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Tag: Higher education

  • Va. lawmakers’ rejections leave vacancies on three higher ed governing boards – WTOP News

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    Virginia lawmakers rejected 14 nominations by former Gov. Glenn Youngkin at three institutions: Richard Bland College, VCU and Old Dominion University.

    This article was reprinted with permission from Virginia Mercury. 

    President Debbie L. Sydow and her team at Richard Bland College had operated for years without a governing board until last year, when the school gained independence from its parent university, William & Mary.

    So when state legislators recently rejected all nine governing board nominations at Richard Bland, Sydow assured the public that the institution remains on “solid footing” with an experienced leadership team.

    “While the General Assembly’s recent decision regarding the prior slate of Board of Visitors appointees creates a temporary gap in formal governance, our day‑to‑day operations, strategic initiatives, and student‑centered mission continue without interruption,” said Sydow in a statement to the Mercury.

    She said the institution is “optimistic” and “encouraged” over Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s forthcoming appointments, “individuals we expect will bring a strong commitment to higher education, diverse experience, and a shared belief in the vital role Richard Bland College plays in the Tri-Cities region and the Commonwealth.”

    Last year, the state legislature passed a measure that triggered the development of Richard Bland’s first governing board.

    In total, lawmakers rejected 14 nominations by former Gov. Glenn Youngkin at three institutions in the Commonwealth this month: Richard Bland College, Virginia Commonwealth University, and Old Dominion University.

    None of the rejections at VCU and Old Dominion prevented their respective boards from maintaining a quorum. Spanberger backfilled significant vacancies at George Mason University, the University of Virginia and Virginia Military Institute, appointing 27 in January.

    Virginia governors are responsible for nominating members, but their decisions must be confirmed or rejected by the General Assembly. Over the past year, the process was called into question after the Senate Privileges and Elections Committee rejected 22 nominations made by Youngkin, whose administration unsuccessfully challenged the decision.

    Outside of the nominations for Virginia colleges, lawmakers over the current session have rejected 89 nominees to Virginia’s boards and commissions, including two for the Board of Education.

    Others were blocked from the State Air Pollution Control Board and the Boards of Juvenile Justice and Fair Housing, as well as the African American and Asian Advisory Boards.

    Potential changes

    The nomination process for governing boards at Virginia’s colleges and universities remains under review by state lawmakers and Spanberger’s administration, a process which started immediately upon the governor taking office in January.

    Lawmakers are now considering two bills that would revise membership and governance requirements for governing boards of public higher education institutions. They appear to be on track to clear the legislature.

    Senate Bill 494, carried by Sen. Creigh Deeds, D-Charlottesville, would increase each member’s terms from four years to six, prohibit consecutive terms and require a two-year gap, and add nonvoting advisory members from faculty, staff and student bodies.

    The bill also clarifies the terms “quorum,” “executive committee,” “primary duties” and “restrictions” of governing boards. Boards would also be required to adopt policies for shared governance, which a work group created by the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia will develop, fostering more voices in decision-making.

    SCHEV will also be responsible for creating a work group and recommending processes for Attorney General reviews of legal representation for institutions and recusal policies for board members with conflicts of interest.

    According to the bill’s fiscal impact statement, the cost of the proposed changes are expected to be absorbed within existing resources by both institutions and SCHEV.

    Del. Lily Franklin, D-Montgomery, is carrying similar legislation in the House of Delegates, which includes proposals from Democratic Dels. Katrina Callsen and Amy Laufer, representing Albemarle.

    On Jan. 17, Spanberger issued an executive order directing her cabinet members to prepare a report detailing the procedures for board nominations at Virginia’s public higher education institutions, including member term lengths, reappointments, term start dates for new members, and the evaluation process used by the Virginia Commission on Higher Education Board Appointments.

    What’s next

    Sydow said she’s confident Richard Bland’s governing board will be in place by the next April 22 board meeting, based on conversations with the governor’s office and elected representatives.

    Norfolk Mayor Kenny Alexander will replace Sydow in May when she steps down after 14 years at Richard Bland. Alexander has served as vice chancellor for strategic partnerships of the Virginia Community College System and as executive director of the Virginia Foundation for Community College Education.

    Lawmakers will have until the weekend of March 14 to advance or kill any legislation before it heads to Spanberger for consideration.

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    Tadiwos Abedje

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  • Fourth annual Day of Remembrance at SJSU emphasizes activism and solidarity

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    Gordon Yamate, who serves on the Los Gatos Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Commission, spoke about inspiring solidarity and activism for a panel at this year’s Day of Remembrance of Japanese American incarceration at San Jose State University.

    Feb. 19 nationally commemorates the anniversary of Executive Order 9066, a 1942 decree that ordered the removal of all people of Japanese descent from the West Coast to camps in remote areas of California, Arizona, Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Idaho and Arkansas. San Jose State held an event on that day to acknowledge the Japanese American experience and the campus’ connection to it. In 1942, Yoshihiro Uchida Hall, which used to be the university’s men’s gymnasium, was used as a registration center for Japanese Americans in Santa Clara County before they were sent to the incarceration camps.

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    Nollyanne Delacruz

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  • How the University Replaced the Church as the Home of Liberal Morality

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    During the past several weeks, I have been making the argument that progressive movements in America need to strengthen their connection to communities of faith and center their work in the church, as earlier progressive movements have done. In the past decade, millions of Americans have taken to the streets on behalf of social justice, but this has not led to much in the way of real change. The accomplishments of the civil-rights movement in the nineteen-fifties and sixties and of the Sanctuary Movement in the eighties depended, in part, on the infrastructure, moral clarity, and greater purpose of the church.

    But this argument raises a question that I haven’t addressed. If it’s true that those earlier movements drew inspiration and leadership from the church, and if it’s also true that young liberals are increasingly secular, then where does that progressive energy come from? Why do young people participate in politics today, either through voting or through protest, in high numbers? What institution taught them a sense of morality, gave them words to express their outrage, and offered them the space and infrastructure to imagine a different world?

    The answer is obvious: the university. In the past thirty or so years, the academy has replaced the church as the center of the liberal moral imagination, providing the sense of a community bound by ethics, a firmament of texts and knowledge that should inform action, and a meeting space for like-minded people. This isn’t an entirely new development, of course—American history is full of student-protest movements—but, rather, a consolidation of the university’s influence. Young people not only stopped going to church in large numbers, they also got fewer and fewer union jobs—and unions were the other institution in America that has historically produced a great deal of progressive change. College, particularly for middle-class and upper-middle-class kids, is now often the first and perhaps only place where young people are told that they are part of a community of their choosing, one that will prepare them to be “leaders of tomorrow” and instill in them a moral and ethical code of conduct.

    So, if we accept that the university has become the incubator for social-justice movements in America, is it actually good at this job?

    I began thinking about this question while reading about the effects of education on political polarization. It’s a familiar story by now: the more years of education you’ve received, the more likely you are to be a Democrat. In the past few election cycles, this correlation has become more robust. A number of conservative commentators, including Roger Kimball, Peter Wood, and Chris Rufo, maintain that political conformity overtook élite institutions of higher learning and turned every seminar room into some radical struggle session where students dutifully read Karl Marx and bell hooks. Even if you disagree, as I do, with their prescriptions to root out so-called radicalism wherever they find it, you can recognize that what they’re describing is not imaginary. In 1969, around the height of anti-Vietnam War protests and the Third World Liberation Front movement on campuses, the faculty at American universities were closer in political alignment to the general public. This held true until the end of the century, when a combination of factors—including the expansion of the social sciences, which tend to attract more liberals—led to the left-leaning academy that you see today. The extreme effects of this shift have been especially visible at élite universities; according to one conservative group’s report, seventy-seven per cent of faculty at Yale, for example, are or have largely supported Democrats, compared with just three per cent who are Republicans. But most forms of higher education have seen at least a doubling of its liberal-to-conservative gap since the nineties.

