Jeremy C. Young

That basic insight still animates my work outside of the academy, as I study why higher education has lost the trust of the American public. I am still drawn to approaches that start with a description of people's experiences, while decentering my own. In that respect, I'm still learning from Rob.

If I'm not mistaken, @galbeckerman.bsky.social errs a bit in pigeonholing Rob as someone who "questions whether humans have anything in common." The thrust of Rob's work is that we can only make meaning from people's experiences if we understand them first on their own terms, not on ours.

What If Our Ancestors Didn’t Feel Anything Like We Do? The historians who want to know how our ancestors experienced love, anger, fear, and sorrow

What a pleasure it was today to read a profile of my brilliant and generous friend @boddice.bsky.social in @theatlantic.com. Overall it's a great piece, and more people should understand the revolutionary potential of Rob's work.

www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...

Hey authors! Check to see if Anthropic stole your book to train their slop generator on. You’re entitled to $1500 per stolen Work.

Look up your work, and if you’re in the database, file a claim
secure.anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com/lookup/

This is true but so maddening. The promise of social media was that you could make friends with people who didn't live near you or travel in your circles. Because social media companies have monetized sharing your thoughts with the world's worst trolls instead, that promise is gone.

Higher Education’s Compact with America: Shared Principles for the Common Good https://bit.ly/3WbZv8K

A Higher Education Compact in Action

Great piece by @compact.org's Bobbie Laur in response to the other "Compact" being proffered to universities by the administration.

compact.org/news/a-highe...

This isn’t Rate My Professor: Explosion in watchlists brings new threats to academics Online commentary used to be limited to sites like "Rate My Professor," which jokingly rated how "hot" a professor was. It's changed drastically.

I enjoyed speaking with Juliet Schulman-Hall for @masslive.bsky.social about how the Professor Watchlist and Canary Mission get us farther from, not closer to, a free exchange of ideas on campus. www.masslive.com/news/2025/10...

Survive for a Purpose | AAC&U In responding to the administration’s Compact, college and university presidents need to rest on their mission

“Surviving for a purpose means keeping the mission of an institution at the forefront of decision-making.” Read AAC&U's @jeremycyoung.bsky.social’s “Survive for a Purpose.” https://bit.ly/4h1cUtE #LibEdMag

New AAC&U Initiative Seeks to Rebuild Public Confidence in Higher Education's Democratic Mission Initiative brings together college leaders, business, and civil society to address historic lows in public trust.

We got some coverage for the new Advancing Public Trust initiative in @theeduledger.bsky.social (formerly Diverse)! www.theeduledger.com/leadership-p...

AAC&U Launches Initiative to Restore Public Trust in Higher Education: https://bit.ly/46JDLqN

AAC&U Launches Initiative to Restore Public Trust in Higher… | AAC&U AAC&U Launches Initiative to Restore Public Trust in Higher Education

And we're live! Announcing the launch of @aacu.org's new Advancing Public Trust in Higher Education (APT) initiative, which I co-lead with Kathryn Enke. You'll be hearing a lot more about APT in the coming months. www.aacu.org/newsroom/aac...

Survive for a Purpose | AAC&U In responding to the administration’s Compact, college and university presidents need to rest on their mission

As colleges consider the "Compact," I write @aacu.org, "higher education leaders need to make hard choices that will allow their institutions to survive—but they must remember that their goal is to survive for a purpose, not merely to continue to exist."

www.aacu.org/liberaleduca...

Our statement @aacu.org: "In renewing the call for constructive engagement, AAC&U also strongly opposes any alternative that would erode or eviscerate essential freedoms and promote instability."

Associate Director | AAC&U A VOICE AND A FORCE FOR LIBERAL EDUCATION. AAC&U advances the vitality and democratic purposes of undergraduate liberal education.

I'm hiring! www.aacu.org/about/employ...

Trump’s data collection efforts could target GW’s enrollment strategies: experts Experts said Trump’s memo to revamp the government’s data collection system could lead to the Trump administration threatening to withhold federal funding from schools the administration deems are sti...

Enjoyed speaking with Gianna Jakubowski for this piece in the GW Hatchet! gwhatchet.com/2025/09/15/t...

"To the press alone, chequered as it is with abuses, the world is indebted for all the triumphs which have been gained by reason and humanity, over error and oppression;...to the same beneficent source, the US owe much of the lights which conducted them to the rank of a free and independent nation."

Madison later wrote, regarding freedom of the press, that "It is better to leave a few of its noxious branches, to their luxuriant growth, than by pruning them away, to injure the vigor of those yielding the proper fruits."

From James Madison's original draft of the First Amendment: "The people shall not be deprived or abridged of their right to speak, to write, or to publish their sentiments; and the freedom of the press, as one of the great bulwarks of liberty, shall be inviolable."

When the Founding Fathers adopted the First Amendment, the censorship that kept them up at night was censorship or private citizens by the government. That's what they made unconstitutional. Not social pressure. Not social media pile-ons. Not hate speech. Censorship by the government.

I'm thrilled to welcome Tess Ulrey as @responsiblehs.bsky.social's newest Executive Director. As I said in the release, "Tess is an expert in helping nonprofits fulfill their potential…[her] proven record of accomplishment in youth development, advocacy, and fundraising makes her the ideal choice."

NEW: two recent polls show an uptick in popularity for higher ed. That says more about the "thermostatic effect" in politics than it does about colleges, I explain in @aacu.org's Liberal Education Online -- but it does give us an opening to make our case. www.aacu.org/liberaleduca...

Dreamed that Clint Hurdle added me to the Pittsburgh Pirates' roster even though I can't play baseball, because he valued my ideas and charisma. Team activities consisted of him calling the players together and imparting life lessons about equality and social justice, and he wanted my contributions

Scholars Push Back Against Trump’ administration's Smithsonian Review Scholars are pushing back against the Trump administration’s plan to conduct a "comprehensive internal review" of the Smithsonian, viewing it as political interference.

Scholars push back against Trump’s Smithsonian review. #HigherEd #AcademicSky www.forbes.com/sites/michae...

This is not an accurate description either of how science works or of how it is viewed by the administration. It's as if RFK Jr. doesn't exist.

This every-man-for-himself panic just sets us further back. We must all hang together, or we will surely all hang separately.

In my first piece for @aacu.org's Liberal Education Online, I discuss an alarming feature of the DOJ's recent anti-DEI memo: targeting thought crimes like "proxies," "perceptions," and "intent," even when they don't involve actual differential treatment of students by identity group.

The Business And Economic Case For Academic Freedom Academic freedom fuels U.S. innovation and economic growth. Political interference risks undermining our universities—and America's global competitive edge.

This is a spectacular piece by Ian Simmons on why business and industry should be all in for academic freedom.

www.forbes.com/sites/iansim...

the US profoundly needs a children's rights movement. children are not property... they deserve opportunity and learning and autonomy and security.... and our country just does not acknowledge this

Protect Science and Innovation

More of this, please. Protect Science and American Innovation Day of Action happening today. www.protectscienceandinnovation.org

Interesting-looking November conference on higher ed and democracy, organized by my friend @jpygold.bsky.social at @bulaw.bsky.social! www.bu.edu/law/engageme...