petersuber6h ago

"Trump Slashed Science Funding. Now the U.S. Could Face a Costly Brain Drain."
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/04/business/dealbook/trump-brain-drain-academia.html

"Last month, the Partnership for Public Service…estimated that 95,000 employees had departed federal science agencies from September 2024 to December 2025…To the rest of the world, the Trump administration’s cuts to science seem like an unbidden gift…Several are making sizable investments to attract American talent."

#BrainDrain #DefendResearch #Funding #Trump #TrumpVResearch #USPol #USPolitics

Trump Slashed Science Funding. Now the U.S. Could Face a Costly Brain Drain.

The White House’s attacks on academia and budget cuts for research have provided an opening for other countries to poach leading scientists.

The New York Times
petersuber1d ago

"Massive budget cuts for US science proposed again by Trump administration."
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-01105-7

"For the second year in a row, US President Donald Trump has proposed significant cuts to the budgets of major US science agencies…[The plan] includes a ban on using federal funds for subscriptions and publishing fees for some academic journals…Some of the steepest cuts would be made to the National Science Foundation (#NSF) and the Environmental Protection Agency (#EPA): the budgets of both would fall more than 50% in 2027 compared to their current levels…The budget for the US National Institutes of Health [#NIH] would drop 13%…The budget would increase funding for…the military, which would receive US $1.5 trillion, a 44% increase."

#DefendResearch #Funding #Trump #TrumpVResearch #USPol #USPolitics

Massive budget cuts for US science proposed again by Trump administration

Budget proposal would also curb federal payments for scientific publishing.

Peter Suber2d ago
"According to an @[email protected] analysis of more than 60 key #HigherEd lawsuits, the [Trump administration] has the upper hand in just 17 cases." www.insidehighered.com/news/governm... #AcadSky #AcademicSky #DefendResearch #EduSky #Trump #TrumpVResearch #Universities #USLaw #USPol #USPolitics

As Lawsuits Against Trump Pile...
As Lawsuits Against Trump Pile Up, Strategies Shift

The government has secured some notable wins, but plaintiffs aiming to rein in Trump’s higher ed agenda still hold the upper hand, an Inside Higher Ed analysis shows.

Inside Higher Ed | Higher Education News, Events and Jobs
petersuber2d ago

"According to an @insidehighered analysis of more than 60 key #HigherEd lawsuits, the [Trump administration] has the upper hand in just 17 cases as of April 1."
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/government/courts/2026/04/03/lawsuits-against-trump-pile-strategies-shift

#Academia #AcademicMastodon #Censorship #DefendResearch #Trump #TrumpVResearch #Universities #USLaw #USPol #USPolitics

As Lawsuits Against Trump Pile Up, Strategies Shift

The government has secured some notable wins, but plaintiffs aiming to rein in Trump’s higher ed agenda still hold the upper hand, an Inside Higher Ed analysis shows.

Inside Higher Ed | Higher Education News, Events and Jobs
petersuber3d ago

"Trump Administration Orders Dismantling of the U.S. Forest Service."
https://morethanjustparks.substack.com/p/breaking-trump-administration-orders

"They’re shuttering every single one of the ten regional offices that have governed this agency since Gifford Pinchot built the system over a century ago — and with them, the career professionals who spent entire lifetimes earning the expertise and the authority to push back when politicians came calling with bad ideas and worse motives. They’re destroying more than fifty research facilities across thirty-one states…And they’re replacing all of it — the offices, the scientists, the institutional knowledge, the professional independence — with fifteen political appointees called 'state directors,' embedded in state capitals alongside the very governors, legislators, and industry lobbyists who have spent their careers demanding that the Forest Service log more, protect less, and get out of the way."

#DefendResearch #Environment #Forests #Forestry #Trump #TrumpVResearch #USPol #USPolitics

BREAKING: Trump Administration Orders Dismantling of the U.S. Forest Service

The headquarters is going to Utah. Every regional office is being shuttered. The research program is being destroyed.

More Than Just Parks
Show threadpetersuber4d ago

Update. Here's some detail on #AI tools to help conservative schools ban books.
https://www.404media.co/blockade-the-right-is-using-ai-content-scanners-to-try-to-supercharge-book-banning/

One is BLOCKADE, which stands for “Blocking Lustful Overzealous Content, Keeping Away Depravity and Extremism."

"The program’s script includes a list of roughly 300 words, each assigned a severity score that contributes to an overall appropriateness score…The script explicitly defines 'educational inappropriateness' as 'content offensive to conservative values,' while also asking the AI 'not to include any additional text or explanation' for its decisions."

