Teaching and Learning
Dual Coding and Cognitive Load (Megan Sumeracki, Learning Scientists, May 29, 2025): Explores whether heavy cognitive overload can be reduced for students by presenting examples using dual coding, for example visual and auditory formats.
Something’s Lost, but Something’s Gained (Ray Schroeder, Inside Higher Ed, May 28, 2025): This is not the first time that emerging technology has impacted teaching modes and methods.
What AI Can’t Read: Ambiguities and Silences (Jan Burzlaff, Inside Higher Ed, May 23, 2025): By using AI for a task for which it is particularly ill-equipped—analyzing the testimony of Holocaust survivors—students deepen their own thinking.
The Reading Struggle Meets AI (Beth McMurtrie, Chronicle of Higher Education, May 22, 2025): The crisis has worsened, many professors say. Is it time to think differently?
How One Professor Got Students Excited About Writing (Chronicle of Higher Education, May 22, 2025): He did it, he says, by creating a tech-free classroom and focusing on in-class, structured essays.
Mood and Memory (Althea Need Kaminske, Learning Scientists, May 16, 2025): Our brains – that’s the part that does the thinking – are, for better or worse, part of our bodies …. As such there are a vast number of interconnected systems that affect us and our thinking and learning as we move throughout the day.
Enhancing STEM Higher Education with Artificial Intelligence: Experiences Using AI in Learning and Teaching (Kristen Procko, Eric Smith, and Kristin Patterson, University of Texas Press): An online source provides guidance for instructors who want to integrate AI into course design and use it to improve their own productivity, among other things.
Making AI Generative for Higher Education: Adoption and Challenges Among Instructors and Researchers (Claire Baytas and Dylan Ruediger, ITHAKA-S+R, May 1, 2025): Report based on 246 interviews conducted at 19 colleges and universities.
Higher Education and the Trump Administration:
Academic Freedom, DEI, Admissions, and Speech
For Fulbright Applicants, a DEI Disqualifier (Liam Knox, Inside Higher Ed, May 29, 2025): The Trump administration staged an unprecedented intervention in this year’s Fulbright selection process, rejecting finalists whose research deals with race, gender or climate change.
Government May Seek to Re-Detain College Students Released from ICE Custody (Ava-joye Burnett, ScrippsNews, May 20, 2025): Officials have begun contacting various court systems to explore possible appeals in cases where students were released from ICE custody. Among them are several high-profile scholars who remain under scrutiny despite rulings in their favor.
Universities in the Crosshairs
Trump Tells Federal Agencies to End Contracts with Harvard (Katherine Knott, Inside Higher Ed, May 28, 2025): After freezing $2.7 billion in federal funds and trying to cut off Harvard University from enrolling international students, the Trump administration is now moving to end $100 million in contracts with the institution.
Harvard President Calls Trump Administration’s Actions ‘Perplexing,’ Questions Connection to Combatting Antisemitism (Alyssa Vega, Boston Globe, May 27, 2025): Harvard President Alan Garber addressed the university’s clash with the Trump administration in a new NPR interview, calling the government’s recent actions toward the school “perplexing” and warning that slashing research funding “hurts the country.”
Trump Lawyer in Harvard Battle Says DOJ Intends to Sue UC over Antisemitism Allegations (Jaweed Kaleem, Los Angeles Times, May 27, 2025): Leo Terrell, senior counsel for the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice, is heading a multiagency task force on combating antisemitism and said that there will be “massive lawsuits against [the] UC system” and other colleges “on the East Coast, on the West Coast, in the Midwest.”
Trump Intends to Cancel All Federal Funds Directed at Harvard (Stephanie Saul, New York Times, May 27, 2025): A letter to federal agencies will instruct them to end contracts, totaling about $100 million. It is meant to sever the government’s remaining ties with Harvard.
Trump Threatens to Move $3B in Federal Grants from Harvard Trade Schools (Rebecca Falconer, Axios, May 26, 2025): The latest threat against the Ivy League institution comes days after a federal judge temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s efforts to ban foreign students from attending Harvard as part of a wider crackdown on colleges it considers to have liberal biases.
Universities See Trump’s Harvard Move as a Threat to Them, Too (Laurel Rosenhall, Isabelle Taft, Steven Rich, and Stephanie Saul, New York Times, May 24, 2025): College officials fear that President Trump may use international enrollment as leverage to demand changes on campuses elsewhere.
Harvard Sues Trump Administration Over Ban on International Student Enrollment (Dan Mangan, CNBC, May 23, 2025): The suit came a day after the Department of Homeland Security, at the behest of its secretary, Kristi Noem, revoked Harvard’s ability to enroll foreign students under the F-1 visa program.
