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From the University of Michigan to the University of Florida. This month Santa Ono, president of the University of Michigan, was named the sole finalist for the University of Florida presidency. Ono’s tenure at Michigan was short and fraught, marked by student protests and the dismantling of the university’s massive diversity, equity, and inclusion program. Silke-Maria Weineck, a professor of German and comparative literature at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, argues in this Chronicle Review essay that Ono treated the Michigan presidency as a prolonged audition for Gov. Ron DeSantis, Florida’s Republican leader, who has set his sights on eradicating “wokeness” from higher education. Read her full opinion essay.
Student bots may be in your online course. Community colleges in California — and a few other states — are seeing a surge of “ghost students” who evade checkpoints in the enrollment system to receive financial aid, often a Pell Grant. It can take hours for instructors to identify bots in their courses and kick them out. To top it off, it can be difficult to distinguish a scammer from a student who uses AI. Our Beth McMurtrie takes you through the fascinating world of student bots and the professors rooting them out.
How a former congressman’s disputed donation helped sink a college presidency. Lori E. Varlotta had a clear mandate in 2020. Varlotta, then president of California Lutheran University, needed to lead the university through difficult financial waters, a controversy involving the softball team and accusations of blackface, and Covid. Thrown in that mix was what seemed like a routine donation from a local politician that has now prompted a lawsuit and has ended her presidency. How did a 774-word agreement go awry? Our David Jesse has the story.
This week on College Matters from The Chronicle. Meet the professor who wants to win back conservative students. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Read. If you haven’t read this story yet, don’t wait. If you have, revisit this Pulitzer Prize-winning piece about an Alabama pastor who had his life exposed by a right-wing website and ended his life over the revelations. (Esquire)
