I'm excited to share that the trustees of
@DavidsonCollege
have granted me tenure and a promotion to Associate Professor, effective today.
Too many people to thank and updates to give in the unpaid version of Twitter. Head to or LinkedIn for a full post.
Dear high school teachers,
Please stop telling students that there are "no circumstances" in which they should write in 1st person.
1) It just isn't true, and
2) I have to spend more time than I would like helping them unlearn that "fact."
Sincerely,
Annoyed college professor
I can’t even get some of my students to turn in their work on time and stop using passive voice in their writing.
What makes you think that if I was a raging pinko commie liberal I’d even be capable of indoctrinating them?
I will never understand this argument. Never.
Well, it finally happened. This
#ICE
International
#StudentBan
got me back into the “organizing effective lobbying action via twitter” game.
Want to make sure our lovely international students can keep their visas? Here’s how to do it:
THREAD.
1/14
As y'all know, I study higher ed lobbyists and used to work for one. A friend asked how I would lobby against the Graduate School Tuition Waiver Tax if I were still in the game. I thought about it, and here’s how I would tell students to oppose the
#GradStudentTax
(Thread): 1/19
If you're a real estate speculator, this list of potential "regional innovation hubs" might be a great place to buy some property -- not just because of government involvement, but because these are up-and-coming places with a lot of potential.
1. America thrives when we bring the world’s greatest minds to our shores.
2. International students subsidize domestic students.
3. The
#StudentBan
is just mean. (Seriously - the “be nice, not mean” argument carries WAY more weight than you may think).
11/14
First, start tweeting out of your minds. Let’s call this decision what it is: a
#StudentBan
. Let’s get this thing trending. Stay disciplined. When you tweet, use the
#StudentBan
hashtag every. single. time.
4/14
Second, call your members of Congress and tell them you oppose the
#StudentBan
. Focus especially on members of the Judiciary Committees in the House and the Senate.
If you want to get super specific, call up the members of this House subcommittee:
5/14
Third - and this is where academics can really do some damage - write like your students’ lives depend on it (because, well, they do). To overturn the
#StudentBan
, we need OpEds.
7/14
A student tracked down my cell phone number and called me and asked me to double check her grade. When I checked the grade book, I noticed I made a rounding error. She was right, I was wrong. It was the difference in summa cum laude and magna cum laude for her.
Two lessons:
1/2
Contrarian take:
It is not a terrible, horrible, unforgivable sin for a student to ask for a regrade or a new grade.
Sometimes graders make mistakes!
And lots of students are super stressed out over grades.
Why so much anger over this from professors on twitter?
Geez.
First, I would shorten the name of the Graduate School Tuition Waiver Tax to the “Grad Student Tax.”
AKA:
#GradStudentTax
Is it reductive? Yes. Does it get the point across? Also, Yes.
2/19
By now, you have spent so much time as a grad student learning how to write. Use those skills - write emails, letters, op-eds, etc. There is a place for open protest, but the written word is much stronger than any picket sign or chant when it comes to the
#GradStudentTax
.
14/19
Fourth, the
#StudentBan
will face court battles. We need those battles to last at least until after the semester begins. Preferably they’ll last past January 20, 2021. As long as the courts are fighting those battles, the status quo will likely stand.
12/14
OpEds are actually one of the best tools around to beat the
#StudentBan
. They were a huge tool in opposing the
#GradStudentTax
in ’17, and are shockingly powerful.
(Here’s one I wrote back then for an example).
8/14
So, help out the organizations that fight these battles, like the ACLU - which I'd be willing to bet will file a suit against the
#StudentBan
in less than a week.
Also...
and I can’t stress this enough...
#VOTE
.
13/14
The next thing I would do is get
#GradStudentTax
opponents in the following states to start calling their GOP Senators:
Utah - Sen. Hatch - (801) 524-4380
Iowa - Sen. Grassley - (515) 288-1145
Idaho - Sen. Crapo - (208) 334-1776
Kansas - Sen. Roberts - (913) 451-9343
3/19
Here’s why: Members of Congress have staff that read their constituents’ local newspapers every. single. day. If you write an OpEd in your local paper on the
#StudentBan
, I can all but guarantee a member of Congress or one of their staff members will see it.
