Michael S Roth @msroth.bsky.social · 29/09/2026Congrats @wesleyanuniversity.bsky.social prof @maazamengiste.bsky.social www.macfound.org/fellows/clas... @macfound.orgmacfound.orgMaaza MengisteRevealing the human costs of political violence through a compelling blend of history, memory, and imagination. 012
Michael S Roth @msroth.bsky.social · 21/09/2026"Aaron shall lean both of his hands..upon the live he goat's head and confess upon it all the willful transgressions of the children of Israel, all their rebellions, and all their unintentional sins, and he shall place them on the he goat's head, and send it off to the desert with a timely man" 120
Michael S Roth @msroth.bsky.social · 17/09/2026Ah, unbundling again! www.theatlantic.com/education/ar... www.theatlantic.com/education/ar... www.thedailybeast.com/how-to-destr...theatlantic.comWhy 'Nano-Degrees' Can Never Replace Liberal Arts CollegesIn a market where jobs are constantly shifting and disappearing, the kind of ultra-specialized training offered by companies like Udacity won't go very far. 041
Michael S Roth @msroth.bsky.social · 16/09/2026Read jloeffler.bsky.social “debates about Jews are never just about Jews. They are the seismographs of a society’s deeper tremors: its fears of difference, its contested visions of nationhood.” www.nytimes.com/2026/09/16/o...nytimes.comOpinion | For Trump, Jews Are Proving to Be a Very Useful Tool (Gift Article)Debates about Jews are never just about Jews. 020
Michael S Roth @msroth.bsky.social · 07/09/2026About to go teach my first class of the year at @wesleyanuniversity.bsky.social. I'll try to remember this all semester: "Today’s students are trying to work out what it means to be decent humans in a world growing more heated, hostile and, sometimes, heartless." www.nytimes.com/2026/09/04/o...nytimes.comOpinion | This Is the Real Point of College (Gift Article)It’s all about the practice of freedom. 191
Michael S Roth @msroth.bsky.social · 06/09/2026Barbara Kingsolver quotes Wendell Berry: “As soon as the generals and the politicos can predict the motions of your mind, lose it. Leave it as a sign to mark the false trail, the way you didn’t go.” www.nytimes.com/2026/09/04/b...nytimes.com 060
Michael S Roth @msroth.bsky.social · 04/09/2026My take: “Students approach college “with energetic curiosity. They always do. Why? Because they are [about] to discover who they are as readers, as conversation partners, as people. They are figuring out what kind of work they find fulfilling, what they love to do.” www.nytimes.com/2026/09/04/o...nytimes.comOpinion | This Is the Real Point of College (Gift Article)It’s all about the practice of freedom. 210936
Reposted by Michael S RothJames Sims @simsjames.bsky.social · 29/08/2026Watch the full episode of @realbillmaher.bsky.social featuring @msroth.bsky.social on HBO Max and catch his appearance on the “Overtime” after show on YouTube. #higheredyoutu.beOvertime with Bill Maher: Byron Donalds, Molly Jong-Fast, Michael S. Roth (HBO)YouTube video by Real Time with Bill Maher 022
Reposted by Michael S RothJames Sims @simsjames.bsky.social · 03/09/2026Wesleyan University’s @msroth.bsky.social from last week’s @realtimers.bsky.social. #highered 002
Reposted by Michael S RothJames Sims @simsjames.bsky.social · 04/09/2026“The Secretary of the Treasury is using the IRS to advance a pro-White Nationalist agenda. That is extraordinary.” —Wesleyan University President @msroth.bsky.social on @npr.org with @steveinskeep.bsky.social #higherednpr.orgWesleyan University president on administration's efforts to revoke tax-exempt statusNPR's Steve Inskeep asks Wesleyan University president Michael Roth about U.S. Treasury and IRS efforts to revoke tax-exempt status from private schools that help students based on race. 8344164
Michael S Roth @msroth.bsky.social · 04/09/2026Read @michellegoldberg.bsky.social “the bleakness of our time makes her example more important than ever. She didn’t vanquish crude sexism, but she was part of a movement that made it marginal, at least for a while. If it was done before, it can be done again.” www.nytimes.com/2026/09/04/o...nytimes.comOpinion | What Gloria Steinem Can Teach Us (Gift Article)Steinem has died at the end of a decade that undid some of what she struggled for. 010
