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On the sunnier side of the street (for journalism) we’ve got our best of breed higher ed stories today, including an investigative piece by Nick Confessore showing that U Michigan spent a quarter billion bucks on DEI and got less inclusion. Meanwhile, Harvard decided to keep Arthur “OxyContin” Sackler’s name on campus buildings and Ta-Nehisi Coates strikes more literary gold with his new book.

All that, and more, just by scrolling.

Also in the meantime I made a quick dash to D.C. for the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA) Athena conference and was mightily impressed by Nadine Stroessen, this year’s Philip Merrill Award winner for contributions to liberal arts education (i.e. the academic freedom to pursue it), and a heroic speech by the organization’s Hero of Intellectual Freedom Award to one smart and courageous cookie, Roland Fryer, and a shoutout to several hundred other apostles of good sense for American colleges.

More on that next time—if there is a next time. But stay tuned and pledge now by tapping the subscribe button….

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If Paideia Times continues, you will be the first to know and will tell you more about why ACTA is so important to our nation’s future.

And in the meantime, again, whatever issue this is, enjoy it, learn from it, share it. And thank you for your respectful attentions over the years. Peter Meyer

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GOVERNANCE/FINANCE

The New York Times Finds U Michigan’s Costly DEI Program Resulted in Less Inclusion

The University of Michigan has built one of the most ambitious—and expensive—diversity programs in the country. Since 2016, when the university launched “D.E.I. 1.0,” (Diversity Equity Inclusion) it has invested a quarter of a billion dollars into DEI. But an investigation by Nicholas Confessore, a reporter for The New York Times, found that Michigan’s ambitious DEI initiative has led to less inclusion. The program has yielded some wins, including a greater proportion of Hispanic, Asian, and first-generation students and a more racially diverse staff. Yet in a state where 14 percent of residents are Black, the percentage of Black students—currently around 5 percent—has remained stagnant. In a 2022 survey, according to the Times Magazine article, “students and faculty members reported a less positive campus climate than at the program’s start and less of a sense of belonging.” Students were less likely to interact with people of a different race or religion or with different politics. Minority students—particularly those who are Black—were less likely to report “feelings of being valued, belonging, personal growth and thriving.” Instead of backing down, U-M inaugurated “D.E.I. 2.0” last year, and the number of employees who have the term “diversity,” “equity,” or “inclusion” in their job titles increased by 70 percent. However, Tabbye Chavous, U-M’s chief diversity officer, who was interviewed for the Times piece, claims that Confessore “cherry-picked research to support his narrative.” For instance, according to Chavous, much of the $250 million U-M has invested in DEI over the past eight years (from a $12 billion annual budget) goes toward socioeconomic access and financial aid programs such as the GoBlue Guarantee, which has been key in recruiting white students from rural areas.   ---Elizabeth Janice

Sources

The University of Michigan Doubled Down on D.E.I. What Went Wrong? (New York Times)

A Battle for Truth: Setting the Record Straight on DEI at U. of Michigan (Academe Blog)

Further Reading

I Don’t Want to Live in a Monoculture, and Neither Do You (New York Times)

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GOVERNANCE/PHILANTHROPY

Donor Intent Protections Under the Gun

In 2023 the Philanthropy Roundtable launched a monthly series on donor intent (because clearly, donors need a guide to protect philanthropic legacies from the chaos of generosity!), sparked by the passage of the Donor Intent Protection Act in Kansas—later followed by Kentucky and Georgia. This month Harvard ignited philanthropic controversy by retaining Arthur M. Sackler’s name on campus buildings, despite student protests for a “denaming.” A committee of top officials argued that Sackler’s legacy should be viewed separately from his family’s controversial ties to Purdue Pharma and the opioid crisis. Meanwhile, the university faced a nearly 15 percent drop in donations, to a mere $1.17 billion this year, with key donors like Ken Griffin halting support over antisemitism concerns—while the College of the Holy Cross, in Worcester, is embroiled in a $21 million lawsuit brought by alumnus Cornelius B. Prior Jr. over disputed donations. In another shift, California shook up higher education by banning legacy and donor admissions at private universities like USC and Stanford, championed by Governor Gavin Newsom as a major win for meritocracy, ensuring that hard work, not family ties, opens the door to opportunity. Set to kick off in September 2025, the law will hold schools accountable with annual reports on their admissions practices. Against this backdrop of donor dilemmas, the University of Chicago just landed a blockbuster anonymous $100 million gift to supercharge its Forum for Free Inquiry and Expression—the largest donation ever dedicated to free speech in higher education. University president Paul Alivisatos called it a bold step in the fight for truth-seeking, while faculty director Tom Ginsburg stressed that tackling tough topics is essential for advancing knowledge.                                                                  ---Amy Genito

Sources

Donations to Harvard Drop 15% in Tumultuous Year (Wall Street Journal)

Donor Intent Watch: Harvard Decides on Sackler Name and Donor Dispute at College of the Holy Cross  (Philanthropy Roundtable)

California law bans college legacy and donor admissions, including at USC, Stanford (Los Angeles Times) 

U of Chicago Receives $100M Gift to Support Free Speech (Inside Higher Ed)

Further Reading

California law bans college legacy and donor admissions, including at USC, Stanford (Los Angeles Times)

Philanthropy and the Trustees (Philanthropy Daily)

Truth-Seeking in an AI-Influenced World (Philanthropy Daily)

CLINTEL issues Great Charter of Universities for research freedom (CFACT)

The Future of Academic Freedom (New Yorker)

Billionaires Back a New ‘Anti-Woke’ University (Wall Street Journal)

Roundtable Roundup   (Philanthropy Roundtable)

Brown University endowment grew 11.3% last year — as school mulls Israel divestment (NY Post)

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PUBLIC TRUST/EXTERNAL ORDERS

Shortstack 1:  New Normal, College Grad Regrets,  Brown Endowment up 11.3%, What Voters Want of Their Next President, Depoliticizing Education

• College competition and operational pain are the ‘new normal,’ S&P says

• S&P analysts pointed to the temporary shuttering of campuses; students putting off enrollment; hiring, pension and salary freezes; declines in international student enrollment amid COVID-19 travel restrictions; and the added financial strain of higher interest rates. (Higher Ed Dive)

• Report: A Quarter of Grads Say They Regret Going to College  Nearly one in four… wish they had either pursued a different educational path, like community college or an apprenticeship, or skipped college altogether (Inside Higher Education)

• Opinion: Why California’s legacy admissions ban won’t help low-income students go to college  Ending legacy admissions may be defensible in the service of equity, but it’s neither necessary nor sufficient to increase lower-income students’ access to higher education. (Los Angeles Times)

• Intense UCLA policing draws scrutiny as security chief speaks out on handling protests  By far, the key concern expressed by many campus members is what they perceive as a “militarized” campus with too many police and security officers. (Los Angeles Times)

• Brown University endowment grew 11.3% last year—as school mulls Israel divestment  The budget, representing 21% of total revenue, helped to pay for financial aid for students as well as salary increases for staffers. (New York Post)

• Legislators Are Shifting Tactics To Censor Higher Ed, Claims Report  Legislative attempts to limit academic freedom and censure campus speech are continuing, but they are becoming more subtle and disguised (Forbes)

• Here’s What Voters Want the Next President to Do for Higher Ed  84 percent of respondents said it was somewhat or very important for the next president, in their first 100 days, to expand apprenticeship programs and facilitate hiring based on skills rather than degrees. By similar margins, they wanted the next president to provide better guidance on education and training options that lead to jobs with wages that can support a family. (Chronicle of Higher Ed)

• Federal Overreach is Threatening Innovation in Online Education  Unfortunately, during recent Democrat presidencies, the U.S. Department of Education has been fundamentally opposed to profit-making in education. Partly this animus comes from an anti-market mindset and a belief that college should simply be free to students. (Minding the Campus)

• Depoliticizing the University  We can understand “politicization” to mean that an activity is undertaken according to the aims, values, or modes of a broader, systematic social vision—not according to ones particularly suited to the activity itself. (Law and Liberty)

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PUBLIC TRUST/DEI

DEI Backlash Spreads to More States

The anti-DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) movement continues to grow amid a GOP-led crackdown on DEI efforts in higher education. The University of Kentucky has disbanded its Office for Institutional Diversity. This comes after state lawmakers debated whether to limit DEI practices at public universities. UK president Eli Capilouto stressed in a campus-wide email that the school’s core values remain intact—to protect academic freedom and promote a “sense of belonging” for everyone on campus, regardless of background or perspective. The university’s DEI programs will be shifted to other campus offices and no one will lose their job, according to Capilouto. On the same day, the University of Nebraska–Lincoln announced that it would also dissolve its DEI office and eliminate the position of vice chancellor for diversity. Chancellor Rodney D. Bennett, who is African American, said, “I fully grasp the weight of this decision and its implications, but a centralized approach to this work is no longer right for our institution.” Other states that have shuttered DEI offices and programs include Florida, Texas, Nebraska, Alabama, and Oklahoma.          ---Elizabeth Janice

