Everybody in higher ed has questions these days. For example, admins ask "how can we get faculty to incorporate AI into their classes?" while faculty ask "can I come in to campus to teach my classes without being abducted by an unlawful paramilitary force?"
Thank you to you and Martha Kenney for leading this effort!
Action Network petition: Cancel ChatGPT Edu. Invest in Humans. In February 2025, the California State University system announced a $17 million contract with OpenAI to provide ChatGPT Edu to all faculty, staff, and students on its 22 CSU campuses as part of a larger “AI-Empowered University” initiative. This is the largest contract ever established between a university system and an artificial intelligence company. Despite the name, ChatGPT Edu is not educational technology. It is a general-purpose chatbot that is not designed, trained, or optimized for education. Beyond its privacy and security features, ChatGPT Edu is identical to the free online version of ChatGPT. ChatGPT Edu does not use reliable peer-reviewed sources to answer students' questions and is indifferent to whether its answers are correct. Experts argue that ChatGPT Edu is harmful to academic working conditions, diminishes the quality of teaching and learning, introduces new forms of discrimination, and is dangerous to students' mental health. Recent polling shows that CSU students share these concerns, with the majority of students expressing that they are worried about the negative impacts of generative AI on human creativity and the environment.
Cal State University’s deal with OpenAI — providing ChatGPT to all faculty, students, and staff — will expire in June 2026. Amid the prospect of layoffs in the CSU, we’re asking the chancellor not to renew this costly and demoralizing contract.
Link below and anyone can sign:
So a little bit about federal grants being suspended from the perspective of a retired person who was funded by NIH grants for 20-odd years. I first want to extend my sorrow to colleagues who are affected by this. Next, for those of you who don’t work in academic science, I want to share how…1/4
I can't stop thinking about these people risking their lives to save this city and the people in it who voted just a few months ago to keep them working in these unimaginable conditions
Mask bans in NY are once again being portrayed as necessary in the fight against antisemitism.
This ableist piece of security theater is bad for everyone so if you are Jewish - and especially if you live in NY and most especially if you have a title like Rabbi - please sign.
ILL librarians are real live heroes of the revolution
From Rubel, this: “You can get pickle everything now. This is really my time.”
Still thinking on @rachelbgross.bsky.social’s point. There’s something lovely about a certain kind of innovation, one made intentionally to enhance a tradition. Many of my favorite traditions became traditions within living memory!
We're not ruining holidays, we're enhancing them ✨🤣
Potato latkes aren't really that old — but they *feel* old.
That's what scholars call an "invented tradition," writes SF State Professor @rachelbgross.bsky.social:
My thoughts on the very recent history of potato latkes, now online as an opinion piece in @jewishsf.bsky.social:
Hanukkah potato pancakes are less than 200 years old, but learning how quickly new rituals become meaningful can add to holiday magic if we let it.
jweekly.com/2024/12/30/p...
In @theguardian.com, Deena Prichep tells us about the Reformed Druids of North America, the religion that began as a way to get around a @carletoncollege.bsky.social requirement. I love this so much. #AmRel
www.theguardian.com/society/2024...
All traditions have histories but only some fit into Eric Hobsbawm's category of "invented traditions," as I explain in the piece 🙂
Yes, my response was a joke about certain Jewish orgs that misuse the idea of religious pluralism, but it was probably too niche 🙂
Don't talk to me about matzah balls, then 🙃😂
(But food history shouldn't ruin anyone's enjoyment!)
Thanks, Josh! 😊
Read some great food history!
Love this! And yes, to punch up Rachel’s closing point—understanding how rituals become meaningful makes them all the more meaningful, not less!
Aw thanks! 😊
“For many of us, [latkes] have become central to the stories we tell ourselves about Hanukkah. When we make or eat or smell latkes, many of us recall family gatherings and celebrations with friends ... the stories about our lives that help us understand who we are and where we come from.”
Magazine article with photo of latkes with the headline potato latkes, an invented tradition, byline Rachel B. Gross
Second page of article about the history of potato latkes
I wrote about the shockingly recent history of potato latkes and teaching about the development of holiday traditions for @jewishsf.bsky.social, included in a recipe booklet sent out to donors
PDF: www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/fu583...
No! That's wild. I get so much junk mail but haven't seen this trash
Yikes! 😡
It's telling that historians have written off Antin's post-celebrity life as sick, sad, and obscure when she decided celebrity wasn't healthy for her and didn't allow her to pursue what she truly valued
And Jewish historians have really hated that she explored non-Jewish religions 🫠
Appreciate this! My work is challenging conventional narratives of Mary Antin, esp.: "She disappeared into relative obscurity, spending much of the rest of her life in and out of mental hospitals"
In fact, she spent 3 decades immersed in exciting spiritual communities that supported her like family
Grateful for support from @hadassahbrandeis.bsky.social, which has enabled this research!
... and HBI's Scholar in Residence Program. The deadline to apply for the 2025-26 academic year is coming up in February. bit.ly/HBIScholar /end
