Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

pam lach @plach.bsky.social · 1d

I went back to school after the PhD to become a librarian. Even tho I’m tenured faculty now, I don’t keep up with my original grad department (history). The department seems a little more interested in supporting folks who aren’t pursuing the professoriate, but I still doubt they would value my work

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pam lach @plach.bsky.social · 1d

You know it 😔

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pam lach @plach.bsky.social · 1d

Btw it’s really hard trying to focus on this external review on a beautiful Saturday (truly a perfect fall day). Especially with several writing deadlines looming + a tweaked back + a bout of insomnia last night 😭

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Ben Williamson @benpatrickwill.bsky.social · 1d

AI in education amplifies student surveillance

AI in education makes surveillance companies into trusted educational providers

AI in education surveillance techniques always threaten to creep beyond their original scope of operations

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pam lach @plach.bsky.social · 1d

Imagine if academia wasn't wholly reliant on extractive labor practices, constantly asking us to do more with less. Imagine if academia wasn't rooted in vocational awe, where saying "no" to requests isn't considered a moral failing

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pam lach @plach.bsky.social · 1d

External reviews are an imp service to the discipline + a way to support folks' tenure/promotion bids. I accept requests whenever I can. But surely there are better ways to support each other w/out stretching us beyond our capacities (I ponder as I finish 1 review/consider accepting another request)

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🎃 a frightful hoxgoblin 🎃 @kellenhoxworth.bsky.social · 2d

Higher Ed in 2025 is opening your mailbox to see that your institution has sent you:

1. A Center for Teaching and Learning call to integrate AI into your classroom; and

2. An Office of Academic Integrity email encouraging you to crack down on students who use AI to cheat.

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Professa Murray @kalimurray.bsky.social · 1d

UNC ought to be very ashamed here, particularly b/c numerous courts have ruled that these federal guidelines are based on the President’s EO, which has been unconstitutionally vague under the First Amendment

Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 1d

www.dailytarheel.com/article/e9c7...

UNC ends Black Student Movement's 52-year 'co-ownership' of Upendo Lounge

BSM President Adam Sherif said administrators cited new federal guidelines that instruct all federally funded entities to ensure they are not engaging in "discriminatory practices, including those lab...

www.dailytarheel.com

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pam lach @plach.bsky.social · 2d

SoCal sunset, double rainbow Halloween edition 🌈💀

Double rainbow in the eastern sky at sunset. The cloudy sky glows pink. Parts of tan houses are visible at the bottom of the frame

Several skeleton posed on a swing set. A rainbow appears to be emanating from one of the skulls. The eastern sky is pink, reflecting the sunset

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The Steady State @steadystatevets.bsky.social · 2d

MIT is the first university to reject Trump’s proposed “Compact for Academic Excellence.” MIT’s president: “Scientific funding should be based on scientific merit alone,” and "the people of MIT gladly compete with the very best, without preferences."

www.wsj.com/us-news/educ...

MIT Rejects Trump’s Sweeping ‘Compact’ Offering Colleges Funding Advantages

The school became the first university to reject the terms, saying they would undermine independence.

www.wsj.com

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Matthew Cheney @melikhovo.bsky.social · 3d

At an academic conference and the most common conversations I've had is stuff like, "How many faculty is your school trying to fire? Do you still have professional development funds? Do you still have an English department?" Fun times!

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Dr. Mag 🌿👾 @nobugsnous.bsky.social · 3d

I wrote this blog about how feeling like a killjoy whenever I talk about GenAI.
refusinggenai.wordpress.com/2025/10/09/o...

On Being a GenAI Killjoy

Maggie Fernandes, University of Arkansas Photo by Maksim Romashkin on Pexels.com At a recent teaching talk about GenAI refusal, an audience member asked Megan, Jen, and me this question: how d…

refusinggenai.wordpress.com

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pam lach @plach.bsky.social · 3d

Another incredible sunset here in SoCal 😍

A brilliant reddish-orange sunset over a SoCal backyard. Puffy clouds reflect a pinkish glow from the setting sun. Tree tops are partially visible in silhouette at the bottom of the frame

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Joshua Shapiro @josh.shapiro.foo · 3d

I don't want to sell anything, buy anything, or process anything by AI. I don't want to sell anything bought or processed with AI, or buy anything sold or processed with AI, or process anything sold, bought, or processed by AI, or repair anything sold, bought, or processed by AI.

Nancy Parmalee @nparmalee.bsky.social · 3d

I don’t want to generate or receive an email, document, manuscript, PowerPoint deck, post it note, grocery list, novel, film, or hit list that has been generated with AI.

