69 h. ago Brits fume against Meta as fears loom over Donald Trump economic deal

Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, will stop proactively scanning for harmful content in some instances in order to boost free speech and reduce 'censorship'

Economics

3 d. ago Cornell student protester facing deportation leaves the US on his 'own terms' after losing faith

A Cornell University student facing deportation after his visa was revoked over campus activism said he decided to leave the United States

Events

5 d. ago Columbia alumni rip up diplomas to protest activist Mahmoud Khalil’s arrest

Group of Sipa graduates demonstrate against government’s jailing of graduate student, who spoke up for PalestiniansA handful of alumni from Columbia University’s school of international and public affairs (Sipa) ripped their diplomas in a show of protest against the federal government’s jailing of graduate student Mahmoud Khalil’s over his activism for Palestinians.On Saturday, instead of participating in the university’s annual Sipa alumni day, a few dozen alumni and students gathered outside campus as part of a protest organized by Sipa’s and Barnard Alumni for Palestine groups. Continue reading...

Events

5 d. ago How and why parents and teachers are introducing young children to AI

Guardian readers share the ways and reasons they are preparing their children and students for a future that may necessitate familiarity with generative artificial intelligenceSince the release of ChatGPT in late 2022, generative artificial intelligence has trickled down from adults in their offices to university students in campus libraries to teenagers in high school hallways. Now it’s reaching the youngest among us, and parents and teachers are grappling with the most responsible way to introduce their under-13s to a new technology that may fundamentally reshape the future. Though the terms of service for ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini and other AI models specify that the tools are only meant for those over 13, parents and teachers are taking the matter of AI education into their own hands.Inspired by a story we published on parents who are teaching their children to use AI to set them up for success in school and at work, we asked Guardian readers how and why – or why not – others are...

Society

9 d. ago Don’t just blame Trump – Democrats paved the way for this campus crackdown | Musa al

Both parties are responsible for the mess facing Columbia and other institutions. It’s time for their leaders to take a standDonald Trump trying to cow higher education institutions into submission using the power of the purse. The administration has withheld $400m in federal funds from Columbia University and has vowed to remove even more if its demands are not met.Columbia has an endowment of $14.8bn and an annual operating budget of $6.6bn. The cuts amount to roughly 6% of its annual budget – a non-trivial share. In order to keep it, Columbia was instructed to adopt a number of illiberal measures: it must put its Middle East, South Asia and Africa Studies department into academic receivership; change its admissions policies to reduce admits of people from those regions and admit more Jewish students;and grant campus police more power to surveil, detain and remove people from campus without following the usual due process. It must accept permanently heightened restrictions on camp...

Politics

9 d. ago Tensions bubble on elite college campus as students fume over Trump's free speech move

On the already tense Upper West Side campus, discomfort is simmering. After over a year of protests, the young students are incandescent with renewed rage.

Politics

2 w. ago ‘The Palestinian exception’: Trump limits campus free speech with the complicity of Zionist Jews | Jeff Melnick and Jessie Lee Rubin

The promotion of Israel’s national narrative remains exempt from Trump’s wholesale attack on DEIOn 7 March, the Trump administration announced that it had cancelled $400m in federal grants and contracts to Columbia University, saying the school’s “Jewish students have faced relentless violence, intimidation, and antisemitic harassment on their campuses” and that “universities must comply with all federal anti-discrimination laws if they are going to receive federal funding”.The “harassment” leveraged by the president and other pro-Israel ideologues was a reference to the paradigm-setting pro-Palestine activism that energized the campus over the past year. Columbia’s students became national leaders in the anti-genocide movement, and the Gaza solidarity encampment they established garnered international attention – including from the US Congress, which held hearings on so-called “campus antisemitism”. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago How antisemitism avoided the fate of antiracism | Jeff Melnick and Jessie Lee Rubin

The promotion of Israel’s national narrative remains exempt from Trump’s wholesale attack on DEIOn 7 March, the Trump administration announced that it had cancelled $400m in federal grants and contracts to Columbia University, saying the school’s “Jewish students have faced relentless violence, intimidation, and antisemitic harassment on their campuses” and that “universities must comply with all federal anti-discrimination laws if they are going to receive federal funding”.The “harassment” leveraged by the president and other pro-Israel ideologues was a reference to the paradigm-setting pro-Palestinian activism that energized the campus over the past year. Columbia’s students became national leaders in the anti-genocide movement, and the Gaza solidarity encampment they established garnered international attention – including from the US Congress, which held hearings on so-called “campus antisemitism”. Continue reading...

Events

2 w. ago There’s nothing elitist about college or university. We should reject that idea | Carlo Invernizzi

Higher education institutions continue to function as powerful engines of social mobility. They need more, not less, supportIt’s no secret that the Trump administration is not a friend of the country’s higher education system. During a speech he gave at the National Conservatism conference in October 2021, vice-president JD Vance pinpointed American universities as “the enemy” while repeating a litany of increasingly familiar charges about their purported cultural elitism, radical-left ideological agenda, and incapacity to prepare students for the real needs of the labor market.More recently, Donald Trump has also endorsed plans to tax university endowments and abolish the Department of Education, which oversees both the federal Pell Grant system and most federally subsidized student loan programs, jointly accounting for about 40% of the country’s higher education revenues.Carlo Invernizzi-Accetti is executive director of the Moynihan Center and full professor of political science a...

Politics

2 w. ago College staff member struck off for sending explicit messages on work laptop

Gaio Ze Kouyate, a virtual world learning specialist at Cardiff and Vale College (CAVC), also 'deliberately' exposed students to sexualised avatars on the college's virtual campus

Politics

3 w. ago Columbia University says it expelled some students who seized building last year

Columbia University says it has expelled or suspended some students who took over a campus building during pro-Palestinian protests last spring, and had temporarily revoked the diplomas of some students who have since graduated

Culture

3 w. ago Jewish group fills Trump Tower's lobby to protest effort to deport pro

Demonstrators from a Jewish group have filled the lobby of Trump Tower to denounce the immigration arrest of a Columbia University activist who helped lead student protests on the Manhattan campus against Israel’s war in Gaza

Politics

3 w. ago Fear on Columbia campus as Trump admin arrests student for deportation over Gaza protests

Mahmoud Khalil, a permanent legal resident, was detained at his university-owned residence on Saturday evening by immigration authorities

Events

4 w. ago Trump administration withdraws $400 million in contracts and grants to Columbia University: Live updates

‘For too long, Columbia has abandoned that obligation to Jewish students studying on its campus,’ Education Secretary Linda McMahon says

Economics

4 w. ago 1 arrested, more suspects sought after Southern University fraternity hazing death

Police say one arrest has been made and at least two more are expected in connection with the death of a 20-year-old Southern University student after an off-campus fraternity hazing ritual

Events