Teaching and Learning
More Ideas for Creating Dynamic Classrooms (Beth McMurtrie, Chronicle of Higher Education, October 16, 2025): Two different strategies: one which focuses on reading strategies that encourage students to shape class discussions; the other leans into active learning that doesn’t require advanced preparation.
Stop Assigning Traditional Essays (Scott Carlson, Chronicle of Higher Education, October 16, 2025): Matthew Brophy lays out some of the new techniques while also asking higher-education leadership to support instructors, who are often navigating this new, uncertain territory on their own.
Why Does the Trump Compact Talk about Grading? (Beckie Supiano, Chronicle of Higher Education, October 15, 2025): The desire for objective grades connects to broader ideas about merit.
4 Ways to Better Grade Team Projects (Lauren Vicker and Tim Franz, Inside Higher Ed, October 14, 2025): Simply grading the final group output is insufficient. Here are better ideas.
Ungrading and Assessing the Unassessable (Keegan Lannon, Inside Higher Ed, October 10, 2025): On wrestling with alternative grading.
Motivation Effects and Efficiency of Retrieval Practice over Lecture (Cindy Nebel, Learning Scientists, October 10, 2025): Retrieval practice is one of the most robust strategies that we have for durable learning. The author reviews a study that pushed retrieval practice to its limits and asks if we are wasting time with lectures; should we just jump straight to the practice?
Getting Students Off Screens and into the Conversation (Beth McMurtrie, Chronicle of Higher Education, October 9, 2025): Some suggestions for keeping students engaged and prepared from a faculty member at the University of Texas, Arlington.
Extra Credit Reading
Americans Faith in Higher Education Has Declined Even Further (Emma Pettit, Chronicle of Higher Education, October 15, 2025): According to a new survey from Pew, seven in ten Americans say that higher education in the US is generally heading in the wrong direction. At the same time, polling from the American Higher Education Barometer suggests that Americans Overwhelmingly Oppose Trump’s Higher Ed Cuts and strongly trust universities to do what’s right. You choose!
Brown University Rejects Trump Proposal to Overhaul Policies for Preferential Funding (Marina Dunbar, Guardian, October 15, 2025): University joins MIT in refusing invitation, saying that compact would ‘restrict academic freedom’.
The Logical End Point of Trump’s Higher-Education Agenda (Kevin Carey, The Atlantic, October 15, 2025): A ‘compact’ offered by the administration could devastate racial diversity at elite universities.
Colleges Are Told Their Programs Don’t “Advance American Interests” (Karin Fischer, Chronicle of Higher Education, October 15, 2025): The U.S. Department of Education has eliminated funding for critical and less commonly taught languages, area studies, and global-business education, telling colleges that “their awards aren’t in the interest of the federal government” and “don’t advance American interests or values.”
Dartmouth’s President Balks at Trump Compact, Sources Say, as Feds expand Offer to ‘Any Institution’ (Francie Diep and Megan Zahneis, Chronicle of Higher Education, October 14, 2025): The president of Dartmouth College, an initial recipient of the Trump administration’s much-debated “compact” for higher education, has told faculty members that she will not endorse the current version of the agreement, two sources told The Chronicle.
Trump Offers All Colleges Preferential Funding Plan Rejected by MIT (Liam Knox, Bloomberg, October 13, 2025): Preferential federal funding would be tied to accepting specific policy changes like DEI bans.
The Healthy Minds Study (The Healthy Minds Network, October 2025): A detailed picture of mental health and related issues in college student populations finds that 18 percent of college students experienced “severe depression” in 2025.
Why Colleges Must Not Ban Speakers (John K. Wilson, Inside Higher Ed, October 13, 2025): We cannot censor our way out of a crisis of repression.
In Emergency Meeting, Vanderbilt Faculty Senate Votes to Condemn Trump Administration ‘Compact’ (Anita Wadhwani, Tennessee Lookout, October 11, 2025): Calls on Chancellor and Board of Trustees to reject the Compact as “compromising the mission, values, and independence” of Vanderbilt.
MIT President Says ‘We Cannot Support’ Trump’s Compact (Claire Murphy, Chronicle of Higher Education, October 10, 2025): The premise of the compact is “inconsistent with our core belief that scientific funding should be based on scientific merit alone,” MIT’s president, Sally Kornbluth wrote.
