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The Academic Resistance

@academicresistance.bsky.social
269 followers 203 following 603 posts

Fighting the assault on higher education and science by the Trump administration. Defending science, academic freedom, and the power of knowledge. HANDS OFF HIGHER ED! 🔥 #DefendHigherEd #DefendScience Run by academics. DM us with tips and resources.

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The Academic Resistance @academicresistance.bsky.social · 06/04/2026
Trump’s FY27 education budget prioritizes cuts, consolidations, and shrinking the federal role in public education. Stakeholders warn it will hurt students, families, and schools already under strain. Congress should invest in opportunity, not austerity. www.theeduledger.com/leadership-p...
theeduledger.com
Education Stakeholders Respond to Trump Administration’s 2027 Budget Request
The Trump Administration is requesting $76.5 billion in discretionary budget authority for the Department of Education for 2027, a $2.3 billion or 2.9% reduction from 2026 Department of Education spen...
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The Academic Resistance @academicresistance.bsky.social · 06/04/2026
Trump’s latest budget proposal again targets higher ed: it protects Pell Grants, but slashes TRIO, GEAR UP, MSI grants, FWS, NSF, NIH, and other research and student-support programs. Congress rejected these cuts. Higher ed should be ready to push back again. www.insidehighered.com/news/governm...
insidehighered.com
5 Things to Know About Trump’s Latest Budget Proposal
Congress broadly rejected the president’s proposed gutting of research funding agencies for this fiscal year. But his new budget proposal still attacks them, and ED. Here are our five takeaways.
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The Academic Resistance @academicresistance.bsky.social · 05/04/2026
Trump’s FY 2027 education budget once again prioritizes cuts, consolidation, and school choice over the public schools, students, and communities that need real investment. Educators and advocates are right to call out a proposal that deepens inequality. www.theeduledger.com/leadership-p...
theeduledger.com
Education Stakeholders Respond to Trump Administration’s 2027 Budget Request
The Trump Administration is requesting $76.5 billion in discretionary budget authority for the Department of Education for 2027, a $2.3 billion or 2.9% reduction from 2026 Department of Education spen...
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The Academic Resistance @academicresistance.bsky.social · 04/04/2026
Trump’s latest budget would slash higher ed support: eliminate TRIO, GEAR UP, and FSEOG, cut work-study by 90%, and gut MSI grants, OCR, and research funding. It preserves Pell, but overall, it puts college access and equity at risk. Congress should reject it. www.highereddive.com/news/how-hig...
highereddive.com
How higher ed would fare in Trump’s latest budget proposal
It seeks to eliminate key student access programs, cut $354 million in grants for minority-serving institutions and trim U.S. Department of Education funding.
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The Academic Resistance @academicresistance.bsky.social · 30/03/2026
Pell Grants are a lifeline for millions of low-income students. Congress should listen to the growing bipartisan call and fully fund Pell. No cuts, no gimmicks, just real access and opportunity for students who need it most. #PellGrant #HigherEd www.theeduledger.com/leadership-p...
theeduledger.com
Bipartisan Appeal to House Appropriators: Protect Pell
As FY2027 drafting begins, a record number of Congress members on both sides of the aisle are advocating for fully funded Pell, as well as Federal Supplemental Education Opportunity Grants and Federal...
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AAUP @aaup.org · 27/03/2026
The Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom at the AAUP encourages anyone concerned about threats to academic freedom & free speech on college campuses to host an in-person or virtual screening of our Faculty on the Front Lines interview series. Details here: www.aaup.org/faculty-on-t...
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The Academic Resistance @academicresistance.bsky.social · 26/03/2026
NCFDD’s new survey is a wake-up call: faculty say their need for professional development is rising fast, while institutional funding is going the other way. When campuses underinvest in faculty support, they undercut retention, productivity, and student success www.theeduledger.com/faculty-staf...
theeduledger.com
New NCFDD survey reveals a 36-point gap between faculty needs and institutional funding
From the politically driven cancellation of 7,800 federal research grants to a 64 percent decline in faculty well-being, the data confirms a sobering reality: institutional commitment is being sustain...
