#Harvard professors sue #Trump administration over funding cut threats

by Katie Cole, April 14, 2025, #WBUR

"The Harvard chapter of the American Association of University Professors sued the Trump administration Friday over what they call an 'unlawful and unprecedented' attempt to use federal funding cuts to restrict #FreeSpeech.

"The #DepartmentOfEducation announced in late March that it would review $8.7 billion in federal grants and contacts given to Harvard, alleging that the school failed to prevent #antisemitic discrimination on campus.

"The Trump administration then unveiled a broad set of demands on April 4 the university must agree to in order to keep getting federal funding, including cutting all diversity, equity and inclusion programming, and modifying any programming and departments that 'fuel antisemitic harassment.' The administration gave Columbia University a similar set of demands in March, which the school agreed to.

"The lawsuit by the professors' group, filed in #Massachusetts federal court, alleges that the administration's federal funding review violates the #TitleVI of the #CivilRightsAct, which prohibits discrimination in programs that receive federal funds. The court filing says the law requires specific procedures to cut federal funds and that the Trump administration has not taken any of those steps.

"The group said in a press release that the administration's actions are in effort to create a chilling effect among universities and faculty to stop speech that the president does not like.

" 'Eliminating discrimination and protecting all students is important,' said Nikolas Bowie, a Harvard law professor and the secretary-treasurer of the school's #AAUP chapter, in a statement. 'But Trump is defying the Civil Rights Act, terrifying students, and illegally holding hostage grants for hospitals and scientific research so he can accomplish his real goal of punishing academics for our politics.'

"The lawsuit says that the actions by the administration have 'already caused severe and irreparable harm by halting #academic #research and #inquiry at Harvard.'

"This is the second suit that the Harvard AAUP chapter has filed against the Trump administration this year. The first was a joint suit with other chapters, including one from Columbia, over federal efforts to deport #MahmoudKhalil and students that engaged in #ProPalestinian #activism."

https://www.wbur.org/news/2025/04/14/harvard-aaup-trump-funding-cuts-lawsuit

#SilencingDissent #CharacteristicsOfFascism #Fascism #Authoritarian #Authoritarianism #BibiIsAWarCriminal #FreeMahmoudKhalil #FreePalestine #AcademicFreedom #FreeSpeech #TrumpIsABully #DEI #Erasure #Censorship

Petition: Commission a public inquiry into the impact of the UK exiting the European Union

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/700184

Given that it has stated its aim of growing the UK economy, we think the Government needs to quantify the effects of exiting the European Union as soon as possible by setting up an inquiry.

#Petition #Inquiry #Brexit

C.S. Peirce • Logic of Number (MS 229)
• https://inquiryintoinquiry.com/2012/09/01/c-s-peirce-logic-of-number-ms-229/

❝All other sciences without exception depend upon the principles of mathematics; and mathematics borrows nothing from them but hints.❞

— C.S. Peirce

#Peirce #Inquiry #Mathematics #Science
#FoundationsOfMathematics #Pragmatism

Higher Order Sign Relations • Discussion 1
• https://inquiryintoinquiry.com/2025/03/27/higher-order-sign-relations-discussion-1-a/

Re: FB | Charles S. Peirce Society • John Corcoran
• https://www.facebook.com/groups/peircesociety/posts/1768975423238442/

Questions about the proper treatment of use and mention from the standpoint of Peirce’s theory of signs came up recently in discussions on Facebook. In pragmatic semiotics the trade‑off between “signs-of-objects” and “signs-as-objects” opens up the wider space of Higher Order Sign Relations. In previous work on Inquiry Driven Systems I introduced the subject in the following way.

When interpreters reflect on their use of signs they require an appropriate technical language in which to pursue their reflections. They need signs referring to sign relations, signs referring to elements and components of sign relations, and signs referring to properties and classes of sign relations. The orders of signs developing as reflection evolves can be organized under the heading of “higher order signs” and the reflective sign relations involving them can be referred to as “higher order sign relations”.

References —

John Corcoran
• https://johncorcoran.academia.edu/

Schemata : The Concept of Schema in the History of Logic
• https://www.academia.edu/12691868/SCHEMATA_THE_CONCEPT_OF_SCHEMA_IN_THE_HISTORY_OF_LOGIC

Use And Mention, Use Without Mention, Mention Without Use
• https://www.academia.edu/s/ea64a3484e/schemata#comment_525151

Resources —

Higher Order Sign Relations
• https://oeis.org/wiki/Inquiry_Driven_Systems_%E2%80%A2_Part_12#Higher_Order_Sign_Relations

Survey of Inquiry Driven Systems
• https://inquiryintoinquiry.com/2024/02/28/survey-of-inquiry-driven-systems-6/

Survey of Semiotics, Semiosis, Sign Relations
• https://inquiryintoinquiry.com/2024/01/26/survey-of-semiotics-semiosis-sign-relations-5/

#Peirce #Inquiry #Logic #Mathematics #Reflection
#Semiotics #SignRelations #HigherOrderSignRelations
#InquiryDrivenSystems #ReflectiveInterpretiveFrameworks
#Arithmetization #GödelNumbers #Quotation #UseAndMention