Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Benjamin McKean

Shannon Stirone @shannonstirone.bsky.social · 9h

Today JPL lost so many incredible people. My heart hurts for every single one of them. This administration is gutting American science institutions and throwing away hyper specific experts who cannot be replaced. This is an extremely detrimental loss.

CNBC @cnbc.com · 1d

NASA unit JPL to lay off about 550 workers, citing restructure

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory is a research and development lab funded by NASA — the federal space agency — and managed by the Caltech.

cnb.cx

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Reposted by Benjamin McKean

Laura Lopez @ohdearz.bsky.social · 8h

Folks in my department fought to attend these meetings by showing our white colleagues are members and participants. OSU said it didn't matter because the meetings may still be exclusionary (even though they aren't). It is maddening and racist to limit attendance at affinity group conferences.

Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 19h

What’s especially wild (legally) about this is that NSBP, NSHP, and SACNAS have always welcomed people of all backgrounds, including white people. NSHP has had a white president, my SACNAS leadership institute class has several white members, and NSBP has a sizable white membership.

Benjamin McKean @blmckean.bsky.social · 19h

Very bad: OSU unilaterally cancelled the registration of grad students attending the joint conference of the National Society of Black Physicists and the National Society of Hispanic Physicists. And OSU won't fund recruiting at the Society for Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science.

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Reposted by Benjamin McKean

Jessica @jewishreader.bsky.social · 8h

I understand that IU's fall out of the ranks of politically independent public universities and its rise as a football powerhouse are not directly related, but boy....

Jess Calarco @jessicacalarco.com · 8h

Indiana University has fired the staff director of the student newspaper, after disputes in which university leadership tried to pressure him to prevent students from publishing news.

IndyStar 2 . Follow
1h:
"All Media School and IU students, faculty and staff
should be scared by this blatant attack on someone
standing up for what's right," student Editors-ln-Chief
Mia Hilkowitz and Andrew Miller said in a statement.
Read more: bit.ly/43ebKW1
IndyStar.
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The original investigative student
newsroom of Indiana University
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Indiana University fires IDS
adviser amid push to control
student newspaper's content

The director of student media at Indiana University was fired amidst a dispute between university leadership and editors at the Indiana Daily Student over what content gets printed in the student newspaper.

As director of student media, Jim Rodenbush did not directly oversee or have any say over the content published in the IDS, per a charter between the IDS and the university. But he told IndyStar his firing follows a series of meetings with IU Media School leadership in which it grew increasingly apparent they were expecting him to officially prohibit students from publishing news.

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Benjamin McKean @blmckean.bsky.social · 8h

this is so flagrantly unconstitutional that i actually felt compelled to go back and re-read the first amendment to make sure it still prohibits "abridging the freedom of speech"

Chris Geidner @chrisgeidner.bsky.social · 10h

BREAKING: Marco Rubio's State Department announces publicly that it is exercising unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination in revoking people's visas based on comments about the killing of Charlie Kirk.

Department of State v
@StateDept
g..
The United States has no obligation to host foreigners who wish death on Americans.
The State Department continues to identify visa holders who celebrated the heinous assassination of Charlie Kirk. Here are just a few examples of aliens who are no longer welcome in the U.S.:
5:55 PM • Oct 14, 2025 • 34.1K Views

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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 11h

tangentially: can we be done with the fantasy that progress is inevitable and young people are proof of this?

Jared Holt @jaredlholt.bsky.social · 14h

One of the craziest stories I've seen in a long time. If you think Trump and his administration are extreme and depraved, just wait until you learn about the young guns who are positioning themselves to take over the reigns in the next few decades

www.politico.com/news/2025/10...

‘I love Hitler’: Leaked messages expose Young Republicans’ racist chat

Thousands of private messages reveal young GOP leaders joking about gas chambers, slavery and rape.

www.politico.com

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Reposted by Benjamin McKean

AAUP-Ohio State @osuaaup.bsky.social · 13h

The attack on our colleagues’ academic freedom, and anything to do with race and diversity, is in full force at OSU.

Obeying in advance once again, OSU is now withdrawing support for scholars studying topics and attending relevant conferences that the federal government doesn't like.

