Note: Around the College Town is my weekly links roundup article on urbanism and education. These posts mostly cover news that may have fallen through the cracks rather than the big events.

Billionaires Revitalized Dead Colleges

This week it was announced that Jensen Huang, the Nvidia billionaire, and his wife, Lori, donated a $75 million gift to Vanderbilt University. The gift will not be going to the traditional campus in Nashville, Tennessee. Instead, this will go to fund Vanderbilt’s new art, architecture, and design campus in San Francisco, California.

The site where the new Jen-Hsun and Lori Huang College of Art, Architecture and Design will be located is on the former campus of California College of the Arts (CAA), which is shuttering at the end of this upcoming academic year. The 119-year-old arts college struggled with enrollment and had a $20 million deficit. Vanderbilt agreed to buy CAA for an undisclosed amount earlier this year.

Importantly, this purchase is not a merger, nor even an acquisition. The institution formerly known as CCA will cease to exist. Vanderbilt has promised to keep some of the spirit alive by creating the “CCA Institute” and by keeping the Wattis Institute gallery open.

The CAA case is a wonderful location, easily walkable and bikeable in the booming city of San Francisco. Unlike some dying colleges, a lot of the campus space seemed like it was in good shape and recently refurbished. There is no doubt in my mind that with Huang and Vanderbilt leading the revitalizing, the campus will be a thriving jewel for the city and university.

Something Old or New?

Wealthy donors bequeathing colleges large sums of money is nothing new. These kinds of philanthropic efforts go back to the origins of higher education in the country with the likes of Elihu Yale and John Harvard. Vanderbilt is no exception, as Cornelius Vanderbilt, the railroad and transportation robber baron, made the initial donation to get the school up and running.

But perhaps a new emerging trend is not for upstart universities founded by billionaires, but instead revitalizing dead or dying college spaces. The most recent cases are alliances between the billionaires and strong universities. The Huang-Vanderbilt case is just the most recent. There have been others.

Steve and Connie Ballmer gave the University of Oregon $425 million, which helped to create and fund the Ballmer Institute for Children’s Behavioral Health at a new campus in Portland. The University of Oregon-Portland sits on the site of the former Concordia University, which shut down in 2020 after over a century of operations. I visited the new Portland campus, and it is one of the finest adaptive reuses of a defunct college that I have ever seen. Oregon invested some serious funding into the space, and it shows.

In another similar case, Laurene Powell Jobs, the widow of famed Apple founder Steve Jobs, funded a nonprofit that bought out the old San Francisco Art Institute. Rather than partnering with an established university, this new space will be called California Academy of Studio Arts (CASA), including saving the beloved local artist Diego Rivera's mural. It was in rough shape when I saw it last year, but I trust that Jobs will have the resources to revitalize the space.

Billionaires Can’t (or Won’t) Always Save Dying Colleges

Looking at this new trend, it brings up the question about billionaires possibly saving struggling colleges before they die. While this tactic has been tried, they do not always work. The Huang family had even formerly donated to CAA, reportedly up to $22.5 million. The gift was lauded as saving the college back when it was made in 2025. But in the end, the college still closed.

Hampshire College is perhaps one of the most famous institutions to shutter. The documentarian Ken Burns helped contribute to the fund that raised $55 million with hopes of saving his alma mater. Despite the efforts, the college announced its closure in 2026.

In a lesser-known case, Masayoshi Son, the billionaire Softbank founder, attended Holy Names College as an international ESL student before transferring to UC Berkeley. He even met his wife there! But he did not save the Bay Area college when it finally went under in 2023. He did donate to the Schwarzman Scholars Program at Tsinghua University, the powerhouse Chinese university.

Finally, I turn to Andrew Cherng and Peggy Cherng, the founders of Panda Express. Long before their Chinese chain restaurant empire, they were international students at tiny Baker University in Baldwin City, Kansas. While the college is still open, it has struggled in recent years. I always wondered why the Cherngs wouldn’t plop down a bunch of money at their alma mater, perhaps renaming it Cherng University. But they have only donated $50,000, as far as I can tell.

Instead, the couple and their philanthropic arms have focused on giving to stronger institutions. They gave the California Institute of Technology $30 million in 2017, the University of Missouri $5 million in 2024 (which is the master’s alma mater of the couple), Cal Poly Pomona $2.5 million in 2011, and even $450,000 to the University of Pennsylvania for the Panda Express Postdoctoral Fellowship in Asian American Studies.

Strong Get Stronger

I think the appeal for these billionaires in reviving a dead campus is to start something new. But by going through an already-established university, it gives more cachet and increases the chances of success. After all, a lot of namesake university patrons never lived to see their creations reach great heights. Leland Stanford Junior University wouldn’t become the Stanford we know today until the tech booms in Silicon Valley.

These revitalizing efforts have largely centered on campuses in or around major metropolitan areas. While this trend may give hope to communities with dead colleges, I think that spaces in rural areas will be a much harder sell. It takes some serious deep pockets to make these revitalization efforts work. Expect more of this in so-called “Superstar Cities” like New York City, San Francisco, LA, or Miami, not in small towns without the cachet.

These trends are just part of the Age of Conquest in US higher education. The biggest get bigger, the weaker wither away. I also extended to competative nature to broader American society in an adaptive version for The Chronicle, which helps to explain why billionaires prefer to partner with the top institutions. These recent cases probably warrant a deeper investigation into the broader landscape of philanthropy in higher ed and beyond.

Video by me.

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Links I’m Reading This Week

Education

• NYU Tokyo? New York University is discussing the possibility of a new branch campus in Japan. My guess is that this does not happen, but rather a smaller study center. It will cannibalize too much of the NYC Shanghai appeal.

• In other New York news, a New York state school district is getting a robot teacher. I do not foresee these replacing us anytime soon, but it is an interesting development nonetheless, especially with the dueling forces of defunding and anti-Ed Tech sentiments.

• BU agrees to give the city of Boston over $100 million. Non-profit universities do not pay taxes, so sometimes they are seen to leach off of public service. These kinds of deals are becoming more common.

• Over in education housing news, Santa Cruz cannot retain teachers due to housing prices. It is a common problem in high-cost-of-living California. Some districts have even opted to build teacher housing. I wish we would just build more generally.

• In higher ed housing news, A two billion dollar student housing development is coming to the University of Florida.

• Columbia University buys beautiful gothic dorms. Funny enough, the building was formerly Union Theological Seminary, which is a Columbia affiliate.

• Loyola Chicago may turn a shuttered Catholic school into housing. These types of adaptive reuse cases are rising as more schools shutter.

• Even regular people are getting into the adaptive reuse in this space. Live in an old boarding school or shuttered school. Both are quite reasonably priced.

• On the other end of the spectrum, if you have 17 million sitting around, you can buy Thomas Jefferson’s childhood home. I would love to see it turned into some kind of living museum or educational center.

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Urbanism-ish

• LA might finally rid itself of the graffiti towers. It’s embarrassing that the locality has allowed it to languish this long. Poor governance.

• LA Mayor wants transit system to be free. I am already on record as anti-free buses. A more efficient and frequent system is a much higher priority. LA does not have this.

• We don’t have to accept a poorly run Los Angeles. LA is trying to build more bus stop shades to prepare for the Olympics. I’m glad we are getting these, but it’s kind of sad that it takes hosting a global event to make it happen.

• One local writer makes the case that a denser LA doesn’t have to be an ugly one. Hear, hear!

• Finally for the LA news, if you are so sick of the city, then how about hitting rural California? Gold mining is becoming hot again in the state.

• Switching gears from my current home to my former home, OKC might get a commuter rail system. The renderings look great. This would be a huge boon to the area.

• In self-driving car news, trial lawyers are against self-driving cars because they make so much money from car accidents. Disgusting.

• Likewise, Uber is trying to slow down the adoption of self-driving cars. I guess they are falling behind the race between Waymo and other industry leaders, so they are looking to slow down progress.

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Closing Time… Sweep Your Own Bike Lane

Guerrilla urbanism (or tactical urbanism) is when people take over duties from localities to fix streets, roads, and other public infrastructure. Sometimes, these acts can get people arrested. Nonetheless, the dereliction of governments leads people to become vigilantes with efforts to clean up bad urbanism.

I recently found a new company selling do-it-yourself bike lane sweepers, aptly called Bike Lane Sweeper. These can easily be hooked up to a bike and then driven over a bike lane, removing various debris from the path. The costs range from $3,100 to $5,500, including a hybrid upgrade. The company targets bike and urbanist advocacy groups who take on this guerrilla urbanism. But they also hope that municipalities will take interest, too.

The BikeLA subreddit cued me onto this new company. A local outfit called Bikerowave Coop has a Bike Lane Sweeper in its arsenal, clearing out streets on Venice, from Lincoln to Sepulveda, major bike thoroughfares. The poster even offered a review of the product in the comment section, and organized by me below.

Pros:

1. “There is no competition, there’s literally nothing else I can do… for this size and weight.”

2. “It’s actually kind of fun to use, and he gets a ton of people engaged and happy that somebody’s doing something about the problem.”

3. “It can be towed behind, literally any bike, as long as you keep it under 10 mph.”

4. “…taking up minimal space.”

Cons:

• “A new one is pretty damn expensive.”

• “You can’t pick up bigger objects like a fast food container cup, or other larger objects that can’t fit under the front of the unit.”

• “It can’t handle several inch deep debris in one pass, you’ll have to come back and do a couple passes on the deep stuff”.

• “It kicks up quite a lot of dust.”

• “It’s not good at catching every single thing on the very edge of the curb.”

So what do you think? Is the Bike Lane Sweeper the answer to much-neglected bike lanes in the country? I definitely would like to see more of these operated in my area. Universities, too, could have a few of these to clean up parts of campus.

Editorial Note: This is the second guest post in the “Summer School at College Towns” series.

This guest post comes from , is an Orange County educator whose experience has focused on combining her teaching of English as a Second Language background with other academic studies, including public policy and higher education research.

College Towns has previously posted about international students being targeted by the Trump administration. Building from these and the recent policy to limit visas to just four years, Carson explores how losing international students is detrimental to local economies. Enjoy. -Ryan

International students have quietly shored up the budgets not only for the schools they attend but also for the municipalities in which they reside. As an instructor at multiple institutions in Southern California, I wondered if the absence of international students was causing any measurable issues for local economies. I did what all academics do when faced with a research question; I began searching for data. What I found is that a quiet economic siphon is deeply impacting the neighborhoods surrounding local universities.

NAFSA’s most recent economic report from 2025 tells us that international students contributed $42.89 billion to the national economy in 2024-2025. This figure reflects the loss of $1.1 billion over the prior year. Federal laws restricting visas for international students have become increasingly stringent and show no sign of letting up under the present administration. Table 1 below shows how those numbers have changed over time.

Readers will be familiar with the litany of complaints levied against international students. Claims range from: international students take seats from Americans, international students are spies, international students steal American jobs. This framing of international students as bad actors is offered without context or proof. Such statements are designed to destabilize higher ed at a time when the system is already under attack and being forced to adapt to regulatory interference. The recent ruling from the Trump administration limiting visas to only four years has only added to these unwarranted attacks on this student population.

How Does This Economic Hit Land at the Local Level?

Anecdotally, I know from the institutions I teach for that it hurts programs, and the decrease in students has resulted in fewer classes being offered. Some might view this as a problem solely for higher ed to sort out, but research reveals that international students contribute dollars not only to tuition but also to home rentals, food, commerce, car purchases, tourist dollars, and sales tax.

To even secure an F-1 student visa, these applicants must demonstrate absolute financial solvency by providing liquid bank statements proving they can cover a minimum cost of attendance that typically ranges from $40,000 to over $75,000 per year, depending on the campus and degree program. Because they are legally barred from working off-campus, this entire sum represents a guaranteed, upfront injection of outside capital directly into the neighborhoods surrounding our universities.

Losing international students isn’t just an issue of empty seats in a classroom. Student reduction means empty apartments, fewer customers at neighborhood grocery stores, and fewer dollars flowing into local sales taxes that fund city parks and roads. The impact is much larger than is currently being portrayed.

While multiple examples exist of this local economic impact, I selected two cases from my state of California to demonstrate the order of importance this issue presents to local communities. California provides a microcosm of the entire country, as illustrated in Table 1. I selected public institutions for ease of finding verifiable information, but this does not mean that private institutions are not impacted in the same way.

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Foul Weather in San Diego

The economic liabilities of tightening immigration policies are acutely evident at San Diego State University (SDSU), a major public institution facing unexpected international enrollment contractions. While SDSU administrators initially projected an expansion of international enrollment based on strong admission activity, thousands of accepted students were ultimately unable to enroll due to severe visa appointment backlogs and a national F-1 visa refusal rate that spiked to a decade-high of 35%.

This administrative gridlock has been severely compounded by an aggressive federal vetting climate. Formal updates from the SDSU International Student Center document instances of sudden visa status terminations and active student visas being revoked mid-semester without warning.

When a major metropolitan campus like SDSU loses substantial international enrollment to systemic visa denials, the fiscal damage spills immediately into the surrounding San Diego municipality. According to NAFSA, every three international students historically support a local service job; a contraction of 400 international students at a major hub like SDSU places roughly 133 local San Diego service, hospitality, and retail jobs at immediate risk or eliminates them entirely.

The economic ripple effect of losing international enrollment can be painful. Based on the latest economic value analysis by NAFSA, international students in California contribute an average of nearly $45,000 each to the economy through a combination of tuition, housing, and local commerce. Applying this baseline to SDSU, losing a cohort of just 400 international students represents a combined loss of roughly $18 million in direct campus revenue and local San Diego business spending, which doesn’t even account for the parallel losses hitting neighboring universities.

In case you are thinking that SDSU can just replace these international students with domestic students and avoid the problem entirely, the issue is more complex. According to data compiled by the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC), non-resident undergraduate students pay significantly more than California residents. At California State Universities (including SDSU), non-residents pay the base tuition plus an additional supplemental tuition fee, bringing their total to roughly double what an in-state resident pays. The same is true for graduate students, except that international students make up more of the student population, especially in STEM programs.

The extra tuition from international and out-of-state students directly helps offset state revenue shortfalls and heavily subsidizes the education, financial aid, and resources available to local California residents.

If any California State University campus reduces its international student body and replaces them with in-state students, the university brings in far less revenue. This forces the campus to look for budget cuts, which can mean fewer course offerings, larger class sizes, or fewer campus jobs—all of which harm the local campus economy. This is in addition to the problems faced in the local off-campus economic community.

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(Un)Welcome to the OC

These shifting dynamics of federal visa approvals and immigration backlogs have left a clear mark on California’s public university infrastructure, with California State University, Fullerton (CSUF) serving as a primary regional indicator in Orange County. For years, CSUF operated as a major cultural and economic hub for international students, maintaining a historical baseline of well over 2,400 to 3,100 foreign-born students annually, according to historical records reported in College Factual institutional tracking data. However, as federal screening measures tightened and visa backlogs mounted, recent aggregate profiles indicate that CSUF’s unique international footprint has contracted significantly, sliding to a baseline of roughly 1,500 to 1,790 active students.

This almost 50% downturn mirrors a wider macro trend given that the California State University (CSU) system has experienced a stark contraction in its global student body, culminating in a recent drop to just 12,122 international students, as reported by CalMatters. The downturn represents the tail end of a multi-year decline accelerated by the pandemic. In 2019, the system boasted a robust international enrollment hovering between 18,000 and 20,000 students. However, a perfect storm of pandemic-era travel restrictions, prolonged visa backlogs, and fluctuating federal immigration policies ultimately drained more than 5,800 international students from the system, deeply reshaping the cultural and financial landscape of California’s state campuses.

Applying economic framework formulas established by NAFSA, a contraction of this magnitude at CSUF means that an estimated $30 million to $45 million in annual, non-tuition discretionary spending has vanished from the local Fullerton and Orange County ecosystem. Based on NAFSA’s regional employment multiplier, erasing up to 1,600 international scholars from the local economy places roughly 533 local hospitality, retail, and off-campus housing jobs at immediate risk. Furthermore, this contraction simultaneously starves the public university of approximately $24 million in annual out-of-state tuition premiums traditionally used to subsidize campus operations and domestic enrollment.

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How Long Will We Continue to Shoot Ourselves in the Foot?

The international visa crisis is not a temporary administrative headache; it is an unintended, self-inflicted economic sanction on America and our college towns. While university press releases may project a stable front, local landlords, small business owners, and service workers are quietly paying the multi-million-dollar price for federal policy gridlock. National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP) data shows that 59% of America’s billion-dollar “unicorn” startups have immigrant founders, and one in four began as an international student visa holder. Blocking international student participation harms local metropolitan ecosystems.

In addition to the economic woes inflicted by the visa restrictions, there are multiple other unintended consequences of limiting the number of international students in both undergraduate and graduate programs. As an instructor, I truly value the international perspective these students bring to the classroom. Their contributions offer the domestic students an opportunity to hear perspectives other than their own and offer a chance to form friendships and learn about other cultures, even if they are not able or interested in participating in study abroad situations. It is not possible or practical for every student to leave their home campus, and for some, this is as close as they will get to an international experience.

Another issue is the loss of potential employees with the skills many employers report as difficult to find, including science and math expertise and/or multilingual employees capable of working fluently in more than one language. The Peterson Institute for International Economics recently produced a report that details the impact of international student exclusion on U.S. economic growth.

The US is not alone in this movement. England, Australia, and Canada have all also attempted to reduce the number of international students. However, they are also discovering that shutting out all international students may not be the best way forward. If you follow the money, the true economic beneficiaries of America’s hostile visa climate are America’s geopolitical competitors, including China, whose “internationalization at home” strategy successfully retains billions in domestic family capital that used to be liquidated into U.S. college towns.

Overall, research led me to more clearly link the loss of students to a reduction of both city revenues and jobs. This important issue demands additional research and consideration. The interest groups lobbying Congress for a remedy are doing so from the standpoint of the institutions themselves, but clearly there needs to be input from local, state, and federal government officials to highlight the economic imperative revealed in the research.

Note: Around the College Town is my weekly links roundup article on urbanism and education. These posts mostly cover news that may have fallen through the cracks rather than the big events.

Free Buses vs. Fast Buses

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has received some heat recently after a hot streak of hosting the World Cup and winning the NBA finals. One story saw him critiqued for leaving out Little Italy from a map of immigrant enclave communities around the city (to which I don’t have much to add until my future The Sopranos article). The other story was about buses, sparking a debate between free buses and faster buses.

One headline in a local paper read, “Mamdani’s push for free buses takes a back seat to faster ones.” Mamdani’s critics say he is breaking a promise to voters for free bases, a central platform during his mayoral campaign. Instead, the mayor of NYC is teaming up with the governor of NY to offer the city faster buses. The plan is to invest millions into dedicated, protected bus lanes, new bus stops, shelters and seating, Automated Camera Enforcement (ACE) to keep out illegally parked cars, and other maintenance. These services will be “modeled after the best rapid bus systems around the world,” according to the report from the mayor’s office.

I’m not mad at the mayor for chasing fast over free. I’ve already come out as being against free buses. As I wrote before, I take my cue from the East Asian countries where I used to live, South Korea and China, or have visited, Japan and Hong Kong. These places have wonderful public transit (see my video below); none of the systems are free. They are low-cost and reliable. American cities should aspire to their level of service. We don’t need to reinvent the wheel.

The juxtaposition between Asia and the US is even starker right when you return home from the former. I have written about doing just that here in LA, but I also experienced a version of it when I moved back from Korea to New York City for grad school.

At that time, I was working as an adjunct at a college north of the city in White Plains. I would take the Metro-North train for an easy ride up. It was nice; the biggest hassle was getting to the station. I had to get from Columbia to the Metro-North Station, going down 125th Street. That stretch was incredibly packed. The bus would often take 45 minutes or more just to creep along that mile. Illegally parked cars, normal traffic, the inefficient system for wheelchairs, the stops too close together—all things that equaled big delays. It was actually just faster to walk, so that’s what I ended up doing most of the time. This is a system failure.

To the city’s credit, they installed dedicated bus lanes and raised stations on 125th, along with a real BRT line that didn’t stop as much. My old trip takes a fraction of the time now. But some of the same problems I faced when I lived there persist in the rest of the city. “Forever. Slowest bus in America,” one local resident told Streetsblog New York City. He typically waited a half hour for his bus, then it crept along Tremont Avenue in the Bronx.

The rest of NYC deserves some reprieve as my old strip got in Harlem. The strategies used to make buses faster on 125th are exactly the right kinds of fixes buses need throughout not just the city but the country. It seems this is exactly what Mayor Mamdani is trying to do—much smarter than free buses.

And yet, people are still mad at the mayor. Probably the dimmest response that I have seen to all of this is the idea that faster, more efficient buses will lead to less overtime for union bus drivers. This is absurd. We can run more buses! Really, we should not be thinking that public transportation is some kind of job program. The top priority should be the actual service.

So I don’t care if Mamdani backtracked on his idea of free buses. Faster and more efficient is the way to go. What do you think? Where do you fall on the free bus vs. faster bus debate? I’m not sure we can ever have both (or am I wrong there?).

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Links I’m Reading This Week

Education

• In a sign of the times of our national greying and birthrate drops, some schools that shuttered due to low enrollment are getting new life as senior housing. Some residents attended the school when they were kids!

• BYU is building more family housing for married students and those with kids. Universities really should be considering these kinds of options more, as the stereotypical 18-year-old college student is no longer the norm.

• San Jose school district is looking to buy an apartment for staff housing. It’s sad that our teachers can barely afford anything in this state.

• Even a place like Abilene, Texas, is facing a “rental crisis.” The university there is now looking to ease off-campus demand with more on-campus offerings.

