As someone who started his career in libraries, I was very sad to make these changes today to our catalog website:

• Change "100,000 print books" to "30,000"
• Remove "print and" from "the growth of the collection of print and non-print holdings"

It's been obvious for a while, since they've been removing shelves from the stacks all year. And with the decline in use of actual books (and increasing cost of online resources) it makes financial sense.

But we're definitely losing something in this transition.

Does anyone have any advice or case examples that I could look at in regards to two colleges who have merged to be one college? Are there any success stories? Any insight into the topic would be wonderful.

Final rule has dropped official (unofficial copy was posted yesterday). This is one of the biggest changes for US higher education in decades.

I am trying to draft a proposal for a US university and need help with an acceptable hourly/daily rate. I only have relevant info for Europe.

Right now, the info I have from this group and other sources is:

Base: $100/hr

Average/experienced: $150/hr

Technical: upto $200/hr

so how about senior, leadership level consulting? $250-$300? is that feasible? and how many hours a day are standard in the US, 7 or 8?

Thanks!

The mod of r/highereducation kindly gave me permission to post, so I could introduce this community to Vivipod.

I was one of the founding dev of Flipgrid, which was shut down in 2024. Since then, I’ve continued to see educators asking for a real Flip alternative — including in this sub — and that is why I started building Vivipod.

Flipgrid was personally meaningful to me. I first used it in graduate school as a student and later as an online undergrad instructor, and later helped build it during the years when it was used by millions of educators and students. After it was shut down, I felt there was still a real need for this kind of tool, especially for instructors who care about social presence, community, and student voice.

Interestingly, as I’ve shown Vivipod to educators, it has resonated especially strongly with people in higher education. That mirrors Flipgrid’s early adoption story, where higher-ed instructors were among the first to really explore what asynchronous video discussion could make possible.

For anyone who never used Flipgrid: Vivipod is an asynchronous video discussion platform.

The basic flow is simple:

1. Space — a course, class, cohort, or community.
2. Topic — a discussion prompt or activity.
3. Post — a video response where students can share ideas, explain their thinking, and be more present than text alone often allows.

This month, we also launched comments and notifications, so discussions can continue after the first video post instead of ending there.

Why video-based asynchronous discussion?

Text discussion boards have their place, but text alone often isn’t enough. It can be hard to build community, establish social presence, or even remember students’ faces when everything happens through written posts. Vivipod is meant to complement the discussion tools already inside your LMS, not replace the LMS itself.

A few things we are trying to do differently:

1. A more creative recorder

Having seen Flipgrid grow and scale, I wanted to rethink the recorder from the ground up.

Vivipod’s recorder:

• works without a browser extension, across devices and platforms
• lets people start recording without logging in first
• saves progress locally, even if the browser refreshes or the connection drops
• supports pausing, drawing, camera, screen share, and canvas
• lets users switch between screen, camera, and canvas without restarting
• only asks for screen-share permission once during a recording flow

The goal is to make video creation feel less fragile and less stressful, especially for students.

2. A better balance between instructor control and student agency

Vivipod is designed with both moderators and participants in mind.

For example:

• Spaces can be open or private.
• Topics can be moderated or unmoderated.
• If moderation is enabled, videos are reviewed before publication.
• Users can pull back their own videos after posting.
• A video can be reused across topics or spaces and later retracted by the creator.

That last point matters to me. A student’s video should not feel like something they lose control over the moment they submit it.

For those who already settled on tools like Padlet, VoiceThread, or Screencastify, I have a longer article about how we compare: https://vivipod.com/compare/flipgrid-alternatives

As mentioned above, comments and notifications just launched this month. Comments are available on posts, and post comments can generate notifications. Users can also control how often they want to be notified — immediately, every 3 hours, daily, or weekly — so they can choose how and when to re-enter the asynchronous conversation.

Right now, comments are still gated while we test the feature. But anyone who joins from this post can request early access by DMing me or emailing us. We expect comments to be open more broadly before the semester starts.

On sustainability: one of the painful lessons from Flipgrid’s shutdown is that beloved education tools still need a sustainable cost structure. Vivipod has been designed with that in mind from the beginning, both technically and financially, so we are not rebuilding something that depends on unsustainable infrastructure or a vague business model.