    Wood argues that colleges are not only staffed with a disproportionate number of radicals who indoctrinate the students but also have turned everything from dormitory management to the dining halls over to the left. In this view, even students who might disagree with their radical professors will eventually succumb to progressive politics because it is embedded in every part of campus life. Wood and others—such as John McWhorter, who, in his book “Woke Racism,” contends that “wokeness” has become a religion on college campuses—understand that the contemporary university functions in some respects as a church, and they believe that it has taken up a dangerous and wrongheaded set of doctrines. (Wood co-authored a three-hundred-and-seventy-page study on my alma mater, Bowdoin College, because he believed that the school had become hostile to the teachings of Western civilization.) These critics do not want to change the basically religious function of the university so much as they want to swap out the sermons.

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    Jay Caspian Kang

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  • I’m A College Professor. There’s A 5-Alarm Fire Raging In Higher Ed — And Trump Is To Blame.

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    I never used to sweat like this.

    Nearly a decade ago, in a small Texas town with a crystal-clear river running through it, a university student came to my office with a Bowie knife sheathed at his hip. I didn’t notice it until we were almost through discussing the torrent of comma splices diluting his essay.

    “Next time, don’t bring a weapon to my office,” I said as he left.

    He offered a casual apology. The behavior was jarring, but back then, it was just part of the scenery — abrasive, but toothless.

    During my tenure in Texas, my colleagues and I were advised to add campus carry policies to our syllabi. It was a futile, bureaucratic effort to regulate state-sanctioned firearms in our classrooms. Texas legalized open carry in most public spaces, but it was (and still is) prohibited on university grounds. Concealed carry, on the other hand, was legal for any student over 21 with a license. It felt perverse to parse through gun legislation as an educator — let alone codify basic human decency in a syllabus — but there I was. In America, the threat of violence is constant, but in the South, it’s especially ordinary.

    Collegiate positions in “Come and Take It” territory require a tough, unyielding spirit. That is to say, working with and for folks who view critical thought as a grievance is no easy task.

    “The first Trump administration and its debilitating fallout were a naïve rehearsal for what Project 2025 and a second, draconian Trump term had in store.”

    I felt I was built for it in some respects. Conflict was a constant growing up. An artistic, contemplative but ideologically headstrong kid, I quickly ascended to black sheep status in a rigidly structured Air Force family that valued acquiescence above all else. A fraught, unsafe upbringing steeled me against an aversion to confrontation at the very least — a sort of maladapted resilience.

    That in mind, the strategy I developed as a new adjunct professor was threefold: Be commanding, judicious and empathetic. As a young-ish woman with sleeves of tattoos, a baby face and progressive values in a tenaciously conservative place, my mask of unshakability was paramount.

    My lesson plans followed suit. I wrote my curriculum like armor, confident that its rigor, relevance, merit and scope would counter the deep-seated local fears of “liberal indoctrination,” the same rhetoric I had grown up with, as vigorously enforced by my father.

    Those initial Introduction to Composition students didn’t simply read and write in my class; we dissected logical fallacies in political debates and deconstructed feminist discourse via bell hooks, Roxane Gay, Chimamanda Adichie, and Beyoncé. I never shied away from controversy or complexity because those are the discussions that matter most, and I reveled in my ability to steer them. I had so much fight in me.

    “Reheating coffee after an 8 a.m. class. After office hours, I’ll drive two hours to teach an afternoon class at another college,” the author writes.

    Courtesy of Melanie Robinson

    In 2019, I was still teaching freshman writing courses at the same college in the teeth of the first Trump presidency while finishing my master’s degree in poetry, the mother of all esoteric focuses. This was on the eve of a global pandemic, a tragedy and collective trauma that would be swept aside in a grotesque rush to return to normal in a matter of years.

    Volatility is the baseline in Texas, but tensions were swiftly ratcheting during this time. I remember when racist posters were wheatpasted across campus, and white supremacist propaganda was littered about — sadly, nothing new for the Lone Star State. That same year, our university’s student government tried to ban the local chapter of Turning Point USA, arguing it posed a threat to the student and faculty bodies. Gov. Greg Abbott then threatened the university’s taxpayer funding and mandated that all public campus grounds be opened as forums. I hadn’t heard of Charlie Kirk then, but the name would resurface soon enough.

    Remarkably, those days seem tame in retrospect. The first Trump administration and its debilitating fallout were a naïve rehearsal for what Project 2025 and a second, draconian Trump term had in store. Thus far, the horrors include relentless attacks on DEI, masked ICE agents abducting and shooting our neighbors, the gutting of institutions like the Department of Education, the grim debris of the Epstein files, AI/Large Language Models and their monstrous impacts, and so, so much more.

    According to extensive reporting from PEN America, a leading nonprofit advocating for academic freedom, state legislators introduced 93 bills across 32 states in 2025 aimed at restricting higher education, reflecting broader concerns about ideological government control. Of those bills, 21 became law in 15 states. PEN America notes that “State legislatures set three new records in 2025: the highest number of new laws censoring higher education enacted in a single year (21), the highest number of states enacting them (15), and the highest number of states enacting their first higher education censorship law (8).”

    "I only have an office at one college. Between classes, I sometimes end up stuck in purgatory — the English Department common area," the author writes.
    “I only have an office at one college. Between classes, I sometimes end up stuck in purgatory — the English Department common area,” the author writes.

    Courtesy of Melanie Robinson

    It’s the fall of 2025, and I’m sweating profusely.

    Time, distance, and a few professional pivots have brought me back to the head of an English college classroom, this time in California. This go-round, though, I’m wondering how you’re not supposed to let them see you sweat when perspiration is, in fact, very visible. I’m choking at the whiteboard under fluorescent lighting, stammering my way through my meticulously structured “Satire as a Rhetorical Device” presentation. Comedy can be contentious, so I’m anticipating some pushback, but my fear is of a more existential variety. Can these students even handle irony and political satire in this climate?

    Charlie Kirk had been shot on a school campus in Utah a week and a half earlier. A student talks with me after class about the topic of his essay, a narrative-style piece about finding his religious faith through, you guessed it, Charlie. Aside from the logistical issues of writing an essay about an unfolding tragedy, his premise was tenuous; oh, and my response may jeopardize my career. Professors in California and across the country were being abruptly ousted for Kirk-related comments, both in and out of the classroom.

    “Did you say anything about it in class?” I asked a colleague after the assassination.

    “No. It doesn’t have to do with our class, and they are all adults,” he said.

    It’s repeatedly suggested that I cut back on political content to ease my escalating nerves. But between a few Crooked Media podcasts and the New York Times push notifications, my media diet feels tame, relatively speaking. What a privilege to compartmentalize. How misguided to think that you are somehow excluded from your environment — the “illusion of immunity,” as it’s called in addiction rehabilitation programs (rugged individualism as it’s called in America).

    As Wisława Szymborska wrote in her poem “Children of Our Age,” “Whatever you say reverberates, / whatever you don’t say speaks for itself. / So either way you’re talking politics.”

    "First day of classes: me, my course calendar, and 15 weeks of reading and writing," the author writes.
    “First day of classes: me, my course calendar, and 15 weeks of reading and writing,” the author writes.

    Courtesy of Melanie Robinson

    Mid-semester in California, I’m asked to pick up an extra class following an abrupt faculty departure. This in medias res exit is considered scandalous in higher education, reserved for only the most acute crises. The circumstances were odd and unclear. I’m told not to contact the previous professor, and the classroom is heavy with rumor and ominous unease. I’m left to salvage a class already in disarray a third of the way through the semester, while navigating the bigoted policies of an autocratic regime and a crumbling educational institution. The tension in the air is almost tangible, a layer of silt.

    I pictured California classrooms safer, brighter, shining with the promise of progress, but the threat of physical and/or ideological violence bristles again — a serrated déjà vu. Self-censorship in teaching is rampant, and I’m anticipating sanctions or backlash at every corner. Every American teacher is Sisyphus to some extent, but each day brings with it heavier boulders that test courage and patience, and I’m not sure my center will hold. That callused disposition I cultivated years ago fractures, making way for a crisis of confidence unlike any I’ve experienced before.

