Teaching and Learning
How to Teach About Contentious Topics Like Israel and Hamas (Beth McMurtrie, Chronicle of Higher Education, May 9, 2024): McMurtrie went looking for a course that tackles such a fraught topic, and found one at the Johns Hopkins University.
How to Grade During a Crisis (Beckie Supiano, Chronicle of Higher Education, May 9, 2024): After demonstrations and arrests, instructors are forced to improvise.
After a Tough Year for Classroom Innovation, It’s Time for a Reset (Sarah Rose Cavanagh, Chronicle of Higher Education, May 7, 2024): How to better support instructors I the face of faculty backlash against the demands of student-centered teaching.
Busting Myths About Deadline Extensions (Colleen Flaherty, Inside Higher Ed, May 7, 2024): A new study shows that students in large courses both prefer and reap benefits from a dual-deadline system, in which the instructor sets exact assignment deadlines but also allows for defined extensions without penalty.
Changing Curricula to Appeal to Pop Culture, Niche Interests (Ashley Mowreader, Inside Higher Education, May 3, 2024): Professors get creative in drawing students into learning through novel course offerings focusing on pop stars, aliens and more.
All Things AI
Teaching and Generative AI: Pedagogical Possibilities and Productive Tensions. An open-access collection of essays, brought our way by Tracie Addy, from the Small College Pod. The collection of essays provides interdisciplinary teachers, librarians, and instructional designers with practical and thoughtful pedagogical resources for navigating the possibilities and challenges of teaching in an AI era. Because the goal of this edited collection is to present nuanced discussions of AI technology across disciplines, the chapters collectively acknowledge or explore both possibilities and tensions—including the strengths, limitations, ethical considerations, and disciplinary potential and challenges—of teaching in an AI era. As such, the authors in this collection do not simply praise or criticize AI, but thoughtfully acknowledge and explore its complexities within educational settings.
Thinking with and About AI (Bonni Stachowiak, Teaching in Higher Ed, May 9, 2024): 43 min. podcast in which C. Edward Watson, co-author with José Bowen of Teaching with AI: A Practical Guide to a New Era of Human Learning (Johns Hopkins 2024).
Re: GenAI, Do Not Listen to Nonexperts in Education (John Warner, Inside Higher Ed, May 9, 2024): No matter how rich they are.
Campus Protests Continue
New Hearings (now including K-12):
House Republicans Are About to Put K-12 Schools Under an Antisemitism Microscope (Juan Perez Jr, Madina Touré and Blake Jones, Politico, May 7, 2024): “Trying to create gotcha moments and viral moments is not how you ultimately solve problems you deeply care bout,” the chancellor of New York City schools said. [And for a report of the hearing, House Republicans Attacked. New York’s Chancellor Defended His Schools (Troy Closson and Sarah Mervosh, New York Times, May 8, 2024).]
Northwestern and Rutgers Now in Hot Seat for Next House Hearing (Jessica Blake, Inside Higher Ed, May 7, 2024): Rutgers and Northwestern will replace Yale and Michigan in the on-going congressional bloodletting.
News of the ongoing student protests:
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost Says Student Protesters May Face Felony Charges Due to 1953 Law (Megan Henry, Ohio Capital Journal, May 8, 2024): He cited a 1953 law that makes it a felony to commit a crime, even a misdemeanor, with two or more people “while wearing white caps, masks, or other disguise.”
Protesters Clash at MIT After About 130 Arrests at UMass Amherst (Alysha Palumbo, Asher Klein, and Jerico Tran, 10 Boston, May 8, 2024): The ACLU of Massachusetts said it was “highly concerned” that the police had been brought in to clear the encampment.
MPD Clears U-Yard Encampment [At George Washington University], Arrests 33 Pro-Palestinian Protesters (Faith Wardwell and Janne Salvosa, The GW Hatchet, May 8, 2024): Soon after the arrests, the Republican chair of the House Oversight Committee cancelled a hearing at with Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, was schedule to appear.
‘Call the Philosophy Department Office and Tell Them I Have Been Arrested’ (Nell Gluckman, Chronicle of Higher Education, May 7, 2024): An Emory professor who was arrested when the police broke up an encampment spoke to The Chronicle about what happened, and what it says about the state of higher education.
Universities Consider Divestment Demands (Josh Moody, Inside Higher Ed, May 7, 2024): As pro-Palestinian protests continue across the U.S. some colleges have struck deals with students to consider divestment in exchange for packing up encampments.
