Kris Olds @oldskris.bsky.social · 06/04/2026Never boring in Wisconsin #highered: www.wpr.org/news/uw-univ...wpr.orgUW Board of Regents to consider firing President Jay Rothman at Tuesday meetingThe Universities of Wisconsin Board of Regents will meet Tuesday to discuss whether to fire Jay Rothman from his job as president of the the university system. 051
Reposted by Kris OldsMark Chadbourn @chadbourn.bsky.social · 06/04/2026France has sold off the last of its gold held in the US Federal Reserve and now holds all its gold in Paris. German groups are now pressuring the government to repatriate its own gold.rfi.frFrench central bank nets €13bn by pulling gold out of US reservesFrance’s central bank has sold off the last of the gold it held in the United States Federal Reserve and replaced it with higher quality bars in Paris, taking advantage of rising prices to make nearly... 27363332414
Reposted by Kris OldsDan Garisto @dangaristo.bsky.social · 03/04/2026Okay, NSF is for some reason under an appendix, but they do have directorate-level numbers. Cuts pretty much across the board, including zeroing out SBE? which I suppose is what would happen with a 54% cut. Also worth looking at those FY26 estimates... www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/u... 41813
Kris Olds @oldskris.bsky.social · 02/04/2026Universities of Wisconsin leaders looking to oust system president who refuses to quit apnews.com/article/univ...apnews.comExclusive: Universities of Wisconsin leaders looking to oust system president who refuses to quitThe president of the 25-campus Universities of Wisconsin has said in letters obtained by The Associated Press that he’s been told to resign or he will be fired. 052
Reposted by Kris OldsVeena Dubal @veenadubal.bsky.social · 08/01/2026“Faculty at Texas A&M Univ were told..that roughly 200 courses…could be affected by a new system policy restricting classroom discussions of race & gender, the implementation of which has.. led administrators to direct a philosophy prof to remove Plato readings” www.texastribune.org/2026/01/07/t...texastribune.orgTexas A&M restrictions on race, gender could affect 200 coursesWith the semester set to begin next week, professors have been directed to alter courses, and some classes have been removed or reassigned from the core curriculum at the College Station campus. 53021
Kris Olds @oldskris.bsky.social · 19/12/2025University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill [foolishly] cuts all six area studies research centers, effective 2026 dailytarheel.com/article/univ...dailytarheel.comUNC cuts all six area studies research centers, effective 2026As part of the University's plan to make $70 million in budget cuts across the institution, Vice Chancellor for Finance and Operations Nate Knuffman projected that cutting 14 centers and institutes in... 092
Reposted by Kris OldsBrett Christophers @brettchristophers.bsky.social · 06/11/2025Striking Economist chart in the latest Tooze newsletter. Presumably NY's vertiginous rents would make NY's _real_ real wages (i.e. real wages post housing costs) look even worse by comparison. New mayor really has got a challenge on his hands 0114
Kris Olds @oldskris.bsky.social · 04/11/2025At USC, more than 900 employees laid off since July amid 'difficult' fiscal crisis www.latimes.com/california/s...latimes.comAt USC, more than 900 employees laid off since July amid 'difficult' fiscal crisisThe private university, long known for its wealth, has eliminated more than 900 positions and introduced other cuts in an effort to close a deficit of $200 million-plus. 030
Kris Olds @oldskris.bsky.social · 03/11/2025“Applications to the European Research Council (ERC), the EU’s funding organisation for basic research, and the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA), the EU’s initiative for doctoral and postdoctoral research, hit all-time highs in 2025.” 140
Kris Olds @oldskris.bsky.social · 02/11/2025“It’s the combination of great [universities] in the UK and Europe, a good regulatory framework, and tradition,” Raffaele Savi, global head of BlackRock’s quantitative investing teams 020
Kris Olds @oldskris.bsky.social · 22/10/2025This could go sideways...The US Commerce Department Moves to Take Cut of Research Patents www.aip.org/fyi/commerce...aip.orgCommerce Moves to Take Cut of Research PatentsThe agency has opened the possibility in a recent funding announcement and threatened to take control of Harvard’s patents. 010
Reposted by Kris OldsEileen Clancy 🧿 @clancyny.bsky.social · 17/10/2025CDC IRB. Gone. "Staff with the CDC’s institutional review board, which reviews the design of studies, and the ethics office, which oversees all conflicts and interests for CDC leaders and advisory committee members, were also let go." 24227