On privacy: we have signed DPA agreements with several school districts and received positive review of some edtech tools consortiums, covering roughly a fourth of the States and Canada. That is mostly relevant to K-12, but I’m happy to discuss it with anyone who needs to review privacy documentation. Vivipod is also already being used in university contexts, many features were inspired directly by our users at UPenn and the University of Hawaii.

So this is my invitation to this community.

Flipgrid had deep roots in higher education before it became widely known elsewhere. I would love for Vivipod to grow in the same spirit: shaped by educators, grounded in real teaching needs, and built around more trustworthy asynchronous communities.

Vivipod is free to start. Anyone who verifies their email gets three spaces, and anyone can try the recorder without logging in.

You can try it here: https://vivipod.com

I realize this may be reaching some of you as you are heading into summer, but it could be a worthwhile experiment for summer courses or a simple way to stay connected with your community while you’re away.

I’d love feedback from this community. There are no AI features that's planned unless it provides true value; the product is being shaped by educator feedback first. If there are workflows, privacy concerns, LMS needs, accessibility expectations, or classroom use cases we should understand better, please tell me.

Thanks again to the mod for allowing me to share this here. We are still early, but I hope we can reclaim this virtual "third space" with your support.

Hi everyone!

I’ll be starting a new position as a Financial Assistance Coordinator (Financial Aid) at a small university in a couple of weeks, and I’m both excited and nervous. This will be my first role in higher education, so I’d love to hear from anyone who has worked in financial aid or higher education in general.

A few questions I have:
- What do you wish you knew when you first started working in higher education?
- Any tips for learning federal/state regulations, systems, or staying organized?
- What are some common mistakes new employees make that I should avoid?
- Are there any certifications, training, or skills that would help me grow in higher education?

I’m also thinking about the long term. My goal is to gain 1–2 years of experience and eventually transition to a larger university. I’m interested in staying in financial aid, but I’m also curious about academic advising and the registrar’s office.

For those of you who have been in higher education for a while:
- What career paths have you seen people take after working in financial aid?
- Is it fairly common to move between departments like financial aid, advising, admissions, and the registrar’s office?

I’d appreciate any advice, encouragement, or lessons you’ve learned along the way. Thanks in advance!

Of 65 applications I've had 13 interviews but I can't seem to land anything. I work in education and striving for college counselor (high school) or student support services (college) positions.

For people that find they tend to have success with interviews, what strategies do you find help you the most?

hello! I need some advice or insight. I’ve been at an admin job at this university for about 4 months and some jobs in the departments/fields I’m truly interested in have opened up. I’m wondering if I should tell my boss/if they will inform him when I apply or if i would have to get deeper in the hiring process for that to even matter. currently I am anxious to even apply to other jobs because I don’t wanna jeopardize my existing role, I just really want to expand but I’m unsure if I have been here for too short of an amount of time and should stick it out for longer before trying to make the shift. I’m pretty new to full time life post grad (in my early 20s) so I’d appreciate info and thoughts from anybody with more knowledge on these dynamics. thanks

Hi, all. I'm going to try to keep this post on the short side because I would really appreciate any guidance as soon as possible, but I may return soon with a longer post with sources and context, so please feel free to ask any questions.

I am an alum of the University of West Florida, which is currently following the New College of Florida playbook; Governor DeSantis, the Heritage Foundation members on our Board of Trustees, and the university President (who has caused concern from the start, since he was the only candidate proposed to the public during the presidential search that ended with his appointment) are all on the same page, seemingly, and many of us Argonauts are terrified for the future of our school.

It's reaching a point where I desperately feel the need to raise the alarm, but I have no idea who to raise the alarm to. I've participated in protests on campus. I've communicated with the President of UWF, the Board of Trustees, Governor DeSantis, and the local news. I've been outspoken about every questionable move; the dismantling of our Office of Campus Inclusion in the name of """purging DEI wokeness,""" the continued mistreatment of LGBTQ+ students and staff while we invite Charlie Kirk memorial speakers and Heritage Foundation people on campus, and even the recent alleged use of AI in their rebranding. Everything is met with silence or an insistence that everything is above board.

