A group of students carrying Palestinian flags staged a silent protest at Camp Randall Stadium in the University of Wisconsin-Madison, US. The students’ cry was called “The Holocaust in Gaza”. This comes as the conflict between Hamas and Israel has killed more than 200 people and injured over 2,000 others on both sides.
Columbia University has said that the graduation ceremony of its students will not take place on May 15 due to the anti-Israel protests. The university said it’ll prioritize Class days and school-level ceremonies, “where students are honoured individually alongside their peers”. Earlier, Indiana University held an alternate graduation ceremony and University of Michigan held an alternate graduation ceremony.
Several professors at US’ Columbia University have written to the campus administration calling for an “immediate halt” on police action against students protesting in support of the Palestinian cause. “It’s unconscionable that the faculty is being asked to intervene and defend students’ academic rights when they aren’t being threatened,” they wrote. The professors further called on the university administration to act responsibly and in accordance with the law.
Students at Columbia University staged an encampment in 1968 to protest against the university’s plans to build a gym in a Harlem park. Pro-Palestine students had set up tents to hold a demonstration on the same day that Columbia University President Minouche Shafik testified in Congress about reports of antisemitism on the campus. “All University students participating in the encampment have been informed they’re suspended,” Columbia said.
As per a new report, a generative artificial intelligence (AI) system has the highest false-positive rate for testing English as a foreign language, at 61.3%. This was found in an American Journal of Sociology test of 16 AI language detectors. The tool was among the most accurate of 16 AI language detectors in a test that had the tool examine undergraduate papers.
Hackers have been targeting a group of young public school students in the US who have “more valuable” data than adults, Doug Levin, Director of K12 Security Information eXchange, a nonprofit that helps protect school districts from cybersecurity risks, said. He added that it’s unrealistic to belief parents have the time or capacity to do everything the school district suggested.
The first major snowfall of the season in the US has hit Boston and several other areas including New York, Connecticut and New Jersey on Monday night. The storm dumped 2 inches of snow per hour in some areas, and there were strong winds from central Appalachians to southern New England. Boston Mayor Michelle Wu declared a snow emergency.
The University of South Carolina’s President Claudine Gay has resigned after facing allegations that she plagiarized parts of her published work. The Harvard Corporation, the highest governing board in Harvard, noted that Gay had acknowledged “missteps”. Gay took office in July after 16 years as a professor and became the first female president at the university.
The US’ Department of Education will wipe out the loans of more than 4,00,000 people like Kurt Panton who had been paying back loans for 19 years. Earlier, President Joe Biden had announced that he would eliminate up to $10,000 in federal student debt for most borrowers and up to $20,000 for Pell Grant recipients.
Harvard, MIT and the University of Pennsylvania are under criticism for a congressional hearing about antisemitism that took place last week. A group of 74 Congress members signed a letter last week asking the governing boards of Harvard, MIT and UPenn to remove their presidents. Harvard President Claudine Gay’s response to allegations of antisemitism was criticised after she testified before the House Committee on Education.