9/14
Today is my first day with a new job title and status:
Assistant Professor of Educational Studies and Public Policy and Director of the
@C2Initiative
at
@DavidsonCollege
.
The tenure-track hustle starts today.
Let's do this.
So, fellow academics, crank up your word processor and do what you do best - write. Fire off 350-500 words to your local paper opposing the
#StudentBan
. Be kind, not mean. No name-calling. Hit three key points:
10/14
Sooo... good news and bad news.
The bad news is that I'm in my class Zoom room right now and no one is there.
The good news is that no one is here because this class starts at 8:35 PM not 8:35 AM and I somehow missed that until right now.
Why those states? Those are the states that GOP members of the Senate Finance committee represent. When the House and Senate Bills are reconciled, these are the people who will be doing the reconciling. You want the
#GradStudentTax
gone in the final bill.
6/19
I would then tell anyone who plans on calling their Senators to express opposition to the
#GradStudentTax
in the kindest way possible. In short, keep your cool when talking to Senate staffers. You’re a lot more likely to get your message across if you are kind.
7/19
And… call the members of this Senate subcommittee and tell them you oppose the
#StudentBan
:
Committee members Ernst (IA), Tillis (NC) and Graham (SC) all have tough re-election campaigns and therefore may be more willing to take to your call.
6/14
Most importantly, keep your eye on the prize - finishing your research/dissertation/thesis etc. If this bill will cripple your ability to go to grad school, do all you can to finish before the
#GradStudentTax
/
#GradSchoolTax
gets enacted.
15/19
Like any issue, if you care about something, and are eligible to vote - register and make your vote count. International students can’t vote against the
#StudentBan
, so you must. Here is a tool to make sure you are registered.
GO
#VOTE
!
FIN.
14/14
On this MLK Day, I’m going to tell y’all a story about how
#MLK
empowered Nichelle Nichols to change the history of space exploration.
The year is 1966. Star Trek is the ONE TV SHOW that has a diverse cast AND portrays all members of that cast in a positive light.
1/THREAD
After that, I would tell grad students opposed to the
#GradStudentTax
to write and submit op-eds to the newspaper that covers your local area or an area you can claim as “home.” These newspapers might include:
8/19
We need citizen-academics to change the world with their research. That is a lot harder to do if the
#GradStudentTax
forces you to quit before you get “PhD” at the end of your name. Do all you can to finish, and do so ASAP.
16/19
1) Sometimes professors make mistakes and there are occasionally good reasons to question grades. Students should be able to get their grades changed for legitimate reasons.
2) Self advocacy - especially when there is a differential power dynamic - is a good skill to have.
2/2
That’s how I would tell
#gradstudents
to oppose the
#GradStudentTax
if I was still a lobbyist. But I’m not, so I defer to actual university lobbyists who do incredible work. If you hear something different from them, listen to them. Trust me, they know what they are doing. 19/19.
#GradSchoolTax
Senator list cont'd:
Wyoming - Sen. Enzi - (307) 772-2477
Texas - Sen. Cornyn - (512) 469-6034
South Dakota - Sen. Thune - (605) 334-9596
North Carolina - Sen. Burr - (800) 685-8916
Georgia - Sen. Isakson - (770) 661-0999
Ohio - Sen. Portman - (614) 469-6774
4/19
I would then caution
#GradStudentTax
/
#GradSchoolTax
opponents against hitting the streets - protest style. For some of these Senators protest will only fuel the narrative that grad students are privileged, elite, liberal snowflakes in their ivory tower.
12/19
I guarantee that someone on each of those Senators’ staffs reads the local newspaper cover to cover every day. You want the
#GradStudentTax
to be on their minds.
11/19
In 2017, I offered some advice in a twitter thread about how graduate students could stop the
#GradStudentTax
. Well, we won that battle. So, let’s buckle up and use the same principles to win this one against the
#StudentBan
.
3/14
As y'all know, I study higher ed lobbyists and used to work for one. A friend asked how I would lobby against the Graduate School Tuition Waiver Tax if I were still in the game. I thought about it, and here’s how I would tell students to oppose the
#GradStudentTax
(Thread): 1/19
With some clever maneuvering, wealthy families can use 529 plans to ensure multiple generations go to college without paying a dime in taxes.
