Jennifer Nolan

Cheating with an LLM is the easiest thing in the world for a student to do, but it creates a massive, laborious headache for a prof, if you intend to take it seriously. There’s meetings, emails, discussions, moral dilemmas. It’s just incredibly burdensome, on top of everything else right now.

Literary Arts Fund logo

Today, a coalition of seven charitable foundations announced the launch of the Literary Arts Fund, a historic philanthropic investment of at least $50 million to strengthen the nonprofit literary arts field in the U.S.

Just a reminder that tenure-track professors are usually paid 9 months out of 12, and that adjuncts are usually paid on a by-class basis, and none of that includes prep time or, for example, having to have your syllabus posted *45 days before the class*. Many folks are not *employed* then.

We are thrilled to announce that our NEW Large Language Model will be released on 11.18.25.

States are taking steps to ease access to COVID-19 vaccines as they await federal recommendation The governors of Arizona, Illinois, Maine and North Carolina have signed orders intended to make COVID-19 vaccines available in pharmacies for people without individual prescriptions.

apnews.com/article/covi...
Governors of Arizona, Illinois, Maine and North Carolina on Friday joined the growing list of Democratic officials who have signed orders intended to ensure most residents can receive COVID-19 vaccines at pharmacies without individual prescriptions.

lot of people out here laboring under the misapprehension that uni is just further high school and there is some higher authority on content than the professor who is a live, working researcher in the field

Who owns a public university syllabus? Anti-DEI groups claim they belong to the public. University leaders say they are faculty members' intellectual property. A look at the copyright debate.

Anti-DEI groups claim they belong to the public. University leaders say they are faculty members' intellectual property. A look at the copyright debate.

www.wunc.org/education/20...

My job now is to go school to school, university to university trying to help them sort through the challenge of teaching in a world with AI and the first thing I recommend to improve the teaching of writing is cut the number of students per instructor in half. No one is going to do that, though.

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

(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.