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Current Undergraduate & Graduate Students - Role of University 2026

SOURCE CALLOUT: What’s the Role of the University in 2026? I'm working on a feature article for University Affairs exploring a question that I couldn't help think about when I was back in the classroom as a "student" and Massey fellow last year. Looking around my lecture halls, it was so clear to see that this is not the university experience I remembered. The answer to this question used to be pretty straightforward: universities created informed, educated citizens; prepared us for professional careers; were a hub for research and scholarship, stood tall as cultural and intellectual centres. But the consensus on that is changing more and more everyday. Whether you love it or hate it, AI has fundamentally changed the game. So have alternative credentials and boot camps that offer faster, cheaper, easier routes into the workforce. I've heard students question whether a four-year degree is even worth it anymore. Still, others argue that universities are more important than ever—no other place is designed for critical thinking, research skills and the ability to navigate complexity in these tumultuous times... right? I'm interested in getting at the tensions within this debate through speaking to: - Current undergraduate & graduate students - Recent grads [especially those who've entered a difficult/rapidly-changing labour market!] - Students who chose *not* to attend university - People who left university before completing a degree - People pursuing apprenticeships, trades, entrepreneurship, creator careers, startups, or other non-traditional pathways - Faculty members across disciplines - University administrators and other academic leaders - Former university presidents and provosts - Employers/hiring managers - Researchers studying higher education, labour markets, credentials, or AI - Professionals who believe their degree was essential and irreplaceable - Professionals who believe they could've achieved similar outcomes through other means Here's a little bit of what I want to explore: - What, if anything, can universities uniquely provide today? - Is the value of a university education economic, intellectual, social, civic, or something else? - How has AI changed your thinking about higher education? - Is the traditional four-year degree still the right model? - What do students *actually* want from university today? - What do employers expect from graduates? - Are universities preparing students for the realities of modern work? - If universities disappeared tomorrow, what would we lose as a society? I'd love to hear from you if you have thoughts, experiences and perspectives on this maesltrom. DM or email me [address in comments] Please include a short note about who you are, your connection to higher ed & why this question matters to you. I'd also appreciate any leads, suggestions and help amplifying this call out. Photo from my first day of class as a Massey fellow, where one of my courses was taught at Convocation Hall!

universityaffairs.ca logouniversityaffairs.ca

Former Kitchen & BOH Staff in Eugene - Lion & Owl & Paddock Abuse

ISO ex employees of Lion and Owl/Marche, The Paddock I am an independent journalist and am currently researching and writing an article about workplace culture at Lion and Owl and, more recently, The Paddock in Eugene, Oregon. My research is specifically focused on allegations of verbal abuse, intimidation, and other toxic workplace behaviors experienced by kitchen and back-of-house staff. Over time, I have heard similar concerns from multiple current and former employees, and I am looking to speak with others who may have firsthand knowledge or experiences. If you have worked at either restaurant and experienced or witnessed verbal abuse, hostile management practices, public humiliation, intimidation, excessive yelling, retaliation, or other concerning workplace conduct, I would appreciate hearing your story. I am also interested in hearing from people whose experiences were positive, as I want to represent all perspectives fairly and accurately. Please only reach out if you have firsthand experience or direct knowledge of events. I am not looking for rumors or secondhand accounts. Any information shared will be independently verified before being included in any published work. You are welcome to comment below or send me a private message. If you would prefer confidentiality, I am happy to discuss that before conducting any interview. Thank you for your time and willingness to help document employee experiences.

