Faster, thinner: Colleges are swiftly trimming a B.A. degree to three years [ Hechinger Report ]

The flava:

Quinn McDonald planned to spend the typical four years working toward a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice. Then he heard about a place where he could get the same degree in three.

“It was the idea of being able to save a year” that grabbed his attention, said McDonald — a savings of not only time, but tuition. And he could start earning a salary faster than if he spent four years in college.

So, last fall, McDonald joined the inaugural class of one of the nation’s first in-person programs approved to award bachelor’s degrees with fewer than the usual 120 credits, at Johnson & Wales University. He’ll need only 90 credits, putting him on track to graduate in 2028, after three years  instead of the usual four or more. . . .    

The article:

https://hechingerreport.org/faster-thinner-colleges-bachelors-degree-three-years/

Americans Love Everything About This Scottish University—Except All the Americans [ WSJ ]

The flava:

Holly Govan left New York ready for an adventure abroad at the University of St Andrews in a cobblestone-street town 3,000 miles from home.

Instead, the Upper East Sider got paired with a roommate from lower Manhattan.

“Practically every person you hear sounds American,” Govan says. “You think you’re coming to get this Scottish or international experience, and there’s just so many Americans.”

The picturesque Scottish university, once the secret of private-school students from the East Coast, now boasts a student body that is about 20% American. With more than 2,200 American students, it beat even Oxford for the highest number of U.S. university expats last year, according to the Higher Education Statistics Agency. . . .   

The article:

https://www.wsj.com/us-news/education/americans-love-everything-about-this-scottish-universityexcept-all-the-americans-ec45cb63

A.I. today

President Trump Participates in a Saving College Sports Roundtable [ The white House ]

https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/4312

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7095330/2026/03/06/trump-saving-college-sports-roundtable-executive-order-score-act/

https://www.wsj.com/sports/trump-chaos-of-college-sports-aa57c92c

https://www.ms.now/opinion/trump-nil-college-sports-paying-student-athletes

UGA instructor fired. . .

https://www.latestly.com/us/antonio-alfieri-viral-video-uga-professor-removed-from-campus-amid-serious-allegations-7329425.html

:-)

Hidalgo Aransas Pecos Presidio Yoakum 💚  Bexar Irion Rockwall Travis Houston Dallas Atascosa Young 💜  Caldwell Atascosa Lubbock.  

What’s the Point of School When AI Can Do Your Homework? [ 404 Media ]

The flava:

There’s a new agentic AI called Einstein that will, according to its developers, live the life of a student for them. Einstein’s website claims that the AI will attend lectures for you, write your papers, and even log into EdTech platforms like Canvas to take tests and participate in discussions. 

Educators told me that Einstein is just one of many AI tools that can do homework for students, but should be seen as a warning to schools that are increasingly seen by students as a place to gain a diploma and status as opposed to the value of education itself. 

If an AI can go to school for you what’s the point of going to school? For Advait Paliwal, Brown dropout and co-creator of Einstein, there isn’t one. . . .   

The article:

https://www.404media.co/whats-the-point-of-school-when-ai-can-do-your-homework/

The real impact of Mackenzie Scott's historic donations to HBCUs [ ABC News ]

Whistleblower statutes should be changed to incentivize university research groups to investigate potential fraud. [ Moshe Alamaro ]

"Whistleblower reward laws are designed to incentivize insiders to expose corporate fraud by offering a bounty. In the U.S., agencies such as the Securities and Exchange Commission and laws such as the False Claims Act typically grant whistleblowers 10 to 30 percent of the total fines collected. These rewards help offset the significant professional and personal risks faced by those who come forward. . . .  Are universities and their scientists eligible to receive rewards like those that whistleblowers who expose fraud receive? Only in limited circumstances. . . ."

--Moshe Alamaro

Starting at Harvard and Falling for Your First Tree [ NYTimes ]

The flava:

In a time when we live ever more deeply embedded in the digital ecosystem, Harvard University’s seminar called “Tree” should be a required course for all.

Its lessons are not delivered in a lecture hall, nor is there a hefty, Latin-filled botany textbook to wade through. And despite his impeccable credentials, the professor of record, the evolutionary biologist William Friedman, isn’t the one bestowing the weekly installments of instruction on the students, exactly — at least not in the traditional format.

The trees themselves do much of the teaching. . . .    

The article:

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/10/realestate/starting-at-harvard-and-falling-for-your-first-tree.html

Robert Kelchen interview [ Small College America ]

Life Inside America’s Oldest Private Military College | Norwich University [ Sam Eckholm ]

U.S. government has lost more than 10,000 STEM Ph.D.s since Trump took office [ Science ]

The flava:

Some 10,109 doctoral-trained experts in science and related fields left their jobs last year as President Donald Trump dramatically shrank the overall federal workforce. That exodus was only 3% of the 335,192 federal workers who exited last year but represents 14% of the total number of Ph.D.s in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) or health fields employed at the end of 2024 as then-President Joe Biden prepared to leave office.

The numbers come from employment data posted earlier this month by the White House Office of Personnel Management (OPM). At 14 research agencies Science examined in detail, departures outnumbered new hires last year by a ratio of 11 to one, resulting in a net loss of 4224 STEM Ph.D.s. The graphs that follow show the impact is particularly striking at such scientist-rich agencies as the National Science Foundation (NSF). But across the government, these departing Ph.D.s took with them a wealth of subject matter expertise and knowledge about how the agencies operate. . . .   

