Stephen Meserve
@smeserve.bsky.social
Practicing political scientist, hiker, tabletop gamer, etc in Northern Arizona
Reposted by Stephen Meserve
Under new Trump administration rules, students won't be able to borrow as much for medical or nursing school or some other health professions.
New limits on school loans could narrow physician and nurse pipeline, educators warn
Under new Trump administration rules, students won't be able to borrow as much for medical or nursing school or some other health professions.
n.pr
November 29, 2025 at 4:48 PM
Under new Trump administration rules, students won't be able to borrow as much for medical or nursing school or some other health professions.
Reposted by Stephen Meserve
If you actually have to do work, AI often just makes more work because you have to spend so much time making sure it didn't lie to you again.
A study by Dayforce shows 87% of executives use AI for work, compared to 57% of managers and just 27% of employees.
I think this explains the massive disconnect we see in how CEOs talk about AI versus everyone else. It also raises the question of how useful it truly is for frontline work?
I think this explains the massive disconnect we see in how CEOs talk about AI versus everyone else. It also raises the question of how useful it truly is for frontline work?
Execs are embracing AI more than their employees are, new research suggests
Research from HR software company Dayforce suggests that executives are leaning into AI far more than their employees.
www.businessinsider.com
November 29, 2025 at 4:01 PM
If you actually have to do work, AI often just makes more work because you have to spend so much time making sure it didn't lie to you again.
Reposted by Stephen Meserve
Just pointing out how grim the funding situation is. If an institution fights you have no idea where future grants are coming from. Harvard won in court and is still telling researchers to cut everything 20% because they don’t know what happens next. Somehow everybody has to make it to Jan 2029
Yes I agree with this. The problem for grant-dependent researchers is that even if they win in court to get their illegally withheld funds, they’re sure to be denied any new grants by these corrupted agencies. 2026-2028 will be a killing field as institutions hemorrhage their research apparatus
November 29, 2025 at 1:51 PM
Just pointing out how grim the funding situation is. If an institution fights you have no idea where future grants are coming from. Harvard won in court and is still telling researchers to cut everything 20% because they don’t know what happens next. Somehow everybody has to make it to Jan 2029
Reposted by Stephen Meserve
This means NSF dissertation improvement grants in the social sciences are simply...not happening.
NEW from me - NSF cancels grant scheme for social science research.
Seems the NSF quietly archived ALL calls for DDRIG grants in the SBE directorate. This is a massive blow for PhD students wanting to do cutting-edge social science research. 🏺🧪
Seems the NSF quietly archived ALL calls for DDRIG grants in the SBE directorate. This is a massive blow for PhD students wanting to do cutting-edge social science research. 🏺🧪
Today's biggest science news: Doomed comet explodes | Comet 3I/ATLAS course alteration | Dark matter detected?
Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2025: Your daily feed of the biggest discoveries and breakthroughs making headlines.
www.livescience.com
November 27, 2025 at 1:16 PM
This means NSF dissertation improvement grants in the social sciences are simply...not happening.
Reposted by Stephen Meserve
The NSF social sciences program has funded some of the best research I’ve seen, especially at the PhD level. There really isn’t another country in the world with the equivalent funding capacity to fill this gap, and the damage from this choice will be felt for a long time.
NEW from me - NSF cancels grant scheme for social science research.
Seems the NSF quietly archived ALL calls for DDRIG grants in the SBE directorate. This is a massive blow for PhD students wanting to do cutting-edge social science research. 🏺🧪
Seems the NSF quietly archived ALL calls for DDRIG grants in the SBE directorate. This is a massive blow for PhD students wanting to do cutting-edge social science research. 🏺🧪
Today's biggest science news: Doomed comet explodes | Comet 3I/ATLAS course alteration | Dark matter detected?
Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2025: Your daily feed of the biggest discoveries and breakthroughs making headlines.
www.livescience.com
November 27, 2025 at 7:04 AM
The NSF social sciences program has funded some of the best research I’ve seen, especially at the PhD level. There really isn’t another country in the world with the equivalent funding capacity to fill this gap, and the damage from this choice will be felt for a long time.
Reposted by Stephen Meserve
Reposted by Stephen Meserve
One of my beliefs is that during a holiday week email shouldn't work at all for anyone
November 26, 2025 at 3:32 AM
One of my beliefs is that during a holiday week email shouldn't work at all for anyone
Reposted by Stephen Meserve
"The high-income admissions advantage at Ivy-Plus colleges is driven by three factors: (1) preferences for children of alumni, (2) weight placed on non-academic credentials, and (3) athletic recruitment...The three factors...are uncorrelated or negatively correlated with post-college outcomes..."
Recently accepted by #QJE, “Diversifying Society’s Leaders? The Determinants and Causal Effects of Admission to Highly Selective Private Colleges,” by Chetty (@Oppinsights), Deming, and Friedman: doi.org/10.1093/qje/...
Diversifying Society’s Leaders? The Determinants and Causal Effects of Admission to Highly Selective Private Colleges*
Abstract. We use anonymized admissions data from several colleges linked to income tax records and SAT and ACT test scores to study the determinants and ca
doi.org
November 23, 2025 at 10:51 PM
"The high-income admissions advantage at Ivy-Plus colleges is driven by three factors: (1) preferences for children of alumni, (2) weight placed on non-academic credentials, and (3) athletic recruitment...The three factors...are uncorrelated or negatively correlated with post-college outcomes..."
Reposted by Stephen Meserve
me waking up and opening this app
November 22, 2025 at 12:02 PM
me waking up and opening this app
Reposted by Stephen Meserve
Yes. But also, Orbán was in power for 14 years until finally a successful challenger emerged and Orbán's popularity drastically declined. So the interesting question to ask is: Why now? And why was Magyar so much more successful in his anti-corruption messaging than others before him?
Hungary’s Orban seemed undefeatable a year ago.
Then Peter Magyar broke through with a powerful anti-corruption platform, rapidly consolidated the fractured opposition, and now leads Fidesz comfortably.
Anti-corruption defeats authoritarianism worldwide. It will work here, too.
Then Peter Magyar broke through with a powerful anti-corruption platform, rapidly consolidated the fractured opposition, and now leads Fidesz comfortably.
Anti-corruption defeats authoritarianism worldwide. It will work here, too.
November 20, 2025 at 8:44 PM
Yes. But also, Orbán was in power for 14 years until finally a successful challenger emerged and Orbán's popularity drastically declined. So the interesting question to ask is: Why now? And why was Magyar so much more successful in his anti-corruption messaging than others before him?
Reposted by Stephen Meserve
my most butlerian jihad coded belief is that we should probably make it illegal – and more importantly, we should work toward a cultural consensus that it is immoral – to design a computer program whose interface uses the first person
November 21, 2025 at 1:21 PM
my most butlerian jihad coded belief is that we should probably make it illegal – and more importantly, we should work toward a cultural consensus that it is immoral – to design a computer program whose interface uses the first person
Reposted by Stephen Meserve
I'm looking forward to the upcoming "Journal of Adversarial Poetry"
November 20, 2025 at 9:52 PM
I'm looking forward to the upcoming "Journal of Adversarial Poetry"
Reposted by Stephen Meserve
The Eric Schickler essay in Larry Bartel's symposium on "What Trump Has Taught Us About Political Science" is one of the most insightful pieces I've read in 2025.
US institutions turned out to be weak, and we have to rethink conventional wisdom.
open access: academic.oup.com/psq/advance-...
US institutions turned out to be weak, and we have to rethink conventional wisdom.
open access: academic.oup.com/psq/advance-...
November 19, 2025 at 8:08 PM
The Eric Schickler essay in Larry Bartel's symposium on "What Trump Has Taught Us About Political Science" is one of the most insightful pieces I've read in 2025.
US institutions turned out to be weak, and we have to rethink conventional wisdom.
open access: academic.oup.com/psq/advance-...
US institutions turned out to be weak, and we have to rethink conventional wisdom.
open access: academic.oup.com/psq/advance-...
voting to eliminate your own poli sci grad programs is both a completely rational thing to do in reaction to the removal of virtually all resources over the past 5 years but also absolutely feels like stabbing yourself in the heart.
November 19, 2025 at 7:31 PM
voting to eliminate your own poli sci grad programs is both a completely rational thing to do in reaction to the removal of virtually all resources over the past 5 years but also absolutely feels like stabbing yourself in the heart.
Reposted by Stephen Meserve
Wow if only there was some sort of fairly recent historical precedent warning us about the dangers of slicing up and reselling debt across the financial landscape.
WSJ: “.. If the AI market blows up, the blast radius would be wide, hitting not only Wall Street firms, but also pensions, mutual and exchange-traded funds and individual investors, because of how debt is often sliced and resold across the financial landscape.”
@wsj.com
www.wsj.com/finance/inve...
@wsj.com
www.wsj.com/finance/inve...
November 17, 2025 at 8:58 PM
Wow if only there was some sort of fairly recent historical precedent warning us about the dangers of slicing up and reselling debt across the financial landscape.
I mean, I guess I would be embarrassed to rely upon AI to literally adjust my student assessments of students and read and summarize crucial emails from my provosts on issues but here we are.
www.insidehighered.com/opinion/care...
www.insidehighered.com/opinion/care...
A President’s Journey to AI Adoption (opinion)
José Luis Cruz Rivera explains how he’s come to use AI in academic leadership, and the sources of inspiration and learning he’s found along the way.
www.insidehighered.com
November 19, 2025 at 2:16 PM
I mean, I guess I would be embarrassed to rely upon AI to literally adjust my student assessments of students and read and summarize crucial emails from my provosts on issues but here we are.
www.insidehighered.com/opinion/care...
www.insidehighered.com/opinion/care...
Reposted by Stephen Meserve
A reminder: Tariffs are a regressive tax. The anti-Robin Hood.
Trump's current tariff settings effectively impose a tax rate on low-income households that's roughly TRIPLE that on high-income folks. That's not the way taxes are supposed to work.
[source: budgetlab.yale.edu/research/sta...
Trump's current tariff settings effectively impose a tax rate on low-income households that's roughly TRIPLE that on high-income folks. That's not the way taxes are supposed to work.
[source: budgetlab.yale.edu/research/sta...
November 18, 2025 at 11:59 PM
A reminder: Tariffs are a regressive tax. The anti-Robin Hood.
Trump's current tariff settings effectively impose a tax rate on low-income households that's roughly TRIPLE that on high-income folks. That's not the way taxes are supposed to work.
[source: budgetlab.yale.edu/research/sta...
Trump's current tariff settings effectively impose a tax rate on low-income households that's roughly TRIPLE that on high-income folks. That's not the way taxes are supposed to work.
[source: budgetlab.yale.edu/research/sta...
Reposted by Stephen Meserve
AI presents a fundamental threat to our ability to use polls to assess public opinion. Bad actors who are able to infiltrate panels can flip close election polls for less than the cost of a Starbucks coffee. Models will also infer and confirm hypotheses in experiments. Current quality checks fail
November 18, 2025 at 9:23 PM
AI presents a fundamental threat to our ability to use polls to assess public opinion. Bad actors who are able to infiltrate panels can flip close election polls for less than the cost of a Starbucks coffee. Models will also infer and confirm hypotheses in experiments. Current quality checks fail
Reposted by Stephen Meserve
One reason why elite schools (Columbia, Brown, Cornell) caving to Trump’s illegal impoundment and extortion is so galling — a betrayal, really — is that they would have won had they fought. By giving up, they guaranteed every other school will have to fight harder.
Judge bars Trump from immediately cutting funding to the University of California | CNN Politics
The Trump administration cannot immediately cut federal funding to the University of California or issue fines against the school system over claims it allows antisemitism or other forms of discrimina...
www.cnn.com
November 15, 2025 at 1:02 PM
One reason why elite schools (Columbia, Brown, Cornell) caving to Trump’s illegal impoundment and extortion is so galling — a betrayal, really — is that they would have won had they fought. By giving up, they guaranteed every other school will have to fight harder.
Reposted by Stephen Meserve
Jim Ryan's letter is not just surreal and troubling; it provides a series of deeply sobering lessons—about the perils facing public universities today; about what it means to "work with" this Department of Justice; & about what leadership does (and doesn't) entail at this especially fraught moment.
Former UVA president Jim Ryan, who resigned over the summer due to pressure from the Trump Administration, just shared this 12-page letter with the Faculty Senate, detailing his experience with the Board of Visitors and DOJ.
It's a surreal--and troubling--read.
drive.google.com/file/d/1Is6x...
It's a surreal--and troubling--read.
drive.google.com/file/d/1Is6x...
November 14, 2025 at 2:42 PM
Jim Ryan's letter is not just surreal and troubling; it provides a series of deeply sobering lessons—about the perils facing public universities today; about what it means to "work with" this Department of Justice; & about what leadership does (and doesn't) entail at this especially fraught moment.
Reposted by Stephen Meserve
There seriously needs to be a study about how the everyday life friction of increased grift and enshittification in every aspect of life weighs on people’s institutional trust and what effects they may have on political attitudes and participation.
The whole of the internet is now run on the things that would have not made it past your email junk filter 20 years ago.
Meta earns $3.5 billion every six months from showing Faceboon and Instagram users 15 billion “higher legal risk” scam ad impressions a day, internal documents state.
That haul vastly exceeds how much the company expects regulators
To fine it for running scam ads.
www.reuters.com/investigatio...
That haul vastly exceeds how much the company expects regulators
To fine it for running scam ads.
www.reuters.com/investigatio...
November 6, 2025 at 12:34 PM
There seriously needs to be a study about how the everyday life friction of increased grift and enshittification in every aspect of life weighs on people’s institutional trust and what effects they may have on political attitudes and participation.
I didn't know Mair but he would be nodding approvingly about these sorts of comments.
ah, perhaps instead of pumping millions into endless factional infighting Dem donors could invest in making local Dem organizations genuine civic spaces that can reach people during and between elections
November 5, 2025 at 1:30 PM
I didn't know Mair but he would be nodding approvingly about these sorts of comments.
Reposted by Stephen Meserve
A "frontier" RCT showing college students preferred LLM (ChatGPT-4) and peer feedback to teacher feedback, but teacher feedback most improved performance. I hope they analyze feedback for style. I wonder whether students positively responded to sycophancy in LLM. #PsychSciSky #AcademicSky #EduSky
Teacher, peer, or AI? Comparing effects of feedback sources in higher education
With the emergence of Large Language Models (LLMs), AI-generated feedback is gaining traction as a scalable feedback source for higher education. To q…
doi.org
November 3, 2025 at 1:15 PM
A "frontier" RCT showing college students preferred LLM (ChatGPT-4) and peer feedback to teacher feedback, but teacher feedback most improved performance. I hope they analyze feedback for style. I wonder whether students positively responded to sycophancy in LLM. #PsychSciSky #AcademicSky #EduSky