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Christine M. Nowik, Ph.D.

@christinenowik.bsky.social
798 followers 600 following 143 posts

Life in the Interregnum: Researcher, org change specialist, English faculty, supernerd, follow-back girl, zero patience for organizational dysfunction and poor leadership. Personal account, obv. christinenowik.substack.com

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Reposted by Christine M. Nowik, Ph.D.
Johanna Winant @johannawinant.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
missing from this argument is the fact that Williams is an extraordinarily rich college with students who are overall very well-prepared for college—essentially none of this is generalizable even to a flagship university, much less any other higher education institution
nytimes.com
Opinion | I’m a College Professor. Writing Isn’t as Important as We Think. (Gift Article)
If I do not treat writing as essential for achieving thought, it is not clear why I should force my students to.
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Reposted by Christine M. Nowik, Ph.D.
John Warner @biblioracle.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Who could've seen this coming? Oh, right, it's me! www.educationnext.org/ai-tutors-hy...
educationnext.org
AI Tutors: Hype or Hope for Education?
In a new book, Sal Khan touts the potential of artificial intelligence to address lagging student achievement. Our authors weigh in.
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Reposted by Christine M. Nowik, Ph.D.
Matt Reed @deandad.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Self-praise is tricky, but I honestly think today's post is one of my better ones. Hat-tip to @christinenowik.bsky.social for inspiring it. www.insidehighered.com/opinion/colu...
insidehighered.com
Thoughtful
Two pieces that are equally full of thought, on the challenges of AI in education.
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Reposted by Christine M. Nowik, Ph.D.
Matt Reed @deandad.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
The challenges of inheriting disenchanted employees (h/t @christinenowik.bsky.social ) www.insidehighered.com/opinion/colu...
insidehighered.com
Inheriting the Disenchanted
Persistence matters.
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Reposted by Christine M. Nowik, Ph.D.
Liesbeth Corens @onslies.bsky.social · 27/06/2026
You already see it in how people have clocked out. Universities used to be run on an inordinate amount of goodwill. Yes, the unhealthy kind that meant people bent over backwards in things they should be properly remunerated for, but also more broadly in collegiality and turning up. Eroded now.
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Christine M. Nowik, Ph.D. @christinenowik.bsky.social · 25/05/2026
The speeches grads received were not the speeches they deserved. open.substack.com/pub/christin...
open.substack.com
The AI Tech Bros Need the Humanists
Graduates didn’t fail to understand AI. AI evangelists failed to understand graduates.
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Christine M. Nowik, Ph.D. @christinenowik.bsky.social · 07/04/2026
To your point: Our latest org Zoom background says that our "customer" is also our "product."
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Christine M. Nowik, Ph.D. @christinenowik.bsky.social · 03/04/2026
"The Vermont Labor Relations Board has overturned a controversial return-to-office requirement that Gov. Phil Scott’s administration implemented late last year." www.vermontpublic.org/local-news/2...
vermontpublic.org
Vermont labor board overturns Gov. Scott's return-to-office mandate for state employees
Gov. Phil Scott slammed the ruling, which affects thousands of state workers who were mandated to return to office work at least three days a week. He said his administration will appeal to the Vermon...
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Reposted by Christine M. Nowik, Ph.D.
Dave Mazella @davemazella.bsky.social · 24/03/2026
not sure if university presidents are getting stupider or just believing their own lies about budget
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Reposted by Christine M. Nowik, Ph.D.
Bat 🦇 Borus @matthewborus.bsky.social · 23/03/2026
Non-tenure-track contract faculty at NYU went on strike this morning after over a year of bargaining (capped by a 24-hour+ marathon session). Big crowd of @uaw.org members and supporters, incl lots of students. They’re picketing over pay, workload, AI, a voice in faculty governance, & more.
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Reposted by Christine M. Nowik, Ph.D.
Shaily Patel @vox-magica.bsky.social · 23/03/2026
let me put it in a way schools will understand: if you're (afraid of) running in the red, and instead of leaning into your core strengths, you spend more money to chase *potential* new revenue from *potential* new "customers" (they're called "students," btw), you're bad at business.
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Reposted by Christine M. Nowik, Ph.D.
