Straws in the Wind - Part 407

From the Wall St Journal: A select group of colleges is making it easier to apply—but probably harder to get in. Top schools including Tulane University, Washington University in St. Louis and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill are reducing the number of essays applicants have to submit. Colleges say that they are trying to ease students’ stress, and that artificial intelligence has made it harder to tell whether students are actually doing the writing. The moves will likely increase applications, potentially making admissions more cutthroat, college counselors say. Texas Christian University experienced a roughly 14% jump in applications after removing two of its supplemental essays last year.

Schools are “trying to become more competitive,” said Caroline Koppelman, founder of an admissions firm. For students deciding where to apply, an extra essay “can be the straw that breaks the camel’s back a little bit, or at least the straw that makes you not apply to that school.” A lower admissions rate improves schools’ rankings and “protects their prestige,” said Christopher Rim, chief executive of admissions firm Command Education. “A lot of that is really artificial.”

With the population of college-goers shrinking in coming years, higher-education institutions are fighting over a smaller pie—and supplemental essays can deter applicants...

Full story at https://www.wsj.com/us-news/education/colleges-essays-supplemental-applications-admissions-9e7f8651.

Straws in the Wind - Part 354

From Inside Higher Ed: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Board of Trustees [last] Wednesday voted to reject the appointment of a women’s studies professor whose hire had been approved by faculty and administrators. The decision is the latest example of the UNC trustees using what is typically a rubber-stamp vote to deny the hire of a green-lighted faculty candidate. Kiran Asher, a professor of women’s, gender and sexuality studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, first interviewed for the distinguished professor position in January 2025 and followed what she called a “perfectly normal” hiring process. Provost Magnus Egerstedt told her two weeks ago that her hire would be put up for the board’s approval at the May 13 meeting. During an open-session voice vote at the meeting, one unnamed tenure candidate was rejected.

[As of] Saturday, Asher had yet to receive an official notification about her employment outcome... 

Full story at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty/tenure/2026/05/19/unc-board-rejects-hire-women-and-gender-studies-professor.

Straws in the Wind - Part 304

From the NY Times: The syllabus for SCLL 230-001, also known as “Men and Women,” describes requirements different from the typical college course. Students in the class, at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, must go on a date, plan their own weddings and organize a ball (a group project). Guest speakers last fall included Chloe Cole, an activist against gender treatment for minors; Dr. William B. Hurlbut, a former White House bioethics adviser who warned about the dangers of premarital sex; and several married couples, one with a baby who was passed around to students. The class reading list includes ideas from both the right and left, and the course is billed as a chance to openly debate issues affecting the genders in the age of a “masculinity crisis in the modern West.” But some students who took the class said it tilted toward promoting traditional gender roles in dating, marriage and family life.

The class is among the offerings at the U.N.C. School of Civic Life and Leadership, one of more than 40 academic programs that have sprung up across the country as part of a movement among conservatives to combat what they see as excessive leftism on college campuses. While the centers vary in curriculum, they emphasize Western thought, America’s founders and civil discourse... But the centers have also drawn controversy and criticism, including from some initial supporters. Shiri Spitz Siddiqi, chief researcher for the nonprofit group Heterodox Academy, which released a report on the programs last year, said the centers had generated “a lot of distrust among mainstream academics.”

At U.N.C., some conservative faculty members say the program has been hypocritical. The school, they argue, is mimicking the same problems that conservatives have said are endemic to left-leaning campuses, such as applying ideological litmus tests in hiring to keep out professors who don’t fit a certain political profile...

Some students have been drawn to the school because of special financial offers. Students who pursue minors are eligible for the Libertas Scholarship, valued at $12,000 over four years. Tuition at U.N.C. is about $7,000 a year for in-state students and about $43,000 for out-of-state students. Before freshmen arrived on campus last fall, the school had offered another deal for them, even if they hadn’t signed up for the minor. “Students: we offer a $3,000 scholarship, transformational programming (including a tech-free retreat in the NC mountains), and superb faculty leadership,” the promotion read. To receive the money, students had to live in a residential “civil discourse” community — called Civ-Comm — connected to the school...