I'll keep it simple: I'm desperate for help. I'm finally reaching out outside of my immediate community so I can ask: what the hell can we possibly do? So many of us are trying to stick it out and fight, and I need to know if there is more we can do or if anyone can provide guidance to current students, staff, and faculty on when to know to bow out for the sake of their own academic and professional careers.

And please be honest; are we screwed, considering the state of federal administration?

Go Argos, always and forever 💙💚

New federal rules sharply cap how much graduate students can borrow, forcing an immediate sea change in how students evaluate attaining an advanced degree, with some scrambling to pay tuition — and for colleges, prompting concerns about future access to their programs.

The median total cost for a master’s degree in 2020 — before inflation skyrocketed — was $24,250, while professional degrees came in at $59,076, though some universities — particularly private institutions — charge far more, according to EdTrust, a nonprofit that advocates for equity in education. 

Under the previous rules, graduate students could take out federal loans for as much as they needed to cover the cost of their master’s and doctorate degrees, including tuition and living expenses, often taking on crushing, long-term debt that contributed to a national epidemic in defaults. Effective July 1, borrowing is restricted to $20,500 annually, with a $100,000 cap. Those pursuing designated professional degrees, including law, medicine and dentistry, are limited to $50,000 a year with a $200,000 cap.

Read more.

I had what felt like a generally postive interview. However, I was told during our interview that the role im applying for is to replace a guy that been at the school for 40 years. I havent even been alive that long.. haha. Its a senior IT role for a large private school. Would love to get the job but talk about big shoes to fill. He sounded like a very knowledgable "gray beard" guy. To make matters worse, he told me he wants to retire in August (next month). Needless to say my confidence on getting the job tanked because this would be a step up from my mid-level role at a smaller college. Im pretty confident I can get up to speed in good time but there will definitely be a learning curve. I work at a small private college now along side a long tenure senior level staff member. I know people tend to stay in these roles forever but its still wild to hear.

Have you ever replaced a long tenure employee? How was the adjustment?

I'm looking for perspective from people who work in higher education. Especially managers, HR professionals, or staff who have gone through a reclassification.

I've worked at my public university for about 20 years, and I've been in my current web position for about 9 years. My official job description is about 13 years old (it did not change or get reviewed when I took on the role). My current classification is also sitting in the lowest level classification setting we have, while newer roles are 1-2 classifications above mine.

Over the last several years my responsibilities have expanded well beyond traditional web content work. Today my work includes things like:

• Web governance
• Training hundreds of website editors
• Managing our web support queue
• Accessibility guidance
• Documentation and knowledge management
• Reporting and analytics
• Process development
• Helping lead a major website migration
• Learning and implementing new systems
• Taking on additional operational responsibilities as needed

About 14 months ago our department went through a significant reorganization. There were layoffs, new leadership positions were created, and some people moved into newly created roles. Around that time my manager and I began discussing whether my position should be reclassified because my responsibilities had grown significantly.

The challenge is that the formal HR process has never actually started.

This isn't because my manager disagrees that my role has changed. In fact, she agrees it has.

Instead, every time we get close to moving forward, the conversation shifts to something like:

• "I don't know what goes in what bucket."
• "I'm not sure what counts as new work versus 'other duties as assigned.'"
• "I want to make sure we define the role correctly before moving forward."

As my responsibilities continue to evolve, it feels like the target keeps moving. My manager seems to want to fully define a future version of the role before requesting a formal review, while my perspective has been that the position should be evaluated based primarily on the work I'm already performing.

One thing that has also confused me is that our university's compensation policy says employees may request a position audit if their duties have changed by at least 25%, but in practice I've been told the process won't begin until my manager is comfortable recommending it.

My manager is also a relatively new supervisor (this is the first full-time employee she's managed), so I've wondered whether part of this is simply uncertainty about how the process is supposed to work.

I'm not looking to criticize my manager. I genuinely think she's trying to do the right thing. What I'm trying to understand is whether this kind of prolonged pre-audit discussion is common in higher education.

For those of you who've been managers, HR professionals, or employees who have gone through reclassifications:

• Is this a typical way for universities to handle these situations?
• Would your HR department expect a manager to fully redesign a future role before requesting a review?
• Or would HR typically evaluate the position based primarily on the employee's current duties and responsibilities?