Good work from
@ronlieber
, featuring Twitter tax genius,
@CPAPlanner
.
Lastly, I would tell
#GradStudentTax
opponents stay out of the way of the universities and other organizations that are fighting on your behalf. If you are in graduate school, chances are your university has a lobbyist who is fighting tooth and nail for your future.
17/19
While that is incredibly unfair, that is how some Senators will see your impassioned speech about the
#GradStudentTax
.
Instead, this is a great time to use the skills you’ve learned in academia.
13/19
Before we fight the
#StudentBan
, let me establish my credentials. I’m an expert on higher education lobbying. Just had a paper published on the subject. It is pretty good. You should check it out.
Also, I’ve done this before…
2/14
Don’t get in your lobbyist’s way by being mean to Senators or their staff. Your lobbyists need to draw on good relationships they’ve spent years building in order to do their jobs. Don’t tie one hand behind their backs just because you are (understandably) angry.
18/19
#GradSchoolTax
Senator List (still) cont'd:
Pennsylvania - Sen. Toomey - (717) 782-3951
Nevada - Sen. Heller - (702) 388-6605
South Carolina - Sen. Scott - (803) 771-6112
Lousiana - Sen. Cassidy - (225) 929-7711
5/19
@tgeducation
• Your coffee was grown in Brazil, but came originally from Arabia.
• Your pizza is an Italian take on a Phoenician meal.
• Your French wine was made from grapes grown on vines grafted to American roots.
Even the evolution of our food and drinks required immigration!
#GradSchoolTax
Newspaper list:
UT - Deseret News/The Salt Lake Tribune
IA - Des Moines Register
ID - Idaho Statesman
KS - Kansas City Star
WY - Wyoming Tribune Eagle
TX - Houston Chronicle
SD - Argus Leader
NC - Raleigh News and Observer/Charlotte Observer
9/19
I expect I'm going to get blasted for this by some, but here is my new ChatGPT policy for my Spring 2023 courses. I'm not banning it, just putting up guidelines as to its use. Explain to me why not banning it outright is a better policy. Change my mind.
And a victory against the
#StudentBan
! The Government has agreed to rescind the DHS and ICE visa plan.
Your pressure, your resolve, your will to fight won this battle. Thank you all.
Now to win the war. They'll be back with a new order soon. Be ready.
#GradSchoolTax
Newspaper list continued:
GA - Atlanta Journal Constitution
OH - Columbus Dispatch
PA - Philadelphia Inquirer
NV - Las Vegas Review-Journal
SC - The State
LA - New Orleans Times-Picayune
10/19
So, my octogenarian grandfather just asked me via text (because social distancing) to teach him how to do a Difference-in-Differences so that he could better understand my dissertation.
I'm not crying, you're crying.
@darren_aus
@catherineshakes
"Cuts to teacher pay were protested" is passive.
Who is doing the protesting? Teachers.
So, now add "teachers" to the sentence and make them the subject.
"Teachers protested cuts to their pay."
Boom. Now you have an active sentence!
2/2
I am struck by the message discipline of
@DeAngelisCorey
. When the war in Ukraine broke out, Corey was tweeting “fund students, not systems.” When the Dobbs decision came, Corey was tweeting “fund students, not systems.” There is a political advocacy lesson to be learned here.
The United States has three super powers:
1) Immigration - we draw the best and brightest from across the world.
2) Culture - the world watches our movies and listens to our music.
3) Higher education - our universities are the envy of the world.
New agencies: Please stop talking to Scott Galloway about higher education pricing. We have a whole field devoted to higher education. Galloway is a professor of marketing.
You wouldn’t bring on an English Prof. to talk about peace in the Middle East!
My absentee ballot never came. So, I booked a flight back to Nashville. I’m teaching in the morning, going to a faculty meeting to vote for a new course evaluation system, and then flying back to
#Tennessee
in time to cast my vote.
#ElectionDay
#GOTV
#TaylorSwiftToldMeTo
I’m more than a bit emotional to learn that I’ve received the
@ODK1914
teaching award at
@DavidsonCollege
. To the students of
#ODK
, I am so incredibly grateful for your kindness and recognition. To know this honor comes from students means the world to me.
Okay, to clarify - I probably should have said "every single one of these has a college town." These are metro-areas folks.