John Gallagher @earlymodernjohn.bsky.social · 22/03/2026
While we're doing our "the problem with university teaching" takes, mine is that it should be more shocking that in basically every UK university, the crucial decisions about teaching and assessment are made centrally, by fiat, and are almost never guided by active teaching staff or subject experts.
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Christine M. Nowik, Ph.D. @christinenowik.bsky.social · 21/03/2026
christinenowik.substack.com/p/partnershi... Orgs that treat faculty as a cost center will continue to manage decline and decay. Period. Orgs seeing faculty as a central strategic resource can build coherent responses to enrollment volatility, retention challenges, & public skepticism about value.
christinenowik.substack.com
Partnership IS the Strategy
How Evergreen State saw its biggest Enrollment Gains in 40 Years
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Reposted by Christine M. Nowik, Ph.D.
redstateprof.bsky.social @redstateprof.bsky.social · 20/03/2026
When you are involved in a labor union one of the most surprising things you learn is that management is often more interested in control of and power over workers than narrow financial concerns.
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Reposted by Christine M. Nowik, Ph.D.
AAUP @aaup.org · 16/03/2026
Oscar-winner Ryan Coogler recalling how a college writing professor pushed him to become a screenwriter & the possibility of #Sinners being taught in film curriculums someday: “I have so much respect for professors…for dedicating their life to future generations & making sure their minds are solid.”
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Reposted by Christine M. Nowik, Ph.D.
Amy Earhart @aearhart.bsky.social · 26/02/2026
Years ago our admin did a red and black report. It took salaries & how much $ each instructor made in tuition $ for classes we taught-you were in the red or black. They released numbers once & shut it down bc humanities were producing huge $ for uni & engineers, business and scientists were losing $
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Reposted by Christine M. Nowik, Ph.D.
AAUP @aaup.org · 22/02/2026
The president of St. John's University's announcement that the school will no longer recognize its two faculty unions is a shameful union-busting move. SJU faculty have been working for 236 days without a contract. Please sign the petition below to demand a return to the bargaining table.
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Reposted by Christine M. Nowik, Ph.D.
LaborLab @laborlab.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
The VAST majority of union-busting goes unreported. That means workers are subjected to undisclosed levels of secret coercion. These concerted attacks of the freedoms of working people degrades our society and weakens our democracy.
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Christine M. Nowik, Ph.D. @christinenowik.bsky.social · 17/02/2026
The Morning from NYT today, where they're describing a process for moving through a certain set of files with AI: "In fact, it’s really bad at news judgment, Dylan said: “A.I. can be sloppy and make mistakes that are inexcusable in journalism. It’s super industrious but not super intelligent.” And
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Reposted by Christine M. Nowik, Ph.D.
Joey Fishkin @fishkin.bsky.social · 14/02/2026
This is a genuinely huge, sweeping victory today for the University of California—or rather, for us, its faculty, acting through our faculty associations, while the UC itself maintained a strict policy of deer-in-headlights silence. The Trump admin has given up its appeal of a powerful injunction:
latimes.com
Trump administration drops appeal of court order blocking $1.2-billion UCLA settlement
The Trump administration dropped its appeal of a major higher education case in which a federal judge blocked its $1.2-billion settlement proposal to UCLA over alleged civil rights violations. It will...
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Reposted by Christine M. Nowik, Ph.D.
Nate Holdren @nhold.bsky.social · 13/02/2026
thread. related, my impression is a lot of higher ed administrators are significantly oriented toward making a mark on an institution in the short term so they have a claimable on their CV to get their next admin job elsewhere. that incentivizes vandalizing institutions, whether by AI or otherwise
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Christine M. Nowik, Ph.D. @christinenowik.bsky.social · 13/02/2026
"One of the seldom-noted benefits of a high-trust environment is that it allows leaders to focus on structural issues, rather than trying to micromanage every little interaction. High trust is an enormous time saver, and it does wonders for performance..." www.insidehighered.com/opinion/colu...
insidehighered.com
Don’t Record What You Don’t Want to Have to Watch
Playing Big Brother would get tiring quickly. Any provost with enough time to review the videos of hundreds of classes isn’t doing their job.