Future Education Expectations of High School Students Decline to the Lowest Leve in 20 Years for Both First-Generation and Continuing Generation Students (Pell Institute, September 2025): Just under 44 percent expected to earn a bachelor’s degree or more in 2022 — down from nearly 72 percent two decades prior.
Editor: Steven Volk ([email protected])
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GLCA/GLAA Event
How Neurodiverse Students Can Use AI to Enhance Their Learning with Todd Zakrajsek
College can be both exciting and overwhelming, especially for neurodiverse students balancing studying, organization, and campus life. We hope you will join us for this webinar, How Neurodiverse Students Can Use AI to Enhance Their Learning, with Dr. Todd Zakrajsek, Tuesday October 14 at Noon EDT. We will look at how AI can step in as a supportive partner and help neurodiverse learners with study routines, organization, and even social connections. Together we’ll explore practical strategies for using AI to reduce barriers, build confidence, and create more opportunities for success in college.
Anticipated learner outcomes:
- Describe at least 3 aspects of college that are particularly challenging for neurodiverse students.
- Create or implement at least one specific strategy pertaining to how AI might be used to help neurodiverse students be more successful in college.
- Explain at least one area in which neurodiverse students may have an advantage over other students with respect to college life and learning new content or skills.
Todd D. Zakrajsek PhD, is an Adjunct Associate Professor in the School of Medicine at UNC at Chapel Hill. Prior to joining the SOM he was a tenured associate professor of psychology and built faculty development efforts at three universities. Todd has authored/coauthored 6 books in the past 5 years and has given keynote addresses, campus workshops, and conference presentations in all 50 states, 12 countries, and 4 continents. Follow and connect with Todd on Twitter (@toddzakrajsek), Instagram, and LinkedIn. Read more about his work at https://www.toddzakrajsek.com/
A link will be sent the day before the event and the session will be recorded. REGISTER HERE.
Teaching and Learning
Team Teaching Benefits Faculty and Students (Ashley Mowreader, Inside Higher Ed, October 9, 2025): Most first-year courses at Harvey Mudd College are team-taught, exposing students to a variety of disciplines, teaching styles and resources on campus.
Rethinking Student Attendance Policies for Deeper Engagement and Learning (Bonni Stachowiak, Teaching in Higher Ed, October 9, 2025): A 47-minute podcast with Simon Cullen and Danny Oppenheimer on the importance of student autonomy in higher ed.
Making Progress on Teaching in a World with AI (John Warner, Inside Higher Ed, October 3, 2025): Some common traits at institutions successfully meeting the challenge of teaching in today’s world.
Why One Professor Fosters Friendships in Her Courses (Beckie Supiano, Chronicle of Higher Education, October 3, 2025): When students feel connected to one another, they’re more likely to come to class, do the work, and even take risks.
Why Students Shouldn’t Think of Their Majors as an Identity (Scott Carlson, Chronicle of Higher Education, October 2, 2025): Colleges need to help students do the leg work to figure out who they really are.
What Research Says about how AI Use Affects Learning (Beth McMurtrie, Chronicle of Higher Education, October 2, 2025): We don’t know the longer-term effects (yet) of AI use.Generative AI hasn’t been around long enough for researchers to do longitudinal studies on how it is shaping us. Extensive AI use is even more recent. Plus, is it possible to isolate the effects of AI on our thinking when it is all around us? That’s a question weighing on teaching experts and researchers.
Engaging Students with “No”-oriented Questions that Can Lead to More Honest Conversations (Terry Favero, University of Portland): “No”-oriented questions paradoxically create psychological safety and often lead to better outcomes. Here are some examples of turning a “Yes” question into a “No”-oriented one.
Extra Credit Reading
With Compact, Universities Weigh Whether to Give Up Freedoms for Unknown Payout (Ryan Quinn, Inside Higher Ed, October 8, 2025): Higher ed organizations have raised alarm over a federal government document that asks universities to agree to significant restrictions without specifying what they’ll gain—or what they’ll lose for refusing.