Full story at https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/30/us/politics/unc-civics-school-conservative-debate.html.

Straws in the Wind - Part 275

From Inside Higher Ed: Two weeks after introducing a policy that allowed administrators to secretly record faculty members during class, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill chancellor Lee Roberts told faculty he would nix the rule. “The whole idea was to create clarity and reassurance,” Roberts said during a Faculty Senate meeting Friday. “That policy clearly has not achieved that aim.” 

Faculty members applauded at the news. During a Q&A, Roberts confirmed that no faculty members will be surreptitiously recorded until—and if—a new policy is put in place. Administrators will continue to evaluate whether the university needs such a policy, he said. In 2024, university officials opted not to renew economics instructor Larry Chavis’s contract after secretly recording several of his classes. Since then, “I have not heard of a single [other] instance—not [even] just a case where we debated surreptitious recording. It just hasn’t come up. So why go through this exercise that’s creating so much disquiet when this seems to be an extraordinarily rare type of occurrence?” Roberts said at Friday’s meeting... 

Full story at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2026/03/02/unc-chancellor-scraps-secret-recording-policy.

Straws in the Wind - Part 273

From Inside Higher Ed: The University of North Carolina Board of Governors voted... to approve a lengthy definition of what academic freedom does and doesn’t protect throughout the state university system. It says academic freedom includes the right to teach and research “controversial or unpopular ideas related to the discipline or subject matter,” but also says “academic freedom is not absolute.” ...The board approved the definition in a voice vote, with no dissent heard.

The new UNC policy promises many of the same protections found in other descriptions of academic freedom, in addition to the caveat about how “academic freedom is not absolute.” It lists three elements that academic freedom doesn’t include:

• “Teaching content that lacks pedagogical connection to the course, discipline, or subject matter.”
• “Using university resources for political activity in violation of university policy.”
• “Refusing to comply with institutional policies.”

The policy stresses that administrators also share in implementing the university’s mission, including, at times, regulating faculty. It says administrators have the responsibility to ensure “faculty activities align with the university’s mission as established under UNC policy and meet accreditation standards” and to “intervene when faculty conduct violates professional norms, creates a hostile learning environment as defined by policy and law, or undermines the institution’s educational objectives.” ...

Full story at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty-issues/academic-freedom/2026/02/26/unc-board-oks-definition-what-academic-freedom-and.

Straws in the Wind - Part 258

From Inside Higher Ed: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill recently rolled out a new policy that permits university officials to record classes without notifying the instructor. It’s a practice administrators have used in the past to investigate professors but have now formalized in writing. According to the policy, administrators may, with the provost and general counsel’s written permission, record classes or access existing recordings without telling faculty in order to “gather evidence in connection with an investigation into alleged violations of university policy” and “for any other lawful purpose, when authorized in writing by the provost and the office of university counsel, who will consult with the chair of the faculty.”

...Students are prohibited from recording in class without explicit permission from the instructor—a practice that has landed professors at other universities in political hot water in recent months...  The formal recording rules have been in the works for a while... 

University leaders—from the systemwide Board of Governors to the provost—have made several decisions in recent months that curb professors’ freedoms in the classroom. UNC system president Peter Hans announced in December that syllabi will be considered public records and that faculty must share them online beginning next fall. A week later, the university decided—with no formal announcement to faculty—to shutter its six area studies centers. At the end of this month, the system Board of Governors will vote on a formal—but contested—definition of academic freedom that states it is “not absolute” and prohibits teaching material “clearly unrelated to the course description.” ...

Full story at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty-issues/academic-freedom/2026/02/11/unc-admin-can-now-officially-secretly-record.

Straws in the Wind - Part 246

From Inside Higher Ed: In 2024, the chair of the statewide University of North Carolina Faculty Assembly and the UNC state system embarked on a fraught mission at a fraught time: writing “a consensus definition” of academic freedom for the entire university system. Academic freedom scholars have themselves long disagreed over what academic freedom does and doesn’t protect... Now... the UNC Board of Governors is set to vote on a lengthy definition. It promises many of the protections contained in other descriptions of academic freedom, but it’s drawn opposition from the state’s American Association of University Professors arm over both the express limits it places on that freedom and what the AAUP calls vague language that could be used to further restrict classroom teaching.

