iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Mike Gavin @michaelhgavin.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

This was an engaging episode to be a part of--I was honored to join such great colleagues in the discussion of higher education, and community colleges especially.

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Mike Gavin @michaelhgavin.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

There are 4,000 colleges in America. But when only a certain slice of those hold the public imagination of what college means, and policy makers consider only these in their work, all are impacted. Karin Fischer's piece in www.chronicle.com/article/high...

chronicle.com

Higher Ed’s Harvard Problem

An exclusive club of colleges commands the public narrative. Does that come at a cost?

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Mike Gavin @michaelhgavin.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

“Leading with Purpose in an Age of Political Warfare” Hosted by Alliance for Higher Education and The EDU Ledger Thursday, September 17. If you care about the future of independent higher education and the leaders steering it through this moment, this is a conversation you won’t want to miss.

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Mike Gavin @michaelhgavin.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Glad my statement is included in @politico.com's piece on proposed rule: "The proposed rule the Trump administration’s “most blatant attack to keep working class Americans and people of color from accessing higher education and a better life.”

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Mike Gavin @michaelhgavin.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Share my thoughts with @apnews.com about the Trump proposed rule to rescind 501c3 status of higher education institutions seeking to serve all students. It is the Trump admin's “most blatant attack to keep working class Americans and people of color from accessing higher education and a better life”

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Alliance For Higher Education @alliancehighered.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

The administration’s new rules threaten the tax exempt status of schools that aid minority students. It’s the latest effort to keep working class Americans and people of color from college and a better life. Read: www.nytimes.com/2026/09/03/b...

nytimes.com

Trump Moves to Strip Tax Exemption From Schools That Aid Minority Students

The Treasury Department released rules that would prevent schools with race-based programs from qualifying for tax-exempt status, a threat to both higher education and other private schools.

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Mike Gavin @michaelhgavin.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

The anniversary of Charlie Kirk’s assassination is next week. Higher education is poised to play a much more significant role in our democracy if we into the controversies surrounding these flashpoints rather than default to policies and procedures. substack.com/home/post/p-...

substack.com

Charlie Kirk and How Academic Leaders Should Consider Policy and Culture

There is a racialized pattern developed in cultural flashpoints and how higher education leaders respond to those flashpoints

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Mike Gavin @michaelhgavin.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

New Accreditation rule puts at stake: • Students’ freedom to learn • Faculty and staff’s freedom to teach and research • College leaders’ freedom to manage their schools without government overreach. See our toolkit on what you can do. here. allianceforhighered.org/resources/pu...

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Mike Gavin @michaelhgavin.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Attempts to 'balance' research and teaching on campus with more 'conservative' viewpoints begin with a point of view that the lenses we look at higher education through are political (right/left) in the first place, rather than academic and truth-seeking. www.chronicle.com/article/cons...

chronicle.com

Conservative Scholars Are Rare. Johns Hopkins Wants More of Them.

Ronald J. Daniels says the ideological imbalance is bad for the academy and for the country.

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Alliance For Higher Education @alliancehighered.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

The Education Department seeks to stifle the freedom to teach, learn, and research through a process not often paid attention to: accreditation rule changes. As CEO and president Mike Gavin told @insidehighered.com: “defining academic freedom is a role the government should not take." Read more:

insidehighered.com

3 Key Changes in Trump’s New Accreditation Rule

The administration accused accreditors of neglecting their “positions of public trust.”

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Mike Gavin @michaelhgavin.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Politicians do not belong in higher ed, as I mentioned to @insidehighered.com: “defining academic freedom is a role the government should not take." Use the tools The Alliance for Higher Education has for you to make a difference. allianceforhighered.org/resources/pu...

allianceforhighered.org

Public Comment Regarding the Education Department's Proposed Rules for Accreditation

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Mike Gavin @michaelhgavin.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Public comment on proposed rules for accreditation will be necessary to preserve free thought, and maintain the integrity of higher education. Check out @alliancehighered.bsky.social for tools and guidance.

