Matt Hartman

@themhartman

Higher ed reporter at the assembly. bylines at the new republic, the ringer, jacobin. live crabs stay humble.

436 Folgt1.173 Follower380 Posts

Bluesky

Ist das dein Profil?Übernimm es — dann gehört dir themhartman.dirty.social.Profil übernehmen

Matt Hartman@themhartman· Jul 22

just incredible drip from a 1980s duke student

Matt Hartman@themhartman· Jun 12

this bit in particular is 😬

But that’s not how the process is supposed to work, according to decades of state Property Tax Commission rulings. A property is meant to be valued on the income it could generate—what’s typical for comparable properties on the market—not the actual income its owner reports. This keeps owners from winning tax breaks for vacancies they created or income lost to their own mismanagement. So while an owner’s numbers might prompt a second look during an appeal, they’re not supposed to override the county’s market data; that’s the reason the county buys the data in the first place.

In his presentation to council, though, Doyle described his office’s commercial appeal review process as closer to automatic deference: “Once you have shown us actuals,” he said of appellant property owners, “we have to replace” the market data with self-reported data.

Matt Hartman@themhartman· May 5

unc is paying a lawyer $900 an hour to read my stories

Matt Hartman@themhartman· May 5

public records are fun

Matt Hartman@themhartman· May 4

Have all y'all really just been walking this earth knowing geese are packing like this?

Matt Hartman@themhartman· Mar 11

Yep, that's a diaper

Matt Hartman@themhartman· Feb 3

this is very helpful article, but mostly i'm stuck on the fact that iran's revolutionary guard has a sketchy conglomerate called ghorb www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/ira...

Matt Hartman@themhartman· Jan 15

not looking great for english departments

Matt Hartman@themhartman· Oct 5

The hottest club in Durham is the real estate office behind q shack

Matt Hartman@themhartman· Aug 27

god i feel so seen www.nytimes.com/2025/08/22/a...

EARL SWEATSHIRT I think it captured both parts of myself: being 16 and then also having a family. The 16-year-old that still is like, [grunts] “live, laugh, love — [expletive] dumbass!” Like, “live laugh, love, the world is [expletive]!” And then my life changing drastically. It’s like, I guess the joke was on me, because if you have kids, that is not even kind of funny at all. If someone says “live, laugh, love” and you have kids, you’re like, “Exactly, brother.”

Matt Hartman@themhartman· Aug 27

i know this is "we built a hotel here when they said we shouldn't" but i can't help but read it as "they thought we couldn't colonize them but we sure did"

Matt Hartman@themhartman· Aug 5

we're cooked

Matt Hartman@themhartman· Jul 25

the wsj is reporting that duke is in talks over a settlement with the trump administration www.wsj.com/us-news/educ...

The administration is in talks with several universities, including Cornell, Duke, Northwestern and Brown, the person familiar with the talks said, though it sees striking a deal with Harvard, America’s oldest university, as a key target.

Matt Hartman@themhartman· Jul 22

goodbye to the arts and therapy, i guess? www.aei.org/research-pro...

Just 3 percent of bachelor’s degree programs would fail the “do no harm” test. These are largely in fields with extremely low earnings, including drama (24 percent pass rate) and dance (27 percent).

A smattering of higher degree programs are also likely to lose access to federal loans. Around 8 percent of master’s degree programs—especially those at private institutions—do not generate sufficient earnings to pass the “do no harm” test. Programs with especially low pass rates include alternative medicine (0 percent), mental and social health services (16 percent), music (18 percent), fine arts (25 percent), and English literature (33 percent).

Matt Hartman@themhartman· Jun 30

And this is what the new right wants to protect

Matt Hartman@themhartman· Jun 30

When am talk radio dudes talk about masculinity disappearing, they mean we need more of this magazine.atavist.com/from-antarct...

Matt Hartman@themhartman· Jun 28

les schtroumpfs

Matt Hartman@themhartman· Jun 12

ha, no worries. it's quite literally my job. i'll take a look next time i have a few minutes in the meantime, this dashboard gives a good snapshot of regional dependence on healthcare and education. www.philadelphiafed.org/surveys-and-...

Matt Hartman@themhartman· Jun 11

according to this philadelphia fed dashboard, 20-4% of the durham-chapel hill gdp, income, and employment come from hospitals and higher ed. www.philadelphiafed.org/surveys-and-...

Matt Hartman@themhartman· Jun 3

feels like this parenthetical assumption is kinda the whole story here

Matt Hartman@themhartman· Jun 1

This is the dadest I've ever been

Matt Hartman@themhartman· May 15

it's not clear if they'll get the chance though. as we were fact checking the story yesterday, there was an emergency meeting where the acting president announced more drastic cost cuts to come. two people in attendance told me they interpreted it as layoffs. the school said all options are open

Stocker, the consultant, agrees and encourages Guilford to explore a “course-sharing, major-sharing arrangement” with other colleges. And one of First Tryon’s recommendations—which Guilford’s bond agreements say it must follow—is identifying low-demand programs and “right-sizing” them.

Bordewich seems to have acknowledged as much when she announced more budget cuts would be coming on May 14. Details are still unclear, but she told faculty and staff the college had no choice, given its financial situation, according to the two participants.

