More than three-quarters of faculty say in a new survey that their universities aren’t giving them enough support for basic well-being, at a time when the pressures continue to mount.

The findings are from a survey of more than 1,000 faculty and administrators conducted by NCFDD, a higher-ed training organization. It comes as state legislatures and university boards across the country are increasingly scrutinizing and restricting what professors can teach and as the Trump administration continues to upend entire research programs. 

📚 Read more: How the UNC System’s syllabus policy is seen as the latest weapon against academia (via our partner WUNC) 

📚 Read more: Texas Republicans are redefining higher ed. It’s creating confusion about free speech on campuses. (via our partner the Texas Tribune) 

📚 Read more: Opposition mounts to UC Berkeley’s suspension of lecturer for talking about Gaza in classroom (via our partner Berkeleyside) 

These are issues our reporters are writing about regularly. There’s the Texas ban on teaching “unnecessary controversial subjects” that’s forcing universities across the state to shutter programs and leaving faculty members unsure of what they can teach. Ohio’s higher-ed overhaul created new curriculum requirements and forbade faculty strikes. In North Carolina, a requirement that public university faculty post their syllabi online has left some afraid of being doxxed.  

And even as these pressures mount, the survey found universities are pulling back support rather than stepping up. A few takeaways from the survey:

“Political scrutiny and public skepticism about higher education further intensify uncertainty for faculty across different types of institutions,” the survey said.

Next Thursday, April 9, is the inaugural Local News Day. It’s a national initiative to amplify the work local journalists do every day in their communities.

As part of the festivities, I’m leading a training on how (and why) to build relationships with local reporters, in partnership with Students Learn, Students Vote and the Solutions Journalism Network. I’ll be running the workshop with Claire Rafford, our reporter at partner Mirror Indy.

It’s at 3 p.m. eastern on April 9, on Zoom. Learn more and sign up here.

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If dedicated local reporting on higher ed matters to you, donate to Open Campus today.

From Wisconsin: As data center developers eye expansion in Wisconsin, Miranda Dunlap, one of our pathways reporters at Wisconsin Watch, explores what kinds of jobs they could create. 

Data center jobs fall into three major categories that represent phases in their creation, Miranda writes: development, construction, and operations. The bigger the development, the more jobs it could create.

Microsoft says it has employed 3,000 people to construct the location, compared to 500 full-time workers once its Mount Pleasant plant is operating, for example.

“In a bigger city, like Atlanta, it’s like a drop in the ocean, right? It doesn’t really affect much,” said Xiaofan Liang, who specializes in urban and regional planning at the University of Michigan. “In a rural area, in a smaller town, hundreds of jobs … are a big deal.”

From Texas: Thousands of Texas community college students didn’t get credit for at least one of their courses when they transferred to a university, according to new data from the state. Sneha Dey at the Texas Tribune explains credit loss, a common problem that makes degrees more costly and time-consuming to complete. 

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