“Academic freedom is not absolute,” the proposed new definition says. “Academic freedom is the foundational principle that protects the rights of all faculty to engage in teaching, research/creative activities, service, and scholarly inquiry without undue influence,” the definition says. It goes on to say academic freedom includes the right to teach and research “controversial or unpopular ideas related to the discipline or subject matter.” It also includes parameters saying what academic freedom isn’t.

...But there isn’t full consensus. The state chapter of the national AAUP, which wrote the landmark 1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure, is objecting... “The impulse to fence in academic freedom should be disregarded and eschewed,” lawyers for the AAUP wrote this week to system officials. “The convenience of defining an academic freedom ‘box’ is antithetical to case law, our constitutions, and historical approaches.”

...Under the proposed definition, the “parameters of academic freedom” won’t include teaching “clearly unrelated to the course description,” “using university resources for political or ideological advocacy in violation of university policy,” or “refusing to comply with institutional policies or accreditation standards.” ...Further, it says, “Management is responsible for resource allocation and program viability,” including approving and eliminating programs and setting “broad curricular frameworks.” And the section on student academic freedom says, among other things, “Students are free to take reasoned exception to concepts and theories presented in their classes … even as they continue to be responsible for learning assigned course content.” ...

Full story at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty-issues/academic-freedom/2026/01/29/unc-plans-define-what-academic-freedom-and-isnt.

Straws in the Wind - Part 245

From Inside Higher Ed: Beginning next month, a new test will join the SAT and ACT as an admissions option for prospective students applying to the United States’ elite service academies: the Classic Learning Test, an up-and-coming exam that focuses on passages from the Western canon... For years, it was relatively niche, serving primarily as an academic progress exam for private classical schools, an educational movement that promotes the study of classic Western literature and other liberal arts. Some colleges and universities allowed it as an entrance exam, though many were test optional, meaning a student could submit their CLT score if they felt it bolstered their application... That changed in 2023, when the State University System of Florida’s Board of Governors began accepting the CLT—in addition to the better-known SAT and ACT—as an admissions exam for its public universities, which all require test scores for admission, as well as for its flagship Bright Futures scholarship program.

Now, more than two years later, Arkansas and Oklahoma have followed suit, allowing submission of the CLT for admission to their public institutions, and students in Louisiana, Oklahoma and Wyoming can submit CLT scores for state merit scholarships. In addition, the University of North Carolina System recently began accepting CLT scores for students who meet a GPA threshold. The test has also become a darling of the conservative right, whose members argue that it is more rigorous than its competitors and can “restore merit” in higher education...

Full story at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/admissions/traditional-age/2026/01/29/clt-test-beloved-conservatives-continues-growing.

===

From Inside Higher Ed: A collection of public school districts and university faculty members are challenging Department of Homeland Security policies that allow Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to conduct detainment activities on or near public education campuses. The complaint, filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court of Minnesota, comes in the wake of a surge of ICE presence in Minneapolis and Saint Paul and the killing of two American protesters, Alex Pretti and Renee Good. As the threat of immigration enforcement grows, the plaintiffs argue that ICE action at public K-12 schools and on college campuses is not only a violation of the rights of immigrants but also a disruption to the lives of U.S. citizens. 

Historically, federal regulations deemed public education institutions, churches and other religiously affiliated spaces as “sensitive locations” and therefore they were off limits to immigration enforcement teams, except in rare pre-approved circumstances. But on Jan. 21, 2025, President Trump revoked that policy, opening the flood gates to increased ICE activity in all spaces...

Full story at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2026/02/05/ice-sued-over-policy-allowing-immigration-actions-campus.