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The Academic Resistance @academicresistance.bsky.social · 26/03/2026
NIH grant terminations didn’t hit all researchers equally: women, especially early-career scientists, were disproportionately affected. Cutting support at the start of a career doesn’t just halt projects; it weakens the pipeline of future researchers. www.highereddive.com/news/nih-gra...
highereddive.com
NIH grant terminations disproportionately hurt women, early-career researchers
The federal agency's abrupt cancellation of about 2,300 grants weakened the U.S. research training pipeline, per a new peer-reviewed analysis.
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The Academic Resistance @academicresistance.bsky.social · 25/03/2026
AAMC says NIH has only obligated 15% of external research funding so far — a staggering sign of how federal uncertainty is throttling the research pipeline. That’s not just bureaucracy; it’s delays in lifesaving science, training, and innovation. www.insidehighered.com/news/governm...
insidehighered.com
AAMC: NIH Has Only Obligated 15% of External Research Funding
The science community fears the funding agency’s slow contract and grant making could result in another rush of multiyear obligations at the end of the fiscal year. The NIH director has said, “Don’t p...
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The Academic Resistance @academicresistance.bsky.social · 21/03/2026
Experts are right to sound the alarm: shifting federal student loan portfolios from ED to Treasury risks more confusion, more red tape, and worse service for millions of borrowers. Student debt needs clarity and care—not another bureaucratic maze. www.theeduledger.com/home/article...
theeduledger.com
'An Additional Barrier': Experts Warn of Chaos as Student Loan Portfolios Exit ED for Treasury
The U.S. Department of Education has signed an interagency agreement with the U.S. Department of the Treasury to transfer roughly $180 billion of the agency’s student loan portfolio, or 11%, to the Tr...
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Reposted by The Academic Resistance
AAUP @aaup.org · 17/03/2026
“The VA General Assembly voted to give over half a million public sector workers collective bargaining rights. But not me. I'm an adjunct faculty member who was just left behind to endure the exploitation of higher education.” @abigailspanberger.com, please correct course & add us back in.
theeduledger.com
Collective Bargaining is One Solution to Ending Higher Ed Worker Exploitation – I Should Know.
One adjunct professor argues that without the legal leverage of collective bargaining, she is a 'sitting duck' for institutions to profit from her expertise while leaving her vulnerable to financial i...
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The Academic Resistance @academicresistance.bsky.social · 18/03/2026
Under Secretary Kent is threatening accreditors over DEI, not “holding them accountable” but weaponizing Title VI to erase even paused diversity standards—this is about chilling equity work, not compliance. www.insidehighered.com/news/governa...
insidehighered.com
Kent Warns Accreditors Over DEI
Education Under Secretary Nicholas Kent sent letters to two accreditors alleging that diversity, equity and inclusion practices in their standards conflict with federal law.
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The Academic Resistance @academicresistance.bsky.social · 13/03/2026
Trump’s latest anti-DEI orders survived this round in court, but the fight is far from over: future challenges are still very much on the table, and employers should be strengthening—not abandoning—real equity work right now. www.hrdive.com/news/trump-a...
hrdive.com
Trump’s anti-DEI orders stand for now, but future challenges can’t be ruled out
The White House is emboldened to act “aggressively,” making it important for employers to audit their DEI programs, attorneys told HR Dive.
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The Academic Resistance @academicresistance.bsky.social · 13/03/2026
Trump’s 2025 research funding freeze didn’t “end” when headlines moved on. Universities may have survived, but labs, grad students, and early‑career scholars are still starved of the grants Congress already approved. www.forbes.com/sites/adammi...
forbes.com
Education Department Defends Push To Strip Student Loan Forgiveness Eligibility
The Education Department forcefully defended a new rule that would strip student loan forgiveness eligibility for public service employers under the PSLF program.
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The Academic Resistance @academicresistance.bsky.social · 13/03/2026
The Trump Education Department is openly defending a rule that slashes who counts as a “public service” employer for student loan forgiveness, gutting PSLF for nonprofits, legal aid, and advocacy orgs while millions are in crisis. www.forbes.com/sites/adammi...
forbes.com
Education Department Defends Push To Strip Student Loan Forgiveness Eligibility
The Education Department forcefully defended a new rule that would strip student loan forgiveness eligibility for public service employers under the PSLF program.