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Reposted by Christine M. Nowik, Ph.D.
Scott L Greer @scottlgreer.bsky.social · 12/02/2026
“more and more colleges and universities are eagerly partnering with A.I. companies, despite decades of evidence demonstrating the need to test education technology, which often fails to deliver measurable improvements in student learning.”
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Reposted by Christine M. Nowik, Ph.D.
Hannah Sparwasser Soroka @hannah-historian.bsky.social · 05/02/2026
As @rinewithoutacat.bsky.social said: "This is a publicly-funded university, using public money to fight its own employees.”
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Reposted by Christine M. Nowik, Ph.D.
Emily Wood @ebwood.bsky.social · 05/02/2026
See also: college and university presidents and the purpose of higher education.
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Christine M. Nowik, Ph.D. @christinenowik.bsky.social · 31/01/2026
Yale English faculty requiring paper. yaledailynews.com/articles/eng...
yaledailynews.com
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Reposted by Christine M. Nowik, Ph.D.
Mike Boylan-Kolchin @mbkplus.bsky.social · 30/01/2026
This is a five-alarm fire not just for Texas A&M but for higher education and the country more generally. And it’s old news to say it, but this resides in a different universe of consequentiality than any of the perceived transgressions that triggered the Harper’s letter.
nytimes.com
Texas A&M Ends Women’s Studies and Overhauls Classes Over Race and Gender
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Reposted by Christine M. Nowik, Ph.D.
NPR @npr.org · 28/01/2026
Forth Worth teacher Chanea Bond says sticking with pen and paper keeps generative artificial intelligence out of her American literature classes. n.pr/4c3cdzs
n.pr
To keep AI out of her classroom, this high school English teacher went analog
Forth Worth teacher Chanea Bond says sticking with pen and paper keeps generative artificial intelligence out of her American literature classes.
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Christine M. Nowik, Ph.D. @christinenowik.bsky.social · 26/01/2026
Absolutely. I had to go on a little tear about this matter this weekend to discuss the internal effects on the orgs as well. Trying to stay in my lane but 👀 this bigger issues are CLEAR open.substack.com/pub/christin...
open.substack.com
Capitulation as Policy
What Institutions Teach when they Fold First
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Reposted by Christine M. Nowik, Ph.D.
Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 24/01/2026
Blistering piece on ed tech in @economist.com. ‘Although ed-tech companies tout huge learning gains, independent research has made clear that technology rarely boosts learning in schools—and often impairs it.’ economist.com/united-state...
economist.com
Ed tech is profitable. It is also mostly useless
Independent research identifies few learning gains
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Reposted by Christine M. Nowik, Ph.D.
Greg Pak @gregpak.net · 23/01/2026
Please know that if your institution did this, it's a racist institution. Sure, many good people still work there and do good work there. But the school as a whole functions as a white supremacist institution. Proceed accordingly.
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Christine M. Nowik, Ph.D. @christinenowik.bsky.social · 22/01/2026
The org that paid for half of my PhD doesn't even respect me.
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Reposted by Christine M. Nowik, Ph.D.
Arrianna Marie Planey, PhD MA @arrianna-planey.bsky.social · 20/01/2026
I've gotten more emails about [university whose name is on my paycheck]'s rebranding / new logo than I have about the WCAG requirements
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Reposted by Christine M. Nowik, Ph.D.
Annika Barber @annikabarber.bsky.social · 19/01/2026
The ADA Final Rule requires accessibility for: -All online course content -Digital materials used for in-person courses -Content provided by publishers Historically, I have made PDFs of my slide decks available to students on Canvas. This year I won't be. Why not? #academicsky 1/n
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Christine M. Nowik, Ph.D. @christinenowik.bsky.social · 19/01/2026
I remember hearing higher ed leaders trying to make people go ALL IN on VR as "education of the future" and getting stopped in my tracks by this thought: "OH. You really don't know what youre doing." Evergreen.
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Reposted by Christine M. Nowik, Ph.D.