International Student Arrivals Drop 19% (Johanna Alonso, Inside Higher Ed, October 7, 2025): Some experts note that the entry data contradicts enrollment increases shown in SEVIS data—while others say the declines are even more extreme than the arrivals data indicates. [In a related article, see Small US College Towns Reel Amid Trump Immigration Crackdown: ‘They Need International Students’ (Stephen Starr, Guardian, October 4, 2025): From Ohio to Florida, the US government’s clampdown on students from abroad threatens rural universities and local businesses.]
Trump’s Imperfect Compact Is a Perfect Opportunity (Danielle Allen, Chronicle of Higher Education, October 6, 2025): Colleges shouldn’t sign. But they also shouldn’t dismiss the need for a new framework.
The Billionaire Behind Trump’s Deal for Universities (Alan Blinder and Michael C. Bender, New York Times, October 3, 2025): The conservative ideas behind the Trump administration’s “compact” for universities were developed in part by Marc Rowan, a wealthy financier who has sought to shape higher education.
Trump Asks 9 Colleges to Commit to His Political Agenda and Get Favorable Access to Federal Money (Collin Binkley and Aamer Madhani, AP, October 2, 2025): A document sent to the universities encourages them to adopt the White House’s vision for America’s campuses, with commitments to accept the government’s priorities on admissions, women’s sports, free speech, student discipline and college affordability, among other topics.
The White House’s New ‘Compact’ Would Offer Universities an Edge in Grant Funding. What’s In It? (Chronicle Staff, Chronicle of Higher Education, October 2, 2025): We’ve seen what the Trump administration’s stick looks like. Let’s look at its carrot.
International Experience as a Career Asset: Exploring the Earnings Impact of Education Abroad Participation (Amelia J. Dietrich, Forum on Education Abroad, 2025): One key insight: Students who studied abroad earn on average $4,159 more in their first job after graduation than those who did not.
Editor: Steven Volk ([email protected])
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GLCA/GLAA Event
How Neurodiverse Students Can Use AI to Enhance Their Learning with Todd Zakrajsek
College can be both exciting and overwhelming, especially for neurodiverse students balancing studying, organization, and campus life. We hope you will join us for this webinar, How Neurodiverse Students Can Use AI to Enhance Their Learning, with Dr. Todd Zakrajsek, Tuesday October 14 at Noon EDT. We will look at how AI can step in as a supportive partner and help neurodiverse learners with study routines, organization, and even social connections. Together we’ll explore practical strategies for using AI to reduce barriers, build confidence, and create more opportunities for success in college.
Anticipated learner outcomes:
- Describe at least 3 aspects of college that are particularly challenging for neurodiverse students.
- Create or implement at least one specific strategy pertaining to how AI might be used to help neurodiverse students be more successful in college.
- Explain at least one area in which neurodiverse students may have an advantage over other students with respect to college life and learning new content or skills.
Todd D. Zakrajsek PhD, is an Adjunct Associate Professor in the School of Medicine at UNC at Chapel Hill. Prior to joining the SOM he was a tenured associate professor of psychology and built faculty development efforts at three universities. Todd has authored/coauthored 6 books in the past 5 years and has given keynote addresses, campus workshops, and conference presentations in all 50 states, 12 countries, and 4 continents. Follow and connect with Todd on Twitter (@toddzakrajsek), Instagram, and LinkedIn. Read more about his work at https://www.toddzakrajsek.com/
A link will be sent the day before the event and the session will be recorded. REGISTER HERE.
Teaching and Learning
Students Who Lack Academic Confidence More Likely to Use Generative AI for School (Ashley Mowreader, Inside Higher Ed, September 30, 2025): New survey data also finds that students with robust peer support and strong internet search skills are less likely to rely on AI tools for academic help.
How Students Should Practice, In and Out of Class (Beckie Supiano, Chronicle of Higher Education, September 26, 2025): A professor structures exercises to reduce busy work and boost engagement.
A Final Project that Can Bring Joy and Meaning (Peter C. Herman, Inside Higher Ed, September 26, 2025): With the rise of AI-enabled cheating, a creative assignment can be a powerful alternative to the traditional term paper.
Students on Academic Quality, Success (Colleen Flaherty, Inside Higher Ed, September 26, 2025): Undergraduates across institution types rate the quality of education they’re getting highly and share what could boost their academic success.
