Note: NOTW will be taking a break next week to dive into some turkey and stuffing rather than the news. We’ll be back on December 6.
Chart of the Week
(Story below: Supporting Students Postelection)
Teaching and Learning
Students Value Instructional Clarity, Active Learning (Ashley Mowreader, Inside Higher Ed, November 21, 2024): A recent report from the Association of College and University Educators and the Lumina Foundation found students evaluated their courses based on four primary factors.
Improving College Student Outcomes with Course Policies that Support Autonomy (Part 2) (Megan Sumeracki, Learning Scientists, November 21, 2024): The first part discussed a randomized controlled field study examining the effects of allowing students to choose whether their attendance was mandatory. This post concerns a cohort study examining the effects of allowing students to opt out of challenging, high-effort assessments.
Strategies to Reduce Cheating (Beth McMurtrie, Chronicle of Higher Education, November 21, 2024): McMurtrie shares the methods faculty have used to address cheating, including AI cheating.
The Impact of Non-Evaluative Feedback and Mindfulness in Writing (Nadia Moraglio, Faculty Focus, November 20, 2024): Non-evaluative feedback is a type of formative feedback that relies on the use of non-judgmental language by promoting awareness of students’ writing patterns while acknowledging writer control and autonomy over their writing processes.
‘Viewpoint Diversity’ Is Not the Answer (John McHugh, Inside Higher Ed, November 19, 2024): Viewpoint diversity treats the symptoms of dogmatism, but curiosity treats the disease.
All Things AI
You can find all the resources from the GLCA/GLAA workshop sponsored by the Consortium for Teaching and Learning (PowerPoint slides; recording, articles) here.
Cultivating Critical AI Literacies (Bonni Stachowiak, Teaching in Higher Ed, November 21, 2024): 50-minute podcast with Maha Bali suggesting the importance of aligning AI usage with one’s teaching philosophies and values, not just adopting the latest technology.
Meet Professor Robot (Jack Stripling, Chronicle of Higher Education, November 19, 2024): Technology is automating tasks once handled by faculty, and that’s changing the human relationships at the core of higher education.
After the Election: Consequences for Higher Ed
South Dakota Sen. Mike Rounds Introduces Bill to Eliminate U.S. Department of Education (Morgan Matzen, Sioux Falls Argus Leader, November 21, 2024): The legislation would shift the Department of Education’s functions to other agencies, with federal student-aid programs going to the Treasury Department.
Student Voter Engagement Efforts Grew in 2024. Student Voting Didn’t (Johanna Alonso, Inside Higher Ed, November 21, 2024): At the National Student Vote Summit, attendees discussed the best ways to boost political involvement after an election that saw worse turnout than in 2020.
Supporting Students Postelection, in 4 Charts (Colleen Flaherty, Inside Higher Ed, November 22, 2024): In a new Student Voice flash poll, very few students—even very few Trump voters—say their institution is doing too much to support them postelection.
Trump Wants to Have It Both Ways on Education (Lora Kelley, The Atlantic, November 21, 2024): He says he wants to give power back to the states, but has also signaled his intention to align American schools with his own cultural agenda.
Trump Has Called for Dismantling the Education Department. Here’s What That Would Mean (Annie Ma, AP, November 20, 2024): Closing the Department would likely require action from Congress.
Trump Likely to Use Antisemitism Claims to Launch Crackdown on US Universities (Alice Speri, Guardian, November 18, 2024): Schools brace for cuts and investigations as the president-elect and his advisers make them a prime target of their ‘anti-woke’ crusade.
The Campus in the Second Age of Trump (Various authors, Chronicle of Higher Education, November 18, 2024): What to expect, and what to do next.
How a Top Trump Adviser Might Influence the President-Elect’s Views on Higher Ed (Amanda Friedman, Chronicle of Higher Education, November 18, 2024): Stephen Miller, who was recently named deputy chief of staff for policy, has spent the last three years attacking colleges’ diversity-related efforts through America First Legal, a conservative law firm.
What Are Donald Trump’s Plans to Overhaul US Colleges and Universities? (Rachel Leingang, Guardian, November 18, 2024): Republican president-elect says he wants to dismantle the US education department and fire ‘radical left accreditors.’
As Trump Threatens Deportations, Campus Leaders Tread Carefully (Sara Weissman, Inside Higher Ed, November 18, 2024): Colleges are considering what supports they can offer their undocumented students. Some leaders feel constrained in what they can publicly say or legally promise.
Universities Like Yale Need a Reckoning (David W. Blight, New York Times, November 14, 2024): Sometimes, even as we have facts, truth and rule of law on our side, we make ourselves good targets with our jargon, our righteousness and our fragmentation. We are out of touch with working class Americans, even if the policies that Democrats have enacted work for them.