• Harvard is getting into the layoff game. If even Harvard must shrink its workforce, what hope do the rest of the universities have? Tough times.

• After a University of Oregon student was killed by a driver during a bike ride, Eugene officials look to road diets. The dangerous driver was reportedly doing 50 MPH on a residential street next to campus. It’s sad that local officials need a death to happen before slowing down cars and making cities safer for bikers and pedestrians.

• In some international ed news, India’s top university is set to open a branch campus in New York. The Age of Conquest knows no bounds.

• at New China Literacy chronicles 50 years of Chinese college entrance exam essay questions. Cool idea for research connecting education with politics.

• In more China news, the country has successfully launched and landed a reusable rocket. This will just heat up the space race even further (a good thing!).

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Urbanism-ish

• Poland is planning to build a massive national rail network, including almost 1,700 miles of high-speed rail. It seems like a lot of exciting things are happening in Poland these days.

• India is also getting into the high-speed rail game, with an added seven new corridors recently announced.

• Likewise, the UAE is also getting into the high-speed rail game, along with their very own Sphere. I guess if I want to take a train to the Sphere, I’ll have to fly to the Middle East first, since the LA to Vegas one seems like it is never happening.

• Feeling the success of hosting the World Cup game, LA is confident it can make its Olympics car-free after all. I, though, remain very much not confident!

• has a post on how officials in LA are hindering the rebuilding efforts from last year's fires. Only 28 of the 5000 homes have been rebuilt so far, and the city seems more interested in catching rogue contractors than speeding up the process.

• You can now kayak through the infamous LA concrete river. Another insane and wasted space that is finally coming to some use.

• Here’s a cool real estate opportunity for any readers down in Australia. Live in the bell tower of an old monastery! Less than half a million USD.

• Ok, if you are in the US, I have you covered. Here is a church conversion up for sale in Buffalo, NY. Only $500K (admittedly, not quite as “converted” as the one from Australia).

• Tokyo to add a 3% tax on hotel stays. I was there last summer, and I certainly understand the overtourism issue, especially as the Yen continues to depreciate.

• In self-driving car news, Waymo is expanding to Tampa, Las Vegas, San Diego, and Denver. I am personally excited for the San Diego expansion, which means I am sandwiched between Waymo service in LA and SD, just waiting for it here in OC.

• Of course, humans are trying to find ways to sabotage the self-driving movement: Teens use Waymo to shoot water guns at other cars.

• In other car news, Fiat to bring tiny golf-cart-like car to the US. Not sure about the market for these, but I welcome companies making cars smaller, not bigger, for once.

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Closing Time… Celebrities Wish They Were Professors

This week, fellow faculty in the r/professor subreddit were debating a clip between Mindy Kaling and Amy Poehler. The two comedians were discussing what it would be like to be a professor. Poehler convinces Kaling that it would be a nice life:

I don’t think I want to teach at a college. -Kaling

You don’t know that! Don’t rule that out. -Poehler

Think about coming in, like a beautiful sweater, like Dartmouth, let’s say. Drive in at 10 o’clock in the morning. Have your coffee… the door creaks open and there’s like 150 kids staring at you and you start your class. Nobody gets to interrupt. You’re done in an hour. -Poehler

That does sound good. -Kaling

I’m a big fan of both The Office and Parks & Rec (along with SNL and countless other performances by Poehler). So it was fun to hear them romanticize my profession. The subreddit got a kick out of it, too. Well, some faculty were annoyed (and overly sensitive), but others thought it was a pretty funny perception of the profession by the celebs.

Poehler even answered that last question in the podcast episode, which wasn’t in the clip. She said robots and AI can just take care of the work. Again, there is a good sense of humor about this. Fellow professors, do not take it so seriously! Enjoy it.

Note: Around the College Town is my weekly-ish links roundup article on urbanism and education. These posts mostly cover news that may have fallen through the cracks rather than the big events.

This week falls on the July 4th holiday weekend, so this edition will be a little light.

Yes, Professors Can Be Patriotic?

The stereotype of American professors is that we hate the country. This is certainly the view of my profession within some top conservative circles, with Vice President JD Vance leading the charge. "The professors are the enemy," the Ivy League-trained VP assails.

This line of attack is not even a new one. "Do Colleges HAVE To Hire Red Professors?" asked The American Legion Magazine back in 1951. The issue was published during the days of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) mania, so it may be wrapped up in questionable intentions. Yet, the symmetry from now to then is unmistakable.

As much as I defend US higher education here on College Towns, I must admit that some of these accusations do seem generally correct: many professors are simply not patriotic, at least not in the US. Indeed, reports that a “vast majority” of professors are left-leaning, while finds that pride in the country has collapsed among left-leaning Americans.

This means that they do not celebrate the Fourth of July, they get queasy with the American flag, and they dwell on national negativities. The sentiment can be described as doomerism, and it has become a common ideal among American professors. Today, so many professors want to be Howard Zinn.

But this form of national doomerism is not universal in the profession. There are some professors who are proud of the country, its people, and its history. Of course, I know this firsthand as the author of three installments in my United States Semiquincentennial Series. But I am not alone in the profession either.

Over the holiday weekend, other academics offered their celebrations. , Associate Professor at the University of Notre Dame, proclaimed, “I’m an American nationalist, too. Not just a patriot in the sense of being proud of America, but a nationalist,” on . Likewise, , Fellow at Brown University, labeled the “America is bad” take as “a stone-cold loser” on the . Finally, former classmate of mine and Assistant Professor at Leiden University, , makes “The case for liberal nationalism” through a rich data narrative on his new Substack.

US higher education needs these kinds of pro-national sentiments because these are generally what the everyman American believes. Our sector has recently been looking for answers to why trust from the public has tanked. I won’t pretend to have the full answers to this quandary (it is quite complicated), but I do think making sure that the public knows some of our professors are patriotic can help.

None of this patriotism means there can be no criticism of the country. I provide my fair share of national critique on this very website. I lean on the famous quote from J. William Fulbright, the late Arkansas senator who championed international education. He was also a former professor, derisively called an “egghead” by rivals like Lyndon B. Johnson. Fulbright wrote:

To criticize one's country is to do it a service and pay it a compliment. It is a service because it may spur the country to do better than it is doing; it is a compliment because it evidences a belief that the country can do better than it is doing.

I understand that many are disillusioned with politics in the country right now. That’s fine, but sometimes you just have to take a break from politics, eat a hot dog, grab a Coors, watch some fireworks, and celebrate the holiday with the rest of the country. Happy 250th, America.

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If you haven’t already, check out my Semiquincentennial Series. I should have one more (or possibly two) coming out by the end of the summer. Thanks for reading.

Education

• California will vote on a $350 million bond to build more affordable student housing. My guess is that it fails, as it combines two things the voters hate most: housing and students, not to mention the state’s long tax revolt.

• On the flip side, UT San Antonio and Indiana University are adding more student housing options in their metropolitan downtowns. I am always a fan of this strategy to help juice the atmosphere of downtowns. Students bring life.

• Virginia Wesleyan becomes Batten U. This is not the worst name change that I have seen, but losing the geographic descriptor might not be ideal.

• Across the pond, Chinese companies are closing fancy private schools in the UK, annoying parents and worrying local education officials.

• In educational-adjacent news, I’m somewhat of a book collector, and I am always surprised by how much some rare books are worth. See the fair with $100M in books:

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  Urbanism-ish

• Disneyland is offering twilight rates at just 59 bucks. I might have to try this as a Southern California resident.

• But if you are planning a visit, the LAX People Mover has been delayed… again. At this point, I am wondering if we are going to make the 2028 Olympics. We already missed the World Cup!

• Fodor’s is releasing an AI modeled after the founder. It seems the travel book genre is basically dead; thrift stores cannot give them away. Perhaps AI can save these companies.

• Boise, Idaho, might be getting an intercity passenger train. Cool for the region!

• at tells us why infill housing can help save dying cities.

• Over in self-driving car news, Zoox has a new design. Looks a bit too futuristic for my taste.

  

• China’s Xiaomi self-driving car impresses in Germany. I think from EVs to AVs, Chinese car companies are going to dominate the future.

• American-built Japanese cars are worse than Japanese-built, a feature that does not help in the competition with Chinese manufacturers, as the Japanese continue to lose ground.

• Speaking of struggling industries, this over-a-century-old woodworking shop in New York City is shutting down. Sad, but these are the realities these days.

Closing Time… The World Wishes the US a Happy 250th

I loved seeing all the various Semiquincentennial celebrations across the country, but I might have enjoyed the images from throughout the world even more. Yes, other countries paid homage to the country’s 250th birthday. I found this heartening, given that our reputation and standing have taken a hit recently. Here are some of my favorites that I saw on social media (there are many more):

Emmanuel Macron, President of France:

Lin Chia-lung, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Republic of China:

The German Embassy in DC:

The Republic of Kiribati:

The Eiffel Tower in Paris:

And my absolute favorite comes from the celebration in Japan. The Japanese government gifted 250 cherry blossom trees to the US, adding to the gifts that inspired the DC festival going back to 1910. Tokyo also held a fireworks celebration as the Rainbow Bridge lit with American national colors.

Japan wished the US a happy Bicentennial back in the 1970s, too. What an image from that celebration below. Since I work at a university with roots in Japan, I am pleased to see that the two nations have strong relations. Many of my colleagues and students come from Japan. I even celebrated July 4th with a few this year. Yes, I did buy some Sapporo for the BBQ. Don’t worry, we also had hamburgers.

I have to close with the post below, which I had a good chuckle at on July 4th. Thanks to all who celebrated in the US and across the world! Here’s to 250 more.

This article is the third installment of my United States Semiquincentennial Series. This series is a celebration of the country, its history, and the American people. See the previous editions on the Space Race and National Geographic.

This summer is the 250th birthday of the United States of America, officially on July 4, 2026. This Semiquincentennial was supposed to be a monumental celebration of the country, its people, and its accomplishments. Yet, the build-up to the date has felt flat, with the national mood seemingly not feeling like partying together.

The apathy for the Semiquincentennial got me thinking about the national mood during the previous Bicentennial back in 1976. I recently visited the Nixon Presidential Library for a field trip with my students, where there was a temporary exhibition on those celebrations from 50 years ago. The planning for those festivities dated back to the 1960s, with a keen eye on replicating and surpassing the 100th birthday back in 1876.

There was excitement over America’s 200th birthday then. Towns and malls alike across the country were decked out in patriotic red, white, and blue décor. Americans flocked to Disney to see “America on Parade,” a celebration of the celebrations. These parades and parties highlighted communities throughout that summer. Incorporating every state was intentional. In 1969, President Richard Nixon said of the planning:

America is 50 states. America is big cities and small towns... we want this celebration to be national. It must go directly to the people and derive its strength from the people.

Beyond the events, Americans went out to buy a plethora of commemorative trinkets, pins, plates, books, and all manner of products in between. All of this memorabilia was adorned with the iconic Bicentennial logo. The logo even made it onto NASA’s Viking Mars Lander, which landed on Mars in 1976 (some symmetry with the recent Artemis Moon Mission).

All this is to say that Americans in 1976 were ready to celebrate their country. I juxtapose that sentiment with the recent national mood. It seems that Americans of 2026 have not been as interested in partying for our founding. The merchandise is thin, the decorations are sparing, and the planned events have been contrived.

This malaise over the Semiquincentennial held true in the early part of the summer. But things are different as we approach the official date in July. What changed? The World Cup came to town. Specifically, foreign visitors descended upon our country, spreading from sea to shining sea. They have reminded us that we have much to celebrate in the US.

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Viral Images of World Cup Visitors

The foreign visitors’ excitement over what they found in our country has ignited something inside of us Americans. We had been taking for granted the fun things about the places we call home. Even the mundane can be moving. The politics can be ignored (at least for a couple of weeks). The divides can be bridged. This is all that is happening during the World Cup.

Media outlets have already been chronicling these adventures. Owen Tucker-Smith and Chelsey Dulaney wrote in The Wall Street Journal:

Along the way, he—and other European fans who flocked to Kansas City for the World Cup—beheld the fruits of the American economy from a vantage point few foreign tourists typically see: suburban superstores, hulking plates of food, quiet streets. He marveled at the sprawling houses, a contrast from the tightly packed homes of the Netherlands.

The most emblematic fan has been Freddy, a German tourist who goes by the handle @FreddyLA7 on X. He has been documenting his entire trip across the country on the social media platform. Americans have responded by cheering him on along the way. His excitement for the things that he is experiencing has been infectious.

“The vibes are insane. Driving through the great state of Louisiana on our way to New Orleans. It’s crazy how diverse this country is, every day the scenery looks different,” he wrote, as he was trekking through the Gulf Coast. He has been compared to a modern-day Alexis de Tocqueville. The average culture and everyday life of America today necessitate visits to chain restaurants while riding in an SUV. Freddy was even reportedly offered a private jet ride at one point, but he rejected it because “we really want to drive to see a little bit more of Texas and also Oklahoma.”

I love that many of these international visitors have not just stayed in the destination cities like New York City or Los Angeles. There are examples of visitors loving so many different parts of the country, from urban to rural and even suburban. Yes, even suburban, perhaps a surprising admission for an urbanist. But there has certainly been exhilaration for our sprawling strip malls and gargantuan gas stations.

These foreign visitors just embraced being Americans during their World Cup stays. Scenes like Germans trying to square dance or English fans lauding Texan beer and BBQ went viral. Actually, it seemed like every fanbase loved Texas BBQ. “Texas is good! Everything is big!” exclaimed a Japanese fan in Dallas to a local Fox reporter. Others took on a mechanical bull while Americans helped foreign fans order at In-N-Out.

One of the American attractions that has drawn some of the most attention is Buc-ee's. The Texas-based gas and (full) service station chain has gained a mythological status in the country. Even for an American myself, I was left awed after my first trip to a Buc-ee’s. So it is no wonder that foreigners have taken to this national treasure.

The Southern breakfast diner chain Waffle House has also attracted the attention of our guests. The Waffle House franchise also has a cult following. It is not just drunken breakfast food and fist fights at two in the morning (although that is part of it). These restaurants are cultural and civic institutions. They even provide real-world indicators for natural disasters and emergencies through the so-called Waffle House Index. According to the restaurant’s website:

Green means the restaurant is serving a full menu, a signal that damage in an area is limited and the lights are on. Yellow means a limited menu, indicating power from a generator, at best, and low food supplies. Red means the restaurant is closed, a sign of severe damage in the area or unsafe conditions.

We have taken Waffle Houses for granted as Americans, even as they fill our bellies and help to save lives. Foreigners came along and reminded us that these places are worth celebration, not ridicule.

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Embracing National Stereotypes

I should note that the United States is not even the only host for this World Cup. It is a joint bid by North America—the US, Canada, and Mexico. Similar joys we are seeing here are spreading to our co-host neighbors with their own visitors. While the fans have embraced stereotypical North American experiences like big trucks and gas stations, they have also brought with them their own national stereotypes. Fandoms actually embrace what we Americans might think of as insensitive cultural stereotypes.

There were photos of Japanese fans dressed as the cast from Mario video games, others held Pokémon in a crowd while being tossed in the air, and brought trash bags to clean up the stadium after their match. Scottish fans were marching around town donning kilts while playing the bagpipes and belting out I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles) by fellow countryman 80s band the Proclaimers at Fenway Stadium in Boston. Egyptians dressed as pharaohs, Jordanians making camel jokes, and Norwegians embracing the Viking Row are just a few of the highlights from this kind of fun.

Of course, there were some missteps, like a Mexican fan making a squinting gesture at a Korean fan. But these seemed mostly isolated, and the majority of the viral interactions were cheerful. Mexican fans blasted Psy’s Gangnam Style and danced with Korean visitors who were wearing sombreros and fake mustaches. It was pure joy and jubilation for different cultures, even if sometimes perceived as insensitive stereotypes.

The confluence of the World Cup and the NBA Finals really highlighted the magic in the country right now. Brazilian fans were in town for their match at the exact same time as Knicks fans flooded the street to celebrate their first championship in 53 years. The scene was legendary, like so many others across the US, Canada, and Mexico.

I recognize that some of these posts are just pandering, especially considering the X payout system incentivizes engagement. One user proclaimed, “I just had an out of body experience,” with an accompanying photo of Golden Corral. I used to work at Golden Corral, one of my first jobs during high school. It was gross. Perhaps it’s gotten better in recent years, but I actually think this person is likely just pandering to Americans for clicks.

Pete Wells, the prickly restaurant critic for The New York Times, called out this pandering. “But some writers trawling for these stories cast a wide net, and not everything they haul in passes the smell test,” he wrote. Apparently, he found that some of the viral posts were fabrications.

No matter if every post is real, there is certainly a large group of fans here enjoying what the country has to offer. Freddy’s journey is real, all the beer Scottish fans drank was real, and the jubilation was real. Whether or not some posts were fake, this cultural mixing has made the celebration of the 250th birthday real, too.

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World Cup in College Towns, USA

One of my favorite things about this World Cup has been that some teams and fanbases got to experience the classic American college town. Jessica Blake of Inside Higher Ed has a masterful rundown of all the college connections in this World Cup. It is worth a read. Here is the list of host campuses and national teams:

• Bentley University - France

• Bryant University - Ghana

• Florida Atlantic University - Curaçao

• Gonzaga University - Egypt

• Rutgers University - Senegal

• San José State University - Paraguay

• Stockton University - Haiti

• University of California, Santa Barbara - Austria

• University of Kansas - Algeria

• University of North Carolina, Greensboro - Norway

• University of San Diego - New Zealand

• Wake Forest - Germany

• Westmont College - Qatar

Visitors of these countries got to see that good college towns are some of the best places that America has to offer. “The campus is absolutely amazing. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a school like this. I felt like in Hogwarts, like Harry Potter. It is absolutely beautiful,” said Eugenia Károlyi of Telemundo-Spain about her time in Chattanooga, Tennessee.1

These towns have embraced the visitors, too. “Rock Chalk, Algeria!” exclaimed a local in Lawrence, decked out in the North African country’s gear, a play on the university’s call. Another local admitted that he didn’t know much about Algeria, other than where it is on a map, but he was pulling for the team because they took a chance on his beloved town. Some local young boys spoke eloquently about the meaning of the World Cup and that a team was staying in Lawrence. Algeria fans appreciated the hospitality:

The Yimbyland account summed up my feelings: “The best move we’ve made hosting the World Cup so far is sending a bunch of Europeans to the true gems of the American experience: College Towns.” Indeed, American college towns are special places. I’m glad the rest of the world got to see that during this World Cup.

Where Did the Players Go to College?

Not too many of the players on these teams would have had a chance to visit college towns. College athletics is mostly an American tradition. The rest of the world, especially in soccer, utilizes an academy system. They start playing professionally quite young, and college attendance just does not factor into these journeys through elite soccer.

But I was still curious if some players on the teams had any college-going experience. I was pleasantly surprised to have found a few, and it wasn’t just the Americans. Below is a list of players that I found with college-going experience from all of the World Cup teams, a College Towns exclusive.2

I was also intrigued that not just American players or institutions could be found. Certainly, the list is dominated by American institutions, but not all for Americans. There is considerable international student representation on various World Cup teams from Haiti, New Zealand, Canada, and Sweden. Likewise, there are local college sports traditions in Canada, South Korea, and Japan.

I have experience with the college sports culture in South Korea, having graduated from Yonsei University in Seoul with an MA. While I cannot say it is the exact same as American college life, the atmosphere of games can still be intense and high-level. Every year, Yonsei and Korea University (also represented in the World Cup data), compete in Yeongojeon (Yonei-Korean Games). No doubt that the collegiate competition tradition here traces its roots back to US influence. My alma mater, Yonsei, was founded by American missionaries.

The American universities are a fun list, too. They include some traditional college sports powerhouses like the University of Connecticut, along with some familiar Power Five schools, like the University of Maryland, the University of North Carolina, and the University of Washington, all large R1 state flagship institutions. But there are other lesser-known universities on the list, such as Fairfield University and Saint Louis University, or even secondary state institutions like the University of Akron (MACtion represented!) and UNC Wilmington. There is even a community college, with Canada’s Moise Bombito attending Iowa Western Community College before transferring to the University of New Hampshire.

Overall, the colleges that are most represented were Syracuse University, St. John’s University (New York), University of Maryland, University of Virginia, Korea University, and Meiji University. All of these have two players representing their various countries on a World Cup team. In terms of country rank, the US had 31, South Korea had six, Japan had four, and Canada had two. Please don’t use these in some cockamamie university ranking!

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The Nixon Allegory: 1976 to 2026

A controversial president in a deeply divided society, amid raucous protests, runaway inflation, and costly adventurism abroad. This description could be about either the 2020s or the 1970s. The Nixon era is actually a good parallel to the country today. Vietnam was a disaster, Nixon was impeached, and President Gerald Ford wasn’t even elected to VP.

Despite these issues, Americans in 1976 still celebrated the country. “Rarely in the history of the world had so many people turned out so spontaneously to express the love they felt for their country... We had regained our pride,” reflected President Ford on the Bicentennial events.

The Nixon era eventually gave way to the Reagan era. Say what you want about Reagan’s policies, his aesthetics were captivating. They were patriotic, even if not an over-the-top stereotype version. But as we are seeing with this World Cup, there is something fun about over-the-top patriotism.

Some of those same sentiments may have been tried with Trump’s UFC Freedom 250 event or the Great American State Fair, yet they have been viewed as divisive or contrived. These events were truly divisive, as rival groups planned celebrations; one called Freedom 250 and the other America 250. Despite some sensational imagery from the UFC event, the negativity deflated the festivities. Likewise, the Fair has reportedly been poorly attended, and people are mostly making fun of it online, saying it looks like we ordered it from Temu.

