Sophia Brueckner
@tomorrownaut.bsky.social
artist / engineer
sophiabrueckner.com
sophiabrueckner.com
Reposted by Sophia Brueckner
“The prohibited activities would include joint research, co-authorship on papers, and advising a foreign graduate student or postdoctoral fellow. The language is retroactive, meaning any interactions during the previous 5 years could make a scientist ineligible for future federal funding.”
U.S. Congress considers sweeping ban on Chinese collaborations
Researchers speak out against proposal that would bar funding for U.S. scientists working with Chinese partners or training Chinese students
www.science.org
November 14, 2025 at 1:03 AM
“The prohibited activities would include joint research, co-authorship on papers, and advising a foreign graduate student or postdoctoral fellow. The language is retroactive, meaning any interactions during the previous 5 years could make a scientist ineligible for future federal funding.”
Reposted by Sophia Brueckner
BREAKING: Cornell caved.
Here is the settlement agreement, signed today by the university's president, Michael Kotlikoff: statements.cornell.edu/2025/documen...
Here is the settlement agreement, signed today by the university's president, Michael Kotlikoff: statements.cornell.edu/2025/documen...
November 7, 2025 at 5:11 PM
BREAKING: Cornell caved.
Here is the settlement agreement, signed today by the university's president, Michael Kotlikoff: statements.cornell.edu/2025/documen...
Here is the settlement agreement, signed today by the university's president, Michael Kotlikoff: statements.cornell.edu/2025/documen...
Reposted by Sophia Brueckner
Federal court refuses to block Alabama’s “divisive concepts” law, says university faculty classroom speech is government speech with no First Amendment protection. This dangerous development allows lawmakers to dictate what professors say in class. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
storage.courtlistener.com
August 14, 2025 at 12:28 PM
Federal court refuses to block Alabama’s “divisive concepts” law, says university faculty classroom speech is government speech with no First Amendment protection. This dangerous development allows lawmakers to dictate what professors say in class. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
Reposted by Sophia Brueckner
One in three new international students at Arizona State University are waiting on student visas to come through. Difficulties in getting appointments and social media reviews are key drivers.
This creates chaos for faculty and administrators as the new term nears...let alone the students.
This creates chaos for faculty and administrators as the new term nears...let alone the students.
ASU Projects 18% Drop in International Student Enrollment
Arizona State University typically welcomes over 17,900 international students to its four campuses each year, but this fall, due to a variety of complications, the university expects only 14,600 inte...
www.insidehighered.com
August 13, 2025 at 9:16 AM
One in three new international students at Arizona State University are waiting on student visas to come through. Difficulties in getting appointments and social media reviews are key drivers.
This creates chaos for faculty and administrators as the new term nears...let alone the students.
This creates chaos for faculty and administrators as the new term nears...let alone the students.
Reposted by Sophia Brueckner
The Trump administration threatened to assume ownership of hundreds of millions of dollars worth of patents from Harvard University, accusing the Ivy League college of failing to comply with the law.
Trump Administration Threatens to Seize Valuable Harvard Patents
The Trump administration threatened to assume ownership of hundreds of millions of dollars worth of patents from Harvard University, accusing the Ivy League college of failing to comply with the law on federal research grants.
bloom.bg
August 8, 2025 at 11:30 PM
The Trump administration threatened to assume ownership of hundreds of millions of dollars worth of patents from Harvard University, accusing the Ivy League college of failing to comply with the law.
Reposted by Sophia Brueckner
New: Harvard patents targeted by Trump administration - www.reuters.com/legal/govern...
Exclusive: Harvard patents targeted by Trump administration
The Trump administration on Friday ordered a comprehensive review of Harvard University's federally funded research programs, and threatened to take title to or grant licenses from the school's lucrative portfolio of patents.
www.reuters.com
August 8, 2025 at 9:54 PM
New: Harvard patents targeted by Trump administration - www.reuters.com/legal/govern...
Reposted by Sophia Brueckner
Science is effectively dead in the US for at least the next 3½ years, and will then take another several years to even get started again. Canceled research doesn’t just uncancel itself, and scientists who find opportunity elsewhere won’t just come flocking back.
The damage is generational.
The damage is generational.
All scientific grant funding must now be approved by a political appointee and "demonstrably advance the President's policy priorities."
I wonder where innovation will happen in the future? It won't be in the US
arstechnica.com/science/2025...
