Kamna Patel resigns from Research England as equity, diversity and inclusion expert after being investigated for "extreme views":
"I cannot remain... and legitimate the bad decisions of RE and UKRI... there is an ongoing genocide... Since the Secretary of State’s claim these words constitute “extreme views”, the International Court of Justice concluded genocide of Palestinians in Gaza is a plausible risk... you have (been) played." 🔥
Question of the day. Is the whole beautiful mass of free and open Internet knowledge now to be considered as the satanic mills of AI Gen Big Tech? At their mercy, to do with as they please.
Closed out the paperwork for the Spring term yesterday and, with my first post-semester deadlines approaching, I'm realizing that I seriously under-budgeted the amount of time I would need to stare into near space.
Interviewing PhD candidates for the first time and the role reversal feels... weird! All the candidates bring something different to the table and it's such a tough call to decide who makes the cut.
Fun things that can happen at a conference: tomorrow there will be a heated discussion about the correct way to remove a foreground from an extragalactic observation - the sort of life and death fights you have in astronomy 😅
But guess how many experts in the actual observation and foreground modelling are present at this conference:
ZERO.
So chairs are likely going to be thrown for nothing...
I feel increasingly angry/frustrated at how academic conferences insist we 'join them on XTwitter' to follow the conf. Why should we have to do that? Why arent they providing an open social web alternative? Why are they so beholden to private monopoly Big Tech? This happened recently for the Networked Learning Conference, an initiative that claims to be dedicated to open networks of learning. How can they possibly think it is ethically acceptable to only use XTwtr?
Academic associations: when you are looking for graduate students to do work for a conference, perhaps don't offer an honorarium equivalent to less than minimum wage in 12 out of 13 provinces and territories.
That's not even counting the unknown (uncompensated?) time for the mandatory orientation session.
So am I being extra sensitive about this spam complaint email? Well yeah probably. But see at the end of a long exhausting irritating school year. Also just completed my 20 th year of being an engineering professor so happy anniversary to me! My nerves are shot to singles and it feels like this came out of left field. I love and let live. I have had a woman who wanted to show her br&&@sta on the internet come for my neck about my Black STEM AI art and didn’t file a spam complaint but someone
#ProfessorConfessions#AcademicChatter so here at the end of three 10 week quarters and an intense school year my level of exhaustion and irritation is on them, then I get this spam complaint email..
University Suspends Students for AI Homework Tool It Gave Them $10,000 Prize to Make
Emory University gave students a $10,000 entrepreneurial prize for their AI startup, then suspended them and accused them of cheating when they built it.
Applied for a job today. In industry. I'm moving out of academia after 6 years as a casual. Working at the university is stressful, I am looking forward to having a more secure working arrangement #AcademicChatter
The unfolding tragedy of the deconstruction of university learning and teaching. Behold, a post in r/professors about the chatgpt wasteland of student submitted work.
Hello everyone, I’m a MSW student, interning at a hospital for medical social work. This fundraiser is a survival fund used to help with rent costs, groceries, utilities, etc. until I graduate in December. I’m about half way to my goal. Moreover, I like to break it down monthly. The link is below. Thank you! Please share 🌱
I was bored so I did the unthinkable. Well, to me it was always unthinkable as I have always been anti- #ai. But, out of curiosity I subscribed to #ChatGPT -4o and have been feeding various essays, poems, and posts from my various websites and asking for explications and such. And wow does #ChatGPT4o have a great deal of just wonderful things to say about me. I will admit getting all this truly high praise is seducing.
Okay. So I have been using #ChatGPT for a couple of hours and there is no doubt in my mind that many, many, many college students are using #ChatGPT4o to write essays. I am so, so, so sorry #AcademicChatter professors and lecturers. I am so glad this was not around when I was in school. First colleges across the country started shutting down extensive #writing courses/programs and now this. Oh, what a loss of a good #education.
As the semester has ended for most folks, I want to remind all disabled students about the US Office of Civil Rights. If you were discriminated against for your disability or denied an accommodation, you have 90 days since the incident to file a complaint.