Former Intoxalock & Mindr Employees - Contract Concealment & Lockouts

The Employees Who Could Not Stay Silent https://preview.redd.it/oaony386zf9h1.png?width=1400&format=png&auto=webp&s=485029686338f9c8c94d243f053ab6a665f2008d Twenty people. Eight years. Different states, different departments, different years. And they all described the same company. When I began this investigation I did not expect to find employees talking. Companies like this are careful. They have NDAs. They have HR departments. They have the financial resources to make problems disappear quietly. But here is the thing about a company that treats its own employees the same way it treats its customers: people talk. They leave. They write reviews on the same platforms they use to find their next job. And when they do — they tell the truth. What I found across Indeed, Glassdoor, and SimplyHired was not a handful of disgruntled ex-employees venting frustration. It was a coordinated pattern of insider testimony — twenty separate disclosures spanning eight years, across multiple states and departments, from people who had never met each other and had no reason to coordinate their stories. They all described the same company. Twenty people. Eight years. Different states, different departments, different years. Every single one described the same closed loop. That is not coincidence. That is a business model. The Smoking Gun — Disclosure #20 I want to start with the most recent and most significant disclosure. It comes from an Operations Personnel employee who posted on SimplyHired and describes — in precise operational detail — exactly how the contract concealment scheme works from the inside. “Sales people are NOT required to have signed contracts prior to the installation of the system and leave all the ‘education’ to the customer service team. In addition, NONE of the customers sign or even SEE a contract until they cannot get a work order for a recalibration or question a charge on their credit card. That’s a debacle because the customer service person has to inform them a contract needs to be signed prior to providing the work order. Usually the customer has been on hold for at least 30 minutes to an hour — I worked when hold times were upwards to 3 hours — and then we have to walk them through how to esign on the app while they are standing at a service center trying to get the recalibration.” Operations Personnel — SimplyHired — 2026 Read that again slowly. NONE of the customers sign or even see the contract until they are standing at a service center — after hours on hold — trying to get a work order. The device is already on their car. The device is already hard-wired into their ignition. And at that precise moment of maximum vulnerability — standing in a garage, phone in hand, after two hours on hold — they are told they must sign a contract on the DocuSign app before the company will release the work order they need to drive away. The work order is the hostage. The contract is the ransom note. This is not a glitch in the system. This is the system. They Said It Out Loud What follows are the voices of people who worked inside this company and could not stay quiet about what they saw. Every disclosure is real, documented, and on file with the federal agencies currently reviewing this case. On What They Were Trained to Do to Customers “You are explicitly trained to focus only on the low introductory promo cost and gloss over or omit the hidden recurring administration fees, roadside protection additions, and the massive penalty fees for breaking the contract lease.” Account Executive / Inside Sales — Des Moines, IA — Glassdoor — September 14, 2021 “It completely forces reps to say whatever it takes to prevent them from looking at the contract closely.” Inside Sales Representative — Remote — Glassdoor — July 19, 2024 “Real cut throat high pressure quotas. I thought I’d get to help people. Instead I feel like a scammer that’s hurting more people than helping.” Remote Sales Agent — Florida — Indeed — July 11, 2022 “This job will make you get off and feel bad everyday. The company literally makes their money from stealing from people. Not just the customer, but the employees too.” Sales Representative — Iowa — Indeed — October 24, 2023 “There’s no moral. If you speak up about how it will hurt the customer, it will affect your paycheck. Not a place to be if you have a heart for people.” Sales Representative — Remote — Indeed — May 4, 2026 The company literally makes their money from stealing from people. Not just the customer, but the employees too. On What Happens After the Device Is Installed “Working in customer service we basically had to serve as a clean up crew for the sales team who lie to the customers to make their sales.” Customer Service Representative — Des Moines, IA — Indeed — October 1, 2020 “Very stressful and management is non supportive. Your supervisor NEVER takes escalated calls nor will call the customer back when asked.” Customer Service Representative — Urbandale, IA — SimplyHired — October 21, 2021 “They start you off at $30 an hour for the first 3 months. After that you are knocked down to $11 an hour plus commission. The metrics are atrocious, it’s intentionally complex.” Bilingual Inside Sales Representative — Remote — Indeed — November 19, 2024 On the Hardware They Are Putting in Your Car “The devices have a known, massive parasitic power draw that kills vehicle batteries constantly, especially in cold weather. Instead of fixing the hardware, leadership instructs us to tell the customer it’s an issue with their alternator or car battery, triggering a lockout state that forces them to pay an extra lockout service fee to get a reset code.” Tier 2 Customer Support Representative — Des Moines, IA — Indeed — January 11, 2025 “The company is money hungry and violated every ethical standard I live by. The machines are over 20 years old being refurbished and the new machines they built were just as problematic and faulty.” Sales Consultant — Urbandale, IA — Indeed — May 15, 2026 The devices have a known, massive parasitic power draw. Instead of fixing the hardware, leadership instructs us to tell the customer it’s an issue with their alternator or car battery — triggering a lockout state that forces them to pay an extra fee. On Keeping You Trapped After Your Court Order Is Done “If you let a customer cancel their service easily — even if they have completed their court-ordered program time — your personal retention metrics take a massive hit, which drops your bonus. Management forces you to stall the removal process by claiming paperwork errors or state processing delays just to squeeze out one more month of lease billing.” Customer Retention Specialist — Urbandale, IA — Indeed — November 3, 2023 Let that one land for a moment. You have completed your court-ordered program. Legally, you are done. Intoxalock knows you are done. And their own retention team is trained to manufacture paperwork delays to keep billing you for another month. That is not customer retention. That is contempt of court. On What Happened When Mindr Took Over “Used to be a good place to work until Mindr took over. Since Mindr took over the micromanagement has slowly escalated to the point of no return.” Repair Technician — Urbandale, IA — Indeed — February 12, 2026 “The company is money hungry and violated every ethical standard I live by.” Sales Consultant — Urbandale, IA — Indeed — May 15, 2026 What These Voices Mean Together These are not people who coordinated. They worked in different departments — sales, customer service, Tier 2 support, operations, retention, repair. They worked in different states — Iowa, Florida, remote offices across the country. They wrote in different years — from 2018 through May 2026. They posted on different platforms — Indeed, Glassdoor, SimplyHired. And they all described the same company. Twenty witnesses. One pattern. Eight years of uninterrupted documented evidence from inside the walls of this company. Nobody asked these employees to speak. Nobody paid them to speak. They left a company that was doing something wrong and they said so. That is called a conscience. And twenty consciences describing the same thing is called evidence. A Message to Anyone Who Worked There If you are a current or former Intoxalock or Mindr employee reading this — what you saw was real. What you felt was right. And what you documented matters. The twenty disclosures in this post are already on file with multiple federal and New York State agencies. If you have additional information about the sales training, the call routing architecture, the contract delivery process, the work order withholding system, or the DMV paperwork delays — I want to hear from you. Drop a comment below. intoxalockedout (v., adj.) To be legally trapped — financially, physically, and procedurally — by a court-ordered product or service from which there is no exit, no recourse, and no one who will answer the phone. “She had worked there for two years. She knew what the script said. She knew what the fees did. She knew nobody was reading the reviews. The day she quit she left her own review on Glassdoor and told the whole truth. That is how you find out what intoxalockedout really means — from the people who built the lock.” For press inquiries: [email redacted] Nobody asked me to do this. Nobody paid me to do this. I just could not look away. — David Lazarus | Founder, INTOXALOCKEDOUT™ Legal Disclaimer David Lazarus is not an attorney and is not engaged in the practice of law. Nothing contained in this publication constitutes legal advice, and no attorney-client relationship is created by reading, subscribing to, or communicating with IntoxalockedOut. The content published here represents the personal research, documented experiences, and consumer advocacy opinions of a private citizen conducting pro se advocacy. All factual claims are based on documentation, recordings, and publicly available information in the author’s possession. Readers with legal questions or disputes are encouraged to consult a licensed attorney in their jurisdiction. This publication is protected expression under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. © 2026 IntoxalockedOut™ — All Rights Reserved — intoxalockedout.substack.com