Luckily, we do not need to rely on these contrived events for the 250th celebration. We have the World Cup. Ironically, it took the sport that the US has traditionally neglected, especially compared to pretty much every other country in the world. Yet, it was exactly this soccer event that has juiced the American celebration from big cities to rural areas, college towns, and even the suburbs.

I hope this World Cup can show that the US is an open place for foreigners, tourists, and travelers again. Our image has taken a major hit abroad in recent years. Without the World Cup, without the visiting fans, without the pageantry, without the cultural mixes, without the passion, this 250th birthday would have just come and gone with little notice. Instead, it reminded us Americans why we should be celebrating. I am grateful for those foreign World Cup visitors who made this American Semiquincentennial special.

Note: Around the College Town is my weekly-ish links roundup article on urbanism and education. These posts mostly cover news that may have fallen through the cracks rather than the big events.

I’m also on a road trip this week, so this one might be a little light. Enjoy!

New York Haters Keep Losing

Just 6 years ago, an op-ed declared that New York City was “dead forever.” It was the height of COVID, with the city witnessing an unprecedented exodus. Those predictions of doom were wrong then; the city bounced back from the pandemic. With the New York Knicks winning the NBA Finals, those predictions look even more wrong today.

Last year at this time, I was celebrating my hometown basketball team, the Oklahoma City Thunder, winning the NBA Finals. It meant a lot to the city. This year, it was New York City’s turn, a turn they’ve waited 53 years to come up again.

As much as the win meant for OKC last year, those feelings were multiplied by millions more people for the biggest city in the country. I was happy for them. I lived in New York City for 6 years, and have a lot of fond memories even with the Knicks. I was in the Garden for the game where Melo set the record with 62 points!

I love NYC, my former home during graduate school. I think it’s the only world-class city in the country (I’ll have a full article for this take in the future). The density, public transport, and scale are just only comparable to places like Paris, London, or Seoul (sorry to my current home, LA). Perhaps this is why it gets so much hate. It’s the one American city that feels like a foreign city. But it’s not; it’s an American city. We should be proud that it exists.

For all of this, I always defend New York City. Sure, it has its problems, but the depiction and reputation it has from certain right-wing and suburban circles is over the top. They perceive the city as dangerous and chaotic. It’s not. It’s energetic yet safe.

The images out of the Knicks championship run just proved this again. Spontaneous watch parties, projectors on the side of buildings, people watching from fire escapes. People of all different races and ethnicities dancing together, celebrating one thing: the Knicks.

The parade and celebration day showed that energy out in full force. Apparently, two million people poured into the parade route. Yes, there were some issues, like crowds being stuck in the subway or empty busses burnt. To the credit of the city, it all got cleaned up by the next morning.

Things don’t have to be perfect to be beautiful. And the parade was just that. So too was Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s speech. He honored the team and weaved it into the city’s history. It turns out his election has not brought about the apocalypse of the city. Instead, New York City now seems to be entering another Golden Age. Add in the World Cup with the Knicks championship, and vibes are at an all-time high.

The NYC naysayers just keep losing. The city showed us all that this past week. New York City is alive forever. Congrats to them.

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Links I’m Reading This Week

Education

• Community around Stanford pushes the university to build more affordable housing. Ironically, this is the same crowd who fights against normal housing.

• Walmart family announces new STEM university in Bentonville, Arkansas. I wish they would have gone a little more traditional with the design. Nonetheless, it is an interesting development to keep an eye on.

• Hilton Hotels is getting on the college town economy. The power of the top American college towns is still strong.

• California schools are facing stiff declines in student enrollment numbers. NIMBYs in the state have driven out so many young families.

• In some college town news, Berkeley plans to add a parking fee on households with multiple cars. This is going to drive some people absolutely bonkers.

• A landlord in quintessential college towns whines over competition from new purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA). Opposition to more student housing is often championed by people with a vested interest in keeping prices high.

Urbanism-ish

• Economist whines about McDonald’s installing self-service kiosks and cutting staff. He pegs it on minimum wage, but the company has followed the same trend in China for over a decade now. McDonald’s chases the bottom line regardless of minimum wage.

• Now, we cannot just cut all humans yet. Starbucks in Korea closes all stores for a day due to a boneheaded AI consultant suggestion.

• In more workforce news, Japan is turning to foreigners as bus drivers. It will be interesting to see if there is an immigration backlash like here in the US.

• New conspiracy theory: China is funding data center hate in the US. I don’t buy it. The dislike for data centers tracks with our national NIMBY attitude.

• The “hard tech” companies distributed around Southern California are impressive. The engine of the economy is not just in Silicon Valley.

• Of course, the East Coast Bizarro version of California, Florida, has its own impressive new coast name: The Space Coast.

• Switching over to self-driving news, another Waymo crash shows it is again “idiot human driver does something dumb and/ or aggressive, causing a crash with an autonomous vehicle.”

• Waymo will also be welcoming fans to the World Cup. Public transit to our stadiums does not meet international standards, so self-driving cars will be needed.

• Waymo unveils a premium service. I guess this is inevitable, and likely the precursor to the coming subscription model.

• Tesla submitted questionable safety data in Europe. I have long worried Musk’s company will sully the name of the self-driving technology.

• We do not need more bad drivers as it is, as a new report on pedestrian deaths shows the crisis isn’t getting better.

• For cyclists, has a great piece on Carbon Upfront on why bicycles should not have stop signs. This drives drivers crazy.

• Fun new Amtrak fast train is coming to the Pacific Northwest. Great name, too: Amtrak Cascades.

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Closing Time… Ethical Uber in Denver

I was in Denver this week, a lovely city by the way, when my Lyft driver tipped us to an intriguing new rideshare company. It’s called Drivers Cooperative – Colorado, and it is owned and operated by the drivers themselves. They receive a majority of the fare, with a smaller percentage going to the parent company, reversing the trends from Uber and Lyft.

We tried it a couple of times; it worked fine. Since it’s new, I think it still needs a critical mass of users and drivers to maximize its potential. But the drivers we talked to said they loved it. The Coop felt like “owning their own business,” they said. It is the ethical Uber!

Funny enough, More Perfect Union just featured the Coop in a video on the service. And our driver was featured as a spokesman. While the service is only around Colorado, they have eyes on expansion. Philadelphia is supposed to be next, according to the driver. I will be rooting for this company and its drivers, with hopes it will reach me down in California soon.

Editorial Note: This is the first guest post in the “Summer School at College Towns” series. If you are interested in writing for College Towns, feel free to reach out to me on Substack or at ryanmallen555@gmail.com.

Today’s guest post comes from Nico Hohman, who runs the Substack. He is also the Executive Director of Operations at Capitol Campus and is working on his Master’s in Urban & Regional Planning at Georgetown University. Enjoy. -Ryan

I wear two hats at Georgetown University. The first is as a staff member. My role as the Executive Director of Operations of the Capitol Campus gives me the opportunity to interact with just about every group on campus, from facilities to housing to student affairs to the provost’s office and everyone in between. My other hat is that of a graduate student. I will complete my master’s in Urban & Regional Planning in the spring of 2027.

It is through this dual-role lens that I discovered something interesting happening with graduate students: they are getting younger. What’s more, today’s graduate students aren’t just younger versions of previous cohorts. They behave differently too.

This discovery first started as a conversation with my colleagues. We were commenting that it looked like this cohort of graduate students appeared younger than previous groups. And as a current graduate student, I noticed the same thing in my classes. Though I’m far from being old (I’m only 37), it definitely felt like I was the old guy in class.

So I did what any good graduate student would do: I did some research. To the library!

Grad Students Really Are Getting Younger

As it turns out, our observations about these graduate students were correct. According to numbers from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), graduate students have been getting younger over the last 25 years. (Note: IPEDS data is a great source because institutions that receive federal funding for students are required to report data back to the federal government.)

Below is a graph showing the total enrollment of all graduate students across the United States since 2003, broken down into age-specific categories.

The topline number is obvious. Total graduate enrollment has grown by over 500,000 students in the last two decades. Lots of factors play into why graduate enrollment has increased, including more universities offering more graduate programs; more 4+1 dual enrollment programs like at the University of South Carolina, the University of Texas, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and many more; as well as economic cycles that favor graduate school enrollment when the economic outlook looks rough.

What is less obvious from the IPEDS data is how that growth is segmented by age. To better capture this growth among the youngest graduate students, I break down that growth by share. Below is a chart showing the share of graduate students over the last 25 years, categorized by three distinct age cohorts: 24-and-under, 25-to-29 year-olds, and those students over 30 years old. The oldest cohort, those 30 and older, has seen a decline in enrollment since the start of the new millennium, while the share of graduate students in the youngest cohort has grown by nearly 50%.

These three age cohorts were selected because it is assumed that the youngest cohort is moving directly from undergraduate to graduate studies. The middle cohort is assumed to have some experience in their originally selected fields and may be looking to obtain different credentials to pursue a different field of study. While this may also be true for the oldest cohort, it is more often assumed they are obtaining additional credentials to advance their current positions in the workforce.

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Introducing the Graduate Youth Index

To better highlight these trends, in the chart below I introduce the Graduate Youth Index. This index tracks the growth (or contraction) of these three specific age cohorts against their respective baseline shares in 2003. These three cohorts started with an Index score of 100, and each subsequent year their indices increased or decreased based on the enrollment of that age cohort. In the fall of 2025, the Index for graduate students 24-and-under was 138.7, the highest ever recorded. For graduate students 30-and-older that same semester, the Index was 83.8, the lowest ever recorded. Grad students in the middle cohort decreased their most recent Index score to 98.6.

The fact that universities have increased the number of graduate programs or that major economic disruptions have increased the desire to obtain additional credentials should be relevant to all age cohorts, and not just the youngest ones. So why are we only seeing growth in the youngest age cohorts? I have four theories.

First, the COVID-19 pandemic was not only an economic disruption but also a disruption to everyday life. For any student who graduated from high school in 2016 or later, they had some sort of high school or college experience impacted by the pandemic. A return to graduate school may be a way for them to experience a “normal” school life when so many other areas of their lives were overrun by COVID.

Another theory is that the market for hiring recent college undergraduates has shrunk. According to data in the chart below from the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), the pace at which firms are hiring undergraduates for entry-level roles has slowed. Reasons for this are varied, but for our purposes we can assume that a tighter hiring climate for younger workers specifically gives them reasons to pursue additional degrees to remain competitive in the marketplace.

A third theory is what Jean Twenge referred to as delayed adulthood or slow-life theory. The premise here is that today’s graduate students (yesterday’s high school seniors) are passing through certain developmental life stages (like drinking alcohol, dating, or obtaining a driver’s license) later in life than their grandparents, parents, or even their older siblings. For example, in 1979, over 90% of high school seniors had tried alcohol. In 2016, only 67% of seniors had tried alcohol. In 1984, only 13% of seniors had never been on a date. By 2016, 36% of seniors had never been on a date. In 1989, 86% of high school seniors had their driver’s license, while only 73% of high school seniors in 2016 had their driver’s license.

Previous generations looked at high school as a way to grow up while undergraduate school was their way to learn a specific career skill. Perhaps today’s graduate students are looking at their undergraduate careers as a way to learn how to become an adult while graduate school now becomes the place they learn a specific trade skill.

The last theory about why graduate students are getting younger is simply because undergraduate students are getting younger too. This trend is not nearly as pronounced at the undergraduate level as it is at the graduate level, but undergraduates are also becoming younger. This is primarily due to high school seniors taking dual enrollment courses while still in high school. As a high school student, obtaining more college credits prior to enrolling in undergraduate studies allows them to graduate faster.

Below is the data from the National Student Clearinghouse regarding the age cohorts of undergraduate students. While the change in the share of younger undergraduates has dramatically increased, the overall proportion of younger undergraduate students still remains small.

The Changes to Campus Life

We know that graduate students are getting younger. We also have some reasons to explain this trend. Next is the most important question: so what? Why should universities care that their graduate students are getting younger?

For private universities where tuition dollars are the primary drivers of revenue, it is often the graduate tuition dollars that make up the majority of this revenue stream. Therefore, if universities view themselves as in the business of providing education to their customers (i.e., their graduate students), then they would be wise to adapt to the changing demographics and needs of their customers. Today’s graduate students aren’t just younger versions of previous cohorts. They are a new type of consumer: the undergraduate-plus student.

The traditional graduate student was not a heavy user of campus facilities. Typically, they were students in their late-twenties or early-thirties. They lived off campus and had their own transportation. They may have had a spouse and might even have had children. They often had full-time careers and were coming to campus once or twice a week, usually in the evenings, to take three-hour lecture or seminar courses. They came to campus, took their class, and then they left. With these more traditional graduate students, the town-gown dynamics were easier to manage. The “studentification” impacts in the immediate neighborhood around campuses were less strenuous. There needed to be fewer purpose-built student housing complexes, fewer concerns over disruptive student behavior, and generally better property upkeep. In essence, the traditional graduate student was both a part of the town and the gown, and therefore wanted to maximize their positive impacts in both arenas.

Today’s undergraduate-plus students are much heavier utilizers of campus. Many of them treat graduate school as their full-time job. And without them having as much full-time or real-world experiences, many of today’s graduate students are coming straight from undergraduate school, where they are used to their undergraduate routines. These often include on-campus housing, on-campus dining, on-campus health and wellness services, and active learning classrooms.

Today’s younger graduate students want the convenience of on-campus amenities without the association of undergraduate life. They want housing, but prefer apartment-style suites instead of communal dorms. They want grab-and-go food services instead of traditional dining halls and meal plans. And they want their classrooms to be flexible and tech-capable with natural light and moveable furniture.

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Demographics are Destiny

For decades, institutions have planned around broad categories like undergraduate or graduate students. Those categories were useful because they generally reflected meaningful differences in how students lived, learned, and interacted with campus. Today, those distinctions are blurred as graduate students spend more time on campus, seek stronger connections to university life, and expect a wider range of services and amenities than previous generations of graduate students.

Demographic change arrives gradually enough to go unnoticed until the evidence becomes impossible to ignore. Universities that continue to plan around the graduate student of 25 years ago risk operating academic programs, student services, and building facilities for a population that no longer exists. Worse, universities that do not adapt to their changing student populations risk closing entirely. While fewer students enrolled overall at an institution can certainly lead to its death spiral, having the wrong products and services for the right population (or vice versa) will also lead to a university’s demise.

Graduate students are changing. The question is whether the campus will change with them.

Note: Around the College Town is my weekly links roundup article on urbanism and education. These posts mostly cover news that may have fallen through the cracks rather than the big events.

Waiting in Line Was Better Than Ticketmasterification

There are two big-time sporting events happening right now: the NBA Finals and the World Cup. While what happens on the court or pitch can be electric, tickets to get into the arena or stadium have proved elusive for many fans. The tickets are just unaffordable.

The cheapest ticket to get into Madison Square Garden for Game 3 between the New York Knicks and San Antonio Spurs was over $10,000 (though it dropped to half by tipoff). And those prices are for the nosebleed, last rows. I sat in those seats years ago for 50 bucks, and I sort of felt like they weren’t worth it. This is not even to mention the astronomical prices for the lower sections, adorned with celebs and mega-wealthy.

The same ticket price issue is proving true with the World Cup here in the US, which is co-hosted along with Canada and Mexico, perhaps related to pure greed from a corrupt FIFA. Nonetheless, the ticket price explosion in the US has touched events beyond the biggest. All tickets seem to be way overinflated from even just a few years ago.

Gone are actual physical tickets (although kudos to the Knicks for making an exception this NBA Finals). Instead, everything is online through third-party vendors like Ticketmaster. The promise of moving to digital and away from physical tickets was that it was easier and cheaper to run. It is true that ordering tickets has become relatively easy through these apps, but the ticket prices are just higher, including additional “convenience” fees.

Of course, part of this is just supply and demand. More people want to go to these events, so the vendors can just keep raising prices. Yet, there is more to it than just that. Hence, why prices dropped right before Game 3 of the NBA Finals and the World Cup has not sold out yet. Scalpers and third-party vendors try to take advantage of our open system.

This all got me thinking that the digitization of tickets is worse than the old system of waiting in line. Up until 15 years or so ago, if you wanted to attend some coveted event, you walked up to the venue and staked out your place in line. Some people would sleep outside all night just to be early in line to get guaranteed seats. You had to really want it.

The other option was to just show up on game day, scoping for scalpers. Yes, these deals could also be shady, but it was just par for the course of doing business in a previous age. Often, you could get good deals by waiting right before the game to start before purchasing. Scalpers do not want to be stuck holding the bag. I know some venues or sports still have this tradition; yet it is becoming less common these days.

Actually being in a place raised the stakes to buying tickets. People had to invest time and forgo commitments in order to wait in long lines. We all thought this was annoying back in the day, but it now seems preferable to the Ticketmasterification of the sector. Having to wait in line physically meant there was a natural barrier for some potential attendees. But it also meant that if you really wanted to attend an event, you knew exactly what you needed to do. Wake up at the crack of dawn, drive down to the stadium, plop down a lawn chair, and wait to be one of the first buyers.

In this Ticketmasterification economy, bots or automatic buyers can scoop up a ton of tickets with the explicit purpose of resale, jacking up prices way over the listed face value. They are mostly just middlemen, taking advantage of the ease with which the phone has given us. Some performers are going to extreme lengths to prove ticket buyers are humans, like scanning eyeballs.

In the end, it turns out lining up physically like we did before the 2010s was the optimal way to distribute tickets…

Despite the negativity around ticket prices, these events are bringing out the best of humans as only sports can do. The scenes around MSG look like a circus in the best possible way, highlighting all the eccentricities in the world’s greatest city. “My Mayor is Muslim, my bagel is Jewish, my Christian’s Dior… Knicks in 4!” Times like these make me wish I still lived there.

Likewise, travelers from across the world have descended on North America, exploring all of our local delicacies. Germans gorging themselves on Waffle House for the first time or Koreans getting silly in the Mexican party scene is exactly what the World Cup is all about. Sports diplomacy! I also love that the Europeans are trying to grapple with the American summer. Yes, it’s hot, but you will find the hotel AC extra frigid.

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Links I’m Reading This Week

Education

• Locals are “fearful” of a student housing proposal in Columbia, Missouri, home to the University of Missouri. They are worried the housing will be unsafe and will ruin the “scenic roadway.” The “scenic roadway:”

• Despite the warnings of the “Enrollment Cliff,” college enrollment has actually increased recently.

• In population news from across the world, Korean birthrates rose for the first time in years.

• Some small US colleges have been turning to seniors as the population of young people thins. Going from seniors to seniors!

• New College in Florida is absorbing another university. This kind of acquisition is more often associated with private institutions, but the Age of Conquest knows no bounds.

• MIT shuts down some of its libraries. Bummer. If MIT cannot even maintain its services, what hope is there for other institutions?

• College football coaches' salaries are massive… and these are just the assistants

• UNESCO has a digital exhibit on the history of education.

• Children of immigrants dominate billion-dollar companies in the US.

• Austin public schools are struggling with enrollment via at .

Urbanism-ish

• Tesla Full Self-Driving (FSD) drives across the entire country of Canada without human intervention. I have been skeptical of Tesla, but this is a welcome development.

• But a new report has also brought up questions around Tesla’s safety data and the company’s autopilot killed a man by driving into pond (though I should note this feature was not supposed to be full self-driving).

• Despite these issues, some believe that LiDAR is on its way out of self-driving cars, meaning Tesla was ahead of the game. I’m still dubious.

• It’s not just the US, a Chinese company launches a self-driving cargo and delivery vehicle line. The Chinese self-driving market is the space to watch right now.

• But in another example of how humans are going to ruin self-driving cars:

• In other car news, the new Ferrari designed by Apple legend has been getting mocked on the internet.

  

• Turning to cities, the stray dog problem is so bad in Houston they are airlifting them out ahead of the World Cup

• Hero goes around putting nets on basketball hoops so they are better for kids to play on.

• Cities are bringing back those statues we took down in the early 2020s.

• Brightline is offering extra service to the World Cup matches in Florida.

• But despite success, Brightline is about to declare bankruptcy. This seems to be mostly about the debt needed to build the infrastructure; their ridership numbers are good.

• In more train news, California is actually making progress in the high-speed rail line. Welcome if surprising news.

• In more California train news, a NIMBY town cost California taxpayers millions of dollars and delays in train electrification.

• For another idiosyncrasy of the state, 17-year-olds in California can drive their own car but cannot legally sit in a Waymo by themselves. Wild.

• In the other American metropolis, Mamdani kills the Queens subway line. First bad move of his tenure?

• But it’s not all bad news in the rail world: Omaha, Nebraska, may revive its once-glorious streetcar, even if not to the great heights that it was.

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Closing Time… Paris Syndrome in Japan

An author recently made the case that Japan is just not as cool as movies or anime. A city not living up to the imagined expectations of visitors is called Paris Syndrome, which funny enough originated from a Japanese traveler. The opening thesis of the argument in The Spectator:

Japanese cities can disappoint. Visitors stroll around hoping to be awe-struck by the dreamy spectacle of clip-clopping Geisha in their wooden geita, or barreling sumo wrestlers, or high-stockinged ninja girls (à la Kill Bill), and all against a Blade Runner backdrop, only to be confronted with mostly unremitting blandness. The constants are these: concrete, plastic, more concrete, more plastic, endless construction (one crappy shopping complex or mansion block replacing another), confusion, and noise. It can all seem dizzyingly homogenous.

The author is Philip Patrick, a writer and lecturer at the Sophia University in Japan, so he does live in Japan. His main target of ire was towards Japanese convenience stores or “konbini.” He goes after the familiar names like 7-11, Lawson, and Family Mart, saying that he hates these “soulless, ‘non-places’.”