Ned Resnikoff @resnikoff.bsky.social · 3d

I write because I love writing. I love writing even when I'm struggling with a writing problem that is killing me. Finding a way through that problem is both intensely rewarding and also helps me become a better writer. There is no reason for me to ever outsource that.

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pam lach @plach.bsky.social · 3d

Idk maybe we expect too much from our institutions? 😔

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pam lach @plach.bsky.social · 3d

Sooner or later, the college/uni you attend(ed) or work at will do something terrible re budget, academics, shared governance, labor rights, student rights, and/or protection of free speech/academic freedom. As much as I try not to be a doomsayer, it feels inevitable. Our institutions are failing us

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pam lach @plach.bsky.social · 3d

Or rather, there’s some dispute/confusion about whether this will be a School of AI or … something else that includes AI as a central focus? 🤔

University leadership announces development of new school at Carolina | UNC-Chapel Hill

The School of Information and Library Science and the School of Data Science and Society will be founding leaders of a new school to amplify and lead Carolina’s response to the information and data ne...

www.unc.edu

pam lach @plach.bsky.social · 3d

It’s telling when the Dean hops onto the alumni listserv to try to do damage control, spin the messaging, and smack talk the student paper for the supposed inaccuracies in its coverage (there’s some dispute about what this new school will be called?)

UNC schools of data science and information science to merge, forming unnamed ‘School of AI’

SDSS Dean Stanley Ahalt will be made dean of the new school while SILS Dean Jeffrey Bardzell will stand as the University’s Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer and Vice Provost for AI.

www.dailytarheel.com

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In the Library with the Lead Pipe @libraryleadpipe.bsky.social · 3d

"The opaque protocols we used to redact images and text were also moments of refusal—of denying the reader access to stolen, coerced, and unethically extracted materials produced in biomedical research."

In the Library with the Lead Pipe @libraryleadpipe.bsky.social · 4d

The Digital Opaque: Refusing the Biomedical Object by Sean Purcell, Kalani Craig and Michelle Dalmau

www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2025/digital...

The Digital Opaque: Refusing the Biomedical Object – In the Library with the Lead Pipe

www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org

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pam lach @plach.bsky.social · 4d

Just when I think my alma mater can’t sink any lower … 😔

Triangle Blog Blog @triangleblogblog.bsky.social · 4d

Breaking: We’ve talked to multiple individuals who have confirmed that UNC-CH is merging SILS (library and information science) and SDSS (data science and society). Announcement will be tomorrow morning. Faculty were not consulted.

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Kate Crowe @kcrowe.bsky.social · 4d

"Faculty were not consulted" 👀

Triangle Blog Blog @triangleblogblog.bsky.social · 4d

Breaking: We’ve talked to multiple individuals who have confirmed that UNC-CH is merging SILS (library and information science) and SDSS (data science and society). Announcement will be tomorrow morning. Faculty were not consulted.

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pam lach @plach.bsky.social · 4d

Proud to serve as the publishing editor for this fantastic piece. The authors position refusal as an ethical/methodological stance for working with "materials that depend on the objectification of, and through that objectification the commodification of, human subjects." It's a must read!

In the Library with the Lead Pipe @libraryleadpipe.bsky.social · 4d

The Digital Opaque: Refusing the Biomedical Object by Sean Purcell, Kalani Craig and Michelle Dalmau

www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2025/digital...

The Digital Opaque: Refusing the Biomedical Object – In the Library with the Lead Pipe

www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org

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Tech Policy Press @techpolicypress.bsky.social · 5d

The increasing use of AI to surveil people’s emotions endangers not only privacy but also personal autonomy—the bedrock of democracy, writes Oznur Uguz. Newly emerging AI laws fail to provide adequate safeguards, she says.

How AI-Powered Emotional Surveillance Can Threaten Personal Autonomy and Democracy | TechPolicy.Press

If we do not regulate emotional AI surveillance now, we might soon have to fake how we feel to protect our privacy, writes Oznur Uguz.

www.techpolicy.press

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pam lach @plach.bsky.social · 5d

I’m in my 6th and final year of serving as a university senator. I joined at the height of Covid, served through the intrusion of GenAI into higher ed, and continued through the current assault on academic freedom and knowledge production. No wonder I’m totally cooked

pam lach @plach.bsky.social · Sep 5

Art but make it shared governance

Left: people sitting in a semicircle of rows in a lecture hall
Right: Hieronymus Bosch’s “The Harrowing of Hell” featuring numerous people in tortured agony

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Esther Schindler @estherschindler.bsky.social · 6d

I just saw someone use the abbreviation “AI;DR” and I’ll be laughing for a while.

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