Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Connor Ewing

Brendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · 11h

Every targeted institution (my own very much included) should cut and paste this letter onto their letterhead.

Kathleen Clark @kathleenclark.bsky.social · 11h

A master class from MIT in responding to authoritarian overreach:

Your “premise … is inconsistent with our core belief that scientific funding should be based on scientific merit alone.
… America’s leadership in science & innovation depends on independent thinking & open competition for excellence.

Dear Madam Secretary,
I write in response to your letter of October 1, inviting MIT to review a "Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education." I acknowledge the vital importance of these matters.
I appreciated the chance to meet with you earlier this year to discuss the priorities we share for American higher education.
As we discussed, the Institute's mission of service to the nation directs us to advance knowledge, educate students and bring knowledge to bear on the world's great challenges.
We do that in line with a clear set of values, with excellence above all. Some practical examples:
• MIT prides itself on rewarding merit. Students, faculty and staff succeed here based on the strength of their talent, ideas and hard work. For instance, the Institute was the first to reinstate the SAT/ACT requirement after the pandemic. And MIT has never had legacy preferences in admissions.
• MIT opens its doors to the most talented students regardless of their family's finances. Admissions are need-blind. Incoming undergraduates whose families earn less than $200,000 a year pay no tuition. Nearly 88% of our last graduating class left MIT with no debt for their education. We make a wealth of free courses and low-cost certificates available to any American with an internet connection. Of the undergraduate degrees we award, 94% are in STEM fields. And in service to the nation, we cap enrollment of international undergraduates at roughly 10%.

source:
https://orgchart.mit.edu/letters/regarding-compact

• We value free expression, as clearly described in the MIT Statement on Freedom of Expression and Academic Freedom. We must hear facts and opinions we don't like - and engage respectfully with those with whom we disagree.
These values and other MIT practices meet or exceed many standards outlined in the document you sent. We freely choose these values because they're right, and we live by them because they support our mission - work of immense value to the prosperity, competitiveness, health and security of the United States. And of course, MIT abides by the law.
The document also includes principles with which we disagree, including those that would restrict freedom of expression and our independence as an institution. And fundamentally, the premise of the document is inconsistent with our core belief that scientific funding should be based on scientific merit alone.
In our view, America's leadership in science and innovation depends on independent thinking and open competition for excellence. In that free marketplace of ideas, the people of MIT gladly compete with the very best, without preferences. Therefore, with respect, we cannot support the proposed approach to addressing the issues facing higher education.
As you know, MIT's record of service to the nation is long and enduring. Eight decades ago, MIT leaders helped invent a scientific partnership between America's research universities and the U.S. government that has delivered extraordinary benefits for the American people. We continue to believe in the power of this partnership to serve the nation.
Sincerely,
Sally Kornbluth

3 140 550

Reposted by Connor Ewing

Connor Ewing @cmewing.bsky.social · 1d

“So, you’re currently between jobs?”

“That’s right, Dave.”

“But you don’t actually have to work because you found a vast treasure and bought some island...”

“Yes, Dave. Monte Cristo.”

“How much do you owe on the island?”

“Debt free, Dave.”

“So why aren't you celebrating?"

1 1

Connor Ewing @cmewing.bsky.social · 1d

“So, you’re currently between jobs?”

“That’s right, Dave.”

“But you don’t actually have to work because you found a vast treasure and bought some island...”

“Yes, Dave. Monte Cristo.”

“How much do you owe on the island?”

“Debt free, Dave.”

“So why aren't you celebrating?"

1 1

Connor Ewing @cmewing.bsky.social · 2d

A successful day of dad-ing.

6

Connor Ewing @cmewing.bsky.social · 2d

Currently waiting in a 200+ person line at Trader Joe’s for a chance to get a purple mini-tote for my 3-year-old. No regrets.

6

Connor Ewing @cmewing.bsky.social · 2d

Great primer on the Insurrection Act by @walterolson.bsky.social

What is the Insurrection Act? And Will Trump Invoke it? We Asked an Expert

YouTube video by New York Post

www.youtube.com

1 3 6

Connor Ewing @cmewing.bsky.social · 3d

1 4 12

Connor Ewing @cmewing.bsky.social · 3d

The best legal/intellectual history article I've read in a long time. It will forever change how you think about the "marketplace of ideas."

2

Reposted by Connor Ewing

Connor Ewing @cmewing.bsky.social · 4d

Hard to overstate the significance of this emerging trend, which obliterates the conventional restraints on enlisting the National Guard for federal purposes. Also hard to imagine that, "How many Guardsmen will you offer your president?" doesn't become a new litmus test for GOP governors.

Bradley P. Moss @bradmossesq.bsky.social · 4d

Texas proudly invading Illinois.

It’s hard to describe the level of potential constitutional crisis here.

1 7 23

Connor Ewing @cmewing.bsky.social · 4d

Concur in full. I had the opportunity to do a similar program with Maggie and Ned, and it was an incredible experience. I'd recommend it especially to people who are looking for ways to better incorporate Native peoples and histories into their teaching and research.

Mary Dudziak @marydudziak.bsky.social · 7d

What a great opportunity! Seminar Native Peoples, American Colonialism and the Constitution with @maggieblackhawk.bsky.social & Ned Blackhawk for grad students & "junior" faculty. In person & virtual. Apply by 10/10.
www.nyhistory.org/education/in...