Sources

University of Kentucky to disband diversity office after GOP lawmakers pushed anti-DEI legislation (AP News)   

UK and UNL Disband Their DEI Offices (Diverse Education) 

A look at DEI eliminations at colleges across the US (Higher Ed Dive)

Further Reading

The Corrupting Influence of DEI on Military Education (James Martin Center) 

Racism was called a health threat. Then came DEI backlash. (University World News)

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GOVERNANCE/REGULATION

Colleges in Blue States Are More Likely to Require Diversity Statements

The practice of asking for diversity, equity, and inclusion statements in academic hiring and promotion has become highly controversial, with one critic arguing that they can be used as “blatant litmus tests for ideology.” According to Heterodox Academy’s Free the Inquiry, data show that DEI statements that do not discuss race, ethnicity, or gender are rated significantly lower than those that do and candidates who submit alternative statements focusing on topics such as socioeconomic or viewpoint diversity are seen as “less competent, less hireable and less likable.” A recent analysis of job postings for full-time faculty positions revealed that 24.5 percent required DEI statements as part of the hiring process. Much like the red state/blue state divide, schools on the West Coast and in the Northeast are more likely to ask applicants to submit DEI statements than those in the Southeast or Midwest.  ---Elizabeth Janice

Source

The Great DEI-vide (Free the Inquiry)      

Further Reading

D.E.I. Is Not Working on Campus. We Need a New Approach. (New York Times) 

DEI v. Science (City Journal) 

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PUBLIC TRUST/EXTERNAL ORDERS

Shortstack 2:  Varsity Blues is free, William Shakespeare and Freshmen enrollment are down, Harris skips Howard Homecoming, AEI says there’s a crisis in leadership, and much more.

• Varsity Blues mastermind is out of prison.  William “Rick” Singer… is ready for his next act. Which looks a lot like his old act: helping families navigate the high-stakes, stressful college admissions process. (Wall Street Journal)

• The Guru Who Says He Can Get Your 11-Year-Old Into Harvard  Jamie Beaton’s Crimson Education offers a pricey, yearslong boot camp preparing kids to apply to the Ivy League. Parents, and Wall Street, are on board. (Wall Street Journal)

• Who’s Afraid of William Shakespeare?  In 2023–24 there were 40 productions of Shakespeare’s plays. There were 52 in 2022–23 and 96 in 2018–19. (New York Times)

• Harris Skips Howard Homecoming.  Vice President Kamala Harris did not attend Howard University’s 100th homecoming anniversary as she focused on rallying support in the swing states of Georgia and Michigan… But the Howard alumna did send The Hilltop, the school’s student newspaper, an exclusive letter to commemorate the event. (Politico Weekly Edition)

• Freshman Enrollment Appears to Decline for the First Time Since 2020  A projected 5 percent drop in this year’s freshman class follows a number of disruptions last year, including persistent failures with the FAFSA form. (New York Times)

• Professors in Trouble Over Protests Wonder if Academic Freedom Is Dying  Universities have cracked down on professors for pro-Palestinian activism, saying they are protecting students and tamping down on hate speech. Faculty members say punishments have put a “chill in the air.” (New York Times)

• New Report From UCLA Antisemitism Task Force Offers Shocking Details of Anti-Jewish Harassment, Assault on Campus  Antisemitism at UCLA has gotten so bad that more than 40 percent of Jewish students and faculty respondents have considered leaving the school. (New York Sun)

• A Crisis in Leadership? Examining the Successes and Failures of University Presidents  This report ranks more than 400 current and former college presidents who served between 2000–01 and 2022–23 on how well they improved access, affordability, and student success over the course of their presidency. (American Enterprise Institute)

• Why the Rise in Legacy Admissions Bans?  The Supreme Court dealt a devastating blow to diversity advocates last year when it gutted affirmative action. It also gave them ammunition. (Politico)

• There’s a Very Good Reason College Students Don’t Read Anymore  For decades, students have been told that college is about career readiness and little else. And the task of puzzling out an author’s argument will not prepare students to thrive in an economy that seems to run on vibes. (New York Times)

• The Top Colleges for Helping Students Move Up the Socioeconomic Ladder  California schools lead the way, with 15 of the top 20 schools in the 2025 Wall Street Journal/College Pulse rankings. (Wall Street Journal)

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“Everyday Racism” and Heroes of Free Speech: Ta-Nehisi Coates

Though a small story in a British publication might have more meaning for more people, it was Ta-Nehisi Coates who gathered the most headlines these last couple of weeks. “University policies have not kept up with ‘everyday racism'” was a smallish story in University World News, complaining that “universities that take a reactionary approach to complaints of racist targeting fail to recognise the evolving everyday racism  faculty and staff of colour face and this can lead to significant costs from lawsuits, lost talent and damaged reputations.”

Coates, meanwhile, was at media ground zero in Manhattan launching his new book, The Message, on the CBS Mornings show and getting pressed by one of the network’s rising stars, Tony Dokoupil, who is Jewish, for the book’s comparison of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians to the Jim Crow laws of the American South. “The content of that section [of the book],” suggested Dokoupil, “would not be out of place in the backpack of an extremist.” The anchor added, “What is it that so particularly offends you about the existence of a Jewish state that is a Jewish safe place?” “There’s nothing that offends me about a Jewish state,” replied Coates. “I am offended by the idea of states built on ethnocracy, no matter where they are,” with Coates ultimately uttering the “A” word: “Either apartheid is right or wrong. It’s really, really simple.”

Perhaps too simple. As The New York Times reported the following week, “The interview created a social media uproar,” documented in the paper of record’s surprising headline, “CBS Rebukes Anchor Over Tense Interview With Ta-Nehisi Coates.” One industry newsletter referred to the “rare public difference of opinion” about Dokoupil’s interview, and staff at CBS complained about the anchor. 

The book took its share of criticism—Micah Mattix (“Prufrock”) suggested Coates may fall into the “reputations won and lost” category of writer and called attention to Parul Sehgal’s words in The New Yorker. Sehgal wrote that The Message, an extended report to Coates’s students, was heavily weighted with “craft talk” that is “stitched together with haphazard reporting, and … suppurates with such self-regard that it feels composed by the very enemy of a writer who has so strenuously scorned carelessness and vague pronouncement.” That’s an ouch.

But Coates has certainly had his share of criticisms since busting out in 2015 with his breakthrough memoir, Between the World and Me, and the Times gave him space to talk about that in its piece Ta-Nehisi Coates on Why Not Everyone Will Love His New Book :

I’ve been wondering who might fill the intellectual void that plagued me after James Baldwin died,” Toni Morrison had declared at the time. “Clearly it is Ta-Nehisi Coates.”  And here we are, “Nearly 10 years later, the country — and the world — are in the midst of another contentious moment. Coates, who teaches at Howard University, has returned with a hybrid of memoir and reportage, “The Message” (a nod to the D.J. Grandmaster Flash). The book ruminates on writing and messages, their power and fallacies. It’s about what it means to be a “steward” of tradition and what it means to “walk the land” with eyes wide open.” The lands he walks in The Message are to Senegal, South Carolina and the West Bank. In a video interview from his home in New York, he reckoned with his wavering faith in journalism, as well as his need to keep exploring, questioning and writing. “I have ideas growing out of my ears,” he told the Times, laughing.

(Full disclosure, my journalism program for kids uses an excerpt of Coates reading from  Between the World and Me in one of our videos.)

Vanity Fair gave ten of its precious pages over to an excerpt from Coates’s new book: the story of a white teacher in South Carolina fighting to keep Between the World and Me from being banned by the local school board in the small town of Chapin. It is a terrifyingly moving story written by a master. The teacher, Mary, “was the portrait of a familiar Southern archetype—blond, kind, outgoing, homegrown, daughter of the local football coach and a kindergarten teacher. Her claim to Chapin was strong—stronger even than some of the parents who despised her…. She was fighting for her job in the very school where she had earned her own high school diploma.”

