FOREIGN AGENT TAKES COLUMBIA U
Claire Shipman has been appointed Acting President of Columbia. She previously moderated an AIPAC conference with Marco Rubio, who is currently assisting the Israeli controlled lobby in deporting college students who criticize Israel.
From #LawrenceBritt's #CharacteristicsOfFascism
11. Disdain for #Intellectuals and the #Arts
"Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to #HigherEducation and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other #academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts is openly attacked, and governments often refuse to fund the arts."
https://kolektiva.social/@DoomsdaysCW/110832318168556366
#LawrenceBritt #CharacteristicsOfFascism Numbers 1 and 11...
1. Powerful and Continuing #Nationalism
Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of #patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. #Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays.
11. Disdain for #Intellectuals and the #Arts
Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to #HigherEducation and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other #academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts is openly attacked, and governments often refuse to fund the arts.
Trump targets 'anti-American ideology' at Smithsonian museums
by Max Matza, 3/27/2025
"US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order targeting the Smithsonian Institution, which operates more than 20 museums and research centres visited by millions yearly in Washington DC and New York City.
"The order directs the vice-president to 'eliminate improper, divisive, or anti-American ideology' from the institute's museums, centres and the National Zoo in Washington.
"It also directs the interior secretary to restore federal properties, including parks, memorials and statues, which 'have been improperly removed or changed in the last five years to perpetuate a false revision of history'.
"The move is part of Trump's effort to shape American culture, in addition to politics."
Read more:
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cdjy1jmvvwzo
#ChristoFascism #ChristianRight #USPol #Fascism #Authoritarianism #Fascists #TurdReich
#SanFrancisco #California #HigherEducation #BudgetCuts
'San Francisco State University, Cal State East Bay and Sonoma State University would combine certain operational services under the proposed “San Francisco Bay Region Network,” Chancellor Mildred García announced at Tuesday’s board of trustees meeting in Long Beach. These services include finance, administration, human resources, IT, security and construction.'
https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/3-bay-area-universities-to-merge-services-20243873.php
US issues broad order to consulates to vet student visas over ‘terrorist activity’ https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/28/student-visa-applications-denials #Highereducation #USuniversities #Israel-Gazawar #USimmigration #Education #Students #USnews
I haven’t had a journal article accepted for publication in six years. Until today, by Studies in Graduate and Postdoctoral Education…
Celbis, O.; van de Laar, M.; Windsor, W. L.; Papatsiba, V.; Ofosu-Ampong, K.; Kurawa, G.; Sadat Bole, A.; Ani-Ampsonah, Mary; Xu, Linlin
Towards an ecological systems approach to doctoral student resilience: qualitative evidence from the Covid-19 pandemic.
I’ll share the open access version when it’s ready, but here’s the abstract:
Purpose
This study contributes to the growing body of literature documenting responses to short- and long-term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on doctoral students. We examine support practices at different levels of the system in which doctoral students are embedded, drawing on Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems model to better understand how these contribute to doctoral students’ degree of resilience under stress.
Design
Using paired online interviews, we explore the experiences of 21 doctoral students from 7 universities across Europe, Africa and Asia.
Findings
We find that support of supervisors at the microsystem level was a pivotal mediating factor in explaining to what extent the negative impacts of the pandemic were experienced by the doctoral students in our sample. At the same time, factors at the systemic level, such as weak infrastructure for online education, and limited incentives for supervisors to engage in additional mentoring beyond supervision, affected the repertoire of actions available to students at lower levels of the support system. In less resourced settings where systemic constraints were felt particularly strongly, students had to self-facilitate sources of resilience, resorting to peer and external mentors’ support at the mesosystem level of their environment.
#covid19 #pandemic #research #HigherEducation #PhD #postgraduate #resilience #Bronfenbrenner
University of Michigan shutters its flagship diversity program https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/28/university-michigan-ends-dei-program #Trumpadministration #Highereducation #USeducation #USpolitics #USnews #Race
"Three prominent critics of President #DonaldTrump are leaving #Yale’s faculty — and the #UnitedStates — amid attacks on #highereducation to take up positions at the #UniversityofToronto in fall 2025.
