Latest news with #Harvard University
News.com.au
2 days ago
- Politics
- News.com.au
Judge presses Trump admin on Harvard funding cuts
A federal judge on Monday challenged the Trump administration's reasons for slashing billions of dollars in federal funding to Harvard University, triggering a furious response from the president. Judge Allison Burroughs pressed the administration's lawyer to explain how cutting grants to diverse research budgets would help protect students from alleged campus anti-Semitism, US media reported. Trump preemptively fired off a post on his Truth Social platform blasting Burroughs, an appointee of Democratic president Barack Obama, claiming without evidence that she had already decided against his government -- and vowing to appeal. The Ivy League institution sued in April to restore more than $2 billion in frozen funds. The administration insists its move is legally justified over Harvard's failure to protect Jewish and Israeli students, particularly amid campus protests against Israel's war in Gaza. The threat to Harvard's funding stream forced it to implement a hiring freeze while pausing ambitious research programs, particularly in the public health and medical spheres, that experts warned risked American lives. Harvard has argued that the administration is pursuing "unconstitutional retaliation" against it and several other universities targeted by Trump early in his second term. Both sides have sought a summary judgment to avoid trial, but it was unclear if Burroughs would grant one either way. The judge pressed the lone lawyer representing Trump's administration to explain how cutting funding to Harvard's broad spectrum of research related to combatting anti-Semitism, the Harvard Crimson student newspaper reported from court. "The Harvard case was just tried in Massachusetts before an Obama appointed Judge. She is a TOTAL DISASTER, which I say even before hearing her Ruling," Trump wrote on Truth Social. "Harvard has $52 Billion Dollars sitting in the Bank, and yet they are anti-Semitic, anti-Christian, and anti-America," he claimed, pointing to the university's world-leading endowment. Both Harvard and the American Association of University Professors brought cases against the Trump administration's measures which were combined and heard Monday. - 'Control of academic decision making' - Trump has sought to have the case heard in the Court of Federal Claims instead of in the federal court in Boston, just miles away from the heart of the university's Cambridge campus. "This case involves the Government's efforts to use the withholding of federal funding as leverage to gain control of academic decision making at Harvard," Harvard said in its initial filing. The Ivy League institution has been at the forefront of Trump's campaign against top universities after it defied his calls to submit to oversight of its curriculum, staffing, student recruitment and "viewpoint diversity." Trump and his allies claim that Harvard and other prestigious universities are unaccountable bastions of liberal, anti-conservative bias and anti-Semitism, particularly surrounding protests against Israel's war in Gaza. The government has also targeted Harvard's ability to host international students, an important source of income who accounted for 27 percent of total enrollment in the 2024-2025 academic year. A proclamation issued in June declared that the entrance of international students to begin a course at Harvard would be "suspended and limited" for six months and that existing overseas enrollees could have their visas terminated. The move has been halted by a judge. The US government earlier this month subpoenaed Harvard University for records linked to students allegedly involved in a wave of pro-Palestinian student protests that the Trump administration labeled anti-Semitic. Washington has also told a university accrediting body that Harvard's certification should be revoked after it allegedly failed to protect Jewish students in violation of federal civil rights law.
The Sun
2 days ago
- Health
- The Sun
Weekend workouts are enough to ‘slash your risk of an early death by 33%'
EXERCISING only at the weekend can be enough to slash your risk of dying young, a study found. Researchers at Harvard University, USA, said ' weekend warriors ' with diabetes get just as much benefit as people who work out every day. Cramming physical activity into Saturday and Sunday is common as many of us struggle to make time in our daily lives. It might seem like less exercise but a study showed the heart benefits can be just as great. Data from nearly 52,000 Americans with diabetes showed that weekend warriors had a 21 per cent lower risk of dying young of any cause, compared to people who did not regularly exercise. Their risk of dying from heart disease was 33 per cent lower, study authors wrote in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine. The risk reduction was slightly greater even than people who exercised multiple days per week. The key was simply to hit the NHS target of at least 2.5 hours of moderate activity over the two days. Commenting on the study, Professor Ronald Sigal of the University of Calgary, said: 'Regular physical activity is recommended for most people with or without diabetes. 'On the whole, these findings are encouraging. 'They provide evidence that protective effects of physical activity against cardiovascular and overall mortality could be achieved through one or two weekly physical activity sessions." Sport England figures show the number of adults trying to get fit is on the rise, with 30million people – 64 per cent of adults – hitting the NHS exercise target last year. Get fit at 50: Workouts for beginners and those short on time Regular activity is proven to be great for your health and reduces the risk of cancer, heart disease, dementia, stroke and mental health conditions. It's not the first time weekend exercise has been shown to be beneficial. A 2024 study published in the journal Circulation, led by Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, looked at data from 89,573 people from the UK Biobank, a database which holds medical and lifestyle records of more than half a million Britons. The team said that compared to no exercise, cramming workouts in one to two days or being