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Reposted by Mike Gavin

PEN America @penamerica.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

PEN America today joined the alliancehighered.bsky.social in responding to the latest letter from Department of Education Secretary Linda McMahon. Now is the time to stand strong and ensure academic freedom for all. pen.org/press-releas...

pen.org

PEN America Joins Alliance for Higher Education in Defending Academic Freedom and Institutional Autonomy

PEN America joins Alliance for Higher Education in response to administration efforts advancing their agenda interfering with academic freedom

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Mike Gavin @michaelhgavin.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Again, the very notion that these claims are made and then somehow needing verification a rhetorical strategy of the movement against black, brown, and LGBTQ people in and outside of academia. Over and again, lies become truth and truth does not matter even in death.

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Knight First Amendment Institute @knightcolumbia.org · 19/08/2026

In a new essay for our Reconstructing Free Expression project, @michaelhgavin.bsky.social of the @alliancehighered.bsky.social calls on higher ed institutions to band together to weather a barrage of authoritarian attacks on free academic inquiry at the state and federal level. bit.ly/4zr1isD

knightcolumbia.org

How to Fight Authoritarian Attacks on Higher Education

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Jane Rosenberg LaForge @elrosenberglaforge.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

#Colleges, #universities "need to band together to...protect one another" from authoritarianism, says @alliancehighered.bsky.social's @michaelhgavin.bsky.social "...we need a data-based approach that intertwines w/efforts to enforce #FreeSpeech protections." knightcolumbia.org/blog/how-to-...

knightcolumbia.org

How to Fight Authoritarian Attacks on Higher Education

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Mike Gavin @michaelhgavin.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

This whistleblower articulates exactly what we already knew, but in direct language. "The goal of the investigations was to punish universities disfavored by the administration and secure their preemptive compliance with the Trump administration’s demands. The Nexus www.chronicle.com/article/univ...

chronicle.com

Universities Were Forced to Pay Up Despite Little Evidence of Antisemitism, Trump Whistleblowers Say

A leading House Democrat on Tuesday called for an investigation into new allegations that the administration forced universities it deemed politically incorrect into settling cases.

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Mike Gavin @michaelhgavin.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

Studies and programs supporting study of race and supporting black students are cut. DOJ seeks to eliminate our ability to track impact of these choices. The @alliancehighered.bsky.social sees all as part of the democracy; the executive branch & some states disagree. thegrio.com/2026/08/15/n...

thegrio.com

Northwestern reportedly set to close Program of African Studies, ending an near eight-decade chapter in higher education

Northwestern is reportedly set to close the United States' oldest program dedicated to African Studies, according to The Purple Wire.

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Mike Gavin @michaelhgavin.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

A call to action should include a plan with a vision and bring us together for that vision. Our call is for the sector to be unified in its work to improve student outcomes and innovation; don't mistake softer tone with a change. @alliancehighered.bsky.social and @penamerica.bsky.social

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Mike Gavin @michaelhgavin.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

After the "S.T.O.P. Woke Act" was found to violate the First, Amendment, The Alliance for Higher Education asks what we should do as a sector next. Patricia Okker, former New College president, Leah Watson, Senior Staff at ACLU, and 📅 Tuesday, August 4. 12-1pm ET 🔗 bit.ly/4fJQ9eF

bit.ly

Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: What’s Next for the Freedom to Think and Learn After the Florida Ruling?. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the webinar...

In a landmark decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit struck down key higher education provisions of Florida's "Stop W.O.K.E. Act," concluding that the law's restrictions on class...

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Mike Gavin @michaelhgavin.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

President Trump’s influence in sports and sporting events is anything but apolitical. Trump and his movement’s focus on sport of late seems to match the attacks on higher education, legal, media, voting, and other sectors than they do cultural debates. open.substack.com/pub/michaelh...

open.substack.com

Sports is next for Authoritarians

No sector is safe, and all signals are that sports will be the next sphere focused on to pit Americans against each other.

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Mike Gavin @michaelhgavin.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

Sports will be the next cultural sphere authoritarians seek to control: the 'shut up and dribble' crowd is now focusing on ways to use sports to re-segregate us. Building off work from @pablo.show and more. substack.com/home/post/p-...

substack.com

Sports is next for Authoritarians

No sectors is safe, and all signals are that sports will be the next sphere focused on to pit Americans against each other.

