Whiplash: Special Issue Part III: Higher Education Year in Review 2023-24
The biggest stories of the last academic year were those that tested governance and stared down clashes over questions of free and protected speech, and the ethics of teaching and learning.
Why do we care about last year?
The tail-end of summer—which is now—may be the best time to think about what happened last year; too late to make big decisions for the fall semester, it gives us (especially the administrators and gurus among us) more courage to face those decisions. Read on.
My thanks again to our writers Elizabeth Janice, Amy Genito, and Andrew Nason for tackling the challenge of summing up a year in a few hundred words, to our researchers Skyler Scampoli, Brittany di Palma, and Rachel Genito for pouring over thousands of headlines, and to our technical designer, Christopher Wajda, for creating the images to make our serendipitous timeline sidebars possible. As always contact me at Peter Meyer with questions, comments, or suggestions.
“Political tension surrounding the Israel-Hamas war has plunged some of the nation’s most well-known college campuses into disarray.” —University Business
Story #3
Love It or Hate It: ChatGPT in the Classroom Is (Probably) Here to Stay
Depending on whom you ask, artificial intelligence is either the greatest boon to higher education since online learning or it will lead to the destruction of academia as we know it. The reality most probably lies somewhere in between. But the sudden arrival of AI in the classroom in the form of ChatGPT—the AI program released in November 2022 by an upstart called OpenAI—and the speed with which it became, overnight, all anyone was talking about forced educators to quickly integrate the technology into the classroom. Earlier this year Arizona State University became the first higher education institution to partner with OpenAI to give ASU students and faculty access to its most advanced iteration of ChatGPT. Meanwhile, over the last year, a small number of institutions, including the University of Michigan, have created their own versions of ChatGPT for students and faculty. According to a recent study, nearly half of college students have embraced generative-AI tools, versus only 22 percent of faculty members. This disconnect highlights the need for more institutional guidance and policies on AI use in teaching and learning. —Elizabeth Janice
Sources
ChatGPT Can Get Off My Lawn (Martin Center)
Inside the A.I. Arms Race That Changed Silicon Valley Forever (New York Times)
Arizona State Joins ChatGPT in First Higher Ed Partnership (Inside Higher Ed)
Universities Build Their Own ChatGPT-like Tools (Inside Higher Ed)
Why You Should Rethink Your Resistance to ChatGPT (Chronicle of Higher Education)
Further Reading
Why the Godfather of A.I. Fears What He’s Built (New Yorker)
How a Fervent Belief Split Silicon Valley—and Fueled the Blowup at OpenAI (Wall Street Journal)
Happy (?) First Birthday to ChatGPT (Inside Higher Ed)
Why You Shouldn’t Use ChatGPT (Inside Higher Ed)
ChatGPT Has Changed Teaching. Our Readers Tell Us How. (Chronicle of Higher Education)
Some universities are ditching AI detection software amid fears students could be falsely accused of cheating by using ChatGPT (Business Insider)
Story #2
Three Four Ivy League Presidents, All Women, Grilled by a Congressional Committee, Dodge Questions About Antisemitism; Two Three Step Down
A disastrous testimony on Capitol Hill in December of last year caused public outrage and led to the resignation of Claudine Gay of Harvard University and Elizabeth Magill of the University of Pennsylvania. Sally Kornbluth of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology survived. The nationally televised appearances before the Republican-controlled House Committee on Education and the Workforce, to answer questions about the rise in antisemitism on their campuses, was a public relations bust for the presidents. The loud and sometimes violent student protests had quickly grown from outrage over Hamas slaughter to a Hamas-Israeli war in which the Israelis were attacked for their disproportionate responses. And that deadly response – some called it genocide -- was front and center at the hearings. (See Story #10, Part I in this trilogy). Much of the outrage centered on a line of questioning from Representative Elise Stefanik (R-NY), who repeatedly asked whether calls for “intifada” and “the genocide of Jews” constitute bullying and harassment. All three presidents appeared to dodge the question. Kornbluth, who is Jewish, said that such rhetoric could be “antisemitic depending on the context.” Penn’s Magill had a similar response. “If the speech turns into conduct, it can be harassment,” she said. The three women argued that the slogans fall within the bounds of protected speech and said they would not interfere unless demonstrations degenerated into physical violence. Within 24 hours, Gay and Magill had walked back some of their remarks, but by then the damage had already been done. Demands that the presidents resign immediately began circulating on X. Within days, Magill stepped down from Penn, followed by Gay’s resignation from Harvard a few weeks later. AND THIS JUST IN (8/15/24): Shafik resigns at Columbia. “The third Ivy League president to resign in the wake of turbulent congressional appearances and strife connected to the Israel-Hamas war,” reporters The New York Times. See also PTW, “Shafik Goes to Washington.” —Elizabeth Janice
Sources
Lawmakers grill 3 elite university presidents for handling of antisemitism on campus (University Business)
The Big University Fail (City Journal)
Calling for ‘genocide of Jews’ not always ‘bullying’: elite college presidents (College Fix)
House Education Committee to Investigate Harvard, MIT, UPenn over Campus Antisemitism (National Review)
Penn’s Leadership Resigns Amid Controversies Over Antisemitism (New York Times)
The Big University Fail (City Journal)
Columbia President Resigns After Months of Turmoil on Campus (New York Times)
Shafik Goes to Washington (PaideiaTimesWeekly)
Further Reading
UPenn crisis deepens: Former trustee calls for president to resign as donors bail (CNN Business)
College presidents face down House Republicans over antisemitism response (Politico)
Presidents of Harvard, MIT, Penn Profess to Congress They ‘Abhor’ Antisemitism, as Students Report Death Threats on Campus (New York Sun)
The House Republican Going After Universities on Antisemitism (New York Times)
Story #1
Claudine Gay’s Short, Scandal-Filled Tenure at Harvard
Claudine Gay, the first black person and the second woman to lead Harvard University, assumed that presidency with high expectations, but her tenure was immediately mired in scandal. She was accused of bullying colleagues, suppressing free speech, overseeing a racist admissions program, and, finally, failing to stand up to rampant antisemitism on campus. Pressure from donors along with a highly organized conservative campaign to oust her ultimately led to her losing her job. For weeks after Gay’s disastrous testimony in Congress in early December, Harvard’s governing board stood by its president. On December 12, the board put out a statement in support of Gay. From the beginning of the crisis, Gay had been barraged not just with criticism and bad press but also with death threats and racist messages and phone calls, which grew more intense as the weeks went on. Then on December 19, allegations of plagiarism in Gay’s academic work emerged, and by the day after Christmas, board members agreed that the best path forward for Harvard was without Gay in the president’s chair. In a December 27 phone call, Gay said she would resign, becoming the shortest-serving president in Harvard’s 388-year history—with a tenure of just 185 days. —-Elizabeth Janice
Sources