For this take, he has been getting dragged online. People love Japanese convenience stores, and they have taken on somewhat of a cult following. So I am not surprised by the hate he is getting, especially since he is a foreigner in Japan. Some backlash responses (some that I could share on this page at least):

For my own take, I visited Japan last summer (see accompanying photos by me). I have gone on record that it lived up to every one of my expectations, no Japan Paris Syndrome for me. Given the tourism numbers, I think most travelers seem to agree with me, especially Americans. Americans are so gorged with banal suburban sprawl that we go nuts when we see a random convenience store or alleyway in Japan. We don’t see them as soulless, but rather as culture.

So I will have to disagree with Patrick in The Spectator. What do you think? Did Japan live up to your expectations? Have you ever had Paris Syndrome?

These in the 16% are the drivers who you see darting in and out of traffic, weaving at dangerous speeds on the highway. They are also the drivers who are constantly fiddling with and checking their phones. Every stoplight is a chance for them to get a hit on their addiction—perhaps not as dangerous, but certainly annoying delays.

This 16% concept encompasses drivers who are old, young, addicted, angry, and generally incompetent. In this article, I walk through the numbers and consider ways to grapple with this dilemma.

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Normal Distribution of Human Capabilities

This 16% number I landed on has been derived from the concept of the normal distribution. Plot any type of skill or trait and you will find a bunched-up portion of humans in the middle, with a spread of variation emanating out from the average, on both extremes. This is the normal distribution.

The normal distribution is the spread of scores or measures within a population. There will naturally be a majority of scores in the middle at the average, spreading out with fewer responses the further towards the extremes. Of course, there can be subset population variations.

With the normal distribution, half of the observations will be below the mean and the other half above the mean. One standard deviation from the mean in either direction is 34.13% of the observations. Within two standard deviations is 13.59%. From three, it’s just 2.14%, fourth is .13%, and anything beyond these extremes is miniscule. I get 16% from the percentages beyond one standard deviation: 13.6%+2.1%+0.1% = 15.8%. I round this up to 16% just for ease of the moniker.

The normal distribution pops up throughout everyday life. The most well-known application of the normal distribution likely comes from IQ or other forms of testing, which I recognize is controversial (where most people relate these principles to a Bell Curve). Nonetheless, these tests are meant to be normally distributed. But even throwing this one out, there are other examples to illustrate normality of human capabilities.

The normal distribution works for basic demographic traits such as height or weight. But also works for skills, such as basketball or other sports. Only about 3.4% of high school basketball players make it to play in college at the NCAA level, all according to data from the NCAA. Of those who made it to college, only about 1.2% make it to a top pro league like the NBA. College basketball players are in the 95th percentile, while NBA players are in the 99th percentile on the normal distribution of basketball skills.

These same breakdowns work with driving. Drivers for NASCAR are the same extreme end of the distribution for driving as their NBA counterparts in basketball. Like any skill, most people will sit near the average of the driving distribution. Yet, there will inevitably be a group at the end extreme end, opposite of NASCAR, that make up the 16% of dangerous drivers.

The driving test gives us one proxy for this concept. Data shows that 78.8% of American drivers pass the skills version of the test (the driving portion), only a few shades less than the 16% mark in terms of failure rates. Chalk some of that up to test nerves. Some may take multiple times to pass, too.

While we do not have great data on driving tests from the US, the UK provides national passing rates. In the UK, roughly 49% of drivers pass the practical driving test on the first try, aligning perfectly with the normal distribution. Drivers who pass the test in the second or third time account for almost 37%, which again aligns closely with the normal distribution between the mean and 1 standard deviation. Finally, a little over 14% needed four, five, six, or more attempts to pass. In fact, some drivers need 30 or 40 attempts to pass. Those in the extreme end are all the 16%.

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85% Rule

Another support for my 16% conception comes from the field of traffic engineering. When deciding what speed limit a street should have, traffic engineers do a study to see how fast drivers typically drive in the area. The engineers then average out all of the scores and set the limit at the 85th percentile of all driving speeds.

This means that speed limits in the US are explicitly tied to drivers at around basically one standard deviation from the norm. The practice tracks with the 16% conception. Traffic engineers quite literally believe in this range of human capabilities to successfully navigate roadways.

In recent years, the profession of traffic engineering has been heavily criticized for too much adherence to car-centric environments. Strong Towns, in particular, has taken aim at these tactics. The organization’s founder, , says that the 85th percentile rule can be useful for high-speed streets, but it is not a one-size-fits-all solution:

A road is different than a street, which is a platform for building wealth within a community. On streets, where there is vastly more complexity, the 85th percentile speed is almost always misapplied. Especially where a forgiving design approach is used for street design, drivers will not perceive the complexity of the environment. When engineers widen lanes, create recovery areas, make curves more gentle, and use other design features developed for highways, they give the driver the incorrect signal that the environment is simple, that they can relax and not be hyper-vigilant. Speeds go up and tragedy is the inevitable result.

Despite the critique, it shows that there is a logic to the 85th percent rule; it is just taken to the extreme in most of our built environments. This is not a test of driving ability, as I am suggesting with the 16% concept, but rather just of speed. It does, though, give us a practical proxy that is used in the real world. I’m sure traffic engineers would love to have some real driving test for their speed studies.

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Follow the Insurance Money

Insurance companies know all about the 16% already. They price in the fact that not every driver is the same as the other. It is industry standard to charge different rates for various driver types. Very young drivers get charged the most, then the rest of us pay some kind of standard, and there are a range of ways to reduce that with good driving record.

Insurance companies do this kind of pricing because they are not in the business of losing money. On the contrary, they are quite profitable, and part of that business success is recognizing the 16% of bad drivers. In general, they track with age as a proxy, with young drivers paying the most by far. There is a curvilinear relationship to age, though, as it goes up, insurance rates go down. This is true until about 60, then rates start ticking back up.

It is a crude measure of the normal distribution, yet still illustrates the concept tied to real-world money. Follow the money! There is a reason why young men in particular pay the most: they are more aggressive, irresponsible, and stupid behind the wheel. The insurance industry accounts for this disparity in driving skill.

According to Matt Timmons, author of State of Auto Insurance in 2025, insurers will offer sharp discounts to perceived good drivers. “This includes a 10-15% discount for drivers who take a defensive driving course, a 10% discount for safe drivers who’ve been accident-free for over 5 years and a 20% discount for drivers with low mileage use,” he said.

The insurance industry is very lucrative. They are not into losing money. Even they can see the 16% Dangerous Drivers Dilemma.

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Drivers, Young and Old

The 16% label is not a Scarlet Letter. Instead, we age in and out of being in the 16%. Most very young drivers are terrible drivers by dint of experience. There is simply a learning curve for learning to drive. But there is also an immaturity factor. Teenagers think they can live forever and nothing can hurt them, with tragic consequences.

Confession time: I was in the 16% when I was a teenage driver. So were most of my friends. We were all idiots. And my own high school experiences saw multiple vehicular deaths that still weigh on me to this day. After a few years, young drivers age more into the middle part of the distribution to safer and reasonable driving.

Luckily, young drivers usually age out of this irresponsible stage, which is what happened to me. However, on the other end, drivers can age back into the 16%. As we get older, we lose our faculties. Our eyesight gets worse, our reaction time slows, and our mobility diminishes. Driving skills regress. Data from AAA show that young drivers are the most dangerous, but senior drivers are more unsafe than middle ages.

This degradation of physical abilities is why a lot of senior drivers drive very slowly. Driving slowly is certainly safer than the maniac teenage driver, but mixing slow with fast speeds into traffic causes its own problems. Again, it goes back to the 85th rule. Likewise, even at slower speeds, vehicles can be deadly if the driver loses control of the 5,000 pound SUV.

But there are even more issues with seniors losing their ability to drive, yet continuing to drive out of necessity. There has been a slew of tragic deaths recently due to senior drivers losing control of their vehicles and plowing into innocent bystanders. This is becoming a growing issue as the Boomers enter these age ranges.

Super Speeders

Many cities have noticed that there is a small group of people who have an enormous amount of traffic violations. In fact, much of crime operates in the same way. Remove a small number of extreme end criminals, and a greater total percentage of crime will decrease, argued in the aptly titled paper “1% of the population accountable for 63% of all violent crime convictions.”

These are called “super speeders.” They make up a good portion of the 16%, and likely the least sympathetic. Often, this is not about physical ability, like rookie drivers or aging seniors, but just a total disregard for anyone else outside of their own car. States have been grappling with these super speeders across the country.

For instance, in New York, those labeled as “super speeders” average roughly 179 speeding-in-a-school-zone tickets, which equals a traffic violation every other day of the year. Georgia and Maryland recently passed "Stop Super Speeders" bills. Virginia and D.C. did something similar, too. The extreme end of the normal distribution for driving causes so much traffic violence and damage that states must make special efforts to grapple with this subset.

These laws usually target installing Intelligent Speed Assistance (ISA) or “governors” that throttle a car’s speed. Yet, advocates argue that the penalty of a short license suspension is not enough of a deterrent. '

Automatic ticketing cameras are another tactic against super speeders. A pilot program in Oakland installed 35 speed cameras at 18 locations. The results showed that 64.4% of drivers who received a warning did not get another ticket. But 30% of drivers received two to five tickets, 3.7% six to 10, and 11 or more at around 1%.

These types of cameras do work to a degree. “San Francisco’s speed cameras slashed excessive speeding from 25% of traffic to just 2% to 6% within a year,” according to the LA Times. But in New York City, the automatic ticketing has a lower fine than if written by a cop, hindering some of the sting to super speeders.

Not dealing with these super speeders has serious consequences. Speed is the biggest factor in fatal vehicle crashes. According to a study in the Journal of Safety Research by Walton and Hendy (2024):

Ticket accumulation need not be considered the best predictor of crash likelihood, but around 1 in every 8 persons (12. 66%) who accumulate more than four tickets within an observed two-year period are later involved in a CAS-recorded crash, where they are the driver at fault. This represents a large concentration of risk compared to the overall base estimate of 1.22% incidence over three years. This risk is clearly identifiable in a particular portion of the driving population because records are kept for every ticket.

While speed is the most important factor, these 16% go beyond just one measure. There is a general flippant demeanor to dangerously driving a 5,000-pound vehicle. In Maryland, one driver had over 900 unpaid parking tickets.

We could lop off some serious dangers if we just took these people off the road. Our laws are usually are forgiving to license suspension, even when they have some kind of horrible incident. And I don’t use accident here. Whenever someone like this kills or maims another person, it is not accidental; it follows a pattern of risky behaviors.

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The 16% Dilemma is Getting Worse

There are some aspects of the 16% dilemma that have been exacerbated in contemporary America. Our stroads do not help anyone, whether in the 16% or not. One of the key problems is the phones (I know, the root of so many modern ills).

I didn’t drive for almost 10 years, from roughly 2009 to 2019. This is the exact time period of the proliferation of the smartphone. The differences in driving then to now are stark. Everyone is on their phone. I am dumbfounded by just how often I see a fellow driver looking down at their phone. Given how dangerous it is, there should be more shame in it.

But people do not care, they simply look down at their lap, then snap back up like awoken from a delirium. In a traffic line, these phone drivers cause delays by limiting how many people can make it through a light. When they do snap up, they try to jam on the gas to catch back. This just creates more unsafe situations, all for a screen addiction that we have normalized.

On the extreme end, there are a lot of 16%ers who are simply driving around on their phones. It is stunningly dangerous. Yet, you will see multiple people doing on any commute. Next time you are driving, try to count how many you see on their phones. It should be about 1/16 drivers or so with their head looking down.

Another problem is that American cars have ballooned to ridiculous sizes. Bigger cars are simply more dangerous to everyone not inside of them. There are just realities of driving that relate to physical space. A person of smaller stature will have a more limited view in certain larger types of vehicles. They will be a danger to other people on the road because they have lower vision. There is no way to get around that other than simply driving a smaller car.

Height limits on certain types of cars would make sense. But there would be some kind of civil rights appeal. This is a very American problem, perceived personal freedom is a higher value than consideration to broader community, even if the behavior is risky or detrimental. See one example from Florida recently:

The Delirium of Dangerous Driver

As a society, Americans have been resistant to removing the 16% from out roads. Our overinflated, auto-centric design has limited our choices to everyone having to drive. Walking, biking, or taking public transportation is deemed too cruel and unusual for Americans. at recently published an article detailing just why it is so difficult to stop super speeders. In short: we aren’t allowed to.

Exasperated Infrastructures

This Is Why We Can't Ever Stop Superspeeders

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2 months ago · 5 likes · 4 comments · sam sklar

There are various laws that limit punitive measures. If someone doesn’t even hurt someone, just got caught driving in a dangerous manner, there is even more leeway. In one egregious case from Pennsylvania, an off-duty cop hit a family in a crosswalk because he was texting. He faced no real consequences, not even a suspended license, according to local news coverage. Stories like this can be found across the county.

There are arguments that speed governors are dangerous or too inconvenient. The problem with these arguments is that most of us cannot understand speed. “Quite simply, the faster you are going already, the less time you save by going 10mph faster still,” says Rory Sutherland for The Spectator. “Accelerate from 20-30 mph, and you save ten minutes on a ten-mile journey. Accelerate from 70-80 mph, and you save just over a minute.”

The 16% just make things worse with a lack of object permanence, jamming on the gas only to have to slam on the brakes because of cars in front of them. This creates more traffic because they end up bunching up with other cars when weaving in and out of traffic. We are too lenient on this subset of driver. They make everything worse. Yet even when states try to crack down, there are limitations. New York’s news Super Speeder Bill has been hailed as admirable, but it only installs governors for those with 16 tickets in a year. 16! That’s over one per month.

of has been critical of the unwillingness to punish these super speeders. He tweeted recently of the new New York law: “Don’t ever forget this story. Leading up to the crash, the killer had:”

• “21 speeding tickets in 2 years”

• “6 red light camera violations in 6 months”

• “70+ other violations in 2 years”

He closed, “She was still free to drive at a murderous speed.” I agree. We must no longer accept the scourge of the 16% on the rest of us. Do we really believe we can stop maniac driving like this by asking nicely? Of course not.

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To Stop the 16%, Design Better Streets

Despite the obvious problem, there is not much political will in the country to grapple with super speeders, reckless drivers, or the 16% in general. Democrats tend to lean away from more law enforcement due to equity concerns, while Republicans have become distrustful of more government control, even if traffic enforcement. Changing laws and adding more enforcement is just not always feasible electorally.

This is where the Strong Towns approach can come in to address the problem. In this conception, street design should dictate the comfort of driving. If we want drivers to slow down, we need to make lanes narrower, add bollards or barriers (real ones, not plastic flexipoles), cover with overhanging trees, and other general traffic-calming measures. I have advocated for these things myself (see my video essay on the topic),

What the Strong Towns approach does is take safety out of the hands of waffling politicians. In a properly designed street, a 16% driver will constantly show themselves by damaging their own vehicle. We want them to hit bollards and scrape concrete walls. This outcome is certainly better than flesh and blood of innocent pedestrians.

My guess is that anyone who gets mad at this 16% concept is in fact in the 16%. They likely cannot stay off their phone, have heated road rage, or just simply struggle with the basics of driving. No matter, getting bad drivers off the road should not elicit hate. It should elicit cheers. And since we cannot always do that, we can help protect the rest of us from the 16% of dangerous drivers through smarter street design.

Write for Summer School at College Towns

Graduation is in the rearview mirror, Memorial Day weekend is now behind us, and it’s getting hot outside; it is the official start of the summer. School’s out. Rejoice, teachers and students alike (sorry to those not in education).

It was a strong academic year for College Towns. I have continued my publishing schedule, and the site has gotten some media attention beyond just the Substack community. A recent Inside Higher Ed article, “Second Acts for Closed Campuses,” quoted me and my work here on shuttering college campuses. They also used some of my photos from my work, which I love sharing.

Ryan Allen, a professor of comparative and international education and leadership and author of the College Towns newsletter, has crisscrossed the country in recent years to visit closed campuses, traveling thousands of miles for a book he’s writing on the subject.

I want to keep this momentum up over the summer. One way to do that is to open up College Towns as a platform for other authors. I’m dubbing this call for articles the “Summer School at College Towns” series. Last year, I had some amazing guest posts from all walks of life and perspectives. We have had guest posts from former bus drivers on college town transit systems, professors and researchers on issues in higher ed and housing, and other writers on reviving dead malls.

I am broadly interested in issues at the intersections of education and urbanism, the theme of College Towns. So if you are interested in publishing something a little bit different that might not have a home elsewhere, my DMs and email are open (ryanmallen555 at gmail.com). I can work with you to craft an article or idea. Here are some things I would be interested in covering:

• Local issues in urbanism.

• Commutes to school.

• Colleges building housing.

• Movies/ TV through urbanism and education.

• Stories from studying/ living abroad.

Reach out if you want to be a part of Summer School at College Towns. And since it’s the start of summer, I remind you to rewatch the greatest end-of-school-year movie of all time, Dazed and Confused. Then check out my article on the education and urbanism of the film. It is an all-time classic.

Links I’m Reading This Week

Education

• Alabama has a program to fully cover housing and childcare for student moms in university. This is the kind of policy we need to grapple with the birthrate issues.

• Michigan buys a dying college campus. The Age of Conquest marches on!

• Student housing portfolio sells for almost a billion dollars. That’s 12 properties with 7,578 beds across 12 universities.

• Texas State U is constructing a $280 million high-rise dorm project. The university has aggressive growth targets, hoping to go from 44K to 50K by 2030.

• And if you think student housing is lucrative, another firm has recently expanded senior housing to the tune of $5.4 billion.

• This gives me an idea: new way for colleges to survive? Become a senior home.

• Tulane backs away from student housing proposal that would have knocked down a dumpy post-war sprawl development. The university would have preserved the vintage sign and allowed the diner to operate on the first floor.

  

• UC Berkeley law school enacts a big ban on AI. Are these restrictions too strict?

• Wharton professor sounds the alarm bells that so many high school students reach out to him to do research. This kind of thing is a farce, agreed. It is mostly about padding college application stats, not real research.

• Christian colleges think Trump’s new policy is an existential threat. These changes to higher ed are not just hurting the Harvards and Columbias.

• Sam’s Club in Shanghai is selling Harvard-branded backpacks. The strongest American brand in the world is a university.

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Urbanism-ish

• LA and Orange County, where I live, have the lowest rates of young homebuyers in the country. Previous generations pulled the ladder up from behind them.

• Former IBM offices in LA are being retrofitted into housing. Good, more of this.

• I used to be skeptical that golf cars could be usefulness for good urbanism. But runs through the advantages that they bring. I have changed my mind and see their utility.

• Singapore is going through its own kind of social and cultural transition of the urban form via at Singapore Samizat. I was taken by how similar these yearnings for nostalgia are to what is happening in the US.

• Pew reports that a larger portion of websites are no longer available. Sad. At least there is a new digital graveyard for lost websites and apps. Fun to explore.

• On the flip side, I saw this interesting story on how print magazines can work if they are hyperlocal from . Maybe it’s not print that is dead, but the Internet.

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Closing Time… Did Phones Kill the Hostel Common Room?

I saw this question posed on r/solotravel on Reddit. The user was lamenting the lack of social interactions happening at the hostel where they were staying. “Socializing in hostel common room is slowly dying?” they asked.

My last night here at the hostel and I thought "oh why not stay a while in the common room and have a chit-chat with other fellow travelers. Lo and behold! Everyone is on their phones like literally every single soul in the common room! After half an hour of" dead silence", I decided to just give up, finished my tea and went back to my room.

A lot of users agreed with the thread. “I’m new to solo travel and this is the only experience I had in hostels. It’s good to know I’m not alone,” agreed another user with the most upvotes in the thread. Others, however, suggested that travelers should “sometimes you need to make the first step.” Some tips on the thread to help lubricate socializations are, no surprise, through alcohol:

I will say that I used to love staying at hostels when I was younger, especially when I was traveling solo. However, with age, I do not frequent them as much anymore, as my wife and I have raised our standards since our grad school days. I will say that we stayed in a hostel in Seattle’s Chinatown last summer. It was fun! And we hung out late one night in the common room, socializing with guests from around the world. Bringing some beers certainly helped, confirming the tips in the subreddit thread.

So is this something that you have noticed during your travels? Have phones killed the hostel common room? Or are we all just collectively getting older and doing this kind of thing less with age? Tell me what you think in the comments.

Graduating Into and With AI

It’s graduation season! Congrats to all those recent grads ready for a new adventure. This week, a lot of talk has happened around this graduating class having to grapple with AI. The job world for recent grads is indeed in massive flux due to the wide adoption of the technology.

Given the concerns over AI, it should not be surprising that students recently booed commencement speeches by speakers lauding AI. This happened at the University of Central Florida (thanks to for flagging this one) and the University of Arizona. Not even former Google guru Eric Schmidt could convince the students of the tech’s merits.

At the same time, there were a few high-profile op-eds from students on their cohort’s adoption of AI. Basically, most of them cheated, according to these writers.

“We are the first college class of the A.I. era — ChatGPT arrived on campus about two months after we did,” wrote Stanford graduate Theo Baker in a New York Times op-ed. “When we graduate next month, this technology will have altered our lives in very different ways.”

Indeed, these students were guinea pigs in the lab of AI higher education experimentation. The experiment has gone awry, and the test subjects know it. The ease and temptation to use AI to cheat have simply been too great. Baker wrote:

Cheating has become omnipresent. I don’t know a single person who hasn’t used A.I. to get through some assignment in college, yet the school was at first slow to realize how widespread this would become.