How Rutgers Student Protest Was Peacefully Resolved (Hannah Gross, NJ Spotlight News, May 6, 2024): The Rutgers-New Brunswick breakthrough is an outlier as pro-Palestinian protests continue to roil campuses.
UChicago Says Free Speech Is Sacred. Some Students See Hypocrisy. (Jeremy W. Peters, New York Times, May 6, 2024): The president has allowed protest encampments. But they have also disrupted campus life, and he wants the tents down.
We Columbia University Students Urge You to Listen To Our Voices (Columbia College Student Council, The Guardian, May 4, 2024): Please, listen to us – not political figures, radical fringes and misguided media. A statement passed by a 22-4-2 margin. See, as well, In Our Name: A Message from Jewish Students at Columbia University.
Our Campus. Our Crisis (Reporting from the Columbia Daily Spectator, New York Magazine Intelligencer, May 4, 2024): Inside the encampments and crackdowns that shook American politics.
Encampment, Teach-Ins, Fundraisers Held to Support Palestine (Layla Wallerstein and Yasu Shinozaki, The Oberlin Review, May 3, 2024): On Monday, Oberlin College became the latest in a wave of colleges and universities across the country to set up an encampment in protest of Israel’s war in Gaza, named the People’s College for the Liberation of Palestine.
Why Did My College Call the Police on Its Students? (Oliver Eagen, Chronicle of Higher Education, May 3, 3034): Nobody is any danger on our comfortable campus, except from the administration.
Follow-up reporting on earlier protests:
Nearly All Gaza Campus Protests in the US Have Been Peaceful, Study Finds (Lois Beckett, Guardian, May 10, 2024): Analysis of 553 protests in solidarity with Palestinians between 18 April and 3 May found 97% of them did not cause serious damage.
Dueling Narratives Emerge After Arrests at UVA (Josh Moody, Inside Higher Ed, May 10, 2024): Police forcefully cleared an encampment at the University of Virginia after what officials describe as “aggressive” protestor behavior. Videos cast doubts on those claims.
In Harvard Yard (Walter Johnson, New York Review of Books, May 8, 2024): Civil discourse and critical inquiry are not abstract concepts in the encampment. They are active principles.
Should Columbia’s President Resign? (New York Magazine, May 4, 2024): Polling by magazine and Columbia Spectator of 28 questions asked Columbia students, faculty and staff. Divided on whether the issue is one of antisemitism or Islamophobia, most are agreed that the president handled it poorly.
The Mayor Called Them Outside Agitators. Many of Them Beg to Differ (Amy Julia Harris, Chelsia Rose Marcius, Nicole Hong, Joseph Goldstein, and Erin Nolan, New York Times, May 4, 2024): City officials have blamed “external actors” for escalating demonstrations at Columbia University and elsewhere, but student protesters reject the claim.
What’s Really Happening on College Campuses, According to Student Journalists (Catherine Kim, Politico, May 3, 2024): POLITICO Magazine asked leaders of campus news organizations to set the record straight about campus unrest, antisemitism and what the media is getting wrong.
UCLA Police Chief, Accused of Security Lapses Before Mob Attack, Defends His Actions (Teresa Watanabe, Los Angeles Times, May 3, 2024): The UCLA police chief is facing growing scrutiny for what three sources told The Times was a string of serious security lapses before a mob attacked a pro-Palestinian student encampment this week.
Police Treatment of a Dartmouth Professor Stirs Anger and Debate (Vimal Patel, New York Times, May 3, 2024): A video showing Annelise Orleck, 65, being taken to the ground intensified criticism of the decision by the college’s president to call in officers.
UT Austin Says Protesters Carried Guns and Assaulted People. Prosecutors Haven’t Seen Proof (Andrew Weber, KUT News, May 2, 2024): Local chief prosecutor, Delia Garza of Travis County, said her office had not seen a single weapons or assault charge.
Further analysis, responses, and context:
What America’s Student Photojournalists Saw at the Campus Protests (Sanya Mansoor and student photographers, Time, May 9, 2024): Interesting visual record of campus protests.
‘If You’re Suppressing Speech in the Name of Safety, You’re Doing the Wrong Thing’ (Sammy Feldblum, Chronicle of Higher Education, May 8, 2024): An interview with Irene Mulvey, president of the AAUP.
