Hello friends,
Earlier this week, I participated in a workshop focused on one-on-one organizing meetings. I loved the chance to explore the specific dynamics of why we take these meetings, what to listen for, and how to decide if we’ve achieved our purpose.

In an organizing context, leadership is about “enabling other people to achieve a shared purpose, under conditions of uncertainty.” It also works as a definition for training and teaching, doesn’t it? I know this is a brutal stretch for everyone with a teaching load this semester, and even more so for those of us who are also trying to secure funding for research. I’m really sorry. Thank you for being here.

I’m also sick and feel terrible tonight. I had decided to skip this issue, but then I thought again about what it means to show up for each other, and I wanted to do what I can, even if it’s not much. This one is for everybody slogging through, or as one of my favorite poems puts it, the people “who strain in the mud and the muck to move things forward, who do what has to be done, again and again.”

This was Year 2, Week 32.
Ugh.

What’s happening in science & higher ed

• After that sham of a session, they’ve voted to hold Fauci in contempt. This was a decision of the Senate Homeland Security committee: It would require 60 votes in the Senate to carry the full weight of Congress. The contempt resolution is instead directing JD Vance (president of the Senate) to certify the committee's decision and initiate prosecution by Jeanine Ferris Pirro (US Attorney for DC). Personally, I found it helpful to learn a bit more about what criminal contempt of Congress entails, and get a sense of recent contempt prosecutions, before I waded into opinions on what is likely to come next.
• The NIH is terminating grants again, this time focused on health disparities research. The latest talking points are that the administration is focused on “solution-oriented approaches” and “actionable healthcare interventions” but excluding urban planning and social policy from those definitions.
• The Association of American Universities and a handful of university presidents have decided to “partner” with the administration to produce A National Call to Action to University Presidents and Governing Boards. The AFT & AAUP have condemned it as “the Compact 2.0.” and I am disgusted by the pretense that there are good faith compromises to be had with autocrats whose verbatim stance is, “we have to honestly and aggressively attack the universities in this country.”
• Dr. Erica Schwartz has now been officially confirmed as director of the CDC, after a rocky hearing. In the be careful what you wish for column, I have to admit that I’ve rarely been as concerned about a call for accurate data as am I by the way she positioned the CDC’s abortion surveillance program. Hopefully, she will focus on tackling the long list of urgently needed improvements to infrastructure, methods, and messaging in the new GAO Public Health Preparedness report. Anyway, for more on this front, please check out what our wonderful infectious disease team is building at Unbreaking.
• There are also good things happening:
  • The Senate implemented a bipartisan stopgap measure that pauses the devastating rule changes proposed by OMB until at least December.
  • The FDA has approved Moderna’s new mRNA flu vaccine. This will save lives, even if we’ll never know precisely which ones.
  • An appeals court just agreed that the EPA cannot, in fact, terminate $20 billion in climate grants.
  • And Dr. Deb Houry has a new essay about what is giving her hope in the future of public health

And what’s next

Earlier today, my friend posted a hilarious but horrible GIF about faculty inboxes right now.

I have my own small-scale version of this, and I’m trying to support those who are suffering more acutely… but I am also necessarily responsible for some of the stressful reminders and urgent deadlines. Whether you’re like me and sending desperate emails or (ahem) also like me and dodging them, it’s a miserable time.

So I’ll keep this short: keep yourself afloat and don’t despair.

It’s sort of like traffic isn’t it, it’s not something we’re stuck in, it’s something we are (ugh). Whether the antidote is triage or email bankruptcy, extending the deadline or sending one more super-friendly reminder through gritted teeth, just-doing-the-damn-thing or giving yourself permission to say no, you’ll figure it out. We all will. Eventually!

Take care of yourself until then,

Liz

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