American scientist Freeman Hrabowski said he was the “only Black kid” during his PhD studies at Illinois Urbana-Champaign in the early 1970s. He added, “There was never a faculty member of colour and only one woman. From that initial instalment, the scheme has boosted the numbers of Black science students in the US. King posed this question to the group.”
US President Joe Biden is set to speak at the Morehouse College graduation in Atlanta, Georgia. This comes after students at Atlanta University Center protested against Biden’s stance on Israel’s actions in Gaza and asked for Biden to not be invited to the event. The Atlanta HBCU alumni association had petitioned the administration not to invite Biden to their event.
Students staged a silent walkout during Virginia Commonwealth University’s graduation ceremony to protest US President Joe Biden’s remarks on student protests. Earlier in the day, Biden had criticised the students, saying that some of them used “violent” methods. During his address, Biden had also said that he’s not against “patriotic” protesters but that they should “find a new way of doing it”.
Students at Brown University on April 30 set up an encampment on campus for six days to show support for Palestinians and demand that the school cut its financial ties toIsraeli companies they say are complicit in the ongoing war in Gaza. They also called for the school to divest from weapons manufacturers and companies tied to the Israeli military.
At least 144 Vanderbilt University professors have signed a letter, expressing support for student protesters and criticising its “excessive and punitive” response. Students were protesting at a campus-designated assembly area since 1969 and the site of a camp out the school administration banned in a last-minute change. Hundreds of students have been arrested at campus protests within the last week.
US’ Columbia University was criticised in 1968 for allowing pro-Palestinian students to take over a public park on campus. Students had taken over the park over the university’s move to build a gym in the area, which the protesters said would give only limited and second-class access to the local community. In 1968, Columbia President Minouche Shafik had testified before Congress about antisemitism.
Generative artificial intelligence-based plagiarism detection company Generative AI has revealed over 22 million papers that may have used its generative AI tool. The company’s artificial intelligence detector has been updated to detect word spinners. It can also flag work that was rewritten by services like spell checker Grammarly, which now has its own generative AI tool.
US National Security Advisor to the 2023 White House Cyber Security Conference, Anne Neuberger, has said that the White House doesn’t have the authority to require minimum school cybersecurity protocols. “Even now many school districts don’t have basic prevention protocols in place,” she added. An analysis by cyber security firm Emsisoft estimates that 45 school districts were attacked in 2022.
New York City public schools preemptively closed on Tuesday and planned to hold classes remotely. Boston Mayor Michelle Wu declared a snow emergency and ordered municipal buildings and public schools closed on Tuesday and instituting a parking ban on major roads. A nor’easter is expected to hit Mid-Atlantic and New England with high winds, coastal flooding, and up to a foot of snow.
Harvard University President Claudine Gay has resigned over plagiarism allegations. Gay, who became the first African-American and second woman to lead the Ivy League school in 2012, had faced accusations of plagiarizing parts of her published works and appearing before Congress last month. Gay had become the first person of colour and the second woman to lead Harvard when she joined the faculty.