Feeling Violated and Not Fully Heard
"A months-long conflict has been simmering between a group of faculty and staff members of color and administrators at Queens College after a racist message was found written on a bulletin board on campus. Some professors, employees and students say campus leaders lagged in responding to their demands for new safety measures and mental health supports, which—even after some significant wins—left them feeling burned out and disheartened. Administrators say their response to the incident was thorough and immediate." - Inside Higher Ed, 5/25/22
Gates Foundation pushes to scale dual enrollment and early college
"The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation on Tuesday announced a series of six-month grants each totaling about $175,000 to support regional design efforts to boost dual enrollment and early college credit offerings. A dozen groups of organizations around the country are receiving the grants under an initiative the foundation calls Accelerate ED: Seamless Pathways to Degrees and Careers. Students should be able to earn enough credit to finish an associate degree a year after graduating from high school, all while earning career experience at little or no cost, according to the foundation. These pathways are meant to lead to a good job or enable students to transfer to a bachelor’s program." - Higher Ed Dive, 5/25/22
Student Debt’s Impact on Perceived Value of College
"The Federal Reserve Bank does more than set the nation’s monetary policy; it also keeps close tabs on Americans’ views of the economy and their own financial well-being. And the latest iteration of its closely watched household survey reaffirms the people’s belief in higher education but offers some significant warning signs for college leaders. Some of the findings of 'Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2021' buttress those who believe higher education remains essential for individual economic success and satisfaction in the U.S." - Inside Higher Ed, 5/25/22
After splashy opening, Whittle School faces financial struggles
"Three days before Christmas, the founder of a private school with global ambitions sent a bombshell note to families, faculty and staff of the D.C. campus. Paychecks for employees of Whittle School & Studios were a week late, Chris Whittle disclosed, and the financial situation looked dire. It was unclear whether classes would resume after the winter break. ... The school survived that scare, with parents pitching in to help cover the payroll. It plans to hold its first D.C. graduation this week for 14 students in the Class of 2022 — a milestone for an educational start-up that has struggled to live up to grand promises. Uncertainty hangs over the Whittle School nearly three years after it opened in Northwest Washington with about 185 students in tandem with a sister campus in China." - Washington Post, 5/25/22
Blind Review Is Blind to Discrimination
"The blind peer-review process has long been a hallmark of academic research. Blind review ensures that research is evaluated based on the merits of the work, not the individuals who did the work. In theory, this results in better-quality research and mitigates the impacts of bias and gatekeeping in academic publishing. In reality, however, blind review can facilitate the perpetuation of institutional discrimination by turning a blind eye to the identities of those whose work is disseminated and the agendas of their institutions. It is time for academia to rethink the consequences of blind review and create processes to evaluate research that promote the sharing of high-quality work without the unintended consequence of reinforcing legacies of harm." - Inside Higher Ed, 5/25/22
To Restore American Liberty, We Need Colleges that Actually Teach the Liberal Arts
"Collectivists of many stripes—but one aim—have been eating away at our free society for over one hundred years. If we want to reverse America’s current slide into authoritarianism and actively move towards a fully free society, we need to be as clear about our goals as the collectivists have been about theirs. And theirs have always been power and control—to that end, ingeniously using indoctrination masquerading as education. To counter this, our educational goal should be to vigorously nurture that autonomous, active minority in every profession who are capable of being society’s change agents and who are entrepreneurial." - The James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal, 5/25/22
Indiana Lawmakers Override Transgender Sports Veto
"Republican lawmakers in Indiana on Tuesday banned transgender girls from playing on girls’ sports teams at their schools, overriding the veto of Gov. Eric Holcomb, a fellow Republican who said the measure did not address any pressing problem and exposed the state to lawsuits. The override made Indiana the latest conservative state to enact legislation blocking transgender girls or women from playing on sports teams that align with their gender identity. Though the details of the laws vary from place to place, at least 17 other states have introduced restrictions on transgender sports participation in recent years, according to data from the Human Rights Campaign, an L.G.B.T.Q. advocacy group." - New York Times, 5/24/22
Ohio School District’s ‘Transgender Guidelines’ Instruct Teachers to Socially Transition Students without Parental Consent
"In recently developed K-12 'transgender guidelines' circulated among principals and school counselors, the Olentangy Local School District in Ohio instructs teachers to begin the social transitioning of non-gender conforming students without parental consent. The guidelines, obtained by non-profit Parents Defending Education, would advise teachers and staff on how to treat students who identify as a member of the opposite sex, though it’s not clear whether they’ve yet been issued to teachers." - National Review, 5/24/22
Consumer groups seek to force Ed Department to forgive Westwood College students’ loans
"A group of higher ed and consumer advocacy groups filed a lawsuit last week against the U.S. Department of Education requesting debt forgiveness for students who took out federal loans to attend the now-shuttered Westwood College, a for-profit chain. In late 2016, the attorney general for Illinois filed a group borrower defense to repayment application to the Ed Department on behalf of the state’s students who enrolled in Westwood’s criminal justice program. But the Ed Department still hasn’t made a decision on the application, which would grant defrauded students debt forgiveness if approved. The lawsuit follows a letter sent to the Ed Department earlier this month by Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul." - Higher Ed Dive, 5/24/22
When Privileged Students Protest
"It occurred to me that the Sarah Lawrence student protesters had quite naturally assumed the position of the weaker party vis-à-vis the college’s administrators. But from the van driver’s perspective, by going public in a self-righteous way, the students had widened their audience to individuals who had a very different understanding of what constituted identity privilege and who held it. To the high-school educated, hourly employee that drove Sarah Lawrence students and visitors around, it was the college students she chauffeured around campus, regardless of race, gender or sexuality, who had quite a bit of power." - Chronicle of Higher Education, 5/24/22
“At least $6.5B” unreported. Why should we not cut off funding to those institutions that failed to report and place it elsewhere in academia. We might have a pause in research, but talent will follow money every time. When you got them by the checkbook, their hearts, minds, and residences will follow.