Michael S Roth @msroth.bsky.social · 03/09/2026Read @davidfrenchjag.bsky.social "if the free speech clause means anything, it means that each of us has the right to engage in political argument, no matter if our views are radically fringe, comfortably mainstream or something in between. This is basic stuff." www.nytimes.com/2026/09/03/o...nytimes.comOpinion | Who’s the Snowflake Now?Marco Rubio is taking the wrong approach to free speech. 000
Michael S Roth @msroth.bsky.social · 03/09/2026"Because the rules allow no wiggle room &the potential penalty is so large, schools are likely to examine their own activities and make changes even before the regulations take effect “The chilling effect is very real" @wsj.com @aacu.org @thefireorg.bsky.social @aaup.org www.wsj.com/us-news/educ...wsj.comIRS Proposes Rules to Strip Tax Exemptions From Colleges Using Race in PoliciesRace-based admissions, scholarships and other policies could lead to costly penalties. 011
Michael S Roth @msroth.bsky.social · 03/09/2026“Ms. McMahon’s letter might appear more benign than the compact. But she still implies that core academic decisions should be overseen by the federal government…Coercion is coercion, even if it’s not explicit.” @nytopinion.nytimes.com www.nytimes.com/2026/09/03/o...nytimes.comOpinion | College Presidents, Don’t Be Fooled by Linda McMahon (Gift Article)Her open letter to American universities is a trap. 14321
Michael S Roth @msroth.bsky.social · 30/08/2026Read @dwightgarner.bsky.social “Some of the ironies are pitched so high that only a dog can hear them…You don’t finish “The Disappearers.” It finishes you.” www.nytimes.com/2026/08/30/b...nytimes.comBook Review: ‘The Disappearers,’ by Marlon JamesMarlon James’s story of gay experience and murderous homophobia in Jamaica is a maximalist’s banquet — and the Booker Prize winner’s finest book yet. 031
Michael S Roth @msroth.bsky.social · 28/08/2026Too woke? “I used to live in the country that I thought was the most enthusiastic about the prospects for science improving the human condition, of any country in the world,” said Phillip Zamore… “And I woke up one day and that wasn’t true anymore.” www.nytimes.com/2026/08/27/w...nytimes.comCanada Hires U.S. Scholars From Harvard and Other Top UniversitiesA crackdown on American academia by the Trump administration has handed Canadian universities a rare opportunity to lure some top researchers north. 03112
Michael S Roth @msroth.bsky.social · 26/08/2026Brian Rosenberg on the alignment of Vanderbilt with the White House www.chronicle.com/article/vand... 011
Michael S Roth @msroth.bsky.social · 23/08/2026Susan Faludi: “The purpose of civic society and government — in the democratic world, anyway — is to serve the unheroic needs of ordinary people. Not to make a mess of their lives on the way to staging a cage fight on the White House lawn.” www.nytimes.com/2026/08/23/o...nytimes.comOpinion | The Barbie Backlash (Gift Article)‘The Odyssey’ and ‘Barbie’ show a zeitgeist shift that goes beyond Hollywood: The hero’s narrative is corroding our political and public life. 192
Michael S Roth @msroth.bsky.social · 19/08/2026Read @jabannandale.bsky.social "If universities do not fight to maintain the vital work they have done to promote democracy in its most literal form, they will lose that foundational purpose, and the nation will lose the vital contributions of countless young adults" www.nytimes.com/2026/08/19/o... 074
Michael S Roth @msroth.bsky.social · 18/08/2026My take: different period, similar story. "Even those who recognized that officials were not following the rule of law but instead lying to enrich themselves and attack their enemies might nevertheless have found a way to accommodate themselves to the new reality." www.wsj.com/arts-culture...wsj.com‘Hotel Exile’ Review: Occupiers and SurvivorsThe Nazis commandeered the Hotel Lutetia after capturing Paris. The hotel later became a center for those returning from the death camps. 010