Indian Advertising Strategy Heads - Gendered Methods & Outcomes

A big hello to everyone! If I haven't announced already, let me take the opportunity to say that I am now also pursuing an MA in Anthropology. What began as a casual interest to better my cultural research for Sindh studies and my ancestry, has become a mammoth of my identity. I'd like to call myself a Practicing Anthropologist who specializes in its applications related to market, consumers, culture and their context with respect to advertising and the larger marketing domain. (It is really what we folks do and have been doing with more structured methodlogies and analyses.) I'm currently working on an article for an upcoming issue of Anthro Bulletin by Anthropos India Foundation for which I'm conducting a gendered analysis of the differences between the men and women of advertising strategy in India. They say that "the truth is differently perceived from a male and female centric location." I want to understand how strategy heads and executives at big and small advertising agencies differ in their methods, frameworks, presentation, and then the outcomes based on their gender and cultural context. Are there any differences? What is the past experience like? There could be an inherent advantage or a bias. There might be differences in our perceptions. There just might be a difference in our upbringing. Who knows! Some might say men are better at handling personal care brands, while others might say women are better at managing media relations and strategy. Or vice-versa. This is going to be released with pseudonyms keeping your identity anonymous, unless you'd specifically prefer otherwise. I would like to interview and connect with 30-35 professionals for a 30-45 mins call, all through July/ in-person (Bangalore - 3rd week of July, Mumbai - last week of July, Chennai - anytime apart from travel dates!) Please do let me know if you, former colleagues, present collaborators, friends, and my network and network-of-network will be interested or willing to connect me with someone who you think might be interested. This is going to be fascinating for both disciplines, advertising and anthropology. Looking forward to our chats! Thank you. :)

Founders & Operators - Connectional Intelligence & Decision Quality

The biggest threat to decision quality isn't lack of data. It's disconnection. Most leaders think better decisions come from having more information. I'm starting to believe they come from having better connections. Not networking. Not collecting contacts. I'm talking about Connectional Intelligence — the ability to build the right ecosystem of people, perspectives, context, relationships, and information so that better decisions can emerge. When founders struggle with decision-making, it's rarely because they're unintelligent. More often it's because: • They are too close to the problem. • Critical information is trapped in silos. • Diverse perspectives aren't reaching them. • Teams don't feel safe challenging assumptions. • They have lost connection to customers, reality, or purpose. This is where decision quality begins to deteriorate. Not because of a lack of intelligence. Because of a lack of connection. In the SAVIA framework, I see Connectional Intelligence as one of the foundations that helps reduce: → Decision Debt → Reality Drift → Founder Dependency → Knowledge Silos → Collaboration Gaps The best leaders I've worked with over the last 25 years weren't necessarily the smartest people in the room. They were often the best at creating the conditions for truth, context, and diverse perspectives to flow. That's what led to better decisions. And better decisions led to better outcomes. As part of my research for a new book exploring the intersection of: • Decision Intelligence • Connectional Intelligence • Human Wisdom • AI • Leadership • Nature & Regenerative Thinking I'm looking to interview: ✓ Founders ✓ Operators ✓ Chiefs of Staff ✓ Decision Scientists ✓ Behavioural Scientists ✓ Systems Thinkers ✓ AI Researchers ✓ Investors ✓ Community Builders ✓ Leadership Thinkers If you're exploring how humans, systems, and AI can work together more intelligently, I'd love to speak with you. Who should I interview? Tag them below or send me a message. #DecisionIntelligence #Scaleups #SystemsThinking #HumanWisdomI #Founders #FutureOfWork #SAVIA #ChiefofStaff #ExecutiveAssistants

Gay Men in Anglo-Catholic & Ordinariate US - Traditional Liturgy

Project on queer men and traditional/unreformed liturgy For any Anglo-Catholics in the Episcopal Church or the Ordinariate in the US... Note: This is a research project. I am not interested in engaging with the controversy around queer issues and Church teaching. I am just trying to connect with gay/SSA men who attend traditional masses. The piece I am working on does not have an agenda beyond trying to understand a trend in the Church. There has been a lot of talk online (and definitely on this Subreddit) over the years on gay men preferring higher/more traditional liturgy. This is nothing new, but I feel as though there has been a lack of–serious–scholarship on the topic. I am a theology student working on an article project that would take a closer, more thoughtful look at the gay men who prefer traditional liturgy, both Anglo-Catholic and Tridentine (for now, I am only engaging with those in full communion with the Episcopal Church or the Roman Catholic Church). This includes any and all liturgical preferences for rites from before Vatican II as well as Rite I of the 1979 BCP. I want to challenge the narrative that “liturgy queens” are merely there for the smells and bells and instead ask new/deeper questions to figure out what’s really at play vis-à-vis this phenomenon in 2026. Who are these men in these traditional church settings, how did they get there, and why do they stay? If you’re a gay man who attends the traditional liturgy and would be interested in having an anonymous interview please DM me. I’d be happy to tell you more about my project. I can talk on Zoom, but I’d also be happy to meet in person if you’re located in the greater Boston area. I am also traveling to LA and NYC later this summer. Thanks for your help!