Yale professor who studies fascism fleeing US to work in Canada https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/26/yale-professor-fascism-canada #Highereducation #USuniversities #YaleUniversity #USpolitics #Censorship #Education #Worldnews #Americas #Canada #USnews
Yale professor who studies fascism fleeing US to work in Canada https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/26/yale-professor-fascism-canada #Highereducation #USuniversities #YaleUniversity #USpolitics #Censorship #Education #Worldnews #Americas #Canada #USnews
Vandaag om 11:30 bij Omroep Delft (radio):
Gesprek met VSSD bestuurslid Eise de Boer over de TU Delft staking op 24 April. We protesteren tegen de aangekondigde bezuinigingen van 1.2 miljard euro op het hoger onderwijs.
Luister live mee op https://www.omroepdelft.nl/radio
Wil je actief mee helpen met de organisatie van deze staking? Meld je dan aan via https://www.fnv.nl/tu-delft
American Association of University Professors [#AAUP] v. #Rubio
A case challenging the #Trump administration’s policy of ideological deportation.
"On March 25, 2025, the Knight Institute filed a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s policy of arresting, detaining, and deporting noncitizen students and faculty who participate in pro-Palestinian activism. The lawsuit, filed on behalf of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), AAUP’s #Harvard, #NYU, and #Rutgers campus chapters, and the #MiddleEastStudies Association, argues that the policy chills noncitizens from speaking and, by extension, robs these organizations and their U.S. citizen members of noncitizens’ perspectives on a matter of significant public debate.
"The lawsuit responds to a climate of repression and fear on university campuses. Federal agencies are attempting to deport multiple individuals for their #ProPalestinian advocacy, including #MahmoudKhalil, a leader of protests at Columbia University. These actions have sent chills through the community of noncitizen students and faculty on campuses around the country, causing some to pull out of academic conferences, stay home from #protests, and withdraw from other forms of public advocacy and engagement.
"The lawsuit alleges that the administration’s policy of ideological deportation violates the First Amendment right of the plaintiffs to hear from and associate with noncitizen students and faculty, that it is unconstitutionally vague, and that it violates the Administrative Procedure Act. The suit seeks a court order declaring that the policy is unlawful and enjoining the federal government from enforcing it."
Status: Complaint filed on March 25, 2025.
Case Information: American Association of University Professors v. Rubio, No. 1:25-cv-10685 (D.Mass).
https://knightcolumbia.org/cases/aaup-v-rubio
#YunseoChung #RightToProtest #SilencingDissent #USPol #CharacteristicsOfFascism #law
#immigration #FreeSpeech #MarcoRubio #Trump #FreedomOfAssembly #Authoritarianism #Palestine #CriminalizingDissent #HigherEducation
Looks like the American Association of University Professors agrees with me!
#AAUP, Allies Sue over #Trump Policy of Arresting and Threatening to Deport #Students and #Faculty for #LawfulSpeech
"The national AAUP; chapters at #Harvard, #Rutgers, and #NYU; and the #MiddleEastStudies Association today filed a lawsuit seeking to block the Trump administration from carrying out large-scale arrests, detentions, and deportations of noncitizen students and faculty members who participate in #ProPalestinian #protests and other protected #FirstAmendment activities.
"We believe that the administration’s ideological-deportation policy violates the First Amendment by targeting constitutionally protected speech that Americans have a right to hear and engage with. The policy has created a climate of fear and repression on campuses around the country. We are represented in the case by the #KnightFirstAmendmentInstitute at #ColumbiaUniversity, #AhilanArulanantham, and Zimmer, Citron & Clarke LLP.
"Following executive orders issued by President Trump in January, the federal agencies that enforce immigration laws have arrested and detained several people associated with U.S. colleges and universities, including a legal permanent resident, on the basis of constitutionally protected speech and association.
"Today’s filing argues that the ideological-deportation policy has created a climate of #repression and intense fear on university #campuses, 'terrorizing students and faculty for their exercise of First Amendment rights in the past, intimidating them from exercising those rights now, and silencing political viewpoints that the government disfavors.'
"'The Trump administration is going after international #scholars and students who speak their minds about #Palestine, but make no mistake: they won't stop there. They'll come next for those who teach the history of #slavery or who provide #GenderAffirming health care or who research #ClimateChange or who counsel students about their reproductive choices. We all have to draw a line together—as the old labor movement slogan says: an injury to one is an injury to all,' says AAUP President Todd Wolfson.
"'The First Amendment means the government can’t arrest, detain, or deport people for lawful political expression—it’s as simple as that. This practice is one we’d ordinarily associate with the most repressive political regimes, and it should have no place in our democracy,' says #JameelJaffer, executive director at the Knight First Amendment Institute."