Straws in the Wind - Part 230

From Bloomberg MSN: For the second straight year, some highly selective colleges are reporting lower Black and Hispanic enrollment than before the Supreme Court ruled against racial preferences in admissions. In a Bloomberg analysis of data from 27 elite schools, all but two reported a smaller share of Black freshmen in fall 2025 than in fall 2023, the last class admitted before the affirmative action ban. Some 21 schools saw reduced Hispanic enrollment among first-year students over that period. At the same time, more than half the schools reported equal or higher Asian enrollment in the 2025 freshman class compared to 2023. The lawsuits that led to the Supreme Court decision on affirmative action argued that the practice discriminated against Asian applicants to Harvard University and the University of North Carolina.

The figures show the ongoing impact the affirmative action ban has had on diversity on elite campuses. And as the White House threatens to block access to federal funding for schools it says are using racial preferences in admissions, the data may help deflect scrutiny from the Trump administration.

The continued decline in Black students was especially stark. At Harvard, Black students comprised around 11% of the freshman class this year, down 3 points from 2024. The California Institute of Technology saw Black students plunge from about 5% of the freshman class in fall 2024 to 1.6% this academic year. Princeton, where Black enrollment held steady at around 9% in 2024, saw that share drop to 5% for the class that entered this past fall...

Full story at https://www.msn.com/en-us/education-and-learning/higher-education/college-racial-diversity-drops-again-as-trump-ramps-up-scrutiny/ar-AA1UcUWo.

Straws in the Wind - Part 217

From the LA Times: When prospective Caltech students applied in the fall for early admission, some faced a new, technologically advanced step in the selection process at one of the nation’s most prestigious universities. High schoolers who submitted research projects appeared on video and were interviewed by an artificial intelligence-powered voice that peppered them with questions about their papers and experiments, akin to a dissertation defense. The video-recorded exchanges were then reviewed by humans — faculty and admissions officers — who also evaluated test scores, transcripts, personal statements...

Virginia Tech debuted an AI-powered essay reader in the fall. The college expects it will be able to inform students of admissions decisions a month sooner than usual, in late January, because of the tool’s help sorting tens of thousands of applications...

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill faced a barrage of negative feedback from applicants, parents and students after its student newspaper, the Daily Tar Heel, reported in January that the school was using AI to evaluate the grammar and writing style of applicants’ essays...

Georgia Tech is rolling out an AI tool to review the college transcripts of transfer students, replacing the need for staff to enter each course manually into a database...

Some of the most popular and prestigious colleges in California have so far eschewed AI in admission evaluations. 

USC, which received 83,500 applications in the last undergraduate admissions cycle, has dozens of full-time readers who work tens of thousands of hours to pore over grades, essays and other application elements. At UCLA, the most applied-to campus in the nation with more than 145,000 first-year applicants, a team of more than 300 readers handles the workload. Each student is evaluated twice by two people, typically high school counselors and retired high school counselors who are specially trained...

Full story at https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2026-01-02/ai-may-be-scoring-your-college-admissions-essay.

Straws in the Wind - Part 201

From Inside Higher Ed: Two months after legal teams at University of North Carolina system campuses split over whether syllabi are considered public documents, system president Peter Hans announced plans to adopt a new policy that will answer an unequivocal yes. Starting as early as next fall, faculty members at UNC institutions will be required to upload their syllabi to a searchable public database, according to a draft of the policy provided to Inside Higher Ed by student journalists at The Daily Tar Heel. These public syllabi must include the course name, prefix, description, course objectives and student learning outcomes, as well as “a breakdown of how student performance will be assessed, including the grading scale, percentage breakdown of major assignments, and how attendance or participation will affect a student’s final grade.” Faculty must also include any course materials that students are required to purchase.

...The system is currently seeking feedback on the draft policy, a system spokesperson told Inside Higher Ed, and “after receiving input from elected faculty representatives and other stakeholders, the system office will revise the draft as needed.” Only Hans, and not the Board of Governors, will need to approve the policy. In October, system campuses disagreed over whether to give up syllabi in response to a broad public records request by the Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project. Alongside other conservative groups, the Heritage Foundation has used open records laws to gather information on and expose public university faculty members who teach about race, gender, sexuality and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Syllabi that include classroom policies, required readings and instructor’s names are particularly valuable to conservative critics. The UNC system flagship in Chapel Hill determined that syllabi are not automatically subject to such requests. But officials at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro declared the opposite...

