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Reposted by Louise Seamster

Suzanne Conklin Akbari @sakbari.bsky.social · 41m

“Private equity billionaire Marc Rowan was revealed last week to be the driving force behind a Trump administration campaign pressuring nine major U.S. universities. Apollo Global Management, which Rowan co-founded in 1990, own[s] the for-profit University of Phoenix.”

Louise Seamster @louiseseamster.bsky.social · 2h

Private equity gets its toothhold into firms through economic squeezing, devalues them, then breaks them into parts to sell off. This compact is the squeeze that will simultaneously advantage for-profit ed *and* make it easier to PE-ify non-profit ed. The ideological component is a means to an end.

Louise Seamster @louiseseamster.bsky.social · 2h

an article with more context
www.republicreport.org/2025/billion...

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Louise Seamster @louiseseamster.bsky.social · 1h

Lacked the space but yes. This would be a good time for those studying institutional debt to look into who’s showing up at university doorsteps right now suggesting new loans to offset the potential/actual losses from grant and international student attrition. www.commonnotions.org/lend-and-rul...

Lend and Rule — Common Notions Press

Public higher education’s future is being held hostage by financial institutions and actors. How did it get this way?

www.commonnotions.org

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Reposted by Louise Seamster

Dominique Baker @bakerdphd.bsky.social · 19h

I'll be putting this into the for-profits lecture slides (where we will be engaging with the good professor's work)

Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 19h

www.reuters.com/business/uni...

www.reuters.com

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Reposted by Louise Seamster

Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 3d

this whole thread is helpful context here, I think

bsky.app/profile/russ...

Russ Frankenstein (no relation) @russ41.bsky.social · 5d

Time for a thread of all the things that Stephen Miller and his band of morons are doing to make enemies of state/local authorities.

Let's start things off with some spice for the CPD.

Phoenix Calida @phoenixcalida.bsky.social · 5d

ICE is pepper spraying CPD (Chicago police)

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Louise Seamster @louiseseamster.bsky.social · 2h

Private equity gets its toothhold into firms through economic squeezing, devalues them, then breaks them into parts to sell off. This compact is the squeeze that will simultaneously advantage for-profit ed *and* make it easier to PE-ify non-profit ed. The ideological component is a means to an end.

Louise Seamster @louiseseamster.bsky.social · 2h

an article with more context
www.republicreport.org/2025/billion...

Billionaire Behind Trump Pressure Campaign on Colleges Owns Predatory University of Phoenix - Republic Report

Private equity billionaire Marc Rowan was revealed last week to be the driving force behind a Trump administration campaign pressuring nine major U.S. universities, including Brown, MIT, and the Unive...

www.republicreport.org

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Reposted by Louise Seamster

Citizen.Coping @propcazhpm.bsky.social · 1d

In 1857, Thomas Howland became Providence, RI's first Black elected official.

Later that year, he decided to emigrate to Liberia with his wife & daughter after the Dred Scott case denied Black people protections of U.S. citizenship. He was denied a passport.

Thomas Howland, 1856
John Blanchard

Portrait of a distringuished Black man from the 19th centrure wearing fine clothes, including high collar and tie of the day.
Museum Text:
Thomas Howland, the subject of this unusually expressive portrait, was a dock worker in Providence, Rhode lsland, In 1857 he became the city's first Black elected oficial when he was amed warden of its Third Ward. However, that same year he decided to emigrate to Liberia with his wite and daughter, perhaps in response to the recent Supreme Court decision in the Dred Scott case that denied African Americans the protections of U.S. citizenship. Because of this decision, Howland's application for a passport was denied, despite his status as a free man with the right to vote in his home state (he did eventually make it to Liberia). Howland's confident posture echoes that of the earlier Portrait of a Gentleman shown nearby, the fashionable attire of both sitters serving to reinforce thelir self-possession.

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Louise Seamster @louiseseamster.bsky.social · 2h

Quite a turnaround from the last admin where University of Phoenix owners were reduced to trying (and failing) to hoodwink public universities into acquiring them, with promises of easy predatory cash flow. They couldn’t even sell themselves for parts, and now a $1.36 b valuation and splashy IPO!

"Apollo Global Management and another firm, the Vistria Group, acquired Phoenix’s then-publicly traded parent company, Apollo Education Group, for $1.1 billion dollars in 2017.

During the Biden administration, when the government was working to make it harder to make money off of predatory college abuses, Apollo tried to unload Phoenix to some gullible state university presidents, in Arkansas and Idaho, only to have those deals derailed by opposition in each state.

This week, Apollo and Vistria raised $136 million selling shares of Phoenix’s parent in a new initial public offering for the company, now valued at $1.36 billion."

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Louise Seamster @louiseseamster.bsky.social · 2h

an article with more context
www.republicreport.org/2025/billion...

Billionaire Behind Trump Pressure Campaign on Colleges Owns Predatory University of Phoenix - Republic Report

Private equity billionaire Marc Rowan was revealed last week to be the driving force behind a Trump administration campaign pressuring nine major U.S. universities, including Brown, MIT, and the Unive...

www.republicreport.org

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Louise Seamster @louiseseamster.bsky.social · 2h

Also relevant: bsky.app/profile/tres...

Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 19h

www.reuters.com/business/uni...

www.reuters.com

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Louise Seamster @louiseseamster.bsky.social · 2h

**always follow the money**
PE firm behind for-profit universities using its WH influence to handwrite terms that will eviscerate, hamstring and control its own competitors in higher ed…and NY Times giving space to the CEO to come out and admit this influence in a pro-Compact piece

As someone who played a part in the compact’s initial formulation, working alongside an administration working group, I would like to offer what insight I can into the motivation and need for the compact and to address its detractors.

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Reposted by Louise Seamster

Jonathan Gilligan @jgilligan.org · 16h

Vanderbilt AAUP press release about the Vanderbilt Faculty Senate voting overwhelmingly to adopt a resolution opposing the President's proposed Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education as an unconstitutional & illegal infringement on rights & freedoms.

vanderbiltaaup.org/2025/10/09/v...

Vanderbilt Faculty Senate Votes Overwhelmingly to Oppose Trump Loyalty Oath

The Vanderbilt Faculty Senate overwhelmingly passed a resolution opposing President Trump’s proposed “Compact for Excellence in Higher Education.” The resolution, citing concerns …

vanderbiltaaup.org

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Reposted by Louise Seamster

John Skiles Skinner @skiles.blue · 10h

Did you know that the federal court system is hacked by the Russians? To the point that the courts are afraid to put documents into their own computer systems.

Exclusive: Chief Justice “Stonewalls Congress" on PACER Hack, Senator Says

The Courts sidestep a congressional request for independent review. Post-hack procedures have significantly reduced transparency in the judicial system.

www.courtwatch.news

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Reposted by Louise Seamster

Sheryl Gay Stolberg @sherylnyt.bsky.social · 11h

BREAKING: Friday night massacre underway at CDC. Doznes of "disease detectives," high-level scientists, entire Washington staff and editors of the MMWR (Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report) have all been RIFed and received the following notice:

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Reposted by Louise Seamster

Shannon Mattern @shannonmattern.bsky.social · 21h

I’d like to amplify others’ pleas to *please* acknowledge and build upon the work of librarians and other organizers — @heykellyjensen.bsky.social, @tasslyn.bsky.social, @everylibrary.bsky.social, et al — who’ve been tracking *all of this* and developing expertise for YEARS.

404 Media @404media.co · 1d

Help us investigate book bans across the USA.

404 Media has gotten a grant to unearth public records about systematic censorship of books, schools, and libraries in the U.S.

🔗 www.404media.co/help-us-inve...

Help Us Investigate Book Bans and Educational Censorship Around America

404 Media has gotten a grant to unearth public records about systematic censorship of books, schools, and libraries in the U.S.

www.404media.co

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Louise Seamster @louiseseamster.bsky.social · 4h

Happening in my town: the state is shutting down its State Historical Society of Iowa with its archive, using imprisoned laborers to clear it out, and also apparently planning to just throw out a large amount of the material.

Laura Belin @laurarbelin.bsky.social · 10h

Marian Wilson Kimber: It’s painful to realize the people in charge of Iowa’s history apparently have no idea how history works. If they did, they'd know there is no way to predict what parts of the collection will be of interest 5, 20, or 100 years from now. www.bleedingheartland.com/2025/10/10/t...

The theft of history

Marian Wilson Kimber: I have wondered if the box of women’s club programs that changed my life will end up in the dumpster.

www.bleedingheartland.com

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Reposted by Louise Seamster

NightMar on Hicks Street, Part 4: The Rabbit’s Revenge @histoftech.bsky.social · 16h

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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Louise Seamster @louiseseamster.bsky.social · 12h

A very good question!

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Reposted by Louise Seamster

Steven W. Thrasher is finishing The Overseer Class @thrasherxy.bsky.social · 22h

All over the world, one of the queerest things LGBT organizing and HIV/AIDS care has done in the last few decades has been to give queer and trans people access to dignified employment doing important work WITHOUT a college degree.

This is under attack by the US govt.

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Louise Seamster @louiseseamster.bsky.social · 13h

Maybe we need to be more precise when we characterize this era as the destruction of institutions/laws/regulations. it’s not universal: some regulations are getting fleshed out, made more oppressive and detailed in ways that will be hard to root out just like the other stuff will be hard to rebuild.

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Louise Seamster @louiseseamster.bsky.social · 13h

The ending is so bleak
“Private market investors have been pursuing stakes and partnerships across U.S. higher education and sports in recent years. Several U.S. university endowments have large allocations to private equity funds.”
If only someone had predicted this trend!!!

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Reposted by Louise Seamster

Miriam Posner @miriamposner.com · 17h

Found this just incredibly depressing, more than anything.

An easel sign reads, “UCLA
ATTENTION
No events are permitted in this area today. Per Policy 852, this location is NOT designated for public expression activities.
Individuals participating in an event or a public expression activity in this area are subject to discipline and/or arrest.
Scan for policy information.”

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Louise Seamster @louiseseamster.bsky.social · 14h

Clearly we need to start studying the problem of the gender gap in deepfake creation and start a camp for girls to deepfake so they aren’t left behind by progress. Also some reeducation campaigns so women understand both the joys and also increased productivity they will certainly experience.

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Reposted by Louise Seamster

Barred and Boujee aka Madiba Dennie @audrelawdamercy.bsky.social · 15h

aaand we are officially in the hide-your-neighbors stage

Sophie Sherry @sophiesherry.bsky.social · 18h

During a military-style raid on a building in Chicago’s South Shore, one resident heard a knock on his door.   It wasn’t the feds — it was a mom and her 7-year-old daughter, pleading for help.

He let them hide in his unit for the next 3 days.

chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/...