Category: Featured

  • The war in Gaza is a test for humanity

    The war in Gaza is a test for humanity

    “There will be no electricity, no food, no water, no fuel,” Gallant said. “Everything is closed. We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly.”

    President Isaac Herzog said militants and civilians in Gaza would be treated alike. “It’s an entire nation out there that is responsible,” Herzog said. “This rhetoric about civilians not aware, not involved — it’s absolutely not true … and we will fight until we break their backbone.”

    Netanyahu has been equally explicit, comparing Hamas to “Amalek”, a tribe in the Bible which the Israelites were told to eradicate. He blames Hamas for all civilian casualties.

    Other ministers have urged Gaza’s total destruction — one proposed dropping a nuclear bomb — and expulsion of its people, as in the 1948 “Nakba” when several hundred thousand Palestinians were ethnically cleansed as part of Israel’s independence war.

    International justice

    Whether Israel’s Gaza onslaught amounts to genocide, war crimes or crimes against humanity, or very possibly all three, is for international courts to decide.

    What matters now is stopping the killing in a ruined land that has lost its schools, homes, hospitals, roads, power and water plants, farms, places of worship and historical heritage. That is a moral issue for all of us, and most pertinently for Israel and its Western allies, principally the United States, which supplies most of the weapons used against Gaza.

    U.S. complicity is beyond doubt. Many European and other countries, by their silence in face of the carnage, or their failure to take action, are also to blame.

    Leaders in some of these nations are only now chiding Israel more strongly. Spain’s prime minister has called it a genocidal state. There is talk in European and other capitals of sanctions targeting Israeli leaders, a ban on arms shipments or trade penalties.

    But no measures likely to push Netanyahu to alter course have been adopted. His eyes are fixed on the United States, the only nation that could swiftly halt the Gaza debacle — by halting or suspending the $3.8 billion it gives Israel each year in mostly military aid, along with extra arms shipments worth billions of dollars since the current war began.

    Quantifying the horror

    Cold statistics mask the individual suffering of Gazans, but tell part of the story.

    More than 54,000 people, including more than 16,000 children, have been killed since the war began, according to Gaza Health Ministry figures considered reliable by the United Nations, or 2.5% of the population — equivalent to 8.5 million Americans.

    This number does not count many thousands whose bodies may still lie under the rubble, or who died weakened by hunger, preventable diseases and failing health care. It includes more than 1,400 health workers and more than 200 journalists and media workers.

    United Nations officials say more than 90% of homes have been destroyed or damaged, along with 94% of Gaza’s 36 hospitals, with only some still struggling to function. Gaza has the world’s highest number of child amputees per capita.

    According to Hans Laerke, spokesman for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Gaza is also the only territory in the world where “100% of the population is threatened with famine” despite Israel’s denial of any humanitarian blockade.

    Abetting a genocide

    The horrors endured by Palestinians have been documented by local journalists (Israel has banned all international reporters from Gaza), U.N. officials, Palestinian and foreign doctors and aid workers, as well as locally shot videos and photos.

    Foreign physicians with long experience of many countries ravaged by war say conditions they witnessed in Gaza are worse than anything they have ever encountered.

    “I have worked in conflict zones from Afghanistan to Ukraine,” said U.S. paediatrician Seema Jilani, after an assignment in the southern city of Rafah for the International Rescue Committee. “But nothing could have prepared me for a Gaza emergency room.”

    No one can plausibly claim “we did not know” what was, and is, going on.

    Yet world powers have largely stood by as massacres unfold in Gaza. They have kept equally silent as Israel batters parts of Lebanon at will despite a ceasefire with Hezbollah militants agreed in November. Israel has also grabbed more land in Syria and bombed hundreds of targets there since Bashar al-Assad’s regime fell in December.

    A diplomatic debacle

    U.S. President Donald Trump, like President Joe Biden before him, has backed Israel to the hilt. Not even images of emaciated children in Gaza have prompted a change of heart.

    Trump’s own contempt for international law and his plan for the removal of Gazans to allow for a fantasy reconstruction on the toxic ruins of their land has only emboldened far-right Israeli leaders with ambitions to “purify”, annex and resettle Gaza, and to do likewise in the West Bank, where half a million Israeli settlers already live.

    Israel’s actions, under permissive Western eyes, are shredding a longstanding international consensus on a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict – an idea incompatible with an ever-expanding Israeli grip on the West Bank and Gaza.