It is a story well worth telling by a writer well worth reading. But it’s not the last word here, which I will give to Glenn Loury and his “The Oversimplification of Ta-Nehisi Coates,” in conversation with linguist buddy John McWhorter—two well-respected Black intellectuals talking about a controversial third. Surprisingly, perhaps because Coates is considered liberal and Loury conservative, Loury begins by praising Coates as “a writer mustering his craft in service of deep self-exploration.” The quality of Coates’s exploration wins the tough-minded Loury over. But not McWhorter, who says that Coates’s book “is all about whitey. It's all about white supremacy. That’s why he cares so much about this situation [Israel and Gaza], as opposed to what’s going on.” But “We are killing them,” says Loury. “We are complicit in the prosecution of the complete obliteration….tens of thousands…. So Coates’ intervention here is important….  He's a black intellectual who has a calling. He has a gift and he has a calling.”

It’s perhaps too soon to conclude that Coates is the new James Baldwin, but as the former admits in referencing Huckleberry Finn’s slave Jim, as rendered by Percival Everett, we hear Coates’s soaring artistry and appreciation of his craft: “With my pencil, I wrote my being into existence. I wrote myself to here.”

Worth a read.

Sources

CBS Rebukes Anchor Over Tense Interview With Ta-Nehisi Coates (New York Times)

Paramount Execs Have Rare Public Difference Of Opinion About CBS Interview With Ta-Nehisi Coates (Deadline.com)

Literary Reputations Won and Lost (Prufrock)

Ta-Nehisi Coates and the Temptations of Narrative (New Yorker)

Ta-Nehisi Coates on Why Not Everyone Will Love His New Book (New York Times)

Lost Cause (Vanity Fair)

The Oversimplification of Ta-Nehisi Coates (The Glenn Show)

Further Reading

Racism was called a health threat. Then came DEI backlash (University World News)

If it Ain’t Woke, Don’t Fix It? The Controversy Continues (Paideia Times)

Viewpoint Diversity Concerns—and a Proposed Solution (Paideia Times)

Curricular Fights—Lawmakers Step In (Paideia Times)

Prof. Accused of Being White Supremacist Leaves Austin Peay (Inside Higher Education)

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—-endit—--

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Seven Thoughts about Elite College Students Who Can’t Read Books: There’s a paucity of evidence that high schools are to blame (Education Next)

Also read Elizabeth Janice’s four free speech stories below and tell me that A.J. Liebling wasn’t wrong when he remarked, “Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one.”  And check in on Amy Genito’s gracious summary of the College Cost Reduction Act. 

Finally, please remember my plea….

… so we can start the new year at a gallop.  Enjoy the issue—and a break from presidential politics (of the Trump/Harris kind). Write me directly if you have questions or suggestions. Thank you for your time. Peter Meyer

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GOVERNANCE

The AAUP Does a U-Turn on Academic Boycotts

The American Association of University Professors has suddenly reversed course and dropped its longtime opposition to academic boycotts, in which scholars and scholarly groups refuse to work or associate with targeted universities. In 2005, the AAUP spoke out against this form of protest, but it now says boycotts “can be considered legitimate tactical responses.” Critics of the change accuse the association of abandoning its commitment to academic freedom. Some, citing the group’s February call for a ceasefire in Israel and Palestine, say the association is becoming anti-Zionist. And while the new policy does not mention Israel, they fear it will have negative consequences for Jews on campus. Cary Nelson, a former AAUP president, predicts that the revised stance will open the door to hundreds of individual micro-boycotts of Jewish and Israeli students and faculty—including, for example, the right to refuse to write letters of recommendation for students wishing to study at Israeli universities—as well as efforts to criminalize collaborative research projects between faculty in America and Israel.                                                             ---Elizabeth Janice

Sources

AAUP Faces Criticism for Reversal on Academic Boycotts (Inside Higher Ed)

The AAUP Abandons Academic Freedom (Chronicle of Higher Education)

Further Reading

The AAUP Is Right. Supporting Boycotts Is Academic Freedom (Chronicle of Higher Education) 

The Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel as a Defense of Academic Freedom (Academe Blog)  

Campus Protest Hypocrisy Reveals Need For Student Education on Free Speech (Reason)

Colleges Say GOP Bill to Protect Free Speech Would Do the Opposite (Inside Higher Ed)

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PURPOSE

Congress Cracks Down on “Useless” Degrees: A New Era of Accountability in Higher Education

According to The Federalist, enough members of Congress believe that colleges are handing out “useless degrees” to propose the College Cost Reduction Act (CCRA), which would impose financial penalties on schools whose students can’t repay loans, linking tuition to job outcomes. With college enrollment dropping due to high costs, student debt, and a changing job market, only 22 percent of Americans now believe a four-year degree is worth the cost. Some public universities, like those in Wisconsin, are closing campuses, as higher education struggles to prove its worth. A recent article in The Wall Street Journal highlighted the struggles of Suffolk University grad Marshall, who regretted not opting for trade school after experiencing two college closures and accumulating over $100,000 in debt. Senior Jade Gilliam felt betrayed and paused her education, while the abrupt shutdown of Birmingham-Southern College left student-athletes like Carter Tyus facing uncertain futures. A SHEEO study revealed that less than half of students from closed institutions continued their education. A recent piece in Higher Ed Dive spotlighted a Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce study, which revealed that while graduate degrees promise higher earnings, tuition costs surged from $3,000 to $10,000 between 2000 and 2020. This hike has led to mounting debt, particularly for marginalized students, who earn at least $10,000 less than their White peers. To tackle this issue, researchers proposed tying federal loan access to graduates’ earning potential, aiming to boost accountability for colleges.                                                        ---Amy Genito

Sources

Congress Should Make Universities Pay For Handing Out Useless Degrees (The       Federalist)

Americans are losing faith in four-year college degrees (Financial Times)

New Problem With Four-Year Degrees: The Surge in College Closures (Wall Street Journal)

Rising costs, student debt turn graduate degrees into a ‘risky’ proposition, research finds (Higher Ed Dive)

Further Reading

The Top U.S. Colleges Offering the Best Value for 2025 (Wall Street Journal)

Is College Worth it Anymore? Key Factors to Consider Before You Enroll (Wall Street Journal)

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PUBLIC TRUST/EXTERNAL ORDERS

Shortstack:  From Teen Suicide to Hazing Deaths, College Rankings to Presidential Resignations, Closing the Digital Divide, a Blueprint for Reform, and More

• The Elite College Students Who Can’t Read Books. To read a book in college, it helps to have read a book in high school (The Atlantic)

• Are You Digitally Smarter Than a 5th Grader?  From novices to natives, everyone has blind spots about the veracity of online content (Education Next)

• Has Social Media Fueled a Teen-Suicide Crisis?  Mental-health struggles have risen sharply among young Americans, and parents and lawmakers alike are scrutinizing life online for answers (New Yorker)

• The U.S. News College Rankings Are Out. Cue the Rage and Obsession  Every year, U.S. News & World Report publishes rankings that often change very little, though they draw attention and frustration from universities and applicants (New York Times)

• The 2025 Best Colleges in the U.S.: Princeton, Babson and Stanford Take the Top 3 Spots The Wall Street Journal/College Pulse ranking includes 25 new colleges in the top 50 this year (Wall Street Journal)

• Nobel Physics Prize Awarded for Pioneering A.I. Research by 2 Scientists With work on machine learning that uses artificial neural networks, John J. Hopfield and Geoffrey E. Hinton “showed a completely new way for us to use computers,” the committee said. (New York Times)

• New York's College-in-Prison Challenges This past April, New York State announced a $7M investment that includes a commitment to scaling up higher education programming in prisons to ensure that students in every state facility have a classroom ready for them. (RealClearEducation)

• Ex-Frat Leaders Sentenced in Hazing Death of Penn State Student  Brendan Young, 28, and Daniel Casey, 27, will spend two to four months in prison for their roles in the 2017 death of Timothy Piazza, a 19-year-old from New Jersey (New York Times)

• Brandeis President Steps Down Amid Budget Issues and Protests  The university has seen major drops in enrollment, even as the president invited students concerned about protests and antisemitism on other campuses to transfer (New York Times)

• Rutgers President Announces Resignation After a Year Rocked by Protests Jonathan Holloway was Rutgers’ first Black president. He helped the university grow but also faced criticism and questioning in Congress over pro-Palestinian encampments on campus (New York Times)

• Universities Secretly Take Billions in Foreign Money American colleges and universities are accepting billions of dollars in foreign money without reporting it, according to a new report (The Center Square)

• Sorry, Harvard. Everyone Wants to Go to College in the South Now  The likes of Georgia Tech, Clemson and Ole Miss are drawing students from the North who want to have fun and save on tuition. The shift is boosting the economies of cities across the region.  (Wall Street Journal)

• CBS Rebukes Anchor Over Tense Interview With Ta-Nehisi Coates  Executives said the interview, conducted by the morning show anchor Tony Dokoupil, had fallen short of network editorial standards. (New York Times)

• Why the Rise in Legacy Admissions Bans?  The Supreme Court dealt a devastating blow to diversity advocates last year when it gutted affirmative action. It also gave them ammunition (Politico)

• Online Learners Earned Fewer Degrees Than Their Peers During For-Profit College Boom  the report shows that those enrolled in online-only degree programs between 2012 and 2017 were 8.3 percentage points less likely to complete a bachelor’s degree than their peers who had some in-person instruction. 

