W. Carson Byrd

Trump Administration Will Rehire Scores of Experts Fired in Error

New reporting: many apparently fired at CDC in 'error'. This is a failure by design given that the admin does not care about fulfilling agency missions. This is the kind of error that should have political consequences.

Unserious people cause real-world harm.

🎁
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/11/h...

Abstracts due December 1

I've been saying this exact thing in talks. They are breaking things that aren't easy to fix. And in some cases, like civil rights, destroying a legacy that took a couple of centuries to build, and don't have a ton of buy-in from dems, even if they get power back.

They know they won't be in power forever. So, they're breaking as much as they can right now, in the hope that whoever follows them won't be able to put it all back together.

UNC ends Black Student Movement's 52-year 'co-ownership' of Upendo Lounge BSM President Adam Sherif said administrators cited new federal guidelines that instruct all federally funded entities to ensure they are not engaging in "discriminatory practices, including those lab...

www.dailytarheel.com/article/e9c7...

**always follow the money**
PE firm behind for-profit universities using its WH influence to handwrite terms that will eviscerate, hamstring and control its own competitors in higher ed…and NY Times giving space to the CEO to come out and admit this influence in a pro-Compact piece

Private equity gets its toothhold into firms through economic squeezing, devalues them, then breaks them into parts to sell off. This compact is the squeeze that will simultaneously advantage for-profit ed *and* make it easier to PE-ify non-profit ed. The ideological component is a means to an end.

aaand we are officially in the hide-your-neighbors stage

Memorandum & Order – #90 in Association of American Universities v. Department of Defense (D. Mass., 1:25-cv-11740) – CourtListener.com Memorandum & Order

New: Judge Murphy vacates DoD's 15% indirect cost plan, adding to court losses for DOE, NSF, and NIH.

www.courtlistener.com/docket/70552...

Here's a snippet from the MIT president's letter to ED

The Virginia Senate just told UVA it’s not getting state funding if it accepts the compact since UVA exists to serve Virginia, its residents, & their interests—not be a tool of the federal govt. Scoop from our student newspaper, who’ve been doing vital reporting www.cavalierdaily.com/article/2025...

More of this. Signing this authoritarian devil’s bargain would betray higher education’s independence and the pursuit of knowledge.

'When authoritarians seize power, it is crucial to recognize courageous defenders of freedom who rise and resist,' the Norwegian Nobel Committee said as it announced Maria Corina Machado as the winner of the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize

Journals and publishers crack down on research from open health data sets PLOS, Frontiers, and others announce policies trying to stem the tide of suspect research

"Frontiers has announced a similar change, requiring editors to automatically reject papers that use public health data sets without some kind of “external validation.” www.science.org/content/arti...

UNC schools of data science and information science to merge, forming unnamed ‘School of AI’ SDSS Dean Stanley Ahalt will be made dean of the new school while SILS Dean Jeffrey Bardzell will stand as the University’s Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer and Vice Provost for AI.

Hey, this sucks. Like... a lot. 📚

---

UNC schools of data science and information science to merge, forming unnamed ‘School of AI’

www.dailytarheel.com/article/univ...

The Edge of Space-Time by Chanda Prescod-Weinstein: 9780593701683 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books A fresh, charming, socially conscious tour of the mysteries of space-time, from the award-winning author of The Disordered Cosmos In her highly acclaimed debut, distinguished cosmologist and particle...

Drake lost that rap battle so badly that I wrote about it in my book about SPACE-TIME

A rap battle loss of literally cosmological proportions

Find out how by preordering a copy!!

Indicting political opponents & critics because they are political opponents & critics is terrifying.

It's completely inconsistent with the rule of law & democracy.

It should scare everyone - and (hopefully) will get people to realize that we all need to stand against this.

Trump Fires Black Officials From an Overwhelmingly White Administration

It is simply accurate to call this regime segregationist.

Job posting! OU Sociology is looking to hire a TT Assistant Professor or an accelerated TT or tenured Associate Professor, teaching criminology, criminal justice, & race/ethnicity courses. OU is OK's flagship R1, PhD program, 2-2 load with TA help. Please share!

Details: apply.interfolio.com/174925

A fragmented legal system and threat of deportation are pushing higher education out of reach for many undocumented students While some students living in the US without legal authorization can apply for private scholarships or state-based financial aid, a growing number of states are changing the rules.

ASA member Vanessa Delgado @vanessadelgado.bsky.social (Washington State University) was interviewed about higher education pathways for students living in the U.S. without legal authorization & the ways the administration is affecting their options. @us.theconversation.com

Super excited for this discussion on the structural determinants of health, moderated by Paula Braveman. A powerhouse panel - @tyson-brown.bsky.social @povertyscholar.bsky.social and Jonathan Heller

The government has long researched high school experiences. Then DOGE cut the effort The federal government has long surveyed high schoolers to help track how their academic choices may have influenced the course of their lives. The Trump administration put an end to that effort.

The government has long researched high school experiences. Then DOGE cut the effort

Fannie Lou Hamer addressing the Democratic National Convention, Atlantic City, New Jersey, August 1964. (United States Library of Congress's Prints and Photographs division)

Today would’ve been Fannie Lou Hamer’s birthday. In 1964, she asked a question that still echoes:

“Is this America… where our lives be threatened daily, because we want to live as decent human beings?”

inthesetimes.com/article/i-qu...

A New Raw Deal: The Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education The “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education” turns a manifesto of conservative grievances into policy and violates the very principles it claims to protect.

Now published @newamerica.org: newamerica.org/education-po...

The media trots out the "deplorable" comment from a decade ago to castigate the left. Once a week now Trump implies that the military should destroy democrats, and it is just how things are.

If you’re white, your accomplishments are your own and you can resent and criticize the country all you like, but if you’re black and successful you should be grateful to white people for allowing you in their presence. bsky.app/profile/jess...

Universities teaching literature students how to cope with long novels Critics blame GCSE English for deterring teenagers from the subject, describing the literature syllabus as boring and repetitive

I think we’re really going to have to do a lot more of this. A massive deprogramming so that people can read more than ten words at a time without anxiety.

www.thetimes.com/uk/education...?

A Deal That Would End Universities’ Independence The free-speech provisions of the so-called compact are an exercise in contradiction.

“The administration is inviting universities to voluntarily put on a yoke and hand it the keys.“

From @kevincarey1.bsky.social: www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

Remembering Quintard Taylor: Historian of the Black West and beyond Dr. Quintard Taylor taught history at the University of Washington and created BlackPast.org, an online collection of global Black history. He died Sept. 21, 2025, at the age of 76.

How could a man who never set foot in a library until he was in college create what is considered the most extensive online collection of global Black history?

Maybe it had something to do with the story Dr. Quintard Taylor's father told him when he was a young boy.

m.kuow.org/stories/reme...

Office of the President Dear Dartmouth community, As many of you know, Dartmouth was one of nine universities asked by the White House to give feedback by Oct. 20 on a draft of its “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education.” I am deeply committed to Dartmouth’s academic mission and values and will always defend our fierce independence. You have often heard me say that higher education is not perfect and that we can do better. At the same time, we will never compromise our academic freedom and our ability to govern ourselves. Best, Sian Leah Beilock President

It appears that my employer, Dartmouth, one of the Trump 9, has said no to the compact. All the better given that our president is cited within it. But she’s saying no. Count the small victories when they come.