Teaching and Learning
Can AI Improve Creative Writing? (Beth McMurtrie, Chronicle of Higher Education, May 8, 2025): A small study investigates AI and the creative process. Also: how you know whether your students are learning if they use AI.
A Practical Framework for Ethical AI Integration in Assessment (Bonni Stachowiak, Teaching in Higher Ed, May 8, 2025): 45-minute podcast discussion with Mike Perkins and Jasper Roe.
Instructors Want More Guidance on AI Usage (Ashley Mowreader, Inside Higher Ed, May 8, 2025): A recent report from Ithaka S+R finds professors are increasingly engaging with generative AI but want more support navigating its application and AI policy in the classroom.
Beyond the Research-Teaching Divide: Practical Steps for Educators (Sam Illingworth, Inside Higher Ed, May 7, 2025): Five low-lift strategies for integrating research into teaching.
The Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to Generate Case Studies for the Classroom (Rhonda Gilreath, Faculty Focus, May 7, 2025): The focus of this article is to share examples of AI input prompts to generate case studies as a learning tool to help students learn course topics and learning outcomes.
Your Students Need an AI-Aware Professor (Marc Watkins, Chronicle of Higher Education, May 5, 2025): Here’s a sustainable plan to bring you up to speed on a technology that academe can’t afford to ignore.
Why Academics Need to Slow Down (Uddipana Goswami, Inside Higher Education, May 2, 2025): Slowing down is key to more meaningful, intentional teaching and scholarship.
Teaching Writing in the Age of AI (Steven Mintz, Inside Higher Ed, May 2, 2025): Summaries of recent books, John Warner’s More Than Words: How to Think About Writing in the Age of AI and Leonard Cassuto’s Academic Writing as If Readers Matter.
Helping Students Become ‘Experts at Practicing’ (Beckie Supiano, Chronicle of Higher Education, May 1, 2025): The work of the instructor is to figure out, in very concrete terms, what students need to be able to do, and then give them a chance to practice — maybe together, and probably supervised — until they get it. [In the same post, Supiano describes the success some professors have had with the social-annotation tool Perusall, which she’s has written about a few times before.]
Teaching for Integrity in the Age of AI (Bonni Stachowiak, Teaching in Higher Ed, May 1, 2025): A 48-minute podcast interview with Tricia Bertram Galland and David Rettinger, authors of The Opposite of Cheating: Teaching for Integrity in the Age of AI (University of Oklahoma, 2025).
Higher Education and the Trump Administration:
Sweeping Cuts hit NEA after Trump Administration Calls to Eliminate the Agency (Chloe Veltman, NPR, May 3, 2025): Beyond the wave of cuts, the National Endowment for the Arts is among a group of “small agency eliminations” proposed by the Trump administration’s 2026 Discretionary Budget Request, alongside the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
What Trump’s Proposed Budget Cuts Mean for Education, Research Programs (Katherine Knott, Inside Higher Ed, May 2, 2025): Science research funding and programs that help students access college are on the chopping block as Trump aims to cut at least $163 billion.
Executive Order Targets Undocumented Students’ In-State Tuition (Sara Weissman, Inside Higher Ed, May 2, 2025): Trump’s directive on sanctuary cities takes aim at state laws that allow undocumented students to pay in-state tuition. Advocates and legal experts argue states shouldn’t give up these policies.
Academic Freedom, DEI, Admissions, and Speech
Can ‘Fear Equity’ Revive Campus Free Speech? (Lee Jussim and Robert Maranto, Inside Higher Ed, May 7, 2025): Now both the left and right have incentives to fight censors.
Can Trump Do That? Legal Scholars Take Stock of His Agenda (Evan Goldstein and Len Gutkin, Chronicle of Higher Education, May 2, 2025): The Harvard lawsuit, the fate of DEI, student visas, antisemitism, and more.
Orders to Investigate Columbia Protesters Raised Alarms in Justice Department (Devlin Barrett, New York Times, May 1, 2025): Behind the scenes, a top department official pressed employees to gather a list of activists and investigate them, people familiar with the matter said.
Universities in the Crosshairs
Trump Is Using Title IX as a ‘Battering Ram,’ Experts Say (Johanna Alonso, Inside Higher Ed, May 8, 2025): From the quick turnaround of the investigation to the nature of the demands, the Office for Civil Rights is showing a new approach to handling Title IX cases. Colleges should take note.
4 Takeaways from Latest Antisemitism Hearing (Josh Moody, Inside Higher Ed, May 8, 2025): The presidents of Cal Poly, DePaul and Haverford avoided the major missteps seen in earlier hearings, while Democrats directed their criticisms toward the Trump administration.
Trump Finally Drops the Anti-Semitism Pretext (Rose Horowitch, The Atlantic, May 6, 2025): The latest letter to Harvard makes clear that the administration’s goal is to punish liberal institutions for the crime of being liberal. [You might also enjoy: US Education Secretary Blasted for Embarrassing Grammatical Errors in Threatening Letter to Harvard, which appeared in the Economic Times.]
Jewish Faculty Decry Republican Panel Members Ahead of Antisemitism Hearing (Alice Speri, Guardian, May 6, 2025): US House committee on education and workforce will question the presidents of Haverford College, DePaul University, and California Polytechnic State University on May 7. A number of Republican legislators on the committee are associated with calls for Jews to convert to Christianity, have quoted Adolf Hitler, or have reportedly threatened to burn a synagogue to the ground.
Trump Administration Says Harvard Will Receive No New Grants Until It Meets White House Demands (Collin Binkley and Jocelyn Gecker, AP, May 5, 2025): The action amounts to a major escalation of Trump’s battle with the Ivy League school.
International Students and Scholars
International Students in Alabama Fearful After Researcher with No Political Ties Is Detained (Safiyah Riddle, AP, May 3, 2025): “It’s like all of us are waiting for our turn. It could be every knock, every email could be deportation.”
ICE Expands Student Deportation Powers (Liam Knox, Inside Higher Ed, May 2, 2025): Immigration attorneys told Inside Higher Ed that if implemented, the new policy would enshrine broad permission for ICE to begin deporting students practically at will.
Extra Credit Reading
Documenting Trump’s ‘Arbitrary’ Cuts to Science (Kathryn Palmer, Inside Higher Ed, May 6, 2025): The Trump administration has canceled close to $3 billion in NIH and NSF research grants, often without much explanation. Now researchers are crowdsourcing databases of suspended grants to shed light on what’s being lost.
It’s Time for College Professors to Teach (Frederick M. Hess and Richard B. Keck, Manhattan Institute, April 29, 2025): Colleges have resorted to relying on part-time faculty to provide the requisite teaching.
Future Imperfect
Did One of My Students Hate Me Enough to Lie to Get Me in Trouble? (Anna Peterson, New York Times, May 7, 2025): Far worse than the fear of investigation was the way the accusation shook the trust I thought I had with my students.
New State Laws Target DEI, Struggling Academic Programs, and Tenure (Maya Stahl, Chronicle of Higher Education, May 5, 2025): Riding a wave of conservative activism, several state legislatures have managed to pass laws that will change the college experience.
Meet the Would-Be Accreditors Tied to Predatory For-Profit Colleges (Jeremy Bauer-Wolf, New America, April 28, 2025): An executive order signed in late April in part directs the Education Department to start recognizing new accreditors as a way to bolster “competition.”
On the Bookshelf
Student Guide to Artificial Intelligence a joint initiative of Elon University and AAC&U, a free guide for students on how to navigate the age of AI academically, professionally, and ethically. Download form available here.
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)