Teaching and Learning
Survey Says: Students Are Customers (Colleen Flaherty, Inside Higher Ed, March 4, 2025): More than three in five students consider themselves customers of their institution, according to a new analysis of Inside Higher Ed’s Student Voice data. Is that a bad thing?
How to Support Faculty During the Chaos (Beth Mitchneck and Stephanie A. Goodwin, Inside Higher Ed, March 3, 2025): Some simple ways academic administrators can support faculty whose research and teaching are under threat.
All Things AI
AI and Education: Shaping the Future Before It Shapes Us (James DeVaney, Inside Higher Ed, March 4, 2025): AI is not just on the horizon; it is actively reshaping the educational landscape. Our responsibility is to ensure this transformation augments human potential rather than diminishes it.
AI: Cheating Matters, but Redrawing Assessment ‘Matters Most’ (Juliette Rowsell, Inside Higher Ed, February 28, 2025): Universities should prioritize ensuring that assessments are “assessing what we mean to assess” rather than letting conversations be dominated by discussions around cheating.
Can AI Actually Help Students Write Authentically? (Beth McMurtrie, Chronicle of Higher Education, February 27, 2025): Over the past year and a half, Jeanne Beatrix Law, the director of composition at Kennesaw State University, has experimented with adding “rhetorical prompting,” which she describes as the use of AI-generated or AI-guided questions to deepen critical thinking, to her writing course.
DEI, Academic Freedom, and Campus Speech Issues
Free Speech Matters. So Does DEI (Michael S. Roth, Inside Higher Ed, March 6, 2025): Students can’t speak and debate freely without inclusion and belonging.
Trump’s Anti-DEI Directives Trample on Freedom (Jeffrey Aaron Snyder, Chronicle of Higher Education, March 5, 2025): Voluntary affinity groups are an American tradition, not a form of segregation.
What Does the Education Department’s DEI Guidance Really Mean? (Sara Weissman, Inside Higher Ed, March 4, 2025): Over the weekend, the department dropped a new document expanding on the Office for Civil Rights’ anti-DEI directive. Legal scholars say it takes a more nuanced approach but express varying levels of hope about its outcomes.
When Student Protest Goes Too Far (Laura Ann Rosenbury, Chronicle of Higher Education, March 3, 2025): The president of Barnard defines her “line in the sand.”
Trump Education Department Opens Snitch Line Against Diversity (Tim Dickinson, Rolling Stone, February 27, 2025): The snitch portal was launched in association with the extremist group Moms for Liberty.
Education Policy in the New Administration
Ed Data Goes Dark: Why It Matters (Robert Ubell, Inside Higher Ed, March 6, 2025): Cuts to the Institute of Education Sciences are part of an authoritarian playbook.
Trump Prepares Order Dismantling the Education Department (Cory Turner, NPR, March 5, 2025): In an NPR/PBS News/Marist poll taken late last month, 63% of Americans surveyed said they would oppose getting rid of the department, compared with 37% who supported its closure.
Trump Stresses Transparency but Releases Little Accurate Data (Jessica Blake, Inside Higher Ed, March 5, 2025): Education scholars say the administration’s rash of cuts and lack of quality transparency will have a “devastating effect” on public policy and student outcomes for years to come.
Linda McMahon Lays Out Education Department’s ‘Final Mission’ (Mackenzie Wilkes, Politico, March 4, 2025): McMahon’s plan would execute President Donald Trump’s desire to “send education back to the states” amid an expected executive order from Trump that would direct the department to offload what programs it can to other agencies and assess what laws are needed to close the department altogether.
Linda McMahon, Wrestling Industry Billionaire, Confirmed as US Education Secretary (Joseph Gedeon, Guardian, March 3, 2025): US Senate confirmed Trump ally and ex-wrestling executive as chief of department president wants dismantled.