    After French President Emmanuel Macron called for recognition of a Palestinian state, Defence Minister Israel Katz responded with brutal clarity.

    “They will recognise a Palestinian state on paper — and we will build the Jewish-Israeli state on the ground,” he said in the West Bank on May 29 at one of 22 new settlements just approved by the Israeli government.

    Can peace be given a chance?

    Western outrage at Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has no echo when it comes to Israel which for decades has defied U.N. resolutions and violated international law.

    The fate of Gaza may prove a final blow to the rules of international conduct and treatment of civilians agreed after the Second World War — a system already frayed by the Cold War and more recently the illegal U.S.-British invasion of Iraq in 2003.

    Crushing the Palestinian people will not make Israel any safer in the long run. Only a true peace settlement on a basis of mutual respect and equality can do that.

    If Western nations ever get around to imposing sanctions on Israel and its leaders, they should do so to promote the Jewish state’s real interests which they claim to have at heart — as a stepping stone to such a peace between human beings.

    The German-born Jewish-American philosopher and political scientist Hannah Arendt foretold the consequences for a society unable to perceive others as human.

    “The death of human empathy is one of the earliest and most telling signs of a culture about to fall into barbarism,” she wrote.

     

    Questions to consider:

    1. Is it justified, or wise, for a state to take revenge on its enemies?

    2. Do people everywhere have the right to resist occupation?

    3. How should we react when a possible genocide is taking place?

     

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  • How we designed a space where our students connect, collaborate, and flourish

    How we designed a space where our students connect, collaborate, and flourish

    Key points:

    Our charter school, Westbrook Academy, has been serving middle and high school students in the South Los Angeles area for the past six years and stands as a beacon of opportunity for our community. With a student body comprising nearly 99 percent Black and Latinx individuals hailing from historically under-resourced communities, we confront the realities of poverty and the accompanying insecurities head-on.

    Despite the odds, our 400 students consistently demonstrate remarkable resilience and a profound capacity for excellence. Our institution is supported by generous donors and funding sources. Operated and managed by the education nonprofit LA Promise Fund, which provides students with academic and enrichment opportunities that support our mission to spark passion, empower leadership, and prepare them for their chosen college and career paths.

    At one point, our high school students were learning in a church because we didn’t have a traditional classroom set-up. We also lacked the equipment that a traditional high school might have. This changed when we moved into our forever home in South Gate, where an on-campus Empowerment Center serves as a modern, welcoming “student hub.”

    Designed and outfitted by MiEN and Meteor Education, the Empowerment Center is where kids go to hang out, collaborate, and/or participate in school club activities. The hub is also set up with two wellness rooms where students can go to debrief and disconnect from a long day or just the stresses of being a student. It’s there for the students’ use.

    Here are the steps we took to create a space that consistently makes jaws drop and impresses parents who never thought their children would have access to such a warm, welcoming communal space on campus:

    • Add some flexibility into the process. Our original goal was to open the Empowerment Center’s doors in time for the 2023-24 school year, but getting it done the right way would require a bit more time. Our partners were willing to listen to us in terms of what we wanted to create, but within the realistic timelines. That was really cool.
    • Acknowledge the financial limitations. We largely relied on fundraising for this project and knew that some things just weren’t going to be realistic. To other schools in similar situations, I’d recommend staying flexible enough to hit the timelines and get all of the bases covered while keeping student needs in mind. We can have all the bells and whistles, but at the end of the day, if the car runs, the car runs. We know we can always add a new paint job later.
    • Get the right partners onboard early. As we went through the steps of designing the Empowerment Center, we learned a lot about architecture, planning, and construction. Through it all, having the right partners in its corner helped the school achieve its goals within budget and on time. It was really great to have our design and furniture partners sharing their best practices and other insights with us. We knew what we wanted to do, and a lot of the ideas came from our families and students. We just needed them to show us how we could get those ideas as close to reality as possible.
    • Make it personal. Special features we wanted in our Empowerment Center included a huge, interactive flatscreen TV that students, teachers, and guest speakers use to interact and work together. There’s also a large selection of donated books, the latest technology tools, and artwork that was personally selected by an art curation team. They were able to secure artists from the LA community to create and share visuals that our students are really familiar with. For example, some of the artwork spotlights female empowerment (i.e., with photos of authors like Octavia Butler) and the importance of acknowledging indigenous people. Everything in the hub is meant to spark curiosity. 
    • Brace yourself for some jaw-dropping moments. At our ribbon-cutting ceremony last year, our parents’ jaws were on the floor. They just never thought these resources would be available to their kids. A lot of them grew with us being in the church and a co-located space, and then we asked them to trust us to deliver on our promise, and now we’re able to show that as the reward for supporting us. We feel really proud that our parents were just over the moon about it.