    “I spend nights combing through my course calendar again and again to hedge against which benign assignment could be weaponized as partisan provocation.”

    Some weekdays, I work 13 hours, six of which are spent commuting between two colleges to teach three classes total (one of the many joys of an adjunct’s status in a take-what-you-can-get economy). I’m not sleeping or eating, and the likelihood of physical exercise has long since dissipated. If I’m not grading, I’m lesson-planning; if not lesson-planning, I’m managing my small content writing business or struggling to publish my own writing for a few pennies on the dollar. I don’t have health insurance, living wages or a guaranteed position.

    I spend nights combing through my course calendar again and again to hedge against which benign assignment could be weaponized as partisan provocation, preemptively altering my course materials in response. Suddenly, I’m doubting whether neutrality is even possible in a culture softened to such aggressive conservatism. Yielding to the morally misled masses is soul-crushing work, and I hate myself for bending for them. The question then becomes: Is teaching college financially, spiritually, or even physically sustainable? What is sustainable at a time like this?

    The middle ground is paved over, and the insidious ideological erosion of Trump 2.0 is now in full swing. Professors are purged for philosophical orientations, teaching assistants are removed for secular academic standards, and my TikTok feed is inundated with clips of students hijacking lectures or teachers “crashing out.”

    At Texas A&M University, a philosophy professor was even instructed to remove some of Plato’s writings from his syllabus because they touched on race and gender. And let’s not forget the Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education, wherein our federal government asked nine schools to agree to funding-dependent conditions, echoing the McCarthy-era loyalty oaths.

    Protesters attend the No Kings protest in downtown Los Angeles on Oct. 18, 2025.
    Protesters attend the No Kings protest in downtown Los Angeles on Oct. 18, 2025.

    Courtesy of Melanie Robinson

    The entire higher education ecosystem is now compromised, from research funding and student loan programs to the national accreditation system, curriculum planning, and the attraction and retention of international students and faculty. While deterioration of institutions is hardly swift, as PEN America notes, “in both quantity and quality, the second Trump administration’s assault on higher education is without precedent in modern American history.”

    I, like so many educators, am defeated, depleted and disheartened. In what has historically been a thankless job in the United States, the latest iteration of challenges is absolutely untenable.

    Maybe the flashbangs from the summer protests in downtown Los Angeles are still ringing in my ears. Maybe my students’ essays about ICE dragging away relatives, or about the American flag functioning as a co-opted symbol of white nationalism, have shaken me. Or, perhaps the weight of a terrifying reality has caught up with me: Maybe my foundational mythologies of academia, America, and goodness more generally have imploded. Salvaging those ideals seems more and more unlikely each passing day.

    I returned to teaching to engage with a culture in crisis the only way I know how: studying the craft of writing as an intentional practice integral to critical thought. To write, one must think through, around, and for long periods of time about complex topics without clear answers, and then communicate with clarity and impact. Doing it well demands tremendous time and effort; it isn’t efficient, but it is worthwhile. Combine that with compassion, respect, and an insatiable curiosity disciplined by reading, and I’m convinced a more accurate way of seeing will lay itself bare before most of us. Reading, thinking, writing — these are meaningful, beautiful, and everything in our relentless modern world wants us to abandon them.

    Education was initially a place of solace for me to escape a violent, unsafe upbringing. It gave me a vocabulary to talk about myself, my life, and the world around me. It was a stable shelter that provided a window into the world. School libraries held me tightly, and I often hid inside them as if it would save me.

    Teaching then became a way for me to survive the first Trump administration and fight for my community. What can I say? I’m a reformist who watched “Dead Poets Society” and “Mona Lisa Smile” at an impressionable age, and it shows. If educators lose hope in the fragile possibilities found in places like these, I fear there’s no turning back.

    I feel myself slipping, giving way to a sense of powerlessness in a country that seems to care less about its people each day, and I’ve only been back in higher education one semester. In a profession riddled with overwork, underpay and precarious (often contemptuous) working conditions, countless teachers are facing the same despair. I often think of my friends teaching in Texas and those in the South more broadly. Their struggle is a bare-knuckle brawl, and I fear what comes next.

    "A rare moment of reprieve. A relaxing afternoon in Silver Lake Meadow," the author writes.
    “A rare moment of reprieve. A relaxing afternoon in Silver Lake Meadow,” the author writes.

    So, what now? How do we foster analytical reasoning, teach critical thought, or encourage empathy in a collective fugue state? What do we do once the bullies win, paint everything gold, and make patriots of racists? How does one defend truth when liars and thieves are applauded? In a culture that consistently chooses depravity over humanity, what is the impetus for young people to do better? On top of it all, how can we possibly keep our educators and students safe under such conditions?

    Despite the grief, there was much to be proud of in that autumn 2025 semester. In my courses, my students wrote by hand daily. We read complex, unconventional texts, including Mary Ruefle’s “Pause,” a lyrical essay about menopause, which felt revolutionary assigning to young men, in particular. We tackled Susan Sontag’s “Notes on Camp,” attempting to pin down the elusive, dense essay. My students took to David Foster Wallace’s “This Is Water” and “Consider the Lobster” more than I anticipated.

    Students also engaged with substantial reporting on AI, including its effects on critical thinking, productivity, the environment, personal and romantic relationships, and even “AI slop,” by way of John Oliver. Their AI-themed argumentative essay was then written by hand, in person, both due to the sheer amount of AI being used and as a deliberate form-follows-function lesson.

    Maybe that’s enough to be proud of. Maybe that’s also what fortitude looks like.

    Last semester, my students wrote some of the most delightful, inventive, thoughtful prose I’ve come across in years; their flourishing was remarkable. Our discussions sustained me when not much else did, and they trusted me to lead, though my confidence was waning. As I told them on our final day, it was an absolute pleasure to make sense of the world alongside them.

    At the helm once again, now during the 2026 spring semester, I’m torn, and I’m aching. Perhaps there is glory in what one can withstand, but some part of me yearns for ease. These students deserve a fighting chance, but the fight shows no signs of slowing.

    Melanie Robinson is a poet, essayist, pop culture critic and educator whose work examines the intersections of mental health, trauma and performative femininity. She grew up in San Antonio, Texas, and holds an MFA in poetry from Texas State University. She was the 2019–2020 Poet in Residence at the Clark House in Smithville, Texas. Melanie is currently an adjunct English professor in Los Angeles, where she also works as a film critic. Her writing has appeared in HuffPost, The Rumpus, Polyester Magazine, and FLOOD Magazine. She spends her off-hours crafting erasures out of old texts and worshipping at the altar of John Waters.

    Do you have a compelling personal story you’d like to see published on HuffPost? Find out what we’re looking for here and send us a pitch at pitch@huffpost.com.

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  • Adelphi University plans $55M modernization project on Garden City campus | Long Island Business News

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    THE BLUEPRINT:

    • ‘s modernization project is expected to cost $55 million

    • Plans include major upgrades to Hagedorn Hall and the Science Building

    • approved up to $125M in tax-exempt bond financing

    • Project could create 100 construction jobs and run through 2029

    Adelphi University is planning a $55 million modernization project for its 75-acre Garden City campus.

    The campus is set for a series of strategic upgrades, from athletic field replacements and a new student computer science lab to enhanced data center capabilities, improved learning management systems and modernized heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) infrastructure.

    Most of the work will focus on modernizing and equipping Hagedorn Hall and the Science Building. The upgrades include updated chillers, HVAC, windows and data center. There are also plans to undertake deferred maintenance of the university’s buildings, facilities and infrastructure.

    The Town of Hempstead Local Development Corp. (LDC) on Tuesday announced that it approved the sale of up to $125 million in on behalf of Adelphi to support the capital improvement, and to perhaps refinance previously issued bonds.

    The  LDC – which provides low-interest, tax-exempt bonds to not-for-profits, educational institutions, hospitals, civic entities, or charitable organizations within the town – approved the bond sale at its Jan. 27 meeting.

