Students defend democracy by participating in it. "Higher education has thrived in the ecosystem of freedoms provided by our democracy. Today that ecosystem is under enormous strain, & as teachers & students we must now rise to its defense." @mollyjongfast.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2026/03/04/o...
On #DemocracySummer "Now is the time for everyone— Republicans, Democrats and independents —to come together & defend our foundational democratic right. And higher education has a unique role to play." @aacu.org @civicnation.bsky.social @wesleyanuniversity.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2026/03/04/o...
Teaching CASABLANCA @wesleyanuniversity.bsky.social this morning. Will talk about immigration, war, the choice of public action over personal desire. I wrote this almost 10 years ago www.chronicle.com/article/here...
“Silence is not neutrality; it is permission. The record that university chancellors, presidents and trustees create in this moment — who spoke, who acted and who stayed silent — will be studied long after today’s political actors are gone.”
Read @mashagessen.bsky.social & hear the screams “This war, like the great war before it, has extracted and normalized extraordinary sacrifice. It demands that everyone serve and everyone be a hero.” www.nytimes.com/2026/02/22/o...
Ian Buruma “People kept hoping that the next act of war &assault on decency would be the final one… yet life continues as usual. What was unthinkable only yesterday we now take in stride, and we wait for that moment when things really have gone too” www.nytimes.com/2026/02/22/o...
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Danielle Allen on Stochastic Intimidation: "a speaker denigrates a target; the denigration goes viral; &someone delivers threats to the target. Who delivers the threat may be random, but that a threat will follow from social media.. discourse is nearly guaranteed." open.substack.com/pub/therenov...
Read @arneduncan.bsky.social @ambpressman.bsky.social "When institutional self-preservation replaces moral leadership, universities abandon their core mission. This is a striking abdication of responsibility..from leaders entrusted with educating the next generation of citizens." wapo.st/4qomlXe
Read @aoscott.bsky.social "His larger point, though, is that to flout the guarantee of habeas corpus — as he insists the current deportation policy has done — is to threaten the integrity of the American constitutional order itself." And yes, "Jesus wept." www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
Read @mollyjongfast.bsky.social on so many “His transactional amorality actually seemed to add to his appeal to people who were convinced that the rules didn’t apply to them.” www.nytimes.com/2026/02/07/o...
Read @ezrakleinbot.bsky.social “Trump’s aides flatter him and lie to us. They indulge his constant distraction and so they too are constantly distracted. They are dominated by him and so they seek to dominate us.” www.nytimes.com/2026/02/01/o...
thank you!
"Professors are fighting an asymmetric battle against the tide of anti-intellectualism, illiberalism and bad-faith complaints, and will be for the foreseeable future." www.nytimes.com/2026/01/28/o...
Georges gave me life changing advice & support. May his memory be a blessing www.nytimes.com/2026/01/20/o...
“Those who instead choose violence destroy the possibility of learning and meaning. Those of us who choose learning must call out violence, especially when it is sanctioned by our own government.” @aacu.org @mollyjongfast.bsky.social @velshimsnow.bsky.social www.wesleyan.edu/about/news/2...
www.ms.now/opinion/will...
www.ms.now/opinion/will...
"You shouldn’t be able to pepper spray [protestors] or execute them on the street because you don’t like what they stand for…this is an aberration." Wesleyan University President @msroth.bsky.social speaks with @velshi.com on the latest rebuke of Trump's attack on college protestors #HigherEd
"although many uni presidents are accommodating the president by cloaking themselves in neutrality, other higher education leaders, including those at @georgemasonu.bsky.social, @princeton.edu, Bard, @harvard.edu & @mountholyoke.bsky.social, are resisting federal pressure" www.ms.now/opinion/will...
.@chashomans@bsky.social “These were pictures of the state deploying violence confidently and with open disinterest for the niceties of process or protocol — the expression of power as an end to itself. To some, it was horrifying; to others, it was exhilarating” www.nytimes.com/2026/01/25/m...
Authoritarians “want to make educational institutions into places where you don’t have free thinking, critical thinking, & curiosity, as you would in democracies. Instead, the education institution itself becomes a place that breeds the values of authoritarianism” www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/202...
"Recent ICE attacks...make this a sober holiday, indeed…The march toward authoritarianism is only successful if we get out of its way. Dr. King didn’t get out of the way, and he has inspired millions to struggle for a more just and democratic world." #MLK www.wesleyan.edu/about/news/2...
Had so much fun talking with this wonderful @wesleyanuniversity.bsky.social alum. We need more Maggie Nelson & more Wesleyan!
A federal judge denounced the Trump admin’s crackdown on pro-Palestinian college activists as an “unconstitutional suppression of free speech." Wesleyan President @msroth.bsky.social says, "you shouldn't be able to punish protesters because you don't like the fact that they're protesting."
My take @velshimsnow.bsky.social "That is authoritarianism: we have to name it, call it out…and then we have to stop it. The fact that the president wants something does not mean that something has to happen.…We’ve always known this in this country" youtu.be/tbc4sq0InNE?si… via @aacu.org @aaup.org
Read @polgreen.bsky.social “Operation Metro Surge” …is an occupation designed to punish and terrorize anyone who dares defy this incursion and, by extension, Donald Trump’s power to wield limitless force against any enemy he wishes.” www.nytimes.com/2026/01/19/o...
“as the outrages pile up, as the silence persists..small acts of destruction &wretchedness begin to..threaten..the principles &freedoms upon which the whole system rests. Eventually, silence becomes not a choice but a requirement, &by then it is too late to speak.” www.chronicle.com/article/wher...
“Trump’s penchant for theatrics &bombast, his obsession with status &his use of power to enrich himself and his family — all these are characteristic elements of this darker ideology. Machtpolitik is realism gone wrong...” www.nytimes.com/2026/01/09/m...
Read @johnathanchai There is no objective standard of conduct that could possibly explain why beating police officers is peaceful but attempting to flee from them is terrorism. This is not an oversight, but the essence of Trumpism www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