• Blueprint for Reform  Student learning should be at the center of all efforts to reform higher education. The content of student learning heavily influences the kinds of thinkers and citizens graduates will become (Martin Center)

• Columbia Student Who Said ‘Zionists Don’t Deserve To Live’ Sues University for Suspending Him   One of the leaders of the anti-Israel encampment at Columbia University, who was suspended after a video of him saying “Zionists don’t deserve to live” resurfaced (NY Sun)

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EXTERNAL ORDERS

Free Speech on Campus 60 Years After the Free Speech Movement

The Free Speech Movement was born in the fall of 1964 at the University of California, Berkeley, when students demanded that the university lift its restrictions on political activism. These days, however, it’s more about what you can’t say on campus. “What started as safe spaces and trigger warnings are now almost always one-way actions, cancellations and censorship of ideas progressives don’t like,” Andy Kessler recently wrote in The Wall Street Journal. The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) has released its 2025 College Free Speech Rankings of 251 colleges. The University of Virginia is ranked #1 for free speech. Berkeley is #225. And New York University, Columbia University, and Harvard University are at the bottom of the list. All three received an “abysmal” rating for their speech climate. According to Greg Luckianoff, president and CEO of FIRE, students became enchanted with the idea of “enlightened censorship” about ten years ago. Since then there have been over 1,000 attempts to investigate professors on campus, overwhelmingly concentrated at elite colleges, Luckianoff said in a recent podcast. “And we know this is a wild undercount,” he continued, “because when we polled professors, one in six said they had been either investigated or threatened with investigation for speech, academic freedom, research—all things that tenure, academic freedom, and free speech are supposed to protect.”

                                                                                                ---Elizabeth Janice

Sources

What Happened to Free Speech? (Wall Street Journal)

Building a Free Speech Culture with Greg Lukianoff (Big Think)

Further Reading

UCLA aims to rebuild trust with free speech zones, more security (Los Angeles Times) 

Rebuilding the Infrastructure of Academic Freedom (Academe Blog) 

Free Speech Is Not Enough (City Journal) 

Twitter Wars: Alex Berenson and James Lawrence on the Frontlines of Free Speech (UNC AFSA)

The Future of Academic Freedom (New Yorker)

Academic Freedom Under Fire (The Atlantic)

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PURPOSE

Penn Professor Sanctioned for Racist Comments. A Slap on the Wrist or a Fair Punishment?

Amy Wax, the controversial law professor at the University of Pennsylvania accused of making racist, sexist, and homophobic remarks, has finally been stripped of her chaired professorship, suspended for a year at half pay and denied summer pay in perpetuity. (See PTW here.) She was also publicly reprimanded and must note in future public appearances that she speaks only for herself and not the university or law school. Despite persistent calls for her firing, Wax, who has been at Penn since 2001, isn’t losing her job or tenure. She has a long history of offensive statements—e.g., she allegedly described some non-Western countries as “shitholes” and said that “women, on average, are less knowledgeable than men.” (Wax has denied making some of the comments and said that others were taken out of context.) She also invited a white nationalist, Jared Taylor, to speak to one of her classes. Many students say that they could never trust Wax to grade them fairly. But many professors, including those who found her comments profoundly racist, object to disciplining her, on the grounds of academic freedom. Columbia University professor John McWhorter argued in The New York Times that “upholding the ideals of free speech means living with the discomfort—or even anger and injury—that offensive ideas can cause.”                                  ---Elizabeth Janice

Sources

Penn Professor Amy Wax Punished for ‘Derogatory’ Statements but Won’t Lose Job (Inside Higher Ed)

Penn Suspends Amy Wax, Law Professor Accused of Making Racist Statements (New York Times)

She Is Outrageous, Demeaning, Dangerous. She Shouldn’t Be Punished. (New York Times)

Further Reading

LAWSUIT: Historian fights back after Pennsylvania state senator sues him for criticizing book (The Fire)

The Review: The political capture of academic freedom (Chronicle of Higher Education)

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PUBLIC TRUST

UChicago Receives Anonymous $100 Donation to Promote Free Speech

An anonymous donor has given a gift of $100 million to the University of Chicago to support its work on behalf of free speech and to expand the impact of its Forum for Free Inquiry and Expression. The forum was launched last year to promote free and open discourse at the university and around the world. The donation comes at a time when colleges across the country are struggling to find the right balance between protecting free speech and ensuring safe campuses following the pro-Palestinian student demonstrations last spring. According to the university, the gift is believed to be the largest donation ever to a higher education institution in support of free speech.

                                                                                                ---Elizabeth Janice

Sources

University Of Chicago Given $100 Million To Advance Free Inquiry (Forbes)

U of Chicago Receives $100M Gift to Support Free Speech (Inside Higher Ed)

Further Reading

$100 million gift will advance UChicago’s commitment to free expression (UChicago News)

CLINTEL issues Great Charter of Universities for research freedom (CFACT.org)

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This is special report. According to a University of Chicago News press release an anonymous donor has given the The University’s Forum for Free Inquiry and Expression $100 million to advance its mission to “promote the understanding, practice and advancement of free and open discourse.” Founded only last year, this Forum’s activities have had an impact nation-wide.

Sources:

$100 million gift will advance UChicago’s commitment to free expression (U of Chicago)

University Of Chicago Given $100 Million To Advance Free Inquiry (Forbes)

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Whether you believe a college degree is useless or not (see “useless” below), our higher education industry is still worth billions and we believe that Paideia Times is as good as any GPS (Global Positioning System) in finding your way around. The Harvard endowment alone, the country’s richest, is worth almost $6 billion.

Though the Ivy League took some hard hits last year (see especially Part III of our Year in Review), our “elite” institutions remain a beacon of excellence in a world of equity, glass ceilings, and races to the bottom. And Paideia Times remains committed, as our mission statement has professed from the beginning, in 2016 (our first issue of the quarterly, which we suspended last fall), to excellence within a rubric of four guiding principles (Purpose, Governance, Public Trust, and Emergent Orders), explained here, as do the multiple topics and subjects that make up those principles, from admissions, affirmative action and athletics, to curriculum and community, free speech, faculty, identity politics, K-12 education, regulation, and much more. 

The stakes are high for our public and private educational system—and this year we will emphasize more than ever our pre-K–12 system, which is where, to paraphrase the Bible, we put our children on the right path knowing that they will still be there when it’s time for college (Proverbs 22:6). What if it’s the wrong path?

But if Paideia Times is to continue to cover this most important national asset (see A Nation At Risk, from 1983, and Your Neighborhood School Is a National Security Risk, from 2023), we’ll need your help to get the word out—not just to our nation’s 20,000 trustees (see ACTA, the American Council of Trustees and Alumni), but to organizations like the Alumni for Free Speech Alliance and the James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal, to mention just two of the dozens we track, as well as the hundreds of publications, large and tiny, represented in our Sources and Further Readings.

We need 1,200 pledges by the end of November. Don’t tempt me to dance on Instagram— please hit the share and pledge buttons, which are plentiful in this new-ear issue. And then please take our very short survey and tell us how we can be more perfect! Let us know how we’re doing. Let us know what we can do better. (Review a year’s worth of weeklies here. And look at our Substack below and tell me how many of those clips you have already seen.)