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Reposted by Mike Gavin

Alliance For Higher Education @alliancehighered.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

"Rebuilding public trust in higher ed goes beyond saying more positive things more frequently to more audiences" says Alliance President @michaelhgavin.bsky.social. We have to also reject the false narrative that access and inclusion are bugs, instead of assets. www.theeduledger.com/institutions...

theeduledger.com

Americans’ Confidence in Colleges Continues Long-Term Slide

A new Gallup-Lumina survey shows faith in higher education has dropped sharply since 2015, especially among Republicans and, more recently, Democrats.

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Mike Gavin @michaelhgavin.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

As usual, higher education leaders shouldn't change operations. The rhetoric in this letter is meant to incite fear based on false accusations. If only there was a place in America where deep study of race and institutions would reveal best practices. 🙃 www.insidehighered.com/news/governm...

insidehighered.com

Dear Colleague Letter Asks Colleges to End Affinity Housing

The Trump administration alleges that housing that caters to minority students violates the Fair Housing Act. Experts say the guidance is unlikely to withstand legal challenges.

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Reposted by Mike Gavin

Alliance For Higher Education @alliancehighered.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

On the Future Trends Forum, @edufuturist.bsky.social and @michaelhgavin.bsky.social discussed the new OMB proposal: "It's bad for the country. It's bad for knowledge. It's bad for democracy." Join us and @standupforscience.net to submit pub comment: fight2win.standupforscience.net/campaign/omb...

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Mike Gavin @michaelhgavin.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

For the sports should stay out of politics crowd this tracks: we have seen politicians attend events, but not events come to them. And just as has happened with curriculum, citizenship, voting, segregationist rhetoric is being amplified by politics in sport culture.

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Mike Gavin @michaelhgavin.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

This article gets it right...I would only add the other major glaring error is the omission of institutions like community colleges (to name one kind) from the report--despite that they teach over 50% of humanities in higher ed. Glaring omission. www.insidehighered.com/opinion/view...

insidehighered.com

The Question Haunting the Vanderbilt/Wash U Report (opinion)

A new report criticizes a turn toward politicized scholarship in the humanities. But could it be that a more diverse academy is asking different questions?

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Mike Gavin @michaelhgavin.bsky.social · 09/06/2026

@bakerdphd.bsky.social Dominique Baker--a member of Alliance for Higher Education's Knowledge for Democracy Collective--does it again. "No other country will come and save U.S. higher education. A minority of faculty, of those willing to leave, will be www.insidehighered.com/opinion/colu...

insidehighered.com

No One Is Coming to Save Us

The realization can either break you or liberate you.

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Mike Gavin @michaelhgavin.bsky.social · 08/06/2026

Much of sports and society analysis rightly focuses on protests of black and women athletes in particular moments: 1968 with Tommie Smith & John Carlos; Ali & Vietnam War, eg. What happens when an authoritarian comes to see the @ny-knicks.bsky.social play a team with a coaching legacy of Popovich

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Mike Gavin @michaelhgavin.bsky.social · 06/06/2026

Too much of higher ed is focused on gatekeeping rather than net building. We need to bring more students in and find ways to fund them. The current federal budget proposals are threatening to keep students out. The @alliancehighered.bsky.social has tools to advocate for all.

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Reposted by Mike Gavin

Bryan Alexander @edufuturist.bsky.social · 04/06/2026

President @michaelhgavin.bsky.social was a superb guest today: thoughtful, direct, inspiring. Recording coming soon. @alliancehighered.bsky.social

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Bryan Alexander @edufuturist.bsky.social · 04/06/2026

On the Future Trends Forum just now @michaelhgavin.bsky.social says we should expect a major conservative push on general education this fall. @alliancehighered.bsky.social

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Mike Gavin @michaelhgavin.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

Thank you @edufuturist.bsky.social for hosting me today--such a great group of thinkers and a great forum. I appreciate the opportunity to join you!