active throughout the week were both associated with "substantially lower risks of over 200 diseases", from heart disease to mood disorders. Lifestyle tips to reduce risk of biggest killers in every decade of life CANCER, dementia and heart disease are among the biggest killers in the UK. Around 167,000 people a year die from cancer, 160,000 from heart disease and 74,000 from dementia. Around 167,000 people a year die from cancer, 160,000 from heart disease and 74,000 from dementia. Prevention is better than the cure and simple lifestyle tweaks can help reduce your risk of these conditions. Eating better, exercising, wearing sunscreen and seeing friends can each play a part in warding off disease. Here Dr Tom Matthew, from tells us how to protect yourself – no matter your age. IN YOUR 20s Stop smoking: lighting up is linked to 15 types of cancer, heart disease, heart attack, stroke and dementia Get HPV vaccine: can stop six different types of cancer Turn down the volume: protect your hearing for the sake of your brain IN YOUR 30s Join a gym: exercise can increase the risk of cancer, heart disease and dementia Stop sunbathing: getting sunburned just once can triple your risk of skin cancer, which can kill IN YOUR 40s Reduce alcohol: boozing is linked to seven types of cancer, heart disease and dementia. NHS MOT: it's free and checks for lots of health issues Watch weight: obesity can lead to heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes and can cause 13 different types of cancer IN YOUR 50s See friends: socialising is believed to reduce risk of cancer and dementia Screening for cancer: The NHS offers free HPV, bowel and breast cancer checks Reduce stress: studies have linked stress to heart disease, potentially as a result of higher blood pressure IN YOUR 60s & 70s Take asprin: It can reduce inflammation in the body which is associated with cancer Vital check in men: go to your free NHS abdominal aortic aneurysm screening (you'll be invited when your 64/65) Back to school: Keep learning and socialing to ward of dementia Go Mediterranean: it's full of fibre which can ward off bowel disease
Bloomberg
3 days ago
- Politics
- Bloomberg
Harvard Faculty Who Fear School's Destruction Urge Trump Deal
Kit Parker is used to being an anomaly on Harvard University 's campus. The physicist — an Army Reserve colonel who served in Afghanistan — is a long-time critic of the school's hiring practices and what he sees as liberal biases. For months, he's urged the university to address criticisms from the White House, even as the vast majority of his colleagues applauded Harvard's decision to resist President Donald Trump's efforts to reshape higher education.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
A reckoning: Trump's attacks are inspiring self-reflection in higher ed
The Trump administration's attacks against colleges and universities, including its attempts to pull federal funding and bar foreign students from Harvard University in the name of fighting antisemitism, have alarmed many in higher education. But they have also spurred a degree of self-reflection among some leaders in the field. There's a 'kernel of truth' in many of the leading criticisms of universities and colleges — the price tag, the perceived liberal bent of many educators, and the rise of campus antisemitism and discrimination — said Ted Mitchell. Mitchell, president of the American Council on Education, a nonpartisan association of 1,600 colleges across the country, said the Trump administration has 'called on higher education' to attend to these issues that have long lingered without sufficient action. The administration's pressure campaign comes at a time when public confidence in the nation's colleges is falling. Read more: Trump admin renews demand for Harvard foreign student info: 'We tried to do things the easy way' In the past decade, the share of Americans with high confidence in colleges and universities has fallen from 57% to 36%, primarily driven by concerns that colleges push a political agenda, don't teach necessary skills and cost too much, according to a Gallup survey last year. Meanwhile, the cost of attending college is growing. Adjusted for inflation, average tuition is up 30-40% over the past 20 years at public and private colleges, according to data gathered by U.S. News and World Report. While Mitchell agrees with some of the Trump administration's criticisms of higher education, the way the federal government has addressed those concerns — such as cutting off federal funding for research — is overblown, he said. 'His actions have been outrageous and dangerous and missed the point,' Mitchell said. A Department of Education spokesperson didn't respond to requests for comment for this story. A leading complaint: Colleges are too liberal The belief that college campuses have become bastions of a leftist ideology where conservatives are underrepresented has been a central feature in Trump's critiques of higher education. In an April letter to Harvard, the Trump administration demanded numerous reforms to campus admissions, hiring and management practices. The administration said Harvard must review programs and departments that 'fuel antisemitic harassment' and make changes to expand ideological diversity on campus. Among Americans dissatisfied with higher education, 41% believe colleges push a political agenda, Gallup's poll last year showed. It was the top issue, followed at 37% by those who said colleges focus on the wrong things and don't teach relevant skills. Those respondents were more than three times as likely to believe colleges were too liberal than too conservative. Read more: Here are 5 of the biggest effects on higher ed in the 'Big Beautiful Bill' Any 'clear-minded observer of higher education' would agree that academia has skewed further to the left, Mitchell said. 'Viewpoint diversity is always at risk in every discipline and it really comes home when departments become homogenous around any set of ideas,' he said. For instance, Mitchell said there are too few conservative academics championing free-market capitalism in economics departments and that there is excessive emphasis in the humanities on anticolonialism, a political and social movement seeking to end colonial rule across the globe. Robert Shibley, special counsel for campus advocacy for the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, or FIRE, raised similar concerns about the lack of political diversity in higher education. 