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The Academic Resistance @academicresistance.bsky.social · 12/03/2026
Federal grant-makers at NIH/NSF could be stripped of civil service protections and turned into at-will workers under Trump’s revived Schedule F scheme. This is a direct attack on independent research, scientific integrity, and democratic governance. www.insidehighered.com/news/governm...
insidehighered.com
Federal Grant Makers May Lose Job Protections: 5 Things to Know
Trump has created a new employee category that he previously dubbed Schedule F. It allows for easier firings of those who are “subverting presidential directives.”
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The Academic Resistance @academicresistance.bsky.social · 11/03/2026
Trump’s DOGE used ChatGPT to gut 97% of NEH grants in just 22 days, flagging HVAC repairs and newspaper digitization as “DEI” and wiping out $100M in humanities research. This is algorithmic McCarthyism, and everyone should be sounding the alarm. www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty...
insidehighered.com
How DOGE Gutted the NEH in 22 Days
Internal documents show how leadership at the National Endowment for the Humanities handed over the grant termination process to DOGE and ChatGPT.
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The Academic Resistance @academicresistance.bsky.social · 11/03/2026
College presidents are sounding the alarm: Trump’s second term is ramping up attacks on DEI, research funding, and academic freedom, while only 5% of campuses are responding with public advocacy. www.insidehighered.com/news/governa...
insidehighered.com
Presidents Feel Pressure in Trump's Second Term
The latest Inside Higher Ed Survey of College and University Presidents reveals leaders’ concerns about Trump 2.0, public trust, finances and AI.
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AAUP @aaup.org · 10/03/2026
The St. John’s University administration is setting a dangerous precedent in ceasing to recognize its faculty labor unions after 56 years of bargaining...a decision that will further hurt the university’s quality of education if they don't reverse course immediately.
torchonline.com
Why the Removal of Faculty Unions Matters to St. John’s Students.
In an era of growing corporate consolidation, labor power is as important as ever.  The statistics are clear: not only do unionized workers, especially those of color, make more money, but they also r...
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The Academic Resistance @academicresistance.bsky.social · 09/03/2026
Trump’s DOGE gutted the federal agency that tells us what’s really happening in classrooms. Now even Trump appointees admit we need IES back so we can rebuild on evidence, not ideology. hechingerreport.org/proof-points...
hechingerreport.org
Some in the Trump administration are pushing to rebuild IES
After DOGE gutted IES, the education and statistics agency inside the Education Department, some in the Trump administration are trying to rebuild it. A new report of ideas on how to do that was relea...
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The Academic Resistance @academicresistance.bsky.social · 08/03/2026
States are balancing their budgets on the backs of public colleges again. Fitch warns higher ed funding is the “balance wheel” that gets cut first, even as enrollment rises and need grows. www.highereddive.com/news/public-...
highereddive.com
Public colleges could face pressure amid state budget woes, Fitch says
Republican-led federal cuts and a shaky economy could set up competition for funds — and historically, higher education gets cut first in tough times.
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The Academic Resistance @academicresistance.bsky.social · 06/03/2026
Trump’s "Compact" tried to trade federal dollars for control over who universities admit, what they teach, and how they treat race, gender, and trans students. We need to stay organized for whatever “revised” version comes next. theconversation.com/trump-offere...
theconversation.com
Trump offered a restrictive deal to universities that almost all rejected – but the Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education may not be entirely dead
The Trump administration is reportedly working on a revised version of the higher education proposal.
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Reposted by The Academic Resistance
AAUP @aaup.org · 06/03/2026
The far right's new politicized higher ed accreditor is illegitimate. "Rather than protecting educational quality, the CPHE appears designed to give partisan political actors a powerful new tool to pressure universities to conform to a narrow ideological agenda" — Todd Wolfson, AAUP President
aaup.org
New CPHE Accrediting Body Is Illegitimate
Rather than protecting educational quality, the CPHE appears designed to give partisan political actors a powerful new tool to pressure universities to conform to a narrow ideological agenda—backed by...