    Hitting it out of the park

    Reflecting on the process we put in place to get our modern student hub designed, built, and open for business, I can say that the end result is an engaging, collaborative space that can be used for hanging out, structured learning, or a little of both. I think we really hit the ball out of the park with this innovative space.

    Student, teacher, and family feedback on the Empowerment Center has been extremely positive. Everyone loves it, and students are always excited to come and spend time in the modern, comfortable space that’s equipped with the technology and tools they need to be able to learn and engage.

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  • Teacher stress levels have surpassed pandemic-era highs

    Teacher stress levels have surpassed pandemic-era highs

    Key points:

    America’s K-12 educators are more stressed than ever, with many considering leaving the profession altogether, according to new survey data from Prodigy Education.

    The Teacher Stress Survey, which polled more than 800 K-12 educators across the U.S., found that nearly half of teachers (45 percent) view the 2024-25 school year as the most stressful of their careers. The surveyed educators were also three times more likely to say that the 2024-25 school year has been the hardest compared to 2020, when they had to teach during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

    Student behavior challenges (58 percent), low compensation (44 percent), and administrative demands (28 percent) are driving teacher burnout and turnover at alarming rates. Public school teachers were more likely to report stress from unrealistic workloads, large class sizes, school safety concerns, and student behavior issues than their private school counterparts.

    “The fact that stress levels for so many teachers have exceeded those of the pandemic era should be a wake-up call,” said Dr. Josh Prieur, director of education enablement at Prodigy Education and former assistant principal in the U.S. public school system. “Teachers need tangible, meaningful, and sustained support … every week of the year.”

    Additional key findings include:

    • The vast majority of teachers (95 percent) are experiencing some level of stress, with more than two-thirds (68 percent) reporting moderate to very high stress. K-5 teachers were the most likely to feel extremely/very stressed (33 percent). Sixty-three percent of teachers report that their current stress levels are higher than when they first started teaching. 
    • Nearly one in 10 teachers surveyed (9 percent) are planning to leave the profession this year, while nearly one in four (23 percent) are actively thinking about it. One-third of teachers do not expect to be teaching three years from now, likely because nearly half (48 percent) of teachers don’t feel appreciated for the work that they do.
    • Teachers are finding ways to prioritize their well-being, but time limits and job pressures often get in the way. Seventy-eight percent of teachers say they actively make time for self-care, but nearly half (43 percent) feel guilty for spending time on self-care and 78 percent have skipped self-care due to work demands. Implementing school-provided self-care perks and mandatory self-care breaks would appeal to teachers, with 85 percent and 76 percent taking advantage of each benefit, respectively.
    • Top solutions that would reduce teachers’ stress include a higher salary (59 percent), a four-day school week (33 percent), stronger classroom discipline policies (32 percent), and smaller class sizes (25 percent). Public school teachers were more likely to prefer a shorter week, while private school educators opted for higher pay. 

    “Teacher Appreciation Week should serve as the starting point for building systems that show we value teachers’ time, talent, and well-being,” said Dr. Prieur. “Districts can do this by investing in tools that reduce the burden on teachers, prioritizing time for self-care and implementing policies that reinforce teachers’ value as an ongoing commitment to bettering the profession.”

    This press release originally appeared online.

    Laura Ascione
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  • Lead Generators Still Lurking for Bodies

    Lead Generators Still Lurking for Bodies

    Predatory lead generators are still lurking the internet, looking for their next victims.  These ads continue to sell subprime online degrees from robocolleges like Purdue Global, Colorado Tech, Berkley College, Full Sail, Walden University, and Liberty University Online.  After you provide your name and number, they’ll be calling you up.  But these programs may be of questionable value. Some may lead to a lifetime of debt.  Buyer beware.  

    This ad and lead generator is originating from TriAd Media Solutions of Nutley, New Jersey.  

