Daniel Saunders

Associate Professor of Higher Education at FIU. This is a personal account.

[Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ @christopherrufo]

I’m hearing very serious allegations related to UF board chair Mori Hosseini. It’s time for the BOG to halt the presidential search and launch a full investigation into Hosseini’s financial disclosures and potential conflicts of interest related to his real estate holdings.

[Garrett Shanley @garrettshanley]

BREAKING: @UF’s Board of Trustees is set to consider appointing President-elect Stuart Bell as interim president, a spokesperson said.

The surprise move comes after Board of Governors Chair Alan Levine delayed Bell’s confirmation vote, citing concerns with UF’s board governance.

[FLORIDA @UF]

A message from Rahul Patel, Chair, Presidential Search Advisory Committee and Vice Chair, UF Board of Trustees:

"Let’s be clear. By Chairman Levine’s own admission, this delay has nothing to do with Dr. Bell. A unanimously selected presidential candidate and the State of Florida’s flagship university are being drawn into a dispute unrelated to his candidacy. That is unfair to Dr. Bell and harmful to the University of Florida and the students, faculty, alumni, and supporters we are entrusted to serve.

Equally concerning is that a decision of this magnitude has been made unilaterally rather than by the full Board of Governors. Delaying consideration of the unanimously approved president designate of Florida’s flagship university is a consequential action that should be decided by the Board of Governors as a body, not by a single individual acting alone.

The University of Florida cannot afford to remain in limbo while these matters are addressed. Accordingly, within the coming week, the Board of Trustees will meet to consider naming Dr. Bell Interim President so that the university can continue moving forward while this issue is addressed."

[Ryan Grim @ryangrim]

Some common-sense things Trump said today that were nevertheless shocking:

Everybody else has ballistic missiles, why can’t Iran?

The frozen money belonged to Iran, and the U.S. needed to release it otherwise nobody would trust the dollar system. Why should we steal their money?

Neighboring countries use nuclear power for electricity, why can’t Iran?

Israel shouldn’t knock down entire buildings in Beirut every time a drone or two crashes harmlessly in the desert.

Trump would’ve become Herbert Hoover in a few weeks once oil ran out and the market crashed. He had no choice but to end the war.

[Labor Notes @labornotes]

The federal government on Tuesday arrested and indicted 15 people, many of them union activists, on conspiracy charges over the protests and massive strike against ICE in Minnesota last winter (story linked in thread) 1/5

[Jon M. Sweeney @jonmsweeney]

Then what’s the point of having the $10 billion endowment?

U. of C. freezes Ph.D. admissions to most humanities programs https://t.co/9EayDu5sEk

[unusual_whales @unusual_whales]

Corporate donors to President Trump’s $400 million White House ballroom project have received more than $50 billion in new or expanded government contracts in the six months since demolition of the East Wing began, per Public Citizen.

[Christopher Newfield @cnewf]

The “Academically Adrift” panic 15 years ago was based on claims of limited learning, but the authors’ side paper, never covered, showed low learning in vocational not liberal arts&sci courses. @cwellmon right they should drill somewhere besides into the humanities

[Dan Walden @dwaldenwrites]

The element of university collapse that none of the recent reports has taken account of is the rampant overreach of trustees and the total lack of any mechanism for actual university members (faculty; students; staff) to hold them accountable.

[Inside Higher Ed @insidehighered]

Auburn Board Takes Full Curricular Control, Dissolves Faculty Senate

The Auburn University Board of Trustees on Friday gave itself complete control over course offerings, curriculum, degree requirements and academic credentials while eliminating shared... https://t.co/zi9CHBa9n6

[Ryan Quinn @RyanEQuinn]

Iowa Undergrads Will Have to Take History Courses Picked by Civics Centers
https://t.co/Lq8zrPSeVm

[Kyla Scanlon @kylascan]

One of the most important things to understand about the moment we are living in

[unusual_whales @unusual_whales]

BREAKING: More than half of the publicly identified donors to President Trump’s White House ballroom project have won new or expanded federal contracts worth more than $50 billion, per WaPo

[Christopher Newfield @cnewf]

A portion of The New School's staff and faculty have just been fired. This is its AAUP chapter's response to another debacle. Sympathy to the affected people and hope that their colleagues can roll at least some of the cuts back

[Marshall Steinbaum 🔥 @Econ_Marshall]

The right has used the culture war over higher ed they created to fully parasitize the sector.

[Miami Herald @MiamiHerald]

Florida taxpayers fund largely conservative think tank for Latin America at FIU https://t.co/KPVBNkZR4x

[Thomas Kennedy @tomaskenn]

The plan here is to cut off cities from funding revenues so they are increasingly under the authority of Florida’s state government, while also destroying public schools.

[More Perfect Union @MorePerfectUS]

A judge has ruled that corporations can vote in some Delaware elections.

Delaware Superior Court Judge Craig Karsnitz said the town of Fenwick Island was not diluting human votes by allowing companies ​and other legal entities that own property to cast votes in municipal elections.

These "legal entities" and corporations make up about 12% of registered voters in the town.

In total Delaware has far more ​corporations chartered in the state than residents.

Judge Karsnitz rejected the constitutional arguments of the ACLU, including the claim that "entity" or corporate voting dilutes the political power of living people.

[Ken Klippenstein @kenklippenstein]

White House counterterrorism czar Sebastian Gorka says: "We're gonna label terrorists as terrorists, whether it's cartels, whether it's jihadis, or whether it's sadly the le — the Americans who are left wing, who are radical, and because they subscribe to some anarchic, anti-fascist, or radically pro-transgender ideology"

[Lynn Boylan 🍷📖🐾 @LNBDublin]

One day, everyone will always have been against this.