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And remember, a pledge is NOT money—it’s a wish and a promise we hope you can keep…. Write to me directly if you have further questions or suggestions. Thank you for your time. Enjoy the rest of the issue.  Peter Meyer

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GOVERNANCE

Colleges Brace for a New Round of Student Protests

As the fall semester begins and students return to campus, so have the pro-Palestinian protests. At Columbia University, the epicenter of protests against Israel’s military operation in Gaza, police reported at least two arrests on the first day of the fall semester but characterized the gatherings as "peaceful.” Earlier this month, protestors at Temple University marched in solidarity with Palestinian “resistance against their colonizers.” At the University of Pittsburgh campus, a man attacked a group of Jewish students with a bottle. And at the University of Michigan, four protesters were arrested during a “die-in.” Colleges and universities across the country are enacting new rules and tightened restrictions around protest and speech to avoid a repeat of last spring—when activists set up encampments and thousands of people were arrested. At Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, students now must receive approval from the administration before they can protest. At Indiana University students may no longer engage in what school leaders call “expressive activity” between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. Schools claim that these policy changes are minimal or simply clarify existing rules. However, the activists say they are designed to stifle protest.                                             ---Elizabeth Janice

Sources

Columbia University term starts with protests and security (BBC)

When Students Become Terrorists (Free Press)

How Colleges Are Changing Their Rules on Protesting (New York Times)

Further Reading

Reflections on the New Encampment Culture (reason)

Suspect arrested after attack on Jewish University of Pittsburgh students (CNN)

VCU’s New Protest Policy Makes Sense (Martin Center)

College Students Need to Grow Up. Schools Need to Let Them. (New York Times)

UCLA aims to rebuild trust with free speech zones, more security (Los Angeles Times)

Pro-Palestinian Protesters Return to Columbia on First Day of Classes (Wall Street Journal)

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PURPOSE

Mixed Results for Diversity Following the End of Affirmative Action

Colleges have begun releasing demographic data for the class of 2028—the first undergraduate class to be admitted since the U.S. Supreme Court banned race-conscious admissions last year. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the first major university to release demographic statistics about its freshman class, reported a precipitous drop-off in the percentage of certain minority groups. In just one year, the percentage of Black students dropped to 5 percent from 15 percent, and the percentage of Hispanic and Latinx students dropped to 11 percent from 16 percent. White students made up 37 percent of the new class, compared with 38 percent last year. Meanwhile, the percentage of Asian-American students in the class jumped to 47 percent from 40 percent. Contrary to expectations, at Harvard University, which was the target of a lawsuit by Students for Fair Admissions charging it with discrimination against Asian-American students, the percentage of Asian students was unchanged. At Yale and Princeton universities, the share of Black and Hispanic students remained relatively stable, while Duke University reported a slight increase. All three reported declines in the number of Asian-American students—with the share falling by two percentage points at Princeton and six points at Yale and Duke.                                           ---Elizabeth Janice

Sources

At M.I.T., Black and Latino Enrollment Drops Sharply After Affirmative Action Ban (New York Times)

Affirmative Action Was Banned. What Happened Next Was Confusing. (New York Times)

Ed Blum Puts Colleges ‘On Notice’ Over Diversity (Inside Higher Ed)

Further Reading

Destined to Fail (City Journal)

Diversity That’s Not Divisive (City Journal)

Can College Campuses Get a Grip on Antisemitism? (Wall Street Journal)

Ph.D.s Are Next in Fight Over Affirmative Action (Wall Street Journal)

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PUBLIC TRUST

Shortstack: Our best (and longest) ever

• ProfessorMIA                                                                                                                        Unprepared and increasingly uneducated college students get little help from professors, many of whom barely seem to work anymore. (City Journal) 

• Can Colleges Do WithoutDeadlines?                                                                                Since COVID, many professors have become more flexible about due dates. But some teachers believe that the way to address student anxiety is more deadlines, not fewer. (New Yorker) 

• Philanthropy and Trustees                                                                                                         

  Is there any institution in the United States that, though built on ideals of political neutrality, is more politically biased, more hard left, than the college campus? Is any institution more resistant to the smallest efforts at conservative reform? I don’t think so and history doesn’t, either. (Philanthropy Daily) 

• What Happens to Academia When Ideas Become Taboo?

  Are we more committed to uncovering objective truths in science, or have we become too afraid to rock the boat in fear of backlash? (Minding the Campus)

• College Students Need to Grow Up. Schools Need to Let Them.                                              

  Universities don’t openly describe students as children, but that is how they treat them. (New York Times)

• On Their Own, Without a Home, and Waiting for Federal Aid                                                        

  Why the FAFSA crisis has been especially tough on students in the direst of circumstances. (Chronicle of Higher Ed)

• Can College Campuses Get a Grip on Antisemitism?                                                                       

  If they don’t, expect a collapse of authority like what I saw as a student in the 1960s. (Wall Street Journal) 

• The State of Student Loan Forgiveness: September 2024                                                                        

  If student loan forgiveness lost in the Supreme Court, how are so many student loans still being forgiven?  (NAS Minding the Campus)

• Higher education needs to monitor these four undercurrents                                                                          

  There are undercurrents of trends in higher education that, while not apparent now, could manifest sometime in the future. (University World News)

• D.E.I. Is Not Working on Campus. We Need a New Approach.                                                          

  With colleges and universities beginning a new academic year, we can expect more contentious debate over programs that promote diversity, equity and inclusion. (New York Times)

• Massive College Closings Is The Idea That Just Won’t Die                                                           

  Today, the idea is that thousands of colleges will suffocate due to demographic trends and a loss of faith in “the return on investment.” Whatever the proffered cause, the zombie is the same – colleges cannot compete, and they are dropping like flies. Oh, the horror. (Forbes)

• Elite Universities and the Diversity Game                                                                                           

  Since the Supreme Court ruling in Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA) v. Harvard and SFFA v. University of North Carolina in June 2023 that repealed race-conscious admissions policies, many observers have wondered what would happen to the racial makeup of elite universities. In the past, such schools have proudly advertised the data on the racial makeup of incoming freshmen. So far this year, most have remained strangely silent. (City Journal)

• Make Schools Bear Some of the Risk of Student Loans

  Holding colleges and universities financially responsible is the quickest way to ensure that higher education provides good value.  (City Journal)

• Customers in the Classroom                                                                                                           

  Students increasingly treat college as a transaction. Who — or what — is to blame? (Chronicle of Higher Ed)

• New Problem With Four-Year Degrees: The Surge in College Closures                                         

  A New Problem With Four-Year Degrees: The Surge in College Closures Universities have buckled under the strain of tuition losses as the number of college-bound students continues to decline. When colleges close, the fallout for students can be catastrophic. It’s happening more often. (Wall Street Journal)

• It took years, but elite colleges are learning the value of institutional neutrality              

  Colleges and universities are getting out of the business of making political statements.Having found a topic they do not want to talk about — the war between Israel and Hamas — the presidents of elite institutions, including Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania and Cornell, have announced they will no longer issue statements on social and political events. (The Hill)

• Campus Protest Hypocrisy Reveals Need For Student Education on Free Speech                                              

  As Israel-Hamas demonstrations continue in the new school year, the misunderstanding of free speech is fueling disruption and hypocrisy on campuses. (reason)

• Congress Should Make Universities Pay For Handing Out Useless Degrees  (The Federalist) 

• Penn Suspends Amy Wax, Law Professor Accused of Making Racist Statements

  The case tested the limits of academic freedom and tenure. (New York Times) See also Glen Loury

• Congress Can Protect Jews on College Campuses

  A new bill would clarify the Civil Rights Act’s bar against antisemitism and toughen the penalties. (Wall Street Journal)

• Getting Into Yale Isn’t Enough (New York Times)

• Scathing GAO reports blame Education Department leaders for FAFSA mess

  A monthslong investigation found the department failed to properly oversee vendors and communicate with colleges and students. (Higher Ed Dive)

• ‘Abolish the Family’: UPenn writing course touts feminist slogan
  'Imagine new models of collective care together,' the course description states. (College Fix)

• Trump’s Road Map for Taking ‘Woke’ Out of American Education

  The candidate has laid out ways to step up control over diversity issues  (Wall Street Journal)

• Why Is Trump Spreading Rumors About Haitian Immigrants? Rousseau Knows Jean Jacques’ “Discourse on the Origin and Foundation of the Inequality of Mankind,” in which he explored the origins and effects of economic inequality on societies [and] observed that unequal societies are inevitably divided into two diametrically opposed classes: rich and poor….  One tool that sustained inequality, Rousseau observed, was divisiveness. (New York Times)

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GOVERNANCE

Campus Leaders Embrace Institutional Neutrality and Students Speak Out on Free Speech

Leaders at some of America’s top universities are suddenly adopting institutional neutrality policies. A lesson learned?  The presidents of Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Cornell University have announced they will no longer issue statements on social and political events. After years of pronouncing on everything from the murder of George Floyd to the Supreme Court’s decision on abortion, university leaders found themselves tongue-tied in the wake of Hamas’s terror attack on Israel. As a result, alumni revolted, donors cut off funding and politicians opened investigations. Other prominent schools, including the University of Michigan, Northwestern University, and Yale University, have set up committees to consider institutional neutrality. A new survey of college students found that the vast majority, 89 percent, believe students have a right to engage in peaceful protests. About 40 percent support occupying buildings or staging “die-ins,” 27 percent think students have the right to disrupt class to protest, and 20 percent believe it is all right to shout down a campus speaker addressing the Israel-Hamas war. Sixty-two percent of all students—and 74 percent of liberal-leaning ones—say that professors should be reported for making controversial statements. More alarmingly, 56 percent of all students—and 63 percent of liberal-leaning ones—favor reporting other students for saying something they deem offensive.  ---Elizabeth Janice

Sources

It took years, but elite colleges are learning the value of institutional neutrality (The Hill)

Campus Protest Hypocrisy Reveals Need For Student Education on Free Speech (reason)

Further Reading

Supreme Court Declines to Restart Biden’s Latest Student Debt Relief Plan (Wall Street Journal)

D.E.I. Is Not Working on Campus. We Need a New Approach. (New York Times)

House puts HHS on notice to ensure universities receiving federal funding are free of 'antisemitic behavior' (Fox News)

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The tail-end of summer—which is now—may be the best time to think about what happened last year; too late to make big decisions for the fall semester, it gives us (especially the administrators and gurus among us) more courage to face those decisions. Read on.