Ohio State changes policy on group conferences after Trump administration threats

A federal investigation into potentially discriminatory practices at Ohio State prompted the university to change its policies regarding conferences.

www.dispatch.com

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Benjamin McKean @blmckean.bsky.social · 12h

Yes, faculty are definitely upset about and organizing around this.

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Benjamin McKean @blmckean.bsky.social · 14h

couldn't be happier Raimi is out of Marvel jail, phew

Benjamin McKean @blmckean.bsky.social · 14h

In case you're wondering, as I was, this is a DIFFERENT set of text messages than the leaked messages from Turning Point USA staff that included them saying similar things like "I hate blacks" www.mediaite.com/online/exclu...

Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 15h

POLITICO: “.. They referred to Black people as monkeys and ‘the watermelon people’ and mused about putting their political opponents in gas chambers. They talked about raping their enemies .. and lauded Republicans who they believed support slavery.

@politico.com
www.politico.com/news/2025/10...

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Matt Ford @mford.bsky.social · 15h

Padres manager Mike Shildt said he retired in part because of death threats from sports bettors:

Mike Shildt says decision to retire was his own, but Padres questions remain

www.nytimes.com

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Matter News @matternews.bsky.social · 16h

“If there’s a legislative agenda we should have, it should be to eradicate houselessness in our city,” Upchurch said. “And I don’t understand why we don’t have that bigger, shared vision of liberation in our community.”

matternews.org/community/re...

Residents express fear, uncertainty as Kaleidoscope prepares to end youth housing program – Matter News

Kaleidoscope Youth Center announced in mid-September that it would be closing its housing program for queer youth after the Ohio Department of Health declined to renew the Columbus-based nonprofit’s g...

matternews.org

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Benjamin McKean @blmckean.bsky.social · 16h

Great question. All these policies are being rolled out (and then sometimes partly rolled back) on a seemingly ad hoc basis. It’s a mess.

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Benjamin McKean @blmckean.bsky.social · 17h

I take your point but i would say there is a pattern of over compliance at OSU - eg, prohibiting land acknowledgements when other public universities in Ohio haven’t done so www.nbc4i.com/news/local-n...

www.nbc4i.com

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Benjamin McKean @blmckean.bsky.social · 18h

FYI I strongly encourage any Ohio State faculty instructors who face issues like these restrictions on conference attendance, use of research funds, etc, to let @osuaaup.bsky.social know by filling out our Campus Concern Form so we can support you: www.aaup-osu.org/campus-conce...

Campus Concern
Form
Campus is under threat by new federal and state laws, including SB1, funding cuts, and ICE abductions. OSU is a large institution, and AAUP-OSU can only organize faculty support and resistance when we are aware of what is happening, so we want to hear from you.
Submit a Concern ^

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Benjamin McKean @blmckean.bsky.social · 18h

FYI I strongly encourage any Ohio State faculty instructors who face issues like these restrictions on conference attendance, use of research funds, etc, to let @osuaaup.bsky.social know by filling out our Campus Concern Form so we can support you: www.aaup-osu.org/campus-conce...

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Benjamin McKean @blmckean.bsky.social · 18h

Oh the article does reflect that change in guidance - it’s just buried way down at the end. Anyway, please let me know if there’s anything we can do to help!

Q
Che Columbus Dispatch
Hi, Benjamin
Crossword
Faculty, students and researchers were told they could attend conferences using university funds if they were scheduled to present research or participate in sessions that advance their research.
If the purpose of attendance is for other reasons, like attending "solely for recruitment," then individuals can still attend but must pay their own way.

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Reposted by Benjamin McKean

Laura Lopez @ohdearz.bsky.social · 18h

OSU spent many thousands of $$ on booth registrations for SACNAS earlier this year. Now they said they would rather take the financial loss than let us recruit at this meeting of >6000 scientists.

Laura Lopez @ohdearz.bsky.social · 19h

Here is the email from the provost reversing the decision & saying we can attend if presenting research. However, we still cannot recruit or attend without research benefit. Also many students did have registration cancelled (or missed registration deadlines) when OSU was prohibiting attendance.

SACNAS NDiSTEM conference update
Hi All,

Please see the email below from the provost with new guidance related to the SACNAS conference.