Source:
https://www.aaup.org/news/aaup-allies-sue-over-trump-policy-arresting-and-threatening-deport-students-and-faculty-lawful
#RightToProtest #SilencingDissent #USPol #CharacteristicsOfFascism #law
#immigration #FreeSpeech #MarcoRubio #Trump #FreedomOfAssembly #Authoritarianism #Palestine #CriminalizingDissent #HigherEducation
Like I said before, #Trump will use ANY excuse to withhold funding. And he has NOT restored #ColumbiaUniversity's funding yet, despite their caving to the #BullyInChief's demands! Today, it's #TransgenderAthletes and #FreePalestine #Protestors. Tomorrow it will be...? The capitulation has to stop NOW!
#Academia Confronts a Watershed Moment at Columbia, and the Right Revels
Threatened with losing $400 million in federal funding, the university agreed to overhaul its protest policies and security practices.
"The end is not clear. Columbia’s moves on Friday — revealed in a letter to the campus from the interim president, Dr. Katrina A. Armstrong — were essentially an opening bid in negotiations with the federal government to let the $400 million flow again. But the Trump administration has not publicly said what other concessions it might seek from Columbia or the dozens of other universities, from Hawaii to Harvard, that it has started to scrutinize since taking power on Jan. 20."
by Troy Closson, Alan Blinder and Katherine Rosman, March 22, 2025
"Many professors saw it as surrender, a reward to the Trump administration’s heavy hand. Conservative critics of academia celebrated it as an overdue, righteous reset by an Ivy League university.
"Columbia University’s concession on Friday to a roster of government demands as it sought to restore about $400 million in federal funding is being widely viewed as a watershed in Washington’s relationships with the nation’s colleges.
"By design, the consequences will be felt immediately on Columbia’s campus, where, for example, some security personnel will soon have arrest powers and an academic department that had drawn conservative scrutiny is expected to face stringent oversight. But they also stand to shape colleges far from Manhattan.
"'Columbia is folding and the other universities will follow suit,' Christopher Rufo, an activist and senior fellow at the #ManhattanInstitute, a conservative think tank, wrote on social media after the university’s announcement on Friday."
[...]
"Many worry that the administration’s pursuit of Columbia was a test drive — a way to gauge public reaction, assess the prospects of legal pushback and develop a precedent. On Wednesday, the administration seemed to bring another test case, saying it would withhold about $175 million from Penn because the university had allowed an openly transgender woman on its women’s swim team in 2022."
Read more:
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/22/nyregion/columbia-trump-concessions-watershed.html
Archived version:
https://archive.ph/xQeLn
#CharacteristicsOfFascism #USPol #HigherEducation #DumbingUsDown
#racism #SystemicRacism #HigherEducation
"The president of the brokerage firm, The Furman Company, was Alester G. Furman Jr., a long-time trustee of Furman University and the great-grandson of the university’s first president.... The analysis is part of a research project by Ken Kolb... and other faculty and student researchers. Their project, 'Placing Furman,' includes hundreds of photos, interactive data maps illustrating the scope of the project...'
Power to the people of the University of Twente, who are on strike today, protesting the announced budget cuts on higher education!
Good morning! Today is a good day to take part in the protest against the budget cuts in #HigherEducation in the Netherlands! I hope to see you soon on our #Twente campus or in the city centre of #Enschede ! #DoeHetNiet #WoInActie More info: https://www.aob.nl/en/recent/campaign/cabinet-ruins-higher-education/
European universities offer ‘scientific asylum’ to US researchers fleeing Trump’s cuts https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/25/europe-universities-us-researchers-trump-administration-science #Trumpadministration #Highereducation #USuniversities #Universities #USpolitics #Academics #Worldnews #Research #Science #Belgium #Europe #USnews #France
European universities offer ‘scientific asylum’ to US researchers fleeing Trump’s cuts https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/25/europe-universities-us-researchers-trump-administration-science #Trumpadministration #Highereducation #USuniversities #Universities #USpolitics #Academics #Worldnews #Research #Science #Belgium #Europe #USnews #France
University cuts up to 180 more jobs amid student visa changes
By Nick McLaren and Melinda James
The University of Wollongong will cut up to 10 per cent of its non-academic staff in its latest round of redundancies, which it claims is a consequence of changes to international student visa processing.
