When they cut foreign language departments at universities “because [app name] can do it”

For almost a year, a translation company in New York tested out generative AI, only to find it can't translate on its own, and they actually need translators. theglobeandmail.com/investing/mark…

Tried to pull together some threads about this morning, efforts to deescalate, and the official narratives taking shape

“If you can’t take the outcry, stop supporting this war.” - Shawn Fain

1/ More than 100 Fordham faculty have signed a letter supporting our students' right to protest genocide, to assembly on their own campus, and to express their views as a clear-eyed anti-war generation. #Curapersonalis includes Palestinians.
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAI…

Was just telling my kids how at Princeton in the late 90s some students occupied the President’s office for weeks, and everyone treated it as totally mundane. At Bard where I grew up it happened all the time. Heard that Guidos office at YLS was occupied too.

Northwestern University, like Brown and several other elite schools, ended their encampment protests by agreeing to an extremely milquetoast set of policies.

our interim chancellor pepper sprayed students and cancelled classes to stage a photo-op raising the american flag. far more violent and disruptive to learning than any protest or encampment to date at UNC. held a press conference, but no explanation to students/faculty

As per the tweet from yesterday. Every student and faculty within hundreds of meters of @columbia campus was treated as a presumptive threat by armed police. People could not enter or exit their homes.

In our latest, Nicki and Charlie 😍 join to discuss the encampments at CUNY and Columbia that were subject to a coordinated simultaneous raid last night and to share a May Day call to action

on.soundcloud.com/B1KrDjW5eu1SiR…

Maybe the first question should be, why are universities invested in *anything* to the degree they are?
A hedge fund with a college attached serves nobody but the malefactors of great wealth.

According to Columbia by-laws, police are not supposed to be allowed on campus without the consent of the faculty. President Shafik does *not* have our approval for this raid; she has not even asked our approval. This promises to be a horrifying dereliction of faculty governance

You can see the epistemic closure of the administrative class in the chain of decisions that has them calling in armed police to beat their students and faculty. Destroying the university to save it.

From the great Robin D.G. Kelley: 'Universities are not supposed to resemble dictatorships or Fortune 500 companies, irrespective of the size of their endowments.'

bostonreview.net/articles/lette…

In our latest, we discuss the Cass Review, the recently released report that has media and political figures convinced trans care for young people is a mistake built on weak evidence. But the report, and the debate, are asking all the wrong questions

patreon.com/posts/103298391

Thanks so much to Gina Castro at Journal Sentinel for taking the time to talk about Wisconsin's Latino history.

We've got plenty more chapters left to add to this story!

jsonline.com/story/entertai…

Once again it falls to me to remember that one of Duke's most long-standing and beloved university traditions is Krzyzewskiville, a tent city erected by students outside the basketball arena that stands for months at a time without ever having the cops called in to break it up.

Americans now cyclically rediscover what the poor have known for three decades or more: police forces across the USA have para-militarized in terms of tactics, technology, & culture. Any social conflict now regularly triggers grossly disproportionate shows of force from the state

'In her short time in office, Shafik has distinguished herself as the worst Columbia University president since that bumbling Cold Warrior Grayson Kirk. It is already high time for the Baroness to step down...'
- Class of '69 alum - Hank Reichman in AcademeBlog
academeblog.org/2024/04/19/on-…

“I would view her performance as self-serving and career-saving as opposed to what higher education requires of her, which is a robust defense of academic freedom in service of democracy,” - Irene Mulvey, president of the American Association of University Professors.