A Society of Cheats; The Atlantic, August 30, 2026

John Paul Rollert , The Atlantic; A Society of Cheats

Students’ use of AI is teaching them to cut corners, disdain rules, and believe that integrity is for suckers and wimps.

"By now, there have been many articles about how undergraduates’ promiscuous use of AI will affect their intellectual development, but I’m far more interested in its moral consequences. This is partly because I’m pretty confident about the former—I’ve told graduate students who actually learned how to write papers in college that I anticipate a generation of incompetents roughly a decade behind them—but also because I teach classes in leadership and business ethics, and I’m aghast at so many young people seemingly habituating themselves to cheating as a way of life.

Many students would no doubt object to this claim, but plainly that’s what they’re doing, cheating their way through their education. Every paper they don’t write, every problem set they don’t prepare, every serious reading they summarize into a memo—all of these are exercises in cutting corners, in getting by, and, at graduation time, in gaining a degree they didn’t earn.

That word is key: earn. To say that someone “earned” something is to apply a moral distinction to what one acquires. Not only can we get things we didn’t earn, but we can also obtain things we don’t deserve. The first is the good fortune of the trust-fund kid, the second the province of a thief.

Students are spending a lot of time learning to be thieves nowadays, and once they receive their dubious diplomas, they will enter the “real world” with all the qualities of a criminal syndicate: a knack for cutting corners, a disdain for community rules, and an assumption that a spirit of integrity, and the sacrifices it assumes, is the reserve of suckers and wimps. We will be a society of cheats."

Harvard’s A.I. Clones Will Hear Your Start-Up Pitch Now; The New York Times, August 22, 2026

 Sarah Kessler, The New York Times; Harvard’s A.I. Clones Will Hear Your Start-Up Pitch Now

To create a new $699 bootcamp for entrepreneurs, Harvard Business School made A.I. versions of its faculty. 

"Bussgang is one of several teachers at Harvard Business School who volunteered to help create A.I. clones of themselves for a new eight-week entrepreneurship boot camp called H.B.S. Foundry. Harvard has tested the product, which costs $699, with more than 100 universities across 50 states.

Foundry guides participants through a framework for starting a company, from refining the idea to pitching it to investors and customers. Along with Harvard Business School content, its virtual work space includes a community of peers and access to A.I. agents — some intended to “represent” instructors. It also features video call simulations for practicing pitches, sales calls and board meetings with instructor A.I. avatars, like the one of Bussgang.

Experienced founders, investors, and Harvard Business School faculty lead weekly live sessions, but the purpose of the online portal is to guide students through A.I. resources and content from the business school for building a start-up.

The school aims to use Foundry to scale the school’s offerings far beyond the 900 or so M.B.A. students it admits each year. In that way, it is something of a case study for companies facing a similar problem: Consulting firms like PWC, law firms and, at least in one case, a church, are also experimenting with how A.I. can expand their services far beyond their human bandwidth. So are some movie directors — an A.I. version of the actor Val Kilmer, who passed away in 2025, recently appeared in the historical drama “As Deep as the Grave.”"

A Texas University Is Using A.I. to Cut Left-Leaning Content; The New York Times, August 18, 2026

 Vimal Patel , The New York Times; A Texas University Is Using A.I. to Cut Left-Leaning Content

The politician behind Texas’ conservative overhaul of higher education is now running a university system. Some say his effort to ferret out forbidden topics is a dystopian academic nightmare.

"Texas Tech is using A.I. to ferret out books and other materials that touch on topics like sexual orientation and gender identity. Professors describe the effort as a dystopian academic nightmare, in which ideologues are wielding technology to sideline subject-matter experts."

U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon Issues National Call to Action to University Presidents and Governing Boards; U.S. Department of Education, August 3, 2026

U.S. Department of Education; U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon Issues National Call to Action to University Presidents and Governing Boards

"Today, U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon issued a national call to action to university presidents and governing boards, urging them to reaffirm higher education’s foundational commitments to academic excellence, pathbreaking research, and national service. Secretary McMahon called on every postsecondary institution to publish, by the end of 2026, a clear public statement outlining its commitment to implementing reforms that will help restore public trust in higher education. 

For nearly four centuries, American higher education has shaped the leaders, institutions, and ideas that fortified the nation’s civic life, powered scientific advancement, and cultivated immense economic opportunity. Yet, as many institutions have drifted from these principles, confidence in higher education has eroded. Recent polling demonstrates that public trust in higher education has reached historic lows across political parties and demographic groups.  

