Timothy Vollmer

Be part of the conversation about how to #DefendResearch, support #OpenAccess, and protect #Education! Register for next week's SJSU OA Virtual Conference, where I'm very excited to share the keynoting privilege with @camitchell.bsky.social scholarworks.sjsu.edu/oa-un-confer...

🚨 Breaking News | UVA Becomes 5th University to Reject Trump Higher Ed Compact

The university is the first public, and Southern, institution to publicly turn down the administration's “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education." https://bit.ly/47tWIOl

#EDUSky #AcademicSky #HigherEd

Berkeley hotel adjacent to UC campus purchased by California university system The University of California’s real estate investment arm shelled out $175 million for Residence Inn Berkeley, a 16-story mid-rise that is downtown’s biggest hotel and the second largest in the...

“It’s clear that UC has a set of priorities — on the one hand they are quick to write a check for a new building while, on the other, workers are receiving layoff notices at the expense of our students, patients and research.”
- Dan Russell, @uptecwa.bsky.social www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/arti...

The absurd softness of the language used in this headline. “Reaching out.” “Invitees.” This is the fucking President of the United States using the power of the federal government to publicly intimidate institutions of higher education into accepting an ideological mandate.

Benioff Apologizes for Saying Trump Should Send Troops to San Francisco

intolerant billionaire, 61, discovers holding and vocalizing disgusting political views has business consequences www.nytimes.com/2025/10/17/u...

A take on Benjamin Franklin’s Join, or Die political cartoon originally published by The Pennsylvania Gazette on May 9, 1754. Franklin’s cartoon was based on a superstition that if a snake was cut in pieces and the pieces were put together before sunset, the snake would return to life. The original cartoon is a woodcut showing a snake cut into eighths, with each segment labeled with the initials of one of the American colonies. This version replaces the colonies with universities targeted by the Trump administration for a ‘loyalty oath’ compact to ensure federal funding. The schools are M.I.T., Penn, Brown, UVA, Dartmouth, USC, Vanderbilt, University of Arizona, and the University of Texas. So far, M.I.T, Brown, Penn, and USC have all rejected the offer.

Four down.

Five to go.

Let’s go.

Join our National Teach-In on Trump’s Loyalty Oaths.

Register Here: us06web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

#DefendHigherEd

USC rejects Trump education compact aimed at shifting the university to the right USC interim President Beong-Soo Kim said in a statement that he had sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Education turning down the Trump offer.

BREAKING: USC HAS JOIN THE RESISTANCE!

That’s four (MIT, Brown, Penn, USC) of the nine schools Trump targeted.

Stay tuned! 🍿

#DefendHigherEd
#StandUpFightBack

Renting a San Francisco Apartment in the A.I. Boom? Good Luck.

AI creating hell on earth - literally: www.nytimes.com/2025/10/16/t...

“With its compact, the Trump administration is attempting to silence not just university presidents, but every school, department and center that universities run.” @ucaft.bsky.social @aaup.org @uc-faculty.bsky.social

Tomorrow, October 17 at 2 p.m. ET on Zoom.

Register here for our Teach-In on Trump’s “Loyalty Oath” Compacts here👉 us06web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

@aft.org

Penn rejects White House proposal for special funding treatment With the decision, Penn becomes the third university to decline the offer.

🚨🚨🚨

And THREE stood up!

Penn has joined MIT & Brown in rejecting Trump’s loyalty oath compact.

When we join together and fight back, WE WIN!

No amount of federal bribery is worth surrendering the freedom to question, explore, and dissent.

LET’S GO!

#DefendHigherEd
@aaup-penn.bsky.social

When students, faculty, and our communities are united to fight for our universities, for the common good, and for our democracy, nothing can stop us!

WHEN WE FIGHT, WE WIN!

@aft @higheredlabor.bsky.social

#DefendHigherEd

Judge Lin: “As it appears that Defendants have the resources to continue terminating grants despite the lapse in appropriations, they must also allocate resources to defend the legality of those terminations in court.”

U.S. District Court rules the Trump administration cannot delay lawsuit proceedings with AAUP and labor unions because of the Federal government shutdown. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

“The Regents of the University of California is ORDERED to produce the requested document on or before Friday October 24, 2025.”

“The document was sent from one public entity to another public entity, it addresses matters of public concern and the expenditure of public funds, and much of its contents has already been made public in the University’s own press releases...”

from the order: “The University’s central argument is that it would be easier for the University to negotiate with the DOJ if the document were not disclosed to the public. That is not compelling...”

