Jennifer Nolan

say it again:

4 million people work in higher ed, the largest employer in 10 states, second largest employer in 10 more, and in 60 of the 100 biggest cities

demolishing higher education is economic sabotage

Provost: UNC-CH Chancellor Signed Off On Plan To Delay Tenure Chris Clemens wrote in an email obtained by The Assembly that Chancellor Lee Roberts agreed to delay tenure votes for financial reasons.

BREAKING: @theassemblync.bsky.social obtained an email in which UNC-Chapel Hill's ex-provost said Chancellor Lee Roberts agreed to the Board of Trustees’ controversial move to delay tenure votes for financial reasons.

From me & @themhartman.bsky.social

www.theassemblync.com/education/hi...

"When the first of August came round, the Professor realized he had pleasantly trifled away nearly two months at a task which should have taken little more than a week."

--Willa Cather, 1925 and timeless

I'm entering my 25th year in the job, having taught for 4 years at Yale and 20 at Berkeley.

The clearest trendline in my experience (fwiw) is the *dramatically* diminished willingness or capacity of undergrads to read. I used to assign 150 pp./week. Closer to 40 now—and even that is aspirational.

(Ostensibly, my youngest daughter’s middle name is Alice because that was my grandmother’s middle name and her paternal grandmother’s first name, but I can’t say this Alice - or Carroll’s at any rate - wasn’t a factor too)

Anne Margaret Daniel 🌻 (@annemargaretdaniel.bsky.social) Teacher, reader, writer, editor, music lover, rescue dogs. The New School University, NYC. Working on an edition of Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald's letters and a Bob Dylan book. https://www.gofundme.com/f/pl...

And of course our site director, Anne Margaret! @annemargaretdaniel.bsky.social

Certainly true a couple weeks ago at the F. Scott Fitzgerald Society conference in New York!
@eetempleton.bsky.social @kirkcurnutt.bsky.social @pipmcgowan.bsky.social @sarahchurchwell.bsky.social @rosstangedal.bsky.social
(& many others!)

This morning, we're seeing a number of road closures due to high water. Please be advised that the following roads are currently impacted:

Portions of Old Oxford Rd
Moores Mill Rd
Roxboro Rd near the Person County Line
John Jones Rd
Snow Hill Rd

Yes, she knows to sit on my left, but there are only 4 of us. OTOH, my mother came from a family of 5 children, 3 of whom were lefties, so holiday dinners always involved a complex seating chart!

I, a righty, didn’t learn about left-handed scissors until my left-handed daughter was 4, and she spend the week after I bought her a pair delightedly using them on anything I’d let her!

The child in this trustee’s scenario? Faculty. Who submitted their tenure files for consideration in accordance with the terms of their employment. Both sides have a responsibility in that contract, one to submit and one to review.

I hope everyone really hears this.

UNC's board has belatedly confirmed faculty's tenure awards, but made some incredibly alarming remarks along the way. On public outcry to the board's silence, one trustee wrote, "It is not good governance to give your child a cookie every time they lay on the floor and scream that they want one."

UNC-Chapel Hill Has Delayed Tenure Votes in Most Departments This Spring UNC-Chapel Hill trustees didn't approve tenure cases outside of health-related schools at the last two meetings.

Some UNC-Chapel Hill faculty say they are concerned about a recent Board of Trustees decision—or, rather, non-decision—on faculty tenure and promotion cases.

www.theassemblync.com/education/hi...

Something's up (down?) at #UNC.

The Bd of Trustees, which has authority over tenure decisions, tabled all at its March mtg & re-tabled all from the College of Arts & Sciences & the non-health professional schools (Law, Biz, etc) at its next mtg. All w/o explanation.

#AcademicSky #academicfreedom

Took 115+ years, but the world Forster imagined in “The Machine Stops” is finally upon us

www.cs.ucdavis.edu/~koehl/Teach...

Though I’m an Americanist, I’ve begun teaching it in most classes

Well yes that’s the plan. Also, not a secret. Also, never been so close to achieving it before.

Wealthy, powerful people are generally such because they never, ever let a good crisis pass without breaking their enemies and stealing their stuff.

If You Don’t Want to Be Edged, Get Out of My Bed Vibe Check · Episode

Catching up on this week’s #VibeCheck & reminded of this quote from firebrand, and fellow Texan, Molly Ivins:

“So keep fightin’ for freedom and justice, beloveds, but don’t you forget to have fun doin’ it.”

open.spotify.com/episode/0U6q...

F. Scott Fitzgerald, That Sad Young Man John C. Mosher’s 1926 Profile of F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald: “All was quiet on the Riviera, and then the Fitzgeralds arrived.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic “The Great Gatsby” turns 100 today. Revisit a 1926 Profile of the author, who described himself as “one of the most notorious drinkers of the younger generation.”

Original dust jacket of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, published 100 years ago today

Happy Gatsby day to those who celebrate! Remarkably relevant for 100 years and counting

How Gatsby foretold Trump’s America A century after it was published, F Scott Fitzgerald’s masterpiece is more relevant than ever. Sarah Churchwell on the trouble with ‘careless people’

The Great Gatsby turns 100 next week and in honor of its centenary I’ve written a piece that says something I’ve been wanting to say for a while now. www.ft.com/content/dd6f...

The 2024 NEH budget: $207M.
One F-35 jet: ~$100M.
The cost of two jets exceeds the entire NEH budget.

Cognitive dissonance is the humanities being at the same time both a useless waste of time and an imminent threat to the government.

Hoping to get down to see this in May! #gatsby

The Truth About F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Drunken Brawl in Rome Biographers took an account of a scuffle in “Tender Is the Night” as a record of a real-life event. But uncovered documents suggest Fitzgerald may have behaved worse than he wrote.

When F. Scott Fitzgerald hit a carabineri in the nose and ended up in a jail cell in Rome, beaten up, in the winter of 1924.

He was trying to finish The Great Gatsby. You'd have gone a little wild, too. Quite a find by Sara Antonelli, via NYT:

www.nytimes.com/2025/03/27/b...

Kevin Howell Named NC State’s 15th Chancellor He succeeds Randy Woodson, who is retiring after 15 years of service.

Some good news at NC State! Very excited to welcome our new chancellor. news.ncsu.edu/2025/03/18/k...

Child looking through a huge pink magnifying glass at a turtle shell

Learning about the world with my 6yo at the Museum of Natural Sciences (in her space skirt!)

YouTube video by F. Scott Fitzgerald Society Gatsby Centennial Readings Chapter 1 featuring Jonathan Franzen

Every Thursday from February 13 to April 10, 2025, join the F. Scott Fitzgerald Society as they celebrate 100 years of The Great Gatsby with major American writers reading each chapter. What a novel idea! #BookSky
m.youtube.com/watch?v=qSye...

Thank you!

Alex Mitchell and I are delighted to have Michelle E. Moore’s review essay on our edition, The Complete Magazine Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1921-1924 and David Earle’s excellent, Where All Good Flappers Go, included in this volume too! @vincennes.bsky.social

Telegram sent by author Dorothy Parker to Robert Benchley on December 31st 1929. Text reads. You come right over here and explain why they are having another year.

Happy New Year from Dorothy Parker (and me).