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The Academic Resistance @academicresistance.bsky.social · 06/03/2026
Linda McMahon is still gunning to shut down the Education Department, using a manufactured shutdown to claim public schools “don’t need” federal oversight or civil rights protections. www.k12dive.com/news/mcmahon...
k12dive.com
McMahon: Education Department shutdown is still the goal
One year into the job, the education secretary is setting her sights on improving literacy and expanding school choice.
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The Academic Resistance @academicresistance.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
Education Secretary Linda McMahon calls her first year a success while gutting ED, slashing MSIs, and threatening loan access. Students and Dems are right: these attacks on higher ed and civil rights are dangerous, and she must go. www.insidehighered.com/news/governm...
insidehighered.com
McMahon Touts First Year in Office; Dems, Students Push Back
The Education Department says that in just one year McMahon has secured reforms in higher ed that conservatives have championed for decades. Critics say her work is creating barriers to college access...
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The Academic Resistance @academicresistance.bsky.social · 04/03/2026
Grad students shouldn’t be punished for pursuing the degrees our communities depend on. Capping federal loans while tuition soars just drives borrowers to predatory private debt. We need more public funding, not backdoor austerity in #HigherEd. www.insidehighered.com/news/governm...
insidehighered.com
Lawmakers and Universities Push Back on Loan Caps
Politicians from both sides of the aisle sharply criticized the Education Department’s narrow interpretation of the legislation, which limits the number of students with access to large federal loans.
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AAUP @aaup.org · 04/03/2026
“Abolishing tenure cripples scientific & creative research... This sends a strong message that top-tier academics seeking employment at Oklahoma universities should look elsewhere immediately. Why pursue a job here under such a repressive climate?” — Michael Givel, OU AAUP President
oudaily.com
Oklahoma legislature advances bill that would remove tenure at OU, public universities
The Oklahoma legislature advanced a bill Tuesday that would remove the possibility of tenure for OU faculty, limit contract agreements to five years and require each state institute for higher
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AAUP @aaup.org · 27/02/2026
Numerous faculty and AAUP chapters are rejecting the Commission for Public Higher Education, which threatens to introduce unprecedented state politician influence over universities! Check out this thread of media coverage and AAUP members speaking out against the CPHE 🧵
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The Academic Resistance @academicresistance.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
NIH just confirmed it: 2025 grant success rates plummeted, especially for early-career scientists, as Trump’s funding policies choke off new awards. Congress needs to step in now. www.science.org/content/arti...
science.org
NIH research grant funding rates plummeted in 2025
Agency acknowledges young investigators are losing out as result of multiyear funding policy imposed by White House
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The Academic Resistance @academicresistance.bsky.social · 11/02/2026
Trump’s latest court win greenlights his admin’s crusade to gut DEI in higher ed, canceling equity-focused grants and tying federal dollars to chilling DEI litmus tests. Faculty, students, and unions have to organize to defend real equity work on our campuses. www.highereddive.com/news/trump-s...
highereddive.com
Trump secures legal victory on anti-DEI directives
The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals let two executive orders stand that target diversity, equity inclusion in the higher education sector and elsewhere.
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Reposted by The Academic Resistance
AAUP @aaup.org · 10/02/2026
“Condemning the destruction of historical sites, archives, institutions of higher learning, & the murder of the people who use them to contribute to a broader understanding of history and the world comes naturally to many who take the discipline seriously.” — Alan Parkes
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The Academic Resistance @academicresistance.bsky.social · 10/02/2026
The Trump administration is quietly shutting low-income and student parents out of college so elites can call it “merit.” We should be calling this what it is: class warfare against our students, not “fiscal responsibility." hechingerreport.org/funding-cuts...
hechingerreport.org
Advocates worry funding cuts and shifts in aid could put college further out of reach for lower-income families
At a time of rising income inequality, advocates worry that a convergence of developments will make it even harder to go to college for lower-income Americans.
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The Academic Resistance @academicresistance.bsky.social · 09/02/2026
Former ED Office for Civil Rights staff warn that Trump’s latest DEI and civil rights attacks aren’t “policy debates” but an unconstitutional bid to dismantle protections for students and communities. Time to organize, protest, and vote! www.insidehighered.com/opinion/view...
insidehighered.com
The Unconstitutional Crusade Against Civil Rights (opinion)
The administration is dismantling the American dream.