Neurosurgeons & Pathologists - 1990s Oligodendroglioma Care

Looking for historical insight re: neurology, imaging, oncology, radiation therapy from the mid 1990s I'm performing research for a biographical work I'm writing about a young woman who developed a oligodendroglioma during the mid-1990s. This is NOT related in any way to any legal case, and nobody is second-guessing decisions or trying to assign blame here. I'm simply trying to tell the person's story as accurately as possible, and medical records aren't available. All I have so far are memories and accounts of family and friends. Case details: 30F with no significant medical or seizure history. Experienced visual disturbance and three seizures over the course of a few hours. Seen in ER and negative CAT scan, diagnosed with epilepsy and given Dilantin. Follow up with neurologist dismissed the epilepsy diagnosis via EEG. Her only symptoms over the next 14 months were occasional dizziness and fatigue and mild to moderate headaches 2-3x/week. During this time, multiple specialists could not identify a cause. Insurance repeatedly denied imaging requests for MRI/CAT scan. An ENT eventually managed to get non-contrast MRI approved. MRI revealed a \~9-10cm mass in the left ventricle causing rotation of the brain, deformed midline. She was referred for immediate surgery. Based on imaging and growth rate (0 to 10cm in 14 months) surgeons anticipated the mass was either benign or not serious, would have clean boundaries and be isolated to the ventricle, and resection would last a few hours. On seeing the tumor they realized it was invading surrounding grey matter. The surgeons waited for pathology but the lab was unable to identify the tumor. After a \~2 hour pause, surgeons offered the family two options—careful resection without touching any grey matter, or aggressively removing tumor plus some grey matter. Family chose the latter. Total surgery time was 16-20 hours. The pathology was inconclusive for some weeks. Family was eventually told it was was an oligodendroglioma and extremely rare/virtually unknown. \~1 month Follow-up MRI showed tumor spread widely via CSF into other ventricle spaces, spinal cord, brain surfaces, etc. The new sites in the ventricle spaces appeared as "teardrop" shapes, with bubble/bulging "spots" appearing elsewhere. Oncologists indicated chemotherapy would not be effective and patient was referred to radiation oncology. Patient was prescribed radiation treatment involving fitting her with a head and neck brace custom molded from plaster castings taken of her head and neck. She was also given several tattooed registration marks on her head, neck, and spine. Family reports that the oncologist recommended a hysterectomy due to the intensity of the radiation exposure. They also report she experienced hair loss almost immediately (within hours) after the first treatment. The treatments also caused nausea and severe sunburn. The rate of treatment was limited by recovery from these burns. After some months, the radiation therapy was determined ineffective. The rapid tumor growth placed pressure on the optic nerves and other critical areas of the brain, requiring multiple follow-up surgeries. Doctors placed a "hinged bone flap" in the skull to facilitate surgical access over the following months. I'm hoping to clarify or narrow down some details, in particular: Neurosurgery/Neurology: Nobody seems clear about what type of tumor surgeons initially expected based on the imaging. I realize this would be speculation, but I'm hoping someone in the neurosurgery field can help narrow down the types of tumors that would appear well-bounded and confined to a single ventricle on MRI. Neurosurgery/Neurology: How would this type of tumor appear to a surgeon? What would their reaction be on discovering the malignancy was invasive and not well bounded? How long might a surgeon wait for pathology before continuing resection? Neurosurgery/Neurology: What might convince a surgeon in these circumstances to recommend an aggressive approach that included removing some grey matter? (Nobody's second-guessing anyone's decisions, I'm just trying to understand what would motivate doctors to favor this approach.) Pathology: What procedure would pathologists likely have followed for identifying tissue samples taken during surgery? What tests or procedures would have been used to identify a (likely anaplastic/grade 3) oligodendroglioma around 1993-1994? Would it have been difficult? Any possible insights into what would take so long to isolate this type of tumor? Radiology/Medical Imaging: Can someone help explain the difference between contrast/non-contrast MRI, in particular why the invasive elements didn't show up on the imaging? Radiology/Medical Imaging: The patient reported an iodine allergy and insurance would not cover alternative contrast mediums because of "cost". Can anyone comment on or estimate what the cost difference might have been? Radiation Oncology/Radiation Therapy: Does anyone recognize what type of mid-1990s radiation therapy might be described above? Radiation Oncology/Radiation Therapy: Under what circumstances might an oncologist recommend a hysterectomy, presumably to avoid birth defects/complications following radiation treatment? Radiation Oncology/Radiation Therapy: Is/was it possible for a patient to experience sunburn/hair loss within hours of a first radiation treatment? General: If anyone can point me to any sources of journals/studies/information related to this particular type of tumor, I'd appreciate it. Everything I've found is based on current information, not what was known \~30 years ago. Feel free to ask for clarifications. Thoughts and insights welcome and I'm happy to take answers via DM. Thanks in advance for your help!

