Ronald Hartz

‘Scene set’ for busy clearing as recruitment ‘games’ commence Universities turn to advertising, freebies and unconditional offers to attract students, with large numbers expected to change their mind post-results

Worrying new @timeshighered.bsky.social piece about some of the strategies being used by universities to lure students this year, which include the chance to win free accommodation. www.timeshighereducation.com/news/scene-s...

Organizing for apocalypse It is sometimes asserted that most people find it easier to envision the end of the world than to imagine the end of capitalism. In this special issue, we address this assertion head-on by exploring what it might mean to organize for apocalypse. As the contributions reveal, the notion of apocalypse means different things to different people. It might even be interpreted as an empty signifier. However, for large parts of the world’s population, the apocalypse does not point to a distant future but represents a (very real) lived experience in the present. In any case, as global temperatures continue to rise, while pandemics spread at lightning speed, and as military superpowers continue to act both irresponsibly and unpredictably, many are currently coming to the realization that the world – as we know it – might be coming to an end. What comes after the apocalypse is an open question, of course, which provides plenty of space for social and political imagination.

Organizing for apocalypse - new special issue of ephemera:

ephemerajournal.org/issue/organi...

BBC International Editor Jeremy Bowen has confirmed that the entire Al Jazeera team in Gaza City has been killed.

This is again a reminder that college isn’t supposed to just teach you a job but is supposed to teach you how to think, because that job you’re training for might not exist when you graduate

Oh man, we told a bunch of people to focus on a particular job like coding and now there's less demand for that job and those people are out of work? Wild. Anyway, happy to announce my new center for training hundreds of PhDs in the philosophy of AI!

Understanding University Finances ... a very short guide

Very few people seem to understand university finances and, distressingly, this includes many academics and most policymakers. This is an attempt to condense the key points you need to know. open.substack.com/pub/profseri...

Rettet Tucholsky!
Die Zukunft des Tucholsky-Museums im brandenburgischen Rheinsberg ist durch Sparpläne rechter Lokalpolitiker bedroht. 13 Au­to­r:in­nen fordern, dass das Museum zu Ehren des antifaschistischen Dichters eigenständig bleibt. Ein Aufruf

taz.de/!6102712/

Exited: Terminated from Higher Education Exited: Terminated from Higher Education considers the experiences of academic workers who find themselves abruptly expelled, terminated or exited from the

Interesting new book:

'Exited: Terminated from Higher Education considers the experiences of academic workers who find themselves abruptly expelled, terminated or exited from their contracts and workplaces.'

#HigherEd #AcademicSky

www.emerald.com/books/edited...

Something that isn’t reported on very much is how the UK HE funding crisis is affecting countries where British unis form partnerships. See below for latest news from Prague City University, which operates in partnership with Teesside University:
drive.google.com/file/d/1qGaQ...

Kulturstaatsminister - Weimer: Wer öffentliches Geld erhält, soll nicht gendern Nach dem Genderverbot in der eigenen Behörde drängt Kulturstaatsminister Weimer alle öffentlich geförderten Institutionen, dieser Linie zu folgen. Es gehe dabei um eine gemeinsame Verantwortung für di...

Ich hätte nicht gedacht, dass bereits diese Regierung das Geschäft der faschistischen AfD so geschliffen erledigt. Er ist einer Hauptprotagonisten im Kampf gegen die Freiheit - Sprache ist ein wesentlicher Teil gelebter Freiheit, er ist der Verbotsminister. www.deutschlandfunk.de/weimer-wer-o...

1/Ich hatte hier am 19.7. ausgeführt, dass wir keinen "Kulturkampf" erleben, wie allerorten behauptet, sondern Konservative, Rechte und Rechtsradikale Grundprinzipien der Offenen Gesellschaft bekämpfen und abschaffen wollen. Dieser merkwürdige Kulturbeauftragte von Merz ist ein

#MeineGedanken 🧵

Wolfram Weimer, Kulturstaatsminister in der Merz-Regierung, fordert:
Wer öffentliches Geld bekommt, soll nicht gendern.
Das ist mehr als Symbolpolitik. Es ist ein gefährlicher Präzedenzfall.

1/9

Theology cuts threaten future of Catholic course at Liverpool Hope - The Tablet Planned cuts to the Theology and Religious Studies department at Liverpool Hope University have raised fears over the viability of its Catholic Pastoral

Theology apparently remains 'central' to Liverpool Hope's mission, while they reduce staffing in that subject area to... two posts. No, me neither. ☹️
www.thetablet.co.uk/news/theolog...

UK HE shrinking a live page of all the redundancies and restructures happening across UK Higher Education. Page is updated regularly.

And @qmucu.bsky.social is now getting emails directly from universities' press offices to say how many people they're planning to make redundant.

Appreciate the recognition that our page remains a source of info about the mess that is the sector. Bit of a mindfuck though.

JUST IN: Germany halts arms exports to Israel that could be used in Gaza, after Israeli security cabinet approves plan to take over Gaza City. cnn.it/46NoO7r

A banner advert for the University of Warwick, which says "Beyond ignores curiousity". This is a spelling error.