I wonder where innovation will happen in the future? It won't be in the US
arstechnica.com/science/2025...
New executive order puts all grants under political control
All new funding on hold until Trump administration can cancel any previously funded grants.
arstechnica.com
August 8, 2025 at 10:48 PM
Science is effectively dead in the US for at least the next 3½ years, and will then take another several years to even get started again. Canceled research doesn’t just uncancel itself, and scientists who find opportunity elsewhere won’t just come flocking back.
The damage is generational.
The damage is generational.
Reposted by Sophia Brueckner
Go, a college student, has a dependent visa (her mother, an Episcopal minister, is here on a religious worker visa), which doesn't expire until Dec. But when she tried to renew it early, ICE nabbed her and sent her halfway across the US to a detention center.
www.wthr.com/article/news...
www.wthr.com/article/news...
Purdue student detained by ICE and taken to troubled Louisiana holding facility
Yeonsoo Go, 20, was detained after her immigration hearing in Manhattan and taken away by ICE agents.
www.wthr.com
August 4, 2025 at 10:24 PM
Go, a college student, has a dependent visa (her mother, an Episcopal minister, is here on a religious worker visa), which doesn't expire until Dec. But when she tried to renew it early, ICE nabbed her and sent her halfway across the US to a detention center.
www.wthr.com/article/news...
www.wthr.com/article/news...
Reposted by Sophia Brueckner
If anyone is curious about the current list of search terms being used by right wing activist organizations to harass university professors, here's a public records request I received today from Mike Howell of the Heritage Foundation. Not intimidating or meant to curtail by my speech at all, right?
August 6, 2025 at 10:03 PM
If anyone is curious about the current list of search terms being used by right wing activist organizations to harass university professors, here's a public records request I received today from Mike Howell of the Heritage Foundation. Not intimidating or meant to curtail by my speech at all, right?
Reposted by Sophia Brueckner
📣 In this short essay, I describe how actions of the current administration constitute ➡️ state terrorism ⬅️ and outline how US universities (and professors and students and staff) can survive state terrorism, as people before us have survived.
academeblog.org/2025/08/05/h...
academeblog.org/2025/08/05/h...
How US Universities Can Survive State Terrorism
BY CATHERINE D’IGNAZIO As a professor at MIT, I find myself navigating strange waters these days. Last semester, I advised the thesis of a student who left the country because she did not fee…
academeblog.org
August 5, 2025 at 5:18 PM
📣 In this short essay, I describe how actions of the current administration constitute ➡️ state terrorism ⬅️ and outline how US universities (and professors and students and staff) can survive state terrorism, as people before us have survived.
academeblog.org/2025/08/05/h...
academeblog.org/2025/08/05/h...
Reposted by Sophia Brueckner
Important details from this story:
1) Yet another news-break by student journalists (this time @theharvardcrimson.bsky.social) www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...
2) Harvard saying "see you in court," not "let's make a deal."
3) Per Garber, WH/MAGA leaked news of a "deal." NYT then ran with it.
1) Yet another news-break by student journalists (this time @theharvardcrimson.bsky.social) www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...
2) Harvard saying "see you in court," not "let's make a deal."
3) Per Garber, WH/MAGA leaked news of a "deal." NYT then ran with it.
August 4, 2025 at 3:51 AM
Important details from this story:
1) Yet another news-break by student journalists (this time @theharvardcrimson.bsky.social) www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...
2) Harvard saying "see you in court," not "let's make a deal."
3) Per Garber, WH/MAGA leaked news of a "deal." NYT then ran with it.
1) Yet another news-break by student journalists (this time @theharvardcrimson.bsky.social) www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...
2) Harvard saying "see you in court," not "let's make a deal."
3) Per Garber, WH/MAGA leaked news of a "deal." NYT then ran with it.
Reposted by Sophia Brueckner
A fun reminder that a loss of 60,000 jobs in and around academia is ~50% more than all coal mining jobs in the entire country.
The US could see a 30-40% decline in new international student enrollment, resulting in nearly $7 billion in lost revenue and more than 60,000 fewer American jobs. https://www.nafsa.org/fall-2025-international-student-enrollment-outlook-and-economic-impact
August 4, 2025 at 12:02 AM
A fun reminder that a loss of 60,000 jobs in and around academia is ~50% more than all coal mining jobs in the entire country.