Trump Admin Finds Columbia Violated Jewish Students’ Civil Rights (Rebecca Falconer, Axios, May 23, 2025): Columbia University violated federal civil rights law by “acting with deliberate indifference toward student-on-student harassment of Jewish students” from Oct. 7, 2023, through the present, a Trump administration investigation found Thursday.
Trump Administration Strips Harvard’s SEVP Certification (Josh Moody and Liam Knox, Inside Higher Ed, May 22, 2025): The government escalates its war with the university by withdrawing permission to host international students, who make up more than one-fourth of the head count.
International Students and Scholars
China Condemns US Decision to Revoke Student Visas (Helen Davidson and agencies, Guardian, May 29, 2025): Foreign ministry hits back at ‘political and discriminatory’ move announced by Marco Rubio.
As Student-Visa Season Heats Up, the State Department Freezes New Interviews (Karin Fischer, Chronicle of Higher Education, May 28, 2025): It’s unclear how long the stoppage could last. The cable said no additional appointments should be scheduled until further guidance is issued, which is “anticipated in the coming days.”
State Dept. Will Vet Student Visa Applicants’ Social Media (Johanna Alonso, Inside Higher Ed, May 28, 2025): International education advocates are raising concerns over the administration’s decision to pause visa interviews ahead of the new policy rollout.
Shock at Harvard After Government Says International Students Must Go (Jenna Russell and Miles J. Herszenhorn, New York Times, May 22, 2025): Fear and confusion mounted quickly on Thursday as international students, who make up more than a quarter of the university’s enrollment, sought clarity or reassurance.
Judge Blocks Trump Administration From Revoking Student Visas (Chris Cameron, New York Times, May 22, 2025): Judge Jeffrey White of the Northern District of California provided temporary relief to some international students while a legal battle continues.
Extra Credit Reading
Q&A With James Lang on ‘Write Like You Teach’ (John Warner, Inside Higher Ed, May 28, 2025): If you want to write for broader audiences, this is the book for you.
Students’ Right to Be Hostile (Alex Gourevitch, Chronicle of Higher Education, May 28, 2025): Protest is, by definition, discomfiting.
The Agenda Behind Accreditation ‘Reform’ (Jeremy D. Penn, Inside Higher Ed, May 28, 2025): Accreditation does need reform, but the Trump administration seeks to weaponize it to push an impoverished vision for higher ed.
5 Charts Depicting How Faculty Have Changed in Last 20 Years (Katherine Knott, Inside Higher Ed, May 27, 2025): A recent report from CUPA-HR delved into 20 years of data to highlight how colleges’ priorities are affecting faculty.
The Reconciliation Bill Cleared the House. Here’s How It Would Change Higher Ed (Ben Unglesbee, Higher Ed Dive, May 22, 2025): Critics worry that the spending package, now headed to the Senate, would have a “historic and negative impact” on college access.
It’s Time to Stand for Something (Teresa Valerio Parrot, Inside Higher Ed, May 23, 2025): What Ruth Simmons taught me about leadership and our responsibility to fight for higher ed.
Trump Has Cut Science Funding to Its Lowest Level in Decades (Aatish Bhatia, Irineo Cabreros, Asmaa Elkeurti, and Ethan Singer, New York Times, May 22, 2025): An analysis of 25 years of grants funded by the National Science Foundation.
Judge Halts Dismantling of Education Department, Orders Fired Workers to be Reinstated (Gary Grumbach and Dareh Gregorian, NBC News, May 22, 2025): U.S. District Judge Myong Joun said the announced cuts would “likely cripple” the agency.
25 Stats for 2025 Graduates (Ashley Mowreader, Inside Higher Ed, May 22, 2025): A compilation of recent surveys of college students and hiring managers provides a glimpse into the future of this year’s college graduates.
Future Imperfect
RFK Jr. May Bar Scientists from Publishing in ‘Corrupt’ Journals (Kathryn Palmer, Inside Higher Ed, May 29, 2025): “We’re probably going to stop publishing in the Lancet, New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA and those other journals because they’re all corrupt,” Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said.
Political Appointees Would Have More Control Over Texas Universities’ Courses and Hiring Under Bill Approved in House (Jessica Priest, Texas Tribune, May 24, 2025): Senate Bill 37 would give more power to university regents, who are appointed by the governor, to vet and veto new curricula and administrators.
On the Bookshelf
David Rieff, Desire and Fate (Columbia, 2024), reviewed by Robert S. Huddleston (The Dying Liberal University), Chronicle of Higher Education, May 28, 2025.
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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)