I'm honestly looking for perspective, not validation. If you think my expectations are off, I'd appreciate hearing that too.

Hello everyone! I hope y'all's week is starting amazing. I am here to genuinely ask your opinion about something. I recently graduated from my MSc. and I cant seem to find a job. Yes, I know I am not the only one but rather than just accepting the job market's reality I am wondering if there is something about my resume that is not right. I find it incredibly hard to comprehend that from 150+ job applications, I have only received 4 interviews and cant seem to pass those stages. I am an international student, however as of today, I do not require anything from the employer. I am genuinely interested in higher ed. Instructional Design, if you wonder.

I recently obtained an offer at a state school and the day I was going to sign it they rescinded the offer after finding out I eventually needed sponsorship despite I had disclosed it early. HR did not want to hire me be due to my "Status". I am aware that was legally wrong and I am at loss since I had stopped applying to prepare for the role and the required interviews. With that being said, I am wondering why I keep getting so many rejections. I am confident in my abilities and just need to get a second opinion on my resume if you have the time. PM if you have tips and hacks. I am so at loss.
Thank you!

Florida Universities Consider Banning Undocumented Students

Subhead: And the board overseeing state colleges is eyeing a similar ban. Together, the policies could make Florida the fourth state to limit noncitizens’ enrollment in public colleges and universities.

Author: Sara Weissman
Publication: Inside Higher Ed
Date: June 26, 2026

The Florida Board of Governors this week took a step toward barring undocumented students from admission to the state system’s 12 public universities.

A proposed rule, discussed Thursday by the board’s academic affairs committee, would block these students from enrolling, unless institutions already admitted “all academically qualified applicants,” starting in the 2027–28 academic year. The committee adopted a version of the proposal, but the rule still needs approval from the full Board of Governors.

The rule would be a blow to thousands of noncitizen students in the state. An estimated 8,000 undocumented students graduate from high school in Florida annually, and over 49,000 undocumented students are enrolled in Florida colleges, according to the Higher Ed Immigration Portal.

While current students wouldn’t be affected, new students would be blocked form enrolling if they’re “present in the United States unlawfully,” according to the current proposal. The committee lightly tweaked the proposal’s language to clarify students studying online at Florida universities from other countries would be permitted to do so. Otherwise, the issue prompted little debate among board members. The public has 14 days to comment on the proposal. The next regular board meeting is in September.

Diego Sánchez, vice president of policy and strategy at the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration, said the proposal doesn’t make clear what it means for universities to have already admitted all “qualified applicants” or how the system plans to define and verify who’s lawfully present.

“That’s going to create a lot of confusion, not only for students and families,” but also institutions, Sánchez said. The policy “could potentially create inconsistent implementation across the public university system.”

Jared Nordlund, Florida state director at UnidosUS, an immigrant-advocacy organization, said he expects the rule—if approved—to function as an all-out ban on undocumented students.

Alexander Lambridis, a junior at Florida Atlantic University, told board members that the policy was “shameful.”

The proposed rule “simply reads like an eviction notice to the American dream,” Lambridis said during the meeting’s public comment portion.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis threw his support behind the proposal at a press conference Wednesday.

“I’m fully supportive of it,” he said. “I think what they’re doing is the right thing to do. I think it’s putting the students in Florida who are growing up here going to our schools, Florida residents, it’s putting them first.”

Broader Ban Looms

The state’s universities aren’t the only Florida institutions that could soon become off-limits to undocumented students.

The State Board of Education, which oversees 28 state colleges, plans to consider a similar proposal at a June 30 meeting; the new rule would allow only those “lawfully present” in the country to enroll at state colleges and in adult education programs.

Sánchez is concerned the State Board of Education is using the administrative rule-making process to make a major policy shift when its general purpose is to implement laws, not create new ones.

And state lawmakers have struggled to get a ban like the ones both boards are considering passed and signed into law.

Florida state Sen. Erin Grall tried this year to push forward legislation to prevent noncitizens from enrolling in state higher ed institutions, but the bill stalled in committee. Former state Sen. Randy Fine, now a U.S. representative, also introduced a bill last year that would have banned undocumented students from enrolling in competitive universities, those with acceptance rates of less than 85 percent, but it was withdrawn from consideration.