The new policy would also classify syllabi as “work made for hire,” which makes the institution—not the syllabus’s creator—the copyright owner of the syllabus, according to U.S. copyright law. “As such, instructors do not retain personal copyright in these materials, and syllabi owned by a public agency generated in the course of public business, are not copyrightable in a manner that would exempt syllabi from public access to these records, consistent with state and federal public records laws,” the draft policy stated...

Full story at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty-issues/academic-freedom/2025/12/12/unc-professors-must-soon-post-syllabi-publicly.

===

From the Yale Daily News: In the wake of a shooting at Brown University... that killed two students and wounded nine others, Yale President Maurie McInnis chose not to issue a campus-wide statement about the attack... In her... email to the News, McInnis wrote that she was “horrified” by the attacks at Brown and in Sydney. But in keeping with the recommendations of a faculty committee’s report, she did not release a campus-wide statement about either of the shootings. “When considering whether to make a public statement, I do follow the guidelines laid out in the Report of the Committee on Institutional Voice,” McInnis wrote in response to a question about the report’s influence on her decision-making. “In this case, I decided to emphasize the work of campus safety.”

Published in October 2024, the report advises Yale leaders to refrain from commenting on matters of public importance, with few exceptions. The report states that university leaders may release statements of “empathy or concern in response to events outside the university,” but advises that leaders should comment only on events of “transcendent importance” to Yale...

Full story at https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2025/12/19/mcinnis-quiet-on-brown-shooting-cites-institutional-voice-report/.

No thank you

From Inside Higher Ed: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill made clear [last] Friday that it won’t sign the federal “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education” that has been extended to all institutions after seven of the original nine universities invited rejected the offer... Last month the Trump administration floated a plan for preferential treatment on federal funding in exchange for universities overhauling admissions and hiring practices, freezing tuition for five years, capping international enrollment at 15 percent, and making various other concessions that many critics have warned will undermine academic freedom.

UNC Chapel Hill chancellor Lee Roberts said Friday that while the university has not received a formal invitation from the Trump administration, he is not interested in the arrangement. “There are some parts of the compact that we are already doing and there are some parts that would be difficult or impossible,” Roberts said in a faculty council meeting...

Full story at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2025/11/11/unc-chapel-hill-wont-sign-compact.

Straws in the Wind - Part 140

From Inside Higher Ed: ...Officials at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill determined that [syllabi and other course materials] are not automatically subject to [public records] requests after the Oversight Project, founded by the conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation, requested that the university hand over any course materials from more than 70 classes that contained one of 30 words or phrases, including “gender identity,” “intersectionality,” “queer” and “sexuality.” Officials ultimately denied the request, writing, “There are no existing or responsive University records subject to disclosure under the North Carolina Public Records Act. Course materials, including but not limited to exams, lectures, assignments and syllabi, are the intellectual property of the preparer.”

The requested materials are protected by copyright policies, a UNC Chapel Hill spokesperson told Inside Higher Ed. “The university has a longstanding practice of recognizing faculty’s intellectual property rights in course materials and does not reproduce these materials in response to public records requests without first asking for faculty consent,” they wrote in an email. But an hour’s drive west, at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, officials decided just the opposite. Professors were asked to hand over their spring 2025 syllabi in response to a Freedom of Information Act request earlier this fall, said Chuck Bolton, a professor of history at UNC Greensboro and chair of the Faculty Senate. He is among dozens of faculty members who were asked to upload their syllabi into a central database.

“The Public Records Act is inclusive in its coverage and unless there is an explicit exception, which this is not, it is covered,” UNC Greensboro spokesperson Diana Lawrence said in an email. “As a matter of public policy, transparency should take [precedence] over questions where there is doubt and we do not believe that the Federal Copyright Act provides a specific exemption or preempts what has been passed in state law.” ...