5 Ways Students Can Think about Learning So That They Can Learn More (Jerrid Kruse, The Conversation, September 16, 2025): Five beliefs beyond the growth mindset that can help students become better learners.
Cultivating Critical Hope: Reflections on Pedagogical Partnerships in Higher Education (Austen Morris, Teaching and Learning Together in Higher Education, 2025): Pedagogical partnership broadly seeks to rewrite the narrative surrounding faculty and student dynamics into one of partnership, where students and faculty are colleagues.
Extra Credit Reading
HHS Moves to Cut Harvard Off from All Federal Grants and Contracts (Laura Spitalniak, Higher EdDive, October 1, 2025): The agency’s Office for Civil Rights on Monday recommended blocking the university’s access to the funding to protect the public interest.
Should College Get Harder? (Joshua Rothman, New Yorker, September 30, 3035): A.I. is coming for knowledge work, and yet college seems to be getting easier. Does something need to change?
White House Considers Funding Advantage for Colleges that Align with Trump Policies (Laura Meckler and Susan Svriuga, Washington Post, September 28, 2025): The proposal could transform the government’s vast research funding operation, which has long awarded university grants based on scientific merit.
Texas Tech Moves to Limit Academic Discussion to 2 Genders (J. David Goodman, New York Times, September 26, 2025): The university system said faculty must comply with President Trump’s order recognizing only two genders, possibly a first for a major public institution of higher education.
Where the Battle Over Free Speech is Leading Us (Louis Menand, New Yorker, September 26, 2025): Menand considers two books, Christopher L. Eisgruber, Terms of Respect: How Colleges Get Free Speech Right (Basic), written by the president of Princeton, and Fara Dabhoiwala, What Is Free Speech? The History of a Dangerous Idea (Belknap), by a member of Princeton’s history department.
Poll: Public Confidence in Higher Ed Growing (Kathryn Palmer, Inside Higher Ed, September 26, 2025): According to the Vanderbilt Project on Unity and American Democracy polling published Thursday, 47 percent of 1,030 Americans surveyed said they have “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in higher education institutions, with a net positive rating of 33—up 13 percentage points since 2023.
Compassion Fatigue in Educators (Chiara Horlin, The Learning Scientists, September 25, 2025): A 38-minute podcast featuring Dr. Chiara Horlin, on wellbeing in educators and specifically about a phenomenon called ‘compassion fatigue.’
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Teaching and Learning
How Instructors Create Breathing Room in Their Courses (Beckie Supiano, Chronicle of Higher Education, September 25, 2025): Provides examples from a number of faculty as to how they build some extra space into their courses to better weather unexpected issues and provide students, and themselves, a break.
Course Correction (Nicolaus Mills, Inside Higher Ed, September 24, 2025): Asking students to interview faculty before they sign up for classes is a practice more colleges should try.
Going Old-School: Professors Use Print Books to Teach AI (Ashley Mowreader, Inside Higher Ed, September 24, 2025): Faculty members help students practice close reading and analysis with a physical book, building life skills and social connection.
AI Is Making the College Experience Lonelier (Khafiz Kerimov and Nicholas Bellinson, Chronicle of Higher Education, September 22, 2025): Does ChatGPT’s ‘study mode’ mean students will spend less time talking with their peers?
How One Professor Demystifies Writing (Beckie Supiano, Chronicle of Higher Education, September 19, 2025): It helps to express interest in hearing what students have to say.
Is It Time to Overhaul Your Course? (Beth McMurtrie, Chronicle of Higher Education, September 18, 2025): Because students are skimming or skipping the reading, or not doing assigned problem sets, professors find they can’t advance to the next level of the course as quickly as they normally would. So what are some options?
The Study Habits of Tomorrow’s Freshmen (Scott Carlson, Chronicle of Higher Education, September 18, 2025): Carlson reviews Jenny Ander and Rebecca Winthrop’s The Disengaged Teen: Helping Kids Learn Better, Feel Better, and Live Better (Penguin Random House).
Learning about Grades from an Emerging Failure (Bonni Stachowiak, Teaching in Higher Ed, September 18, 2025): 48-minute podcast with Emily Pitts Donahoe considering alternative grading systems.
How to Improve Student Comprehension of Difficult Texts (John Orlando, The Teaching Professor, August 18, 2025): Concrete steps to take to help your students navigate complex readings.