    The bonds, to be underwritten by Hilltop Securities of Dallas, Texas, will be repaid by Adelphi and secured by a first-mortgage lien on the university’s land and buildings. There is no out-of-pocket cost to Town of Hempstead taxpayers.

    Adelphi is considering using bond-sale proceeds to refund all or a portion of its outstanding revenue bonds sold in 2013 and 2014. The current principal amounts total more than $35 million and over $21 million, respectively.

    “There is no doubt that the sale of these new bonds will benefit Adelphi University, its students, and have a positive impact on the economics of the surrounding communities,” Fred Parola, executive director of the LDC, said in a news release about the .

    Adelphi plans to begin the project by March, with most of the work to be conducted during the summers of 2026, 2027 and 2028. The university expects to complete the work in 2029.

    Adelphi has 1,006 full-time jobs and 1,115 part-time positions in Garden City. The proposed project is expected to generate 100 construction jobs.

     


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    Adina Genn

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  • Study: Farmingdale State College drove $1B economic impact, 10K jobs | Long Island Business News

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    THE BLUEPRINT:

    • FSC contributed nearly $1 billion to Long Island’s economy from 2020–2025

    • The college supported almost 10,000 jobs across Nassau and Suffolk counties

    • A $272 million economic impact was generated by FSC in 2025 alone

    • Construction projects, including a Computer Sciences Center, are projected to add $250 million by 2028

    Nearly $1 billion in economic activity and almost 10,000 jobs were generated by between 2020 and 2025, according to a new economic impact analysis by the . The study examined spending tied to the college’s operations and construction, as well as expenditures by students and visitors, capturing the multiplier effect as those dollars circulated through the regional economy and supported additional jobs and business activity across Long Island.

    The LIA Research Institute, the research arm of the , conducted the study for FSC to assess the college’s recent economic impact and expectations for the future.

    “Farmingdale State College is an economic engine for our region, enabling Long Islanders to obtain a quality education and secure jobs and also serving as a major employer and community asset,” Matt Cohen, president and chief executive of the LIA said in a news release about the study. “The LIA was proud to partner with Farmingdale to conduct this illuminating analysis to demonstrate its ripple effect throughout Nassau and Suffolk counties.”

    Founded 114 years ago as a farming and horticultural school, FSC now enrolls more than 10,000 students annually in programs such as engineering, sciences, business and computer science. And the college has plans for continued growth.

    The study found that in 2025 alone, FSC generated $272 million in economic impact, driven largely by university operations and staffing. To support new academic programs, the college is expanding its physical infrastructure, with new and renovated facilities underway. This includes a 50,000-square-foot Computer Sciences Center. Construction-related economic impact through 2028 is projected at approximately $250 million.

    “Colleges and universities are truly remarkable public assets, not only through our role as a major regional employer, but also as an engine of social mobility, and innovation,” Robert Prezant, president of Farmingdale State College said in the news release.

    “FSC plays a vital role in the local and regional economy and the report produced by the LIA solidifies this role with real, meaningful data,” he added. “Through our unique and innovative programs, FSC continues to attract energetic and talented students who will be the future of Long Island’s workforce. We are proud of the work we do on campus and the impact we have on our surrounding community.”

    “What Farmingdale creates for our community goes well beyond its campus,” Steven Kent, chief economist of the LIA Research Institute, said in the news release.

    “The colleges’ spending, construction, students and visitors activate the broader economic chain within Nassau and Suffolk counties,” he said.  “But it is not just dollars. The college transforms its students who mostly stay on Long Island, get high-paying jobs, and create a virtuous circle for our region.”

    For this study, the LIA Research Institute used the IMPLAN calculation process, an economic impact modeling system applied to estimate how spending affects a regional economy. The study looked at direct spending by the college from 2020-2025; indirect spending by employees, students, and visitors and induced impacts including the effect on regional businesses.

    The complete study is available here.


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    Adina Genn

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  • University of Denver creates professorship in Holocaust and antisemitism studies

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    The University of Denver is aiming to become a global hub for scholarship on the Holocaust, abuses of power, racism, hatred and antisemitism, with a goal of spurring other universities to do the same.

    DU leaders said they’ll announce the school’s first endowed professorship in Holocaust and antisemitism studies at a gathering in the state Capitol with Gov. Jared Polis on Tuesday, which is International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

    The professorship represents “a permanent commitment not only to remembrance but to making Denver a global hub for thoughtful Holocaust education and applied scholarship that helps future generations foster social change,” DU Provost Elizabeth Loboa said in a statement.

    Polis and survivors of the Holocaust — Colorado residents Osi Sladek and Barbara Steinmetz — will commemorate the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, a Nazi death camp.

    At the noon event, Sladek is expected to read from his memoir, which recounts his escape from persecution into the Tatra mountains along Slovakia’s border with Poland. He later served in the Israeli Army and became a folk singer in California before settling in Denver. The Denver Young Artists Orchestra and DeVotchKa’sTom Hagerman will perform music by Sladek’s father using his violin.

    Steinmetz fled Europe on a boat that carried her to the Dominican Republic, where she found refuge. She’ll share a “Letter to the Future.”

    DU officials over the past two years have been working on this project, said Adam Rovner, an English professor who directs DU’s Center for Judaic Studies, within the College of the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences.

    “We just think it is simply important that we remain vigilant in our society to guard against abuses of power and racism, hatred, and antisemitism,” Rovner said. “We think this position is much-needed at DU and in higher education.”

    One purpose of studying manifestations of antisemitism in the 20th century “is so that people can consider the contemporary manifestations of antisemitism, and decide based on scholarly rigor whether there are threats to Jewish people and other groups,” Rovner said.

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    Bruce Finley

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  • Calling all Hawai‘i high school seniors: Applications now open for travel industry scholarship | Big Island Now

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    January 17, 2026, 5:00 AM HST

    The Hawai‘i Tourism Authority is offering a scholarship to Hawai‘i high school seniors interested in getting a higher education in tourism management.

    The Hawai‘i Tourism Ho‘oilina Scholarship is a four-year scholarship that provides $12,000 a year toward a Bachelor of Science in travel industry management at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa Shidler College of Business.

    The scholarship will be awarded to five incoming University of Hawai‘i freshmen this year, majoring in travel industry management. Money will cover a portion of the cost for tuition over four years.

    “We are investing in kama‘āina talent who will help strengthen Hawai‘i’s visitor industry workforce by keeping it infused with Hawai‘i’s values,” said Caroline Anderson, interim president and CEO of the Hawai‘i Tourism Authority. “We’re proud to be part of their support system so they can build successful careers here at home.”

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    Since its creation in 2019, the Hawai‘i Tourism Authority has invested more than $1 million to provide tuition assistance for the next generation of travel industry professionals and to perpetuate Hawaiian culture within the visitor industry, according to a news release from the state agency.

    Scholarship requirements include enrolling as a full-time student in UH Mānoa’s Travel Industry Management program, maintaining a 3.0 cumulative grade point average, completing four Hawaiian culture courses, completing at least one upper-level destination management and stewardship course, committing to 200 hours of community service over the four-year period and participating in a 200-hour internship to gain visitor industry experience.

    The deadline to apply for the scholarships is March 1. Five recipients will be named in April. For more information, visit shidler.hawaii.edu/tim/hooilina-scholarship.

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  • Push for Censorship on Campus Hit Record Levels in 2025 | RealClearPolitics

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    This year, the fight over free expression in American higher education reached a troubling milestone. According to data from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, efforts to censor speech on college campuses hit record highs and across multiple fronts – and most succeeded.

    Let’s start with the raw numbers. In 2025, FIRE’s Scholars Under Fire, Students Under Fire, and Campus Deplatforming databases collectively tracked:

    • 525 attempts to sanction scholars for their speech, more than one a day, with 460 of them resulting in punishment.
    • 273 attempts to punish students for expression, more than five a week, with 176 of these attempts succeeding.
    • 160 attempts to deplatform speakers, about three each week, with 99 of them succeeding.