The article:

https://www.science.org/content/article/u-s-government-has-lost-more-10-000-stem-ph-d-s-trump-took-office

Texas A&M’s Melting Point [ Texas Monthly ]

Five presidents in five years. High-profile firings and cancellations. Crackdowns on dissent. Inside state leaders’ efforts to remake one of our finest institutions.

The article:

https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/meltdown-at-texas-a-m-university

Expanding the Web of Control: America’s Censored Campuses 2025 [ pen.org ]

The flava:

There is no use in sugarcoating things. For higher education in America, 2025 was a year of catastrophe. 

Across nearly every conceivable front – from state capitals to Capitol Hill and even on social media – America’s politicians have been waging a full-scale campaign against colleges and universities, with a concerted focus on speech. The toll is immense. Fear among faculty, students, and administrators is widespread. Self-censorship in teaching and research is rampant. Every week seems to bring a new law or directive that further threatens academic freedom and educational quality. Many professors are grappling with online hate and doxxing, at times instigated by elected officials. International students have been detained for their speech and threatened with expulsion from the country. Angry legislators are targeting any office or program even tangentially related to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). And campus leaders, buckling under the assault, have fired, suspended, or sanctioned scores of professors and staff, many for constitutionally protected speech. Some university presidents have been forced out or driven to resign. Many campus leaders feel they have no choice but to comply and try to strike deals with the federal government, even as they face mounting threats at the state level.

America’s Censored Campuses 2025: Expanding the Web of Control is a chronicle of this crisis. . . .   

The article:

https://pen.org/report/americas-censored-campuses-25-web-of-control/

“A Reckoning:” Fmr. Columbia President on Academic Freedom Under Trump [ Amanpour and Company ]

US science after a year of Trump [ Nature ]

The flava:

More than 7,800 research grants terminated or frozen. Some 25,000 scientists and personnel gone from agencies that oversee research. Proposed budget cuts of 35% — amounting to US$32 billion.

These are just a few of the ways in which Donald Trump has downsized and disrupted US science since returning to the White House last January. As his administration seeks to reshape US research and development, it has substantially scaled back and restricted what science the country pursues and the workforce that runs the federal scientific enterprise. . . . 

The article:

https://www.nature.com/immersive/d41586-026-00088-9/index.html

Penn Calls Government’s Demand for Lists of Jewish Staff ‘Disconcerting’ [ NYTimes ]

The flava:

The University of Pennsylvania on Tuesday condemned Trump administration investigators for seeking records about Jewish employees, saying in a federal court filing that the request was “disconcerting.”

The university and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission have been at odds for months over an investigation into antisemitism at Penn.

The tensions roared into public view in November, when the Trump administration sued the university because it had “refused to comply” with a subpoena that sought information about employees who brought complaints about antisemitic discrimination and those who are members of Jewish groups on campus, among other people.

The demand prompted a campus uproar, and in a blistering response on Tuesday, Penn described the request as an “extraordinary and unconstitutional demand.”

“The E.E.O.C. insists that Penn produce this information without the consent — and indeed, over the objections — of the employees impacted while entirely disregarding the frightening and well-documented history of governmental entities that undertook efforts to identify and assemble information regarding persons of Jewish ancestry,” the university said in a filing in Federal District Court in Philadelphia. “The government’s demand implicates Penn’s substantial interest in protecting its employees’ privacy, safety and First Amendment rights.”

Penn declined to comment beyond its 163-page filing on Tuesday. In its filing, the university said that the E.E.O.C.’s request had “alarmed” members of the university’s Jewish community.

The article:

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/20/us/university-of-pennsylvania-trump-jewish-staff.html

In Scientific Publishing, Who Should Foot the Bill? [ Undark ]

The flava:

From 2019 to 2023, authors paid an estimated $8.3 billion for open access to six publishers. And critics, including Kharrazi, contend the article processing charge (APC) model creates incentives that are at odds with high-quality science: Since volume equals profit, the model favors quantity over quality. A recent Cambridge University Press report on the issue quoted one librarian: “[T]he journal’s interest in rejecting bad science is in direct conflict with its interest in maintaining revenue.”

The APC at Current Research in Environmental Sustainability, one of some 2,900 titles published by Elsevier, is $2,620. At the journal, Kharrazi had a front row view of the APC model’s effects, and he did not like what he saw. So long as a reviewer signed off, he told Undark, whatever it was — credible research, junk science, AI-generated text — the financial incentives were to publish. . . .  

The article:

https://undark.org/2026/01/07/apc-science-publishing/

This University Built an Honors College — and Then Destroyed It | The Honest Broker #5

Charles Schultz on libraries

Another note from Southern Bubba, Ph.D.

What is love?

Really.  I have heard colleagues say that they love their jobs.  Then I wonder whether they would work for free.  After all, no one demands to be paid for doing what they actually love.  

But I think what my colleagues really mean is that they think they would rather endure their current misery--rather than some other unknown misery--for the paychecks they receive.  

We're in the business of measuring and sorting people (most especially their central nervous systems).  Does he have the IQ?  Does she have the temperament?  Can they function in the field?  Can their disability be accommodated?  Relative to others in her boat, can she swim?  Will he fulfill his promise one day?  Could she be the best?  Will she embarrass us one day?  Will they harm someone because I opened the gate for them?

We have to be shrewd, because we, too, are being judged on how well we judge.

But I'm not sure whether I care anymore about being judged.

To win.  To perform.  To dominate.  To create.  To impress.  To be ethically or technically superior.

I'm kind of tired of it.

Player pay and transfer portal put college sports in new territory [ PBS NewsHour ]