Matt Hartman@themhartman· May 15

the tragic part, for guilford faculty, is they have momentum for their radical plan to run the school by quaker-inspired councils. the community is committed to finding a new way out for small liberal arts colleges that isn't based on cutting programs and firing people.

Last September, Daniels was sitting with a group of faculty, staff, and alumni when he pulled out his sketch and folded it to remove the presidential cabinet from the picture. “I think we need something like this,” he said. In essence, his idea was to get rid of most top administrators.

Since then, Daniels has been fleshing out the idea. The current version would create a college council composed of the president, provost, student body president, faculty and staff leaders, and representatives from five new “affinity groups” of departments and offices across campus.

The plan would lean into Quaker values, with a flattened hierarchy and emphasis on a deliberative approach. The experience of the past five years, with all of its upheavals and crises, only adds to proponents’ belief that this model would be better than a more traditional, top-down approach.

Matt Hartman@themhartman· May 15

guilford is now obligated to follow a consultant's recommendations after missing the ratio again last year, otherwise it's another default. if that happens, its bondholder has the right to demand immediate repayment in full or put the college into receivership.

That outcome is typical in a case like this, said Wake Forest University law professor Steve Nickles. The bonds aren’t backed by land or other collateral, just Guilford’s future revenues, so anything that harms the school’s business outlook is not in the bank’s interest. However, in a case where the school may lose accreditation and go under, bondholders could decide that drastic actions are necessary.

“One could argue that their best hope is if they could get a receivership, get new management, and make the college profitable within a reasonable time,” Nickles said after The Assembly explained Guilford’s situation.

So far, Guilford has not been on track with First Tryon’s recommendations, as required. The consultants’ report recommends developing a budget that meets debt service coverage ratio requirements. It also says Guilford is projected to fail the requirement again this year—and they project the shortfall to be worse than ever. In an alumni Zoom call in early May, Millner said early projections showed a $10 million deficit for 2026, according to two people who attended.

“We are currently building an FY26 budget,” the school said in a statement when asked about the projections.

Matt Hartman@themhartman· May 15

guilford never missed a bond payment, but it didn't maintain the revenue ratios required in 2023 and failed to produce a report addressing it. that amounts to a default just the same. leaders said they didn't know until march this year.

Guilford dropped below the required ratio in fiscal year 2023, though administrators say they didn’t know it.

A college spokesperson said in a statement they weren’t aware until spring 2025. Acting Chief Operating Officer Keith Millner said he learned about the issue in March, when Guilford received a consultant’s report after failing to meet the debt service coverage ratio again in fiscal year 2024. But S&P Global Ratings noted the violation in October 2024 when the agency downgraded Guilford’s credit outlook.

Guilford didn’t produce the required report for 2023. “Your guess is as good as mine,” Bordewich said when asked about it.

Matt Hartman@themhartman· Apr 25

the big story, here as elsewhere, is that democrats couldn't engage voters from lower in come and majority black precincts but in meck, that overlaps with a clear conflict between county party leaders and some black community leaders

Matt Hartman@themhartman· Apr 24

feels worth pausing on the fact that republicans are using low graduation rates as justification while pushing certificates, microcredentials, and other on the job training. does recruiting non-traditional & working students not inherently extend timelines? www.insidehighered.com/news/governm...

Matt Hartman@themhartman· Apr 17

@eringretzinger.bsky.social caught some very interesting school of civic life changes in the senate budget: - the provost won't get a say in hiring or firing the dean - the faculty hiring goal is upped from 10-20 to at least 20 - no new joints until then - no scill money can go to other stuff

The Dean of the School shall be appointed by the Chancellor of the University of18
North Carolina at Chapel Hill, with the consent of the Board of Trustees of the University of19
North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Neither the Chancellor nor the Board of Trustees shall delegate20
this responsibility to another party.21
(b) All faculty hired by or appointed to the School shall be subject to the approval of the22
Dean of the School.23
(c) Faculty members may hold joint or courtesy appointments with other reporting units24
of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. All joint and courtesy appointments shall be25
made at the discretion of the Dean of the School."26
SECTION 8.2.(b) For the 2025-2026 academic year, the following shall occur:27
(1) The School of Civic Life and Leadership (the School) shall employ at least 2028
faculty members hired from outside the University of North Carolina at29
Chapel Hill. These faculty members shall be hired with permanent tenure or30
be eligible to receive permanent tenure in accordance with policies adopted31
by The Board of Governors of The University of North Carolina and the32
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.33
(2) The School shall not employ any additional faculty by joint or courtesy34
appointment with other reporting units of the University of North Carolina at35
Chapel Hill unless the school has employed at least 20 faculty members hired36
from outside the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in accordance37
with this subsection.38
SECTION 8.2.(c) Notwithstanding G.S. 116-30.2, the recurring funds allocated to39
the School of Civic Life and Leadership (the School) by this section beginning in the 2025-202640
fiscal year shall be used only to support the School and shall not be redirected for any other41
purpose. In addition, these funds shall be used to supplement and not supplant any funds the42
School would otherwise receive, including funds received by the School based on enrollment.

Matt Hartman@themhartman· Mar 26

This was published in 2024, or approximately 12 higher ed years ago

Matt Hartman@themhartman· Mar 25

Really not sure it needs that much explanation