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Bryan Alexander @edufuturist.bsky.social · 02/06/2026

Can the Alliance for Higher Education help defend colleges and universities under attack? Join us Thursday as we meet the group's president, Michael Gavin, to discuss. georgetown.zoom.us/meeting/regi... @alliancehighered.bsky.social @michaelhgavin.bsky.social

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Mike Gavin @michaelhgavin.bsky.social · 04/06/2026

There are no workarounds against the multi-decade, multi-billion-dollar movement to dismantle higher education. The harm is indeed to democracy and our students. For example, the state-level assaults on higher education began prior to the current substack: substack.com/home/post/p-...

substack.com

There are No Work-arounds to Authoritarianism

Institutions that seek to keep their head down have not found success; our work needs to be recast

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Mike Gavin @michaelhgavin.bsky.social · 02/06/2026

Excited to join @edufuturist.bsky.social on Thursday to discuss the Alliance for Higher Education and how we can collectively work for a better democracy. @alliancehighered.bsky.social

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Mike Gavin @michaelhgavin.bsky.social · 26/05/2026

Was honored to write the forward to Edna B. Chun and Alvin Evans' new book, The Future of DEI in the The Higher Education Workforce. Their case studies & raising of histories offer pathways forward for us all provides well-founded hope. www.routledge.com/The-Future-o...

routledge.com

The Future of DEI in the Higher Education Workforce: Present Controversies and Future Strategies

The Future of DEI in the Higher Education Workforce takes readers through an in-depth and probing analysis of the evolving and contentious landscape surrounding Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) ...

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Alliance For Higher Education @alliancehighered.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

Following the conclusion of the AIM Committee and Dept. of Education negotiated rulemaking meetings, Alliance President and CEO @michaelhgavin.bsky.social issued the statement below:

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Mike Gavin @michaelhgavin.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

Latest Substack: If we consider oppression as a symptom of a sick body politics, the studies under fire—from Women’s to African American—are part of the core research arm meant to find the policy, law, narratives, cultural, and social mechanisms to heal those illnesses. substack.com/home/post/p-...

substack.com

Lived Experience vs. Expertise: Why Everyone Thinks they are an Authority on Race

David French's revelation that racism exists is more telling about us than him

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Mike Gavin @michaelhgavin.bsky.social · 19/05/2026

Thank you @eloyoakley.bsky.social for having me on The Rant, and for the summary here: From community colleges to four-year universities, we explore what meaningful outcomes should look like, why ROI is not the whole story...and how higher education www.youtube.com/watch?v=880p...

youtube.com

Accreditation Under Fire

YouTube video by Eloy Oakley

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Mike Gavin @michaelhgavin.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

Our work for a better nation is hyper local and hyper national at the same time.

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Alliance For Higher Education @alliancehighered.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

In order for democracy to thrive higher ed needs to be free from partisan influence, students must have the freedom to learn, and for all people to thrive as a result of better access to college. Read more of @michaelhgavin.bsky.social interview: collegewatch.substack.com/p/seeking-st...

collegewatch.substack.com

Seeking Strength in Numbers

Sixty schools have joined an alliance to push back against the Trump administration

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Mike Gavin @michaelhgavin.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

Big thank you to @modernlanguage.bsky.social, @historians.org and ALCS who won a case on the side of knowledge, and fair opportunity. Because when we talk about the humanities and diversity, equity, and inclusion, we are talking about the infrastructure of a multiracial democracy.

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Alliance For Higher Education @alliancehighered.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

"Providing hope is the other element to the work that we have to be engaged in, hope for people in the higher ed sector – and in democracy in general – who care about knowledge."

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Alliance For Higher Education @alliancehighered.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

A key element of our forward-looking vision is Democracy's Campus 2036, which brings together dozens of organizations to create a blueprint for what higher education should look like a decade from now to advance a multiracial democracy.

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Mike Gavin @michaelhgavin.bsky.social · 11/05/2026

Avoiding identity in curriculum is segregationist, and what the Trump administration called its 'secret weapon' in on its way to being deployed. Consider following @alliancehighered.bsky.social for details on what you can do.

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Alliance For Higher Education @alliancehighered.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

"I have so much hope for this country.... There's a lot more people who believe in students, who believe in the mission of higher ed than you may feel." Thank you @stuaffairsnow.bsky.social for hosting @michaelhgavin.bsky.social and Liliana M. Garces for this timely conversation about our work!

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Alliance For Higher Education @alliancehighered.bsky.social · 04/05/2026

Attacking the NSF, one of the nation's most powerful sources of knowledge creation and innovation, is anti-democratic and will throttle freedom, opportunity, and life-saving discovery.

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