Reposted by Sophia Brueckner
“The federal government’s actions represent the latest in a pattern of shakedowns against colleges and universities that will certainly chill faculty speech.” www.nytimes.com/2025/07/28/u...
Faculty Support of George Mason’s President Draws Federal Investigation
www.nytimes.com
July 28, 2025 at 8:02 PM
“The federal government’s actions represent the latest in a pattern of shakedowns against colleges and universities that will certainly chill faculty speech.” www.nytimes.com/2025/07/28/u...
Reposted by Sophia Brueckner
Columbia University has handed over its undergraduate admissions process to Donald Trump and his MAGA allies, who will now decide at their sole discretion whether the university has admitted enough white people. It's no longer an independent institution.
July 24, 2025 at 2:22 AM
Columbia University has handed over its undergraduate admissions process to Donald Trump and his MAGA allies, who will now decide at their sole discretion whether the university has admitted enough white people. It's no longer an independent institution.
Reposted by Sophia Brueckner
You can never bend the knee enough to appease an authoritarian bully.
This is a devastating blow to academic freedom & freedom of speech at Columbia.
Never in the history of this nation has there been an administration so intent on the utter destruction of higher education as we know it.
This is a devastating blow to academic freedom & freedom of speech at Columbia.
Never in the history of this nation has there been an administration so intent on the utter destruction of higher education as we know it.
Columbia Agrees to $200 Million Fine to Settle Fight With Trump
www.nytimes.com
July 24, 2025 at 1:37 AM
You can never bend the knee enough to appease an authoritarian bully.
This is a devastating blow to academic freedom & freedom of speech at Columbia.
Never in the history of this nation has there been an administration so intent on the utter destruction of higher education as we know it.
This is a devastating blow to academic freedom & freedom of speech at Columbia.
Never in the history of this nation has there been an administration so intent on the utter destruction of higher education as we know it.
Reposted by Sophia Brueckner
Amazon Ring is introducing a new feature that would allow police to request live-stream access to people’s home security devices.
Helllll no. If you have one of those things, get rid of it. Kill it with fire
Helllll no. If you have one of those things, get rid of it. Kill it with fire
Amazon Ring Cashes in on Techno-Authoritarianism and Mass Surveillance
Ring founder Jamie Siminoff is back at the helm of the surveillance doorbell company, and with him is the surveillance-first-privacy-last approach that made Ring one of the most maligned tech devices....
www.eff.org
July 19, 2025 at 5:24 PM
Amazon Ring is introducing a new feature that would allow police to request live-stream access to people’s home security devices.
Helllll no. If you have one of those things, get rid of it. Kill it with fire
Helllll no. If you have one of those things, get rid of it. Kill it with fire
Reposted by Sophia Brueckner
Amid all this terrible behavior, this letter is humane, honest, and clear. Any politics that we build to push back against this stuff is best served by this kind of candor and clarity.
Ryan’s statement makes clear that the fed government had threatened to withhold unrelated university funding & student visas in order to coerce his resignation
All individual university leaders now have targets on their backs
All individual university leaders now have targets on their backs
June 28, 2025 at 6:30 AM
Amid all this terrible behavior, this letter is humane, honest, and clear. Any politics that we build to push back against this stuff is best served by this kind of candor and clarity.
Reposted by Sophia Brueckner
Breaking news: The State Department is requiring that all student visa applicants make their social media accounts public to be scrutinized for hostility toward the U.S., according to a cable obtained by The Post.
State Dept. restarts student visa interviews with tougher social media rules
Foreign nationals who seek visas to study in the United States will have to make social media posts public to be scrutinized for hostility toward the U.S.
www.washingtonpost.com
June 18, 2025 at 8:52 PM
Breaking news: The State Department is requiring that all student visa applicants make their social media accounts public to be scrutinized for hostility toward the U.S., according to a cable obtained by The Post.
Reposted by Sophia Brueckner
NEW: The CBP confirmed to @404media.co that it has been flying Predator drones over LA amid the protests. These Predator B drones are military-caliber UAVs used for aerial reconnaissance that can be armed.
It further breaks the seal on federal involvement in civilian matters. More here:
It further breaks the seal on federal involvement in civilian matters. More here:
The High-Flying Escalation of CBP's Predator Drone Flights Over LA
Custom and Border Protection flying powerful Predator B drones over Los Angeles further breaks the seal on federal involvement in civilian matters typically handled by state or local authorities.
www.wired.com
June 13, 2025 at 4:02 PM
NEW: The CBP confirmed to @404media.co that it has been flying Predator drones over LA amid the protests. These Predator B drones are military-caliber UAVs used for aerial reconnaissance that can be armed.