Extra Credit Reading
The Richness of Podcasting in Higher Education (Bonni Stachowiak, Teaching in Higher Ed, September 25, 2025): 48-minute podcast on using podcasting in higher ed.
Sometimes We Resist AI for Good Reasons (Kevin Gannon, Chronicle of Higher Education, September 24, 2025): Why higher ed needs to listen to the contrarians in setting policies on using tools like ChatGPT in faculty work.
How to Think, Not What to Think (Sian Leah Beilock, The Atlantic, September 19, 2025): College is not just about transmitting knowledge—it’s also about learning and practicing the skills that connect us to one another.
How the Education Dept. Wants to Advance ‘Patriotic Education’ (Kathryn Palmer, Inside Higher Ed, September 19, 2025): Professional historians say the department’s plan is part of the Trump administration’s broader attempt to create an Orwellian “truth ministry” and omit the more troubling aspects of the nation’s past.
American Higher Ed Never Figured Out Its Purpose (Jake Lundberg, The Atlantic, September 18, 2025): The centuries-long debate over who and what college is for has yet to be resolved.
Americans Tend to View International Students Positively, Though Some Support Limitations (William Miner, Sneha Gubbala, and Laura Silver, Pew Research, September 17, 2025): Nearly 80 percent of respondents in a Pew Research Center survey agreed that it’s good for colleges to admit foreign students, a view that cuts across party lines.
Is College Worth It? (Art & Science Group, September 2025): A new survey finds, among other things, that 8 in 10 of those students who didn’t plan to enroll but seriously considered it thought college was worth it, and 94 percent of those who planned to attend thought college would be worthwhile.
On the Bookshelf
Carlo Rotella, What Can I Get Out of This? Teaching and Learning in a Classroom Full of Skeptics (University of California). Rotella provides an account of teaching a required core-literature course at Boston College in the spring of 2020. In One Course’s Small Victories (Chronicle of Higher Education, September 25, 2025), Scott Carlson discusses the book in an interview with the author.
CTL Events
Are your students reading…or just turning the pages? Could a few small changes shift how students approach reading?
Reading requires students to integrate what they are reading with prior knowledge. One of the biggest problems that students face is that they don’t often bring the right strategies to a reading situation. Rather, they attempt to read a text the same way they read a novel. We hope you will join us for a workshop: Getting Students to Read with Dr. Chris Hakala, (Springfield College), September 29, 2025 at Noon.
In this workshop, we will talk about what it takes to learn from text: what reading strategies might be helpful to ensure that students have a better understanding, and better motivation, to learn from text. Some strategies include pre-reading, pre-lecturing, goal-oriented reading, etc.
Dr. Chris Hakala is the Director for the Center for Excellence in Teaching, Learning, and Scholarship at Springfield College, where he is also Professor of Psychology. His academic work in psychology has focused on psycholinguistics, and specifically, reading comprehension.
In the workshop, Chris will:
· Introduce the concept of reading from the cognitive science perspective
· Show the differences in processing that is required to learn from text versus narrative
· Do a demonstration to show what it’s like for students to try to read without prior knowledge
· Give examples, and demonstrations, of how to improve the ability to read this kind of text
Register HERE for this virtual event on Monday, September 29th at Noon EDT (confirm time zone here). A link will be sent the day before. The session will be recorded.
Did someone forward this email to you? Subscribe here
Have a short article or some news related to teaching and learning at your institution that you’d like to share with colleagues? Send your contribution along to us.GLCA/GLAA Consortium for Teaching and Learning
Co-Directors:
Lew Ludwig ([email protected])
Colleen Monahan Smith ([email protected])
CTL Events
Are your students reading…or just turning the pages? Could a few small changes shift how students approach reading?
Reading requires students to integrate what they are reading with prior knowledge. One of the biggest problems that students face is that they don’t often bring the right strategies to a reading situation. Rather, they attempt to read a text the same way they read a novel. We hope you will join us for a workshop: Getting Students to Read with Dr. Chris Hakala, (Springfield College), September 29, 2025 at Noon.
In this workshop, we will talk about what it takes to learn from text: what reading strategies might be helpful to ensure that students have a better understanding, and better motivation, to learn from text. Some strategies include pre-reading, pre-lecturing, goal-oriented reading, etc.