Full story at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty-issues/academic-freedom/2025/10/17/unc-campuses-split-whether-syllabi-are-public.

Straws in the Wind - Part 108

From WECT: WILMINGTON, N.C. - UNCW Chancellor Aswani Volety has released a statement following incidents this week on the campus involving students and a tribute in memory of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk. Students affiliated with the candlelight vigil that was held Monday painted a spirit rock on campus in honor of Kirk, who died last week after getting shot at an event on a college campus in Utah. On Tuesday, UNCW police responded to a confrontation between two groups of students. Police stated that students around the rock were approached by students who wanted to repaint the rock.

Police say the conversation eventually became confrontational, and students who wanted to change the rock poured paint onto the rock. Some students attempted to prevent this, but they were splashed with paint. The chancellor referred to the memorial in Kirk’s honor as well as the incident involving the spirit rock in his statement released [last] Thursday afternoon... 

Full story at https://www.wect.com/2025/09/18/uncw-chancellor-releases-statement-regarding-incidents-campus/.

From WRAL: A lockdown at the University of North Carolina is clear Thursday night after the school received unconfirmed reports of a person with a gun on campus earlier in the evening. Just before midnight, the university posted on a X that the lockdown was lifted and that there is no credible threat to campus. Out of caution, however, the university cancelled classes and all assignments and exams are postponed for Friday. In an update released Friday morning, UNCW Chancellor Aswani Volety said he was on campus with around 35 members of the community during the lockdown, where they all waited for three hours until campus police could clear the scene...

Full story at https://www.wral.com/news/local/uncw-lockdown-reports-gunman-september-2025/.

Straws in the Wind - Part 101

From Port City Daily: A new report from [U of North Carolina-Wilmington] details more removals and alterations leadership have made to comply with the UNC System’s 2024 equality policy, showing the university is continuing to dig deeper into ensuring compliance.  After the UNC System implemented a policy banning Diversity, Equity and Inclusion practices and affirming institutional neutrality last year, UNCW eliminated its Office of Institutional Diversity and Inclusion and removed leadership of its four cultural centers, as detailed in a Sept. 1 report. This year’s report shows UNCW has gone further,  retailoring a mentorship program, “realigning” private scholarships and making some course content optional. 

UNCW also plans to compile data on each of the cultural centers — Upperman African American Cultural Center, Centro Hispano, Mohin-Scholz LGBTQIA Resource Center and the Asian Heritage Cultural Center — to ensure they are a boon to student success for all attendees. The report shows these new modifications were discussed by the DEI subcommittee, which met twice over the past month, though largely in closed session away from public observation... 

The subcommittee approved of the Sept. 1 compliance report. It notes discussions included guidance on required classes and establishing a “structure process to collect and analyze data regarding the impact” of the four cultural centers, now referred to as “student success centers.” ...

Full story at https://portcitydaily.com/latest-news/2025/09/07/uncw-details-more-actions-taken-to-root-out-dei-at-university/.

Columbia's AI Solution?

From The Verge: Can AI help “smooth over” discussion on abortion, racism, immigration, or Israel-Palestine? Columbia University sure hopes so. The Verge has learned that the university recently began testing Sway, an AI debate program currently in beta. Developed by two researchers with backgrounds in philosophy and psychology, Sway matches up students with opposing views to chat one-on-one about hot-button issues and “facilitates better discussions between them,” according to the tool’s website. Nicholas DiBella, a postdoctoral scholar at Carnegie Mellon University who helped develop Sway, told The Verge that about 3,000 students from more than 30 colleges and universities have used the tool.

One of those may soon be Columbia. News of the potential partnership comes after more than two years of escalating tensions at Columbia between students, administrators, and the federal government. The university has spent years at the center of controversy after controversy: expulsions of pro-Palestinian student protesters, a string of police raids, and demands from the federal government.