New Ed. Dept. Guidance on Race and DEI Tells Colleges Which Programs It Might Consider Illegal (Sarah Brown, Chronicle of Higher Education, March 2, 2025): “Schools may not operate policies or programs under any name that treat students differently based on race, engage in racial stereotyping, or create hostile environments for students of particular races,” according to the directive.
An Open Letter to the NEH (Jonathan P. Edburne, Inside Higher Ed, February 28 2025): New funding conditions imposed to comply with Trump’s executive orders undercut the national humanities agency’s very mission.
‘There’s Tremendous Foreboding’ (Evan Goldstein and Len Gutkin, Chronicle of Higher Education, February 26, 2025): Four experts talk about Trump’s first month – and what’s to come.
NAEP Chief Peggy Carr Put on Leave by Trump Administration (Evie Blad & Sarah Schwartz, Education Week, February 25, 2025): The federal official who oversees a key measure of the nation’s educational progress was abruptly placed on administrative leave by the Trump. The NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Programs) collects and reports data on academic achievement, the educator workforce, and the condition of schools.
Extra Credit Reading
Presidents Weigh In on the Public Confidence Crisis (Colleen Flaherty, Inside Higher Ed, March 6, 2025): Few college leaders think higher ed has responded effectively to the electorate’s “diploma divide” or to public trust concerns. What does this mean for the white-hot value debate?
As Ohio Republicans Reshape Higher Ed, University Presidents Stay Quiet (Amy Morona, Chronicle of Higher Education, March 4, 2025): The lobbying group for the state’s public universities advised them to sit on the sidelines to avoid picking a fight with lawmakers and instead push for more funding, records show. [A follow on article, Here’s Why Ohio University Presidents Stayed Quiet on Controversial Higher Ed Bill (Amy Morona, Signal Cleveland, March 4, 2025): The lobbying group for the state’s public universities advised them to sit on the sidelines to avoid picking a fight with Republican lawmakers over Senate Bill 1 and instead push for more funding, records show.
Kafka Comes to CUNY (Corey Robin, Chronicle of Higher Education, March 4, 2025): New York’s governor declares a job listing in Palestinian studies “hateful rhetoric.” What’s next?
48 Scientific Societies Representing Almost 100,000 Scientists Ask Congress to Protect the Future of Science (Lana Cohen, Union of Concerned Scientists, March 3, 2025): “Scientists around the country have come together to demand that Congress fulfill its constitutional duty and intervene to preserve critical scientific research and the role of federal science agencies. The actions of this administration, many of which are illegal, will harm the U.S. public.”
US Science Is Under Threat – Now Scientists Are Fighting Back (Heidi Ledford and Alexandra Witze, Nature, March 3, 2025): Researchers are organizing protests and making their voices heard as Trump officials slash funding and lay off federal scientists.
Will Harvard Bend or Break? (Nathan Heller, New Yorker, March 3, 3035): Free-speech battles and pressure from Washington threaten America’s oldest university – and the soul of higher education.
Cover to Cover (Madison Markham et al, PEN America, February 27, 2025): An analysis of titles banned in the 23-24 school year.
Future Imperfect
Changing the Course (Christa Dutton, Chronicle of Higher Education, March 5, 2025): Last spring, Indiana passed Public Law 113 requiring trustees who oversee public colleges to develop policies for disciplining professors who fail to “foster a culture of free inquiry, free expression, and intellectual diversity within the institution,” or subject students to political or ideological views that are outside their discipline. The law also requires public colleges to set up a complaint system so that students and university employees can report faculty members for violations.
On the Bookshelf
Ned Scott and Scott Carlson, Hacking College: Why the Major Doesn’t Matter – and What Really Does (Johns Hopkins, 2025): Carlson, a senior writer at the Chronicle of Higher Education, discusses his book here.
In Memoriam
Peter Elbow Dies at 89. Read the New York Times obituary of the man who changed how we teach writing (Michael S. Rosenwald, February 27, 2025) and an appreciation from John Warner (Inside Higher Ed, March 6, 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)