Harvard Professor Jill Lepore says she almost left the academy during the height of wokeness and that she’s ashamed she didn’t speak up.

She says it was “miserable,” and she’s not sure why she stayed. She recalls declining to publish (at the time) an essay critical of #metoo because she was told it would ruin her life:

“Although it once seemed like a good idea to give every child his or her own device, it’s clear that those policies have been a failure.”

💯

School-issued laptops distract students at school and home, expose them to things they shouldn’t see, and hurt learning.

🧵 Great column by @jean_twenge:

She observes that “the decline in test scores started well before the pandemic, around 2012. One obvious culprit is smartphones, which became popular just as test scores started to decline.”

NEW: UC San Diego has released a new report documenting a “steep decline in the academic preparedness” of its freshmen.

The number of entering students needing remedial math has exploded from 1/100 to 1/8.

They’ve had to create a second remedial class covering elementary and middle school math skills in addition to the one covering gaps from high school.

🧵 The report also shows that nearly 1/5 students fail to meeting entry level writing requirements.

These Harvard students…did not react well to the report on grade inflation:

“The whole entire day, I was crying. I skipped classes on Monday, and I was just sobbing in bed because I felt like I try so hard in my classes, and my grades aren’t even the best. It just felt soul-crushing.”

“What makes a Harvard student a Harvard student is their engagement in extracurriculars. Now we have to throw that all away and pursue just academics. I believe that attacks the very notion of what Harvard is.”

“I can’t reach my maximum level of enjoyment just learning the material because I’m so anxious about the midterm, so anxious about the papers, and because I know it’s so harshly graded. If that standard is raised even more, it’s unrealistic to assume that people will enjoy their classes.” Link: thecrimson.com/article/2025/1…

Harvard reports that it is “failing to perform the key functions of grading.”

Its grading practices are “damaging the academic culture of the College.”

“Faculty newly arrived at Harvard are surprised at how leniently our courses are graded.”

Students say academics feel “fake.” Grade inflation is out of control:

60% of grades are now A’s.

That’s risen from 26% just 20 years ago.

“They were cracking up not simply because grades had gotten so high but because they knew just how little students were doing to earn them.”

Harvard faculty recognize that grade inflation has become absurd: “In 2011, 60 percent of all grades at Harvard were in the A range (up from 33 percent in 1985). By the 2020–21 academic year, that share had risen to 79 percent.”

“College teaching is politically one-sided to an extreme, and until professors change our ways, we won’t recover the trust of the public.”

“Take the teaching of racial bias and the criminal justice system.”

🧵 “Michelle Alexander’s ‘The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness’ (2010) shows up in thousands of syllabi,” but the work of one of her leading critics “is paired with it less than 4% of the time.”

Other critics are taught even less.

🧵Columbia’s agreement with the federal government includes provisions to ensure non-discrimination in admissions and hiring.

“Columbia shall not maintain programs that promote unlawful efforts to achieve race-based outcomes, quotas, diversity targets, or similar efforts.” “Columbia shall maintain merit-based admissions policies. Columbia may not, by any means, unlawfully preference applicants based on race, color, or national origin in admissions throughout its programs. No proxy for racial admission will be implemented or maintained. Columbia may not use personal statements, diversity narratives, or any applicant reference to racial identity as a means to introduce or justify discrimination.”

Asked about NPR’s bias in a new interview, Katherine Maher says the “argument about public media being ‘biased’ is a stalking horse” and “having non-white voices and perspectives on air does not make us woke.”

NPR got exactly what it deserved. “We have always been editorially independent…now we are financially independent.”

“We will no longer have the Congressional funding Sword of Damocles over our heads.”

“We have…the opportunity to leave behind…things that no longer serve our mission.”

🧵This Harvard Jewish student, who was assaulted on campus, is suing.

He says “Harvard did everything it could to defend, protect, and reward the assailants; to impede the criminal investigation; and to prevent [him] from obtaining administrative relief from the University.” He alleges, “In addition to refusing to even assist the local prosecutor's investigation, Harvard directly instructed its campus officer to stop investigating the attack and then retaliated against him by removing him from the investigation.”

