AKA Review - 09.19.2025

From The New York Times

Kirk Assassination Puts America’s Political Spotlight on Campuses Again

By Vimal Patel

It should be no surprise that Charlie Kirk targeted campuses to make his case that leftism is running amok. Higher education, the sector of society most concerned with ideas, has always been where America hashes out its cultural divides. Kirk’s push to make campuses more welcoming to conservative views and return them to the value of vigorous debate may seem like a moral high ground. But the man who wrote Campus Battlefield “treated higher education as a war zone, with [those] who did not share his preferred ideology as the enemy to be defeated.”

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From The Economist

America’s choice after the assassination of Charlie Kirk

Analyses of Kirk’s approach to conservative activism are everywhere. The Economist instead steps back to consider America’s possible responses to growing political violence. It explores three potential futures—dark, darker, and one which, though brighter, won’t happen on its own. In the latter, Americans not only listen more closely to their opponents but also do a better job of hearing what they themselves are saying. “Democracy is a mechanism for managing conflict. To make it work requires not just empathy but self-awareness.”

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From University World News

Why admitting 600,000 Chinese students to the US is a good idea

By Denis Simon

A few weeks ago, the President mused about admitting 600,000 students from China—over double the current number. Few mistook his remark for a policy proposal. But, the author argues, it would be one of the most forward-looking moves the U.S. could make to boost education, economics, and global competitiveness. Such an enrollment surge would supply scarce talent for our innovation economy and tuition to stabilize university budgets. More importantly, it would help build understanding in a world defined by mistrust and polarization.

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From The Chronicle of Higher Education

The Student Brain on AI

By Beth McMurtrie

Does A.I. make us dumber? The media explode with oversimplistic doomsaying each time results are released from another study of how we use A.I.—often despite its authors’ protestations that they mean no such thing. This article is a useful counterweight. It discusses how such studies are structured, what they try to measure, and both the common findings and the limits to what they show. Studies that reveal AI’s effects on learning will likely take years to complete, and “teaching experts say it’s unlikely we’ll find definitive answers in a lab.”

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From McSweeney's Internet Tendency

The Em Dash Responds to The AI Allegations

By Greg Mania

Amid the celebrations and doomsaying about A.I., important voices have been left unheard. In this brief cri de coeur, we hear from one of the most affected parties. Blunt, indignant, at times crude, this often mis/overused punctuation mark reminds us of its storied history and widespread use by writers long before the advent of A.I. It asks us to put ourselves in its shoes font before judging and asserts (in what might be the sole note of truth in the article), “The real issue isn’t me—it’s you. You simply don’t read enough.”

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