Judge rules UC must publicize Trump administration settlement demands - Daily Bruin This post was updated Oct. 14 at 11:30 p.m. A judge ruled Tuesday that the UC Board of Regents must publicize the Trump administration’s proposed settlement demands to UCLA.

via the Daily Bruin: Judge rules UC must publicize Trump administration settlement demands dailybruin.com/2025/10/14/j... @ucaft.bsky.social @ucaftbayarea.bsky.social @uc-faculty.bsky.social

Victor Ray, a sociology professor at the University of Iowa who studies race, said in an email that OSU’s decision to interpret federal guidance in this way “reflects the real pressure universities face as the Trump administration and Republican legislators attack higher education.” But, Ray added, it may also be exposing the true colors of many universities that were broadcasting their commitments to diversity, equity and inclusion when it was politically expedient to do so just a few years ago. “The swiftness with which these organizations have complied with legally dubious orders shows that their commitments to diversity were often paper-thin before this administration’s pressure,” he said. “In many cases, administrators with existing qualms about diversity, perhaps going too far, now have political cover to take anti-equitable actions.”

I fear that schools being willing to drop diversity programs without a fight shows how flimsy their commitment to inclusion was in the first place. People fight for things they truly believe in.

Israel kills five Palestinians in Gaza and announces it will not abide by the terms of facilitating humanitarian aid, despite ceasefire agreement Drop Site Daily: October 14, 2025

⚡️Drop Site Daily | October 14, 2025

Israel kills five Palestinians in Gaza and announces it will not abide by the terms of facilitating humanitarian aid, despite ceasefire agreement

www.dropsitenews.com/p/drop-site-...

The Facebook page ICE Sighting-Chicagoland with over 70,000 members has been taken down by Meta.

Meta spokesperson Francis Brennan, who was director of strategic response for Trump’s 2020 presidential campaign, said the page violated its policies on coordinating harm.

UPDATE: Faculty union sues CSU to shield personal information from Trump The latest education news updates from EdSource.

Rise up, fight back! ✊🏽http://edsource.org/?page_id=742822

SEND AN EMAIL: Protect the Center for Disease Control Library Ask your representative to call for the reinstatement of CDC librarians to protect public health.

On Oct. 10th, staff at the CDC Library and many other agency employees were laid off as part of massive job cuts. While some staff have been rehired, librarians have not been called back to work. Take action now!✊ action.everylibrary.org/emailcdclibr...

The Trump attorneys argue "neither the UC Regents nor the University of California broadly are parties to this suit," and cite that as UC's implied support for a stay.

That's right. Trump lawyers using UC's failure to stand up to them as consent for continued threats to 100k workers and students.

MIT President Sally Kornbluth next to a shot of the campus and text of an open letter to the government on the education compact proposed by President Donald Trump. In black text the kicker Governance, the headline MIT Rejects Proposed Federal Compact, and the sub-headline MIT is the first institution to reject a proposal by the Trump administration that would trade preferential treatment on federal funding for far-reaching changes. Photo illustration by Justin Morrison/Inside Higher Ed | Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images | Nate Hovee/iStock/Getty Images | MIT

The quote “In our view, America’s leadership in science and innovation depends on independent thinking and open competition for excellence. In that free marketplace of ideas, the people of MIT gladly compete with the very best, without preferences. Therefore, with respect, we cannot support the proposed approach to addressing the issues facing higher education.” — Sally Kornbluth, MIT president, in a letter to the campus community Friday.

ICYMI | MIT has rejected the Trump administration’s proposal to sign on to the “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education,” which would mandate sweeping changes across campus in exchange for preferential treatment on federal funding.

https://bit.ly/3KO0g5l

UC, CSU released troves of personal employee information to the feds. Now the backlash Cal State and UC have face campus protest and intense rebuke by faculty, students and staff for sharing employee personal information with the Trump administration as part of investigations into alle...

University of California & Cal State campuses have together shared the names of thousands of employees with the Trump admin as it probes antisemitism allegations. Faculty are demanding schools, which say they are legally required to share data, push back:

www.latimes.com/california/s...

Fall Bargaining Summit flyer for UC-AFT Unit 18 Teaching Faculty. Event scheduled for Friday 11/14 from 12-1pm on Zoom. Features UC-AFT logo and photo of faculty at a protest rally.

Attention UC-AFT teaching faculty: Save the date for our Fall Bargaining Summit on Nov 14 at noon. RSVP for the Zoom and join UC lecturers from across the state to discuss building power in upcoming negotiations.✊ us02web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

He was wrongfully imprisoned for 43 years. Moments after being released, ICE took him Subramanyam “Subu” Vedam now faces deportation.

Incredible. Exonerated after 43 years of being falsely imprisoned, rather than releasing him to his awaiting family, the police released him to ICE, beginning deportation proceedings.

www.miamiherald.com/news/local/i...

As USC considers Trump’s offer tying funding to conservative policies, MIT firmly rejects it MIT is among the first to express forceful views either in favor of or against an agreement the White House billed as providing "multiple positive benefits."

MIT says it will reject the Trump university compact. USC, when we asked today, declined to take any further position on the proposal. @danielnmiller.bsky.social and I report:

www.latimes.com/world-nation...

Marc Benioff Says Trump Should Send Guard Troops to San Francisco

Being a billionaire must really fuck with your mind. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/10/u...