    Down the rabbit hole…

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  • Trump administration appeals pause on Education Department cuts to SCOTUS

    Trump administration appeals pause on Education Department cuts to SCOTUS

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    UPDATE: June 6, 2025: The U.S. Department of Justice asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday for an immediate pause on a court order that the U.S. Department of Education reinstate nearly 1,400 employees fired during a mass workforce reduction in March. The Justice Department’s appeal calls the lower court’s order an “unlawful remedy” and says the injunction “causes irreparable harm to the Executive Branch.”

    Dive Brief:

    • A federal appeals court on Wednesday rejected the Trump administration’s motion for a stay in a lawsuit challenging the dismantling of the U.S. Department of Education, effectively halting — at least temporarily — efforts to reduce the agency’s workforce and transfer some education responsibilities to other federal departments.
    • The administration had argued it could still carry out the statutory requirements of the Education Department, even with a workforce cut in half. But the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed, saying it saw “no basis” that a lower court erred in concluding that task seemed “impossible.”
    • The ruling was the latest in a series of legal developments concerning Trump administration reforms at the Education Department. Trump, U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon and many Republican lawmakers are attempting to eliminate what they say is federal overreach and inefficiencies in education.

       

    Dive Insight:

    The lawsuit at the center of the ruling was filed in March by 20 Democratic-leaning states and the District of Columbia. They sued the Education Department, Trump and McMahon two days after the agency announced mass workforce reductions. That challenge was combined with a similar lawsuit from public school districts in Massachusetts and education labor unions. 

    A federal district judge last month issued a preliminary injunction halting the workforce reductions temporarily. That ruling also prohibited the Education Department from transferring management of the federal student loans portfolio and special education management and oversight to other federal agencies. 

    In Wednesday’s decision denying a motion for a stay, the three-judge panel said the Education Department has not shown “that the public’s interest lies in permitting a major federal department to be unlawfully disabled from performing its statutorily assigned functions.” 

    The Trump administration also argued that it is being forced to return staff whose services are no longer needed. The 1st Circuit, however, said its reading of the preliminary injunction shows no specific number or deadline for returning employees who were part of the reduction in force.

    “We do not see how complying with those aspects of the injunction imposes a burden on the government, no less one that is ‘extraordinary,’” the court said.

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  • Test yourself on this week’s K-12 news

    Test yourself on this week’s K-12 news

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    How well did you keep up with this week’s developments in K-12 education? To find out, take our five-question quiz below. Then, share your score by tagging us on social media with #K12DivePopQuiz.

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  • Juggling risk and convenience in cross border payments

    Juggling risk and convenience in cross border payments

    The globalised education landscape continues to grow. According to ICEF Monitor, the volume of students studying abroad is expected to reach more than 9 million by the year 2030. And for education sectors around the world, international students are a major financial pillar. For example, in the 2021/22 academic year, non-EU students generated almost £9bn in tuition for UK universities.

    Pursuing academic goals abroad is an exciting prospect for students. However, the financial intricacies of international tuition payments can quickly turn to stress in the face of unpredictable currency fluctuations, communication hurdles, and complex administrative procedures. Meanwhile, for education institutions there is a fine art to balancing the need for secure and compliant cross-border transactions, with demand from students, their families, and agents for a seamless, user-friendly payments experience.

    The risks behind international tuition payments

    Handling cross border payments can be a tightrope walk for education institutions. When it comes to Gen Z and Gen Alpha, there’s an expectation that any sort of payment will be digital first, and seamless. However, there are several inherent risks to cross border transactions that finance teams can’t ignore.

    Topping the list would be payments fraud and scams. From phishing to fake agents, students are susceptible to schemes that lead to misdirected funds and enrolment issues – a threat that continues to escalate in the age of AI deepfakes.

    Currency volatility can surprise students and institutions alike. In the time between a student calculating their fees, and initiating a payment, the whims of the market can increase costs. For the institution, this can equate to payments arriving short, especially if intermediaries have deducted fees along the way.

    The challenge of managing international anti-money laundering (AML) and know your customer (KYC) regulations is another consideration. Plus, manual process for reconciliation and other administrative tasks can lead to errors, delays and financial discrepancies. The headaches for students and finance teams are real.

    Digital natives want seamless experiences

    Today’s international students expect cross-border payments to mirror modern eCommerce platforms. They want to make a payment online, from any device in a their method of choice, from bank transfers to e-wallets.

    Fast processing and real-time tracking are critical. For many international students, tuition fees are a major investment, and they want to see their funds are on track to reach their destination on time.