The University of Warwick has paid a lot of money, I'm guessing, for their internet banner ads on the Guardian and elsewhere.

But they can't spell "curiosity". This isn't a US-UK variant. They just, genuinely, have a massive spelling error in their banner ads.

The Warwick rebrand is truly the gift that never stops giving.

Tuition fees are rising again and nobody is happy – it’s time to actually fix our broken university sector | Zoe Williams The figures simply don’t add up for higher education in England and Wales. Yet delusional politicians from all parties seem intent on avoiding the issue, says Guardian columnist Zoe Williams

'Put simply, we have a really strange system in higher education, where nobody admits how much things actually cost, nobody admits who’s paying for what, research is kept alive on the toil and goodwill of underpaid academics....'

The German Parliament prevented somebody entering because he was wearing a Tshirt that said "antifascist" on it.

When it comes to real-life metaphors for Germany's actual attitude towards the far-right, we're being showered with them.

The Center for the sociology of innovation learned with great sadness that Michel Callon has passed away.

A graduate of the École des Mines, Michel joined the center in the late 1960s and was its director from 1982 to 1994.

GHF-run food distributions in Gaza are sites of orchestrated killing | MSF MSF calls for the immediate dismantling of the GHF scheme; the restoration of the UN-coordinated aid delivery mechanism; and calls on governments to suspend all financial and political support for the...

Raquel Ayora, @msf.ca General Director:
“In MSF’s nearly 54 years of operations,rarely have we seen such levels of systematic violence against unarmed civilians.The GHF distribution sites masquerading as ‘aid’ have morphed into a laboratory of cruelty.This must stop now.”
www.msf.org/ghf-run-food...

Zur Misere gehört auch,dass Ministerin Bär (@BMFTR) Ihrer Verantwortung nicht nur nicht nachgekommen ist, 1 Professorin & dabei academia v Verleumdung, irrationaler Hetze & politischen Kampagnen z schützen, sondern selber in unsachlicher, sexistischer Weise d Kollegin Brosius-Gersdorf verspottet hat

Automated university systems ‘make administrative burden worse’ Risk-averse mindset, fervour for meetings and ‘time sink’ labour-saving ploys leave everybody overburdened, finds Melbourne study

Automated systems are “a complete and utter nightmare” for university staff, exacerbating rather than easing administrative burdens by trapping academics in a logjam of service requests, an Australian survey has found
#academicsky #bureaucracy

X’s Altmetric hegemony ‘ending’, with Bluesky ‘clear alternative’ Alternative social media platform matching engagement of Elon Musk’s X in ways that ‘would have seemed unthinkable until recently’, says study

The end of the “hegemony” of X as the most used social media platform by researchers has been strongly shaped by political-geographical factors and Elon Musk’s intervention into US politics, according to a new study. @patrickjack.bsky.social reports
#academicsky #bluesky

Stanford newspaper sues Trump administration over student deportations The lawsuit challenges Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s ability to revoke student visas and deem an individual deportable based on the content of their speech.

Stanford University’s student-run newspaper sued two senior Trump administration officials Wednesday, challenging Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s ability to revoke student visas and deem an individual deportable based on the content of their speech.

Trump administration freezes $584m in grants for ‘life-saving research’ at UCLA School is first public university whose funding is targeted by White House over allegations of civil rights violations

'In a sweeping escalation of its attacks on institutions of higher education, Trump administration has suspended $584m in federal funding for the University of California, Los Angeles – nearly double the amount that was previously expected, the school’s chancellor announced on Wednesday.'

Email from the "PUBLIC RECORDS OFFICE" to Kate Starbird asking for all emails from Jan 1 2021 through July 30 2025 with any of the following keywords: "diversity and inclusion" "DEIA" "DEI" "Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging" "DEIB" "gender identity" "racial preference" "ESG" "organizational equity" "intersectionality" "anti-racism" "critical race theory" "LGBTQ+" "transgender" "cisgender" "gender ideology" "white privilege" "privilege walk" "cultural humility" "equity audit" "restorative justice" "racial equity" "implicit bias" "microaggressions" "inclusive pedagogy" "identity-based oppression" "systems of oppression" "queer" "non-binary" "sexuality" “Trump” “fascist”

If anyone is curious about the current list of search terms being used by right wing activist organizations to harass university professors, here's a public records request I received today from Mike Howell of the Heritage Foundation. Not intimidating or meant to curtail by my speech at all, right?

The Only Hope Is Total and Unrelenting Resistance Every university must join together to stop Trump, urges Arne Duncan.

Opinion | A former education secretary says it's time to fight Trump's war on higher education — hard. chroni.cl/46E0WmK

this is widely thought to be because on the current trajectory no one believes there will be any people, culture, or environments to measure in 2029

Elon Musk's X 'played central role' in stoking racist riots, damning study finds Amnesty International analysis found X's algorithm prioritises posts that are most likely to contain lies and hatred - and say nothing has changed amid heightened tensions

Elon Musk's X 'played central role' in stoking racist riots, damning report finds

Amnesty International analysis found X's algorithm prioritises posts that are most likely to contain lies and hatred - and say nothing has changed amid heightened tensions

www.mirror.co.uk/news/politic...