After punishing people for Charlie Kirk comments, colleges are paying steep settlements

After punishing people for Charlie Kirk comments, colleges are paying steep settlements

Graham Piro  July 16, 2026 1 min read

Violating the First Amendment will cost you. Universities and other public institutions are learning this lesson the hard way as the dust settles on a series of lawsuits brought by university faculty and staff who were punished for their comments about Charlie Kirk’s murder last September.

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Why Scholarship Turns Into Activism

Why Scholarship Turns Into Activism

Ashley T. Rubin  July 09, 2026 1 min read

The recent report on the state of scholarship in the humanities and humanistic social sciences has renewed the debate over the internal politicization of academe. As one of its authors (speaking only for myself), I find the report relatively tepid. 

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A Faculty Blueprint for Higher Ed Reform

A Faculty Blueprint for Higher Ed Reform

Justin McBrayer, Michael Jindra, and Ashley Rubin July 09, 2026 1 min read

Can faculty lead the reform of higher education from the inside — and if so, who checks whom?

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Columbia University Has a New President. Again. This One Plans to Stay.

Columbia University Has a New President. Again. This One Plans to Stay.

Sharon Otterman July 07, 2026 1 min read

Her confidence in handling that potential tinderbox, and others like it, impressed the trustees of Columbia University, who appointed Dr. Mnookin to be the 21st president, a role she starts on Wednesday. It is also emblematic of the deliberative leadership style she will seek to pursue at Columbia, she said in a wide-ranging interview last week.

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Higher Ed Is Very Sorry

Higher Ed Is Very Sorry

Rose Horowitch July 01, 2026 1 min read

Just 10 years ago, almost 60 percent of Americans said they had a lot of confidence in higher education. By last year, that number had fallen to 42 percent. Seventy percent of Americans told Pew last fall that higher education is moving in the wrong direction.

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Feds charge 8 pro-Palestinian activists with conspiring to intimidate U of Michigan officials

Feds charge 8 pro-Palestinian activists with conspiring to intimidate U of Michigan officials

Ed White June 11, 2026 1 min read

Federal prosecutors unsealed an indictment Wednesday against eight pro-Palestinian activists who are accused of conspiring to run a criminal intimidation campaign against University of Michigan officials while trying to force the school to cut financial ties to Israel.

The indictment describes threats and vandalism at officials’ homes, some businesses and the Jewish Federation of Detroit. The document highlights several incidents that made headlines in the past few years, including fake bloody corpses that were placed in an elected university board member’s yard and the spray-painting of anti-Israel messages at the home of the school’s president at the time, Santa Ono.

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