    That’s 958 censorship attempts in total, nearly three per day on campuses across the country. For comparison, FIRE’s next highest total was 477 two years ago.

    The 525 scholar sanction attempts are the highest ever recorded in FIRE’s database, which spans from 2000 to the present. Even when a large-scale incident at the U.S. Naval Academy is treated as just a single entry, the 2025 total still breaks records.

    Twenty-nine scholars were fired, including 18 who were terminated since September for social media comments about Charlie Kirk’s assassination.

    Student sanction attempts also hit a new high, and deplatforming efforts – our records date back to 1998 – rank third all-time, behind 2023 and 2024.

    The problem is actually worse because FIRE’s data undercounts the true scale of campus censorship. Why? The data rely on publicly available information, and an unknown number of incidents, especially those that may involve quiet administrative pressure, never make the public record.

    Then there’s the chilling effect.

    Scholars are self-censoring. Students are staying silent. Speakers are being disinvited or shouted down. And administrators, eager to appease the loudest voices, are launching investigations, and handing out suspensions and dismissals with questionable regard for academic freedom, due process, or free speech.

    Some critics argue that the total number of incidents is small compared to the roughly 4,000 colleges in the country. But this argument collapses under scrutiny. While there are technically thousands of institutions labeled as “colleges” or “universities,” roughly 600 of them educate about 80% of undergraduates enrolled at not-for-profit four-year schools. Many of the rest of these “colleges” and “universities” are highly specialized or vocational programs. This includes a number of beauty academies, truck-driving schools, and similar institutions – in other words, campuses that aren’t at the heart of the free speech debate.

    These censorship campaigns aren’t coming from only one side of the political spectrum. FIRE’s data shows, for instance, that liberal students are punished for pro-Palestinian activism, conservative faculty are targeted for controversial opinions on gender or race, and speaking events featuring all points of view are targeted for cancellation. The two most targeted student groups on campus? Students for Justice in Palestine and Turning Point USA. If that doesn’t make this point clear, nothing will.

    The common denominator across these censorship campaigns is not ideology – it’s intolerance.

    So where do we go from here?

    We need courage: from faculty, from students, and especially from administrators. It’s easy to defend speech when it’s popular. It’s harder when the ideas are offensive or inconvenient. But that’s when it matters most.

    Even more urgently, higher education needs a cultural reset. Universities must recommit to the idea that exposure to ideas and speech that one dislikes or finds offensive is not “violence.” That principle is essential for democracy, not just for universities.

    This year’s record number of campus censorship attempts should be a wake-up call for campus administrators. For decades, many allowed a culture of censorship to fester, dismissing concerns as overblown, isolated, or a politically motivated myth. Now, with governors, state legislatures, members of Congress, and even the White House moving aggressively to police campus expression, some administrators are finally pushing back. But this push–back from administrators doesn’t seem principled. Instead, it seems more like an attempt to shield their institutions from outside political interference.

    That’s not leadership. It’s damage control. And it’s what got higher education into this mess in the first place.

    If university leaders want to reclaim their role as stewards of free inquiry, they cannot act just when governmental pressure threatens their autonomy. They also need to be steadfast when internal intolerance threatens their mission. A true commitment to academic freedom means defending expression even when it’s unpopular or offensive. That’s the price of intellectual integrity in a free society.

    Sean Stevens, Ph.D., is FIRE’s chief research advisor. He was previously director of research at Heterodox Academy.

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    Sean Stevens, RCP

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  • A.I. Degrees Boom as Students Prepare for an Uncertain Job Market

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    Universities are rapidly expanding A.I. programs as students seek skills that can withstand an increasingly automated future. Photo by: Jumping Rocks/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

    When Chris Callison-Burch first started teaching an A.I. course at the University of Pennsylvania in2018, his inaugural class had about 100 students. Seven years later, enrollment has swelled to roughly 400—excluding another 250 students attending remotely and an additional 100 to 200 on the waiting list. The professor now teaches in the largest classroom on campus. If his course grew any bigger, he’d need to move into the school’s sports stadium.

    “I would love to think that’s all because I’m a dynamic lecturer,” Callison-Burch told Observer. “But it’s really a testament to the popularity of the field.”

    Demand for A.I. courses and degrees has soared across higher education as the technology plays an increasingly central role in daily life and begins to encroach on once-popular fields like computer science. Amid uncertainty about the future of the labor market, students are seeking to prepare for an A.I.-dominated economy by immersing themselves in the field.

    Universities have followed suit. Schools like Carnegie Mellon and Purdue University are among a number offering undergraduate or graduate degrees in A.I., a trend expected to accelerate in the coming years. The University of Pennsylvania recently became the first Ivy League school to offer both undergraduate and graduate A.I. programs. Its graduate curriculum includes courses in natural language processing and machine learning, in addition to required classes on technology ethics and the broader legal landscape.

    The demand is widespread. The University of Buffalo’s A.I. master’s program enrolled 103 students last year, up from just five in its inaugural 2020 cohort. At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, undergraduate enrollment in A.I. has jumped from 37 students in 2022 to more than 300. Miami Dade College has seen a 75 percent increase in enrollment in its A.I. programs since 2022, while its other programs have remained relatively steady aside from a “slight decrease in computer science,” the school told Observer.

    Callison-Burch, who also serves as faculty director of Penn’s online A.I. master’s program, has noticed a similar decline. “There’s an interesting trend at the moment where it looks like computer science enrollment is dipping,” he said, pointing to increased A.I.-powered automation across the field. More than 60 percent of undergraduate computing programs saw a decline in employment for the 2025-2026 year compared to the year prior, according to a recent report from the Computing Research Association.

    That decline comes as A.I. reshapes some of the professions most exposed to its advances. In fields like coding, early-career workers have already experienced a 13 percent relative decline in employment, according to an August research paper from Stanford.

    A.I. leaders’ advice for students

    Experts have offered a range of advice as the technology they helped develop begins to reshape the labor market. Demis Hassabis, CEO of Google DeepMind, has advocated for an immersion in A.I. tools, while acclaimed researcher Geoffrey Hinton suggests prospective students focus on a well-rounded education that pairs mathematics and science with liberal arts.

    Yann LeCun, Meta’s former chief A.I. scientist, advises young people to become adept at learning itself, as their job is “almost certainly going to change” over time. “My suggestion is to take courses on topics that are fundamental and have a long shelf life,” he told Observer via email, pointing to mathematics, physics and engineering as core areas of focus.

    It’s not just students grappling with these shifts. Callison-Burch noted that professors, too, are trying to adapt and determine how best to integrate A.I. into their classrooms. One thing, he said, is certain: the technology will only become more pervasive. That makes it all the more important for young people to familiarize themselves with its tools.

    Even so, he acknowledged that predicting how A.I. will reshape the labor market remains extraordinarily difficult, making it hard for students to bet confidently on any one path. “I don’t think there’s an easy way of picking something that’s going to be future-proof, when we can’t yet see that future,” he said.

    A.I. Degrees Boom as Students Prepare for an Uncertain Job Market

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    Alexandra Tremayne-Pengelly

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  • New leaders take charge as Long Island execs step down in 2025 | Long Island Business News

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    In Brief:
    • Northwell , 1-800-Flowers.com and Nassau University Medical Center named new CEOs in 2025.
    • Leadership transitions were announced at major nonprofits including Long Island Cares and Family Service League.
    • Law firms Rivkin Radler and Certilman Balin Adler & Hyman unveiled new managing partners.
    • Stony Brook University welcomed Andrea Goldsmith as its seventh president.

    Long Island organizations saw a change of the guard in 2025, as veteran leaders announced they were stepping down and seasoned executives began to take the reins. From healthcare to law, , and beyond, new leaders are helping to shape the next chapter of the region’s business landscape. Here’s a look back at some of those notable leadership transitions.