    Handling cross border payments can be a tightrope walk for education institutions

    Most of all, international payments should look and feel like local transactions. Payment platforms should accommodate diverse backgrounds for clear communication and support multiple currencies so students and their families know exactly how much their payment will cost. Even better if they get real-time rates.

    Failure to meet these demands can have real repercussions. Students are an institution’s greatest ambassador, and any negative experience can tarnish reputation and influence enrolment decisions.

    Find balance with the right payment provider

    Harmony between risk management and user convenience is increasingly critical for education institutions, and the best place to start is by partnering with a payment provider you can trust. Experienced international payments specialists offer robust fraud detection and compliance support, instilling confidence in students and institutions alike.

    Platforms that offer clear, up-front information about fees, exchange rates, and payments processes goes a long way towards building trust with students and their families. Combine this with advanced technology that delivers real-time tracking, and integration with financial systems for automated reconciliation, and your institution is well positioned to succeed in the digital age.

    To discover how Convera can help you offer a seamless payment experience for your international students, and reduce administrative burden for your teams, please get in touch here.

    About the author: Joanne McChrystal, originally from Ireland, is an alumna of Sheffield Hallam University, UK and the University of Economics in Vienna, Austria. With nearly three decades in financial services and a deep expertise in international payments, she has lived and worked across four European countries. Now, as the global head of education at Convera, Joanne drives forward initiatives that support educational institutions and their partners globally. She is fervently committed to facilitating seamless student journeys through innovative technology and robust partnerships.

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  • Senate Dems Grill Trump’s Pick to Lead Civil Rights Office

    Senate Dems Grill Trump’s Pick to Lead Civil Rights Office

    Kimberly Richey, a Florida education official, made her case Thursday about why she should lead the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights, pledging “unwavering” support of the administration’s priorities such as protecting Jewish students.

    “Should I be confirmed as assistant secretary for civil rights, I will proudly be joining an administration that will not allow students to be intimidated, harassed, assaulted or excluded from their institutions,” she said in her opening remarks.

    But repeatedly throughout the hearing, Democratic senators interrogated her on how she plans to address a massive backlog in complaints—which one senator said has more than doubled since Trump took office, to 25,000—with a reduced staff.

    “This administration has fired more than half of the staff at OCR, and President Trump is now asking, in his budget, to slash that by $49 million next year, so explain to me how those firings and that funding cut will help reduce that backlog? I want to understand how you’re going to square that circle,” Sen. Patty Murray, a Democrat from Washington, asked early on in the hearing.

    Richey mostly avoided answering the questions, arguing that she had not yet assumed the role of assistant secretary and, therefore, had no say in the recent changes to OCR.

    “As a nominee, I do not have access to information with regard to the decisions that are being made at the department,” Richey responded. “I’m not in communication with OCR leadership or the secretary. One of the reasons why this role is so important to me is because I am always going to advocate for OCR to have the resources it needs to do its job. I think that what it means is I’m going to have to be really strategic, if I’m confirmed, stepping into this role, helping come up with a plan where we can address these challenges.”

    Several others doubled down on Murray’s line of questioning, including Sen. Andy Kim, a New Jersey Democrat, who asked Richey if antisemitism was getting worse in America. When she said it was, he questioned how cutting OCR staff is conducive to fighting antisemitism on college campuses. She reiterated her answer to Murray’s question, saying, “I can’t explain or provide information on decisions I wasn’t involved in.”

    Richey was one of four people who testified Thursday before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. She and the nominee for deputy secretary of education, Penny Schwinn, fielded the bulk of the committee’s questions as lawmakers pressed for answers about the OCR’s operations and priorities, proposed budget cuts, and the president’s plans to dismantle the Education Department. The senators didn’t vote on whether to advance the nominations to the Senate floor; that step will likely occur at a later meeting.

    Richey is currently senior chancellor for the Florida Department of Education and has twice served in OCR before, including a brief stint as acting secretary of civil rights at the end of Trump’s first term and the beginning of Biden’s presidency. Her confirmation hearing comes months after the Trump administration slashed more than half of OCR’s staff, including shuttering seven of the 12 regional offices dedicated to investigating complaints. The office has also reportedly begun prioritizing opening cases regarding trans women athletes and antisemitism since Trump’s second term began, letting other cases pile up and go unaddressed, according to multiple news reports.

