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Larry Glickman @larryglickman.bsky.social · 1m

Given the emphasis on “viewpoint diversity,” I’m surprised the reporter did not scrutinize the approach in this course.

Larry Glickman @larryglickman.bsky.social · 9m

Trying to cram these questions into a wokeness framework does not work very well, in my view. This piece is all over the place.

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Radley Balko @radleybalko.bsky.social · 17m

Fair point. When I send invoices for freelance pieces, I'm often asked to include whether I prefer to be paid through direct deposit, a paper check, or cold hard cash in a Cava bag at a pre-arranged drop site.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1h

STEPHANOPOULOS: Did Tom Homan give the $50,000 back?

VANCE: He did not take a bribe. It's a ridiculous smear

STEPHANOPOULOS: You didn't answer the question

VANCE: Did he accept $50,000? I'm sure that in the course of Homan's life, he's been paid more than $50k for services.

(So, no, he didn't)

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Elijah @elijahemery.bsky.social · 1h

I think a large amount of this is fear of failure in expressing oneself as a young person. Many people look for excuses as to why they won’t speak up, and a popular one today is fear “cancellation” as a proxy for fear of embarrassment in public speaking. I was lucky to have taken speech in HS

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Larry Glickman @larryglickman.bsky.social · 57m

It would have been interesting to hear about the syllabus for this intro econ course. Has the prof revised it to, say, incorporate a variety of heterodox views? Perhaps, he always did this in constructing the course, but it would have been helpful to know.

For the students who do come to his lectures, Dr. Laibson tries to make classroom discussions more open by including a caution in the syllabus that other students may hold different beliefs, and warning about sharing in-class comments outside the lecture hall in a way that could identify the speaker.

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Persistent Mom @persistmom.bsky.social · 1h

I went to college in the 80s and in poli sci and Econ classes (align with Reagan) even some psych classes (meds?), we knew we needed to write papers that presented evidence for the professors point of view or get a lower grade. I also knew many people who took the prof who gave “easy As”.

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 3h

a key thing about vought — and all of these guys — is that they have a totally top down and hierarchical vision of the world. they believe that the cultural changes they hate can be turned off by destroying the federal government because they can’t imagine that they emerged bottom-up in society

Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 3h

What he’s railing against is a profound shift in culture, status… He’s obsessed with the idea that America is controlled by a leftist “ruling elite” - but “elite” isn’t defined socio-economically or by political power, it means something like: Getting to define “real America” and who gets to belong.

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Larry Glickman @larryglickman.bsky.social · 57m

It would have been interesting to hear about the syllabus for this intro econ course. Has the prof revised it to, say, incorporate a variety of heterodox views? Perhaps, he always did this in constructing the course, but it would have been helpful to know.

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Elijah @elijahemery.bsky.social · 1h

I assume that classes where kids aren’t afraid of ostracization are far more correlated to the kindness and openness of professors than those professors’ political views

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Andrew Selbst @aselbst.bsky.social · 1h

Good. When a guest is lying you cut their air. It’s a disgrace to the Vice President’s office that Vance deserves this treatment, but everyone in this administration is exactly such a disgrace to their offices.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1h

STEPHANOPOULOS: I didn't insinuate anything. I asked you whether Tom Homan accepted $50k as was heard on an audio tape recorded by the FBI in September 2024. You did not answer the question. Thank you for your time.

VANCE: No, George, I sai--

STEPHANOPOULOS: We'll be right back

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Michan Connor @michanconnor.bsky.social · 1h

So it’s *better* researched than a typical Hartocollis higher ed piece is what you’re saying….

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Boo-is @louisevans.bsky.social · 1h

The guy I remember never coming to class was staying home and reading the topology textbook. He crushed the problem sets. He was much better at math than me. I don’t think he “stayed in an ideological bubble” about Hausdorff spaces

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Mark Copelovitch @mcopelov.bsky.social · 1h

🧵 Don't. Print. Lies. In. The. Newspapers.

Larry Glickman @larryglickman.bsky.social · 1h

Here's a good example of the everything but the kitchen sink style of the piece. What is the evidence that students are more worried about being ostracized or feeling stupid or aligning their views the professor or more likely to take classes that might result in a good grade than before?