Given this one was in the New York Times, it received a lot of attention. But another newspaper with a lower profile echoed these same claims. The piece chronicles cheating at Western University, London, Ontario, Canada. One anonymous student admitted:

In certain situations people just want to do well, students, and I fall into this category, that knows cheating is not right, you just go along with it because the robot is going to be better at wording of a professional essay.

Both stories are especially concerning. Stanford is supposed to be a place for our best and brightest, an engine of innovation. The author does bring up the dubious ethics by past alumni, with several high-profile alumni in jail, such as Elizabeth Holmes. Further, the story from Western was regarding a health class. Look, I’m all for using AI to improve diagnoses, but I’d like my medical practitioners to have some competencies without the tech.

Over at the r/professor Subreddit, my fellow colleagues were lambasting these students and their cohort. Cheating with AI has been the bane of this group since the rollout of ChatGPT four years ago. It changed the profession forever, even if some professors refuse to believe it. Some harsh responses:

The message I got from this article is that while some students resort to booing commencement speakers at the mere mention of AI, they are quite happy to use AI during their education, even at hallowed institutions like Stanford.

Bingo-- they don't like the "we might have no jobs when we graduate" part… they sure love the "let me just use AI to do these assignments so that I don't have to learn anything" part. It's kind of a double-edged sword but both edges cut in a way that renders them unemployed.

Grim, maybe, but not much we haven't been chewing over in here for years. I think the hardest part for me is accepting that it's a whole culture of lying and thievery these days and that I can't trust even my best students. That if I get excited about anyone's work at all, there's a 50/50 chance I'm being played for a fool. At best, it's a waste of energy to care any more.

Tough quotes. But they represent very real frustrations from the faculty. Some have suggested we go back to older models of assessment: Blue Books, oral exams, and in-person proctoring, etc. Yet, there is pushback to these efforts.

At Stanford, professors are banned to “proctor in-person exams.” Baker wrote that some considered this practice to be a “nuclear option.” At Western, one professor said handwritten exams were not feasible. “A written exam by hand tests, first and foremost, a student’s handwriting skills which, in this generation, (are) almost absent,” he told The London Free Press. “It also means deciphering handwritten answers.”

Despite these barriers, universities (and professors) are realizing that the same ways of doing things can no longer remain. , a fellow educational Substacker who has been on this AI-higher ed beat for a long time, outlines some possible rules for institutions on Anecdotal Value. Universities need to get real and help these students help themselves.

The graduating class is right to be concerned with AI threatening their careers, even if many of them were using the tech to cheat. Universities should realize these temptations are too great, even for the best students. Our sector must adapt, or the boos at graduation will only continue.

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Links I’m Reading This Week

Education

• Comedian Nate Bargatze is giving a student athlete a role in the next film to sign with Vanderbilt U. College football really is in the Wild West era right now. Anything seems possible.

• Oklahoma City U’s golf team won their division’s national championship, despite the school announcing the closure of the program. All too common in higher ed these days. Good quality and importance don’t always translate to survivability.

• In more closure news, Oakland City U, not to be confused with similar-sounding named institutions in the Bay Area and Michigan, but in Indiana, flip-flops on its closure. The school will remain open… for now. From my experience, reversing these kinds of closing messages cannot easily be put back in the bottle.

• Princeton gets around the endowment tax by giving students more money. Seems like the ideal way to incentivize.

• Would you want to live in an old school? Maybe this one in Seattle! But it does cost a million dollars, with another $2K per month for HoA. Ouch. Still cool adaptive reuse.

• California may loosen regulations on public university student housing. It seems absurd that private universities already have these privileges when the UCs, Cal-States, and CCs do not.

• In more housing news, Gainesville mourns dumpy abandoned gas station to be turned into student housing. Reading through the Facebook comments, I see so many locals harbor contempt for the University of Florida and its students. Sad.

  

• Is it time to end peer review? Some fellow researchers believe AI has rendered the old academic journal publishing system unsustainable. It is a convincing argument.

• Over in the UK, King’s College London and Cranfield University announced a merger. The vision for the merger is to create a “global university” brand. The Age of Conquest goes global.

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Urbanism

• Brookline, Mass., has an amazing high school that sits over a light rail line station. I love this kind of integrated design. Too few schools these days have good urbanism.

  

• New data on childhood immobilities in the US. Kids can’t do anything by themselves.

• Ebike company locks out customers from their bikes. Another example of all this “smart” tech making things worse.

• Giant novelty statues have been a fading tradition, despite their importance in Americana. But this lost art is making a comeback.

• ABC News has removed the entire archive of the election prediction site FiveThirtyEight. This kind of thing is becoming more and more common. Good reminder that we must protect the Internet Archive at all costs.

• Likewise, AI training means destroying old books. What a bummer to find out.

• In some California news, LA residents are angry at a proposed public restroom in a popular park. They think installing restrooms will attract more visitors so they would rather have none at all. Insane logic.

• But it’s not all annoyance here. LA’s new D-line subway is a game-changer for the city. Heading in the right direction!

• Brightline West, the high-speed rail line connecting LA to Las Vegas, is facing opposition from… Texas? Apparently, it is a lobbying group of angry farmers who hate trains (seriously).

  

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Closing Time… No One Can Escape My Research. Not Even Me.

This past week, Middlebury College released a plan to sell the Middlebury Institute of International Studies (MIIS) at Monterey to the Soka University of America. Hey, wait, that’s my university where I work!

I have been researching closing colleges for three years now, along with a decade of research on higher education broadly. I guess you cannot work in US higher ed these days without going through either some kind of institutional closure or expansion. I even covered the closure of MIIS here on College Towns when it was announced in August last year.

As someone who researches college closures, I am happy to hear MIIS will survive. It is an interesting and unique institution. In my own field, they have long done great work in international education (although they ended the MA in International Education Management in 2025). So I am glad that the institution will remain open.

As a faculty member here, it is also interesting that I am now within an institution grappling with closure/ merger. There are certainly questions that I have that are both professional and research-related, like How is this going to work? Since the announcement was just for these preliminary stages, there is still a lot to work out. The deal will not even be completed until the end of the 2026-2027 academic year.

For now, I am excited to learn that a great institution has been saved, even if not every program will make it. I am also excited to meet my new colleagues, even if I still have questions around the merger. C'est la vie in this Age of Conquest of US higher ed.

The July 1976 issue of National Geographic was a celebration of America. It was the time of the US Bicentennial, which captivated the country in the mid-1970s. While much of the issue looks backwards with exposés on George Washington or the country’s changing physical landscape, one article looks forward to the future.

Titled Five Notable Thinkers Explore the Future, the article outlines a meeting between intellectuals and writers of the day, as they prognosticated on what life has in store for Americans in the future. We are now 50 years out from the US Bicentennial and these predictions. With the upcoming Semiquincentennial, it is a good time to see how they did. Thinkers included in the piece:

• Gerard Piel - publisher of Scientific American.

• Richard F. Babcock - Lawyer and housing advocate.

• Isaac Asimov - Famed sci-fi and non-fiction writer.

• Buckminster Fuller - Architect, author, designer, and inventor.

• Edmund N. Bacon - City planner and urbanist.

So how did these illustrious thinkers do? Let’s dive in.

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Wait, It’s All Zoning? Always Has Been

One thing that immediately jumped out to me was how much focus there was on the urban form, cities, and our inhabitation. They dissected the ills of zoning, in particular, along with the criticisms of post-war urbanism. I was not expecting there to be so much to be about land use!

But the urbanism focus makes sense in retrospect. The 1970s were a time of the "urban crisis." Cities were struggling, hollowed out by suburban sprawl, and, in some cases, literally burning (see the Bronx). When this issue was released, the country was still a quarter-century out from the eventual urban Renaissance defined by the Millennial-Hipster-Bespoke Revolution of the 2000s.

Surprisingly, the thinkers were actually predicting these leaps in urbanism. “We’re going to see the American people resettle in the city,” said Piel. Bacon echoes the point: “It means that the center, which we think of at the moment as decaying and being abandoned, will have a resurgence and will again become the focal point.” Even in the midst of a chaotic era, they could still see the power and potential of cities and, likewise, the drawbacks of suburban development, including racial segregation.

By the year 2076, unless we achieve a racially integrated society, you are going to see our big cities substantially all white. In the next 20 years at the longest, the suburbs, where the jobs are already moving, will be open to blue-collar blacks. -Babcock.

Babcock, who is sometimes labeled “The Dean of American Planning Law,” published The Zoning Game way back in 1966. In it, he argued that American zoning laws were political endeavors rather than scientific or rational, especially that of the growing suburbanization trend. The conceptions of land use in the article almost sound like ’s Arbitrary Line (2022), published a half-century later.

On the question of land use, I think it is perfectly clear that we’re going to see the end of suburbia. The suburban dwelling is the most wasteful of resources and of energy. All of the public investment in highways, sewers, and all the rest that makes this system possible is accomplished for the more fortunate at the expense of the less fortunate. -Piel

The great illusion of the suburban experience was that man can experience nature by owning pieces of it. And that is fundamentally incorrect. Nature eludes ownership. Becoming more urban and less suburban will also reverse the rhythm of life, to our great benefit. -Bacon

In critiquing the “Low density of the suburbs,” Bacon foresaw the helicopter parenting that defines American childhood today. “They should not have to depend upon their mothers being chauffeurs in order to make contact with friends,” he wrote. Indeed, since the 1970s, children have been walking less and being chauffeured more, leading to the dreaded school car pickup lines.

Babcock even correctly identified state YIMBY movements. “I believe that by the year 2000 the states will have a significant voice in land-use policy,” he said. “The states will take back significant parts of the power they granted to municipalities.” While it took another two decades, the 2020s are certainly defined by states giving property rights back to owners, which were clipped away by obstructionists.

Although not everyone foresaw the battle lines that zoning had drawn. “New perceptions of land are going to make for a situation where private property versus control doesn’t become the main conflict,” exclaimed Bacon. If you’ve ever gone to a community meeting on a proposed apartment complex, you know these battles rage fiercely.

The urbanists were also shortsighted on the suburban experiment. There was a sense that it would eventually fail, with the rest of the country realizing the folly that they had already diagnosed in land use. “Are the suburbs dead?” posed the magazine. Yes, some have certainly failed, which is a central thesis to ’s suburban Ponzi scheme concept from Strong Towns. Yet, the country has not abandoned the overwhelming suburban form, to the chagrin of urbanists today.

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Peak Everything

This period of American history seemed to elicit thoughts on peaks and excesses. In 1968, Paul R. Ehrlich published the devastating book The Population Bomb. The central thesis was that the world’s growing population could not be supported by the food supply. His calamities never came to be. But his theory was influential. To the credit of the thinkers in this National Geographic piece, they went the other direction from Ehrlich’s alarmism.

Despite the imperfections of our society, however, we see in our vital statistics, and in those of every other industrial nation, the impact of industrial abundance. All the industrial nations are approaching zero population growth. First their death rates came down. Then, with surviving offspring assured, they reduced their birthrates. We have every reason to believe the same will happen in the developing countries, as they achieve economic expansion. -Piel

Piel was mostly discussing this population slowdown in terms of expected economic growth, or that we should not expect to see infinite growth in the future. His prediction is exactly the issue many countries are grappling with today, too few babies, not too many, as Ehrlich errantly predicted.

They were, though, concerned about aspects of energy use. The memories of the OPEC oil crisis and fallout were clearly fresh in their minds. Likewise, the notions of Peak Oil or running out of resources were starting to take shape during the era.

We are assisted considerably in facing up to the problems of urban settlement by the fact that the petroleum of the world is rapidly becoming exhausted. We are going to have to move from a petroleum-base mobility to an electric-base mobility. We’ve got to quit using petroleum for our basic way of getting around. -Bacon

His colleague Piel added, “It’s quite apparent we will be living in the post-petroleum age.” Obviously, the autocentric approach that inundated post-war America was seen as unsustainable. Bacon asserted, “The only reason for a vehicle will be to bring a baby home from the hospital or to take a casket out.” While we are certainly not anywhere close to car-free America, we are certainly on a rapid collision course with change through electric cars, self-driving improvements, better battery technology, and other renewables.

Even though the world was facing energy competition, Fuller foresaw a future of global cooperation in this area. He believed that somehow the world’s powers (US, China, USSR) would join forces for a global “intercontinental” power grid. He was obsessed with the wasted energy in the technology of the day. “I know it is highly feasible to take care of all humanity at higher standards than anyone has known,” he encouraged. Alas, we have not yet reached this peaceful Star Trek-like world unification.

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Isaac Asimov is Out of This World

While much of the guesses in the piece were rooted in some practical policy and societal questions. This is actually one aspect that I was slightly disappointed with the thinkers; there were so few fantastical sci-fi predictions. Of course, Isaac Asimov was the one exception.

“I have written about the world or global village, tied together electronically, with every citizen able to communicate instantly with every other,” said Asimov, who predicted the modern world of the internet and smartphone by then through his fantastical sci-fi stories. By 1976, he was already blending science fiction with science fact.

We will have to have a steady-state society, in which all innovations will be looked closely for possible evil side effects, because the big slogan of the 21st century will be: No More 20th Centuries! -Asimov

His concern that Americans will be apprehensive of new technologies was apt. The country has a kind of distrust for new innovations. We saw this with the rise of credit card transactions, the internet, smartphones, and now AI. The current rising opposition to data centers mirrors Asimov’s prediction.

At the same time, Asimov also made some bold predictions that never really came to fruition, not yet at least. In one, he posited that the human race would stop building up via skyscrapers, and instead drill down to subterranean cities.

We can live all year round in an equable temperature at all latitudes: We can have transportation not affected at all by inclement weather. We can establish our night and day the world over to suit ourselves and thus remove a great deal of what separates us. -Asimov

Challenging this subterranean point, he ended up arguing with himself, adding that the human race may much rather prefer going up. Not in high-rises, though, but to outer space. Of course, just standing pat terrestrially was not a listed option.

Going up, however, is perhaps the more attractive direction and the one that mankind is more likely to take. Our concept of land use now may include not only the land on the surface of the earth. We can colonize the moon or build space colonies. -Asimov

National Geographic seemed so intrigued by what the sci-fi writer was predicting that they gave him his own article in the same issue. Entitled “The Next Frontier?,” Asimov described what space life would be like for future Americans. I must say that it includes otherworldly illustrations by Pierre Mion. I love the optimism in post-war retrofuturism.

Colonies, whether they are on the moon or in near space, would fulfill functions that are now fulfilled by the cities on the surface of earth Properly handled, the earth may become a rather parklike world, a rather low-density world, with most of humanity living in space communities. And then, someday; there will undoubtedly be a panel talking about the future of space use. -Asimov

In the end, we did not reach these heights, even with the renewed interest in space exploration. He did make some astute predictions, such as the rise of the internet, but he would be disappointed at the advancements we haven’t really made in interplanetary exploration. We still seem very far from a Moon colony.

My Blurb for America in 2076

This has been fun to go back and see what the smartest people predicted for life today. They got some right, and a lot wrong. There were not even that many wild predictions (save Asimov). I guess it shows how serious these guys were, but it lacks imagination, even if proven correct.

Their guesses made me think of our own current expectations for the future. I see some parallels to the Peak stuff from the 1970s with the trendy term “late-stage capitalism,” basically peak capitalism, before everything comes crashing down. The futurists of today might make this kind of prediction, as did some of the thinkers then. But they could be wrong, and the system endures, despite its warts.

Some of the current discourse reminds me of the failed Population Bomb prediction of Ehrlich. Given these population concerns of yesteryear, I do wonder if our consternation over the nose-diving birthrate numbers across the world will somehow be worked out. Perhaps, like with farming, the technology will bring ease and efficiency to laborious situations, which was seemingly the innovation path that the thinkers in the piece leaned on for their predictions.

I guess the lesson from these futurists is that a lot of predictions are going to miss, while some will hit. The most pressing problems of the day may just fade into an afterthought. On the other hand, things that are salient right now may only become more so. Like Asimov with the internet, I can see similar shades of this with the rise of AI. No matter the Bicentennial of 1976, the Semiquincentennial of 2026, or the Tricentennial of 2076, the future always remains to some degree unpredictable, even by the smartest people in the room.

ALPR Cameras as a Campus Free Speech Issue

Are surveillance cameras on campus an academic freedom issue? Two Stanford University professors believe that they are. They pair wrote in The Stanford Daily:

It is crucial to understand that threats to privacy, academic freedom and freedom of speech and assembly are taking place in the context of extraordinarily weakened and severely compromised governmental institutions

The professors invoked the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), an association that organizes university faculty and academics, often against injustices of academic freedom. The pair echo a piece that came out early in the academic year by a post-doc calling for a cancellation of contracts with “dystopian” Flock Safety, an Automated License Plate Readers (ALPRs) company. He wrote:

ALPRs are tools of mass surveillance, indiscriminately capturing images of every vehicle that drives past them and storing the data for up to a month or more. It is equivalent to placing a GPS tracking device on each driver’s vehicle, providing time-stamped location data that can be used in warrantless searches to reconstruct your movements as you go about your lives.

I was ready to lambast this take when I first encountered it. I had mistakenly thought these cameras were the automatic ticketing variety. In my view, this kind of usage of traffic cameras is not a free speech issue, but rather a safety issue. However, the cameras at Stanford, and at many other universities, do not issue citations; instead, these Flock cameras are mostly about keeping tabs on who is coming and going to campus.

For me, these kinds of cameras are mostly a waste of resources if not used to actually enforce traffic rules. Despite what we hear from the media or from our paranoid neighbors on Nextdoor, students are more in danger of someone TikToking while behind the wheel than some random criminal predator or even an overstepping ICE agent.

Apparently, Flock cameras can be used in some cases to issue tickets, but the case seems more like a rare man-bites-dog type of article. It is not standard. I do agree there should be caution in over-surveillance. This is part of a broader safetyism in American culture, certainly a strong sentiment on college campuses.

While conservatives have long criticized safetyism in US higher education, Trump has certainly used these same fears to drive national policy. The Stanford professors explicitly cite the recent ICE raids as prime examples of overstepping. In general, there is a lot of distrust towards this company, not just at Stanford. There is fear that the technology will be used in corrupt ways. There’s even a Reddit group dedicated to tracking the company’s contracts, celebrating damaged units, and sharing tips on how to spot them.

What annoys me about this kind of Stranger-Danger safetyism is that there are real hazards that college towns just ignore. The area around campus can be quite dangerous due to the crowds of pedestrians or bikes mixing with off-campus car traffic.

There have been a range of deaths on and around Stanford recently. A woman was struck and killed in a crosswalk near campus in February of this year. Last year, a Stanford student died after getting hit by a car while riding a bike on campus. That same year, a popular coach was killed by a garbage truck a few miles from campus, and a 90-year-old woman hit and killed a cyclist. In 2024, a visiting student researcher was killed in the very same way near campus.

I could keep going. Palo Alto Online, a local newspaper, is full of stories like these I’ve already listed. The Stanford Daily even chronicled “bike accidents” on campus from 2014 to 2018, finding over 300 such incidents. Over a third, the highest percent, were related to incidents with other vehicles. The authors even highlight one part of campus called the “Circle of Death,” which is apparently notoriously unsafe. Other intersections, especially where the campus interfaced with roadways, proved similarly dangerous for bikers.

Further, the two professors argue that there is only a “dubious benefit these cameras add” and that “we have yet to receive any evidence that they actually make us safer.” I do agree with this concern when these are simply tracking people rather than trying to curb driver behavior. We have a use case right in the Bay Area. The city of San Francisco has released data on their speed camera intervention: they are a resounding success.

…data collected from San Francisco’s 33 camera locations and other traffic-sensing equipment, excessive speeding — defined as drivers going more than 10 mph above the speed limit — dropped nearly 80%. The number of repeat offenders dropped, too.

Localities in the state turned to speed cameras after an alarming increase in fatalities related to cars and drivers. Speed, reckless or inactive driving, and vehicle size are key factors for the increase. The claim that there is “dubious benefit” is true if not utilized in this way, as traffic cameras do seem to alter some offending driver behaviors.

Where I align with the anti-Flock cameras sentiment is that I would much rather turn to street redesign rather than enforcement—the Strong Town way. This would mean narrowing lanes, adding more barriers, and removing cars from places altogether. But localities have proven over and over again that all of this is too much to ask. Traffic engineering dictates that speed and ease of access for cars outweigh the safety and comfort of everyone outside of a car. See one example from College Towns:

To Stanford’s credit, the university has installed a range of roundabouts in recent years. However, students still report unease when walking. “I feel like sometimes I just have to be confident and pray I don’t get hit because otherwise I’ll be waiting forever to walk through when it’s busy,” said one student in a 2023 article in The Stanford Daily on the roundabouts.

In the end, I can see the fears of over-surveillance of an overreaching nanny state. At the same time, we cannot abdicate responsibility because there is an abuse of power in another arena. There is a real public safety issue; it’s just not the one the cameras purport to inhibit, nor the one the professors believe is an external threat.

Links I’m Reading This Week

Education

• Princeton NIMBYs are once again up in arms over a proposed development on the site of former dorms of a struggling college. It’s only a 4-story building, too! Just shows how difficult it can be to repurpose college space.

• To help with the student housing crisis, one UT-Austin student came up with an innovative app. Instead of Rate My Professor, he created Rate My Rental. Cool initiative!

• Columbia sold a housing unit in the Bronx that was deemed too disconnected from the main campus. My alma mater apparently lost money on it! Imagine losing money on New York City real estate

• The financialization of youth sports is ruining a childhood pastime. The travel sports culture is also another aspect that connects to helicopter parenting.

• Northeastern completes merger with Manhattan-based struggling college. The Age of Conquest is still forging ahead in US higher ed.