My thanks again to our writers Elizabeth Janice, Amy Genito, and Andrew Nason for tackling the challenge of summing up a year in a few hundred words, to our researchers Skyler Scampoli, Brittany di Palma, and Rachel Genito for pouring over thousands of headlines, and to our technical designer, Christopher Wajda, for creating the images to make our serendipitous timeline sidebars possible.  As always contact me at Peter Meyer  with questions, comments, or suggestions.

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“Political tension surrounding the Israel-Hamas war has plunged some of the nation’s most well-known college campuses into disarray.”  —University Business

Story #3

Love It or Hate It: ChatGPT in the Classroom Is (Probably) Here to Stay

Depending on whom you ask, artificial intelligence is either the greatest boon to higher education since online learning or it will lead to the destruction of academia as we know it. The reality most probably lies somewhere in between. But the sudden arrival of AI in the classroom in the form of ChatGPT—the AI program released in November 2022 by an upstart called OpenAI—and the speed with which it became, overnight, all anyone was talking about forced educators to quickly integrate the technology into the classroom. Earlier this year Arizona State University became the first higher education institution to partner with OpenAI to give ASU students and faculty access to its most advanced iteration of ChatGPT. Meanwhile, over the last year, a small number of institutions, including the University of Michigan, have created their own versions of ChatGPT for students and faculty. According to a recent study, nearly half of college students have embraced generative-AI tools, versus only 22 percent of faculty members. This disconnect highlights the need for more institutional guidance and policies on AI use in teaching and learning.                                                                     —Elizabeth Janice

Sources

ChatGPT Can Get Off My Lawn (Martin Center)

Inside the A.I. Arms Race That Changed Silicon Valley Forever (New York Times)

Arizona State Joins ChatGPT in First Higher Ed Partnership (Inside Higher Ed)

Universities Build Their Own ChatGPT-like Tools (Inside Higher Ed)

Why You Should Rethink Your Resistance to ChatGPT (Chronicle of Higher Education)

Further Reading

Why the Godfather of A.I. Fears What He’s Built (New Yorker)

How a Fervent Belief Split Silicon Valley—and Fueled the Blowup at OpenAI (Wall Street Journal)

Happy (?) First Birthday to ChatGPT (Inside Higher Ed)

Why You Shouldn’t Use ChatGPT (Inside Higher Ed)

ChatGPT Has Changed Teaching. Our Readers Tell Us How. (Chronicle of Higher Education)

Some universities are ditching AI detection software amid fears students could be falsely accused of cheating by using ChatGPT (Business Insider)

Story #2

Three Four Ivy League Presidents, All Women, Grilled by a Congressional Committee, Dodge Questions About Antisemitism; Two Three Step Down

A disastrous testimony on Capitol Hill in December of last year caused public outrage and led to the resignation of Claudine Gay of Harvard University and Elizabeth Magill of the University of Pennsylvania. Sally Kornbluth of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology survived. The nationally televised appearances before the Republican-controlled House Committee on Education and the Workforce, to answer questions about the rise in antisemitism on their campuses, was a public relations bust for the presidents.  The loud and sometimes violent student protests had quickly grown from outrage over Hamas slaughter to a Hamas-Israeli war in which the Israelis were attacked for their disproportionate responses. And that deadly response – some called it genocide -- was front and center at the hearings. (See Story #10, Part I in this trilogy). Much of the outrage centered on a line of questioning from Representative Elise Stefanik (R-NY), who repeatedly asked whether calls for “intifada” and “the genocide of Jews” constitute bullying and harassment. All three presidents appeared to dodge the question. Kornbluth, who is Jewish, said that such rhetoric could be “antisemitic depending on the context.” Penn’s Magill had a similar response. “If the speech turns into conduct, it can be harassment,” she said. The three women argued that the slogans fall within the bounds of protected speech and said they would not interfere unless demonstrations degenerated into physical violence. Within 24 hours, Gay and Magill had walked back some of their remarks, but by then the damage had already been done. Demands that the presidents resign immediately began circulating on X. Within days, Magill stepped down from Penn, followed by Gay’s resignation from Harvard a few weeks later.    AND THIS JUST IN (8/15/24):   Shafik resigns at Columbia. “The third Ivy League president to resign in the wake of turbulent congressional appearances and strife connected to the Israel-Hamas war,” reporters The New York Times. See also PTW, “Shafik Goes to Washington.” —Elizabeth Janice

Sources

Lawmakers grill 3 elite university presidents for handling of antisemitism on campus (University Business)

The Big University Fail (City Journal)

Calling for ‘genocide of Jews’ not always ‘bullying’: elite college presidents (College Fix)

House Education Committee to Investigate Harvard, MIT, UPenn over Campus Antisemitism (National Review)

Penn’s Leadership Resigns Amid Controversies Over Antisemitism (New York Times)

The Big University Fail (City Journal)

Columbia President Resigns After Months of Turmoil on Campus (New York Times)

Shafik Goes to Washington (PaideiaTimesWeekly)

Further Reading

UPenn crisis deepens: Former trustee calls for president to resign as donors bail (CNN Business)

College presidents face down House Republicans over antisemitism response (Politico)

Presidents of Harvard, MIT, Penn Profess to Congress They ‘Abhor’ Antisemitism, as Students Report Death Threats on Campus (New York Sun)

The House Republican Going After Universities on Antisemitism (New York Times)

Story #1

Claudine Gay’s Short, Scandal-Filled Tenure at Harvard

Claudine Gay, the first black person and the second woman to lead Harvard University, assumed that presidency with high expectations, but her tenure was immediately mired in scandal. She was accused of bullying colleagues, suppressing free speech, overseeing a racist admissions program, and, finally, failing to stand up to rampant antisemitism on campus. Pressure from donors along with a highly organized conservative campaign to oust her ultimately led to her losing her job. For weeks after Gay’s disastrous testimony in Congress in early December, Harvard’s governing board stood by its president. On December 12, the board put out a statement in support of Gay. From the beginning of the crisis, Gay had been barraged not just with criticism and bad press but also with death threats and racist messages and phone calls, which grew more intense as the weeks went on. Then on December 19, allegations of plagiarism in Gay’s academic work emerged, and by the day after Christmas, board members agreed that the best path forward for Harvard was without Gay in the president’s chair. In a December 27 phone call, Gay said she would resign, becoming the shortest-serving president in Harvard’s 388-year history—with a tenure of just 185 days.       —-Elizabeth Janice

Sources

When ‘Contemporary Issues’ and Campus Politics Collide (New York Times)

Is Claudine Gay a Plagiarist? (Christopher F. Rufo)    

We Sat Down With the Conservative Mastermind Behind Claudine Gay’s Ouster (Politico Magazine)

How Harvard’s Board Broke Up With Claudine Gay (New York Times)

88 Days: The Unraveling of Claudine Gay’s Harvard Presidency (Harvard Crimson)

Further Reading

After Claudine: How to Repair American Higher Education (Minding the Campus)

Claudine Gay: What Just Happened at Harvard Is Bigger Than Me (New York Times)

Claudine Gay’s ‘My Truth’ and the Truth (Wall Street Journal)

“Triumphal Pronouncements” and the Fall of Claudine Gay
(PaideiaTimesWeekly)

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Story #7

DeSantis Shakes Up Higher Education in the Sunshine State

It has been a busy year for higher education reform under Florida Governor Ron DeSantis especially as he dangled prospects of becoming an education president. He expanded restrictions on bathroom use to private colleges and universities align with their sex assigned at birth. Another new law prohibiting institutions from partnering with “countries of concern” left professors unsure whether they could hire grad students from places such as China, Iran, and Russia. The Florida Board of Education unveiled a new rule banning Florida’s public colleges from applying state and federal funding to diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and activities. Deeming it too left-wing, the board also removed Principles of Sociology from the list of courses the public-college students can take to fulfill their general-education requirements. Recently, DeSantis pushed back on federal changes to Title IX, which were set to go into effect in early August. “We will not comply, and we will fight back,” he said in a video posted on X. And let’s not forget New College of Florida, the small honors college overhauled by DeSantis and his friends. Among other things, they fired the president, hired a new one, ended DEI operations, and abolished the gender studies major. Whether this was a hostile right-wing takeover or an example of how a strong governor and a few savvy and fearless conservatives can enact genuine reform depends on one’s political point of view.