“One would think that the government would want to encourage financial transfers to American universities from China”
Do you think China is handing out this money from the goodness of their hearts?
Or are they getting stuff in return — and what? Do not forget that Zaosong Zheng was arrested at Logan with 21 vials of something concealed in a sock in his luggage. It’s rumored that the Chinese actually stole the Corona Virus from a Canadian lab. And this is biological warfare, we’re not talking about the basic patent piracy and such which they are notorious for.
Yes, Higher Education has essentially declared war on half the country and as that’s the half that’s currently in power, Higher Education ought to anticipate consequences of its vitriol. But that’s not this — they found the man with 21 vials of something that he admitted to have stolen from Beth Israel Deaconess….
The Harvard/Charles Lieber matter has the potential of being considerably more serious than it might appear at first glance.
The US Attorney states that “Zaosong Zheng, 30, a Chinese national, was arrested on Dec. 10, 2019, at Boston’s Logan International Airport and charged by criminal complaint with attempting to smuggle 21 vials of biological research to China.” Reportedly this was biological material used in cancer research that Zheng had stolen from a lab at what was then the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center* — a primary teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School.
Yes, that Harvard….
The US Attorney added that “Yanqing Ye, 29, a Chinese national, was charged in an indictment today with one count each of visa fraud, making false statements, acting as an agent of a foreign government and conspiracy.”
Stating that she was currently in China, the US Attorney continued that she is
“a Lieutenant of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), the armed forces of the People’s Republic of China and member of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). On her J-1 visa application, Ye falsely identified herself as a “student” and lied about her ongoing military service at the National University of Defense Technology (NUDT), a top military academy directed by the CCP. It is further alleged that while studying at Boston University’s (BU) Department of Physics, Chemistry and Biomedical Engineering from October 2017 to April 2019, Ye continued to work as a PLA Lieutenant completing numerous assignments from PLA officers such as conducting research, assessing U.S. military websites and sending U.S. documents and information to China.”
It was initially reported that both Zheng and Ye were associated with Dr. Charles Lieber and worked in his Harvard lab (in Cambridge, as opposed to the one in Wuhan which Harvard apparently didn’t even know about). At this point, it isn’t clear what relationship there is between the three, if any.
And yes, that Wuhan — the Chinese city that is ground zero of the Corona Virus.
The Wuhan University of Technology is where Liebar established his second lab and spent “not less than nine months a year” — somehow without Harvard ever knowing about it. Maybe — like you really don’t notice that the chair of a fairly significant department isn’t on campus “not less than nine months a year”?!?
It gets worse — the Wuhan University of Technology is where China reportedly is working on Biological Warfare — in violation of International law. That’s what makes the smuggling of pathogens so scary — it isn’t just the theft of the intellectual property but that they may be potentially making things more virulent and more lethal. (And we don’t yet know where the Corona Virus came from….)
Oh, and Charles Lieber — his research involves nanotechnology for mind control. It has potential for good (e.g. with Parkinson’s disease) but in the hands of the ChiComs, ummm….
* Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center has since merged with the Lahey Clinic and is now known as Beth Israel Lahey Health. An interesting aspect of this is that Lahey is one of the main teaching hospitals of Tufts Medical School….
A couple of odd things in this piece.
“The Journal does not explain what, if anything, the money was intended for. What we do know is that it has not been used to lower tuition costs for students.”
Well, why would anyone expect China and Russia to donate money to Harvard and Yale to lower tuition for American students?
“The Journal says that some universities are dismissing the idea that national security might be compromised by accepting huge payments from foreign governments.”
The question is not whether accepting the donations compromise national security, or even whether they are illegal — as far as I know, they are not. The question is whether the universities failed to report them properly. The universities are claiming that the federal laws — or regulations? — are so unclear as to be difficult or impossible to know what is required to comply with them.
By all means, if Lieber ilegally lied about his dealings with China, then he probably deserves what he will get both from the U.S. government and from Harvard. But let’s not have a witch hunt.
One would think that the government would want to encourage financial transfers to American universities from China, given the huge imbalance in trade with that country. The government claims that China hinders imports in goods and services from the United States.
It is hard not to suspect that at least part of what is going on involves a vendetta against American academia, given that it is overwhelmingly anti- or at least not pro-Trump. The same holds for the Trump administration’s repeated absurd moves to cut science funding at American universities.
This seems like a really dumb way to advance the well-being and power of the United States.
“By all means, if Lieber ilegally lied about his dealings with China, then he probably deserves what he will get both from the U.S. government and from Harvard. But let’s not have a witch hunt.” Probably? What witch hunt? It’s hard not to suspect that “Jonathan” is a troll, if not in the pay of China. This website has repeatedly pointed out the misuse of government funding for duplicative, sterile and non-reproducible “science” . What’s absurd in attempting to rein in useless, if not criminal, squandering of public funds? This one does not think that the government should want to encourage “ilegal” theft or purchase of our intellectual property by a potential adversary.