Update. Good advice from #MichaelIgnatieff, past President of the Central European University in Budapest and Vienna (2016-2021): "How a University Fights an Authoritarian Regime. Viktor #Orbán came for me. Donald #Trump is coming for you. Here’s what to do."
https://www.chronicle.com/article/how-a-university-fights-an-authoritarian-regime
(#paywalled)

"You’re going to need an alliance that pulls together American families, employers, unions, companies, the whole network of people and institutions beyond your campus who understand that the universities of America are critical to everything that is good about the country: its commitment to freedom, its devotion to excellence, its leadership in science and medicine. This alliance is going to have to get political — to reach across red state and blue state, identify the members of Congress from both sides of the House who understand why universities matter to their communities, to the American economy, and to America’s deserved reputation for excellence. Don’t mince words. It’s too late to play nice. Call a spade a spade. Convince enough Americans that the administration’s strategy deserves only one name: vandalism."

#Academia #DefendResearch #Universities #USPol #USPolitics
@academicchatter

Update. "How college presidents are quietly resisting federal attacks on higher education"
https://www.highereddive.com/news/college-presidents-resisting-federal-attacks-higher-education/742074/

"The relative lack of public statements is not a sign of cowardice as some have suggested. It’s that many college presidents have rightly concluded that quiet resistance rather than public protest is a more effective strategy. "

PS: Is quiet resistance working? If so, more power to it. It has to be better than quiet blenching. But does it work better than unquiet resistance? And how would we know?

#Academia #Universities #Trump #USPol #USPolitics
@academicchatter

We are aware that there are some members of the digital evidence community who may be wary of, unwilling to, or unable to give evidence to the Parliamentary Inquiry into Computer Evidence (https://www.gov.uk/government/news/use-of-computer-evidence-in-court-to-be-interrogated ). To ensure that their views & experiences can be properly represented, we are running a short survey ro capture essential information that we will submit to the Inquiry on behalf of respondents. All information will be anonymised and only used or reproduced with the consent of the contributors.

The survey has been prepared by Angus Marshall with support from Prof. Sarah Morris and Simon Biles, for whose support we are very grateful.

Please do complete the form at https://forms.gle/BwmDytnHT3z8pmCDA . It should only take 10-20 minutes. Or if you prefer to email us: survey@devce.org

This Thursday 14th, Dutch universities will protest against the new government's planned budget cuts. The universities are encouraging staff and students to join the protest in Utrecht. You can read a comment from the Tilburg University vice-president here ("We were, and still are, pissed off...")

Just seen something referring to academics as "unpaid content creators for Elsevier" and I am dead ⚰️.

@academicsunite @academicchatter

1/ When surveys ask academics to self-describe their political leanings, we get the familiar result that the vast majority lean left. When an algorithm analyzes their #Twitter posts, we still find a left-leaning majority but we also find more centrists and conservatives than the surveys do.
https://www.chronicle.com/article/actually-there-are-more-conservatives-on-the-faculty-than-you-think-study-finds
(#paywalled)

#Academia #Politics #SocialMedia
@academicchatter