undergrad/grad student and ways to support others in their educational pursuits (43-minute podcast).
Searching for the Optimal Class Design to Maximize Learning (Michael Kiener, Faculty Focus, March 17, 2025): How do you design a class to not only engages students, but also maximizes student learning?
The Impact of Confidence on Anxiety and Motivation (Cindy Nebel, Learning Scientists, March 13, 2025): A new study examines when performance-related anxiety is good for you and when it isn’t.
Disability is Human – The Vital Power of Accessibility in Everyday Life (Bonni Stachowiak, Teaching in Higher Ed, March 13, 2025): A discussion with Stephanie Cawthon, author of Disability is Human (38-min. podcast).
All Things AI
Teaching with AI: A Journey Through Grief (Kristi Girdharry, Inside Higher Ed, March 19, 2025): First there was denial, then anger, bargaining, depression, and finally acceptance.
Playing with GenAI and Image Descriptions (Tony’s Teaching Tips, March 19, 2025): Tony road tests some GenAI programs to see how they describe images he feeds in.
Supporting the Instructional Design Process: Stress-Testing Assignments with AI (Nathan Pritts, Faculty Focus, March 19, 2025): Ways to think about how AI can augment faculty work, including course design, assignments, and activities to chart student progress across content and outcomes.
Are You Doing Your Students a Disservice if You Ignore AI? (Beth McMurtrie, Chronicle of Higher Education, March 13, 2025): Faculty members recognize that AI has become embedded in our daily lives. But whether that means colleges must teach students to be effective AI users remains a fraught topic.
Academic Freedom and Speech
Columbia University Signals It Will Comply with Trump Administration’s Demands (Matt Lavietes, NBC News, March 19, 2025): The administration’s demands include that Columbia ban masks on campus, punish some student protesters and reform its admissions process. [See, in addition, a statement put out by a group of faculty at Teachers College, Columbia University, March 19, 2025.]
The Cost of the Government’s Attack on Columbia (Christopher L. Eisgruber, The Atlantic, March 19, 2025): American universities have given the country prosperity and security. The Trump administration’s attack on academic freedom endangers all of that.
Trump Is Seeking to Deport Another Academic Who Is Legally in the Country, Lawsuit Says (Kyle Cheney and Josh Gerstein, Politico, March 19, 2025): A Georgetown University researcher, who was studying and teaching on a student visa, has been detained by federal immigration authorities amid the Trump administration’s crackdown on student activists whom the government accuses of opposing American foreign policy, according to court papers.
Colleges Flag Words Like ‘Women’ to Comply with DEI Bans (Sara Weissman, Inside Higher Ed, March 17, 2025): Following the example of federal agencies, some campuses are coming up with lists of keywords to purge their webpages and courses of DEI content.
Can Trump Force Columbia U. to Expel Student Protesters? (Kate Hidalgo Bellows, Chronicle of Higher Education, March 14, 2025): A Trump-administration letter calls for tighter disciplinary measures over protests and antisemitism before negotiations on the planned cancellation of $400 million in federal funds can progress.
Khalil Sues Columbia and Lawmakers to Keep Activists’ Names Secret (Benjamin Weiser, New York Times, March 13,2025): Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University graduate detained by the Trump administration last weekend, and seven current students asked a federal court on Thursday to block the school from producing student disciplinary records to a House committee that demanded them last month.
Education Policy in the New Administration
Trump Order Threatens University Libraries, Museums (Kathryn Palmer, Inside Higher Ed, March 20, 2025): The president disbanded the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Academic researchers, librarians and museum professionals say defunding the agency undermines their commitment to education.
Trump to Freeze $175 million for U. of Pennsylvania in Latest Federal-Funding Threat (Maddie Khaw, Chronicle of Higher Education, March 19, 2024): The pause is connected to an investigation into transgender athletes’ participation in sports.
Trump to Sign Order Aiming to Close the Education Department (Cory Turner, NPR, March 19, 2025): Trump plans to sign the order at a ceremony alongside the Republican governors of Texas, Indiana, Florida and Ohio.
Every American Has a Stake in Columbia’s Fate (Austin Sarat, Inside Higher Ed, March 18, 2025): The federal government is trying to put the entire private university into a state of receivership.
Trump Administration Threatening Canadian Researchers (Canadian Association of University Teachers, March 18, 2025): Researchers working on projects funded wholly or in part by American federal agencies have been sent a lengthy questionnaire to determine how their work aligns with the Trump administration’s political agenda, specifically that it does not include a climate or “gender ideology” component and that it ”increases American influence globally.”
Mount Holyoke College President: ‘Colleges Are Not the Enemy’ (Peter O’Dowd and Lynn Menegon, WBUR, March 17, 2025): Danielle Holley argues that colleges and universities have the right to “determine our own missions.”
Trump’s Demands to Columbia Reflect Assault on Higher Ed, Experts Say (Jessica Blake and Katherine Knott, Inside Higher Ed, March 14, 2025): The administration wants Columbia University to make sweeping changes to its discipline and admissions processes. Experts say the demands are overreaching.
Dozens of Schools Face Investigation by Trump Administration, Accused of “Racial Preferences” (Savannah Kuchar, USA Today, March 14, 2025): 45 schools are under investigation for supporting traditionally underrepresented groups in academia.
Extra Credit Reading
The Dangerous Document Behind Trump’s Campus Purges (Jesse Hoffnung-Garskof and Daphna Renan, Chronicle of Higher Education, March 18, 2025): The Heritage Foundation’s ‘Project Esther’ would weaponize antisemitism.
The Authoritarian Endgame on Higher Education (Editorial Board, New York Times, March 15, 2025): Mr. Trump’s multifaceted campaign against higher education is core to this effort to weaken institutions that do not parrot his version of reality.
How a University Fights an Authoritarian Regime (Michael Ignatieff, Chronicle of Higher Education, March 14, 2025): Viktor Orbán came for me. Donald Trump is coming for you. Here’s what to do.
Reimagining Higher Education for Equity and Innovation (Steven Mintz, Inside Higher Ed, March 14, 2025): David Brooks and Tyler Cowen on the failures – and promises – of American universities.
Academia Needs to Stick Up for Itself (Nicholas B. Dirks, The Atlantic, March 12, 2025): American higher education would be in a much stronger position today if it had made a proactive case to the public for its own importance—and taken steps to address its very real shortcomings.
Profiles in Self-Censorship (David Cole, New York Review of Books, March 10, 2025): Under pressure from the Trump administration, many universities are preemptively scaling back their DEI programs – even though no law requires them to.
Future Imperfect
Congressman Moore Introduces Stop CCP Visas Act (March 14, 2025): Congressman Riley M. Moore (R-WVa) has introduced legislation seeking to bar all Chinese students from studying in the United States.
Students Will be Deputized to Squeal on Professors if Senate Bill 1 Passes (Steven Volk, Columbus Dispatch, March 15, 2025): SB1 will rely on private citizens, including disgruntled students, to surveil faculty. [Update: Ohio House Passes Higher Education Overhaul, DEI Ban (Jessie Balmert, Columbus Dispatch, March 19, 2025): Republicans, who hold veto-proof majorities in both chambers of the Ohio Legislature, passed the bill swiftly and with few revisions despite hundreds of professors, students and parents testifying against the bill.]
Teacher Ordered to Remove Signs from Classroom, Including One Saying ‘Everyone Is Welcome Here’ (Alex Portée, NBC News, March 15, 2025): “There are only two opinions on this sign: Everyone is welcome here, or not everyone is welcome here,” argues Sarah Inama, a sixth-grade history teacher.
Oklahoma Proposes Teaching 2020 Election ‘Discrepancies’ in U.S. History (Sarah Mervosh, New York Times, March 14, 2025): High school students in Oklahoma would be asked to identify “discrepancies” in the 2020 election as part of U.S. history classes, according to new social studies standards recently approved by the Oklahoma Board of Education.
UI [University of Iowa] Grad Student Transfers After Backlash Over DEI Presentation (Emma Jane, The Daily Iowan, March 12, 2025): A graduate student in the School of Social Work, is leaving after facing disciplinary action for a presentation she and a classmate gave on diversity, equity, and inclusion at a national social work conference.
On the Bookshelf
Justin Sider pens a highly critical review of Joshua R. Eyler’s Failing Our Future: How Grades Harm Students, and What We Can Do About It (John Hopkins 2024) in “The Problem with the Pedagogy Gurus” (Chronicle of Higher Education, March 3, 2025).
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:
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- 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:
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- 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)