In her letter, Secretary McMahon expressed confidence that bold university leadership will help usher in a renewed era of academic excellence, economic opportunity, scientific discovery, and American leadership. To this end, she urged universities to begin a “forthright conversation with the American people” guided by seven central questions:  

1. Transparency and Merit in Admissions: How will your institution ensure that admissions criteria are transparent and wholly described to prospective applicants? And how will your institution ensure admissions decisions are based on merit, achievement, and your university’s educational purpose?
2. Free Speech and Open Inquiry: How will your institution protect the free exchange of ideas, wide-ranging debate, and openminded campus discourse? And how will you guarantee that unruly and violent protestors do not harass students or disrupt classes, research, public lectures, and campus operations? 
3. Intellectual Pluralism and Academic Vitality: How will your institution encourage intellectual pluralism in all its academic units? How will your faculty hiring and evaluation practices support academic vitality and ensure that all relevant perspectives are taken seriously? And how will your institution ensure the research enterprise is dedicated to advancing knowledge, deepening understanding, and serving the American people who fund it?
4. Affordability, Value, and Student Outcomes: How will your institution ensure that families can access affordable, high-return, degrees? And what will your institution do to contain costs, improve pricing transparency, and ensure that every academic program equips students to repay their loans? 
5. Academic Standards and Rigor in the Age of AI: How will your institution incentivize rigor in the age of AI, combat grade inflation, and prioritize excellence in teaching and learning? 
6. Safeguarding Research Integrity from Malign Foreign Influence: How will your institutions protect academic programs from foreign influence, and safeguard the integrity of the research enterprise? 
7. Prioritizing American Interests: How will your institution answer this national call to action? How can your campus and faculty advance American security interests, deliver academic programs that meet urgent workforce needs, and contribute materially to the Nation’s prosperity? 

Click here to read the full letter."

Rutgers University investigates ethics complaint against dean who billed the university for services offered by her company; WHYY, July 15, 2026

P. Kenneth Burns , WHYY; Rutgers University investigates ethics complaint against dean who billed the university for services offered by her company

"Rutgers University is investigating a dean at its Newark campus for allegedly making thousands of dollars by doing business with the university through a company she co-owns with her sister.

Jacqueline S. Mattis, dean of the Rutgers-Newark School of Arts and Sciences, SASN, was paid $142,515 for services provided to Rutgers by her company, Easton’s Nook LLC, since she began her job in July 2020, according to records reviewed by WHYY News. The funds went to pay for writing workshops and retreats, some of which took place in Jamaica."

Brown Professor Suspects Majority of His Class Used AI to Cheat; Inside Higher Ed, July 8, 2026

Emma Whitford, Inside Higher Ed; Brown Professor Suspects Majority of His Class Used AI to Cheat

"For the first time since he started teaching Welfare Economics and Social Choice Theory nearly two decades ago, Brown University economics professor Roberto Serrano gave his students a take-home midterm this spring. Quite a few students had expressed anxiety about being in a classroom after a gunman killed two students and injured nine in a December mass shooting at Brown, and so “it was appropriate,” he said, to allow students to take their exams at home.

But by the end of the semester, Serrano regretted the decision. Dozens of students in the class likely used artificial intelligence to cheat and earn perfect or near-perfect scores on their midterm, he said. Serrano in turn made the final exam in-person, which led more than a dozen students to drop the course and even more to fail it. Administrators’ response to the widespread cheating event has been “meek,” he said, and the incident has raised questions about how universities can—and should—respond to AI-enabled cheating at scale.

His welfare economics class typically attracted up to 30 students, but this spring he taught 86—an increase he attributes to the promised take-home exams. When the midterm came along, the average score was 96 percent."

Mrs. Stern Wanders the Prussian State Library to Return Off-Broadway; Playbill, July 7, 2026

Margaret Hall, Playbill ; Mrs. Stern Wanders the Prussian State Library to Return Off-Broadway

"Off-Broadway's 59E59 Theaters has added Mrs. Stern Wanders the Prussian State Library to its upcoming programming.

Presented by Luna Stage and Richard Jordan Productions with Traverse Theatre, the drama will run September 12-October 25 in Theater A...

Set in 1933 Berlin, with martial law in effect and political activism having become a capital crime, the production follows a young Gestapo officer who arrests a philosophy graduate student, whose interrogation will endanger them both. Inspired by the real life arrest of Hannah Arendt, Bader's play illuminates the struggle for human connection and perseverance in even the darkest of times."

Why big AI labs are hiring so many philosophers; The Economist, June 24, 2026

The Economist; Why big AI labs are hiring so many philosophers

"Ten years ago, as the ai revolution was gathering pace, arts and humanities students were told that, if they wanted to make themselves employable, they should “learn to code”. That may have been bad advice. These days, it is programmers who are nervous about ai taking their jobs."

6 Reasons Libraries Should Look Beyond the M.L.S.; Inside Higher Ed, June 16, 2026

Bryn Geffert, Inside Higher Ed ; 6 Reasons Libraries Should Look Beyond the M.L.S.

