#higher ed

[imawitchywitch]

Keep studying. Keep planning for that liberal arts degree. Keep attending your classes. Keep studying, because someone needs to know this information and have those skills so we can rebuild. Your degree and field of study is being attacked because of its significance for humanity. Your degree needs you. Your colleges need you. Our future needs you.

[redshift-13]

[jamradio]

I love it when my mom buys me coffee so I can keep being productive

[shaffyreads]

While there are truly awful professors out there, I need people to know that a professor is not always being awful when they tell you "no."

Professors have very tight deadlines when it comes to grading, so if you wait until *after* the due date of your final project and send an e-mail asking for an extension, I need you to understand what you're asking for--You are asking your professor to wait to submit all the grades while you finish your work. You are asking them to risk getting in trouble so you can possibly pass the class. This is extra frustrating when your professor barely (if at all) heard from you in an 8-18 week semester. You need to understand that your professors are ALSO people. They have their own families, friends, hobbies, and goals outside of their work and their jobs can take away time from all of those things. Asking them to make a special accommodation for you takes even more time away from them.

So, yes, some professors are evil. But many of your professors have a lot on their plate and NEED to say "no" for their own sanity and peace. I don't mean to sound judgemental, but please work more on taking responsibility for missing deadlines and learn from your mistakes to be better. It is not fun for us to have to explain why we cannot give you an extension at the last minute.

[zinjanthropusboisei]

If I've got any advice for students looking to go into academia/higher ed teaching, especially if you're in a position where you're not getting much independent teaching experience, it's to 1. pay attention to what the professors you like do in your classes, ex. how they structure discussions and assignments, and 2. save copies of their syllabi. Have a "teaching examples" folder or similar and anything that strikes you as well done or particularly thoughtful or useful, drop it in.

I'm putting together a new class now and I'm mining inspiration from a similar class I took 8(?) years ago for structure. And there's so much semi-compulsory verbiage that goes into a syllabus, both course info like late policies, and additional things like student services resources, academic integrity policies, etc. At this point, having put together 3+ of my own classes, I've got my own library of paragraphs to copy-paste into a syllabus, but when you're doing it for the first time, it's really helpful to have good examples that don't just feel like meaningless boilerplate.

[theinquisitxor]

A firestorm starting on Twitter about the reports that West Virginia University (a major R1 university on the east coast) will be cutting programs— including the entire World Languages program. You wouldn’t even be able to take a Spanish class at WVU.

The president Gordon Gee is not liked, and has a bad reputation when it comes to leading universities. I really hope this doesn’t come to fruition, but it paints a bleak picture for the humanities + higher ed in general

[onlytiktoks]

https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/npr/2025/04/18/nx-s1-5368132/nearly-300-scientists-apply-for-french-academic-program-amid-trump-cuts-in-u-s/

[figtree34]

One of my favorite tiny interventions is being really aware of how letters of recommendation tend to be gendered (men are much more likely to have their accomplishments and leadership skills remarked on while women are much more likely to be recognized for their collaboration skills and prosocial traits like helpfulness) and being really intentional about flipping the script when I write them for students/colleagues/etc.