Nordlund said the repeated legislative failure “tells you that it’s unpopular with people here on the ground. It didn’t really have any legs at all.”

If both proposals pass, he said, undocumented students graduating high school in the state would be left with few choices: attend online programs or Florida private institutions or leave the state. He’s heard some students are intent on leaving, a loss of “homegrown talent” for Florida’s economy and aging workforce and a drop in tuition dollars for Florida higher ed institutions.

“These kids, they’ve been here their entire life,” Nordlund said. “The fact that we’ve not found ways to make their economic future brighter out there when we actually need them … it shows you just how backwards the state leaders are.”

Gaby Pacheco, president and CEO of TheDream.US, a scholarship provider for undocumented students, said in a statement that the organization’s Florida scholarship recipients and alumni came to the U.S. at age 6 on average. She called efforts to limit these students’ enrollment “cruel and counterproductive,” noting that alumni have gone on to become nurses, teachers and engineers and work in other professions needed in the state.

Sánchez worries undocumented students might forgo college altogether if they can’t afford private university tuition or a move to another state. He emphasized that Florida has already invested in these students’ K–12 education.

“As a Floridian, my first reaction is why is Florida shooting itself in the foot?” he said. “The state educated these students … and now wants to close the door just as they’re ready to contribute.”

The state’s efforts to prevent noncitizens from enrolling comes after Florida already did away with in-state tuition for undocumented students last year, nixing a decade-old law, as part of a sweeping immigration bill signed by DeSantis. Similar laws have since come under attack from the U.S. Department of Justice in 10 other states.

If the proposals go into effect, Florida would join a handful of states that limit undocumented students’ admissions: Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina.

“It’s definitely a pattern that we’re seeing, a broader effort to narrow the entire public higher ed pipeline for Dreamers,” Sánchez said.

Full-text below.

NCF was also the feature of John Oliver's Last Week Tonight:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFMc07F1UUU

Related articles:

• Sen. Darryl Rouson accepts New College teaching appointment, won't seek House seat
• USF board approves Sarasota-Manatee Campus transfer to New College of Florida
• USF Sarasota-Manatee campus to transfer to New College of Florida on July 1
• https://www.youtube.com/shorts/lPV6euTneZE
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zm3GTGFMVb4
• USF board approves Sarasota-Manatee Campus transfer to New College of Florida
• https://tbbwmag.com/2026/06/12/usf-sarasota-manatee-transfer/

The Guardian Article

A liberal arts college seized by Florida’s hard-right governor, Ron DeSantis, and transformed into a model for conservative higher education is to triple in size after state Republicans engineered a hostile takeover of a rival university’s campus.

New College of Florida, which is controlled by DeSantis’s hand-picked board of trustees, will acquire the Sarasota-Manatee campus of the University of South Florida (USF) next month in a deal described by a leading Florida Democrat as “a grift”.

The transfer of the 32-acre, 2,000-student facility, which has a new six-story residential hall and $44m student center, will significantly expand the footprint of the 900-student New College that the governor has touted as a blueprint for his “anti-woke” agenda.

The transfer will proceed despite almost universal opposition from USF students and faculty, education leaders, and the local business community, who say popular, thriving programs including nursing, tourism and hospitality, will end.

“It’s such a bad thing because USF Sarasota-Manatee was serving a different group of students than New College and had very different programs,” said Lucie Lapovsky, a higher education consultant and one of dozens of signatories on a letter to state lawmakers last month condemning the proposal.

“Sarasota is a big tourist area right on the water on the Gulf of Mexico. We have lots of hotels and restaurants that employ graduates of that program. We have several hospitals, and graduates of USF health programs work there. It provides opportunities for students who graduated from local high schools, as well as older residents going back to college.

“It makes no sense whatsoever in terms of access to higher education for students, in terms of what the area was producing and offering, in terms of academic programs.”

In a statement posted on the USF website, its president, Moez Limayem, acknowledged the loss of the campus “creates significant uncertainty and anxiety for our dedicated, outstanding faculty, staff and students”. He said the programs would continue to operate during a four-year “teach-out” period before they close.