New research bolsters the growing case for alternative credentialing in academic libraries.

"No question is more likely than the following to provoke a donnybrook among academic librarians: Should every or even most librarians possess a master of library and information science (M.L.I.S. or M.L.S.) degree? Pose the question, step back and watch the fireworks.

A recent survey I conducted of every R-1 and R-2 university library in the United States (with responses from the top library official at 167 universities) identified tremendous dissatisfaction with the profession’s traditional treatment of this degree as the sole or even best credential for academic librarians. A significant and especially vociferous minority of administrators (31 percent) still insist that the M.L.S. serve as a mandatory, bedrock qualification for practitioners, asserting that those without said degree should never hold the title “librarian.” But a strong majority are now willing to consider alternative credentials.

I side with that burgeoning majority. In light of developments over the last few decades, those who contend we should treat the degree as optional rather than mandatory have the stronger case. Herewith, I present six observations in favor of recognizing alternative credentials for those the academy hires as librarians."

UI Center for Intellectual Freedom book on hold over copyright concerns; The Gazette, June 15, 2026

 Vanessa Miller, The Gazette; UI Center for Intellectual Freedom book on hold over copyright concerns

"A book the University of Iowa-based Center for Intellectual Freedom director announcedwas in the works late last year is on hold over copyright concerns about who might get the proceeds — despite UI assurances they would go to the center."

A uni professor admitted using AI to write an opinion piece. Here’s what it revealed about trust in the technology; The Guardian, June 5, 2026

Josh Taylor, The Guardian ; A uni professor admitted using AI to write an opinion piece. Here’s what it revealed about trust in the technology

"When a pro vice-chancellor at a university this week admitted to using AI in writing an opinion piece for a major Australian masthead, but did not disclose that use prior to publication, it highlighted the growing gap between people’s use of AI and trust in the technology."

Libraries’ summer 2026 webinars teach copyright, fair use basics in an hour; Penn State University Libraries, June 3, 2026

 Penn State University Libraries; Libraries’ summer 2026 webinars teach copyright, fair use basics in an hour

"Penn State University Libraries’ Office of Scholarly Communications and Copyright will offer two online workshops on copyright and fair use topics in summer 2026 for Penn State students, faculty and staff and the public.

Danielle Steinhart, interim copyright officer and head of the Office of Scholarly Communications and Copyright, will teach both workshops online via Zoom. Attendees are asked to please register in advance. Responsible and Ethical Conduct of Research (RECR) program credit, formerly known as Scholarship and Research Integrity credit, will be available for both courses."

What It’s Like to Be a Student at the First A.I.-Powered University; The New York Times, June 1, 2026

Linda Kinstler, The New York Times; What It’s Like to Be a Student at the First A.I.-Powered University

"The avatar is one feature of S.J.S.U.’s A.I. Everywhere strategy, which was formally announced in the fall of 2025 and aims to integrate the technology across campus life. Teniente-Matson devised A.I. Everywhere as part of the California State University system’s broader A.I. Initiative, introduced in February 2025. Anchored by a $16.9 million deal with OpenAI, the initiative provides a total of 500,000 licenses of ChatGPT.edu to be issued to all students, faculty and administrators. At the time, this was the largest single-institution deployment of ChatGPT in the world, billed as an attempt to turn C.S.U. — the biggest four-year public higher education system in the United States, comprising 22 distinct campuses and educating 1 out of every 10 workers in the state — into “the nation’s first and largest A.I.-powered public university system.” (The terms of the deal stipulate that OpenAI may not train its model on data from the C.S.U.)

At San Jose State — the oldest public university in the California State University system — evidence of the shift toward A.I. is evident across campus. The university now has an A.I. librarian, and its main library features a new A.I. Center for Civic and Social Good. The business school runs an A.I. boot camp for high school students; the campus career hub is sponsored by Adobe; A.I. literacy training is an orientation requirement and, last year, an A.I. agent helped coordinate commencement logistics."

Judge Lifts West Point’s Restrictions on Civilian Professors’ Speech; The New York Times, May 26, 2026

Benjamin Weiser , The New York Times; Judge Lifts West Point’s Restrictions on Civilian Professors’ Speech

"The Military Academy at West Point cannot require civilian faculty members to obtain approval before using their West Point affiliation to speak to outside audiences about their areas of expertise, a federal judge ruled on Tuesday.

The academy also cannot prevent a professor, Tim Bakken, from expressing his opinions to students in the classroom on subjects he teaches, Judge Cathy Seibel of U.S. District Court in White Plains, N.Y., said in the ruling.

Professor Bakken, who has taught at West Point since 2000, had sued the academy, saying that its policies had violated the First Amendment. He has spoken and written frequently and at times critically about the U.S. military, including West Point, his lawsuit notes.

Judge Seibel issued a preliminary injunction blocking both the approval requirement and the restrictions on Professor Bakken’s speech."