Dr. Chris Hakala is the Director for the Center for Excellence in Teaching, Learning, and Scholarship at Springfield College, where he is also Professor of Psychology. His academic work in psychology has focused on psycholinguistics, and specifically, reading comprehension.
In the workshop, Chris will:
· Introduce the concept of reading from the cognitive science perspective
· Show the differences in processing that is required to learn from text versus narrative
· Do a demonstration to show what it’s like for students to try to read without prior knowledge
· Give examples, and demonstrations, of how to improve the ability to read this kind of text
Register HERE for this virtual event on Monday, September 29th at Noon EDT (confirm time zone here). A link will be sent the day before. The session will be recorded.
Teaching and Learning
3 Questions for Springfield College’s Chris Hakala (Joshua Kim, Inside Higher Ed, September 18, 2025): A conversation with the director of the Center for Excellence in Teaching, Learning and Scholarship.
192 Teams from 176 Institutions Selected to Participate in AAC&U Institute on AI, Pedagogy, and the Curriculum (AAC&U, August 21, 2025): Teams, including Denison, Kenyon, and Ohio Wesleyan, among others, will participate in an institute to help departments, programs, colleges, and universities respond effectively to the challenges and opportunities artificial intelligence (AI) presents for courses, curricula, and higher education in general.
University of Arkansas Creates Faculty Learning Community (Ashley Mowreader, Inside Higher Ed, September 17, 2025): The new initiative helps improve teaching with a focus on student-centered classrooms and connection to support resources.
Supporting the Student Researcher: Effective Teaching, Learning, and Engagement Strategies (Curtis L. Todd and Quintero J. Moore, Faculty Focus, September 17, 2025): The dual function of research advisor as both advisor and mentor can have a lasting impact on students’ academic success and career trajectories.
AI Teaching Learners Today: Pick Your Pedagogy! (Ray Schroeder, Inside Higher Ed, Inside Higher Ed, September 17, 2025): AI is stepping in as a powerful new teaching assistant, capable of tailoring learning to every person’s needs.
10 Ways AI Is Ruining Your Students’ Writing (Wendy Laura Belcher, Chronicle of Higher Education, September 16, 2025): And how to help them see that AI cannot craft good essays.
Teaching in the Age of AI (Nana Lee, Inside Higher Ed, September 15, 2025): Your choice of pedagogical method can support personalized learning no matter what new technology comes along.
How We Think, How We Teach: Five Ways to Think About AI in Faculty Work (Nathan Pritts, Faculty Focus, September 15, 2025): Begin with asking, “What kind of thinking does good teaching really require?” With that as a start, we can begin to see where AI fits and where it doesn’t.
CDI Conversation Guide on Utah Shooting (Constructive Dialogue Guide, September 12, 2025): A guide to help campus leaders and facilitators create space for open, supportive dialogue after Charlie Kirk murder.
Higher Ed in Today’s World
With Charlie Kirk’s Killing, a New Chapter of the Campus Speech Wars Has Begun (Emma Pettit, Chronicle of Higher Education, September 17, 2025): Some campuses have disciplined professors for cheering his death, raising complex legal and institutional questions.
The Path Forward after Political Murder (Caroline Mehl and Jonathan Haidt, Chronicle of Higher Education, September 17, 2025): The solution to violence isn’t less speech – it’s better dialogue.
Americans Tend to View International Students Positively, though Some Support Limitations (William Miner, Sneha Gubbala, and Laura Silver, Pew Research, September 17, 2025): 79% think it’s “good for U.S. colleges and universities to accept international students.”
Here Are the Details of Trump’s $1.2-Billion Call to Remake UCLA in a Conservative Image (Jaweed Kaleem, Los Angeles Times, September 15, 2025): The Trump administration is asking UCLA to pledge to reduce its financial reliance on foreign tuition, agree not to admit “anti-Western” international students, and to “socialize” those it does enroll on free inquiry and open debate in exchange for restoring federal research funding.
After Kirk’s Death, Some Conservatives Blame Higher Ed for Political Violence (Ryan Quinn, Inside Higher Ed, September 16, 2025): The president and his allies are accusing the “radical left” of “terrorism,” blaming unnamed organizations. Some conservatives are condemning universities.