Sources

Florida’s private colleges and universities must comply with rule requiring people to use bathrooms aligning with their sex assigned at birth (CNN)

New law could subject graduate assistants from China and other “countries of concern” to extra screening (Chronicle of Higher Education)

Florida Public Colleges Banned from Using State and Federal Funding for DEI (National Review)

Florida’s Shunning of Sociology Should Be a Wake-Up Call (Wall Street Journal)

DeSantis: Florida ‘will not comply’ with new Biden Title IX rules (The Hill)

The Trustee Solution (City Journal)

Further Reading

Department of Education Opens Civil-Rights Probe into New College of Florida following DeSantis Overhaul (National Review)

The Administrative Overhaul of New College of Florida (Inside Higher Ed)

Florida Takes the Classic Learning Test (Wall Street Journal)

DeSantis orders Florida universities to waive certain transfer requirements for Jewish students (The Alligator)

DeSantis, Florida university system demand campuses shut down pro-Palestinian student group (Higher Ed Dive)

Story #6

A War of Words on Campus

As the Hamas attack on Israel quickly escalated to full-blown war in October of last year, college presidents struggled to find the right words to describe it; students walked out of classes, faculty members signed petitions, and donors threatened to close their checkbooks over colleges’ response to the bloodshed. Blamed for saying too much, too little, or not the right thing, a growing number of leaders have decided to say nothing at all. University of Florida president Ben Sasse called out fellow higher-ed leaders for not forcefully denouncing Hamas. Colleges can’t selectively decide when to wade into current events or public controversies, he said. “You can’t talk about everything—from Halloween costumes to culture wars, from international affairs to Supreme Court cases—and then not talk about the slaughter of innocent Jews.” The board of advisors at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton business school recently recommended in a letter that Penn amend the university’s code of conduct. Among the proposals: Students and faculty will not “engage in hate speech, whether veiled or explicit, that incites violence.” And Harvard University announced that it will take steps to “more fully integrate antisemitism into the work” of its Office for Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging. 

---Elizabeth Janice

Sources

The Third Rail of Higher Ed (Chronicle of Higher Education)

The Fall of Penn’s President Magill Brings Campus Free Speech to a Crossroads (New York Times)

Further Reading

Can These College Presidents Help Revive Campus Democratic Discourse? (Forbes)

The Enemy Within: Former College Presidents Offer Warnings (Forbes)

We 7 former Florida college presidents say enough is enough (Tampa Bay Times)

The disgraceful, ducking, diving, dodging college presidents (The Spectator)

University Presidents Defend ‘Open Discourse’ When Confronted on Antisemitism Surge at Hearing (National Review)

Balancing Academic Independence: Beyond Congressional Oversight (Minding the Campus)

‘Arrogance, Ineptness, or Indifference’: Virginia Foxx Says Harvard Has Not Complied with Education Committee’s Subpoena (National Review)

Story #5

A Debt Relief Roller Coaster: From Legal Battles to Processing Woes, Borrowers and Colleges Navigated a Year of Financial Aid Turmoils

College-student borrowers rode a roller coaster of ups and downs in 2024, resulting in debt-relief whiplash and chaos surrounding blunders with the new Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form, leaving tens of thousands of students, families, and college admissions officers reeling from the ride. When President Biden’s student-debt forgiveness plan was blocked by the Supreme Court and ruled unconstitutional in June 2023, the administration immediately responded by announcing a plan B to establish new pathways to forgiveness using provisions of the Higher Education Act. In March 2024, Biden announced forgiveness of $6 billion in student loans for nearly 80,000 public service workers, correcting past errors with the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program and extending relief to over 870,000 borrowers, compared to just 7,000 before his term. Biden’s latest plan, announced this summer, promises relief for tens of millions of borrowers, including those who have been paying on loans for many years. As hopes were rising, however, lawsuits and a federal appeals court blocked key parts of the new income-driven repayment plan, Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE), this July, impacting over eight million borrowers. Weeks later, in a shocking move, the Eighth Circuit Court halted the SAVE plan entirely, forcing the Department of Education to suspend payments for borrowers enrolled in SAVE while the case moves through the courts. Riding along the debt-relief roller coaster was the all-important FAFSA form, which gave parents, students, and admissions officers a chance to get their financial houses in order but immediately ran into trouble. Following an update to the system, the 2024 FAFSA was released months behind schedule and was fraught with technical glitches and processing delays. It was a winter of discontent that lasted well into spring and was dubbed the “FAFSA Fiasco”—the newest f-word in education—causing a drop in college applications and jeopardizing the timely distribution of $1.8 billion in aid. Compounding problems, in a late July announcement the Department of Education reversed its earlier promise to roll out a corrected FAFSA form by mid-August, with no mention of a new timeline. Buckle up for more twists and turns ahead.                                                   ---Amy Genito

Sources:

Biden Announced Loan Forgiveness a Year Ago. The Battle Was Only Beginning. (Inside Higher Ed)

Biden Announces Student Loan Debt Relief Plans for Millions (New York Times)

            Biden cancels nearly $6 billion in student debt for public service workers (NPR) 

Courts grant injunctions against Biden’s student loan repayment plan (Washington Post)

               Biden kicks sweeping student debt relief plan into gear (Washington Post)

Supreme Court Strikes Down Biden’s Student-Loan Forgiveness Plan (Wall Street Journal)

FAFSA Fiasco (Inside Higher Ed)

Education Department reverses course on batch FAFSA corrections (Higher Ed Dive)

Further Reading:

Legal Challenges to Biden’s SAVE Plan Ramp Up (Inside Higher Ed) 

Judges Block Parts of Biden's Student Loan Repayment Plan (New York Times)

End-of-Year FAFSA Launch Could Cause More Delays, Headaches (Inside Higher Ed)

New FAFSA rollout planned by end of December (Higher Ed Dive)

Education Department expects delay in initial processing of FAFSA forms (Washington Post) 

Biden Administration Refines Student Debt Relief Plans (Inside Higher Ed)

How the White House Keeps Canceling Student Debt After Supreme Court Ruling (Wall Street Journal)

Biden Administration Refines Student Debt Relief Plans (Inside Higher Ed)

Is College Worth It? Depends on the Student Debt. (Chronicle of Higher Education)

There’s a Program to Cancel Private Student Debt. Most Don’t Know About It. (New York Times)

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This special issue begins with a few facts about the archive we used to create it:  819 pages of headlines and summaries of stories about (mostly) American colleges, over 11,000 headlines, covering nine months, from October to July. The Word app says that it amounts to 167,070 words, 2,532 kilobytes – and it’s all searchable.  Harvard is mentioned 995 times; Yale, just 124.  New York Times, six times; Wall Street Journal, 482. But wait, nytimes gets 523 search result votes and wsj just 55.  How about The Chronicle (32) and just chronicle (902)?  We might have been tempted to put this little database through the AI meatgrinder; instead, we have written a story about ChatGPT and made it one of the year’s top ten stories. You can read three of the top stories of the year in this issue, Part I, of our Year in Review (numbers 10 through 8), here now below; the remaining seven will be in the next two issues, Parts II and III—see if you’re surprised—a year that we believe will be one of the most memorable in the last half-century, which is one reasons we call it Whiplash, a word that appeared only two times among the 167,000 we searched. (historic: 46, unprecedented: 6.) And this is also one reason we call our Timeline of the past year a serendipitous one; it ain’t rocket science or artificial intelligence or fake news or even skin deep—but it provides a challenging perspective on the year.

We don’t celebrate what happened by any means, but we congratulate our nation’s rich media coverage of these head-spinning events and recognize the persistence of, if not always the benefit of, the “if it bleeds it ledes” ethos.  A whiff of cherry blossoms is not the stuff of tear gas. But we hope this is a valuable contribution to the first draft of real history.

And the tail-end of summer—which is now—may be the best time to think about what happened last year; too late to make big decisions for the fall semester, it gives us (especially the administrators among us) more courage to face them.

My thanks to our writers Elizabeth Janice, Amy Genito, and Andrew Nason for tackling the challenge of summing up a year in a few hundred words, to our researchers Skyler Scampoli, Brittany di Palma, and Rachel Genito for pouring over thousands of headlines, and to our designer, Christopher Wajda, for creating the images to make these timeline sidebars possible.  As always contact me at Peter Meyer  with questions, comments, or suggestions.

