Matthew Vannette

I agree with the premise here. The issue is accommodations offices are compliance (lawsuit prevention) not service focused. Absent changing that, nothing else will change.

Mr. Rogers would probably say you are good enough to be that person. Maybe you don't have the platform he did, but you see people every day. Be their Mr. Rogers in some small way.

It seems these AI agent advocates put quantity over quality. It would be nice if we would just publish when we have something to say rather than to get that paper count on the CV to tick up one more notch.

If we have sufficient faculty at the university level, the mass production nature is reduced. In the US there has been plenty of money and resources to provide that. We have chosen a fiscal caste system in favor of egalitarianism.

The mass-production of students model has never been good for education. It's what leads them to think course content doesn't matter. Cheating is rationalized as being efficient. Learning is inherently inefficient.

Excuse me while I flip this table.

One onerous way around this is to make all marked assessments in-class and not posted to the LMS. Give unmarked practice work, but progress is shown through action I can watch.

When I review, if too many of the citations are flawed I recommend to reject. Not revise. Reject. It's sloppy work at best and dishonest at worst.

The student rebels against the notion of AI in education. That's encouraging.

There was a paper on hippo locomotion. Turns out they run with an aerial phase and elephants do not. Hence, "hippos are relatively more athletic than elephants" was one conclusion.

That was an encouraging read.

Average students here interact with faculty more deeply than the very top undergrads did at the R1 I earned my PhD at. I don't think "elite" schools would say we are anywhere close to them, even though our students do just as well as theirs in grad school.

Maybe "elite" really means "connected."

I love that the white paper refers to "enshitification" I'm curious about the role of personal mentorship being a hallmark of elite institutions. My regional, public PUI is all about personal contact between students and professors.

1/2

The greatest risk of AI in higher education isn't cheating—it's the erosion of learning itself Public debate about artificial intelligence in higher education has largely orbited a familiar worry: cheating. Will students use chatbots to write essays? Can instructors tell? Should universities ba...

Short circuiting the learning process is the whole point of #AI. Users offload the "simple" or "mundane" thinking that nurtures growth. Students borrow its "understanding" and think that understanding is thiers.

Use at the risk of stupidity.

#academicsky

phys.org/news/2026-02...

As a natural scientist, I would say psychologists can't be expected to know how the mind works. It's (probably) too complex for a reductionist model like what works in physics. Hell, we can't even explain why ice is slippery.

Spending "days" making sure references are factually correct is about the lowest bar you can set. Didn't they read the damn papers before citing them?

Who else checks the cited sources actually argue what the authors say they argue when doing a peer review? 2nd round reviewing and 3 of the first 5 sources are not relevant to the paper and do not make the point the authors claim. How did this get past round 1?

#academicsky

Scientists discover 'levitating' time crystals that you can hold in your hand Time crystals, a collection of particles that "tick"—or move back and forth in repeating cycles—were first theorized and then discovered about a decade ago. While scientists have yet to create commerc...

It's a cool thing, but the article is misleading. Newton's 3rd law isn't violated. It is so frustrating b/c students will ask some teacher about it and they may not have a good response. The paper does a better job, but still talks like N3L breaks.

phys.org/news/2026-02...

There ought to be a rule against announcements playing over Sunshine of Your Love.

I love that shirt.

A Latina student in my Physics I class told me she didn't feel like she belonged and lacked confidence. I told her to borrow mine in her.

"If I had the confidence of a white man I'd be unstoppable."

US academics - It is completely legal for any of us to tell our students that the Constitution explicitly grants states control over elections. You can start class with a public service announcement.

When we say these truths, it empowers our students to say them.

We are working on something. It may be along the lines of

The use of gen. AI is an attempt to circumvent the learning process. It seeks to avoid the hard work of thinking for ourselves. The legitimate uses are so narrow as to be non-existent in most classroom settings.

It's frustrating, but this is how precedent is set. Carefully so it cannot be thrown out due to technicalities.

I see all 10 amendments in the Bill of Rights (and more) being violated, but I'm not a judge.

The lawsuit in MN seeking to remove ICE for 10A violations is moving forward. The judge's lack of prelim. injunction is b/c the likelihood of success is not "sufficiently in favor" of MN. Not that it lacks merit, nor that it is lost. Rather there is a possibility it isn't the right ruling. 1/2

I Was Not A Nazi Polka YouTube video by The Mitchell Trio - Topic

When we come through this fascism, be aware of those singing the modern version of this song

youtu.be/dmhgcC5dYkE

This was late 1990's. He gave off a sense of wanting people, particularly the two women majoring in physics, to fawn over him. Was a bit petulant when one didn't. We all want people to like us, but us students talked about it afterwards. This was different from that.

I met Krauss in 1997 or so, around when Physics of Star Trek or Beyond Physics of Star Trek was published. He was invited to speak to the undergrads in my department, of which I was one. He was slimy and a dick back then, but none of us were aware of just how bad he was.

I am unsurprised.

Am I the only one who sees "Melanie" at the top?

#AcademicSky
All of us faculty in the US have an obligation to remind our students that what is happening is wrong. Every American should be fighting for change whenever and wherever we can. It is not only our right by the 1st A, it is our duty by the Preamble.

We, the People. That's all of us.

When this came up in a meeting, we were informed the admin is providing 0 support to faculty. My response is "Canvas no longer exists." Everything will be paper, distributed in class. If I'm not getting expert help to make sure my material is okay, I shouldn't be providing it that way.

I think it comes down to us and our colleagues to push back against admins who weight the evals. It's hard, particularly for the non-tenured. That's why I continue to fight whenever I can. I have some protection. I should use it.

Students do not know enough pedagogy to assess instructors. Did you show up on time? Did it seem like you were prepared? Did you ignore emails/attempts to contact you? If yes, yes, no, then any other comments don't carry much weight.