• UC Davis gets a massive donation to expand vet school. No, not veterans, veterinarians. This field often seems forgotten in terms of funding and STEM initiatives, which is strange considering pets are only becoming more important in American culture.

• Harvard is making its students take an AI series. If the wealthiest and most well-resourced university is paying this much attention, other schools cannot continue to ignore (or simply ban) AI.

• More AI Wrangler job updates: OpenAI reported that its latest model was given a “Nerdy personality.” This resulted in an abnormal amount of mentions of “Goblins.”

Urbanism-ish

• I’ve covered dead colleges and malls here, but those aren’t the only disappearing institutions. What happens to a vineyard once it closes? Turns out, it’s also complicated.

• “Transit is only as good as its weakest link, at that weakest link is almost always the weekends,” writes in Car Free America. This is exactly my complaint here in Southern California (amongst many others).

• in writes on the rise of factory-built homes in Florida. I have long been curious about this housing innovation, but remain skeptical they can solve our problems.

• New library in Omaha, Nebraska, is emblematic of how ugly our car-centric design is. What an abominable aesthetic.

• at has a piece on practical steps Charlotte, NC, made to urge homeowners to support better housing policy. Always great to see a positive and practical writing in this space that is often doom and gloom.

• For some California news, it seems there is more trouble brewing in Hollywood? The film company site where they filmed The Office is shuttering. It seems the industry here is disintegrating.

• But it’s not all bad news in Southern California; LA college students are embracing the metro system. Ridership for young people is up considerably this year.

• In some news from China, the Chinese government thinks that hostile foreign powers are trying to make their young people lazy. Funny that we have heard something similar about American youth usage of TikTok.

• of covered the backlash for the new The Devil Wears Prada 2 film in China. Apparently, there is a Chinese character who is a frumpy, nerdy assistant. The controversy highlights the different perceptions of aesthetics in the US vs. China. Chinese netizens complained this was an offensive stereotype, and would prefer someone with more traditional beauty standards. US media often takes the opposite view.

Closing Time… PSA: Used Bookstores, Please Stop Doing This

I do not mean to denigrate used bookstores on Independent Bookstore Day. But I must highlight a complaint from Matt K. Parker, who highlighted an annoying habit: terrible stickers. He pleaded on X, “Why, God, why do used book stores use cover-destroying price stickers?” The photo shows a nice-looking Penguin Classics version of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, ripped to the spine.

Some book aficionados suggested that he try using a hair dryer on high heat next time (a trick I have also heard works). Others nodded approvingly, sharing their own examples from their collections. The most egregious example was from Joshua Penduck, who lamented, “This book survived for 250 years before a used-bookshop put its price sticker on it.” Indeed, what a sad accident of carelessness.

Since I collect old books and magazines, I am constantly annoyed by sticker habits. The worst offenders are the thrift stores such as Goodwill. I have found many books over the years maimed by an errant price. It’s frustrating. Here’s an example from my collection: The Organ-Cases and Organs of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, 1883. It potentially sells for $1600. Granted, I love the price I got it at Goodwill, I just wish they had a little bit better practices.

We all agree that the adhesive on most stickers is too damaging to used books, especially quite old ones. The best practice for pricing seems to be to use a light pencil on the front-end sheet. I have noticed the best (and longest-running) used bookstores often use this method. I wish more would follow suit to help preserve our old books.

The Job of the Future is Here Today

Last year, I wrote the first edition of my Future Jobs series on what I called “AI Wranglers.” I described this type of job as “part IT guy, part psychiatrist, and part detective.” You can read the full article below. While it drew a lot of interest, it also had detractors skeptical of AI. There is considerable anti-AI sentiment in the US, especially in education circles. However, I recently found out that this future job is not really the future… because it already exists in the present.

There are now real AI Wranglers at top companies. Google has hired Henry Shevlin, a faculty member at the University of Cambridge, in the role of Philosopher at DeepMind. His role will center on exploring “machine consciousness, human-AI relationships, and AGI readiness.” He’s not alone. Amanda Askell is another philosopher working at a high-level company, Anthropic. She is tasked with shaping Claude’s personality and trying to understand how the AI works.

Askell described her job in a recent interview:

I’m mostly focused on the character of Claude, how Claude behaves, and I guess some of them were kind of like nuanced questions about how AI models like should behave, but also even just things like, how should they feel about their own position in the world?

So trying to both teach models how to be, like, good in the way that by sometimes think about it is like, how would the ideal person behave in Claude’s situation. but then also these, I think these interesting questions that are coming up more now around how they should think about their own circumstances and their own values and things like that.

Commenting on the interview, tech writer Ole Lehmann wrote, “[It] feels weird to tell an AI it's doing well, but it measurably shifts the next 10 responses.” He continued, “tone, trust, permission to take a position, the absence of threats… Claude picks up on all of it.” This kind of humanistic approach to AI is exactly what I described with the AI Wrangler. The job is already here.

My preferred AI Wrangler term, though, did not catch on. Instead, these kinds of skills are likely better known as something like “prompt engineering.” I still think AI Wrangler is a more apt label, given that these skill sets include not just STEM but also humanistic approaches. “Prompt engineering” sounds too technical. There is art to AI wrangling.

The full interview is worth a watch:

The Skeptics

I should add that there are skeptics who do not believe these kinds of skills are relevant or even real. “It just shows how disconnected we are from the small group of people making decisions that will impact our future heavily,” wrote the popular software developer and streamer ThePrimeagen. “These people have so much AI psychosis.”

Even (or perhaps I should say especially) my fellow professors are skeptical of these new developments. On the r/Professors subreddit, anti-AI sentiments are strong. Just offering a little bit of sympathy with AI brings the hammer of downvotes. A popular post recently complained, “‘Prompt Engineering’ is just a corporate rebrand of ‘Question Asking.’” Many applauded the rant:

The central point of my post is that there is nothing new to learn or teach. We’ve been formally teaching students how to question since the Hellenistic Era.

This is essentially Google on steroids. We didn’t have to teach students to use Google, students were usually better at it than their professors.

prompt engineering is far more insidious than question asking, imo

To be fair, there were professors in the group who defended the concept, pushing back on the assertion that the innovation is overblown. But the voices on the thread and in the broader academia usually coalesce around dislike for AI. A group of scholars even recently published an article that argues qualitative researchers should not use AI on ethical grounds.

Professors Cannot Bury Their Heads in the Sand

I do understand the disdain for AI from teachers. Students are 100% using it to cheat. It makes our job much more difficult. An example comes from the r/PromptEngineering subreddit, where one student admitted, “My professor told me my essay ‘finally sounded like me.’ I had just run it through an AI humanizer.” Of course, the group wanted to know which exact app he used.

I do also understand that there are broader environmental concerns. However, given that every company has shoehorned an AI feature into all apps, websites, or digital services, it is starting to become impossible to avoid interacting with them. The only way to avoid AI these days is to go totally analog, off the internet completely. Short of that, it is just making a showy complaint.

Just because we don’t like something doesn’t mean we can ignore or ban it. One colleague who agrees is , Associate Professor at the University of Notre Dame’s Keough School of Global Affairs and owner of Substack, who has been publishing a series entitled Academics Need to Wake Up on AI. He drew ire from the professorate with the first post in the series when he later revealed it was written by Claude. His interview on the situation in The Chronicle of Higher Ed is worth a read:

There is a big divide. You have senior folks, or folks who are not on social media, who have not heard anything about agentic AI. They just know ChatGPT as this thing that students use to cheat. They’re like, Let’s ban AI everywhere. Meanwhile, their junior colleagues run all their data through Codex. The closest analogy would be to imagine if half of your colleagues didn’t know the internet existed. This is not a stable equilibrium.

I am not saying that every class needs to have full AI integration, just that every teacher needs to understand the capabilities to some degree and how students may use the technology. Even if classrooms have not found much use for AI, the same cannot be said of the workplace. The Financial Times reported this week that the highest earners and most experienced are using AI at much higher rates than other workers:

Lawyers, accountants and software developers are using these tools at similar rates whether junior or senior but are using them much more than people in lower-paid occupations in the same industries.

The strong relationship between pay, education and AI use suggests the technology may increase earnings inequality by boosting the productivity of workers at the top but not at the bottom.

An example of the business sector’s embrace of AI comes from ChatGPT announcing an Excel add-on. I already use AI to remind me of macros. I think this is a good use case for AI. Any class that relies on Excel must consider the tool since Microsoft is putting it front and center. This obviously does not mean every class needs AI, just like not every class needs computers or other software.

While my concept of an AI Wrangler is still something we mostly see only at the very highest levels of the tech sector, I believe things will trickle down to the rest of the industry. There is already mass adoption of the tech, with high-paying industries expecting their workforce to use and understand AI capabilities. Educators must pay attention to this job of the present, whether we like it or not.

Links I’m Reading This Week

Education

• In more closure news, Anna Maria College is shutting down. The second Massachusetts institution to shutter this month, joining Hampshire College.

• A community college in Washington is closing a branch campus. This is exactly the trend I have been seeing in my own research.

• There have been some new data sites popping up that explore closed or closing colleges. One comes from ’ personal website. The other from James Long, Chair of the Division of Business at Friends University, with a pretty cool interactive map. I may do a full article on these closure metrics, as AI has really supercharged analysis and data here.

• It’s not just the US making cuts to higher education; Shenzhen University in China is taking a buzzsaw to its major offerings. Bummer.

• On the flip side of budget cuts, Yale is considering expanding with a campus in San Francisco. The biggest continue getting bigger in the Higher Ed Age of Conquest.

• There is no end in sight for donations to big football programs. I have heard growing concerns that there will be donor fatigue due to players washing out or renegging on deals. This does not appear to be happening yet, at least not at the very top.

• In student housing news, an open house for a $4.6K per month rental in a California college town has a line out the door with eager applicants. Build more housing…

• Student housing in Belfast, Northern Ireland, may have reached a saturation point. I will be interested in seeing how rents are impacted.

• Community college student in Seattle protests the exorbitant housing prices by setting up a tent right in front of the campus.

• Tulane University is building new student housing. Locals are concerned it will bulldoze a historic restaurant. I understand nostalgia, but this is basically a dumpy strip mall with a cool sign (which the university is keeping up).

  

• My lone K-12 news today comes from , a writer and mother lamenting having to move to the US because it means she will have to give up on her kid’s independence, This is the sad reality that many parents find themselves in due to our terrible built environments.

Urbanism-ish

• Where did all the public benches go in American cities? One urbanist explores this lost amenity.

• Over here in California, Hollywood, the town, is in rough shape. High rents coupled with street degradation undercut the glitz of the supposed tourist destination. Some locals have a plan to fix it.

• In more California news, LAX gets a fancy new terminal upgrade. I’m not impressed. Call me when the People Mover starts moving people.

  

• In some global urbanism news, China is helping Brazil build its train infrastructure. The US has no answer to this other than to complain.

• China has selected two Pakistani astronauts to train on board the Chinese Space Station (CSS). The New Space Race continues!

• Dubai is planning a massive metro line as part of securing confidence after the disastrous Iran conflict.

• Going across the pond, Britain’s “UNESCO model village” shows the best of town-building. Saltaire in West Yorkshire, built in 1851, is really just the traditional model. Retvrn.

Closing Time… Rats Love Driving Cars

Rats love driving cars, even if not rewarded with a treat. Ok, this is an old video and story, but I just recently stumbled on it again and thought it was pretty fun. But rat urbanists worry this newfound love of driving will lead to rat urban renewal and the end of walkable rat cities.

In a parallel line of research, I have been trying to classify the kinds of closures witnessed in various countries or regions. In East Asia, Japanese and Korean institutions have recently seen threats of closures related to the prolonged birthrate crisis. In the Middle East, campus closures have come at the expense of war and conflict, including many foreign branch campuses questioning the long-term viability of these overseas outposts.

War and conflict have long led to shuttered colleges, including the one I am highlighting here: Fu Ren University, formerly located in the heart of Beijing. I recently toured the campus during a trip to China, and I draw on this experience, material from Beijing Normal University (BNU), and historical analysis for this exploration. All photos are my own.

Its long history is a fascinating tale of adaptive reuse related to closed and closing colleges. The university campus at No. 1 Dingfu Street, Xicheng District, Beijing, a stone’s throw away from the inner-sanctum of the country’s political and cultural center, survived in some forms under four different governments: Warlords, Nationalists, Japanese, and Communists, from 1925 to 1952.

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A Princely Palace

The site of Fu Ren University had a long (and prestigious) life before the college arrived. It sits on what is known as Prince Gong’s Mansion, sometimes referred to as a palace, part of the holdings of the Qing imperial royal family. In 1780, the Qianlong Emperor built a mansion at the site for his princess daughter. What became the campus also served as a garden and stables for the mansion.

The location is in the heart of central Beijing, close to the well-known cultural heritage sites like the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square. The Imperial Palace was a sacred inner sanctum for the Chinese royals, so the prime spot the location holds illustrates its importance. As Chen (2003) describes:

Old capital, Beijing, know that the city was circular and divided by ranks in the Imperial Court. The center was the famous Forbidden City for the Emperor and his family; the next was the Imperial City, for the high-ranking officials. The third was the Tartar City where Catholic Fu Ren University located…

The grounds continued to see construction and other happenings during the turbulent mid-to-late Qing Dynasty, which lasted from 1644 to 1912. Some of the stories could be inserted right into Game of Thrones, with princes convicted of crimes and stripped of titles or wealth, including the Palace grounds.

As the Qing Dynasty was crumbling under internal strife and external pressures, the Palace location was in the hands of Puwei. Puwei was a relative and rival to Puyi, The Last Emperor of China, whose life was depicted in the beautiful, Oscar-winning film by Bernardo Bertolucci in 1987. Puwei actually had a partial claim to the throne through his lineage.

Even once the empire fell, the Japanese approached Puwei to gauge his interest in establishing the puppet kingdom of Manchukuo, carved out of Northeast China. Puyi, hearing his rival was being courted, decided to take the throne in his ancestral homeland himself, rather than moving abroad as encouraged by his former tutor, the Scotsman Reginald Fleming Johnston.

In 1912, Puwei sold all of the cultural relics of the palace to a Japanese company. Then, in order to raise money for his efforts in the restoration of the Qing dynastic rule, he offered the grounds to the Catholic church in 1920. It would take a few years for the deal to be finalized, moving the institution to the location. Its days of palace intrigue were over. The turbulent time of transition, though, did not subside with the handover.

The site consists of 41,000 square meters in Xicheng area of Beijing. Chinese Architecture: 1500 B.C - A.D 1911 (1962) by Andrew Boyd, from my personal collection, offers an illustration of the built environment of the era (also available on Internet Archive). The location of the college is near the lakes in the Northwest part of the map.

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Fu Ren University

Much of the in-depth history of the school comes from John S. Chen’s book, The Rise and Fall of Fu Ren University, Beijing (2003). He chronicles the very earliest days, as Pope Pius X announced intentions of opening the university way back in 1912, to its eventual closure at the onset of the Communist takeover of China. While the institution only lasted 27 tumultuous years from 1925 to 1952 (tough times for China), it reached heights in academia and education.

Led by the American Benedictine Order, the Church insisted that Fu Ren be a “University” rather than just a college. Its backers wanted the institution to be higher-level than what was already present in Beijing at the time. There was concern about competition from other recently-founded institutions, and they wanted Fu Ren to match the prestige of the Catholic Church at the time.

Finances were funded through a direct line to the Pope, among others. Local artisans were also brought in to restore the grandeur of the former palace after years of political uncertainty for the Qing landholders. “…designed by Dom Adelbert Gresnigt, [this] is a good example of the indigenous adaptation of the church university in this context,” says Lin Zou, professor at the School of Architecture Urban Planning, Construction Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, Italy, in a piece on the historical architectural legacy of the school.

Immediately after taking over the palace in the end of July, the Benedictine Fathers began to renovate the buildings, install steam heat, modern plumbing, and electric wiring, and to convert the “Western Library” (Xi Shu Fang) of the palace into a school fit to house the long contemplated Fu Ren She or the Academy of Chinese Studies (Chen, 2003, p. 77).

According to Chen, the peak student population was 2,348 and 282 faculty, achieved in 1948. They came from all across China, and even a few from abroad. Some famous alumni include Wang Guangmei, the wife of future Chinese Premier Liu Shaoqi. She was awarded China’s first master’s degree in physics to a woman in the country.

Faculty were made up of mostly Chinese, with some foreigners, including missionaries. Many of the Chinese faculty had studied in the US or Europe though, such as the University of Louvain, the University of Berlin, the University of Munich, John Hopkins, Harvard, Wisconsin, Northwestern, and Michigan. Some of the former faculty and administration are still well known today, with Wikipedia pages to match: Ying Lianzhi, Yuan Han-qing, Zeng Zhaolun, Ying Qianli, Ma Xiangbo, and Chen Yuan.

The campus served as a gathering spot for intellectuals of the day. The writer Lu Xun even delivered an anti-Japanese speech at the campus in 1932, while Dr. Hu Shih, the famed educator, served on the university’s Board of Trustees.

The organization of the school and curriculum mirrored that of a typical American Catholic university, with added elements of Chinese culture, given the namesake of the university derived from The Analects by Confucius (in some places, I have seen it referred to as the Catholic University of Peking). It had four schools: School of Arts and Letters, School of Natural Sciences, College of Agriculture, and School of Education, along with a seminary called Saint Albert College. They even had graduate programs across a range of disciplines.

There was also a Women’s College, established in 1932 as the first Catholic girls’ school in all of China, where Wang Guangmei was educated. But the women were still mostly segregated from the main campus. The campus also boasted the Fu Ren Middle and Primary Schools.

Given its American liberal arts roots, extracurriculars were a prized facet of campus life at Fu Ren. One Father was quoted by Chen, “The fact is that the sports here are as much an element in making the school known as they are in America itself.” The school had soccer, basketball, tennis, track, and even an American football team eventually. They played in the so-called “Big Five” League of Peking, which included Yenching, Qinghua, Beijing Normal, and Peking Universities. The sports actually helped the university recruit. Hey, some things never change!

Partly thanks to its choice location near the Chinese power structures, Fu Ren became known for student political movements. However, for much of its history, the school steered hard against political entanglement, allowing it to survive through rocky governance of the day.

During the Japanese aggression against China in the 1930s, universities abandoned their Beijing campuses and moved operations to the hinterlands such as Chongqing. Throughout the war, Fu Ren remained the only campus to remain open in the city. The other holdout was Yenching, which was forced to relocate in 1942 due to the Americans joining the war efforts. Fu Ren was shielded by its relations to the Vatican rather than any Allied Powers. The school also had a long-running German rector.

This does not mean the Japanese viewed the institution as an ally. On the contrary, it faced the wrath of the Japanese Imperial aggression when it pushed back against the integration of Japanese material into the curriculum. One Father was tortured so vigorously by the Japanese that an Italian Franciscan had to intervene to get him freed, using a direct friendship with Benito Mussolini.

Fu Ren not only weathered the storm of World War II, it came out on top. But the new era meant the continued Chinese Civil War, wrapping up the Beijing institutions. Fu Ren students joined the revolutionary zeal of the moment, helping in mass protests across the capital and entire country. At one point, a group even confronted the then-American Rector, demanding the US remove troops from China. Well, the US did leave, rapidly the country was consumed by the Communist forces. It would be the beginning of the end for Fu Ren in Mainland China.

Along with Peking University, Tsinghua University, and Yenching University, Fu Ren was considered as one of the “Four Great Universities of Beiping.” It had the trajectory of being one of the world’s finest institutions. History does not always agree with trajectory though. And Fu Ren’s history certainly did not allow it to reach its promised potential.

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The Long Limbo

After the war with Japan, questions remained not just around what would happen to the university but also to all of China. In 1948, the American consulate in Beijing warned its citizens to leave the country immediately, prompting the school leadership to move all the university’s valuables abroad. A similar exodus was happening across institutions, organizations, and even governments across China. Chiefly, with Chiang Kai-shek’s nationalist government moving to Taiwan.

In 1949, the Communists took over China from the Nationalists, putting the future of Fu Ren into question. Indeed, the next year, the campus and college were commandeered by the Ministry of Education. It was the first private university in China to be taken over by the Communists, but it would not be the last. Zhou Enlai himself rejected the pleas from Fu Ren leadership to stop the CCP’s encroachment on its curriculum and mission. In 1952, much of the operations were merged with Beijing Normal University. Many of its students were sent to do labor in Guangxi Province under the auspices of the Land Reform Movement.

The closure in Mainland was not the end for “Fu Ren University.” In 1959, the spiritual successor to the namesake of the university was pushed to be reestablished in Taiwan by the Vatican via Pope John XXIII. The restoration was formalized in 1961 in New Taipei City. It is considered to be the oldest surviving Catholic Church-founded university in the Chinese-speaking world Its history, though, is claimed by multiple institutions. Along with the claims on either side of the Taiwan Strait, a journal that was founded at the institution called Monumenta Serica survives today as a German publication.

It is actually difficult to know what was happening at the campus space from the mid-1950s until recently. Much of the deep history of the space centers on the Qing-controlled era as a Princely Palace or during the Missionary university era. What is certain is that Beijing Normal took over most of the institutional legacy, including the property. Fu Ren’s President, Chen Yuan, was even appointed to the presidency of BNU.

At various points BNU’s Chemistry Department and the School of Continuing Education for Adults also operated within the space to some degree. However, it seems to have been a sleepy, quiet space during this period, far removed from the zeal of the Catholic university with thousands of students, faculty, and staff.