The Assassination That Broke Campus Free Speech (Keith E. Whittington, Chronicle of Higher Education, September 15, 2025): Professors are allowed to say hateful things. That doesn’t mean they should.
Perceived Importance of College Hits New Low (Lydia Saad, Gallup, September 15, 2025): Americans have been placing less importance on the value of a college education over the past 15 years, to the point that about a third (35%) now rate it as “very important.” Forty percent think it is “fairly important,” while 24% say it is “not too important.”
A Better Model for Campus Dialogue (Cherian George, Inside Higher Ed, September 15, 2025): The killing of Charlie Kirk highlights the need for universities to foster counter-polarizing dialogue, not commodified debates.
Charlie Kirk’s Death Is a Catastrophe for Higher Ed (David Austin Walsh, Chronicle of Higher Education, September 11, 2025): Things were already bad. They’re about to get worse.
University Leaders Must Act: An Open Letter on the Threats Facing Critical Interdisciplinary Programs Like Women’s and Gender Studies (Carrie N. Baker, Michele Tracy Berger, Christa Craven, and Janell Hobson, MS Magazine, September 10, 2025): Professors of women’s, gender and sexuality studies urge presidents, provosts and other leaders to defend the future of higher education.
Extra Credit Reading
U.S. Education Dept. Unites Conservative Groups to Create ‘Patriotic’ Civics Content (Sequoia Carrillo, September 17, 2025): The U.S. Department of Education announced a partnership Wednesday with more than 40 conservative organizations to create programming around civics aimed at the celebration of the 250th anniversary of the United States. This despite the fact that since 1970, federal law [20 U.S.C. § 1232a] prohibits any federal official from being involved in curriculum in any way.
The Myth of Faculty Indoctrination (David A. Bell, Chronicle of Higher Education, September 15, 2025): Charlie Kirk’s killing has reignited a right-wing canard.
Action after Affirmative Action (Justin Driver, Chronicle of Higher Education, September 15, 2025): Colleges can still pursue diversity. Here’s how.
Education as Freedom (Michael S. Roth, Inside Higher Ed, September 12, 2025): As a new academic year begins, the author argues that colleges must redouble their commitment to educating for freedom—including freedom from governmental intrusion.
How Teacher Evaluations Broke the University (Rose Horowitch, The Atlantic, September 12, 2025): “We give them all A’s, and they give us all fives.”
UC Berkeley Shares 160 Names with Trump Administration in ‘McCarthy Era’ Move (Sam Levin, Guardian, September 12, 2025): Prominent professor Judith Butler among students and faculty investigated for ‘alleged antisemitic incidents.’ [See, as well, When Universities Become Informants (Judith Butler, Chronicle of Higher Education, September 13,2025): A practice from the McCarthy era makes an ugly return.]
What the Texas A&M Firing Portends for Faculty Speech (Keith E. Whittington, Chronicle of Higher Education, September 11, 2025): On its face, this looks like a textbook violation of academic freedom.
Editor: Steven Volk ([email protected])
Did someone forward this email to you? Subscribe here
Have a short article or some news related to teaching and learning at your institution that you’d like to share with colleagues? Send your contribution along to us.
GLCA/GLAA Consortium for Teaching and Learning
Co-Directors:
Lew Ludwig ([email protected])
Colleen Monahan Smith ([email protected])
Teaching and Learning
Layered Learning: Designing Video with Intention and Authenticity (Bonni Stachowiak, Teaching in Higher Ed, September 11, 2025): A discussion with M. C. Flux on video creation and learning.
Only One-Third of College Students Have Positive Mental Health (Ashley Mowreader, Inside Higher Ed, September 11, 2025): A new survey finds poor mental health conditions, particularly anxiety and depression, continue to impact a significant share of college students.
Teaching Sept. 11 Using Virtual Reality (Adam M. McMahon, Inside Higher Ed, September 11, 2025): Seeking a way to convey the import of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks to students too young to remember them, the author turned to virtual reality.
How to Teach with AI Transparency Statements (Jason Gulya, Faculty Focus, September 10, 2025): Students describe how they used GenAI and then defend their use of non-use of the technology.
The Student Brain on AI (Beth McMurtrie, Chronicle of Higher Education, September 9, 2025): A panic over “brain rot” obscures a more complex – and surprising – reality.