John Warner @biblioracle.bsky.social · 19/01/2026
Pretty much every article I read about "integrating" AI into the writing classroom brings me back to the conclusion I work through here: We should teach writing, not document production. www.insidehighered.com/opinion/colu...
insidehighered.com
Writing Classes Are About Writing, Not AI-Aided Production
If we want students to learn to write, AI tools shouldn’t have much of a role. If we don’t think students need to learn to write anymore, I’m not sure what we’re doing here.
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Christine M. Nowik, Ph.D. @christinenowik.bsky.social · 18/01/2026
I have thoughts about this having done it myself. Reposting so that I remember to come back to it.
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Reposted by Christine M. Nowik, Ph.D.
depths of wikipedia @depthsofwikipedia.bsky.social · 15/01/2026
wikipedia turns 25 today! the last unenshittified major website! backbone of online info! triumph of humanity! powered by urge of unpaid randos to correct each other! somehow mostly reliable! "good thing wikipedia works in practice, because it sure doesn't work in theory" - old wiki adage
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Reposted by Christine M. Nowik, Ph.D.
dgorganize (he/him) @dgorganize.bsky.social · 15/01/2026
It's official: Unions of Our Own is coming ☺️ My highest aspiration is that readers will find it helpful for winning all that they need from their job — and for smashing injustice in society
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Reposted by Christine M. Nowik, Ph.D.
Dominique Baker @bakerdphd.bsky.social · 13/01/2026
It would appear I am now a columnist at Inside Higher Ed. My first piece focuses on McCarthyism, censorship, and our current moment in higher education. This is an essay I started nearly 6 months ago so I'm glad to finally share it with y'all. www.insidehighered.com/opinion/colu...
insidehighered.com
Censorship Arrives on Campus
In her debut column, “Echoes in the Quad,” higher education policy scholar Dominique J. Baker explores how the political oppression of the McCarthy era reverberates in the stifling of academic freedom...
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Reposted by Christine M. Nowik, Ph.D.
Erik @egveitikkje.bsky.social · 11/01/2026
A deeply concerning development for all educators. #AcademicSky #EduSky
fortune.com
Gen Z are arriving to college unable to even read a sentence—professors warn it could lead to a generation of anxious and lonely graduates | Fortune
With Gen Z students struggling to read, academics have been forced to adapt—a move critics describe as “coddling” the next generation of workers.
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Christine M. Nowik, Ph.D. @christinenowik.bsky.social · 11/01/2026
People keep wanting to shove "learning about A.I." into the curriculum when what we really need is learning about power and how it works.
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Reposted by Christine M. Nowik, Ph.D.
Anthony Moser @anthonymoser.com · 10/01/2026
When I say AI is a rhetorical technology
Despite breathless headlines warning of a robot takeover in the workforce, a new research briefing from Oxford Economics casts doubt on the narrative that artificial intelligence is currently causing mass unemployment. According to the firm’s analysis, “firms don’t appear to be replacing workers with AI on a significant scale,” suggesting instead that companies may be using the technology as a cover for routine headcount reductions.
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Christine M. Nowik, Ph.D. @christinenowik.bsky.social · 10/01/2026
"The key is not technology; it is institutions," Méndez Galain said. "Once the rules are fair and predictable, the system builds itself."
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Reposted by Christine M. Nowik, Ph.D.
Iron Spike @ironspike.bsky.social · 09/01/2026
Makes me recall a clip I saw of Joe Rogan enthusiastically forcing an musician to listen to genAI music he'd prompted as he heaped praise on the model that had generated it. The musician responded, "What about AI podcasts? They have those, now." No prizes for guessing how Joe reacted.
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Reposted by Christine M. Nowik, Ph.D.
John Warner @biblioracle.bsky.social · 07/01/2026
The Center for Academic Freedom has developed some recommendations and language around academic freedom that you can make part of your semester syllabus. Check out this post by CDAF director @isaackamola.bsky.social for details and links. open.substack.com/pub/academic...
open.substack.com
Your Syllabus and Academic Freedom
Making an affirmative case for the values that underpin our work.
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Christine M. Nowik, Ph.D. @christinenowik.bsky.social · 28/12/2025
"Who's the best organizer of workers? The boss" (p. 115). @dskamper.bsky.social
Picture of Dave Kamper's book called "Who's got the Power?"
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