People at Columbia’s Teachers College are testing Sway in order to potentially integrate it into the conflict resolution curriculum and “bridge-building initiatives at Columbia,” DiBella said. He said there’s also been interest from other teams at Columbia in using Sway for the fall 2026 semester and onward. Simon Cullen, the other developer behind Sway and a visiting research professor of civil discourse and AI at UNC-Chapel Hill, told The Verge that the company is also in touch with Columbia University Life.

Sway places an “AI Guide” in every chat that “asks tough questions to improve student reasoning.” The tool also “suggests a rephrasing” for language it deems disrespectful. One example debate topic laid out in Sway’s intro video: whether or not the US “should prioritize Palestinian rights and stop sending weapons to Israel.”  ...

The potential Sway partnership is not the only way Columbia is reportedly using tech to screen or shape students’ convictions. The university is also reportedly using Schoolhouse Dialogues, a tool offered by Sal Khan of Khan Academy’s nonprofit, to pair high school students with opposite viewpoints on controversial topics, then rank each other’s “civility” — and Columbia could use that feedback in its admissions decisions...

Full story at https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/770510/columbia-university-sway-ai-to-cool-off-student-tensions-israel-palestine-protests.

Note: A Sway introduction video is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJ4qlIZoZfM or click on the link below:

A sample Sway debate is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWlSi7nN8s4 or click on the link below:

Straws in the Wind - Part 58

From The Assembly: The University of North Carolina System’s Board of Governors has directed the board of trustees at each campus to form a new subcommittee that will scrutinize compliance with diversity, equity, and inclusion policies...

The new trustee committees will receive briefings from their chancellor or the responsible senior administrator on training provided to staff about the equality policy, the responsibilities of any roles that were reassigned to other work, and the performance of “relevant” personnel. The panels will also receive reports on “updated institutional webpages and mission statements for programs, curriculum, and objectives.” ...

The directive also comes after Accuracy in Media, a conservative advocacy group, released secretly recorded videos from several UNC campuses that captured administrators talking about DEI efforts. Most of the administrators featured in the videos are no longer employed at those institutions, though the schools haven’t said whether they resigned or were fired. Republican state lawmakers have pointed to the videos as proof that DEI-related activities are continuing on campuses in violation of the UNC System’s policies...

The memo directed these new subcommittees to hold open-session briefings from chancellors on DEI compliance... “These confidential reviews should compare an individual’s prior position to his or her new responsibilities, including how the employee’s performance in that role has changed, and what safeguards exist to ensure an employee’s previous responsibilities do not continue in the present role... “Confidential briefings from the chancellor on any disciplinary action taken against personnel should occur at this time as well.” ...

Full story at https://www.theassemblync.com/education/higher-education/unc-board-of-governors-dei-compliance/.

From the Huffington Post: Brown University... announced a deal with the Trump administration to regain access to federal research funding and end investigations into alleged discrimination.

The Ivy League school agreed to pay $50 million to workforce development organizations in Rhode Island over 10 years as part of the agreement, along with other concessions in line with President Donald Trump’s political agenda. Brown will adopt the government’s definition of “male” and “female,” for example, and must remove any consideration of race from the admissions process.

The three-year deal has numerous similarities with one signed last week by Columbia University that the government called a roadmap for other universities. Unlike that agreement, however, Brown’s does not include an outside monitor.

The agreement with Brown restores dozens of grants and contracts that had been suspended during an investigation into Brown’s handling of allegations of antisemitism, including during pro-Palestinian protests on campus last spring. It also calls for the federal government to reimburse Brown for $50 million in unpaid federal grant costs.

Brown agreed to several measures aimed at addressing allegations of antisemitism on its campus in Providence, Rhode Island. The school said it will renew partnerships with Israeli academics and encourage Jewish day school students to apply to Brown. By the end of this year, Brown must hire an outside organization — to be chosen jointly by Brown and the government — to conduct a campus survey on the climate for Jewish students.

Education Secretary Linda McMahon said Brown’s deal ensures students will be judged “solely on their merits, not their race or sex.” ...

Full story at https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ap-us-trump-education-brown_n_688a8d56e4b07dfa117f1e76.