Medical Entomologists - Tick Life Cycle & Outdoor Prevention Podcast

Guest Search: Tick Experts Wanted! Frederick Tick Talk is looking for passionate experts to join us for an upcoming podcast focused on the life cycle of a tick and how understanding tick biology can help families stay safe in the great outdoors. "As a Certified Human Rights Counselor and host of Frederick Tick Talks, my mission is to make prevention education accessible to everyone." We are currently seeking guests with expertise in: • Medical Entomology • Acarology (the scientific study of ticks and mites) • Vector-Borne Disease Research • Vector Ecology • Extension Entomology • Public Health Entomology Our goal is to provide accurate, science-based education in a way that is easy for the public to understand. We welcome researchers, educators, university faculty, extension specialists, public health professionals, and others who are passionate about helping people better understand ticks, prevention, and vector-borne diseases. Podcast interviews are conducted virtually and typically last 20–30 minutes. If you—or someone you know is interested in being a guest, please comment below, send me a direct message, or email me. Together, we can help more families understand the importance of prevention, early awareness, and staying informed. Awareness saves lives. 💚 #FrederickTickTalk #TickAwareness #TickBorneDisease #MedicalEntomology #Acarology #VectorBorneDiseases #PublicHealth #ScienceCommunication #Prevention #CommunityEducation

Sports People in North America & Europe - Interview Series

Passionate about sports? I'd love to feature your story. I'm starting a new interview series exploring the people, ideas, and experiences shaping sports today. I'm looking to speak with people based inNorth America and Europewho are involved in sports in some way—whether you're an athlete, coach, researcher, nutritionist, sports-tech founder, builder, analyst, creator, or simply someone with valuable insights and experiences to share. Topics I'm especially interested in include: Tennis Fitness & strength training Nutrition Sports science Sports technology Coaching Performance and recovery Data and analytics The goal is simple: have thoughtful, respectful conversations that help others learn something new. To make participation easy, you can choose the format: ✅ Written Q&A (10–15 minutes) ✅ Audio interview ✅ Questions provided in advance ✅ Opportunity to share your work, project, startup, business, research, newsletter, app, or social channels ✅ Anonymous or pseudonymous participation if preferred You don't need a large audience, a famous name, or a company. If you're passionate about sports and have knowledge, experiences, ideas, or something you're building that others could learn from, I'd love to hear from you. The interviews will be published on Substack or podcast platforms. If you're interested, send me a DM with: A few words about yourself Your area of expertise, experience, or what you're building Anything you'd potentially like to discuss Looking forward to meeting interesting people from across the sports world. \#sports

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