“USF’s strength is not a collection of buildings and land; our real strength has been, and always will be, our people,” Limayem wrote, promising that students enrolled “will have the opportunity to finish their USF degrees in Sarasota-Manatee without disruption”.

Student leaders were also critical. “All students here on our campus truly would like for USF to stay here in our Sarasota-Manatee community,” Dennis Kukharenko, the student lieutenant governor, told faculty leaders in February, reported by WUSF.

“A lot of us live really far away from campus. We have to drive here. And removal of this campus really removes an opportunity to get a degree affordably.”

Fentrice Driskell, leader of Florida’s House Democratic caucus, accused Republicans of bypassing normal legislative protocols to approve the handover. A proposal passed the chamber earlier this year but was not taken up by the state senate, leading opponents to believe the measure had died.

But it was resurrected by a conference committee earlier this month and inserted with little debate into the final state budget currently awaiting DeSantis’s signature.

“My position has not changed,” said Driskell, who during the Florida House discussion said the proposal “reeks of grift”.

“When the Sarasota-Manatee campus found out they could be the next victim in DeSantis’s schemes, of course, they were on high alert, then had a moment of feeling safe.

“Now it’s just all been taken away, and it’s been really hard to watch. This is a governor who has expanded and tested the limits of executive power in ways that I don’t think anybody would have ever foreseen, and he’s been such a bully about all of these things.”

Critics point to the amount of money thrown at New College by the DeSantis administration.

Richard Corcoran, a close ally of the governor and a former speaker of the Florida House with no previous experience in higher education administration, was appointed New College president in 2024 and has a salary package of $1.2m, four times higher than his ousted predecessor.

Meanwhile, a damning efficiency study published in November showed it cost almost half a million dollars to produce a degree at New College. The next highest of Florida’s 13 state universities and colleges was Florida Polytechnic University at just under $155,000 per degree.

“It doesn’t even pass the governor’s own Doge [department of government efficiency] exercise,” Driskell said.

“There is so much waste here, and it is incredibly frustrating to watch the governor try to bend the higher education system towards his political will. New College is a vanity project, and he’s been willing to spend whatever it takes to prop it up. Whatever New College needs, they’re going to give it those resources, but you know the truth is that it’s a failure.”

Corcoran has insisted New College is apolitical, while critics have said the progressive college with a prominent LGBTQ+ community has been “destroyed” by its sudden hard-right turn.

In September, the college announced it was commissioning a statue of Charlie Kirk, the rightwing political activist murdered last year.

In 2024 photographs of hundreds of dumped library books went viral after New College purged its diversity, equity and inclusion programs. Conservative activist Christopher Rufo, appointed by DeSantis as a New College trustee, angered students by saying the college was “throwing out the trash”.

DeSantis will be termed out of office in January, and Lapovsky said a change in the state’s political direction might provide a pathway for reversing the acquisition.

“I hope a new governor or legislature might undo this, but I have no idea,” she said.

“They claim that the students currently enrolled will get to finish their programs, which means that the education will continue on the campus at least for two or three more years. If that’s the case, there may be ways that it can be undone.

“It’s a tremendous loss to Sarasota and Manatee counties, and anyone who voted for it should be totally ashamed of themselves.”

In a statement, Corcoran did not directly address what would happen to USF courses at the end of the “teach-out” period.

“New College is prepared to steward this transition with care and intentionality as we continue building a nationally distinctive public liberal arts institution focused on academic excellence, civic discourse, innovation and student opportunity,” he said.

“We look forward to working closely with regional leaders, faculty, staff and community partners to ensure a positive long-term decision for the region, for the state university system and for the future of higher education in Florida.”

There have been numerous posts on the enrollment cliff. Recently Syracuse revealed that it had a significant shortfall in undergraduate admissions and is likely to experience a budget deficit. Although, I would argue that in many cases the declining target population is not the whole story.

​

For ppl looking to get into the field, any position to gain some experience is good, but I think applying strategically will be more important - at least in the short to mid-term future. Flagship public 4-years and workforce-aligned institutions are actually seeing increases in applications. Unless you have the ability to turn things around, probably better to be with growing schools.