Straws in the Wind - Part 7

From the Daily Tarheel: Two administrators from UNC System schools are out of jobs after videos were released of them implying noncompliance with the UNC System’s policies on diversity, equity and inclusion. The undercover media group behind the recordings said it has more videos of administrators from other North Carolina schools, potentially UNC-Chapel Hill... Adam Guillette, president of Accuracy in Media, told The Daily Tar Heel that the group will be releasing at least four additional investigations from higher education institutions in North Carolina...

He said that AIM will soon release other damning material from educational institutions from about half a dozen other states across the country...

Full story at https://www.dailytarheel.com/article/2025/06/university-dei-compliance-undercover-breaking.

Straws in the Wind - Part 5

From Inside Higher Ed: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Board of Trustees, after not publicly explaining why it hadn’t awarded tenure to faculty outside of health-related schools since 2025 began, granted tenure to 33 faculty members this week. “The university administration and Board of Trustees moved these personnel actions forward given the impact the deferral caused on departments,” the university said in a statement. “The university will continue to weigh all factors when considering the timing of expenditures given the current fiscal environment.” The now-tenured faculty are in the College of Arts and Sciences and the Schools of Education, Law and Information and Library Science.

...Emails of the board’s discussion that were obtained by Inside Higher Ed shed light on the months-long delay and why some trustees were hesitant to approve the tenure awards. For instance, Trustee Jim Blaine wrote Monday that he wanted to wait until July to decide because he wanted an in-person discussion and more clarity on the university’s “fiscal picture.” He objected to any “immediate reversal of the decision that was recommended to us in closed session two weeks ago.” He further said he didn’t want to reward “bad behavior.”

“It is not good governance to give your child a cookie every time they lay on the floor and scream that they want one,” Blaine wrote. “The optics on this are terrible and make the administration look weak and irresolute. The reversal of course appears responsive to public groaning and gnashing of teeth—bad behavior by a few members of the faculty.” Blaine added that he’d like “more information about who we are giving tenure to, how much demand there is for their classes, publications, and the majors they teach in, etc.” He also said that “regardless of my philosophical opposition to the outdated tenure model, I think we should proceed very cautiously and with full information before adding that kind of long-term, fixed cost.”

Trustee Marty Kotis also expressed concern in his own email over the long-term costs of tenuring professors given the university’s current financial situation. But Kotis has “consistently opposed tenure since 2014,” saying, “I find it difficult to believe university professors uniquely require lifetime job security comparable to positions held by the Pope or Federal Judges.” Academic freedom advocates say tenure protects that right. But Kotis wrote that “we can preserve academic freedom through renewable contracts and robust performance reviews.” ...

Full story at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty-issues/tenure/2025/06/04/after-delay-chapel-hill-board-votes-award-tenure.

Straws in the Wind

From the Chronicle of Higher Education: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill hasn’t tenured a single professor in fields outside the health sciences since January — an unusual period of inaction that has spurred confusion and alarm among faculty.

At its normal meeting last week, the university’s Board of Trustees deferred a vote on pending tenure cases outside of the health-affairs schools. At its March meeting, the board didn’t act on any tenure cases, and in January, it only approved two tenure bids outside the health sciences: one professor at the civic-life school and another at the School of Social Work...

Jennifer Lloyd, a trustee and former professor of the practice in UNC’s economics department, told The Chronicle in an email that she was the only trustee to vote against a motion to defer consideration on tenure decisions at the March meeting. “I … always seek to be a fair and honest advocate on issues impacting faculty,” she wrote. A spokesperson said the university could not comment on this vote since it was taken during a closed session. John P. Preyer, the board’s chair, did not respond to a message seeking comment...

The board’s inaction also comes at a time when state legislatures nationwide have aimed to weaken tenure or add stipulations to it. A wave of bills propose post-tenure reviews or productivity requirements, and lawmakers in Texas and Nebraska have even introduced legislation to outright ban tenure...

The board’s next full meeting is scheduled for July 31.

Full story at https://www.chronicle.com/article/at-chapel-hill-only-health-sciences-professors-have-been-getting-tenure.