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Higher Education

DOJ Pressured Lawyers To ‘Find’ Evidence UCLA Tolerated Antisemitism

On the morning of Thursday, July 31, James B. Milliken was enjoying a round of golf at the remote Sand Hills club in Western Nebraska when his cellphone buzzed. Milliken was still days away from taking the helm of the sprawling University of California system, but his new office was on the line with disturbing news: The Trump administration was freezing hundreds of millions of dollars of research funding at the University of California, Los Angeles, UC’s biggest campus. Milliken quickly packed up and made the five-hour drive to Denver to catch the next flight to California. He landed on the front lines of one of the most confounding cultural battles waged by the Trump administration. 

Chris Hedges Report: The Encampments

The ongoing genocide in Gaza has become a litmus test of institutional integrity. When a university denies the reality of Israel’s brutality, it reveals complicity with the genocidal regime’s actions. To then misrepresent campus dissent over institutional investment in the Zionist entity as illegitimate — or even “antisemitic” — makes it clear that that these institutions are invested in the existence of Israeli apartheid and genocide.

After Appeal, Loyola University Students Kick TPUSA Off Campus

New Orleans, LA – On December 3, students at Loyola University New Orleans showed up to oppose the second attempt at chartering a Turning Point USA chapter on their campus. In October of this year, a small group of conservative students attended a student senate session to propose a TPUSA Charter at Loyola. At that meeting, over 100 students packed the room to show their opposition to a chapter on campus. When the senate denied the charter, the pro-TPUSA students appealed to have their proposal heard again.

Student Resistance To Authoritarianism On Campus

Brown University senior Caitlyn Carpenter was working on a class discussion post the night of Oct. 1, when news broke that set off a firestorm of debate in academia. The Trump administration had just released a “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education” and invited nine prominent universities, including Brown, to sign on. Schools that did so would receive preferential federal treatment.  The compact included provisions to restrict student protests, eliminate gender-neutral restrooms and identity-based affinity spaces, and limit international student enrollment, among other regressive measures. “I knew immediately we had to do something,” said Carpenter, who is a member of Sunrise Brown and an outreach organizer for the national Campus Climate Network, or CCN. 

University Of Alabama Shuts Down Two Student Magazines

Administrators at the University of Alabama shut down two student-led publications and claimed that a memo from Attorney General Pam Bondi required them to censor journalism. On July 29, Bondi issued “non-binding suggestions” for “federal funding recipients to comply with antidiscrimination law.” The intent was to discourage diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies, and Bondi specifically stated that “unlawful proxies” could jeopardize funding. Bondi also insisted that universities may not direct funds and other resources to organizations “primarily because of their racial or ethnic composition rather than other legitimate factors.”

Black Student Unions Are Under Pressure

Black student unions have been a vital part of many Black college students’ lives for more than 60 years. But since 2024, Black student unions have lost their institutional support, campus space and funding with the rise of anti-diversity, equity and inclusion laws in Utah and Alabama. Black student unions now face a new wave of pressure, as more than 400 colleges and universities under the Trump administration have rebranded or eliminated programs and centers that promote diversity, equity and inclusion. Amy Lieberman, education editor at The Conversation U.S., spoke with Antar A. Tichavakunda, a scholar of race and higher education, to better understand what Black student unions are and how they influence Black students’ experiences in higher education.

University Strikes Escalate As Derby And Lancaster Walk Out

Across UK universities, we’re seeing union members undertaking a massive wave of industrial action in recent weeks. Currently, over 65,000 University and College Union (UCU) members are having their say on potential nationwide university strikes. The ballot opened back on 30 October, and will run up until 28 November. The union will aggregate the results across  137 institutions. As such, should the majority of members wish it, we could see strikes on every one of those 137 campuses in 2026. Meanwhile, the UCU declared strike action at both Lancaster and Derby universities this week, with Northumbria also taking a step closer to strikes of its own by declaring a dispute with management.

Thousands Of UC Employees Plan Strike To Protest Wage Stagnation

More than 65,000 University of California campus and health center employees will launch a two-day strike on November 17 and 18 over the university’s failure to settle contracts addressing the cost of living and affordability crises facing its most economically vulnerable workers. AFSCME (American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees) Local 3299, which represents more than 40,000 UC service and patient care technical workers, will lead the strike, joined in solidarity by 25,000 UC nurses represented by the California Nurses Association.