​

Also be picky about the area within the institution. Certain programs are clearly in decline (with exceptions). When students are not applying, working in those disciplines doesn't seem to be somewhere you want to be if you don't have to.

​

Just my two cents.

Ireland's Higher Education Authority published a national framework on generative AI in higher education in December 2025, seemingly as an attempt to move universities away from ad hoc responses to tools like ChatGPT and towards a coordinated, values-led approach.

The framework is built around principles such as academic integrity, transparency, equity, inclusion, and sustainability, and it recognises that AI is already being used by students and staff, and focuses less on whether institutions should engage with it and more on how they can do so responsibly.

Something that keeps coming up in my research: schools are under real pressure to keep students enrolled through graduation, not just recruit them. But when I ask who is responsible for that goal, I get different answers depending on the school.

At your school, does retention sit with enrollment management, student success, academic affairs, or somewhere else entirely? And does that person have real budget and data behind them, or is it more of a shared responsibility that nobody fully owns?

Doing research in this space, not selling anything. Just trying to understand how this is structured across different types of schools.

Professor Put on Leave for Assigning Case Study That Mentions Palestinians

Subhead: The provost claims that the professor’s actions “threaten immediate harm” to students or the School of the Art Institute of Chicago community.

Publish date: June 9, 2026

Author: Emma Whitford

Savneet Talwar, a tenured professor and chair of the art therapy department, has been on leave since April 20.

Officials at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago placed an art therapy professor on paid leave after a student complained that an assignment featuring a mock patient who “felt deeply affected by the violence against Palestinian civilians” violated the school’s discrimination policy.

Savneet Talwar, a tenured professor and chair of the art therapy department, has been on leave since April 20, four days after Provost Martin Berger notified her that a graduate student in her class had submitted a complaint claiming Talwar “gave an academic assignment that focused solely on the issues of a Muslim woman with strong sympathies for the Palestinian cause,” according to a letter Talwar’s lawyer, Rima Kapitan, sent school officials.

The claim contradicted what Talwar said she’d heard from her dean: that an external Jewish group had contacted SAIC president Jiseon Lee Isbara with concerns about the assignment. By the time she asked the dean about the group, “she changed the story,” Talwar said.

The assignment in question asked students in Talwar’s Cultural Dimensions of Art Therapy class to submit an analysis of a provided case that demonstrated “their understanding of intersectionality as a method of analysis and how it informs the development of a thoughtful and ethical treatment plan,” according to the instructions that Talwar shared with Inside Higher Ed.

Bea, the mock patient, is a 27-year-old, queer Muslim woman who was raised in the Middle East and is currently pursuing her doctorate in the United States. The assignment includes details about her personal life and her motivations for pursuing art therapy. Among them are her parents’ divorce and family tensions, pressure in romantic relationships, stress brought on by the Trump administration’s actions toward immigrants, and her grief about violence against Palestinians.

Talwar first learned of the student’s complaint on April 16, when Berger canceled her class and sent her an email ordering a meeting the following day at 8:30 a.m. Talwar wrote back, asking for “specific reasons for designating this meeting as urgent,” as well as the rationale for canceling the class, according to the email thread shared with Inside Higher Ed. Berger insisted the meeting was not optional and that he had “serious concerns about [Talwar’s] professional judgment,” according to the emails.

After further back-and-forth, Talwar, Kapitan, Berger, graduate dean Delinda Collier and SAIC legal counsel Leslie Darling held a meeting on April 20. Afterward, Berger sent Talwar a summary of the meeting, which she shared with Inside Higher Ed. It said that Talwar was put on temporary paid leave “because of concerns that your alleged actions threaten immediate harm to the student or to others within our community. This means that you are temporarily relieved of all your faculty duties,” Berger wrote.

If “immediate harm to the faculty member or others is threatened” is the only instance in which the American Association of University Professors recommends removing a professor from the classroom during an investigation, according to the AAUP’s Recommended Institutional Regulations on Academic Freedom and Tenure.

The provost also told Talwar she could not talk about the matter with any students or colleagues.

