October 17, 2025

Week 39

Oct 11-17, 2025 - Enough is enough

I have been on the road, bookending the week with events in Chicago and St Louis.¹ Stacking trips like this helps me reduce my carbon footprint, and while it makes the trips more arduous, I think that’s probably a good thing for me. (I do understand how little choice many of us have around work travel, and I don’t want to make that misery worse.) What I’m thinking about is the benefit I feel when I am compelled to choose my events more carefully and prepare more intentionally. 

I notice I have higher expectations and better explanations for myself; I have more clarity about why exactly I am in the room and what I need to achieve. And yet, I still have my heart in my throat as I finish every talk. Between my last sentence and the next heartbeat, I stand there - for a split second, for an eternity - wondering, “Did that matter? Have I helped?” Goodness I hope so. On that stage and in this email too. Because I’ve been traveling, I’m so tired. And I’ve been much more offline this week than usual, and honestly, the in-flight wifi is utterly sapping my will to live. 

But  I know why I’m here and what I need to do. This was Week 39 and I hope this helps. 

What’s happening now

• First, crucially, great news. Last week, I wrote about MIT being the first university to decline the compact for higher ed. Since Wednesday, four more have now joined them! Brown, USC, Penn, and now UVA  have all chosen to reject the promise of preferential funding in exchange for academic freedom. This is thanks in no small part to the forceful advocacy of organized faculty, students, and academic communities. I see you, and I’m grateful for you. This is by no means the end of the story, but I cherish every ounce of institutional courage we are able to summon. What’s more, it both shows others what is possible while offering them a little bit of cover. Solidarity is strength, and we are going to need it. While I was waiting to board my flight, I saw news that three additional universities were added to a meeting this afternoon. Eyes on ASU, Kansas, and Wash U now.

• Continuing that theme. I’ve written before about how states are banding together to make vaccine recommendations. Those efforts are now expanding. This week, fifteen governors² have launched the Governors Public Health Alliance  to strengthen their emergency preparedness and bolster their ability to rapidly and reliably respond to emerging health threats. We are lucky to have a deep pool of public health expertise we can tap.³ The challenge is coordination and amplification, and that’s what I understand these new efforts to be. I’ll be raptly waiting for more governors to join⁴ and more details about the work itself. 

• On a more challenging note, an update on the CDC. I caught the round of RIFs that happened late last Friday just in time to include them in the newsletter. TL;DR more than a thousand CDC employees received emails terminating their employment, and the damage to some key teams and services was devastating. You may have seen the update that some of those notifications were reversed the next day and something like half the employees have been reinstated to their positions.⁵ Thanks to a court order blocking new RIFs during the shutdown, others have been placed on administrative leave. This is all better than alternative possibilities, but it’s still very ugly. All told, something between one quarter and one third of CDC employees have been removed from work, according to their union. And experts warn us to keep bracing for more.

• So many of the updates I’m sharing these days are court orders and judicial decisions, so I’m also reading up on the fact that the judiciary runs out of funding come Monday. When our courts start reducing services, sending staff home, and not paying those who are required to keep showing up… what will that mean for this essential branch of the government? One fear is of justice delayed. Another is staff shortages. The electronic case management system will continue to operate⁶, though no one will be answering the public telephone. The jury program will continue to run, though some juror payments may be delayed. Similarly, the Supreme Court will continue to hear cases⁷, though the building will be closed to the public. Some courts are maintaining operations with reduced (and unpaid) staff. Others are moving to limited work weeks. I particularly want to understand what all this means for public defenders, whose job security has been shredded even as their skills and services are more necessary than ever. 

  
  

What’s next & what to do

The answer this week is extremely simple: the No Kings protests are tomorrow. 

There are very good reasons some of us cannot or should not demonstrate. All the more reason for the rest of us to show up. You know the reasons. They echo through this update: because a public and principled stand encourages others to join it; because there’s safety in numbers, not to mention joy in community; because we need to coordinate and work in formation; because other essential guardrails are falling away as we speak. 

So do it. Or do all the other work that needs doing. If you’re doing what you can, you’re doing enough.

As Mariame Kaba says, “I believe in strugglers and I believe in coworkers and I believe in solidarity. I believe we need more people all the time in all of our work, in all of our movements.”

It all matters. It all helps. Every part. Every step. Every time. 

Liz