Michael S Roth @msroth.bsky.social · 17/08/2026A fine history with unsettling relevance: “The very nature of the German occupation,” ...led many into a “take what you can” form of corruption. As the rule of law receded, as is so often the case under authoritarianism, greed and corruption came to the fore" www.wsj.com/arts-culture...wsj.com‘Hotel Exile’ Review: Occupiers and SurvivorsThe Nazis commandeered the Hotel Lutetia after capturing Paris. The hotel later became a center for those returning from the death camps. 022
Michael S Roth @msroth.bsky.social · 13/08/2026Read @mashagessen.bsky.social “Fascism works not only by the passage of arbitrary, dehumanizing laws but by the arbitrary, dehumanizing enforcement of the laws.” @nytopinion.nytimes.com www.nytimes.com/2026/08/13/o...nytimes.comOpinion | What’s Happening in Kansas Should Alarm Us All (Gift Article)Is Kansas just the beginning? 13825
Reposted by Michael S RothWesleyan University Press @weslpress.bsky.social · 11/08/2026The wait is over—Pulitzer Prize-winning author Rae Armantrout's newest collection, Safe Rooms, is releasing today! Order your copy now at weslpress.org or your favorite bookstore near you! #bookrelease #raearmantrout #poetry #saferooms 062
Michael S Roth @msroth.bsky.social · 06/08/2026Enjoyed talking with Joe Donahue at @wamc.org this week about the threats to academic freedom, and why it's so important to defend civil society during this season of authoritarianism. More at montereymeetinghouse.org on Sunday www.wamc.org/podcast/the-...montereymeetinghouse.orgMonterey Meeting House | Preserving History & Community in Monterey, MAHelp preserve the Monterey Meeting House, a historic landmark in Monterey Village, as a vibrant space for cultural, educational, and community gatherings. 053
Michael S Roth @msroth.bsky.social · 06/08/2026"The Vanderbilt declaration goes far beyond what the Trump administration dreamed of proposing for colleges, imposing an extreme attack on academic freedom, shared governance, international scholars, and free speech that may be unmatched in the history of statements by American college boards." 020
Michael S Roth @msroth.bsky.social · 03/08/2026Schools are so afraid of the feds they praising its "national call to action." An executive branch bent on “reforming” higher ed has found collaborators to play ball just as other threats have incentivized “deals” between corporations & the administration. www.wamc.org/podcast/the-...wamc.orgMichael Roth will speak on education and democracy at the Monterey Meeting House on 8/9Michael Roth, the President of Wesleyan University, will speak at the Monterey Meeting House in Monterey, MA on Sunday, August 9th. His talk is titled: 'From Neutrality to Democracy; How Higher Ed Can... 040
Michael S Roth @msroth.bsky.social · 03/08/2026Nothing to worry about here. Thanks to bold and courageous collaborators and institutional neutrality, we are fulfilling the promises of White House. 041
Michael S Roth @msroth.bsky.social · 03/08/2026Join a Loyalty Club for Higher Education! "history [shows] us..how this might work. In the decade or so after the end of WWarII, higher-education leaders across the country collaborated with Senator Joseph McCarthy’s effort to rid the land of communists." www.thenation.com/article/poli...thenation.comJoin a Loyalty Club for Higher Education—While You Still Can!Another way to show devotion to the nation and to truth. 042
Michael S Roth @msroth.bsky.social · 03/08/2026Read @mashagessen.bsky.social “evaluating history has the potential to change a people’s future by changing its self-understanding. It can unite people in a genuinely new project. And then there is the rewriting of history, which is crazy-making.” www.nytimes.com/2026/08/03/o...nytimes.comOpinion | Trump's Smithsonian Attacks Are Attacks on America’s Future (Gift Article)This is how we decide who we are and who we want to be. 030
