12-4: cancelling spring break

✅ French Academics Fear Becoming Scapegoats in War on Terrorism 

The education minister says “left-wing Islamism” is “wreaking havoc” in French universities. 

—Inside Higher Ed 

     French academics fear being targeted by politicians from across the political spectrum in the run-up to the 2022 presidential election after the country’s education minister accused universities of creating an intellectual breeding ground for Islamic terrorism. 

     Following the beheading in mid-October of a teacher who showed pupils cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, researchers who focus on areas such as racism, Islamophobia and French colonialism have come in for unprecedented attack from parts of Emmanuel Macron’s government -- which was initially seen as a bastion against right-wing populism -- and from fellow academics. 

     “Linking all this to terrorism is what’s new,” said Simon Dawes, a media lecturer at the Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines. 

     Academics have been accused of having “blood on your hands” for conducting certain types of research, argued Dawes, who has warned that academic freedom of speech could be under threat. 

     In the aftermath of the murder of the teacher, Samuel Paty, Jean-Michel Blanquer, the education minister, claimed that “left-wing Islamism” was “wreaking havoc” in French universities....

✅ U of Vermont to Cut 12 Majors, 11 Minors 

—Inside Higher Ed 

     The University of Vermont’s College of Arts and Sciences told faculty and staff members this week that an ongoing decline in enrollments, coupled with the pandemic, make necessary the termination of 12 “low-enrollment” majors, 11 minors and 4 master’s programs. Some departments may also be eliminated or combined. Programs pegged for elimination include classical civilization, geology, German, Greek, Asian studies, Latin American and Caribbean studies, Italian studies, Latin and religion....

✅ National Academies Release Guidance on Altering Student Behavior, COVID Testing 

—Inside Higher Ed 

     The National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine released guidance Tuesday on altering student behavior as it relates to COVID-19, as well as testing for the virus. 

     The first report from the National Academies makes recommendations for campus leaders looking to alter student behavior, using existing research in developmental psychology. 

     “Making a behavior easy to start and rewarding to repeat, tying a behavior to existing habits, providing alternatives to unwanted behaviors, and providing specific descriptions of desired behaviors are strategies that campus leaders can employ to make it more likely that protective behaviors will become habitual for students,” the National Academies said in a press release about the report. “Many adolescents and young adults are socially driven, with a strong desire for reward and acceptance. Identity, agency, and autonomy are centrally important during the college years.”…. 

✅ The Latest College Scorecard Is Out. Here’s What It Says About How Much Parents Borrow for Higher Ed. 

—CHE 

✅ CSU leaders urged to take aggressive action to limit spread of COVID-19 amid surge -- Presidents of the 23 campuses of the California State University system are being urged to delay the resumption of any face-to-face instruction— even for classes that have only a limited in-person component — and reassess plans for the end of fall term and beginning of spring term amid the dramatic increase in COVID-19 cases in California. Nina Agrawal in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 12/4/20 

✅ SDSU students in uproar after faculty cancels spring break -- But SDSU apparently went too far this week when its University Senate voted to cancel spring break to help minimize the spread of the virus at a school that has reported more student infections than any other college or university in California. Gary Robbins in the San Diego Union-Tribune$ -- 12/4/20

Today's OC Covid numbers