Week 34
Sept 6-12, 2025 - the purpose of a parachute
Hello friends,
There are some weeks where it just feels like we’re approaching terminal velocity. This was one of them.1
This is acute pain layered on top of overwhelming strain. Throughout my networks, I feel it in the no-shows, the missed deadlines, the careless errors. I see it exacerbating the miscommunications, frustrations, and group chat meltdowns. It can make the work feel futile.
But as a friend reminded me today, the purpose of a parachute isn’t to stop the fall, it’s to make the landing survivable.
This was Week 34. Let’s see if we can slow down enough to get through.2
What’s happening now
Last week, Forbes published its 2026 America’s Top Colleges report with University of California campuses sweeping the top rankings of public schools. This week, UC Berkeley furnished the administration with a list of 160 faculty, staff, and students named as “potential connections to reports of alleged antisemitism.” And Judith Butler is among them.3 Apparently, the university has suspended normal procedures for handling the complaints and expects ”additional production obligations” to follow. In Butler’s words, “…did you consider not complying with this request?”
The Department of Education has just announced that it is ending discretionary funding to minority-serving institutions.4 The move freezes $350 million dollars previously budgeted this year5 and more than 70% of that total was dedicated to Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs). I think it’s worth noting that California has many more HSIs than any other state in the country. 6 of the 10 University of California campuses and 21 of the 23 California State University’s campuses are HSIs.6 Governor Newsom used his State of the State address this week to highlight ongoing defiance in the face of administration attacks, including the attempt to financially strangle UCLA.7
California is hardly the only place where higher ed is struggling. This week, the president of Texas A&M responded to political pressure around gender ideology by firing a senior lecturer - and also directing the provost to remove her department chair and her dean. The university chancellor has additionally announced a system-wide audit of course content. You’ll notice how careful I am with my verbs and attribution here. Most headlines just say “professor fired!” and while that lacks precision, it gets at the heart of the danger this poses to academic freedom. But I think the specific details really matter. I can’t verify whether the chair and dean have officially been fired or demoted, I don’t know whether they put up a fight, and I know that the president’s job is at risk too. So, until we have more details, much of what we have is speculation, but when I think about all the links in that chain (trustees → chancellors → presidents → provosts → deans → chairs → professors → classes), I think about how many opportunities for courage and resistance I just listed. May we take up our own opportunities whenever we see them.
What’s next & what to do
On Monday, I got to watch Ed give the closing keynote at the ASTC annual conference. It was a talk about birding, a hobby he’s had for just two years8 and has been sharing publicly more recently. I am profoundly biased, but the talk was just… stunning. It was funny, reflective, and quite literally eye-opening - his portrait of a harrier drew audience gasps. It opened at least one heart too: I can admit that I’m one step further down the birding path now.9
But there was a particularly interesting moment at the end that wasn’t really about birds at all. The question was, “If you could take anyone birding with you, who would it be?”
I think people who care about public engagement with science might be expecting that answer to be some specific person - probably a powerful antagonist. (If only we could get them to care about birds, right? Wouldn’t that be a game-changer?) But that’s not how Ed answered the question at all. He talked about all the regular people who quietly love nature even though it’s not something they center in their identity. His answer felt akin to why I’m writing this newsletter.
This is for you, whether you’re “a science person” first and foremost, or you just care about it a lot. It’s to help you talk with all the people who you’re connected to, who might care about science but definitely care about you.
I imagine us all, sparkling nodes in a huge and intricate network of connections.10 We’re each pushing ideas and information outwards, and pulling on the nodes closest to us. Please read this. Help me think about this. Join me in this action. Sometimes we persuade each other with arguments and stories. Sometimes we’re building up social capital - doing favors, making connections, proving that our recommendations are good - and sometimes we are spending it. I’m going to do that now.
I have a request for you. I want you to read and really think about this argument for why we should demand a “fighting continuing resolution” in this round of budget negotiations. I’d like it if you share it too, but I really want you to absorb it. The text is specifically about federal funding, but the context is much bigger - it’s about how to weigh the increasingly painful decisions we face.
Reading this article will take some effort and potential discomfort. It also needs to happen very soon. The government shutdown deadline is September 30 and next week may well be pivotal. You may not end up agreeing with the strategy laid out in this piece, and even if all of us do, we may not be able to block this next flex of authoritarian power. What matters to me is that we hold tight to each other as we try to figure it out.
The purpose of a parachute is not to stop the fall.
Liz
As ever, thanks for reading & thinking with me. Please share it with your people. Meeting the Moment will always be free, but if you want to contribute ⤵️
If this email was forwarded to you, hi! 👋 This newsletter is my part of an ongoing conversation with friends who’ve had a rough week. Every Friday night, I share two or three pieces of news that feel most important to those of us who care about science and higher education. I try to offer a helpful way to think about the problems in front of us, and at least one useful thing to do. If you like what you see ⤵️
Vague-posting frustrates me, so I will be explicit. As I sat down to write, I saw news that ICE killed a man in Chicago today. I’m also upset about the school shooting at Evergreen High School, the fallout of reported shootings at UMass and the Naval Academy, and the threats that shut down eight HBCUs. These all happened since Wednesday. And we’re having to process them in the context of the slop of social content and extremely violent rhetoric in response to the most recent assassination, coupled with a powerful effort to punish opponents and journalists. It’s a whole lot to process. ↩
After I wrote this, I noticed that my footnotes are a lot denser tonight than usual, and reading them could slow you down quite a lot. It was not deliberate, but it is interesting. ↩
The list includes alleged perpetrators and victims as well as those who filed complaints. They were notified with letters addressed to “Dear Member of the Berkeley Community...” ↩
Minority-serving institution (MSI) is a category of colleges, universities, and other post-secondary institutions created in response to educational inequity. I’m betting most of you are familiar with HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges and Universities), but may be less familiar with Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs), Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs), or Asian American, Native American and Pacific Islander Serving Institutions (AANAPISIs). Some are defined by statute and others by enrollment and graduate data: the federal programs that fund them have been added to the Higher Education Act of 1965 over time. The Rutgers Center for Minority Serving Institutions has compiled a really interesting timeline on the origins and history of MSIs. Check it out. ↩
And remember, when it comes to “this year” in the world of federal funding, that means September 30 not December 31. I would love a fact-check on this, so let me know if I misunderstand and I will add an update/correction. ↩
I am seeing conflicting numbers in different sources, e.g. EdSource says five, not six, UC campuses are HSIs but the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities lists seven of them. I suspect the issue might be the date of publication, but would love to learn more, so education policy nerds, this is your moment! ↩
Which stands at $500 million in frozen research grants (we learned about it in Week 28) plus a $1 billion “fine” (Week 29). Negotiations are underway. ↩
Happy Birdiversary, honey. ↩
Everybody calm down! I have lots of plants to take care of and many miles to run. Be cool. (Birders are good at that right?) ↩
Which reminds me to send out little pulses of warmth to those of you on my mind. Margaret, I meant it, be cool with the birds. Suzanne, I met your daughter at ASTC, thanks for reading! Mark, this one is for you. Kerry, I’ve been meaning to thank you for all you do. ✨ ↩