Shortly after making the complaint, the student had emailed her to ask for a different case study. Talwar passed the email along to Berger and asked that the student be offered an alternative. Berger told Talwar not to respond to the student and that his office would handle it internally, she said. Ultimately, all students in Talwar’s class were given an alternative case study about a Black queer woman navigating disabilities, she said.

Talwar’s lawyer, Kapitan, sent a letter to SAIC general counsel Darling on April 20 requesting the student’s complaint be immediately dismissed “on the basis that it not only fails to allege a violation of SAIC’s discrimination and harassment policy but is itself discriminatory on its face.”

“Are SAIC faculty expected to ethnically cleanse Palestinians from their course materials? Are Arab Muslims unworthy of their own case studies?” Kapitan wrote. “If a white supremacist student filed a discrimination complaint with the University alleging that he was triggered by a case study about a Black client [who] was struggling with police violence against Black people, would SAIC proceed with an investigation against the professor who drafted the assignment?”

A spokesperson for SAIC declined to answer Inside Higher Ed’s questions about the case, citing the school’s policy not to comment on specific personnel matters or ongoing investigations.

“Our institution has a steadfast commitment to academic freedom. We do not discipline faculty for protected classroom discussion of national, religious, racial, or cultural topics,” the spokesperson wrote in an email. “We are deeply committed to learning environments in which ideas are freely exchanged and students and faculty are welcomed, respected, and valued. When complaints arise, we investigate them thoroughly through established policies and procedures to ensure fairness and privacy for all involved.”

“An Appalling Violation”

SAIC officials have received and investigated multiple complaints of alleged antisemitism in the art therapy department from the same student, The Guardian reported. In his summary of the April 20 meeting, Berger referred to “multiple, prior complaints alleging the creation of a hostile environment within your department,” adding that the school had undertaken “mandatory anti-bias training and other measures to address the climate.” But the most recent complaint is the first that references Talwar’s conduct, Berger wrote.

After The Guardian wrote about Talwar’s case on June 5, Berger emailed faculty to say the piece “did not present a full picture, and that the issue at hand concerns a personnel matter, of which we cannot share details.” He went on to say that faculty should “feel confident in teaching your subject area—even if the topic is controversial—without fear of interference, as we fully support your intellectual and creative explorations.”

Steve Macek, chair of the Illinois AAUP committee on academic freedom and tenure, said he is concerned that the school violated Talwar’s due process rights by removing her from the classroom immediately without undergoing typical disciplinary processes. The state AAUP conference is currently investigating the situation, he said.

“AAUP’s recommended institutional regulations say that an administration should almost never remove a faculty member from a classroom,” Macek said. “The cited basis for removing Professor Talwar from the classroom is very suspect to begin with on its face, but even if it were the case that her assignment to the disgruntled student was a form of discrimination or retaliation, there are procedures in place at the school for dealing with that and they should be followed. To yank somebody out of the classroom, especially so close to the end of the semester … it’s an appalling violation.”

Talwar said that treating all kinds of patients is essential for art therapists and that SAIC’s handling of the situation sets a dangerous precedent for academic freedom at the school.

“In my practice right now as a therapist, which is a very small practice, I don’t have any clients that are not affected by what’s happening in the U.S., what’s happening in Palestine,” Talwar said. “It’s so important that students are engaging with this material in a critical manner, because we are bound by our standards of practice to not refuse services to anybody, as well as hold all of the Title VI–protected categories in mind as we are engaging with clients.”

Hi All!

I’ve been a professional staff member in higher education for 19 years now. Like many of you, I’ve been closely tracking The Chronicle of Higher Education’s running finance updates, and honestly, the sheer volume of bad news feels unprecedented to me.

Between axed academic programs, gutted research funding, staff layoffs, faculty buyouts, declining enrollment, and massive budget shortfalls, it feels significantly worse than anything I can recall in my career.

I know we’ve all been anticipating the demographic enrollment cliff at the undergrad level and the inevitable plateauing of Master’s degree enrollment. But it feels like all of those projected timelines just collided at once, exacerbated by recent federal policy shifts and FAFSA changes.

For the veterans who have been around longer than me, or those who have a closer finger on the pulse of institutional finance: Have we actually seen a pattern like this before, or are we genuinely entering uncharted territory?

Also, on a human level... how is everyone coping with the morale hit at your respective institutions?