Michael S Roth @msroth.bsky.social · 02/08/2026Trump “he has no enduring scale, beyond his own vanity, to judge what’s important or what’s right. And if some in his tiny circle of decision makers do, they lack the courage to tell him.” www.nybooks.com/articles/202...nybooks.comTrump’s Constitutional Dictatorship | Mark DannerMaggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan’s inside account of the Trump administration portrays a president with a vast appetite for power but who repeatedly backs down when the costs of his actions become to... 092
Michael S Roth @msroth.bsky.social · 28/07/2026"Authoritarianism doesn’t have to involve men in suits dragging people into cars...Orban showed that critics — or pockets of independence — can be rendered pliable by making them believe that the smart move is to affirmatively sacrifice some of their independence" @yale.edu wapo.st/3RW4HPowapo.stOpinion | Yale trustees, history is watching youA lesson from Hungary: Boards don't capitulate to authoritarians. The people on them do. 02615
Michael S Roth @msroth.bsky.social · 19/07/2026Spoke with @wesleyanuniversity.bsky.social alum @emilydreyfuss.bsky.social about #HigherEd #AI jobs, and #LiberalEducation Full episode @sfstandard.com @aacu.org @aceducation.bsky.social 012
Michael S Roth @msroth.bsky.social · 19/07/2026Read @bardcollege.bsky.social prez @jabannandale.bsky.social "One fears that by the time US academic leaders understand the implications of our current retreat, the country’s leadership in higher education, like in so many other fields, will be lost." www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/even...timeshighereducation.comEven in the Trump era, abandoning HE’s civic mission is not an optionA room full of international educators half a world away reminded me what my priorities as an acting college president should be, says Jonathan Becker 1114
Michael S Roth @msroth.bsky.social · 07/07/2026White House authoritarian vision for #HigherEd clear at @Smithsonian @SmithsonianSec notes “It scares me when people aren’t brave enough to face their history. And in some ways you have to face it anyway.” @historians.org @Aacu.org @theFIREorg.bsky.org @aaup.org www.nytimes.com/2026/07/06/u...nytimes.comInside Trump’s Ideological Fight With the Smithsonian 051
Michael S Roth @msroth.bsky.social · 04/07/2026On July 4 I’ll participate in a public reading of the Declaration, & I’ll thank my lucky stars that I live in a country where the links between learning & civic participation are broadly valued & where freedom of speech—linked to freedom of thought—is still cherished www.wesleyan.edu/about/news/2...wesleyan.eduHigher Education at America’s 250th 0111
Michael S Roth @msroth.bsky.social · 04/07/2026“I’m an original,” he said. “What I’m going to wear is something that says freedom.” www.nytimes.com/2026/07/04/u...nytimes.comHow Do You Celebrate America’s 250-Year Experiment? However You Want. 010
Michael S Roth @msroth.bsky.social · 29/06/2026Read @jenszalai.bsky.social “After all, putting [cruelty]… first doesn’t have to mean that you give up imagining what could come after you denounce it. One can stare hard at reality as it currently exists and still propose a way forward.” www.nytimes.com/2026/06/29/b... via @nytimes.comnytimes.comLiberals Are Preaching Moral Values. What Took Them So Long? 131
Michael S Roth @msroth.bsky.social · 28/06/2026Read @mollyjongfast.bsky.social “When Mr. Trump’s authoritarianism is all but underwritten by well-liked public figures and all but ignored by others, its toxic tenets start to look like politics as usual.” www.nytimes.com/2026/06/28/o...nytimes.comOpinion | If These Celebrities Are Democracy’s Last Hope, We’re in Trouble 37410
Michael S Roth @msroth.bsky.social · 26/06/2026www.wesleyan.edu/about/news/2... @wesleyanuniversity.bsky.socialwesleyan.eduHappy Summer! 020