    Michael Dowling and Dr. John D’Angelo. / Credit: Lee Weissman/Northwell Health

    Michael Dowling, who served as president and chief executive of Northwell Health for more than 23 years, became CEO emeritus, focusing on teaching and public health, on Oct. 1. Dr. John D’Angelo, the health system’s former executive vice president, was appointed Northwell’s president and CEO after a nationwide search.

    Dowling called it an “extraordinary privilege” to lead the health system, helping it grow to 28 hospitals and 104,000 staff members. D’Angelo said he was “humbled and honored” to succeed Dowling, and stand “committed to build” on Dowling’s “unparalleled legacy.”

    Jim McCann

    In May, Jim McCann announced he was stepping down as CEO of 1-800-Flowers.com, but would remain active in the company as executive chairman. Adolfo Villagomez–who most recently served as CEO of Progress Residential, a private owner and operator of single-family rental homes across more than 40 U.S. markets–began his role as CEO of 1-800-Flowers.com in May.

    “Adolfo is the first person outside the McCann family to take on this role— something I did not take lightly,” McCann added. “From our very first conversation, I recognized in him not only extraordinary business acumen, but also a deep passion and a genuine commitment to partnership with myself and our leadership team. This is a unique and impactful moment for our company, and I’m proud to enter this next chapter of our journey.” Villagomez said “I cannot wait to hit the ground running with Jim and the leadership team to help grow the business dramatically in the years ahead.”

    Paule Pachter said in June that he was retiring as CEO and president of Long Island Cares – the Harry Chapin Regional Food Bank, headquartered in Hauppauge, after leading the organization for 17 years. Katherine Fritz, the organization’s vice president for development and communication, was named Long Island Cares new president and CEO.

    Courtesy of Long Island Cares, Inc. – The Harry Chapin Regional Food Bank

    Fritz was the “unanimous choice to guide Long Island through the food-insecurity crisis,” according to Long Island Cares. Pachter, now president emeritus, serves in an advisory role, and called his time at the organization “the most rewarding and productive period of my 46-year history of working in the human services sector on Long Island.”

    Karen Boorshtein said in June that she will step down as president and CEO of Family Service League on March 31, 2026, having led the organization for more than 15 years. “It has been a privilege to work alongside such a talented and committed team and to partner with community leaders and stakeholders who believe in the power of support, dignity and opportunity for all,” she said.

    A successor has not yet been announced.

    Evan Krinick and Barry Levy / Courtesy of Rivkin Radler

    New leadership was announced in September at Rivkin Radler, a law firm headquartered in Uniondale, effective Feb. 1. That’s when Barry Levy will lead the firm as its new managing partner. He will succeed Evan Krinick, who, having led the firm since 2013, will remain active at Rivkin Radler, representing clients and participating in management initiatives.

    “It has been a privilege to be the managing partner of this great organization,” Krinick said. “After more than 12 years as managing partner, it is time to hand the reins to another partner.” Levy said he was “truly honored” by his partners’ confidence in his ability to lead the firm forward.” He added that “working under Evan’s leadership over the past 12 years has served as a tremendous blueprint in terms of continuing to grow the firm while maintaining its unique culture.”

    Thomas Stokes was appointed permanent CEO of Nassau University Medical Center in December, effective in January. The veteran healthcare leader — who at the time of the announcement served as chief financial officer of Weill Cornell Medicine and vice president for finance at Cornell University—will run Nassau County’s only public safety-net hospital, which is operated by Nassau Health Care Corporation.

    Board Chair Stuart Rabinowitz said Stokes’ “arrival strengthens a system that has already made important strides—increasing revenue, improving operations and reducing costs,” adding that “there is still work ahead.” Stokes said that serving “the people of Nassau County is deeply meaningful to me, and I’m ready to get to work.”

    Certilman Balin Adler & Hyman, a law firm whose locations include East Meadow and Hauppauge, announced new leadership in December. Partners Brendan DeRiggi and Jaspreet Mayall are now co-managing partners, responsible for overseeing the firm’s growth and operations. Howard Stein, who has served as the firm’s managing partner, is now chair of the firm, focusing on advancing its long-term vision, strategic planning and key client relationships.

    “This is an exciting moment for our firm,” Stein said. “I am honored to assume the role of chair and confident that with Brendan and Jaspreet as co-managing partners, we will continue to drive innovation, deepen client relationships and invest in our people.” DeRiggi said that their “shared vision will help advance the firm’s strategic priorities.”  Mayall said he is “committed to building on our strengths and fostering a mindset of excellence across the firm.”

    Andrea Goldsmith, State University of New York

    Andrea Goldsmith began her tenure on Aug. 1 as Stony Brook University’s seventh president. Goldsmith previously served as dean of engineering and applied science at Princeton University, where she had served as a researcher in engineering, technology company founder and faculty member. Goldsmith holds 38 patents in wireless technology, and served in roles at Stanford University and Caltech. Stony Brook’s previous president, Maurie McInnis, left to lead Yale University.

    SUNY Chancellor John King Jr. said Goldsmith’s “experience as an academic, dean and researcher–as well as an innovator and entrepreneur–will serve our students, faculty, staff, and the campus community well.” Goldsmith called it “an honor to join Stony Brook University–a champion of excellent, affordable education that will launch students into very successful careers and lives as citizens of the world.”


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    Adina Genn

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  • Long Island firm launches $400K scholarship at SUNY Old Westbury | Long Island Business News

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    THE BLUEPRINT:

    • donates $400,000 to create the Jeffrey M. Sissons Memorial Scholarship Fund

    • 10 of up to $40,000 each support students from or

    • Scholarships target first-year students with economic need and are renewable for up to four years

    • First awardee plans to pursue a career in medicine

    A Westbury-based company is investing $400,000 to fund 10 four-year scholarships, up to $40,000 each, for students from Westbury or New Cassel attending , the university announced Monday.

    Deer Park Recycling, a provider of scrap metal recycling, is creating the Jeffrey M. Sissons Memorial Scholarship Fund through a donation to the Old Westbury College Foundation, Inc. The donation was given by Anthony Sissons to honor the life, career and philanthropic legacy of his father, the company’s founder who died in 2024.

    “These scholarships were something my father and I discussed often,” Anthony Sissons said about the new scholarship.

    “Along with his work career, my father offered support to the community our company calls home, but he did it quietly and without recognition,” Sissons said. “With these scholarships, we are able to put his name on a program that reflects his values of hard work, generosity and community support.”

    The scholarship is designed to support high-achieving students and provides funding for tuition, fees and other university-related expenses.

    New awards will be given in the fall to one first-year student enrolling full-time who demonstrates economic need but does not otherwise qualify for financial aid. The scholarship may be renewed annually for up to three additional years, provided the student remains enrolled and maintains a GPA of 2.7 or higher.

    “Philanthropic investment where we live and work is key to lifting up our communities and the friends and neighbors who live there,” University President Timothy Sams said in the news release.

    “The Sissons scholarship fund represents well the history of quiet caring that showed across his life and career,” Sams added. “His legacy now continues on by making available to the best and brightest from Westbury and New Cassel.”

    The college foundation’s Board of Trustees Chair Nora Bassett said in the news release that this “remarkable gift will open doors for deserving young people who dream of going to college but may lack the financial means. We are honored to carry forward the memory of Jeffrey Sissons through the success of these scholars.”

    The university announced on Monday that the first scholarship awardee is Alexa Santiago Munoz, a first-year biochemistry major from New Cassel who hopes to become a physician, but was wary about taking on debt.

    “This scholarship is helping me build a future as a doctor that I hope will improve the lives of those who come from communities like mine,” Santiago Munoz said in the news release.  “I am already thinking about ways to make sure I open doors for others the way this opportunity opened a door for me.”

     


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    Adina Genn

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  • Students must intentionally develop durable skills to thrive in an AI-dominated world

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    Key points:

    As AI increasingly automates technical tasks across industries, students’ long-term career success will rely less on technical skills alone and more on durable skills or professional skills, often referred to as soft skills. These include empathy, resilience, collaboration, and ethical reasoning–skills that machines can’t replicate.

