This week a judge dismissed all the charges brought against a group of Stanford students for occupying the university president’s office in June 2024 to protest Stanford’s complicity in Israel’s genocide in Gaza. The judge also reduced the amount of restitution to roughly $52,000 total, which ended up being paid by an anonymous source. The September 21 decision came down despite the strenuous…
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As U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration tightens its repressive measures against Iran, Iranian students and applicants of English proficiency tests have become the latest targets of a campaign by the White House to severely constrain Iran’s connections with the rest of the world. With the war on Iran nearing the end of its seventh month, the U.S.-Israeli bombing operations have been…
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For Northwestern University alumna Keala Uchôa, the university’s recent decision to restructure its African Studies program and cut two staff positions is hardly surprising. The move isn’t isolated. Over the years, the university and students have clashed over protests, a faculty member has sued over not getting tenure, and some current and former students — including Uchôa — say they’ve been…
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A survey of higher education faculty in the South found professors are concerned about the political environment around higher education, with some fearing for their physical safety. The annual survey from the American Association of University Professors included an open-ended question that allowed faculty to detail the problems they’re facing. Compared with previous years…
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If education is indeed the great vehicle of social and economic mobility, then higher education is no longer delivering the promise of the “American dream.” In fact, this “dream” has become a fiscal nightmare. Colleges and universities saw 9,000 job cuts and buyouts in 2025, and several college closures, mergers, and looming budget crises have already been announced in 2026.
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Across the United States, and increasingly in other democracies under siege, higher education faces a coordinated assault unlike anything witnessed in generations. State governments are prohibiting the teaching of histories that confront slavery, colonialism, Indigenous dispossession, structural racism, and widening inequality. Books are disappearing from classrooms and libraries. Diversity…
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