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Reposted by Erik Linstrum

Erik Linstrum @eriklinstrum.bsky.social · 16h

Some thoughts I've shared with the Board of Visitors at UVA

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Erik Linstrum @eriklinstrum.bsky.social · 16h

Some thoughts I've shared with the Board of Visitors at UVA

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Reposted by Erik Linstrum

Julia Rose Kraut @juliarosekraut.bsky.social · 18h

"Any university leader who signs on to this compact would betray everything good and solid about the university and would do deep and permanent harm to the United States and the world." @sivav.bsky.social

newrepublic.com/article/2013...

Why This Essay Could Cause the University of Virginia to Shut Down

How Linda McMahon’s latest “compact” would do deep and permanent harm to American higher education

newrepublic.com

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Karin Wulf @kawulf.bsky.social · 1d

"No institution that is committed to the free pursuit of knowledge should submit to the degradation of autonomy and academic freedom contained in it." @acls1919.bsky.social statement on the White House "compact" proposed to universities. www.acls.org/news/acls-st...

ACLS Statement Regarding White House “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education”

ACLS stands firmly against this latest White House effort to divide faculties by giving special privileges to students in “hard science programs” and its demand that institutions abolish “units that p...

www.acls.org

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Erik Linstrum @eriklinstrum.bsky.social · 2d

The other key point here is that the Trump strategy for higher ed is failing. They are losing in court. Harvard has not caved as they had hoped. It would be madness to throw them a lifeline now by voluntarily turning the university into an arm of the DOJ

Erik Linstrum @eriklinstrum.bsky.social · 2d

Must-read by Joseph Fishkin: the Trump higher ed "compact" demands "a near-complete surrender of core academic freedoms" and lets DOJ pull "federal benefits to which the university and its faculty and students are entitled under federal law." A deal for suckers balkin.blogspot.com/2025/10/the-...

Balkinization: The Art of Replacing the Law with the Deal

A group blog on constitutional law, theory, and politics

balkin.blogspot.com

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Erik Linstrum @eriklinstrum.bsky.social · 2d

Must-read by Joseph Fishkin: the Trump higher ed "compact" demands "a near-complete surrender of core academic freedoms" and lets DOJ pull "federal benefits to which the university and its faculty and students are entitled under federal law." A deal for suckers balkin.blogspot.com/2025/10/the-...

Balkinization: The Art of Replacing the Law with the Deal

A group blog on constitutional law, theory, and politics

balkin.blogspot.com

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Reposted by Erik Linstrum

Matthew Kirschenbaum @mkirschenbaum.bsky.social · 3d

Resolution of the University of Virginia Faculty Senate (thus not institutional policy and entirely non-binding, but still inspirational):

Resolution Opposing the
"Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education"
WHEREAS the United States Secretary of Education has requested that the University of Virginia enter into a "Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education", and WHEREAS the Compact contains provisions antithetical to the mission and traditions of the University, and
WHEREAS the Compact contains provisions which endanger the independence and integrity of the University, and
WHEREAS the compact likely violates state and federal law, and infringes upon the constitutional rights of members of the University community, and WHEREAS the University of Virginia exemplifies American academic values of the highest standard, including universal right to free speech and the cultivation of academic freedom; therefore
BE IT RESOLVED that the Faculty Senate of the University of Virginia firmly opposes this Compact as written and calls upon Interim President Mahoney and the Board of Visitors to also reject this Compact outright as well as any similar proposal compromising the mission, values, and independence of the University.
Feature Date:
Friday, October 3, 2025

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John Gallagher @earlymodernjohn.bsky.social · 16d

I'm very pleased to announce that the call for proposed Special Issues of the Historical Journal is now live, with a deadline of 12th December. Please do spread widely among your networks — @saracaputo.bsky.social and I look forward to reading your submissions! www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Historical Journal Call for Special Issues

Welcome to Cambridge Core

www.cambridge.org

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Erik Linstrum @eriklinstrum.bsky.social · 5d

The president of our university has formed a committee to advise on collaborating with the Trump administration? Is it too much to ask who is on it? Or why we are only learning about it from the New York Times? www.nytimes.com/2025/10/02/u...

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Pam Herd @pamherd.bsky.social · 6d

This is all kinds of crazy. But the enforcement mechanism? Universities would hire an auditor to "conduct anonymous polling among faculty, students and staff to evaluate the university’s performance against the agreement" w/ results made public and reviewed by the Justice Dept.

Exclusive | White House Asks Colleges to Sign Sweeping Agreement to Get Funding Advantage

An initial round of nine schools, including Dartmouth, MIT and the University of Pennsylvania, are being asked to sign a wide-ranging “compact.”

www.wsj.com

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Erik Linstrum @eriklinstrum.bsky.social · 6d

Can't decide what's more contemptible: trading the university's most precious assets, its institutional integrity and intellectual freedom, for cash, or selling out the rest of higher education by rewarding the divide-and-rule tactics of a corrupt government

Erik Linstrum @eriklinstrum.bsky.social · 6d

UVA invited to join select group of collaborationist universities

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Andrew @tjsleakyroof.bsky.social · 6d

once again noting that the first priority of the newly seated Virginia legislature come January absolutely must be the dramatic reform of the UVA Board of Visitors in both current membership and composition.

