Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

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Yonah Freemark @yonahfreemark.com · 10h

Cities are developing a new approach to developing housing: Integrating it into mixed-use library projects. These investments improve neighborhood vitality, add housing & improve services.

In new research @urbaninstitute.bsky.social, I create a database of such projects & point to success stories ⏬

Aging Libraries Could Offer Cities a Unique Opportunity to Build New Housing While Improving Public Services

Since 2000, more than 1,800 apartment units have been built in combined library-housing developments. These projects not only address local housing needs but…

www.urban.org

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Siva @sivav.bsky.social · 11h

The “compact” for higher ed is an unserious document written by unserious people from a position of spectacular ignorance. No one should take it seriously. Sadly, my bosses are taking it seriously.

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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Annie Abrams @annieabrams.bsky.social · 1h

the College Board might not seem like an urgent threat to professors who more or less agree with what they see in AP frameworks, but the system is designed to deplete gen ed enrollment while turning both high school and “college” illiberal

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NightMar on Hicks Street, Part 4: The Rabbit’s Revenge @histoftech.bsky.social · 1d

Never forget that Dolly Parton gave a million bucks for covid research at the *very start* of the pandemic—including money that helped fund the development of the Moderna vaccine.

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Mueller, She Wrote @muellershewrote.com · 1d

Pam Bondi admits she spoke to Apple to "get the ICEBlock app taken down." Sounds an awful lot like coercion to suppress disfavored speech to me. A clear violation of the 1st Amendment.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d

Bondi claims that the ICEBlock app was "criminal in that people were posting where ICE officers lived"

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Jonathan Gilligan @jgilligan.org · 2d

The Vanderbilt chapter of @aaup.org has issued a statement condemning President Trump's proposed "Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education" as an illegal assault on civil rights, academic freedom, shared governance, and institutional autonomy.

vanderbiltaaup.org/2025/10/06/s...

Statement by the Vanderbilt AAUP Executive Committee on the “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education”

October 6, 2025 On October 2nd, Vanderbilt was among nine universities “invited” to sign a “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education” with the federal government. The Compact, however, i…

vanderbiltaaup.org

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Jonathan @jsench.bsky.social · 2d

Today’s student work at the press.

Letterpress printed broadside that reads “Read Banned Books: Banned Books Week 2025.” Red ink on white paper. The B in Books is actually an open book turned on its side. There is also an image of an owl to the side.

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unraveled @unraveledpress.com · 2d

Kind of feels like feds occupying our city for a month, killing one person and shooting another while attacking neighborhoods with chemical weapons and kidnapping hundreds of people already counts as a civil war whether the Guard arrives or not, but what do we know?

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Math @bigmemath.bsky.social · 2d

I love that Charlie Berens is campaigning against AI data centers

AND that he also has the same '90s Packers locker that I had when I was a kid (I picked "04" for Favre)

Charlie Berens speaking to the news against AI data centers in front of a kid's Packers locker from the 90s

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Owen Barcala @obarcala.bsky.social · 2d

To say what is happening makes you sound like a crackpot on a forum. A federal judge is enjoining the president from unlawfully sending federalized soldiers to invade the states of his political opponents against their will.

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Jonathan @jsench.bsky.social · 4d

Super looking forward to running the Chicago marathon under occupation next weekend.

Governor JB Pritzker @govpritzker.illinois.gov · 4d

In the coming hours, the Trump Administration intends to federalize 300 members of the Illinois National Guard.

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Mark Alan Mattes / Hot Brown Press @markalanmattes.bsky.social · 5d

Banned Books Week is around the corner, so I'm raising some dough for the American Library Association. Details here: hotbrownpress.etsy.com/listing/4380...

#bannedbooks #letterpress #libraries #printmaking

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Jonathan @jsench.bsky.social · 4d

What a first inning for the Brew Crew.

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Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 4d

I think we’re really going to have to do a lot more of this. A massive deprogramming so that people can read more than ten words at a time without anxiety.

www.thetimes.com/uk/education...?

Universities teaching literature students how to cope with long novels

Critics blame GCSE English for deterring teenagers from the subject, describing the literature syllabus as boring and repetitive

www.thetimes.com

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Michael S Roth @msroth.bsky.social · 4d

My take on Compact for Collaboration: “Federal funding for universities should never depend on a loyalty oath...The health of our democracy depends on the freedom to work with the federal government without having to follow the ideological dictates of those in power.” www.wsj.com/us-news/educ...

Nine Colleges in Hot Seat as Trump’s Sweeping ‘Compact’ Sparks Sharp Reactions

Universities weigh whether to sign on to the president’s operating principles in exchange for a funding advantage.

www.wsj.com

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Jonathan @jsench.bsky.social · 5d

On Sept 19, a federal court in Rhode Island ruled that a new National Endowment for the Arts policy of reviewing grant applicants to see if they comply with President Trump’s executive order on “gender ideology” violated the Constitution and could not be implemented. www.aclu.org/cases/rhode-...

