Straws in the Wind - Part 337

From WGLT: Illinois State University officials... acknowledged using external companies to perform custodial and grounds work on campus during the AFSCME strike, a claim that the union contends in a lawsuit is a violation of state law. ISU officials maintain they are in compliance with hiring and procurement laws. The AFSCME Council 31 has sued the university, alleging it has broken the state's Strikebreakers Act which states that “no person shall knowingly employ any professional strikebreaker in the place of an employee, whose work has ceased as a direct consequence of a lockout or strike.” 

...ISU spokesperson Chris Coplan... said the lawsuit seeks to “restrict the university’s ability to utilize external companies performing custodial and grounds work on campus.” He said the university's use of these companies is legal. “These external companies are not strikebreakers — they are well-established, local businesses that perform custodial and grounds work in and around our local community every day,” Coplan said...

Full story at https://www.wglt.org/local-news/2026-04-24/isu-says-its-external-custodial-contractors-are-not-strikebreakers.

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From Inside Higher Ed: On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon found that the mass termination of more than 1,400 grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities was unconstitutional. In April 2025, NEH officials and staff from the Department of Government Efficiency canceled grants representing over $100 million in congressionally appropriated funds. The following month, the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS), the American Historical Association and the Modern Language Association of America sued to reverse the terminations. 

In documents revealed during discovery of the summary judgment, DOGE officials admitted that they used ChatGPT to identify which grants were in violation of the president’s anti-DEI executive orders. Grants containing words such as “history,” “culture” and “identity” were flagged by AI as relating to DEI. 

The judge ruled that DOGE officials violated the plaintiffs’ First Amendment rights and the equal protection component of the Fifth Amendment and terminated the grants without any statutory authority to do so...

Full story at  https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2026/05/07/federal-judge-restores-millions-neh-grants.