Erik Linstrum @eriklinstrum.bsky.social · 6d

UVA invited to join select group of collaborationist universities

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Andrew Ferguson @epikt.bsky.social · 6d

it is utterly humiliating to be on this administration’s list of presumed “good actors” & imperative on us to show them that judgment was mistaken

Letters on Wednesday were going out to solicit agreement and feedback from Vanderbilt
University, Dartmouth College, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Southern California, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Arizona, Brown University and the University of Virginia, according to an administration official.

The White House chose the schools because it believed they are, or could be, "good actors,"
Mailman said.

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Erik Linstrum @eriklinstrum.bsky.social · 6d

www.wsj.com/us-news/educ...

Exclusive | White House Asks Colleges to Sign Sweeping Agreement to Get Funding Advantage

An initial round of nine schools is being asked to sign a wide-ranging accord.

www.wsj.com

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Erik Linstrum @eriklinstrum.bsky.social · 6d

UVA invited to join select group of collaborationist universities

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Erik Linstrum @eriklinstrum.bsky.social · 25d

The Board of Visitors at UVA, which has no legal quorum to do business, is mysteriously meeting anyway. A cop tried to push off a peaceful student protester who has every right to be there.

Andrew Ferguson @epikt.bsky.social · 25d

Students are trying just to wait outside the board meeting, which is being illegally constituted, and the admins are ordering the cops to clear them. One officer already put his hands on a student to push him off the rotunda steps

Rotunda steps at university of Virginia with a confused police officer

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Andrew Ferguson @epikt.bsky.social · 25d

Students are trying just to wait outside the board meeting, which is being illegally constituted, and the admins are ordering the cops to clear them. One officer already put his hands on a student to push him off the rotunda steps

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The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History @jich.bsky.social · 27d

JICH will now award two annual prizes: The Stockwell-Burroughs Prize for Best Article; & the Murphy-Howe Prize for Best Postgrad Article.
Winners will be announced each Feb & receive £200 in book vouchers from @tandfresearch.bsky.social. Winning articles will become free access for 12 months.

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Erik Linstrum @eriklinstrum.bsky.social · 27d

I was thinking Kirk

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Joshua Earle, but spookier @cyborgapologist.bsky.social · Aug 20

UVA's wall-to wall union, UCWVA at UVA has joined the Faculty Senate, Student Council, Wahoos4UVA, Emeritus faculty, and others in expressing No Confidence in the Board of Visitors.
ucwva.org/who-we-are/u...

No Confidence in the UVA Board of Visitors – UCWVA

ucwva.org

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Erik Linstrum @eriklinstrum.bsky.social · Aug 18

A draconian clampdown on research at the BBC Written Archives: no access to previously unvetted files, no photocopy orders, and instead a "new model" of "releasing archival content" that sounds suspiciously commercial. I couldn't have written my last book with these rules in place.

Illuminations @illuminations.bsky.social · Aug 18

Calling historians and researchers. The BBC Written Archives Centre has changed its access rules without consultation. This means an end to proper independent research into the BBC's rich history. 178 have already signed the open letter. Please join the campaign:

tinyurl.com/bbcwaccampaign

Open letter BBC Written Archives - August 2025

Join the campaign to protect the future of independent research at the BBC Written Archives Centre The following text is an open letter expressing the concern of historians and researchers about chan...

tinyurl.com

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Reposted by Erik Linstrum

Illuminations @illuminations.bsky.social · Aug 18

Calling historians and researchers. The BBC Written Archives Centre has changed its access rules without consultation. This means an end to proper independent research into the BBC's rich history. 178 have already signed the open letter. Please join the campaign:

tinyurl.com/bbcwaccampaign

Open letter BBC Written Archives - August 2025

Join the campaign to protect the future of independent research at the BBC Written Archives Centre The following text is an open letter expressing the concern of historians and researchers about chan...

tinyurl.com

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Erik Linstrum @eriklinstrum.bsky.social · Aug 4

Right, I meant the question rhetorically, in line with your last point. Luckily, the probable next governor and the Democratic majorities in the state legislature have taken a hard line, which I think (and hope) will help us to avoid the worst. Just need to win the next election ...

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Erik Linstrum @eriklinstrum.bsky.social · Aug 4

4-6 months is not a serious timeline for a presidential search. They’re rushing to announce a name before VA gets a new governor. The faculty lacks confidence in the board and the process. So does the legislature. What candidate would take the job under those circumstances?

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Erik Linstrum @eriklinstrum.bsky.social · Aug 4

I wrote about Cecil Rhodes, Donald Trump, and the perils of imperialist biography for History Today www.historytoday.com/archive/revi...

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