Columbia Hoped to ‘Keep Heads Down.’ A Republican Trifecta Could Intensify Federal Scrutiny (Rebecca Massel, Apurva Chakravarthy, and Noah Bernstein, Columbia Spectator, November 13, 2024): The House Committee on Education and the Workforce’s investigation into antisemitism at Columbia will see new leadership with the 119th Congress.
Colleges Wonder if They Will Be ‘the Enemy’ Under Trump (Vilmal Patel and Sharon Otterman, New York Times, November 12, 2024): Higher education has been a favorite target of Republicans who believe schools have tilted leftward. Now, colleges and universities are bracing for the Trump administration to take action.
Linda McMahon Nominated for Secretary of Education
Articles on Linda McMahon from Inside Higher Ed (Jessica Blake, Liam Knox, and Katherine Knott) and Chronicle of Higher Education (Sarah Brown, Christa Dutton, Amanda Friedman, Kate Hidalgo Bellows, and Garrett Shanley).
Who Is Linda McMahon? Trump Donor, WWE Co-Founder Is Education Secretary Pick (Niha Masih, Washington Post, November 20, 2024): The 76-year-old, who has donated tens of millions of dollars to Donald Trump’s campaigns over the years, co-chairs the transition team.
Trump’s Education Secretary Nominee Once Said She Had an Education Degree. She Doesn’t (Zachary Schermele, USA Today, November 20, 2024): USA TODAY obtained a copy of a questionnaire Linda McMahon filled out to serve on a state education board. She incorrectly indicated she had a bachelor’s degree in education.
Trump Picks Business Executive Linda McMahon to Lead Education Department (Cory Turner, Jonaki Mehta, NPR, November 19, 2024): McMahon is a professional wrestling magnate who ran two unsuccessful campaigns for the U.S. Senate in Connecticut. She was selected by Trump to lead the SBA during his first presidency.
Affirmative Action and DEI
Ignoring Race in Admissions Doesn’t Improve Quality of Incoming Class (Liam Knox, Inside Higher Ed, November 22, 2024): Ignoring race in the college admissions process lowers diversity outcomes but has no effect on the academic standards of an admitted class, according to a new study from Cornell researchers.
Miss. Board Removes Word ‘Diversity’ from Public University Policies (Molly Minta, Mississippi Today, November 21, 2024): The governing board of Mississippi’s public universities voted Thursday to delete the word “diversity” from several policies, including a requirement that the board evaluate university presidents on campus diversity outcomes.
Is DEI in the Crosshairs at the U. of Michigan? (Katherine Mangan, Chronicle of Higher Education, November 21, 2024): A report circulated Wednesday among Faculty Senate leaders suggests that the Board of Regents may be planning significant cuts in diversity, equity, and inclusion programming as early as next month.
How Colleges Can Pivot to Keep DEI Alive (Melissa Segal, Inside Higher Ed, November 20, 2024): Colleges can still achieve DEI-related goals through a deliberate integration strategy.
DEI Retrenchment on Campus Is Far Worse Than Maps Show (Shaun Harper, Inside Higher Ed, November 20, 2024): They don’t capture local-level and self-imposed efforts to defund, eliminate or otherwise suppress diversity and inclusion efforts.
Academic Freedom and Speech on Campus
What Is Behind FIRE’s Attacks on AAUP? (Joan W. Scott, Inside Higher Ed, November 18, 2024): FIRE is no defender of academic freedom. [See a response, by John K. Wilson (In Defense of FIRE, Inside Higher Ed, November 21, 2024).]
The Civil Rights Law Shutting Down Pro-Palestine Speech (Alex Kane, Jewish Currents, November 15, 2024): Pro-Israel groups have remade Title VI into a tool of repression – and a second Trump term will supercharge their crusade.
Extra Credit Reading and Listening
Academe’s Divorce from Reality (William Deresiewicz, Chronicle of Higher Education, November 21, 2024): Americans are fed up, and not just people who voted for Trump.
Three Ways to Become a Deeper Thinker (Arthur C. Brooks, The Atlantic, November 21, 2024): You don’t have to become a Buddhist monk to realize the value of contemplating hard questions without clear answers.
Winds of Change in Higher Ed to Become a Hurricane in 2025 (Ray Schroeder, Inside Higher Ed, November 20, 2024): A number of factors are converging to create a huge storm. Generative AI advances, massive federal policy shifts, broad societal and economic changes, and the demographic cliff combine to create uncertainty today and change tomorrow.
Representation of Low-Income Students at Highly Selective Colleges Didn’t Budge Over 100 Years (Eric Hoover, Chronicle of Higher Education, November 18, 2024): New research reveals that socioeconomic diversity has long been stagnant at prominent colleges — and that the SAT hasn’t been an equalizer.
We Asked for It (Michael W. Clune, Chronicle of Higher Education, November 18, 2024): The politicization of research, hiring, and teaching made professors sitting ducks.
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)