By the 1980s, after years of neglect, some buildings were starting to crumble under deferred maintenance, an ongoing issue for closed and closing colleges. It was soon designated as a Beijing Municipal Cultural Relic Protection Unit, ensuring its preservation and historical value. Apparently, since its fine piece of preserved architecture, the former campus was used in various Chinese media productions, including stunning Farewell My Concubine and long-running series My Fair Princess.

In the 1990s, as China was opening and continuing some rehabilitations of the past, the Fu Ren Alumni Association was established, receiving an office in the former college grounds. There is hope that they can continue the legacy in Beijing Normal’s new initiative in the space.

Just like on closed college campuses in the US, once the humans go away, the animals come out to play. A little orange tabby was keeping an eye on our group as we toured the facilities. No doubt that we dared disturb his kingdom. Even in a busy city, and in a very crowded tourist site (as shown below), the campus is peaceful enough for a catnap. Inside the walls, it’s peaceful. Outside, on the other hand…

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Colleges as Tourist Sites

In 2013, the site was elevated to the National Key Cultural Relic Protection Unit by the State Council of China, part of a broader reinvigoration of cultural heritage sites around Beijing. These efforts mean the area now sees massive crowds just a few blocks away from the campus. Fu Ren itself has even gained popularity as a stop on the so-called “red tourism.”

Houhai is a prime tourist destination in Beijing, a massive lake, with historical palace grounds, and a bunch of bars. Unfortunately, it is pretty miserable these days. There are massive crowds all trying to walk the same narrow, antiquated paths. It was a place designed for a handful of royals, not for the masses, yet the masses came out in droves.

My little group all got separated in the chaos as we tried to circumnavigate the chaos. Police eventually had to cordon off streets to funnel the crowds to the exiting thoroughfare. I could certainly see some kind of terrible accident happening eventually, a la the horrific incident in Seoul on Halloween from a few years ago. Eventually, we made it through the crowded mess.

As an aside, this experience at Houhai is just emblematic of overcrowding at popular tourist destinations the world over. Not just in China, I have personally witnessed the same thing in both the US and Japan. I also hear the same stories out of Europe. But the funny thing is, just one or two streets over from the main tourist sites are relatively quiet, or at least not dangerously crowded.

I don’t want to scare you away from visiting the old university. Going to the old Fu Ren campus and the local neighborhood around is quite a nice jaunt actually. You do not need to go to Houhai Lake area directly. The old houses and Hutong alleys where real people live are the real stunner. This is where I would suggest you go for a visit, not the famous bar area of Houhai.

Becoming Normal

In 2023, Beijing Normal University announced the creation of Jingshi Academy, an elite interdisciplinary institution that is housed at the former Fu Ren site. The Academy “centers its teaching and research around the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals,” with an Applied Master's Program in Global Development and Governance and the Nishan Confucian Studies Doctoral Program. Classes are taught in English. The university hopes to return the space to its long-running mission of elite academic excellence.

Just for clarification, this isn’t a paid ad by the university. But I am an alumnus of BNU, having done my visiting doctoral research on their main campus. So I have some interests in the ongoing activities of the university.

BNU is hosting an opening of the campus this summer, with Summer School on China’s Governance and Development, from July 4–20, 2026. The university will bring students from around the country and the world to the former Fu Ren U campus. This cohort will be part of the revival of high-level learning within those walls. The Application Deadline is May 17, 2026. So you still have some time!

Summerschool@bnu

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I should note that the Jingshi Academy does not seem to have any focus on Catholic education, not in the materials that I was able to see. But the campus space itself does have some historical signposts outlining its foreign roots. I have also been told by BNU that the institution has been looking to bolster relations with the Fu Ren Alumni Association. This legacy is viewed as important to cross-strait relations.

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Mapping Closed Colleges Abroad

There are stories just like Fu Ren’s across China. Shuttered institutions dot the long history of the country (see example in my book on Kuo Ping-Wen and National Southeastern University). I would love to do a mapping project of these institutions one day, especially those in the Shanghai area.

Many of the former missionary institutions were not abandoned, but integrated into national universities. Perhaps the most famous being Yenching University, which operated in Beijing from 1919 to 1952. Similar to Fu Ren, it shuttered soon after the Communist Revolution. Yet it was quickly incorporated into various other colleges, including Peking University, which took over the campus location. Peking U, or Beida as it is colloquially known, has become one of the top universities not only in China but the entire world. The legacy lives on there through the Yenching Academy.

I’m fortunate enough to have an old The Yenchinian yearbook from 1928, produced by the Students’ Government Association of the university. It is a fascinating insight into life at the college before chaos ensued. There are countless other tales such as Yenching or Fu Ren waiting to be told in China. I hope to tell more of these stories in the future.

Update on 4-20-2026: added clarification of new BNU program.

There is No New Internet Town Square

I have long written about my journey leaving Twitter to greener pastures. It was my very first piece announcing College Towns on October 11, 2024. I also wrote about my trial and ultimate failure in Bluesky. Sadly, the journey to find the new Internet Town Square continues, and I am only finding more dead ends.

Recently, I was threatened with a ban from my local subreddit because I linked to my site in a comment. It was relevant to the conversation, so I thought it might be some auto-mod issue, as I have successfully posted there before. However, when pressed further, the moderators made it clear that they do not want Substack links on the site.

Reddit mods have a stereotype of being pushy, control-freaks with a Napoleon complex. To be fair, it’s a pretty thankless job, and one done on a volunteer basis. But there are far too many cases where they take things too far, treating the subreddit like their own private fiefdom.

I have written articles that have not been covered locally, such as the closure of the OC Flex micro-transit program. Neither the Orange County Register nor the Voice of OC bothered to cover this service change. When you Google OC Flex, my site is the only source of information on what happened other than the public statement from OCTA.

My Substack, like many others on the platform, fills in the gaps that the corporate media does not cover. Yet, a large portion of subreddits essentially view anything not from the corporate media as spam. Funny enough, fellow urbanist Substack, , recently had a very similar situation in a subreddit. It is believed that any self-submission is out of bounds of the site. This is Reddit’s right as a private platform, they can do what they want. But the limitations also mean Reddit simply is not the Internet Town Square.

The Internet Town Square should be the connective tissue across sites, open to all kinds of sources and users. The old Twitter was a place where small blogs or publications could get massive attention. There are big name recognizable writers who rode that wave to massive followings, such as and , both of whom are successful writers here on Substack with their long-form writing.

Another writer who saw success in those early days of Twitter was . The founder of the blog FiveThirtyEight, Silver’s commentary would constantly go viral. Sometimes he would become the “Main Character” for the day, angering people with his data—both left and right. Recently, he wrote a takedown of the new X algorithm:

And “siloed” is on a good day: at other times, Twitter feels like a ghost town. It’s still useful for some topics: the AI discourse on the platform is often relatively robust, for instance. But for something like the war in Iran, it’s next to useless. Links to external websites are substantially punished, and none of the workarounds are particularly helpful. So the tangible rewards from still having 3 million followers can be surprisingly marginal. However, my account is hardly alone in this regard. The New York Times has 53 million followers, and yet its tweets often produce only a few hundred likes, retweets, and replies even when they reveal urgent, breaking news.

The full article is worth a view on his Silver Bulletin website. The link issue he brought up is something I have long been frustrated by. Other users have also commented on the demise of Twitter in terms of traffic generation. from offered actual numbers to back up the fall:

Elon Musk initially started throttling links after he bought the company in 2022, especially targeting Substack, who he considered a competitor. Due to the complaints, Nikita Bier, Head of Product X, claims that the platform no longer deboosts outside links. He and Silver got into a debate on the issue, with Bier arguing that posters just need to learn how to post better. Given what a lot of us have experienced, we are not buying this company line. New research from Nieman Lab confirms the suppression we are all feeling.

This issue is not even just a Musk and X problem alone; the conventional wisdom for social media platforms is to deboost outside links. All the big ones basically believe that outside links are bad because they pull users off their site to another site. LinkedIn certainly does it, so too does Facebook. To me, this is short-sighted, consultant talk. Deboosting links might maximize eyeballs in the short run, but the practice rapidly degrades the health and utility of a social media platform.

What deboosting links does is to hollow out the user base. Users start getting less and less useful information, they then spend less and less time on the platform, and finally leave the site completely. This scenario is very clearly what has happened to X. Another high profile exit from the platform illustrates this cycle; Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), with over 470K followers, announced their exit this week due to low engagement.

While I’m still on X myself, I don’t use it as much these days. I have been trying to migrate most of my activity here to Substack. Ironically, Musk’s lame attempt to throttle Substack due to fear of competition just pushed more users to this site. But I did make a decision to leave my local subreddit and delete all my engagement there. I will no longer post or engage with content there. They will miss out on my original reporting.

I am still lost in the wilderness, looking for that elusive Internet Town Square. I know friend-of-the-page at likes Hacker News. Another friend and fellow educator thinks I’m crazy to not be on TikTok. What do you think? Are we just doomed to never have another Internet Town Square?

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Links I’m Reading This Week

Education

• Hampshire College is closing down. There was an outpouring across the sector for this small Massachusetts college with experimental curriculum. RIP

• Even though we are losing these small liberal arts colleges, Nils Gilman argues that this style of education will only get more valuable in the coming age of AI. Hey, I couldn’t agree more!

• Some of these places can be saved through partnerships; one recent example comes from Messina College, also in Massachusetts, which was formed when Boston College bought struggling Pine Manor College. with the resources of BC, the college can offer affordable programs to a broad range of students.

• Speaking of university acquisitions, Nature has a new commentary on how these institutions are not just offering degrees but have become landlords. The Age of Conquest brings with it complications.

• On the international front, American institutions are losing their luster from students abroad. US fumbling dominance in international education is akin to the American automotive industry's downfall.

• At the same time, the US is running out of China Experts. The bottom dropped out of Americans studying abroad there. I have long warned of this issue!

• Continuing the US-China relationship, NASA squashes a planned Mars mission and experts now worry that China is in the lead on exploration of the Red Planet first. The new Space Race is heating up!

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Urbanism-ish

• High-tech plane company moves from the American South to California. Narrative Violation! We are not dead yet here on the Left Coast.

• Honda has no chance against China according to its own CEO. It’s sad to see this giant fall so hard. Honda was my first car that I owned and I have a soft spot for the Japanese company.

• But the company made some bad moves. The New York Times covered one problem in a recent infographic article. It used the Honda Civic as an example of how modern cars have become so bloated. The visuals are really worth a look.

• Even rival Toyota has felt some heat, with Prius sales lagging recently. Apparently, the Prius is manufactured abroad, meaning the car model gets dinged by the new tariffs. At the same time, the Camry has gained popularity, as the model is manufactured in the US and not subject to tariffs.

• has a breakdown on flight increases via . I may end up just canceling my planned trip back to China scheduled for later this summer. Bummer.

• New tool called Urban Fabric lets you customize a real urbanism wishlist for your town, with a generated proposal ready to bring to the next city council meeting. It comes from one of my subscribers, . Cool!

• San Diego finally sees rents drop after a long decade and a half of increases. Building more housing works!

• New research confirms these suspicions on US restrictive building, specifically showing how US codes are typically created without much cost-benefit analysis.

• Richard Florida has a new concept: Urban Knowledge Campus. I am a little skeptical of these rebrands; it’s basically just the rebrand of a traditional city that wasn’t dissected by zoning. But he is influential in the urbanist space, so need to at least think about it.

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Closing Time… How Much Did Professors Get Paid 500 Years Ago?

Misha Teplitskiy, a scholar who explores the “Science of Science” at the University of Michigan, had a fun note on faculty salaries in the 16th century. Look at that, the Classics at the top… by far! Unlike today, the STEM fields are somewhere in the middle. And like today, the language teachers are at the bottom.

It’s fun to see some details about my colleagues who lived a half-millennium ago. I wonder if they complained like we do now back in 1558? Perhaps about pay, admin, and students. I suspect that that they did. Time immemorial.

The Artemis II launch this week is an ambitious plan to explore the Moon, sending astronauts further than any human has ever ventured. The images seemed to have captured the attention of the nation. The sentiments harkened back to that of a previous age in the country, one that was defined by exploration and imagination: The Space Age.

The Space Age began in 1957, when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1 into orbit. The Space Age was really about a Space Race, and the US began behind its rival. In 1961, John F. Kennedy boldly proclaimed, “This nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth." When he made that proclamation, it seemed absurd and brash. Yet it gave everyone a common goal of Flags and Footprints.

I believe that the US needs another Space Race to capture the imaginations of Americans again. Most would also agree that the national mood is down. There is widespread belief that the US is heading in the wrong direction, that the government cannot do anything, and our best days are behind us. A new Space Race can turn us out of this funk.

I am under no illusions that everything was better in the past. That’s not what this is. By many indicators, so much about life is better right now than any time in human history. I think part of that progress, though, was elevated by the advances made through the Space Age. It was also a symbol, a symbol of hope. It told Americans and the world that there was a future, and we were leading it.

So much of our modern discourse is dominated by the negative. I understand why. There is division, malaise, and legitimate hostility in the national mood. It seems we believe that we cannot do anything as a country. But the current era does have parallels to those in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, with McCarthyism, Communist Containment, the Civil Rights Movement, and broader protests. The national divides are similar; the difference comes from the Space Race. The era was not a national utopia. Nonetheless, there was some kind of unity and hope bound by space and the progress of the future that we need to rediscover as a country.

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NASA as Americana Art

I am a casual collector of Space Race memorabilia. I have old Life or Newsweek magazines from the 1960s. I even stumbled on pins from across the NASA shuttle programs. A lot of my thinking on the topic comes from this iconography, along with the book NASA/ART: 50 Years of Exploration (2008) by James Dean and Bertram Ulrich. It chronicles the importance that art played in the development of NASA.

NASA has long understood the public perceptions shaped by the images coming from its explorations. They not only released incredible photos to outlets across the world, but also brought in artists to recreate the imagery and environment. These depictions framed the narrative around NASA with a future aesthetic that was somehow still relatable to the everyman. Sci-fi had become sci-reality, uplifting the sentiment of progress.

“Just what NASA should do in the field of fine arts to commemorate past historic events, such as Shepard’s and Glenn’s flights, as well as future historic events that we know will come to pass,” wrote NASA administrator James Webb in a 1962 memo. “Important events can be interpreted by artists to give a unique insight into significant aspects of our history-making advances into space. An artistic record of this nation’s program of space exploration will have great value for future generations.”

This drive for artists was in part due to that famous NASA necessity. The camera technology could not fully capture the majesty of the moment. Even today, the grainy footage of the era fuels conspiracy theories. Yet, NASA was always transparent in understanding the limitations of its technology, hence the creation of the NASA Art Program.

Artists were brought into NASA facilities and given space to document, create, and frame our exploration of space. These included titans of the art world, such as Norman Rockwell, Andy Warhol, and Annie Leibovitz. Norman Rockwell, the famed illustrator, even sketched the Moon landing two years before it even happened, with the Man on the Moon (1967).

Some may consider this endeavor propaganda; after all, this is what we call the Soviet version. One man’s propaganda is another’s PR. And the NASA Art Program has long done wonderful PR. They’ve painted our astronauts as real life superheroes; the rockets their chariots; and the efforts to belong to all of us.

NASA is America

The message that NASA sends is that America can still dream big. Can build big. Can do the unbelievable. It represents the country. After all, these are tax dollars. NASA is America. With tax dollars, comes oversight.

Unfortunately, the appetite for public funding has dried up in recent decades. As Neil DeGrasse Tyson argues in “We Stopped Dreaming,” the NASA budget is a fraction of our national expenditures. Yet he says the country gets so much back from it:

Meanwhile, however, that entire era galvanized the nation… it galvanized us all to dream about tomorrow. To think about the homes of tomorrow, the cities, the food of tomorrow. Everything was future world, future land. The World’s Fair. All of this was focused on enabling people to make tomorrow come. That was a cultural mindset that the Space Program brought upon us.

This public mission is one reason why NASA must be the leader of the US Space Race team, not private companies. Certainly, private businesses have provided invaluable service to the field of space exploration. Companies like Space X and Blue Origin are pushing the boundaries of the frontier. NASA has long partnered with the private sector in various capacities.

It must must must be humans, not robots. Our space program has long been successful with robots. The Mars Opportunity Rover captured the hearts of young people. “My battery is low and it’s getting dark,” the little guy’s last transmission was touching to many. But the impact was fleeting and limited with an anthropomorphic machine. Yes, we all love Wall-e, but real heroes are stronger inspiration. We must have human astronauts. They are a symbol. They are us.

Trump should get some credit for starting the Artemis program in his first term, starting Space Force. Luckily, Biden didn’t just toss out his rival’s space plan, continuing the mission, one of the rare things that wasn’t tossed out. In Trump’s second term, he obviously championed Artemis since it originated under him to begin with. Although there are now budget cuts to NASA coming from the Trump administration.

Given the gravity that attention to a new Space Race will generate, NASA could also play into the private-public partnerships in this space. Netflix is already getting in on the action by streaming the mission. Apple, another great American brand, should feel left out and find a way to get on board. There are some opportunities to recoup money via US business.

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We Need China

The foil in the original space was the Soviet Union. Er, actually, in the USSR, the Americans were the foil. Years ago, I had a Russian student who explained that they are taught the Soviets won the Space Race because they had so many first. Us Americans usually mark the Moon as the finish line. Either way, we both pushed each other with differing visions of the future, but both with space as a key human cultural dimension.

When the Soviets launched Sputnik, the entire country freaked out that the US was being left behind in this Great New Space Race. It caused a jolt to public support of science and education through massive increases in funding for such endeavors. We need such support for research, science, and progress again.

Having a clear, respected, and notable rival in this endeavor. China must play the role of foil in this new era. Just as the Soviets scared us into funding science, we must believe that China is a credible and worthy opponent. A recent Ars Technica article already proclaimed, “China appears likely to beat the United States back to the Moon.” In some ways, I hope that they do beat us. Like in the first Space Race, it will mobilize the entire country to action.

Given the appetite for budget cuts that has dominated the US in recent years, a new Space Race may again jolt support into research and development. After all, much of the national debt is centered on taking care of seniors. Very much the opposite of the first Space Race, which was young, exciting, and future-thinking. Those getting the lion’s share of US public investment actually felt the fruits of such educational spending in the excitement of the 1960s and 1970s. It’s time to turn back to the future, back to the kids, back to the space.

When the Soviet Union fell apart, the appetite for funding evaporated. The only thing that will bring back these sentiments is a rival seemingly beating us. It’s the old Flags and Footprints narrative. We lost the initial leg of the Space Race, but won the journey to the Moon in the end. The Soviets like to say that they won since they were the first, which just goes to show that its all about framing here rather than real fighting.

We need to ask Americans if they want China to be the first nation to go back to the Moon this Millennium, the first to establish a permanent base there, or, eventually the first to discover alien life. It’s a big universe out there. We need China to push our curiosity further than we are currently imagining.

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The Naysayers

Unsurprisingly, given the negative national mood right now, there are some critical of the country’s space exploration aspirations. They often argue that we have too many problems down here on earth, we shouldn’t be wasting resources in the heavens. Our recent struggles to build infrastructures also factors in to these critiques.

I am sure there are pockets of Americans who simply do not like this recent space initiative because it was initiated under Trump. Yet, Trump himself has slashed NASA’s budget in the most recent proposal. But researchers have also found that historically Republicans have been better funders of NASA and space exploration in general compared to Democrats. So the new Space Race has both potentially detractors and champions from either side of the political aisle. The good news overall, Pew reported that “Republicans and Democrats have much in common in their views on the U.S. role in space and NASA’s priorities.”

Americans are simply sick of the astronomical high costs to do anything. High profile cases such as a simple bus stop ballooning to over a millions dollars or the embarrassing La Sombrita mare the perceptions of governmental capacity. High speed rail from LA to San Francisco seems less likely to be done in my lifetime than an actual moon base. Blue State governance has some blame in these negative portrayals.

All of the critiques miss that the impact of NASA innovations is not just to space exploration. There are a vast range of critical inventions that trace their evolution back to NASA: smartphone cameras, Global Positioning System (GPS), non-scratch lenses, Memory Foam, Modern Insulation through Space Blankets, CAT Scans, LEDs, water purification, baby formula, wireless anything, Jaws of life.

Space travel forces us to innovate in ways that we would never do on the ground. Necessity is the mother of invention. Human survival in the vacuum of space brings out the ultimate necessity. NASA has long recognized the importance to bringing their innovations to the broader world. The agency has run a publication called Spinoff since 1976, which highlights various technologies and their uses to mankind. Now it is just a website rather than a magazine.

During the post-War boom years. there was a belief that the government could do things, and do things well. The incredible feats of the Space Race proved this perception to be true. Even though there were still criticism of our space initiatives then, the general sentiment was that of excitement in this government-led project into the future. Simply abandoning that assumption is moving away from that American principle.

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Proposal: University of the Moon

Since this is Space Race 2.0, we must now go behind the old “Flags and Footsteps” approach of just landing, planting the flag, and then leaving. NASA has already proclaimed the desire to establish a permanent moonbase. Forget critics asking if this is even legal, we need to colonize the Moon. A key part of the plan should be establishing the University of the Moon.

The Moon should center around a university. Moon University, another possible name, should be the most prestigious university in the world solar system, more so than Harvard, Oxford, or Beida. Admissions should center on some kind technical prowess and trajectory. The Best of the Best, just like NASA. But we should pull from the entire earth, even if still led and dominated by Americans

I understand a traditional campus does not work on the surface of the Moon, not with the technology of today. But universities are epoch surviving entities. What we establish today can have profound impacts human civilization—no different than John Harvard bequeathing his money to a school in a random outpost across the treacherous Atlantic Ocean way back in 1638. We are thankful for Harvard University today.