    In the confirmation hearing, Richey expressed strong support for those causes, stressing that she led OCR when it investigated one of the federal government’s earliest cases against a school for allowing a trans woman to play on a women’s sports team.

    “I’m certainly committed to vigorously enforcing it and continuing to pursue these cases,” she said.

    In response to a different question, though, she did say that OCR would investigate certain complaints of discrimination related to gender identity and sexual orientation—an answer that appeared to incense Republican senator Josh Hawley of Missouri.

    “I want to be crystal clear on this—I think it’s a very dangerous thing to start allowing this into Title IX, which, as you know, it is a landmark statute, it is vitally important, and it has been under attack for four long years,” he said, asking her to confirm that OCR will “go after” colleges and universities that allow trans women to play women’s sports.

    He also warned Richey that she should “rethink” her position that OCR can investigate discrimination based on gender identity.

    Sen. Angela Alsobrooks, a Democrat from Maryland, pressed Richey on whether she would continue OCR’s new system of prioritizing cases regarding antisemitism and trans athletes, asking if all forms of discrimination should be treated with equal importance.

    Richey told Alsobrooks she does believe “it’s important to vigorously enforce all of the federal laws that OCR is responsible for enforcing.” Later in the hearing, she noted that Education Secretary Linda McMahon is “prioritizing” removing trans women from women’s athletics, and she plans to do the same if confirmed.

    Schwinn, who was formerly Tennessee’s commissioner of education, received most of the panel’s questions about the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle the education department. In response a question from Sen. Jim Banks, an Indiana Republican, about what steps would be required to dismantle the department, she stated that she “would certainly work, if confirmed, with the secretary and with Congress on any actions related to the role of the department” and that she believes in equipping states with legislation and funding that will help them improve their own educational systems.

    “A department or an agency in the federal government is not going to change the outcomes of students—the teacher in the classroom is going to teach the standards that are approved by that state. The parent is the parent of that child. What we need to do is ensure we’ve created a system that is going to drive outcomes,” she said. “That is not going to happen from the federal government, whether there is a Department of Education or not.”

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  • Purdue Cuts Off Student Paper Citing Institutional Neutrality

    Purdue Cuts Off Student Paper Citing Institutional Neutrality

    Purdue University has ended a long-standing partnership with its independent student newspaper, The Purdue Exponent, and will no longer distribute papers, give student journalists free parking passes or allow them to use the word “Purdue” for commercial purposes.

    The Purdue Student Publishing Foundation board (PSPF), the nonprofit group that oversees The Exponent—the largest collegiate newspaper in Indiana—said the changes came without warning.

    On May 30, PSPF received an email from Purdue’s Office of Legal Counsel notifying the group that their contract had expired more than a decade ago and the university would not participate in newspaper distribution or give the students exclusive access to newspaper racks on campus.

    In addition, the message said, the university will not enter into a new contract for facility use with the paper to remain consistent with the administration’s stated policy on institutional neutrality.

    According to a statement from the university, it is not consistent “with principles of freedom of expression, institutional neutrality and fairness to provide the services and accommodations described in the letter to one media organization but not others.”

    The Exponent is the only student newspaper, though Purdue also has two student news channels, FastTrack News and BoilerTV.

    Legal counsel also asked The Exponent to keep “Purdue” off the masthead and out of the paper’s URL because “The Foundation should not associate its own speech with the University.” PSPF says it has a trademark on “The Purdue Exponent” until 2029.

    PSPF and Purdue have held distribution agreements since 1975, in which Exponent staff would drop papers off at various locations across campus and staff would then place them on newspaper racks.

    In 2014, the Exponent delivered the university a new contract to renew the agreement for the next five years, according to paper staff. The contract was never signed, but the terms of the agreement continued until Monday, June 2.

    Now, The Exponent is permitted to distribute papers themselves and have nonexclusive access to newspaper stands on campus, according to the university; students said they don’t have early access to many of the buildings the way staff do.

    “Purdue’s moves are unacceptable and represent not only a distortion of trademark law but a betrayal of the university’s First Amendment obligations to uphold free expression,” Dominic Coletti, a student press program officer for the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, told The Exponent. “Breaking long-standing practice to hinder student journalism is not a sign of institutional neutrality; it is a sign of institutional cowardice.”