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The Academic Resistance @academicresistance.bsky.social · 08/02/2026
“Woke” Harvard is too dangerous for the War Department, but war itself is fine. The Pentagon cutting grad education and fellowships rather than tolerate critical thinking about power and empire on campus says everything about this administration’s priorities. www.npr.org/2026/02/07/g...
npr.org
Pentagon says it's cutting ties with 'woke' Harvard, ending military training
Amid an ongoing standoff between Harvard and the White House, the Defense Department said it plans to cut ties with the Ivy League — ending military training, fellowships and certificate programs.
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The Academic Resistance @academicresistance.bsky.social · 07/02/2026
Scientists aren’t just writing white papers anymore—they’re suing, organizing, and campaigning to defend research and public health from Trump’s attacks. www.science.org/content/arti...
science.org
In the age of Trump, are U.S. scientists ‘bringing white papers to a gunfight’?
An unprecedented assault has forced researchers to rethink their advocacy tactics
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AAUP @aaup.org · 07/02/2026
From the @academemagazine.bsky.social archives: Hank Reichman's "Eight Myths About Tenure." "Tenure, for nearly a century the strongest bulwark in defense of academic freedom, protecting independent scholarship from shifting political winds & whims of scholarly fashion, is under withering assault."
aaup.org
Eight Myths about Tenure
Myths about tenure help keep not only the public but much of the professoriate from recognizing the harsh reality that tenure, under sustained assault, is in danger of becoming a myth itself.
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The Academic Resistance @academicresistance.bsky.social · 03/02/2026
The Trump administration just wiped out over $350M in grants for minority-serving colleges, gutting HSI-funded programs that boost first-gen and low-income students into research, STEM, and grad school. hechingerreport.org/hispanic-ser...
hechingerreport.org
Hispanic-serving colleges scramble to fill gaps left by federal grant cuts
The Trump administration cut more than $350 million in grants to minority-serving institutions (MSIs), including Hispanic-serving institutions, arguing that they were racially discriminatory. Colleges...
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The Academic Resistance @academicresistance.bsky.social · 03/02/2026
The Trump Education Department sidelined over half of OCR, shuttered 7 of 12 regional offices, paid laid-off civil rights staff $38M to sit on leave, then tossed 90% of 9,000+ complaints, gutting enforcement while claiming to fight “waste, fraud, and abuse.” www.k12dive.com/news/educati...
k12dive.com
Education Department paid laid-off OCR staff $38M while dismissing most complaints
A GAO report found the agency did not document the financial trade-offs associated with its RIFs and cannot prove the cuts improved services.
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The Academic Resistance @academicresistance.bsky.social · 30/01/2026
New ED rule would cap grad borrowing at $20.5k/yr (max $100k) for most programs and $50k/yr (max $200k) for a narrow set of “professional” fields- ending Grad PLUS and pushing many toward private loans. Health advocates warn this will worsen provider shortages. www.insidehighered.com/news/governm...
insidehighered.com
ED Releases Rule on Loan Limits for Public Comment
The rule is slated to take effect July 1. However, significant pushback is anticipated from Congress and higher ed groups in the weeks to come.
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The Academic Resistance @academicresistance.bsky.social · 27/01/2026
Higher ed is finally pushing back against a decade of “college isn’t worth it” narratives—but ads alone can’t fix a product problem. We need funding, debt relief, better jobs, AND a bolder public defense of universities. hechingerreport.org/value-polici...
hechingerreport.org
Higher education starts to fight back against attacks on its value and policies
The higher education industry has launched several new marketing campaigns in the hope of reclaiming the message about itself in the face of political attacks and public skepticism.
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The Academic Resistance @academicresistance.bsky.social · 26/01/2026
Trump’s second term is systematically gutting US science: 7,800+ NIH/NSF grants cancelled or frozen, a 20% federal science workforce loss in 2025 alone, and steep proposed cuts to core agencies — damage that could take generations to repair. www.nature.com/immersive/d4...
nature.com
US science after a year of Trump: what has been lost and what remains
A series of graphics reveals how the Trump administration has sought historic cuts to science and the research workforce.