Students were afraid, the report said, of being socially ostracized. They were embarrassed about possibly sounding stupid. They felt that they had to align their viewpoints with their professor’s in order to get a good grade. And they chose their classes based on the likelihood of getting a good grade, rather than out of intellectual curiosity.

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Virginia Scharff @vscharff.bsky.social · 1h

Does my “viewpoint” include questions like, “What is the Bill of Rights and why does it matter?”

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Larry Glickman @larryglickman.bsky.social · 1h

Exactly.

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Elijah @elijahemery.bsky.social · 1h

Yes, of course. If I remember correctly they chose to express their position by reviewing assigned conservative readings (like I, pencil) favorably in their reaction papers—a perfectly appropriate way to express one’s views in a course premised on digesting and responding to a variety of texts

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Larry Glickman @larryglickman.bsky.social · 1h

Right. Answering these questions to some extent requires "aligning" with what professors have taught them--in the sense of learning the material--not aligning with the professors opinion about random things unrelated to the course material.

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Spooky Back From the Dead Lazarus @jlazarus.bsky.social · 1h

Even in political science! Typical questions on my exams include "What's the jurisdiction of the Appropriations Committee?" "Which of the following agencies is an Independent Regulatory Commission?" and "Calculate the standard deviation of this set of numbers."

Larry Glickman @larryglickman.bsky.social · 1h

Also, I'm unsure what the claim that students align their viewpoints with the professor in order to get a good grade means. How does this work in biology, computer science, and math? How often do profs share their "viewpoints" in matters unrelated to the course, so that undergrads would even know?

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Nick Fleisher @nickfleisher.bsky.social · 1h

"Controversial topics" in spring 2024 were specifically and markedly different than they were a year earlier, for one thing. There's a good measure of equivocation built into the survey instrument and the resulting finding.

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Larry Glickman @larryglickman.bsky.social · 1h

Perhaps the 7 committee members provided empirical support for these claims and showed that these problems issues are now more prevalent. But the assertion that "many...students skip class and fail to do the reading" seems like an evergreen faculty complaint, that one can find in any era.

But once they get in, many of its students skip class and fail to do the reading, according to the Classroom Social Compact Committee, a group of seven faculty members that produced a report on Harvard’s classroom culture that has been fueling debate since it was released in January.

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Larry Glickman @larryglickman.bsky.social · 1h

Thanks, Elijah. I would never assign a grade based on whether a student's views "aligned" with mine. I don't even know how I would be expected to know student's views, except insofar as I inferred them from their comments in class, most of which had to do with analyzing texts, not spouting opinions.

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Larry Glickman @larryglickman.bsky.social · 1h

As far as I can tell, Anemona Hartocollis spoke to 3 students, one professor, one administrator at Harvard and relies on a report by 7 faculty members. The provenance of the report is not clearly explained: Who solicited the report? How were faculty selected? How did they gather evidence?

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Larry Glickman @larryglickman.bsky.social · 1h

Also, I'm unsure what the claim that students align their viewpoints with the professor in order to get a good grade means. How does this work in biology, computer science, and math? How often do profs share their "viewpoints" in matters unrelated to the course, so that undergrads would even know?

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Larry Glickman @larryglickman.bsky.social · 1h

Here's a good example of the everything but the kitchen sink style of the piece. What is the evidence that students are more worried about being ostracized or feeling stupid or aligning their views the professor or more likely to take classes that might result in a good grade than before?

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Charlotte Canning @cmcanning.bsky.social · 2h

Thanks for pointing this out!

I’m so tired of these, as you aptly put it, “bold assertions” that aren’t backed up by evidence and purport to prove that higher education has been corrupted. I want PROOF, otherwise, F off to any news outlet publishing this garbage.

Larry Glickman @larryglickman.bsky.social · 2h

This confused "kids these days" lament that offers very little empirical support for a set of remarkable bold assertions. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/06/u...

Harvard Students Skip Class and Still Get High Grades, Faculty Say

www.nytimes.com

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