Rhode Island Latino Arts v. National Endowment for the Arts | American Civil Liberties Union

On March 6, 2025, the ACLU; the ACLU of Rhode Island; Lynette Labinger, cooperating attorney for the ACLU of Rhode Island; and David Cole filed a federal lawsuit against the National Endowment for the...

www.aclu.org

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Leta Lestrange @joybella.blacksky.app · 6d

This is what all the nastiness from them people is about. Being confronted with the fact that some things can't be learned via elite, exclusive institutions. They can only be learned via lived experience.

Ashley C. Ford @smashfizzle.bsky.social · 6d

What Klein couldn’t seem to admit was that his core political analysis is born of his personal experience, and nothing about his personal experience prepared him to face the complexity of the current moment. What he could not cope with acknowledging, is that he never thought that would matter.

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Celeste Headlee @celesteheadlee.bsky.social · 5d

DeSantis gave it a right-wing overhaul in 2023. Since then, ~40% of the faculty has resigned. It spends more than 10x per student what the other schools do & ranking fell from 76th to 135th.

www.insidehighered.com/news/governa...

Spending Soars, Rankings Fall at New College of Florida

Student outcomes and rankings are slipping at the liberal arts college while spending is up. Critics believe the college is at risk of implosion, and some are calling for privatization.

www.insidehighered.com

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Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · 5d

Universities considering capitulating to the Trump “conditions” should use this real world example to understand they will simply be destroying their own institution. bsky.app/profile/nich...

Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 5d

Chris Rufo's disastrous takeover of New College in Florida shows what universities would become if they sign the Trump regime's extortionary "compact."

New College was supposed to model the anti-woke conservative higher-ed Americans crave. Instead, it showed the opposite, and serves as a warning.

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PEN America @penamerica.bsky.social · 6d

🧵 In 2025, book censorship in the United States is rampant and common. Never before in the life of any living American have so many books been systematically removed from school libraries across the country.

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Jonathan @jsench.bsky.social · 5d

No to political loyalty oaths.

Todd Wolfson @proftwolf.bsky.social · 5d

Check out me & @chenjerai.bsky.social & Lorena Grundy of @aaup-penn.bsky.social break down the new Trump compact for higher ed…. Otherwise known as loyalty oaths. This is AAUP TV. @aaup.org @aft.org @higheredlabor.bsky.social www.youtube.com/live/RB1FLkR...

Breaking Down Trump's New Higher Ed Loyalty Oath Compacts and Why We Must Resist

YouTube video by TheAAUP

www.youtube.com

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Brendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · 6d

And it's not a one-time capitulation. If DOJ ever says you violated the vague and unconstitutional terms, they will take back ALL federal funds from that year and you have to return ALL private funding from donors who want their gifts back from that year. It's a never-ending protection racket.

Scott Horton @robertscotthorton.bsky.social · 6d

The Act of Capitulation that Trump is demanding that all colleges and universities are to sign surrenders authority over vast areas to Trump, as the Dear Leader. www.washingtonexaminer.com/wp-content/u...

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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 6d

Very Trump-era story.
1. The sword has no meaning for Charles, but matters for the Eisenhower Museum.
2. Illegal for the museum to give away US property!
3. Trump makes no distinction between personal/public property.
4. The person who did the right thing was fired.
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/02/a...

After Declining to Give Trump a Sword for King Charles, a Museum Leader Is Out

www.nytimes.com

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Jonathan @jsench.bsky.social · 6d

Today’s my day of fundraising for the American Cancer Society ahead of this year’s Chicago Marathon! Cancer research and survivor/family support is both lifesaving & being slashed by the federal govt. ACS can help in that gap now. If you can, click the link below and be an ACS supporter. Thank you!

Jonathan @jsench.bsky.social · 9d

It's been a year since we found out a bunch of weird symptoms my dad had were actually a cancerous tumor in his lung. That kicked off a very scary 6 months that included times when he was given weeks to live as well as treatments that have so far extended both the duration & quality of his life.

Support my fundraising for 2025 Bank of America Chicago Marathon

I’m supporting the American Cancer Society to honor those touched by cancer by raising funds for groundbreaking research. Support me.

secure.acsevents.org

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Jonathan @jsench.bsky.social · 6d

Today’s my day of fundraising for the American Cancer Society ahead of this year’s Chicago Marathon! Cancer research and survivor/family support is both lifesaving & being slashed by the federal govt. ACS can help in that gap now. If you can, click the link below and be an ACS supporter. Thank you!

Jonathan @jsench.bsky.social · 9d

It's been a year since we found out a bunch of weird symptoms my dad had were actually a cancerous tumor in his lung. That kicked off a very scary 6 months that included times when he was given weeks to live as well as treatments that have so far extended both the duration & quality of his life.

Support my fundraising for 2025 Bank of America Chicago Marathon

I’m supporting the American Cancer Society to honor those touched by cancer by raising funds for groundbreaking research. Support me.

secure.acsevents.org

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