The Distortion of Campus Protests Over Gaza (Helen Benedict, Portside, May 8, 2024): A report on the Columbia campus protest (up to the taking of Hamilton Hall) by a journalism professor at the school.
Most College Students Shrug at Nationwide Protests (Sareen Habeshian, Axios, May 7, 2024): Only 13% of student in a poll found the conflict in the Middle East as the most important to them. 40% listed healthcare reform.
The Chicago Principles Are Undemocratic (Anton Ford, Chronicle of Higher Education, May 6, 2024): Freedom of expression must include the right to deliberate, and to protest.
College Presidents Behaving Badly (Thomas J. Sugrue, Chronicle of Higher Education, May 6, 2024): Calling the police doesn’t dampen protests. It accelerates them, often with devastating consequences.
American Historical Association Statement on 2024 Campus Protests (May 2024) (AHA, May 26, 2024). The AHA and 15 other organizations have published a statement urging “administrators to recognize the fundamental value of peaceful protest on college and university campuses.”
Universities Face Misinformation Amid Pro-Palestinian Protests (Lauren Coffey (Inside Higher Ed, May 6, 2024): How – and if – universities should combat misinformation causes its own divisions.
Protest and Perish (Jacques Berlinerblau, Chronicle of Higher Education, May 3, 2024): Activism cannot be allowed to drown out academe’s core functions.
Shibboleth (Zadie Smith, The New Yorker, May 5, 2024): In the campus protests over the war in Gaza, language and rhetoric are – as they have always been when it comes to Israel and Palestine – weapons of mass destruction.
University Endowments Show Few Signs of Direct Israel, Defense Holdings (Todd C. Frankel, The Washington Post, May 3, 2024): School investments are targets of Pro-Palestinian groups calling for “divestment,” even if the ties aren’t always clear.
House Republicans Showed Up at a Campus Protest. Of Course. (Mark Leibovich, The Atlantic, May 3, 2024): Just what the college unrest needed: political theater.
Letter to Columbia President Minouche Shafik (Robin D.G. Kelley, Boston Review, April 26, 2024): You are keeping no one safe, except for your donors, trustees, and the university endowment.
DEI
The Reeducation of DEI (Patrick J. Casey, Inside Higher Ed, May 7, 2024): DEI in the university should be reimagined as education, not training.
This Is No Time to Ban DEI Initiatives in Education; We Need DEI More than Ever (Sumer Seiki and Megan Thiele Strong, Hechinger Report, May 6, 2024): Unprotected educators bear the brunt of the backlash, but this work is too important to abandon.
Future Imperfect
5 Colleges Lose Chinese Flagship Programs Because of Defense Dept. Cuts (Karin Fischer, Chronicle of Higher Education, May 8, 2024): Surprise closures of language programs called “disappointing,” “strange,” and “discouraging.”
Nebraska is the next state to refuse to comply with Biden’s Title IX revisions.
Extra Credit Reading
Colleges Need to Change. But Can They? (James Shulman, Chronicle of Higher Education, May 9, 2024): Inertia rules the day. New thinking could upend that.
For Only the Second Time, State Funding to Public Colleges Exceeds Per-Student Funding Levels Seen Prior to the Great Recession (State Higher Education Executive Officers Association, May 8, 2024): Nationwide, states paid an average of $11,040 for every full-time student in the 2023 fiscal year. That’s a 3.7-percent increase above inflation from the previous year, and it’s 6.7 percent higher than in the 2008 fiscal year.
How ‘Diversity’ Became the Master Concept of Our Age (Nicholas Langlitz, Chronicle of Higher Education, May 7, 2024): Across the ideological spectrum, it’s become a bedrock value. What does it mean?
From Free Speech to Free Palestine: Six Decades of Student Protest (Richard Fausset, New York Times, May 4, 2024): The protests against Israel’s war in Gaza are merely the latest in a tradition of student-led, left-leaning activism dating back at least to the civil rights and anti-Vietnam War protests of the 1960s.
AAUP Principles and the Long Struggle for Equality (Risa L. Lieberwitz, Academe-AAUP, Spring 2024). Affirmative action and higher education for the common good.
On the Bookshelf
OiYan Poon, Asian America Is Not a Color: Conversations on Race, Affirmative Action, and Family (Beacon): Discussed by Eric Hoover in An Asian American Scholar Explores the Admissions Debate that Divided Her Community (Chronicle of Higher Education, May 2, 2024).
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)