Kris Olds @oldskris.bsky.social · 17/10/2025Harvard suffers $113mn loss after Trump’s cuts to research funding www.ft.com/content/1b3c... via @financialtimes.comft.comHarvard suffers $113mn loss after Trump’s cuts to research fundingUniversity’s losses are the largest since 2011 and have forced lay-offs and freezes on hiring and salary increases 000
Reposted by Kris OldsRobert Kelchen @robertkelchen.com · 13/10/2025After getting zero firm commitments to this point from the first nine invitees, the Trump administration is extending its proposed compact to all colleges. Expect some red-state publics to say yes.bloomberg.comTrump Offers All Colleges Preferential Funding Plan Rejected by MITThe Trump administration is inviting all US colleges to participate in a compact — initially rejected by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology — that would grant preferential federal funding in re... 25399157
Reposted by Kris OldsAmerican Council of Learned Societies @acls1919.bsky.social · 06/10/2025ACLS has released a statement regarding the White House “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education”: bit.ly/3IviMig 27035
Kris Olds @oldskris.bsky.social · 01/10/2025The Ontario Teacher’s Pension Plan certainly does get around... www.oxfordnorth.com/news-events/... 010
Kris Olds @oldskris.bsky.social · 29/09/2025"The University of Chicago, renowned for producing world-leading research in economics and finance, is selling a prized research centre as it struggles with heavy debt and lacklustre endowment returns" www.ft.com/content/4501... via @financialtimes.comft.comUChicago sells prized institute amid high debt and low returnsEndowment of famed finance school posted weak investment gains as it borrowed heavily to invest in research capacity 023
Kris Olds @oldskris.bsky.social · 26/09/2025As Trump Tries to Limit Foreign Workers, China Woos Them. A new visa for science and engineering graduates is part of China’s effort to establish itself as the world leader in science and technology. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/26/w...nytimes.comAs Trump Tightens Visas, China Woos World’s Science Graduates 020
Kris Olds @oldskris.bsky.social · 26/09/2025Austria hails 'brain gain' in luring 25 academics away from US after cuts www.reuters.com/world/austri...reuters.comAustria hails 'brain gain' in luring 25 academics away from US after cutsAustria has lured what it calls 25 "top researchers" away from U.S. institutions including Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Princeton with grants set up in response to the Trump administration's funding cuts targeting universities. 030
Kris Olds @oldskris.bsky.social · 25/09/2025Vanderbilt Eyes National Expansion The university plans to build a campus in Florida, has leased a site in New York City and aims to establish a foothold in California in its quest to grow beyond Nashville. www.insidehighered.com/news/busines...insidehighered.comVanderbilt Eyes National ExpansionThe university plans to build a campus in Florida, has leased a site in New York City and aims to establish a foothold in California in its quest to grow beyond Nashville. 010
Kris Olds @oldskris.bsky.social · 15/08/2025UChicago Reducing, Freezing Ph.D. Admissions for Multiple Humanities [& Public Policy] Programs www.insidehighered.com/news/busines...insidehighered.comUChicago Freezing Ph.D. Admissions for Multiple ProgramsThe indebted institution tasked committees of faculty and staff with planning for changes. But this week, a dean forged ahead and announced broad cuts. Two other units are also pausing admissions. 120
Kris Olds @oldskris.bsky.social · 13/08/2025National self-harm viewed via one prominent US university: www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-t...insidehighered.comASU Projects 18% Drop in International Student EnrollmentArizona State University typically welcomes over 17,900 international students to its four campuses each year, but this fall, due to a variety of complications, the university expects only 14,600 inte... 010
Kris Olds @oldskris.bsky.social · 11/08/2025The Harvard-Trained Lawyer Behind Trump’s Fight Against Top Universities www.nytimes.com/2025/08/11/u...nytimes.comThe Harvard-Trained Lawyer Behind Trump’s Fight Against Top Universities 010
Reposted by Kris OldsRobert Kelchen @robertkelchen.com · 08/08/2025The Commerce Department threatening to take over Harvard's patents shows the extent to which the federal government is trying to pressure the university into a settlement. They are trying everything possible. (gift link)wsj.comTrump Administration Threatens to Take Over Harvard’s PatentsThe move is the latest escalation in the White House’s battle with the Ivy League school. 68710345