    This critical need is outlined in Future-Proofing Students: Professional Skills in the Age of AI, a new report from Acuity Insights. Drawing on a broad body of academic and market research, the report provides an analysis of how institutions can better prepare students with the professional skills most critical in an AI-driven world.

    Key findings from the report:

    • 75 percent of long-term job success is attributed to professional skills, not technical expertise.
    • Over 25 percent of executives say they won’t hire recent graduates due to lack of durable skills.
    • COVID-19 disrupted professional skill development, leaving many students underprepared for collaboration, communication, and professional norms.
    • Eight essential durable skills must be intentionally developed for students to thrive in an AI-driven workplace.

    “Technical skills may open the door, but it’s human skills like empathy and resilience that endure over time and lead to a fruitful and rewarding career,” says Matt Holland, CEO at Acuity Insights. “As AI reshapes the workforce, it has become critical for higher education to take the lead in preparing students with these skills that will define their long-term success.”

    The eight critical durable skills include:

    • Empathy
    • Teamwork
    • Communication
    • Motivation
    • Resilience
    • Ethical reasoning
    • Problem solving
    • Self-awareness

    These competencies don’t expire with technology–they grow stronger over time, helping graduates adapt, lead, and thrive in an AI-driven world.

    The report also outlines practical strategies for institutions, including assessing non-academic skills at admissions using Situational Judgment Tests (SJTs), and shares recommendations on embedding professional skills development throughout curricula and forming partnerships that bridge AI literacy with interpersonal and ethical reasoning.

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  • Trump administration to investigate UC Berkeley over Turning Point USA event

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    The U.S. Department of Education launched an investigation into the University of California at Berkeley Tuesday over violence that erupted earlier this month at protests outside an event organized by conservative group Turning Point USA.

    The department said it will investigate whether UC Berkeley violated the Jeanne Clery Campus Safety Act, a federal law that requires colleges and universities that receive federal financial aid to record and report campus crime data.

    The announcement comes as UC Berkeley also faces a Department of Justice investigation into the university’s handling of the event and protests, which resulted in at least four arrests and left one person injured after being struck in the head by a thrown object. Turning Point USA, a nonprofit that promotes conservative values on high school and college campuses, was co-founded by Charlie Kirk, who was fatally shot in September during a tour stop at a university in Utah.

    “Just two months after Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk was brutally assassinated on a college campus, UC Berkeley allowed a protest of a Turning Point USA event on its grounds to turn unruly and violent, jeopardizing the safety of its students and staff,” U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in a statement Tuesday.

    She said the department is reviewing UC Berkeley’s procedures to ensure that it maintains campus safety and security.

    “This is not about students’ First Amendment rights to protest peacefully. This is about ensuring accurate and transparent reporting of crime statistics to the campus community and guaranteeing that every student can safely participate in educational programs and activities,” McMahon said. “The department will vigorously investigate this matter to ensure that a recipient of federal funding is not allowing its students to be at risk.”

    In a statement Tuesday, UC Berkeley said the university has “an unwavering commitment” to abide by the laws and will cooperate with the investigations, as well as continue to host speakers and events representing a variety of viewpoints “in a safe and respectful manner.”

    The university said the campus provided public reports about two violent crimes that happened that evening — a fistfight over an attempted robbery and the person hit by a thrown object.

    “The campus administration went to great lengths to support the First Amendment rights of all by deploying a large number of police officers from multiple jurisdictions and a large number of contracted private security personnel,” the university said Tuesday. “The campus also closed adjoining buildings and cordoned off part of the campus in order to prevent criminal activity, keep the peace, and ensure the event was not disrupted by protests.”

    The Education Department’s office of Federal Student Aid will lead the investigation. It gave UC Berkeley 30 days to provide copies of the school’s annual security report, all incidents of crime from 2022-2024, all arrests made by law enforcement and referrals for disciplinary action against students or employees disclosed in the annual security report, daily crime logs from 2022-2025 and several other reports.

    In 2020, UC Berkeley was fined $2.35 million for failing to comply with the Clery Act after a six-year federal review revealed thousands of crime incidents were misclassified — the majority of which were related to liquor, drug and weapons violations. UC Berkeley said the campus had referred students for disciplinary proceedings but wrongly classified the violations — many involving minors in possession of alcohol in residence halls — as a campus policy violation rather than a law violation, as required under the Clery Act.

    The Department of Education’s investigation — started in July 2014 — also found a range of issues including failure to comply with sexual violence policies and procedures, failure to maintain accurate and complete daily crime logs, failure to disclose accurate hate crime statistics and failure to issue emergency notifications. UC Berkeley entered into a settlement agreement with the Education Department in 2020 and acknowledged that the campus had made “many administrative errors in the past,” but said it has taken aggressive steps toward improvement.

    Notably, the Education Department’s finding that the campus failed to issue emergency notifications surrounded a campus visit by right-wing provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos in February 2017, which sparked violent protests and caused $100,000 in damages to the campus, the school said.

    The Education Department’s investigation said the university failed to notify students of any violence until an hour after protests began to escalate — a delay the department said could have compromised community members’ safety. In a response to the department, UC Berkeley said the finding was based on an incorrect timeline of events and that it had alerted the community immediately after learning the protest had become violent.

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    Molly Gibbs

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  • Long Island Association adds seven new board members | Long Island Business News

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    THE BLUEPRINT:

    • LIA elects seven new board members from major Long Island institutions.

    • New members represent , research, defense and accounting.

    • Leaders elected to help bolster economic growth and competitiveness.

    • LIA says new voices will support innovation and small-business success.

    The recently elected seven new members to its . The new board members serve in higher education, accounting services, scientific research and defense manufacturing, bringing expertise in their fields.

    These members, all from organizations that were already represented on the board, were elected to support the LIA’s mission to advance regional economic and business development.

    “We are excited to welcome these accomplished and knowledgeable leaders to the LIA Board of Directors,” Lawrence Waldman, chairman of the LIA, said in a news release about the board members.

    “Their leadership and industry expertise will bring fresh perspectives and help guide our mission to strengthen Long Island’s competitiveness and economic resilience,” he added.

    The board members include Dr. Jerry Balentine, president of New York Institute of Technology, with a campus in Old Westbury; Damon Brady, product line director of , with locations in Greenlawn; Andrea Goldsmith, president of ; John Hill, interim director of ; Craig Savell, managing principal of the New York metro region of , which includes offices in Uniondale and Melville; Christopher Storm, interim president of president of , whose main campus is in Garden City; and Jerry Ward, office managing partner of , with a location in Jericho.

    The LIA’s Board of Directors comprises “a cross-section of our region’s leading industries and institutions, and these new voices will contribute to the LIA’s efforts to ensure a thriving economy,” Matt Cohen, president and chief executive of the LIA, said in the news release.

    “The work of the new board members at their respective companies and organizations is critical to both the growth of our innovation economy and success of small businesses, and we look forward to having their input as we advocate for a prosperous Long Island,” he said.


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    Adina Genn

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  • UC Riverside professor takes big step for Native American actors

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    When viewers first see her, Rose, a Native American woman in her 60s, is inside her second-hand shop in the town of Derry, Maine, in 1962.

    She speaks with another character about the woman’s son. The scene ends with Rose staring after the woman with an unreadable expression.

    The role of Rose in “It: Welcome to Derry” is more than the next acting gig for UC Riverside professor Kimberly Guerrero.

    It’s another important step by a Native American actor in a Hollywood that has seen few significant Native characters in movies and TV shows.

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UC Riverside professor Kimberly Guerrero portrays Rose in “It: Welcome to Derry,” an HBO Max series. (Courtesy of Brooke Palmer/HBO)

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For example, a 2023 USC study found that 1% of roles in top-grossing films over a 16-year period had Native American characters. Less than a quarter of them were speaking roles.

Guerrero said that, looking back at cinema through the decades, there was little Native representation —  and what there was wasn’t written by Native Americans or directed by them.