Progressives continue to acknowledge the failure of their vision of immigration:

“Parts of the left have ignored a basic truth: The ability to control borders, to decide who does and does not come into a country, is central to a democracy. Without that ability, the citizens of a nation lose control over it.”
“Less affluent voters have questioned the impact of mass migration for years, worried about its impact on housing, public services, wages and communities. The response of urban progressives…has often been to denounce working-class voters as narrow-minded or racist.”

Listen to the police chief describe how they confronted Rep. Melissa Hortman’s killer at her home.

The killer was in police uniform and had what looked exactly like a police vehicle. He then confirmed there is a manifesto with a list that includes the two lawmakers:

https://twitter.com/sfmcguire79/status/1933909876347957304

290 Berkeley professors on whether some external criticisms of higher ed are valid and whether the university should take action in response: Here is the survey question:

In an interview, a Columbia protestor endorses violence, Oct. 7, and disruption.

This is someone who participated in the Butler Library occupation and was interviewed afterward.

They admit that their goal is to disrupt the university (i.e., not to exercise free speech): This person also admits that the protestors used force to try to get out of the library:

🧵I attended a not-for-attribution call yesterday about the situation inside Columbia.

The key takeaway is that a lot of people, probably a majority, are done with the protestors and the corrupt faculty who support them. They want change. People just want to get back to teaching and researching. They know the cancelled grants are gone for good, but they want to get back on track ASAP so they can apply for new federal grants.

Columbia’s president when the gov’t revoked federal funding — in 1971: Read the story here:

https://twitter.com/standcolumbia/status/1921311018766004676

BREAKING: The FBI raided three homes of University of Michigan anti-Israel activists today, briefly detaining and questioning some of them while reportedly seizing electronics.

Recall that the homes and offices of several UMich Leaders have been vandalized in recent months.

🧵 The report from TAHRIR coalition, the anti-Israel group at the University of Michigan:

In a new analysis, @StandColumbia estimates “Harvard faces $1.2 to $5.5 billion in annual institutional risk exposure, or up to 43% of its adjusted operating budget.”

They argue Harvard should still try to make a deal with the government.

🧵 What does Harvard stand to lose?

First, and most obviously, government grants, which Stand Columbia estimates to be worth $2.4 billion per year.

They say this is a high probability loss, quite reasonably since the government is already freezing grants.

Wow — the federal government wants to place Columbia University under a consent decree.

It sounds like this is because former Interim President Katrina Armstrong failed to convince the government that Columbia is serious about change.

“The Trump administration is planning to pursue a legal arrangement that would put Columbia University into a consent decree, according to people familiar with the matter, an extraordinary step that could significantly escalate the pressure on the school as it battles for federal funding.”

“A consent decree, which can last for years, would give a federal judge responsibility for ensuring Columbia changes its practices along lines laid out by the federal government. If a consent decree is in place, Columbia would have to comply with it. If a judge determines they are out of compliance, the school could be held in contempt of court—punishable by penalties including fines.”

“In order for a consent decree to take effect, Columbia would have to agree to enter it. It is unclear whether the university board has discussed the possibility.”

“Columbia could fight the move in court; the Justice Department would need to prove that the arrangement is warranted. But a court case could take years, and Columbia would likely lose federal funding in the interim—and might ultimately lose. Fighting the move would also open the school up to required depositions and legal fact-finding, which could keep the school’s campus politics in the spotlight.”

“The task force is aiming at the consent decree, people familiar with the matter said, because it doesn’t think Columbia is a good-faith actor willing to make the significant changes on campuses necessary to curb what it believes are civil rights infractions against Jewish students.” Link: wsj.com/us-news/educat…

“DEI, Redundancy, and Bullshit Jobs”

Here’s a crazy story:

A Brown U. student built a website, “Bloat at Brown,” with a database of about 3,500 university staff and emailed them, asking “what tasks you performed in the past week” and “how Brown students would be impacted if your position was eliminated.”

About 20 people replied. One told him to “f**k off.”

The school advised employees not to respond and referred the student to the disciplinary office (he hasn’t been charged with any violations yet). Then his website was hacked by someone with a Brown IP address. The website: bloat.brownspectator.com

🚨 In faculty meetings, Columbia President Armstrong is downplaying the changes promised to the Trump admin.

She “told faculty there was no mask ban.”

And she said the new vice provost to be appointed to review Middle East Studies “wouldn’t impact how the department operates.” On the mask ban: