Dispatches from the Academic Trenches

January 2, 2026 Greetings from the Swamp.   As the new year takes hold, the attacks against public higher education continue. Those with their student loans in default could face having their wages garnished (though, The Debt Collective offers some helpful advice to avoid doing so).  Harvard continues trying to negotiate a settlement with the Department of Education but keeps running up against an administration that seems more intent in holding the university in its crossh

October 19, 2025 Greetings from the Swamp.   I bike to the beach in a weekly attempt to temporarily clear my mind of the increasing political tumult that has swept over our swamp and increasingly engulfs the nation. Sitting on the sand, book in hand, listening to the waves lapping upon the shore grounds one. The sun’s heat kneads into one’s skin where humidity, flesh, brine filled breeze, and sand enfold into one another. But as the suns’ weight builds, one has the ocean clos

September 22, 2025 Greetings from the Swamp! This past week finds us confronting two related onslaughts against public education. UC Berkeley, home of the free speech movement in the 1960s, recently shared the names of 160 faculty and students involved in alleged past antisemitic incidents with the Department of Education. None of the accused have been told the charges against them. Prominent gender studies theorist Judith Butler , whose name was one of the 160, noted: “We ha