University College London shoutout! UCL is unwilling to set up a Mastodon account now, but they say that if there's lots of UCL presence here already it will nudge them in this direction. If you're at UCL or know someone who is, and you're on here, please reply to this to let us know! Current chief plotters: @sellathechemist , me and maybe more)
Since October 7th, I've joined protests, fundraising events for Gaza, and students on university campuses.
As a Jew and someone who has a ton of friends and family in Israel, I want to share some thoughts on claims of antisemitism in student encampments and the broader Palestinian solidarity movement:
Our paper “No Research on a Dead Planet” is out today! Aaron Thierry is very much the lead author, but it’s been great working on this together with AT, Laura Horn and Charlie Gardner. Why do #Universities, #ClimateEmergency declarations and all, still largely continue with #BusinessAsUsual? For us it’s about #CognitiveDissonance as well as the structures of neoliberal #HE. HE needs to change & lead on true #ClimateAction. Open access @ScientistRebellion
We, the Aktionsbündnis neue Soziale Medien (New Social Media Action Alliance) today appealed to #universities in Germany to shut down their #X (formerly #Twitter) accounts as soon as possible.
The appeal points out that the presence on X/Twitter does not do justice to the universities' remit to provide information because of the #disinformation and political agitation practised there. At the same time, presences should be established on #Mastodon and other services in the #Fediverse, whose decentralised and moderated design is much more compatible with the rules of democratic and sustainable coexistence.
To my erstwhile colleagues in UK #universities, this campaign in Germany to 'encourage' universities to leave X and join Mastodon (and the fediverse more widely), would be worth emulating for our institutions.
New joint statement by members of #UCLA’s history department, compiled from testimony of faculty present at encampment during various periods and in response to last night’s police violence against students. We make 6 explicit calls of the university administration. Read at link below.
"The University administration respects all student protests, just not this one. Students have fought for many important causes over the years, and their right to protest is sacrosanct. In this case, however, we must arrest and slander them.
“We will not look back and regret this decision. Although we were wrong about not admitting women, abolitioning racial quotas, US involvement in Vietnam, and divesting from apartheid South Africa, we are confident that this time is different."
Israel has destroyed all the universities in Gaza. Every single one of them. That is a war crime, pure and simple. It’s the obliteration of education and Palestinian future. Every university in the world should be outraged.
Our appeal for the use of #Fediverse services 🐘 and the termination of #X/Twitter at #universities states:
"#Disinformation and #HateSpeech, #cyberbullying and #discrimination are still dominant elements on the media that describe themselves as social. Even legal regulations have not been able to change this. Our elected politicians ... continue to be intimidated and threatened on these platforms, persecution of women is instigated, elections are manipulated and democratic institutions are attacked."
Below is a simple version in visualized form.
Please share the image widely - it is also suitable for sharing on the major advertising platforms 😉
And: You can use the QR code 🔠 to direct your friends to the page to join in.
For those of you with your #headinyourhands about the stalled 'negotiations' to allow the UK to (re)enter the EU's #Horizon#research programme.... here's something to brighten your evening; @tomgauld on mixing up your research proposal & your book manuscript.
And here's a piece I wrote on why universities are reluctant to run their own Mastodon servers (recently updated with information on referrer tracking and social media platform support)
Rishi Sunak has pledged to crack down on "rip-off" degrees that do not lead to graduate jobs.
Apart from all the problems with the way they evaluate degree outcomes, the absolute nerve of calling courses ‘rip off’ when your own party insisted on introducing sky high fees & marketisation against huge opposition instead of properly funding the sector
In its justification, it commits itself to the principles of the #Fediverse and #OpenScience:
"Freie Universität Berlin has been present on Mastodon since December 2022. #Mastodon is part of the decentralized Fediverse network. Compared to large commercial social networks, Mastodon relies on chronological feeds and reduces the algorithmic sorting of posts. This ensures that information is always openly available and reduces the likelihood of so-called filter bubbles forming."
Last November, @JLBe had already compiled a list of #universities in Germany that operate Mastodon accounts. Here comes the updated version, which has been expanded to include the new additions. The list again shows the logos of universities, which are linked to their Mastodon pages: downloadable as pdf from https://tubcloud.tu-berlin.de/s/wDsXGQQoJ6ABR2k
👏 👍 ❤️ A warm welcome to the new universities posting on #Mastodon! 🎇 🎇
Half thinking of starting an #AcademicVenting hashtag here, about the dire, dire state of UK (global?) higher education. Sharing nuggets of senior management decisions, neoliberal language, and overall slow collapse.
Won’t work of course because most of us can’t risk honesty, but honestly: the everyday reality of what is happening deserves recording in all its depressing and damning detail. #Universities#AcademicChatter#neoliberalism
I agree with Kenan Malik; behind the increasingly instrumental view of university education (that it should be judged by what it does for your subsequent career & earning potential), lies a class-based assessment of who should benefit from education at all.
The working class do not deserve the humanistic value of education but rather must be trained in work skills... while the privileged should be able to buy the benefits of enlightenment!
We Carry the Burden of Repatriating Our Ancestors. Here’s What It’s Like to Report on the Process as an #Indigenous Journalist.
Mary Hudetz describes the financial cost and emotional distress that #tribal communities face as they continue to wait for the return of the remains of their ancestors, thousands of which are held in #museums across the country.
#Universities are warning that they are heading towards a (renewed) financial crisis, as support from the EU evaporates, costs spiral & questions about how to fund #HigherEducation remained mired in the #culturewars...
What we see in international comparisons is that the UK has (so far) managed to maintain a world class university system on the cheap... but as economists say 'If something cannot go on for ever, it won't! - tie to fund HE properly, not by extracting more money from #students!
We are posting here the messages from organizations, institutions, NGOs, etc. that have opened a channel on Mastodon and left #X/Twitter. Many of their arguments cite the same points as mentioned in our open letter calling the universities to become active on Mastodon and fediverse servers.
The messages represent a broad consensus among Internet users who want to bring the choice of social media in line with their mission statements. The first of these is the data protection foundation @DS_Stiftung.
It writes about itself: „Acting independently in the field of #DataPrivacy, Stiftung Datenschutz links politics and the public, academics and business. It complements existing organizations and initiatives while liaising closely with German data protection authorities on state and federal levels.“ https://stiftungdatenschutz.org/english
At the end of September, she drew the consequences and broke away from X/ #Twitter https://twitter.com/DS_Stiftung/status/1704059550335119522
At the end of last year, Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences announced its withdrawal from #X / #Twitter. President Prof. Steinmetz justified the move:
"We have observed with growing discomfort the consequences of inadequate content moderation on 'X'. Discriminatory and anti-Semitic content, conspiracy narratives, political #disinformation and even calls for #violence were able to spread rapidly on 'X', ... We no longer want to be found in this environment. We can no longer reconcile this with our values: ... As a community of diverse people, #tolerance and respectful interaction with one another is important to us."