Straws in the Wind - Part 434

From Inside Higher Ed: When Agenia Clark took the helm of Fisk University in late 2023, she made it her mission to secure financial stability for the 160-year-old historically Black institution, which has seen its share of financial struggles and accreditation challenges. That led her to spearhead the development of Quantum Leap, a $900 million master plan whose details were first unveiled in May. It aims to grow enrollment at the Nashville campus to 1,500 students—up from a little more than 1,000 now—as well as spend $500 million on renovations and another $400 million on a 100,000-square-foot technology and innovation center, which will house a massive, high-powered data center.

The university says the innovation center “is intended to bring critical technology access to North Nashville, enhancing our curriculum and research capabilities and ensuring our students are prepared to enter the increasingly tech-driven workforce.” But it’s also become one of the latest flashpoints of the mounting nationwide backlash against the rapid expansion of data centers. Some critics say the proliferation of these centers is following historic urban development patterns that have disproportionately hurt marginalized communities...

While data centers have been around for decades, they’ve rapidly expanded in volume and capability during the AI boom of the past few years. According to Pew Research Center, as of April, more than 3,000 data centers were operating across the United States—with high concentrations in the South—and at least 1,500 are more in development. A growing number of colleges and universities—including the University of Michigan, the University of Alabama and Oakland University—have announced plans to open their own data centers to support campus infrastructure, AI research and industry collaboration...

Full story at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/tech-innovation/artificial-intelligence/2026/08/07/will-data-center-bring-risk-or-reward-fisk.

Straws in the Wind - Part 102

From House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party: Over the past two years, the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party and the Committee on Education and the Workforce’s (Committees) investigations revealed how the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) exploits U.S. universities to fuel its military and technological rise...  

This report provides new findings on joint institutes and other problematic partnerships between U.S. universities and the PRC, new information on stepped-up enforcement of foreign gift disclosure rules and university responses. This investigation:

 1.   Further highlights the risks these partnerships pose,

 2.   Exposes universities that continue to ignore the risks, 

 3.   Identifies dozens of not-yet-reported academic collaborations that create risks to U.S. national security, 

4.    Examines changes in university disclosures of foreign funding, and 

5.    Reveals the impact of the Trump Administration’s stepped-up enforcement of foreign gift reporting requirements. 

...Since the time of the release of our report and our continued investigations, eight universities chose to do the right thing for academic freedom and U.S. national security by shuttering their joint institutes with Chinese partners. These include the University of California, Berkeley; Georgia Institute of Technology; University of Michigan; University of Pittsburgh; Oakland University; University of Detroit Mercy; Eastern Michigan University; and University of Illinois. 

But many others have not. Last fall, the Committees identified high-risk joint institutes at the following universities, all of which have failed to act: Duke University; University of Arizona; University of Delaware; Drake University; University of Houston; Kean University; University of Miami; New York University; University of North Alabama; Northeastern State University (Tahlequah); Portland State University; State University of New York - Stony Brook; and Trine University...

These partnerships must end...

Full report at https://selectcommitteeontheccp.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/selectcommitteeontheccp.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/joint-institutes-report-final.pdf.