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  • A Chance for Constructive Engagement (opinion)

    A Chance for Constructive Engagement (opinion)

    Earlier this spring, I was one of hundreds of college, university and scholarly society leaders to sign “A Call for Constructive Engagement” published by the American Association of Colleges and Universities. The statement speaks out against “the unprecedented government overreach and political interference now endangering American higher education.” It calls for the freedom to determine, on academic grounds, whom to admit and what is taught, how and by whom, while engaging in constructive reform and openness to legitimate government oversight.

    Deciding whether to make such a public statement merits careful consideration. This is because by making the statement, a higher education leader will likely not be reflecting the viewpoints of all of their institution’s constituents.

    An email from an alum from the 1970s reminded me of this. The alum chastised me for signing the statement, for overreaching and speaking for some members of our university community such as him, and for banding together with other higher learning institutions that have become “liberal cesspools of propaganda and misinformation … [that] openly permit anti-Israeli protests led by anti-Semitic educators … [and] become another left-wing terrorist organization supporting the likes of Hamas.”

    The alum asked me to remove my signature from the AAC&U statement on account of the concerns that he had raised. One higher education leader has so far done so, likely because of receiving input such as that provided by our alum.

    I opted to reply to our alum, thereby putting to practice the constructive engagement preached by the AAC&U statement. My reply asked the alum how long it had been since he had last visited campus and whether he knew that, thanks to the philanthropic generosity of some fellow graduates, we renovated our campus’s Hillel House last summer.

    I asked the alum whether he had heard of the Common Ground program Alfred instituted in 2018 through the philanthropic support of our trustees. It is a required course for all of our new undergraduate students and consists of small-group dialogue facilitated by a faculty or staff member with two key objectives: 1) to better appreciate the different backgrounds (including geographies, ethnicities and religions), aspirations and interests that our new students bring to Alfred (artists think differently than engineers, liberal arts students think differently than business students), and 2) to arrive at some shared values that our new students will commit to living by as citizens of the Alfred community—such as commitment to constructive dialogue.

    By fostering constructive engagement, our Common Ground program likely helped prevent the strife that occurred on many other college campuses in the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack on Israel and the ensuing war in the Middle East. When members of campus communities have built meaningful relationships with one another, they are less likely to retreat to their ideological corners when a potential conflict arises. Instead, they talk as friends.

    I closed my email by asking the alum whether he had any impactful mentors as a student.

    To my pleasant surprise, the alum replied by recounting a particularly impactful faculty mentor in the field of astronomy who had given him many applied learning opportunities and inspired a lifelong interest in stargazing, which he continues to do to this day from his home. He also noted how well his college education had positioned him for the professional success that he has enjoyed.

    We have since spoken by phone. While there are certain matters upon which we still disagree, we have found some common ground.

    We agree that institutions of higher learning are potent engines for promoting the success of graduates as well as the prosperity of our nation and the health and well-being of our broader population. There are nearly 4,000 institutions of higher learning across our nation—spanning public and private and including community colleges, technical training institutions, arts schools, religious institutions and HBCUs. This constellation, in which anyone can find a place, provides powerful opportunities for professional and personal advancement, social mobility, entrepreneurial innovation, access to health care, national defense, social services and cultural offerings.

    We agree that the core focus of institutions of higher learning should be on providing an education of enduring value through fostering knowledge and curiosity.

    We also agree that universities, like individuals and nations, do not always uniformly arc toward wisdom. They can stumble and thus benefit from constructive reform. Our field of higher education can and should be better listeners to our public, more concerned about the cost of college and more focused on student success and less on prestige.

    Notwithstanding the stumbles, however, institutions of higher learning, as noted by Israeli historian Yuval Hariri in his recent book Nexus, have some powerful self-correcting mechanisms such as peer review. Authoritarian regimes, by contrast, lack such self-correcting mechanisms when they suppress inquiry and criticism.

    Consider Katalin Karikó, who emigrated from her native Hungary to the United States with $1,200 cash sewn into her daughter’s teddy bear to do research on mRNA. While at the University of Pennsylvania, her hypothesis regarding the potency of mRNA research was derided by most fellow researchers around the globe. She was denied a tenure-track position and demoted. Yet, the research that she kept pursuing was pivotal to the development of COVID vaccines and earned her a Nobel Prize in 2023.

    And while our alum and I still disagree on whether my signature should be affixed to the AAC&U statement, we have ended up agreeing both on the value of constructive engagement and the criticality of promoting it as a central value in higher education.

    Mark Zupan is president of Alfred University.

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