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The Academic Resistance @academicresistance.bsky.social · 26/01/2026
Trump’s 2nd term has been a wrecking ball for higher ed: extremist budget cuts proposed, courts stepping in to block attacks on TRIO and equity, and 98% of college leaders reporting deep policy uncertainty. www.highereddive.com/news/week-in...
highereddive.com
Week in review: A look back at higher ed under Trump 2.0’s first year
We’re rounding up last week’s stories, from pushback against President Donald Trump’s government in court to the latest congressional budget moves.
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Hans E. Offerdal @hofferdal.bsky.social · 25/01/2026
"At a time when #universities are being defunded by governments and vilified by #ultra-conservative pundits, defining their value has never been more urgent." @coimbragroup.bsky.social @iucdubrovnik.bsky.social @clacso.bsky.social @eua.eu @uniworldnews.bsky.social @academicresistance.bsky.social
uofrpress.ca
Knowledge Under Siege
At a time when universities are being defunded by governments and vilified by ultra-conservative pundits, defining their value has never been more urgentFor decades, efforts to quantify the value of u...
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The Academic Resistance @academicresistance.bsky.social · 26/01/2026
Tenure isn’t broken, but administrators and politicians are breaking it on purpose. From Wisconsin to Florida to Texas, “post-tenure review,” RIFs, and Palestine exception speech crackdowns are gutting academic freedom while expanding precarity. www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty...
insidehighered.com
Tenure Under Threat
A spate of firings in the fall revealed just how corroded tenure protections have become. How did we get here?
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The Academic Resistance @academicresistance.bsky.social · 23/01/2026
98% of college leaders say Trump-era federal policy chaos is disrupting campus planning—threatening academic freedom, research, grad access, and international enrollment. This is policy designed to destabilize higher ed. www.highereddive.com/news/federal...
highereddive.com
Federal policy uncertainty is disrupting planning, college leaders say
Concerns loom large about institutional autonomy and long-term financial viability, an American Council on Education survey found.
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The Academic Resistance @academicresistance.bsky.social · 22/01/2026
🚨 Trump’s Education Dept just dropped its appeal in the lawsuit over its anti-DEI funding threats to schools and colleges—leaving in place a ruling that the policy violated the First Amendment and federal law. @aft.org www.nytimes.com/2026/01/21/u...
nytimes.com
Trump Administration Drops Appeal in School D.E.I. Lawsuit
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The Academic Resistance @academicresistance.bsky.social · 21/01/2026
Trump’s second-term “shakedown” of higher ed isn’t about protecting students; it’s about punishing dissent, chilling academic freedom, and squeezing universities for cash and compliance. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/21/u...
nytimes.com
Investigations and a Billion-Dollar ‘Shakedown’: How Trump Targeted Higher Education
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The Academic Resistance @academicresistance.bsky.social · 20/01/2026
Trump’s reshaped NEH is slashing DEI-linked grants while funneling $10M each to UNC’s SCiLL, UT’s “Great Books”/statecraft majors, and the conservative FEHE network and Koch-style “civics” under a federal seal. @insidehighered.com www.insidehighered.com/news/governm...
insidehighered.com
NEH Pours Millions Into FEHE Network, UNC Civic School, More
The Trump-overhauled National Endowment for the Humanities announced $75.1 million in grants. Western civilization, great books and other subjects conservatives support won big.
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The Academic Resistance @academicresistance.bsky.social · 20/01/2026
Trump’s first year back in office made it clear: nothing is sacred in higher ed anymore—DEI gutted, visas yanked, research funds frozen—yet leaders are still debating caution vs. collective resistance. www.insidehighered.com/news/governm...
insidehighered.com
4 Takeaways From Trump’s First Year in Office
Higher ed faced upheaval and uncertainty as the president sought to overhaul colleges and universities. Some leaders hope for a more stable year two, but significant changes loom.
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The Academic Resistance @academicresistance.bsky.social · 19/01/2026
Colleges are being forced to dig up 7 years of admissions data by race, sex, test scores, GPA and family income—overloading tiny IR offices with a rushed, error‑prone mandate backed by huge fines. hechingerreport.org/proof-points...
hechingerreport.org
Trump's admissions data collection strains college administrators
Universities must report student demographics, grades and test scores by March 18
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