Theo Baker

Read more here:
nytimes.com/2025/07/28/u...

chronicle.com/article/geor...

washingtonpost.com/education/20...

The Trump administration opened four investigations into George Mason University, targeting its president over diversity programs.

The faculty senate put out a statement in his defense, reaffirming, "Diversity is our strength."

Now the DOJ is investigating them, too.

Stanford has joined an amicus brief in support of Harvard, emphasizing the importance of university research.

Stanford's Title IX office took two years to suspend rapist Amid a 20-month Title IX process, the reporting student navigated trauma, reviewed hundreds of pages of documents and lost access to educational opportunities.

Essential and utterly damning reporting from Anna Yang in The Stanford Daily today.

"A student reported her rapist to the University. Two years later, the perpetrator was suspended."

This case is harrowing and the process at Stanford remains incredibly broken.

stanforddaily.com/2025/05/20/s...

Everyone Is Cheating Their Way Through College ChatGPT has unraveled the entire academic project.

Everyone is Cheating Their Way Through College.

This article is 1000% accurate to my experience of Stanford. Since Gen Z is already the least media literate generation by several metrics, I do think the fear of reduced critical thinking is quite real.

nymag.com/intelligence...

‘I Have Cancer,’ the TikTok Star Said. Then Came the Torrent of Hate. Sydney Towle’s videos have drawn an enormous audience on TikTok, where her followers praise and support her. On Reddit, an army of skeptics was determined to paint her as a fraud.

The Internet, far from the utopian ideal technologists envisioned, is really, truly the ultimate cesspool. Yay humanity!

Example 80000000:
www.nytimes.com/2025/05/01/n...

Stanford is a notable holdout from this statement condemning Trump’s “political interference” and “overreach.”

The letter was signed by the presidents of more than 185 universities, including peers like Princeton, Yale, MIT, UPenn, etc.

www.aacu.org/newsroom/a-c...

In the rush to publish, something may have been overlooked...

Trump—in exploiting his power to force opponents to bend to his will or be effectively barred from practicing law in federal court—claims the firms “have affirmed their strong commitment to ending the Weaponization of the Justice System and the Legal Profession.”

Kirkland is known as one of the most conservative big firms and provided a number of Trump’s DOJ appointees. It was targeted for “illegal hiring practices” because of attempts to improve diversity.

(White men still account for >70% of leadership positions in most law firms.)

More top law firms, including #1 Kirkland Ellis ($7.2bn in revenue last year) and #2 Latham Watkins ($5.6bn in revenue), have caved to Trump demands.

Trump has now extracted nearly $1bn from law firms, blackmailing some for effectively no reason apart from the fact that he can.

‘One of the darkest days’: NIH purges agency leadership amid mass layoffs In shock move, four institute directors at the US biomedical agency are removed from their posts.

On his first day as NIH Director, Stanford prof Jay Bhattacharya oversees an immense bloodletting.

This comes as last month alone the NIH canceled 700+ grants, began eliminating thousands of staff, scrapped its scientific integrity policy, etc.

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Also this week, Stanford announced the Search Committee for its next Athletics Director. And it won its first ACC championship, woman’s gymnastics.

Eventful week for the Cardinal, where the future of athletics is veryyy much in flux.

Full write up from ESPN here:

www.espn.com/college-foot...

bsky.app/profile/tab-...

Reich, a veteran of the sport, became the first NFL head coach since 1970 to be fired in *two* back-to-back seasons—first from the Colts in 2022, and then from the Panthers in 2023 after a 1-10 start to the season.

Stanford has hired Andrew Luck’s former coach, Frank Reich, as interim head football coach in the wake of Troy Taylor’s firing.

With the team already underwater (3-9 the last two years), and several players entering the draft portal this week, Reich’s year may not be fun.

Trump Science Funding Cuts May Hurt Economy, Experts Say Since World War II, U.S. research funding has led to discoveries that fueled economic gains. Now cutbacks are seen as putting that legacy in jeopardy.

Post-WWII, the US public-private-university partnership has been one of our great strengths. Now it's under threat.

"Research has found that every $1 invested in r&d returns about $5 in economic gains, a figure that likely understates the true return."

www.nytimes.com/2025/03/31/b...

Kudos to @espn.com for uncovering this!

It seems especially important considering there has so far been no clear outcome from the second investigation—which concluded in July.

Both he and senior associate athletics director Matt Doyle were warned after the first investigation uncovered “inappropriate conduct.”

The second investigation concluded the problem was ongoing. “I do not find any excuse” for Coach Taylor’s behavior, wrote the investigator.

The veteran lawyer who conducted the second investigation said he’d never experienced “this palpable level of animosity and disdain” for a university compliance office.

Coach Taylor apparently tried to oust an NCAA compliance officer who warned him of rules violations and repeatedly harassed her.

Reports: Stanford coach bullied athletics staff Troy Taylor remains on the job. In a statement released by Stanford, he said he had received counseling on "how I interact with others."

Stanford’s head football coach was found to have engaged in “inappropriate, discriminatory” ways in TWO separate investigations into his “hostile and aggressive behavior.”

He remains on the job.

www.espn.com/college-foot...

Thanks for finding this!

Given the crash here not long ago, all I can say is that I’m grateful to the captain and desperately hope that air travel continues to be safe and well-managed in this country.

The flight was UA 1449.

So I was on a flight into DCA tonight when we had to abruptly abort our landing because, the captain said, another smaller, slower craft had been routed directly in our path. Flight logs show we were just 200 feet above the ground.

Earlier today the LA Times had AI-generated counterpoints to a column from @gustavoarellano.bsky.social. His piece argued that Anaheim, the city he grew up in, should not forget its KKK past.

The AI "well, actually"-ed the KKK. It has since been taken off the piece.

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

Notable: Stanford follows MIT in adopting a hiring freeze for nonfaculty employees, further emphasizing the uncertainty major universities are facing at the moment.

How much blame to assign Muir is of course up for debate, but with the collapse of several of Stanford’s most visible sports and a series of public self-owns, the most successful athletics department in the country is evidently due for a reset.

Under Muir, Stanford won dozens of national championships...BUT he also oversaw

- a disastrous attempt to cut 11 sports
- the Varsity Blues scandal (he was implicated but denies participation)
- failure on NIL
- AND catastrophe with Stanford cut out of conference realignment

The Crisis of Democracy Is Here And it’s going to get a lot worse.

Larry Diamond is arguably the world’s foremost expert on democracy and one of the most well-respected members of the Stanford faculty.

Larry is not prone to hysterics; here he brings a sober (and damning) analysis of the state of American democracy.

www.persuasion.community/p/the-crisis...

Super congrats!!!