Teaching American Government During Trump II (Matt Reed, Inside Higher Ed, September 8, 2025): On helping students engage thoughtfully with American politics without sliding into either partisan cheerleading or fatalism.
What 130,000 Student Questions to AI Reveal About Critical Thinking (Muireann Hendriksen, Learning Scientists, September 4, 2025): In a large-scale analysis of student interactions with an AI-powered study tool, the author’s research team found encouraging evidence that students are using AI to build, rather than bypass, their critical thinking skills.
How to Get Students to Do Work Outside of Class (Beth McMurtrie, Chronicle of Higher Education, September 4, 2025): Among the ideas: mini-quizzes, pre-class quiz, ‘extra’ homework.
3 Ways to Liven Up Your Lectures (Kristi Rudenga, Chronicle of Higher Education, September 3, 2025): Small changes that can make a lecture-heavy course more engaging.
Why I Bring Bananas to Class (Fidelindo Lim, American Nurse, August 21 2025): How to get students to do the hard work of learning.
AI in the Classroom: Panic, Possibility, and the Pedagogy in Between (Demian Hommel, Teaching with Technology, August 13, 2025): Suggestions on how to engage, listen, and rethink what meaningful learning looks like in the age of AI.
Higher Ed in Today’s World
Education Dept. to End Funding for Minority-Serving Institutions, Affecting Hundreds of Colleges (Sarah Brown, Chronicle of Higher Education, September 10, 2025): The department said that its move would affect $350 million in discretionary funding that was already allocated by Congress to minority-serving grant programs in the 2025 fiscal year. That money will be “reprogrammed into programs that do not include discriminatory racial and ethnic quotas,” according to the department’s statement.
Students Report Less Tolerance for Controversial Speakers (Johanna Alonso, Inside Higher Ed, September 9, 2025): Amid Trump administration attacks on free speech, more students—predominantly conservatives—say they don’t think controversial speakers should be given a platform on campus.
A ‘Volatile’ Climate for Campus Speech Has Worsened Under Trump, New FIRE Report Says (Sonel Cutler, Chronicle of Higher Education, September 9, 2025): Pressure from the Trump administration to crack down on pro-Palestinian student protests and diversity, equity, and inclusion practices has “deepened an already volatile climate for campus expression,” according to FIRE.
Harvard’s Mixed Victory (Jeannie Suk Gersen, New Yorker, September 6, 2025): A resounding win for the university in court still leaves the Trump Administration with plenty of ways to force schools into submission.
President of Northwestern, a School Attacked by the GOP, Will Resign (Anemona Hartocollis, Michael S. Schmidt and Tyler Pager, New York Times, September 4, 2025): The university’s president, Michael Schill, said he would step down following months of turbulence, including Trump administration cuts of $790 million from the university’s research funds.
Harvard Got a Big Win. Here Are 4 Key Quotes (Eric Kelderman, The Chronicle of Higher Education, September 4, 2025): The excerpts signal how one court reacted to the Trump administration’s strategy for overhauling the university’s policies — a playbook that’s been used nationwide.
Extra Credit Reading
Seven Theses Against Viewpoint Diversity (Lisa Siraganian, Academe, October 2025): The problems with arguments for intellectual pluralism.
College Board Cancels Tool for Finding Low-Income High Achievers (Stephanie Saul and Dana Goldstein, New York Times, September 4, 2025): After the Trump administration criticized the use of what it called “racial proxies,” the group behind the SAT shut down a way for universities to identify promising applicants from disadvantaged communities.
The Coming Collapse of Faculty Diversity (Frank Dobbin and Alexandra Kalev, Chronicle of Higher Education, August 28, 2025): For young scholars of color, the dream of an academic career is slipping away.
Virtual (and in Person) Talks
Wooster’s Democracy and Academic Freedom forum continues on Wednesday September 17th at 7:30pm with Professor Jamal Greene from Columbia Law School. His talk is titled “The Art of the Deal: Free Speech in the Age of Trump.” You can attend in-person at The College of Wooster Gault Recital Hall (525 E. University St.) or watch the live-stream. Recordings of past sessions are also available on the live stream link.
Editor: Steven Volk ([email protected])
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