Michael S Roth @msroth.bsky.social · 19/06/2026A basic educational idea (in France) “What counts most,” he said, “is an individual’s capacity to understand and grasp ideas.” www.nytimes.com/2026/06/19/w...nytimes.comWhat Does It All Mean? Once a Year, French Students Try to Explain. 030
Michael S Roth @msroth.bsky.social · 17/06/2026Read @fieldsmeyer.com & @juliaangwin.com : “At precisely the moment conventional wisdom would say to retreat into the ease of a smaller, more cautious, more guarded life, people facing authoritarianism made their community bigger.” www.nytimes.com/2026/06/16/o... via @nytopinion.nytimes.comnytimes.comOpinion | The State of American Resistance Is Stronger Than You Think 075
Michael S Roth @msroth.bsky.social · 15/06/2026Lobbying against Derrida and relativism, no doubt: “Every Ivy League institution reported increases in legal fees, lobbying bills or both….Vanderbilt’s chancellor, estimated his time in Washington had roughly tripled in 2025.” www.nytimes.com/2026/06/14/u...nytimes.comLegal and Lobbying Costs Surge as Universities Face Trump Pressure 061
Michael S Roth @msroth.bsky.social · 10/06/2026An extraordinary memory, a more extraordinary heart. “Each book of “Paradise Lost” was like a “gothic cathedral,” he said, that he could enter by closing his eyes. “I’ll tell you,” he added, “it’s very useful at the dentist.” @wesleyanuniversity.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2026/06/09/a...nytimes.comJohn Basinger, Who Memorized All 12 Books of ‘Paradise Lost,’ Dies at 92 0299
Reposted by Michael S RothJames Sims @simsjames.bsky.social · 24/05/2026No night before commencement at Wesleyan University is complete without President @msroth.bsky.social joining the band for a jam session under the tent! 062
Michael S Roth @msroth.bsky.social · 26/05/2026"Practicing education..is like practicing democracy: Both are collaborative, experimental paths of improvement. Both depend on inclusion rather segregation. Both are very much now endangered. If we don’t defend education and protect democracy, we will lose them" www.wesleyan.edu/about/news/2...wesleyan.eduPresident Michael S. Roth ’78: ’Expanding Your Circles of Curiosity and Wonder Enhances Your Lives’ 062
Michael S Roth @msroth.bsky.social · 25/05/2026Read @wesleyanuniversity.bsky.social prof Andrew Curran “On one level, this is admirable: We are, after all, one species. Yet this powerful ideal has sometimes served as a shield against self-examination. The logic is simple: no race, no problem.” www.nytimes.com/2026/05/25/o...nytimes.comOpinion | The Brutal History That France Prefers to Ignore Is Being Heard at Last 031
Michael S Roth @msroth.bsky.social · 20/05/2026.@jillfilipovic.bsky.social 10+ yrs ago: "No girl should be a hero for getting an education. But for many girls around the world, walking through the schoolhouse doors isn’t a right..it’s a victory over conservative fanatics –some of whom carry guns." Now Muslim & Jewish families must have courage. 040
Michael S Roth @msroth.bsky.social · 19/05/2026Skylar Mitchell “When the pendulum appears to have swung back to antagonism toward racial equity, H.B.C.U.s like Spelman preserve the intellectual and civic inheritance of Black Americans precisely when the broader culture moves to forget it.” www.nytimes.com/2026/05/19/o...nytimes.comOpinion | The College Where I Wasn’t an Afterthought 042
Michael S Roth @msroth.bsky.social · 17/05/2026Read @dsallentess.bsky.social “The reflective patriot appreciates the power of free institutions to open pathways of possibility, while bringing cleareyed realism to where the country has and hasn’t lived up to its ideals, along with embracing correction and reform” www.nytimes.com/2026/05/17/o...nytimes.comOpinion | Nothing Beats Polarization Like Civics Education 022
Michael S Roth @msroth.bsky.social · 16/05/2026Carla Sosenko on “proximity without belonging” on Long Island: a “place forever caught, like the whole country, between a vision of who we aspire to be and an anxiety about who we really are.” www.nytimes.com/2026/05/16/o... via @nytopinion.nytimes.comnytimes.comOpinion | Why So Many TV Bad Guys Come From Long Island 021