It should start small, run similar to some of the polar bases that we already have. But teaching and graduate student research should be key to fostering the next great space scientists. As the technology for livability improves, so too should students on Lunar State University (more name options). Hopefully, it could one day be a full standing free institution, a beacon of science and hope beaming down to the world. Just as 1638 is almost 400 years in our past, 2026 will one day be the same to 2426.

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Commencing Countdown, Engines On

There might be some reading this who lament the idea of a Space Race. More competition may just drive us down the same troubled roads as the Cold War adventurism. But I would counter that it was not the Space Race itself that brought on Containment Theory, nor the Global Policeman of the 1990s, nor the War on Terror of the 2000s. These global entanglements have been a feature of US foreign policy since World War II. I think most Americans would prefer their tax dollars going to the Moon that they look up to every night rather than to bombing a country they cannot find on the map.

A new Space Race does not bring more war. Just like space cooperation did not end adventurism. I do not mind some cooperation. The International Space station as a site for collaboration is an important symbol for civilization. It has even been a site where we have overcome terrestrial quarrels in interstellar space. Carl Sagan’s Pale Blue Dot asked the world to reconsider the mutually assured destruction of the nuclear arms during the Cold War. We should continue this cooperation, just with some added rivalry.

Of course, the more the merrier. It’s not long just a two-man race. Instead, there are 60 other countries vying this time. India, the EU, and any other nation willing the suit up are all welcomed. We also have companies in the race this time, such Blue Origin and Space X. There will obviously be cooperation between the US space body, NASA, to the American private sector. But the lead should still be NASA as the national representatives. Those other entities are for-profit first, not country first.

The central theme of the coming space exploration should be a race. There should be competition to juice excitement for science, technology, and human progress. It will fuel new bleeding-edge advancements in both the Chinese and American contests. The winners of the Space Race 2.0 will write the rules of space exploration for decades to come. Innovations from the race will benefit all of humanity.

The goal for Artemis II was 252,757 miles, beating Apollo 13’s distance record from 1970. We are finally following up on the vision of the future not unsurpassed in 56 years. The images coming out of this recent mission are already iconic, matching some of the majesty of the old Space Age. We should not lose this momentum; instead, we should press further.

Christina Koch, one of the astronauts on board, was quoted on BBC’s 13 Minutes Presents: Artemis II podcast, “The question is not should we go, the question is should we lead or should we follow.” Americans want to lead, they want to be first, they want to win the race. We can do it through science, technology, and educational funding led by the people’s owned NASA. This new Space Race can kickstart us out of our current national funk. Artemis II is just the first step.

Dispatches from CIES

I have been in San Francisco all week for CIES. No, not the aviation tech company, but rather the education conference. It was the 70th Annual Conference of the Comparative and International Education Society (CIES). It brings together thousands of researchers, scholars, students, and practitioners from around the world to discuss various issues in global education and development.

The big thing that everyone noticed this year was that CIES was not well attended. A lot of past attendees skipped the event, especially those coming from abroad. Stories of colleagues failing to secure a visa were rampant, along with reports that others were basically soft-boycotting the country.

CIES is not a large drop in US tourism, yet the absence of international travelers is indicative of the entire mood of the sector. The US is just not as attractive a place to visit as it once was; travelers are rightfully worried about visa rejections (wasted time/money), harassment by authorities, and general dangers of US cities. Inflation of the USD against other currencies is also a big part of this calculus. The downstream effects on tourism, restaurants, and other entertainment are clear for the entire country, but especially in a popular destination.

Given these concerns, the chatter around the conferences was that CIES should abandon the US for a few years. Next year is already scheduled for Madison, Wisconsin, and the following year in Seattle, Washington. Yet, in the past, it has been in Mexico City and Canada, so concerned attendees raised the question of possibly changing. However, contracts have already been signed, and a move seems unlikely.

Again, CIES is just small potatoes in the grand scheme of US tourism, but the insights can be extrapolated. The World Cup is just a few months away, which will be jointly hosted here. Likewise, the LA Olympics is two years away. The same soft protests of CIES are creeping into these global sports venues. International travelers seem to be eschewing the US leg of the World Cup, and there are rumblings that the tournament should pull out altogether. Similar calls have been made about the upcoming Olympics, which I do expect to have some kind of official boycotts similar to 1984.

In terms of CIES, admittedly, some domestic travelers did not want to visit San Francisco. Many Americans have a love-hate relationship with the Bay Area. It’s the site of so much innovation for the entire world, yet so much disruption to everyday space. The city, and really all of California, also has an image of being dysfunctional yet astronomically expensive.

I certainly saw my fair share of homeless individuals with psychosis on the streets. Attendees from small college towns kept telling me how surprised they were with the general degradation. If you are not used to this, it can be quite uncomfortable. There are obviously dangers involved, too. Perhaps these conditions would be more tolerable if there were hazard pay discounts, but the amenities of the place are still expensive. What’s the point of visiting then?

So the main takeaways of the conference were not even actual education innovations or developments. Instead, the global mood around the United States’ place in the world was the key debate. It certainly overshadowed my little event on higher education and urbanism. Bummer.

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Links I’m Reading This Week

Education

• Newport Beach, California, is considering a ban on students riding e-bikes to school. It is sad that the US does everything it can to ignore the real problem of cars, even at the detriment to kids.

• In an even more extreme version, a Bay Area man arrested for installing stop signs and crosswalks to slow down dangerous drivers who almost killed his children. Wild.

• Despite booming growth, school districts in the Dallas Metroplex are looking to close schools. Some are blaming zoning—the Lone Star State is sounding a lot like its hated Golden State rival here.

The US Secretary of Education posted a random Tweet about a 20-year-old handheld gaming console (Sony’s PSP). It’s still up! Very strange.

• Florida governor hopeful wants to raise tuition on international students to a million dollars. It is a total misunderstanding of the higher education space.

• Brunel University of London in the UK is over 50 million pounds in debt! My guess is we see a wave of closures there soon, just like in the US.

• Kentucky and Northern Kentucky Universities join together for shared facilities. As construction prices continue to climb, I think we will see more joint projects like this in higher ed to share the risk burdens.

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  Urbanism-ish

• As Honda loses market share, the Japanese automaker pulls back from some of its ambitious plans. It is a pity that this once champion of smaller cars has fallen so hard.

• Amtrak announced a new service connecting LA to Phoenix. I am very much looking forward to this route!

• RIP to DC’s streetcar. Apparently a big waste of time and money.

• Taking away your parents’ car keys is becoming a generational struggle. It is a must to protect everyone else on the road.

• Vegas launches cheap deals again! Finally. Luxor and Excalibur all-inclusive experience: two guests, two nights, three meals daily, two show tickets, parking included. I am planning to test this out in the summer.

Closing Time… BTS is Back and in College

The K-pop band BTS has recently gotten back together after putting their careers on hiatus for mandatory military service to their country. Noble! The first concert back in Seoul is the kickoff of a new global comeback tour.

In part of this new world tour, the BTS team released a short animated film on Korean students at Howard U in the late 1800s. This was supposed to be an inspiring story to connect early international students who laid the foundation for the band to become global stars. The opening capture reads:

This video was inspired by the story of seven young Koreans as documented in The Washington Post on May 8, 1896 (“Seven Koreans at Howard”), some of whom captured the first known audio recordings of Koreans in Washington, D.C., on July 24 of that same year.

Unfortunately, some American commentators did not appreciate the depictions in the film. You see, the exchange happened at Howard University, a historically Black college (HBCU) in Washington, DC. But when the short animation panned to the crowd, there were only a few Black people. This faux pas elicited considerable backlash.

One headline in Inside Higher Ed read, “K-Pop Band BTS Misrepresents Howard University as Predominantly White in Video,” along with a scathing critique of the band. at broke down some of the consternation surrounding Arirang, the BTS comeback album:

Others are wounded by the visual and historical representation around the Howard University imagery and the presence of an American actress in the video, reading those choices as whitewashing or a flattening of Black history and Korean symbolism.

It is too bad that the controversy has tainted an interesting tidbit of history. The full sequence that people are mad about was literally just a couple of seconds long. It is frustrating that American sensibilities often center our own culture, history, and experiences. America’s Culture Wars are not World Wars. We should not expect BTS (or really most of anyone else abroad) to have a deep, nuanced understanding of every cultural issue in our country. We know little about other countries, yet we also demand that they know us well. It is American Exceptionalism Hypocrisy.

To be fair, Howard University itself released a statement mostly praising the video. Yes, they did mention the brief depiction, but most of the statement in The Dig was celebratory. “If you ever needed proof that Howard is a global cultural mecca, you can look back as far as 1896. That year, Howard opened its doors to house and educate seven Korean students during a time of political upheaval in their country,” wrote the authors. They also lauded Korean culture and relations to HBCU and broader Black culture, including the influence of rap and hip-hop in K-Pop. Kudos to Howard here.

Despite the few outraged, I think most will agree the video is a pretty cool celebration of US-Korean relations. I’m glad that higher ed is playing a small part in this global comeback tour. Cheers to BTS and Howard. See the video below:

Hoppers is NOT a NIMBY Movie

Note: Spoiler-free, with only light plot points.

I will just answer the headline question up front: No, Hoppers is not a NIMBY movie. I first reported on the outrage bubbling in the YIMBY community over this new Pixar movie trailer a few months back. But I pointed out that we urbanists need to chill out since we hadn’t actually seen the film yet. I was right!

I watched Hoppers over the weekend, and it is indeed not a NIMBY movie. It’s actually an urbanist movie, albeit somewhat complicated. The main controversy is not stopping housing, but rather stopping a highway from bulldozing a vibrant neighborhood (of sorts). There is even a scene with a proposed ring highway around the city of Beaverton (a stylized version of the Oregon city by the same name).

The scheming antagonist is Mayor Jerry, played by the always good Jon Hamm, who wants to build a highway through a local glade to connect the city with the white picket fence suburbs. The protagonist, Mabel, a young college student at Beaverton University, has fond memories of a pond and picks a fight against the highway plan. “Nobody even wants your stupid highways,” she yells. “Everybody wants my stupid highway. That’s why I’m going to get reelected," the mayor retorts.

I think the writers must have been sensitive to the possible NIMBY critique, so they inserted some talking points that urbanists often themselves champion. “The Beaverton Beltway, getting you where you need to go up to four minutes faster,” says the obtuse mayor, obviously lampooning the One More Lane Will Fix It meme. “People love highways. They love getting to places fast,”1 he adds, sounding like the real-life traffic engineers so lamented by urbanist communities.

I won’t get into any more specific plot details, but this basic setup shows how the film doesn’t really have a NIMBY message, even if it isn’t a YIMBY movie either. I see the film as more of Pixar’s version of the Jane Jacobs vs. Robert Moses fight, the legendary battle to save the soul of New York City. Mabel is the gadfly stand-in for Jacobs, while the Beaverton Mayor is the NYC Mayor. Although, the plot does get a lot weirder than this dynamic as the film progresses.

I will say Jacobs is complicated in urbanism circles. She is claimed by two different divergent sides. On one side, it is argued that she advocated against car culture and suburban sprawl. Another side says she illustrates the importance of community engagement and historical preservation. Sometimes these two sides do not get along, hence the divide in urbanist circles. So perhaps both will claim Hoppers as their own, along with environmentalists.

Finally, after confirming that Hoppers is not a NIMBY movie and, instead, labeling it as an urbanist movie, I must close with some bad news: Hoppers is just not very good. This new film is about as humdrum as they get. Very average. We are long gone from the Golden Age of Pixar. Hoppers is not going into the Urbanist Movie Hall of Fame alongside Roger Rabbit. No matter the NIMBY, YIMBY, or urbanist messages, I expect the film to be forgotten fairly quickly.

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Links I’m Reading This Week

Education

• Universities are landlords now, a new role that brings considerable challenge.

• Losing public trust, elite universities look to pay more taxes (in the form of donations to local services).

• Princeton, NJ, is battling NIMBYs; many such cases in college towns. I do know a half-empty closed college campus right in the middle of town that could make a great affordable housing spot.

• Inside Kyoto University’s chaotic and magical student-managed dorm. This looks so fun.

• There are too many Americans studying at this Scottish university, say the Americans studying at this Scottish university.

• US slips to #3 in choice of study by Chinese international students. There will be large reverberations as these student pools dry up.

• The economic impact of H-1B visas has been massive for the US economy. More problems loom on the horizon as we continue our insular policies.

• Airports are classic college advertisement vectors. But how about the university press? Great idea! Kudos to University of New Mexico Press for this:

• has an interesting observation that state schools have better transfer rates, so it’s easier for college athletes to hop around and still (possibly) graduate.

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Urbanism-ish

• Trinity Broadcasting Network HQ torn down. Not that important, but I used to drive past this place all the time. Felt very out of place along a highway.

• The private passenger rail service Brightline is booming, as customers are looking for ways to get around skyrocketing gas prices.

• A driver fell asleep in a Tesla while on the highway. It’s this exact kind of irresponsible person we must get off the road immediately. Put them on the bus or a Waymo.

• Cool refabricated construction development in upstate New York. These kinds of new building methods don’t have to be ugly!

• A wildlife bridge in California cost $114M, almost $100 million more than comparable projects in other states. This was actually a much-needed project, but it’s frustrating that the state cannot do anything on a reasonable budget.

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Closing Time… March Madness Celebration

I love March Madness. It is one of the last American monocultures that unites so many people watching one shared experience. Writing for ’ , makes the argument that we “have a moral obligation to join an office March Madness pool to do your part to prevent the disintegration of the social fabric,” as explained in a Tweet from Yglesias. Hey, I’m doing my part by watching the games.

Beyond the basketball, though, I love March Madness because it celebrates the diversity of higher education institutions from across the spectrum. Colleges that most people have never heard of take down the giants in the sport. I first learned about universities like Gonzaga or Butler by following their Cinderella runs in the tournament as a kid. It is part of my love for colleges broadly.

This year’s Cinderella has been High Point, which upset Big Ten basketball power Wisconsin in the first round. Through the victory, audiences discovered that this rural North Carolina liberal arts college is basically a resort. Research has shown that doing well in the tournament can really boost an institution’s reputation:

Making the NCAA’s March Madness basketball tournament provides a national spotlight and advertising effect that is good for any school. Winning in the tournament is even better. But being a smaller, lesser-known private school that advances surprisingly far (winning at least two unexpected games) in the tournament is especially fruitful…

We find that making a Cinderella run in the tournament provides promotional buzz that increases freshmen enrollment by somewhere between 2.1% and 4.5% 2 years after the successful performance (Collier et al., 2020)

Sadly, High Point turned into a pumpkin a little early, losing to Arkansas in the second round. Yet the message seems to be out on the school now. The strength of US higher education is that we even have places like High Point. March Madness is a visceral and fun reminder of how great and diverse our sector can be.

AI and Robots Leading the Way

Innovations in AI, robots, or other high-tech areas were a central theme to the entire 15th Five-Year Plan. This focus goes well beyond higher education, connecting to all facets of Chinese society. In particular, AI was listed as one of the top national strategic tech targets. Of course, these innovations were explicitly mentioned alongside military capabilities, including unmanned intelligent combat forces. Universities, though, are seen as central nodes to the desired technological development.

The document states that "high-level research universities" (高水平研究型大学)…. are key to developing technological advancement. Specifically, “high-quality higher education (优质高等教育) is the lifeblood of engineering livelihood.” In this plan, universities must engage in industry collaboration, and vice versa, in these spaces. It notes that due to the “unconventional layout” of AI-related majors, higher education must be nimble and flexible to produce such specialists.

These collaborations explicitly mention both AI and robotics. The AI+ (人工智能+) initiative announced is geared towards the creation of high-performance AI chips and AI data governance, along with various software advancements. Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) was also set as a goal, with targets of both general-purpose and industry-specific “agent-based” models.

Potentially, one of the most exciting proposals discusses the integration of AI with physical systems. In a word: Robots. The plan calls for building “humanoid robots” and developing “brain-computer interfaces” as new economic growth points. They especially mention medical breakthroughs related to these goals, such as surgical robots, medical diagnosis/treatment, and elderly or disabled care.

In this AI robot future, the Chinese government does have an eye on restraint and safety nets. The plan discusses a full risk management lifecycle system. Under these conditions, sectors must grapple with ethics, algorithm registration, and property rights for AI-generated content. Furthermore, there is concern over the impact on jobs with the so-called "employment creation effect."

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International Cooperation

Part of my interest in the 15th Five-Year Plan is to understand the direction of higher education in China will connect with sectors abroad. It is a somewhat selfish interest, since I do enjoy funded trips to conferences and events for educational and academic exchange. As I wrote before, after some COVID pullbacks, the country seems to be reaffirming these international connections.

The document explicitly mentions international professional exchange and cooperation among universities. They explicitly mention to “strengthen the ‘Study in China’ brand,” something similar to what I heard in Beijing back in November. There are expectations of high-level foreign science and engineering talent exchange, especially from Belt and Road partners. This likely means more funding for top researchers to come to Chinese universities, perhaps in similar efforts like the much-maligned Thousand Talents Plan.

Now, some may be concerned about these overseas talent recruitment efforts. Indeed, they have been the primary target of US espionage concerns at universities through the China Initiative. While some unlawful acts were uncovered, many of the investigations proved fruitless. Still, as China remains committed to these strategies, governments abroad will keep their guard up.

These concerns from the US will surely center on the proposed “Chinese solutions” for international rulemaking for AI and other sensitive areas. The government plan makes the case that its open ecosystem is a win-win for global cooperation. This juxtaposition is implicit in comparison to the closed systems of the US, underpinned by OpenAI or Anthropic (though this was not mentioned explicitly).

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Higher Ed Expansion (Conquest?)

China’s education vision for 2030 seeks an expansion of higher education. The explicit goal laid out was to reach 65% gross enrollment at this education level. These growth targets have been set for both “high-level research universities” and “application-oriented undergraduate universities.” At the same time, it stated a goal to boost the proportion of engineering master's and doctoral students.

There was an explicit mention of resource allocation moving towards the Western and Central regions, which have been historically marginalized in terms of elite Chinese higher education. The funding model called the "Double First-Class” initiative is set to be expanded, too. I expected some universities in these regions to be elevated to more elite levels of the hierarchy, at least in terms of funding and expectations.

The continued focus on expansion is interesting in the current era of higher education. Systems across the world, especially in the region, are contracting. Since China is still the world’s largest exporter of international students, there would seem to be an appetite for domestic development. Despite the looming birthrate crisis, China is still looking to expand. That may mean fewer students going abroad in the future. Universities around the world that overrely on Chinese students should take heed.

Probably the most intriguing (and concrete) development to come out of the plan is the Macao-Hengqin International Education (University) City. This initiative is set to create a kind of hub for higher education and international collaborations. There will likely be both domestic and international branch campuses, along with other institutional establishments. This project was already announced last year, but the high-level mention illustrates the importance of such development.

Macao-Hengqin International Education (University) City means the Pearl River Delta (aka China’s Bay Area) will only become strong in terms of education, an area that already boasts top institutions through these educational hub strategies, like the University Town of Shenzhen. Peking University HSBC Business School and Tsinghua–Berkeley Shenzhen Institute already operate in the area.

Below are some photos from my trip to Shenzhen in 2017. I was conducting research on world-class university conceptions. Then, the place was still a little green, and felt a bit empty. I have not been back since, but I have heard that the area has fleshed out, including the new campus of SUSTech. I hope to go back soon. The neighboring Macao-Hengqin space is likely expected to see similar growth by establishing "new research universities."

Given the chaos and instability in the Middle East, I wonder whether some institutions would consider relocating international branch campus operations from the Gulf states to Southern China. I would not be surprised if institutions made the move sooner rather than later. The investment into this Macao-Hengqin initiative may spur further conquest expansions that can cannibalize other such hubs already established.

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The Educational Takeaways

I do not want to paint a picture that higher education was the central focus of the 15th Five-Year Plan. It was merely one part of broader sociological developments. , Professor, East Asian Institute, National University of Singapore (NUS), broke down the entire 15th Five-Year plan on his Substack. Artificial intelligence was the number one topic, growing largely from the previous plans. His general impression:

Overall, the word count suggests a continued strong emphasis on innovation and technology, reduced emphasis on reform and opening (and market development), and still limited attention to “people first” and common prosperity. The Plan suggests also stronger emphasis on basic research, and a stronger link between technological innovation and growth… Also, the AI+ initiative of the government, based on a plan issued last year fall, receives abundant attention. It sees the main value of AI in its application, and in particular in its application to industry and business. The open access approach that China’s tech companies such as DeepSeek have taken fits this well and could lead to more rapid adoption of AI than in countries that rely on proprietary systems.

Hofman’s findings also showed that specifics on education, while present, were lacking. In a LinkedIn post, Qiang Zha, Associate Professor at York University, was more critical. “It's truly a pity (and a surprise) that education didn't excel in terms of word frequency in those Five-Year Plan documents,” he wrote. He suggested that other recently released plans did have more specific outlines for education.

Amber Wang, reporting at University World News, noted that there were significant promises made to boost and invest in education at the Two Sessions of the National People’s Congress and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, concluding on March 11. “China has pledged a 10% boost in science funding and renewed support for its flagship elite university programme,” she reported. This includes increases in funding for science and technology development by 10% and basic research by 16.3%.

My take is that AI and education, particularly elite higher education, are welded together in China. Companies like DeepSeek cannot be separated from the Tsinghuas and Pekings. AI was central to the 15th Five-Year Plan, tied to national defense, social development, and, yes, education. Given the national focus on AI development, I expect these top institutions to remain central in these initiatives. I am not sure how this AI focus will impact the lower tiers of the sector, though.

Note: related articles from College Towns and the author can be found below.

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