'It's a perennial complaint and I think lies behind a lot of the animosity toward Harvard and other schools,' he said. The nonpartisan free speech group based in Washington, D.C., has urged colleges and universities in recent years to take those concerns seriously. Yet adjusting the ideological diversity on campus is outside the government's purview, not to mention a tricky endeavor, Shibley said. For one, 'You can't just wave a wand' and generate 'a whole bunch of conservative academics waiting in the wings.' Academia may be politically left of the American public, yet in theory it should not matter, said Dr. Greg Weiner, president of Assumption University in Worcester. 'I've often said I don't know who our faculty votes for,' he said. 'For all I know, they 100% could have voted for Biden, 100% could have voted for Trump, and I would not care as long as they're excellent teachers and scholars.' But on many campuses, politics have increasingly seeped into lesson plans, he said. Read more: 'Devastating': 10 Harvard researchers detail 'essential' work set to be cut by Trump Educators would benefit from limiting 'extraneous material' from the classroom, even in subjects such as political thought — Weiner's area of expertise — with a connection to current events, he said. Doing so may help break the public perception that colleges have become overly political. 'Rather than locking into a position that would require us to persuade significant majorities of the American public that they're simply wrong, let's start by taking a hard look at ourselves,' he said. Antisemitism has been a longstanding issue In April, under intense pressure from Trump to address campus antisemitism, Harvard acknowledged it had failed to effectively combat discrimination against Jewish students and staff amid Israel's war in Gaza. Jews of varying political stripes were shunned, harassed, targeted in class discussions, and generally fearful to discuss their identity, a report released in April from a Harvard task force found. The same patterns existed on campuses across the country. Accompanying the report, Harvard President Alan Garber issued an apology: 'I am sorry for the moments when we failed to meet the high expectations we rightfully set for our community.' Antisemitism festered on campuses for years before the war began with Hamas's Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel, Jewish community leaders say. Read more: Trump admin threatens Harvard's accreditation over antisemitism response Discrimination of Jews steadily swelled on college campuses through the early 2000s and 2010s as the peace process between Israelis and Palestinians deteriorated and as campus advocacy around the conflict intensified, said Steven Schimmel, the executive director of the Jewish Federation of Central Massachusetts. By the time Hamas attacked Israel, the issue had already become 'precipitously worse' than in decades prior, he said. It has since only deteriorated further. It took pressure from the White House and Congress, Jewish organizations, alumni and students for college leaders to realize that antisemitism was rapidly escalating, Schimmel said. Much like their Jewish and Israeli peers, students of Muslim, Arab and Palestinian descent were also subject to a climate of 'fear and intimidation' as campus tensions flared, another report from Harvard found. The university did too little to combat discrimination or support students on both sides of the conflict, it said. While college leaders have largely grasped the need for action and taken it, important steps are still needed, Schimmel said. Universities must enforce their antidiscrimination rules effectively. And they should ensure that broader perspectives on issues related to Israel are taught in the classroom, he said. Read more: Trump's antisemitism probe mostly relies on Harvard's own report, Harvard claims Trump has made clear that failure from Harvard to act against antisemitism could have grave consequences. 'There are plenty of members of the Jewish community who welcome the added focus of combating antisemitism,' Schimmel said. Yet there is also trepidation, he added, over what the fallout of Trump's approach could be, and whether more targeted actions to combat antisemitism would be more effective. 'Tremendous room for improvement' A college degree still presents a clear pathway to financial mobility, yet higher education has 'tremendous room' to improve free speech, counter campus antisemitism and expand the political diversity of faculty, according to Beth Akers, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a right-leaning think tank. College education has been 'over-celebrated,' she said, and the Trump administration's focus on the sector feels like a 'necessary correction,' even if it goes too far with cuts to funding. Read more: 'A day of loss': Boston University to lay off 120 people citing federal funding impacts The Trump administration's critiques of colleges could spur more people to question whether to pursue a degree, Akers said. 'Getting people to be more cautious about this investment, but not dismissing it entirely, I think, is actually a good innovation,' she said. Other higher education leaders don't see as much of an upside. Lynn Pasquerella, president of the Association of American Colleges and Universities and a former president at Mount Holyoke College, said the federal government's characterization of colleges and universities is 'disconnected from the reality.' Pasquerella sees the Trump administration as taking advantage of a growing mistrust of higher education for its own political aims, such as attacks on diversity, equity and inclusion programs. At the same time, she acknowledges that the institution has its faults. 'I believe that the longstanding critiques of higher education — that it's too expensive, too difficult to access, doesn't teach students 21st century skills — need to be addressed and they need to be addressed directly,' she said. 'And it requires a reckoning around the fundamental mission and purposes of American higher education.' What that reckoning looks like, however, has yet to be realized, she said. More Higher Ed Harvard continues dismantling its DEI offices amid Trump attacks Pro-Israel website used to compile list of ICE targets, agent testifies Trump admin renews demand for Harvard foreign student info: 'We tried to do things the easy way' Trump admin threatens Harvard's accreditation over antisemitism response Here are 5 of the biggest effects on higher ed in the 'Big Beautiful Bill' Read the original article on MassLive.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Science