Reposted by Kris OldsJennifer Ouellette @jenlucpiquant.bsky.social · 08/08/2025New executive order puts all grants under political control arstechnica.com/science/2025...arstechnica.comNew executive order puts all grants under political controlAll new funding on hold until Trump administration can cancel any previously funded grants. 0128
Kris Olds @oldskris.bsky.social · 07/08/2025Fluctuating tariffs exacerbate US science funding woes pubs.aip.org/physicstoday...pubs.aip.orgFluctuating tariffs exacerbate US science funding woesFor new faculty and others ordering big-ticket items, the import taxes can be a gut punch. 010
Reposted by Kris OldsHalloween III: Season of the Ben @franzferdinand2.bsky.social · 04/08/2025A fun reminder that a loss of 60,000 jobs in and around academia is ~50% more than all coal mining jobs in the entire country. 4953041762
Reposted by Kris OldsJess Calarco @jessicacalarco.com · 04/08/2025Go, a college student, has a dependent visa (her mother, an Episcopal minister, is here on a religious worker visa), which doesn't expire until Dec. But when she tried to renew it early, ICE nabbed her and sent her halfway across the US to a detention center. www.wthr.com/article/news...wthr.comPurdue student detained by ICE and taken to troubled Louisiana holding facilityYeonsoo Go, 20, was detained after her immigration hearing in Manhattan and taken away by ICE agents. 8831921610
Reposted by Kris OldsPROFS @profsuwmadison.bsky.social · 31/07/2025Wisconsin GOP Congressman Tom Tiffany introduced a bill that would eliminate the exception that allows colleges and universities to hire an unlimited number of specialized international workers as part of the H-1B visa program. Tiffany said the practice "hands good-paying jobs to foreign workers..."jsonline.comRep. Tom Tiffany targets visa program exception that UW uses to hire for hard-to-fill jobsU.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany seeks to end an exception in the H-1B visa program that allows universities to hire an unlimited number of specialized workers from overseas. 233
Kris Olds @oldskris.bsky.social · 29/07/2025Nashville-based Vanderbilt University considering establishing a campus in San Francisco: www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-t...insidehighered.comVanderbilt Reportedly Considering a San Francisco CampusVanderbilt University is in talks with the city of San Francisco to establish a campus there, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. A Vanderbilt spokesperson confirmed to the Chronicle that the univer... 221
Reposted by Kris OldsDave Levitan @davelevitan.bsky.social · 23/07/2025Me literally yesterday when NASA employees did this www.splinter.com/catastrophic... 216955
Reposted by Kris OldsInside Higher Ed @insidehighered.com · 18/07/20254 Things to Know About In-State Tuition Benefits for Undocumented Students The federal government is suing states that offer in-state tuition to noncitizens. These state laws were once bipartisan efforts. #HigherEd #EDUSky #AcademicSky bit.ly/44E4zrw 164
Reposted by Kris OldsSarah T Roberts, PhD @ubiquity75.xyz · 18/07/2025Nice. I worked at Duke for more than seven years. Don’t get me started. www.dukechronicle.com/article/2025...dukechronicle.comDuke School of Medicine plans salary cuts for tenured faculty who do not meet grant expectationsSet to go in effect in 2026, the proposed policy would apply to the School’s basic sciences units. These units rely heavily on grants from the National Institutes of Health, which have been increasing... 1506
Reposted by Kris OldsFinancial Times @financialtimes.com · 18/07/2025 Threats to the Fed go beyond firing Powell on.ft.com/4nV9CeF | opinionon.ft.comThreats to the Fed go beyond firing PowellCurtis Yarvin’s ideas are going ever more mainstream in Trump’s Washington — and investors should be worried 22616
Kris Olds @oldskris.bsky.social · 18/07/2025University of California fund ditches hedge funds with scathing rebuke www.ft.com/content/1674... via @financialtimes.comft.comUniversity of California fund ditches hedge funds with scathing rebukeChief investment officer says stocks and bonds would have prevented ‘all the drama’ 001
Reposted by Kris OldsDon Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 15/07/2025This guy gets it www.nytimes.com/2025/07/15/o... 843488
