The Academy
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Professor Peterson at Texas A&M revises his syllabus.
A propos the story we broke a few days ago, Professor Peterson kindly shared the new syllabus: https://leiterreports.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Syllabus-PHIL-111-S-2026-_-Peterson_censored.pdf He wrote to his Chair, Professor Sweet, as follows: Dr. Sweet, As you may have noticed, I believe it is important to document that philosophy professors at Texas A&M University are not permitted to teach Plato at…
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“The Lost Generation,” i.e., white guys who couldn’t get jobs they once might have gotten, starting around 2014
Several readers sent this article which clearly describes a real phenomenon, although I’m skeptical 2014 is the relevant start date, although the “Great Awokening” circa 2011 certainly accelerated an existing trend (2014 was also, perhaps not coincidentally, the year the online philosophy profession went crazy). But the article does adduce some striking numbers: White men…
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Tennessee university will pay $500,000 to professor wrongfully fired over Charlie Kirk comments
Thank goodness for lawyers, who are sometimes successful at holding these miscreants to account. (Thanks to Ruchira Paul for the pointer.)
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Federal appeals court agrees that the change to indirect funding by the NIH was unlawful.
CHE has the story. Like so much that the Trumpistas do, this was done in a blatantly illegal way. Unfortunately for universities, they could change the funding formula lawfully, but that will take longer. But unless these gangsters are removed from power in Washington, universities will have to plan for a massive reduction in federal…
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NYT on the right-wing attack on UT Austin
The headline is somewhat misleading: “The Conservative Overhaul of the University of Texas is Underway.” The story continues: The campus is no longer led by an academic, but a Republican lawyer who worked for the state’s attorney general, Ken Paxton. The president has promised curricular changes, and the system is now conducting an audit of…
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Portland State University has yet to comply with binding arbitration decision requiring reinstatement of improperly terminated faculty (UPDATED)
This is remarkable. (Earlier coverage.) PSU’s President is feminist philosopher Ann Cudd. UPDATE: President Cudd also sanctioned a faculty member for their lawful political speech. The President’s background in feminist philosophy has not appeared to enhance her professional judgment.
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Today in Trump’s extortion of the universities
Northwestern ponies up $75 million in the fake anti-semitism crusade of the Trump Administration, an Administration that is awash with ties to actual anti-semites.
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Should international PhD students even consider U.S. Ph.D. programs at this point?
New international student enrollment at American universities fell 17% this fall, which is hardly surprising given what has been going on. But how should prospective international students think about the prospect of studying in the U.S. given that Trump is in power for at least three more years? International students ought to watch this video…
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Texas A&M systematizes massive violation of core academic freedom rights of faculty
This new policy won’t affect faculty in the natural sciences and engineering, where A&M is strongest, but it will affect faculty across the humanities and social sciences, as well as law. What’s especially shocking here is that isn’t a once-off attack on academic freedom,this is creating a systematic policy whose purpose is to shamelessly infringe…
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The coming, and very consequential, change to Federal student loans for post-graduate study
We touched on this before, but CHE offers this update: According to the consensus definitions, approved Thursday after two rounds of negotiated rulemaking, a degree will be considered professional if the field requires skills beyond those needed to receive a bachelor’s degree. The distinction matters: Professional students will be able to take out $50,000 in…
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A framework for preserving authorship and trust in the AI era
Philosopher Eli Alshanetsky has been writing about “how we might verify human authorship and accountability in AI-mediated work without shifting the burden onto already overstretched faculty.” A short version of his ideas are available at The Conversation. A longer version is here. Professor Alshanetsky welcomes comments, and intends to reply here. Be sure to at…
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More on UT Austin
Following up on this, CHE has run an interview with the new Provost, who is conservative, but anti-Trump. I would say the interview is somewhat hopeful for UT Austin and its faculty, especially because the Provost indicates he has read and appreciated my former Texas colleague David Rabban’s authoritative treatment of academic freedom under the…
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Another piece on UChicago’s financial difficulties
This one, by two non-UChicago faculty, is more factually accurate than the Ando intervention, but it still makes a very serious mistake: the Board of Trustees (BOT) played no real role in the financial decisions that produced the current economic mess. They were decisions taken by the President, Robert Zimmer (approved by the BOT), an…
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H1-B visas and the $100,000 fee: the latest
CHE reports: Student-visa holders and others who switch their legal status within the United States won’t have to pay a new $100,000 fee on skilled-worker visas. Guidance issued…by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security clarified that international graduates of American colleges will be exempt from the fee imposed by the Trump administration. Both higher-education and employer…
Georgy Maksimovich pointed me to this article in Russian: https://novayagazeta.ru/articles/2026/05/25/antisovetskie-filosofskie-kontratseptsii