‘Students Rise Up’ Actions Hit 100 Cities

The new coalition “Students Rise Up” held actions in 100 cities at schools and where politicians were targeted on Nov. 7 to protest President Donald Trump’s attacks on higher education and address a range of issues impacting students. Nearly 20 unions and organizations endorsed the actions, including the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), Ohio Students Association, New Hampshire Youth Movement, Students for a Democratic Society, Campus Climate Network, Gen-Z for Change, Indivisible, Jewish Voice for Peace and March for Our Lives. Sunrise Movement, whose executive director, Aru Shiney-Ajay, stressed in a Nov. 4 press release that “everyone deserves an accessible, affordable and quality education.”

If Trump Sells Student Loan Portfolio, Paths To Debt Cancellation Could Close

Trump administration officials are once again exploring the possibility of selling portions of the federal government’s $1.6 trillion student loan portfolio, held by about 45 million borrowers, according to recent reporting by Politico. Federal law dictates that such a sale cannot cost taxpayers any money. But, as Eileen Connor, executive director of the Project on Predatory Student Lending, told Politico, executing a deal that benefits both taxpayers and borrowers is nearly impossible. The federal government enjoys extraordinary powers of collection that private lenders do not — such as garnishing tax refunds, disability benefits, and Social Security payments. Absent those collection methods, private lenders make money through higher interest rates and longer repayment plans.

Lawsuit Charges That California Law Illegally Muzzles Students, Teachers

Beginning January 1, 2026, teachers in California classrooms will be looking over their shoulders to avoid running afoul of a frightening new “antisemitism” law. On October 7, despite widespread opposition from civil rights groups, teachers’ unions, and education advocates, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed AB 715, which amends the California Education Code to police what teachers can teach and what students can learn about Israel and Palestine. “This problematic classroom censorship bill silences Muslim, Arab, Palestinian, Jewish, and other marginalized voices in California public schools by shielding a foreign government — Israel — from legitimate criticism and criminalizes honest discussions on Palestine and other global human rights issues,” the Council on American Islamic Relations said in a statement.

Tulane Students Disrupt IDF Event, Resist Police Repression

New Orleans, LA – On the night of Monday, November 3, 60 Tulane students and community members gathered for a noise demonstration to protest the first stop of a national “Combat on Campus Tour” of Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers. The IDF event was hosted by Tulane Students Supporting Israel (SSI) at the Chabad Center of Louisiana near Tulane University’s campus. Protesters, called together by Together United Louisiana Students for a Democratic Society (TUL SDS), banged pots, pans and drums to disrupt the two IDF soldiers who came to share “their firsthand stories from October 7 and the war that followed.”

Climate Justice At The University: Integrating Struggles For Liberation

Universities are not simply places for learning and research but are also centers of power and influence that can shape society. This idea about the power of higher education is cemented over and over again in the panel conversation between Fernando Racimo, Associate Professor of Molecular Ecology and Evolution at the University of Copenhagen and Jennie Stephens, Professor of Climate Change at the National University of Ireland Maynooth. They met at the Center for Applied Ecological Thinking at the University of Copenhagen to discuss the state of university institutions in the context of the urgent climate crisis.

Civil Society Should Be Resisting Trump’s Authoritarianism

This November, I’ll be standing outside the American Public Health Association’s annual meeting in Washington, D.C., holding a sign that reads: “Ask me why I’m not allowed inside the APHA meeting.” After more than two decades as a member — serving as editorial board chair of the American Journal of Public Health, as an elected section chair, and as a governing councilor — APHA revoked my membership in September, stripped me of my elected leadership position, and banned me from attending meetings for two years. My offense? In November 2024, I participated in a protest at APHA’s Minneapolis meeting. Three dozen of us donned red latex gloves — signifying “blood on our hands” — and walked through the exhibit hall.

McGill University Professors And Librarians Endorse Boycott Of Israel

On October 10, 2025, the McGill Association of University Teachers (MAUT) succeeded in passing a resolution at a special general meeting endorsing the academic and cultural boycott of Israel. The resolution calls for the association to “take all necessary steps to implement the boycott of Israeli academic institutions, while ensuring that the boycott applies to institutional partnerships and agreements, not individual Israeli academics.” This principled stance taken by full-time professors and librarians is a major victory at a university where such an action was thought to be impossible until recently.
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