Best regards,
Todd

From: Provost Ravi V. Bellamkonda <ADMIN-Provost@osu.edu>
Date: Thursday, October 2, 2025 at 5:00 PM
To: Provost Ravi V. Bellamkonda <ADMIN-Provost@osu.edu>
Cc: Garcia, Anne <garcia.680@osu.edu>
Subject: SACNAS NDiSTEM conference update

Hi everyone,

Our office has been working with the Office of Legal Affairs regarding participation in the upcoming SACNAS NDiSTEM conference in light of the outreach the university received last week from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights. Based on our conversations, the Office of Academic Affairs is recommending the following as it relates to participation in this year’s SACNAS conference:

If an Ohio State faculty member or student is scheduled to present research or participate in sessions that advance their research at the SACNAS conference, then the faculty member or student can attend and use university funds to do so.

If an Ohio State faculty member or student is NOT scheduled to present research or participate in sessions that advance their research (e.g., the purpose of attending is solely for recruitment) at the SACNAS conference but wishes to participate in the conference, they may still attend but must use personal resources to do so.

For participation as a research presenter or in sessions that advance their research, we are requesting that a designee within each college or unit (e.g., the Associate Dean of Research) affirms that the participation is in fact to present or advance research as part of the approval process for university funding.

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Benjamin McKean @blmckean.bsky.social · 18h

Thanks! But I’m a little confused - isn’t that consistent with what the article says?

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Benjamin McKean @blmckean.bsky.social · 19h

Would love to know more! I’m at OSU and chair of our AAUP chapter’s committee on academic freedom so I’m very concerned about this. The report is consistent with what I know but I’m not in physics myself so it wouldn’t surprise me if there are developments I don’t know about.

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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 19h

What’s especially wild (legally) about this is that NSBP, NSHP, and SACNAS have always welcomed people of all backgrounds, including white people. NSHP has had a white president, my SACNAS leadership institute class has several white members, and NSBP has a sizable white membership.

Benjamin McKean @blmckean.bsky.social · 19h

Very bad: OSU unilaterally cancelled the registration of grad students attending the joint conference of the National Society of Black Physicists and the National Society of Hispanic Physicists. And OSU won't fund recruiting at the Society for Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science.

Ohio State changes policy on group conferences after Trump administration threats

A federal investigation into potentially discriminatory practices at Ohio State prompted the university to change its policies regarding conferences.

www.dispatch.com

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Benjamin McKean @blmckean.bsky.social · 19h

Very bad: OSU unilaterally cancelled the registration of grad students attending the joint conference of the National Society of Black Physicists and the National Society of Hispanic Physicists. And OSU won't fund recruiting at the Society for Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science.

Ohio State changes policy on group conferences after Trump administration threats

A federal investigation into potentially discriminatory practices at Ohio State prompted the university to change its policies regarding conferences.

www.dispatch.com

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Benjamin McKean @blmckean.bsky.social · 20h

To put 10 GW in perspective, the U.S. added 50 GW of power to the grid last year, of which 30 GW was solar. So 10 GW for one deal is a lot. www.eia.gov/todayinenerg...

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Benjamin McKean @blmckean.bsky.social · 1d

Straightforward Red Scare McCarthyism

Julie Greene @greeneland.bsky.social · 1d

I just learned, Thomas Alter, tenured professor, has been terminated effective immediately. Shame on Texas State! We mst build support for Tom. spectrumlocalnews.com/tx/south-tex...

Texas State upholds the firing of associate history professor Thomas Alter

Alter’s termination occurred on Sept. 10, stemming from his remarks at the Revolutionary Socialism Conference on Sept. 7.

spectrumlocalnews.com

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Benjamin McKean @blmckean.bsky.social · 1d

also, nothing about signing a petition prevents you from also "engaging directly with policymakers and decision-makers," whatever he thinks that means

Benjamin McKean @blmckean.bsky.social · 1d

This is a funny thing to say about a petition directed at your own university

The Dartmouth
In an email statement to The Dartmouth, government professor Sean Westwood, who declined to sign the petition, said that he didn't sign because petitions are "symbolic gestures with limited impact."
"Faculty can be more effective by engaging directly with policymakers and decision-makers,
" he wrote.

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