Kris Olds @oldskris.bsky.social · 15/07/2025USC signals layoffs as deficit surpasses $200 million amid 'volatile external environment' www.latimes.com/california/s...latimes.comUSC signals layoffs as deficit surpasses $200 million amid 'volatile external environment'Layoffs will be implemented at USC, interim President Beong-Soo Kim said in a letter to the university's faculty and staff on Monday. 002
Reposted by Kris OldsShannon Mattern @shannonmattern.bsky.social · 14/07/2025"Universities have become increasingly dependent on a proliferation of outsourced services, database providers + info mgmt systems, w/ spiraling costs... Understanding [the uni as an infrastructure stresses] that the tech it chooses to adopt follow a colonial + extractivist model...culturemachine.netCM Vol 25 CfP University as InfrastructureCulture Machine Vol. 25 Call for Papers: University as Infrastructure Guest-edited by: Alexandra Anikina, Johannes Bruder, Megen de Bruin-Molé, Stephen Cornford, Kwame Phillips & Geoff Cox … 48437
Reposted by Kris OldsRobin Bisson @robinbisson.bsky.social · 09/07/2025As the UK pivots to defence, a shift towards research security and away from open collaboration is “inevitable”, says Nicola Searle, whose report found security lapses in “sensitive economic areas” “Everyone’s going to have to work on it more because of regulations” she told @annamckie.bsky.socialresearchprofessionalnews.comFocus on national security ‘will bring chilling effect’ to UK research - Research Professional NewsUKRI-funded report finds “sensitive economic areas” leak most knowledge, but crackdown could affect open science 004
Reposted by Kris OldsScience Magazine @science.org · 08/07/2025“There is a lot of pressure to essentially leave the country or not pursue research.” scim.ag/3Gz4VWWscim.ag‘It’s a nightmare.’ U.S. funding cuts threaten academic science jobs at all levels“There is a lot of pressure to essentially leave the country or not pursue research,” one Ph.D. student says 58733
Reposted by Kris OldsPaul Langley @paullangley.bsky.social · 05/07/2025New from colleagues @geogdurham.bsky.social @benandersongeog.bsky.social and @ajsecor.bsky.social 084
Kris Olds @oldskris.bsky.social · 05/07/2025Meanwhile the University of Toronto hires a few famous tenured Yale U faculty and hopes for accolades… 060
Reposted by Kris OldsRebecca Spang @rlspang.bsky.social · 04/07/2025As has been often remarked “the Cold War was fought in the Midwest.” Bloomington used to teach 3 years of Romanian and 2 of Hungarian. One of three universities in the country to offer Serbo-Croatian. The biggest library collection of Tibetan materials, etc. Etc. 12432147
Reposted by Kris OldsBen Williamson @benpatrickwill.bsky.social · 20/06/2025Platforms, data, and AI are impacting higher education systems and universities internationally. @jkom.bsky.social and I have a short piece on the political economy of digital transformation in HE just out ihe.bc.edu/pub/499eknm0...ihe.bc.eduThe Political Economy of Datafication and Platformization: Digital Transformation in Higher EducationPlatforms, data, and artificial intelligence are impacting higher education systems and universities internationally. Future research is required to examine their concrete effects, and to understand t... 2299
Reposted by Kris OldsCraig Nicholson @clanicholson.bsky.social · 19/06/2025Free-to-read opinion: Research security in Europe needs a more coordinated approach, write researchers Andrew James and Kieron Flanagan www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-euro...researchprofessionalnews.comResearch security in Europe needs a more coordinated approach - Research Professional NewsSurvey of national efforts reveals uneven but developing picture, say Andrew James and Kieron Flanagan 012
Reposted by Kris Olds Bradley Busch @handle.invalid · 18/06/2025New research from MIT found that those who used ChatGPT can’t remember any of the content of their essays. Key takeaway: the product doesn’t suffer, but the process does. And when it comes to essays, the process *is* how they learn. arxiv.org/pdf/2506.088... 19136851507
Kris Olds @oldskris.bsky.social · 16/06/2025Anthro degree…Britain’s MI6 spy agency promotes ‘Q’ to be first female head on.ft.com/4l4Hq6Con.ft.comBritain’s MI6 spy agency promotes ‘Q’ to be first female headAppointment of Blaise Metreweli comes as agents grapple with competing threats 010
Kris Olds @oldskris.bsky.social · 13/06/2025Whiplash still = damage www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-t...insidehighered.comIn Reversal, Trump Says Chinese Students Are WelcomePresident Trump said that Chinese international students would be welcome in the U.S. in a post on Truth Social on Wednesday announcing the terms of a pending trade agreement with China. In exchange ... 000