Spanberger removes Virginia Tech rector, citing ethics concerns; The Washington Post, May 30, 2026

 Sophia Solano, The Washington Post; Spanberger removes Virginia Tech rector, citing ethics concerns

"Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D) removed the rector of the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors this week, a move that angered Republicans and drew swift comparison to allegations of political interference in state colleges that were aimed at her predecessor.

In a letter Wednesday to Rector John Rocovich, Spanberger accused him of violating a code of conduct for state board appointees, as well as the university board’s Code of Ethics “requiring board members to act in accordance with the best interests of Virginia Tech.” 

The governor did not provide examples of alleged misconduct.

Spanberger appointed former board member Edward Baine to fill the remainder of Rocovich’s term through June 2027. She also appointed Sharon Brickhouse Martin to fill a vacancy through June; she was previously tapped for a four-year term that begins in July."

Artificial intelligence can be used for grading law school exams, but should it be?; ABA Journal, May 27, 2026

  JULIANNE HILL, ABA Journal; Artificial intelligence can be used for grading law school exams, but should it be?

"Artificial intelligence is being put to the test, literally, as it is being used to grade law students’ exams. But should it be?...

Just as many universities require students to disclose whether they’re using an AI to write a paper, Schwarcz adds, professors have to disclose their use.

“The power dynamic is such that, what is a student supposed to do, right?” Schwarcz says.

Daniel W. Linna Jr., a senior lecturer and the director of law and technology initiatives at the Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law in Illinois, disagrees."

Harvard faculty vote to limit A grades for undergraduates; The Washington Post, May 20, 2026

Susan Svrluga, The Washington Post; Harvard faculty vote to limit A grades for undergraduates

In a closely watched vote, the faculty took strong action to combat grade inflation

"Harvard faculty voted to cap the number of A grades given to undergraduates at about 20 percent per class, taking assertive action to reverse years of grade inflation at a time of intense scrutiny of higher education.

The vote, reported Wednesday, is the most prominent symbol of a reckoning at some elite schools concerned by the increasing number of A’s — a widespread issue that some faculty members warn is fundamentally damaging the integrity of education."

Why College Grads Are Booing Their Commencement Speakers; The New York Times, May 18, 2026

MICHELLE GOLDBERG , The New York Times; Why College Grads Are Booing Their Commencement Speakers

"One recent report found that only 18 percent of Gen Z-ers feel hopeful about A.I., and almost half say the risks outweigh the benefits. Politicians with followings among young people — including Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on the left and James Fishback on the right — are calling for moratoriums on data centers. A.I. is increasingly a pop culture villain. “The people who make this stuff are losers,” said the comedian Hannah Einbinder, star of HBO’s “Hacks,” a show that has put hatred of the technology at the center of its current season. There have even been some high-profile acts of anti-A.I. violence, including a Molotov cocktail hurled at the home of OpenAI’s chief, Sam Altman.

As Americans rebel against A.I., the industry’s oligarchic leaders are responding by trying to buy even more political influence, pouring money into super PACs and lobbying. Groups supporting A.I. and crypto, Politico reported this month, “are already becoming the most dominant players on the political battlefield, spending heavily for candidates on both sides of the aisle and in some cases rivaling the fund-raising of long-established party groups.” The irony is that the industry’s attempts to game the democratic system are a big part of its deep unpopularity."

The Villain of This Year’s Commencement Speeches: A.I.; The New York Times, May 18, 2026

 Andrew Ross Sorkin, Bernhard Warner, Sarah Kessler, Michael J. de la Merced, Niko Gallogly, Brian O’Keefe and Ian Mount, The New York Times; The Villain of This Year’s Commencement Speeches: A.I.

College students have interrupted graduation ceremonies to voice their fears about artificial intelligence. They’re not the only ones who are worried.

"Andrew here. If you want to understand the deep fear that artificial intelligence is creating in much of the nation, look no further than the reaction to Eric Schmidt’s commencement address. The former Google C.E.O. spoke the truth about the technology, but it did not go over well with graduates who are anxious about their future. We’ve got more below."

TEACHING AT PITT: AI v. AI — A case from the prosecution; University Times, May 15, 2026

  J. D. Wright, University Times; TEACHING AT PITT: AI v. AI — A case from the prosecution

"I’ve spent most of my career in higher education as one of the academic-integrity true believers — a zero-tolerance hardliner who prosecuted apparent violations with a zeal that might have made you wonder whether I was acting on a staunch commitment to the principles of academic honesty or just perceiving lapses in ethical judgment as personal affronts. In many ways, I’m the last person you’d expect to suggest that an enforcement-first approach to academic integrity, especially in recent years, undermines the work of teaching and learning.

And yet, here I am, making precisely that opening argument in support of my case."