It further breaks the seal on federal involvement in civilian matters. More here:
It further breaks the seal on federal involvement in civilian matters. More here:
Reposted by Sophia Brueckner
Ah lovely, our Assembly Speaker wants to make UW funding increases contingent on a 4-4 load, wants to blame budget crisis (increasingly impossible to hide from the public) on faculty
June 9, 2025 at 10:16 PM
Ah lovely, our Assembly Speaker wants to make UW funding increases contingent on a 4-4 load, wants to blame budget crisis (increasingly impossible to hide from the public) on faculty
Reposted by Sophia Brueckner
Guardian - University of Michigan is using private, undercover investigators to surveil pro-Palestinian campus groups, including trailing them on and off campus, furtively recording them and eavesdropping on their conversations. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/06/michigan-university-gaz
University of Michigan using undercover investigators to surveil student Gaza protesters
Revealed: security trailing students on and off campus as video shows investigator faking disability when confronted
www.theguardian.com
June 6, 2025 at 12:45 PM
Guardian - University of Michigan is using private, undercover investigators to surveil pro-Palestinian campus groups, including trailing them on and off campus, furtively recording them and eavesdropping on their conversations. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/06/michigan-university-gaz
Reposted by Sophia Brueckner
Texas Lawmakers bent on reshaping the politics of state universities have passed a law that strips power from professors and gives it to political appointees
It also creates a state office with the power to investigate universities and take away their funding
www.texastribune.org/2025/05/24/t...
It also creates a state office with the power to investigate universities and take away their funding
www.texastribune.org/2025/05/24/t...
Bill to give political appointees more oversight over Texas universities wins final passage
The latest version of the proposal eliminates language that would have required university curricula not to advocate that “any race, sex, ethnicity or religious belief is inherently superior to…
www.texastribune.org
June 3, 2025 at 1:46 PM
Texas Lawmakers bent on reshaping the politics of state universities have passed a law that strips power from professors and gives it to political appointees
It also creates a state office with the power to investigate universities and take away their funding
www.texastribune.org/2025/05/24/t...
It also creates a state office with the power to investigate universities and take away their funding
www.texastribune.org/2025/05/24/t...
Reposted by Sophia Brueckner
The United States Justice Department micromanaging how the Harvard Law Review’s internal reprimand of a student editor is insane
June 3, 2025 at 2:04 AM
The United States Justice Department micromanaging how the Harvard Law Review’s internal reprimand of a student editor is insane
Reposted by Sophia Brueckner
I’m one of 20 assistant professors in A&S at UNC who has had their tenure decision deferred.
I was planning to spend my summer editing my third book. Now? 🤷🏻♀️
www.wral.com/video/unc-fa...
I was planning to spend my summer editing my third book. Now? 🤷🏻♀️
www.wral.com/video/unc-fa...
UNC faculty concerned over lack of tenure for professors
WRAL has obtained a letter from the faculty chair to the dean and chancellor at UNC-Chapel Hill expressing concern about a lack of tenure for certain professors.
www.wral.com
May 30, 2025 at 12:21 PM
I’m one of 20 assistant professors in A&S at UNC who has had their tenure decision deferred.
I was planning to spend my summer editing my third book. Now? 🤷🏻♀️
www.wral.com/video/unc-fa...
I was planning to spend my summer editing my third book. Now? 🤷🏻♀️
www.wral.com/video/unc-fa...
Reposted by Sophia Brueckner
Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday ordered more scrutiny of the social-media profiles of any foreigners seeking to visit Harvard University, telling US consular officers that applicants’ lack of an online presence might be enough evidence to deny a visa.
Rubio Ramps Up Pressure on Harvard With Expanded Visa Scrutiny
Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday ordered more scrutiny of the social-media profiles of any foreigners seeking to visit Harvard University, telling US consular officers that applicants’ lack of an online presence might be enough evidence to deny a visa.
bloom.bg
May 31, 2025 at 7:20 AM
Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday ordered more scrutiny of the social-media profiles of any foreigners seeking to visit Harvard University, telling US consular officers that applicants’ lack of an online presence might be enough evidence to deny a visa.