- Yahoo
Study confirms there's no innate difference in aptitude between boys and girls in math
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Classroom teaching may be driving a gender gap in math performance, and the effect starts from the moment children begin school, a new study finds. The study, published July 11 in the journal Nature, included data on the math skills of more than 2.5 million first-grade children in France. It revealed that, while girls and boys started school with a similar level of math skills, within four months, boys performed significantly better than girls. That gap quadrupled in size by the end of the first year of formal education. Gender gaps in math performance have been documented the world over, and the origin of this disparity has long been blamed on supposedly inherent differences between the genders — "boys are better at math" and "girls are better at language" — that are actually just stereotypes without scientific backing. But the new study — and previous studies conducted in the U.S. — throw a wrench in those ideas, and instead suggest that something about formal math education spurs the gap to form. "I was very surprised, not by the fact that there was a gender gap, but that it emerges at the time when formal math instruction in school begins," study coauthor Elizabeth Spelke, a professor of psychology at Harvard University, told Live Science. Formal education widens gaps The new study leveraged an initiative by the French Ministry of Education to boost national math standards, which was launched after several years of disappointing performances in international assessments and uncovered the disturbing extent of the math skills gender gap in the country. Related: Is there really a difference between male and female brains? Emerging science is revealing the answer. With the aid of cognitive scientists and educators, the French government implemented a universal program of testing for all French children to help teachers better understand the needs of each class and inform updated national standards. Since 2018, every child's math and language skills have been assessed upon entry into first grade, the first mandatory year of schooling in France. They were tested again after four months of formal education and then after one complete year of learning. These tests revealed no notable differences between girls' and boys' mathematical ability when starting school. However, within four months, a sizable gap opened up between them, placing boys ahead, and that gap only grew as schooling progressed, suggesting that classroom activities had created the disparity, the study authors proposed. Spelke and her team's analysis covered four national cohorts whose data were collected between 2018 and 2022, and included demographic data to probe the role of external social factors — such as family structure and socioeconomic status (SES) — on school performance. But they found that the emergence of the math gender gap was universal and transcended every parameter investigated: regardless of SES, family structure or type of school, on average, boys performed substantially better in the third assessment than did girls. This bolstered the hypothesis that an aspect of the schooling itself was to blame. And that idea was further supported by data from the cohort impacted by COVID-related school closures, Spelke added. "When schools were closed during the pandemic, the gender gap got narrower and then they reopened and it got bigger again," she said. "So there are lots of reasons to think that the gender gap is linked in some way that we don't understand to the onset and progress of formal math instruction." Causes of the math performance gap For Jenefer Golding, a pedagogy specialist at University College London who was not involved in the study, the research raises worrying questions about attitudes or behaviors in the classroom that could be creating this disparity. "Gendered patterns are widespread but they're not inevitable," Golding told Live Science. "It's about equity of opportunity. We need to be quite sure that we're not putting avoidable obstacles in the way of young people who might thrive in these fields." However, separating these educational factors from possible social or biological contributors remains a complex issue, she said. As a purely observational study, the research does not allow any firm conclusions to be drawn about why this gender gap becomes so pronounced upon starting school. But the alarming findings are already prompting discussion among educational experts. Educational analyst Sabine Meinck of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement drew on her own research, noting that "our data suggest early gendered patterns in parental engagement, [so] gender stereotypes may begin to take root through early childhood play." RELATED STORIES —'Let's just study males and keep it simple': How excluding female animals from research held neuroscience back, and could do so again —When was math invented? —Parents who have this gene may be more likely to have a girl For example, "parents report engaging girls significantly more in early literacy activities, while boys are more often involved with building blocks and construction toys," she told Live Science in an email. That may be laying a foundation for how kids engage with reading and math learning in school. These differences in early childhood play have previously correlated with differing levels of scholastic achievement down the line. The next step requires more research in classrooms, Spelke said, where researchers should gather data to develop interventions that could be useful to students, then test them. "And when we find that something is working, then it can be implemented across the board."
