Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Lauren MacIvor Thompson @lmacthompson1.bsky.social · 2h

I just joined mine and the AAUP and very glad about it

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Lauren MacIvor Thompson @lmacthompson1.bsky.social · 5h

That is the best bagel

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Lauren MacIvor Thompson @lmacthompson1.bsky.social · 5h

NightMar on Hicks Street, Part 4: The Rabbit’s Revenge @histoftech.bsky.social · 6h

The Virginia Senate just told UVA it’s not getting state funding if it accepts the compact since UVA exists to serve Virginia, its residents, & their interests—not be a tool of the federal govt. Scoop from our student newspaper, who’ve been doing vital reporting www.cavalierdaily.com/article/2025...

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Reposted by Lauren MacIvor Thompson

Joey Fishkin @fishkin.bsky.social · 8h

@mit.edu has done an incredibly important service to the nation by being willing to be the first school to reject the administration's "compact."

President Kornbluth focuses—and she's right—on the principle that "scientific funding should be based on scientific merit alone."

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.

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Reposted by Lauren MacIvor Thompson

Rebecca Bodenheimer @rmbodenheimer.bsky.social · 11h

🧵🧵🧵

As for her call for non-academics to get involved: one thing you should do if you see attacks on academic freedom or administrators capitulating to Trump's extortion at your alma mater is to write the uni/college president & express your outrage. They need to hear from alumni ASAP. Template👇

Lauren MacIvor Thompson @lmacthompson1.bsky.social · 11h

I am writing this because it has swiftly become crystal clear to me that many people have no idea what is happening or how this works. Here is a thread for non-academics to put into context what just happened to Dr. Mark Bray, a fellow historian.

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Lauren MacIvor Thompson @lmacthompson1.bsky.social · 7h

Sharing my USG colleague's important new book. Thank you @matthewboedy.bsky.social for this.

Matthew Boedy @matthewboedy.bsky.social · 11d

Charlie Kirk is dead, tragically murdered by an assassin’s bullet. Now Turning Point USA wants to cement its founder’s legacy by Christianizing America in his name. Read about that threat to democracy in my new @wjkbooks.com book out now: www.wjkbooks.com/bookproduct/...

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Lauren MacIvor Thompson @lmacthompson1.bsky.social · 7h

I did! Thanks for sharing this!!!

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Lauren MacIvor Thompson @lmacthompson1.bsky.social · 8h

Thanks, appreciate that so much.

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Lauren MacIvor Thompson @lmacthompson1.bsky.social · 10h

I spent many years as a NTT. 100 percent agreed.

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Lauren MacIvor Thompson @lmacthompson1.bsky.social · 11h

xoxox

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Lauren MacIvor Thompson @lmacthompson1.bsky.social · 11h

Our classrooms are not safe for us or regular students. Our universities canot be relied upon to protect us. You have to keep speaking up about this. Faculty already are, but we need folks who aren’t in academia raising the alarm for everyone else. The End.

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Lauren MacIvor Thompson @lmacthompson1.bsky.social · 11h

These students even enroll in our classes so they can do a "gotcha" on us. Imagine this being your entire role as a student? Imagine having time for this!? But they are emboldened now beyond their wildest dreams.

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Lauren MacIvor Thompson @lmacthompson1.bsky.social · 11h

There are certain groups that focus on professors and their entire existence is centered on harassing us, spying on us, and inciting violence and intimidation against us.

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Lauren MacIvor Thompson @lmacthompson1.bsky.social · 11h

But the few last weeks have escalated into outright firings of all kinds of professors (even for tenured ones), as well as intense harassment and threats and now, attempts to prevent us, apparently, from leaving the country if we wish to do so.

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Lauren MacIvor Thompson @lmacthompson1.bsky.social · 11h

There is a Professor Watchlist you can look at if you can stomach it. Obviously, this campaign has been mainly (not always but mainly) targeted at folks of color, LGBTQ folks, and women until now.

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Lauren MacIvor Thompson @lmacthompson1.bsky.social · 11h

I know people personally, tenured and not, who have endured horrendous harassment that has required campus security walking them to and from class or their cars, having other people handle their email to filter out threats, and people showing up at their offices or calling repeatedly.

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Lauren MacIvor Thompson @lmacthompson1.bsky.social · 11h

If you don’t have tenure, the threat is very real and sharper, although it is also clear that tenure is not necessarily something that will protect you either.

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Lauren MacIvor Thompson @lmacthompson1.bsky.social · 11h

Anyway, that's the hierarchy, artificial and stupid as it is, it's real. Here are the stakes. The threats, of course, have always been present against profs, but have now escalated exponentially every year since 2016.

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Lauren MacIvor Thompson @lmacthompson1.bsky.social · 11h

Part of this hierarchy has been created over decades by labor market economic stuff but universities embrace it so they can hire fewer profs overall and more Deans of ChatGPT Strategery 🙄🤮 It's also a deliberate political strategy to tighten up exactly who gets to have "academic freedom."

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Lauren MacIvor Thompson @lmacthompson1.bsky.social · 11h

3. Lecturer: this position is somewhat more stable in that you are salaried/have benefits and it is "permanent" but only insofar as they keep renewing your contract indefinitely. Sometimes referred to as a "teaching professor." You are paid less and have a bigger teaching load than TT (tenure track)

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Lauren MacIvor Thompson @lmacthompson1.bsky.social · 11h

2. An adjunct position means that you get hired for a class or several but have zero benefits, get paid only for the class, and zero protection.

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Lauren MacIvor Thompson @lmacthompson1.bsky.social · 11h

Definitions: 1. A contract position means you get to stay for somewhere between 2 and 6 semesters (sometimes more in some cases) and get benefits for that time but then you are out on your butt, too bad and so sad.

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Lauren MacIvor Thompson @lmacthompson1.bsky.social · 11h

That is also why you see so many universities hiring only contract, adjunct, or lecturer positions, all positions that have zero protection for faculty who might get threatened for their research, and the uni can fire them at will. To be clear, Dr. Bray is NOT fired, he left for his/family's safety.

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Lauren MacIvor Thompson @lmacthompson1.bsky.social · 11h

It also never meant you wouldn't get harassed or threatened.

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Lauren MacIvor Thompson @lmacthompson1.bsky.social · 11h

Many states have gutted tenure in the last five to ten years, however, running parallel to the political shifts of the last decade or so. So, we still go thru the motions of applying for/awarding tenure, but it no longer means what it supposed to mean.

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