But even still, college town is not an insult. It is a marker of a city's reliance on higher education institutions.
Okay, y’all need to stop acting like ALL Masters degrees are cash cows that take advantage of students.
I’ve now got students asking me if they should ever go to grad school. For many of them, the answer is absolutely yes!
Can we bring some nuance to this discussion, PLEASE!
Taught the last class of the last day of the 19-20 academic year. My Seniors didn't want to leave the Zoom. They didn't want their college experience to end this way. We shot the breeze for an hour. I loved every minute of it. This
@DavidsonCollege
Class of '20 is just stellar.
Good Morning
#GradStudentTax
/
#GradSchoolTax
opponents. I have some positive news for you - and updated action items. TL;DR version is your hard work is paying off - but we need you to do more! (Long thread including action items.)
1/25
At some point we are going to have to have a academia-wide discussion about the ethics of scraping data.
My team puts in hard work for
@C2Initiative
datasets. We have a simple process that gives access to the data to those who promise to support our students.
And yet…
1/5
I think I just got the highest compliment of my career in a student evaluation (that I just got back from last semester):
"Being in this class made me a better citizen of this country."
I don't think I can do better.
Really. I've peaked.
It's all downhill from here.
@eastonrwhite
Could they? Yes. Is it a good idea? Not really. The whole situation is a lot more complicated than this, but if universities were to do that, they would be ineligible to receive certain forms of grant funding that pay for the cutting-edge research universities do. Not good.
Just completely honored and stunned by this, but so happy and excited to have the support of
@DavidsonWildcat
scholar athletes.
@DavidsonCollege
scholar athletes are incredibly talented, disciplined, and team-oriented. Great role models for my daughter! Truly humbled by this.
This is the most rock and roll Charlotte thing ever.
The Thirsty Beaver is surrounded on three sides by an $8.5M apartment complex. The owners of the TB refused to sell and be displaced. The whole place is a giant middle finger to gentrification.
And now Mick Jagger is there.
One of the most amusing parts of the EJMR paper discourse is Computer Scientists entering the chat saying, “Actually, um… guys, duh. This was never really anonymous. How did you not know that?” Writing with the same smugness some economists have re: quasi-experimental methods.
Students clearly need time to relax and recharge, so
@DavidsonCollege
gave them the day off today! No meetings, no classes. I’m thrilled, especially because I think
@carolquillen
may have just written the playbook on how to have a break while also limiting
#COVID19
spread.
1/8
I want to give a shout out to the
@DavidsonCollege
Class of 2020. Y’all got a raw deal.
BUT you just. won’t. quit.
You Zoom, you learn, you keep going. You are indefatigable and unflappable. You still give us your best, in spite of everything. You inspire us all. Thank you.
Shout out to
@MeharryMedical
for a fantastic COVID-19 test experience. Drive thru testing with kind doctors and professionals administering the tests. In and out in less than 20 minutes AND results less than 24 hours later - No COVID-19 detected.
HBCUs leading the way!
@darren_aus
@catherineshakes
Determine who is doing the action in the sentence. If that person is absent from the sentence, or it is unclear who that person is, chances are it is passive. Make the actor the subject of the sentence and you you should be good to go. Check it out: 1/2
@TN5280
@nytimes
Congress passed a law after 9/11 that allowed the President to forgive loans if those repaying the loans faced hardship due to a “national emergency.” COVID-19 was at least at some point a national emergency. Separation of powers stands. Congress can change the law if it wants.
THREAD to announce some BIG NEWS!
Today marks the social media launch of the College Crisis Initiative (
@C2Initiative
) - my new research lab at
@DavidsonCollege
devoted to examining how higher education institutions innovate in times of crisis.
1/9
Economist: These data show kids develop well if they have married parents.
Left Twitter: HOW DARE YOU say that single mothers are bad parents and their children are stupid?!?!
Right Twitter: Damn right, Economist. Marriage is morally right and blessed by God. Troll the libs!
Two Main Takeaways:
1) MLK is remembered for the big things he did (like the March on Washington), but a very small thing he did (his conversation with Nichols) had a MASSIVE impact. Every act towards justice and equality - no matter how small - may make a difference.