The New York Historical’s Bonnie and Richard Reiss Graduate Institute for Constitutional History is accepting applications for its fall 2025 seminar for advanced graduate students and junior faculty.
seminar | fall 2025

Native Peoples, American Colonialism, and the US Constitution

Fridays, November 7 and 21, December 5 and 12, 2025 | 11 am–2 pm ET
Instructors: Maggie Blackhawk, Ned Blackhawk

As the United States marks the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, this seminar invites a critical examination of a central paradox in American constitutional history: how can a nation celebrate a founding document and constitutional tradition built, in part, on the dispossession of Indigenous homelands? Indian affairs and westward expansion were foundational to the creation and evolution of the US Constitution, yet Native history remains marginalized within the fields of constitutional history and mainstream constitutional scholarship. This seminar explores emerging historical and legal literature that re-centers Native peoples and American colonialism in the narrative of US constitutional development.

Presented in person at The New York Historical and via Zoom

Apply by October 10, 2025

1 11 28

Connor Ewing @cmewing.bsky.social · 4d

Hard to overstate the significance of this emerging trend, which obliterates the conventional restraints on enlisting the National Guard for federal purposes. Also hard to imagine that, "How many Guardsmen will you offer your president?" doesn't become a new litmus test for GOP governors.

Bradley P. Moss @bradmossesq.bsky.social · 4d

Texas proudly invading Illinois.

It’s hard to describe the level of potential constitutional crisis here.

1 7 23

Connor Ewing @cmewing.bsky.social · 5d

🤔

1 5

Connor Ewing @cmewing.bsky.social · 5d

Please stop.

1

Connor Ewing @cmewing.bsky.social · 5d

Ummm....

1

Reposted by Connor Ewing

Steve Vladeck @stevevladeck.bsky.social · 5d

The very first statute authorizing domestic use of the military during domestic emergencies, enacted in 1792 by a Congress full of the same folks who wrote and ratified the Constitution, expressly provided for judicial review in certain circumstances *before* the President could even send troops.

270 3.3K 11K

Connor Ewing @cmewing.bsky.social · 6d

👏👏👏👏👏

3 26 120

Reposted by Connor Ewing

Connor Ewing @cmewing.bsky.social · 6d

Venezuela is ~1500 miles from the US. These boats have a range of 20-40% that distance.

Call this what it is: wanton killing, unsupported by law and unjustified by any principles of just war.

11 110 270

Connor Ewing @cmewing.bsky.social · 6d

Venezuela is ~1500 miles from the US. These boats have a range of 20-40% that distance.

Call this what it is: wanton killing, unsupported by law and unjustified by any principles of just war.

11 110 270

Reposted by Connor Ewing

Dan Walters @profdanwalters.bsky.social · 7d

Our Center on the Structural Constitution, led by @crockeroncourts.bsky.social and Neil Siegel, has organized an amazing symposium with the Harvard Law Review on the politics and law of judicial review. And the best news is that you can attend online!

harvardlawreview.org/judicial-rev...

Judicial Review in Jeopardy? Symposium - Harvard Law Review

The Harvard Law Review is proud to host, in collaboration with the Center on the Structural Constitution at Texas A&M University School of Law,...

harvardlawreview.org

1 8 20

Reposted by Connor Ewing

Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 7d

Well, if only there were a large supply of foreign students who would happily pay a premium price to get access to American higher education.

Connor Ewing @cmewing.bsky.social · 7d

"'There simply aren’t enough students to go around,' said Nathan Grawe, an economist at Carleton College in Minnesota. But the effects of the demographic cliff, he noted, 'won’t be evenly distributed.'"

U.S. Colleges Are About to See a Big Decline in Applicants

Forget a lot of what you thought you knew about higher education.

nymag.com

12 150 650

Connor Ewing @cmewing.bsky.social · 7d

"'There simply aren’t enough students to go around,' said Nathan Grawe, an economist at Carleton College in Minnesota. But the effects of the demographic cliff, he noted, 'won’t be evenly distributed.'"

U.S. Colleges Are About to See a Big Decline in Applicants

Forget a lot of what you thought you knew about higher education.

nymag.com

4 15 37

Reposted by Connor Ewing

Connor Ewing @cmewing.bsky.social · 9d

🥳🎉 Thrilled to announce that—because of an APSA panel that never happened and at which no papers were presented—I've been offered the opportunity to curate a special issue inspired by my work!

3 1 14

Connor Ewing @cmewing.bsky.social · 9d

🥳🎉 Thrilled to announce that—because of an APSA panel that never happened and at which no papers were presented—I've been offered the opportunity to curate a special issue inspired by my work!

3 1 14

Connor Ewing @cmewing.bsky.social · 10d

At the beginning of Trump's actual speech: "Just have a good time. If you want to applaud, you applaud. And if you want to do anything you want—you can do anything you want. And if you don’t like what I’m saying you can leave the room. Of course there goes your rank, there goes your future.”

'Have your back, 100%': Trump tells room full of Military leaders

YouTube video by The National Desk

www.youtube.com

4 3

Reposted by Connor Ewing

Michael Hankinson @hankinson.bsky.social · 11d

I'm excited to share that we're running a junior faculty search in American politics. Proud to see GWU continue to invest in political science. Link: www.gwu.jobs/postings/122...

Assistant Professor of Political Science

The Department of Political Science invites applications for a tenure-track position in American Politics at the rank of assistant professor beginning as early as Fall 2026. This position is pending f...

www.gwu.jobs

16 40