#BookBans #Censorship #DefendResearch #Libraries

‘BLOCKADE’: The Right Is Using AI Content Scanners to Try to Supercharge Book Banning

Groups that challenge books have begun using Gemini, ChatGPT, xAI, and other AI tools to try to get books banned.

404 Media
Lisa Schiff4d ago

There's still time to register for the next #DefendResearch webinar! On April 8th, #DefendResearch team member and Declaration co-author Sara Rouhi will be in conversation with information studies researcher Dr. George Cooper, who will share key findings from his 6-year project on the conditions of #censorship complicity in scholarly publishing.

https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_7HCzoxUGTguI7AolqdN7CA#/registration

Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: Conditions of Censorship Complicity in Scholarly Publishing: A China case study. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the webinar.

As part of DefendResearch.org's ongoing work to highlight the dangers of government censorship of science and research in the United States, we are launching a webinar series in 2026 dedicated to conversations with scholars and experts who view the current attacks on academic freedom as existential and who believe that it is vital to educate the public about the repercussions of these acts of censorship. During this webinar, we'll be in conversation with Dr. George Cooper (he/him), Lecturer in Publishing Practice at University College London. Dr. Cooper will present an overview of key findings from a 6-year research project on the conditions of censorship complicity in scholarly publishing. This will include a discussion of how political coercion and economic dependence shaped publishers' responses to censorship demands in China, and the widespread tendencies to diffuse, deny and redistribute responsibility to resist censorship pressures more broadly. We will explore how uncertainty is managed strategically by censors and self-censors alike and in ways that prohibit collective action. This presentation will show how effective resistance to censorship requires broader coalitions—encompassing research funders and librarians—and sector-wide frameworks to enable collective action. More on DefendResearch.org: Launched by scholarly communications professionals in February 2025, DefendResearch.org is the home of the "Declaration to Defend Research from US Government Censorship" - a statement condemning the Trump Administration's attacks on academic and scientific freedom and highlighting the dangers to American intellectual life. The Declaration's signatories are both individuals and organizations and represent over tens of thousands of people across the globe. All are welcome to sign and are further encouraged to commit to actions that highlight the dangers of censorship through outreach to elected officials and the broader community. Learn more: DefendResearch.org

Zoom
Peter Suber5d ago
Disturbing case study in censorship and self-censorship: climate scientists trying to do their work without using the word "climate". talkingpointsmemo.com/news/to-keep... #BannedWords #Censorship #Climate #DefendResearch #Trump #TrumpVResearch #USPol #USPolitics

To Keep Climate Science Alive,...
To Keep Climate Science Alive, Researchers Are Speaking in Code

This story was originally published by Grist. Sign up for Grist’s weekly...

TPM - Talking Points Memo
petersuber5d ago

Disturbing case study in censorship and self-censorship: climate scientists trying to do their work without using the word "climate".
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/to-keep-climate-science-alive-researchers-are-speaking-in-code

#BannedWords #Censorship #Climate #DefendResearch #Trump #TrumpVResearch #USPol #USPolitics

To Keep Climate Science Alive, Researchers Are Speaking in Code

This story was originally published by Grist. Sign up for Grist’s weekly...

TPM - Talking Points Memo
petersuberMar 26

Alex Bronzini-Vender reviews Elise Stefanik's new book, 𝘗𝘰𝘪𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘥 𝘐𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘴: 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘐𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦 𝘈𝘤𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘈𝘤𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘮𝘪𝘤 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘔𝘰𝘳𝘢𝘭 𝘙𝘰𝘵 𝘢𝘵 𝘈𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢’𝘴 𝘌𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘦 𝘜𝘯𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘦𝘴.
https://www.chronicle.com/article/elise-stefanik-goes-woke
(#paywalled)

"Stefanik…has assembled here the most serious version of the Trumpist case against 'woke' academe. The problem is that the most serious version of the Trumpist critique turns out not to be serious at all…In Stefanik’s telling, the woke academy has poisoned itself with the conflation of discomfort with harm, arbitrary line-drawing between legitimate ideas and hateful ones, and the fetishizing of subjective experience. And Stefanik’s antidote, it turns out, is more conflation of discomfort with harm, arbitrary line-drawing between legitimate ideas and hateful ones, and the fetishizing of subjective experience."

#Academia #AcademicMastodon #Censorship #DefendResearch #Trump #TrumpVResearch #Universities #USPol #USPolitics

Elise Stefanik Goes Woke

The crusading politician’s book about higher ed embodies everything she says she’s against.

The Chronicle of Higher Education