17/18
Will be excited to share some excellent
#COVID19
-related work from my research team at
@DavidsonCollege
tomorrow or Monday. Here's a nice preview: Colleges show up on the map in orange when they announce they’re going online, then become purple when online classes start.
Hey, check out my soundcloud... er... this research brief (written by
@Sly21
and
@Larrymishel
and published by the
@EconomicPolicy
Institute) on teacher pay:
Andrew Giuliani (Rudy's son) is considering challenging Andrew Cuomo for NY Governor in 2022.
He was kicked off the Duke Golf team for basically being a spoiled jerk.
Yes, he was too much of a spoiled jerk for the Duke Golf team.
Let that sink in.
When she sees that the Apollo missions are manned only by white dudes she says to herself, “I did not wear that red miniskirt all those years for space to not be integrated.”
What does she do? She goes and recruits Sally Ride, Guion Bluford, and Mae Jemison for NASA.
13/18
"Some are preachers / some are gay / some are addicts, drunks and strays / But not a one is turned away when it's family." -
@SevierCounty
native
@DollyParton
.
Seems like Dolly could teach Warren Hurst a thing or two.
#DollyForPresident
I generally don’t tweet about my Dad. I want to have a career separate from his, I want to make my own way. But, this is too cool not to mention.
Today is Michael Marsicano Day in Mecklenburg County, and I couldn’t be prouder.
Congrats, Dad. I love you.
I wish we could all understand that college admissions has less to do with concepts of who is “qualified” or who “deserves” to be admitted, and much more with a college’s institutional priorities.
Numbers 1 and 2, in part, rely on number 3. Having a city rely economically and culturally on the universities in its area isn't a bad thing. It is a sign that the city is leveraging its strengths in a global market place. That is a GOOD thing.
She integrated space on television, then integrated it in real life. She’s an American hero.
Had Dr. MLK Jr. not spoken to her at that dinner she might have a couple of Tonys right now, BUT who knows how long it would have taken to integrate space?
14/18
@annasdtc
@kevinrmcclure
My research says that they do. I've interviewed a number of lobbyists for higher ed institutions for my dissertation. By and large, they care deeply about their students. Truly they do.
Congratulations to
@DavidsonCollege
VP Philip Jefferson on his nomination to the Federal Reserve Board by
@POTUS
@JoeBiden
. Dean Jefferson is fair, committed to alleviating poverty, focused on stable leadership. He will be a wonderful Governor.
Psst... do you think
@UHouston
and
@universityofky
know they have basically the same logo?
@Nike
, please give us a Red-Blue color vs. color game with the UH and UK logos on the front of the jerseys... please. Its not like you haven't already done it for UK before.
CC:
@UniWatch
Hey
@DavidsonCollege
students: Let me help you navigate Chambers building.
Look at your classroom number. The first digit is the floor number, 1, 2, or 3. The second is the wing number. 0 is closest to the flagpole, 2 is closest to Wall, 1 is in the middle.
1/2
He convinced her not only to stay on the show, but to up her game and use television to advance the cause of racial equality.
Nichelle Nichols listened.
And she absolutely crushed it.
11/18
Okay! I got my hands on the
#TaxBill
! Going to look at implications for
#HigherEd
. Going to start with the
#GradStudentTax
/
#GradSchoolTax
. If you want to help - here's the link:
Ok, Here we go! (Thread in real-time) 1/N
It was an honor to be named on of
@CBJnewsroom
’s “40 under 40” leaders in Charlotte. I was touched that Faculty Vice Chair pro tem
@KyraKietrys
and
@samplereality
came to represent
@DavidsonCollege
at the event! The support I feel from this faculty is unmatched. Thanks so much!
The
#GradStudentTax
? Gone.
The
#StudentBan
? Gone for now.
We're 2-0.
Don't worry. We'll be ready for whatever comes next.
Let's just say I'm not planning on being 2-1.
#BringItOn
King tells her that
@StarTrek
is the only show he lets his children watch, because it is the only show that portrays black folks (and in particular black women) as equal in a professional work place. She tells him that she’s leaving the show. He’s not having any of that.
6/18
My advice to PhD applicants receiving news right now:
Institutional and departmental prestige are important, but so is a place’s interest in you. Think seriously about the places that show you a lot of love. You want your mentors and advisors to think you’re a star.