Guerrero, an actor, screenwriter, producer, director and UCR professor of acting and screenwriting, is doing her part to change that.

Guerrero plays Rose, a reoccurring character in the HBO Max series that is a prequel to Stephen King‘s 1986 horror novel “It,” which has been translated to film.

She said it was a powerful opportunity for her to stand in Rose’s shoes.

The character has lived in her ancestral home in Maine all her life and is deeply linked to the history and songs of her people, Guerrero said.

“Somebody that is so intimately and powerfully connected to the land, to the water, to the air, to those who have gone before her and understanding her place in the world,” Guerrero said. “… There was an ease with playing her.”

At this point, viewers have seen the creature It, later known as Pennywise the Clown, a shape-shifting monster that has been on earth for millennia and feeds on humans in 27-year cycles. Rose, a member of the local tribe, is living through her third encounter with the creature.

Guerrero, born in Oklahoma in 1967, is an enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation and of Salish-Kootenai descent, a 2023 UCR news release states.

Guerrero’s most well-known role came in the 1990s as Jerry’s Native American girlfriend on “Seinfeld.” In 2020, things changed when she played Cherokee Chief Wilma Mankiller in the Gloria Steinem biopic “The Glorias.” In 2021, she played Auntie B. in Reservation Dogs, a TV show about four Native American teens in Oklahoma.

Guerrero’s love of acting started well before she appeared on television. And she noticed the lack of diversity in the industry well before then as well.

As a child, a moment that stood out for Guerrero was watching “The Brady Bunch” at a time when the portrayal of her people was very much “cowboys and Indians,” she said.

In a popular story arc, the Brady family visits the Grand Canyon and meets a Native American boy, Jimmy Pocaya, played by Michele Campo, she said.

“It was just so liberating for me as a kid who didn’t really see anybody that looked like me on television,” Guerrero said.

The character was cool, she said, and talked like a normal kid. It was something she’d not seen before.

A 2023 report by Associate Professor of Communication Stacy L. Smith at USC and the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative looked at Native American representation in 1,600 top-grossing films from 2007 to 2022.

The study examined speaking or named characters in movies to understand how Native American roles were portrayed on screen. It found that less than one-quarter of 1% of all speaking roles went to Native American characters and that Native American roles did not exceed 1% of roles available in the 16 years studied.

During that time, there was one film in which a Native actor had a leading role. Meanwhile, nearly two-thirds of all Native American speaking characters were inconsequential to the plot, and a third filled secondary roles, the study found.

When Native American characters did appear, more often than not they were male, at 77%. Women characters comprised 23%. In 1,581 movies of the 1,600 examined, there were no women with speaking roles. Sometimes their characters didn’t even have names.

There have been changes for Native American characters and actors in cinema, but often characters were pigeon-holed into stereotypical roles, said James Fenelon, director of the Center for Indigenous Peoples Studies at Cal State San Bernardino.

Roles have improved, Fenelon said.

Many shows have moved away from leaning into blatant stereotypes and characters are more well-rounded and better represented. But it is still not perfect, he said.

Shows such as “Reservation Dogs,” a 2021 comedy series “blew the lid off it” and there has been a surge in Native film companies, directors and actors in the past 10 years.

Guerrero entered the industry in the 1990s after graduating from UCLA. Coming out of college, she said casting agents didn’t know what to do with her. She filled a particular “niche” as a Native American woman.

Things had progressed and characters were given more depth when she came into the industry, Guerrero said. One huge “watershed moment” came after the 1990 film “Dances with Wolves,” starring and directed by Kevin Costner. The film employed Native American actors such as Graham Greene and Rodney Grant.

“There was some really cool things happening,” Guerrero said. “The Indigenous people that I was playing were really kind of fleshed-out human beings.”

Things were moving in a positive direction, she said. At the end of the 1990s, things changed.

“Then, all of a sudden, the door closed so hard, so profoundly,” Guerrero said.

Guerrero went back to school in the 2010s. She attended UCR, earned a master of fine arts and became a professor in 2017. Guerrero said a pivotal moment was the 2016 Standing Rock protests that fought against an oil pipeline through Standing Rock Sioux Tribe lands in North Dakota.

Millions of people watched the standoff in real time. Suddenly, it was not about explaining that Native people belonged in contemporary settings and that let the proverbial horse out of the barn, she said.

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Jordan B. Darling

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  • UNC, NC State seek tuition hikes ahead of expected state budget cuts

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    Incoming undergraduate students at UNC-Chapel Hill could see a tuition and fee increase beginning next year, for the first time in nearly a decade.

    North Carolina State University is also proposing tuition increases for all of its students as public universities deal with expected budget cuts from North Carolina lawmakers.

    The UNC board of trustees will meet this week to consider a proposal to raise tuition for resident undergraduate students by 3%, the maximum allowable under state law. The change would go into effect for the class that matriculates in 2026. Current students wouldn’t see a tuition increase.

    The 3% increase would raise tuition by $211 per year at UNC. Along with a proposed $53 fee increase for a new recreation and wellness center, UNC resident undergrads would pay $9,360 in tuition and fees per year.

    Resident undergraduate tuition at UNC-Chapel Hill has been flat since the fall of 2017 as it has at other public schools in the UNC System. The university is routinely ranked among the best values among public universities in the nation.

    State lawmakers considered large cuts to higher education funding last year during their stalled budget process and pushed for universities to consider tuition increases. 

    At least one trustee is against the idea.

    “I’m opposed to the tuition increase on in-state students,” trustee Jim Blaine told WRAL.

    The proposal includes a 10% increase for non-resident tuition. If approved, nonresident undergraduates would pay $49,601 in tuition and fees. UNC would still rank behind peer institutions such as the flagship public universities in Michigan, Virginia and California. But the Increase would put UNC higher than Texas, Washington, Wisconsin and others.

    The proposal wouldn’t increase tuition for graduate students, but it seeks to include increases for students in the schools of government, law and pharmacy.

    The proposal includes a 7% increase for fees for residential halls and an average 3.9% increase for meal plans.

    The trustees will consider the increases at Wednesday’s budget, finance and infrastructure committee. The full board meets Thursday in Chapel Hill.

    If approved by the trustees, the tuition and fee rates would be submitted to the UNC System Board of Governors for review and approval early next year. The Board of Governors oversee all of the state’s public universities. But tuition decisions are made on a campus-by-campus basis.

    In 2024, UNC-Chapel Hill began covering out-of-pocket tuition and mandatory fees for in-state undergraduate students whose families make less than $80,000 per year and have typical assets.

    NC State University’s board of trustees also meets Thursday and Friday, and it will consider a 3% across-the-board tuition increase on all students — undergraduate and graduate, resident and nonresident. Current resident undergrads wouldn’t be impacted. Tuition would rise by $196 per year for the incoming cohort of resident undergraduates.

    The tuition increases for all students would generate an additional $7.7 million with most of the money going toward improved quality and accessibility, according to the university.

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  • SCC celebrates first-generation student success

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    NORTH MANKATO — Beatriz Rivera wanted to do more than just survive.

    As a first-generation college student attending South Central College, Rivera’s path to higher education began with her family’s journey from Mexico, where her mother left school after the third grade to work on her family ranch, before moving to the United States at age 16.

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    Leah Call lcall@mankatofreepress.com

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  • SCC celebrates first-generation student success

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    NORTH MANKATO — Beatriz Rivera wanted to do more than just survive.

    As a first-generation college student attending South Central College, Rivera’s path to higher education began with her family’s journey from Mexico, where her mother left school after the third grade to work on her family ranch, before moving to the United States at age 16.

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    Leah Call lcall@mankatofreepress.com

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  • SCC celebrates first-generation student success

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    NORTH MANKATO — Beatriz Rivera wanted to do more than just survive.

    As a first-generation college student attending South Central College, Rivera’s path to higher education began with her family’s journey from Mexico, where her mother left school after the third grade to work on her family ranch, before moving to the United States at age 16.

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