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Story #10

What Was Behind the Pro-Palestinian Campus Protests?

There are many theories about what precipitated the immediate and vocal pro-Palestinian outpouring of support for this year’s Hamas/Israeli war—the one started by a massacre of mostly Israeli citizens last October 7. But when Osama bin Laden’s 2002 “Letter to America” went viral  just weeks after the Muslim terrorist group attack, it was clear to some that an antisemitic fuse had been lit long before Israel began its Gazan bombing campaign. The “Letter to America” from the 9/11 attack Muslim mastermind was first published in 2002 and attempted to justify the targeting and killing of American civilians. It was widely condemned at the time. But according to Christopher Nadon, a professor of government at Claremont McKenna College (CMC), a colleague of his at CMC, a cultural Marxist professor, had lectured a staff meeting on the need to understand and sympathize with the 19 [9/11 attackers] as “unfortunate men who had been driven to their martyrdom by Western colonial oppression.” “Those in the towers,” says Nadon about his  Marxist colleague, “had it coming.” Nadon says that other colleagues at the time “reacted… with derision and contempt. But the virus had arrived.” And it was this virus, Nadon argues, that had spread in classrooms on campuses all over the country in the ensuing two decades and explains, according to Nadon, why bin Laden’s letter went viral on social media last fall, with many students actually praising it, espousing what some of their professors have been teaching for years; that “the West is a totally rotten, corrupt place.” This year what began as a handful of statements by student activists who followed instructions from groups like Students for Justice in Palestine quickly snowballed into a popular cause. For some, praising Hamas became “a way to bundle their discontents and antipathies into one giant outrage,” according to Peter W. Wood, writing in The Spectator. In January students at Harvard filed a lawsuit against the university, claiming it failed to protect Jewish students from “severe and pervasive” antisemitic harassment sparked by the Israel-Hamas war. In a 79-page federal civil complaint, they said the university “has become a bastion of rampant anti-Jewish hatred and harassment.”  This quiet revolution – a virus?—could signal the most important question of the 2023-24 college year, a nexus where academic freedom, free speech, and intellectual and academic standards come together –and decide to work out some rules or throw in the towel.                                  ---Elizabeth Janice

Sources

Osama bin Laden, Big Man on Campus (Wall Street Journal)

Behind the anger of the young American Hamas apologists (The Spectator)

Harvard Students Sue University over Failure to Address ‘Severe and Pervasive’ Antisemitic Harassment on Campus (National Review)

Further Reading

What Universities Should Punish and What They Shouldn’t (Reason)

Should colleges and universities speak on political issues? (The Hill)

Why Campus Life Fell Apart (Chronicle of Higher Education)

The Feds Have Been Flooded With Campus Complaints of Anti-Jewish Bias. Now What? (Chronicle of Higher Education)

Columbia U. Investigates Reports of ‘Unknown Substance’ Sprayed at Pro-Palestinian Rally (Chronicle of Higher Education)

Story #9

Brain Drain in Florida as Liberal-Leaning Academics Begin to Flee

Florida governor Ron DeSantis—for whom Donald Trump officially retired the nickname “Ron DeSanctimonious”—is known for his war on “woke activism” in education. The last presidential hopefuls to focus on education reform were Michael Bloomberg and Jeb Bush. Even with DeSantis dropping out of the presidential race, higher education policy, typically a backburner issue, is poised to play a prominent role in this year’s election. Republicans have latched on to the issue, and so Republican presidential candidate Trump, who focused little on it in his first term, has been talking about it more—saying that the system is out of touch with everyday Americans, threatening to fire what he calls “radical left” accreditors and proposing a plan for free, online national universities. DeSantis continues to reshape the higher education system in his state to fit his conservative principles (see also “DeSantis Continues to Shake Up Higher Education”), and some liberal-leaning professors have had enough. Departure rates have been slowly ticking upward at colleges and universities across the state. At the University of Florida, for example, overall turnover went from 7 percent in 2021 to 9.3 percent in 2023. The University of Florida’s law school has been particularly hard hit, with a 30 percent faculty turnover rate this year.                                                                      ---Elizabeth Janice

Sources

‘DeSanctimonious’ No More: Trump Says He’ll Drop Ex-Rival’s Nickname (New York Times)

Higher Education in Political Crosshairs as 2024 Election Heats Up (Inside Higher Ed)

In Florida’s Hot Political Climate, Some Faculty Have Had Enough (New York Times)

Further Reading

Facing Off in Washington, DeSantis Tries to Shake Trump’s Hold on Christian Right (New York Times)

New College of Florida approves Corcoran’s president contract—doubling his predecessor’s salary (Higher Ed Dive)

College Board Confirmed to Have Removed Various CRT Topics from African-American Studies Curriculum following DeSantis Pushback (National Review)

AAUP: DeSantis’s Florida Part of ‘Assault on Democracy Worldwide’ (Inside Higher Ed)

The Biggest Threat to America’s Universities (New York Times)

Why Faculty Members Are Fleeing Florida (Chronicle of Higher Education)

The Christian Liberal-Arts School at the Heart of the Culture Wars (New Yorker)

Story #8

The Year in College Sports: Upheaval and an Abundance of Lawsuits

It’s been a tumultuous year in college sports, with, for example, “obituaries” declaring amateurism officially dead. shock waves from a reconfigured Power 5 major college athletic conferences—and related mega-bucks media deals—that have forever changed the Division I Conference landscape, and, unfortunately, the Mel Tucker football coach scandal at Michigan, which proved that in some areas, at least, change is hard to come by. The inevitable move toward paying students could come as early as the 2025-26 academic year, with a landmark settlement between the NCAA and Power 5 that would require the NCAA to dole out $2.8 billion in past damages and allow Division I schools to pay roughly $20 million a year to their athletes. Many smaller Division I programs, like that of Houston Christian University, are concerned that the financial obligations in the agreement will benefit the richest schools.

Meanwhile, federal lawmakers are pondering an independent regulatory body that would oversee national NIL (name, image, and likeness) rules and procedures. Plenty of thorny issues are still pending in court: past payment to athletes not covered by that landmark settlement; how closely schools will need to follow Title IX rules when compensating athletes; and the NCAA’s transgender eligibility policies. Another unresolved matter is whether student athletes are employees. Earlier this year, when members of Dartmouth’s men’s basketball team voted 13–2 to unionize, as part of the Service Employees International Union, the college announced it would not bargain with them and reserved the option of refusing to do so pending a final ruling by the National Labor Relations Board. In a related decision seen as a setback for the NCAA, the Third Circuit Court ruled that student athletes may qualify as employees. 

If we needed reminding that media contracts and student pay aren’t the only things that can shake up big programs, Michigan State ousted Mel Tucker over allegations of sexual misconduct. Rightly or wrongly, the saga was compared to other infamous college-sports sex abuse cases, as schools search for a remedy for such pernicious, recurring episodes. The Mel Tucker story is likely to continue now that he has sued Michigan State for wrongful termination.                                       ---Andrew Nason

Sources

NCAA settlement a historic day for paying college athletes. What comes next? (ESPN)

Revenue-sharing with major college football players seems ‘inevitable.’ How could it be done? (AP)

NCAA Agrees to Share Revenue With Athletes in Landmark $2.8 Billion Settlement (Wall Street Journal) 

N.C.A.A. Settlement Agreement Reveals How Colleges Would Pay Athletes (New York Times)

House lawmakers weigh bipartisan proposal to establish national NIL rules (Higher Ed Dive)

Dartmouth refuses to work with basketball players’ union, potentially sending case to federal court (AP)

Michigan State Plans to Fire Its Football Coach After Fallout Over Harassment Allegations (Chronicle of Higher Education)

Further Reading

1983 NC State title team members sue NCAA over NIL compensation (ESPN)

NCAA Cheats Female Athletes—Again (Wall Street Journal)  

Utah Universities Challenge Decision Making NIL Contracts Public (Inside Higher Ed)

The N.C.A.A. Agreed to Pay Players. It Won’t Call Them Employees. (New York Times)

Are NCAA Athletes Amateurs Anymore? (Wall Street Journal) 
College Athletes Sue NCAA Over Trans Eligibility Policies (Inside Higher Ed)

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October

• The College Backlash Is Going Too Far (The Atlantic, 10/3)

• Biden Cancels an Additional $9 Billion in Student Loan #Debt (NYT, 10/4)

• The End of Race-Conscious Admissions Opens Up a Fraught New Era (Chronicle of Higher Ed, 10/4)

• A New Effort to Make College Aid Offers Easy to Understand (NYT, 10/6)

• Harvard Shrugs at Jew-Hatred (WSJ, 10/10)

• Blaming Israel for Hamas Attacks Sparks Backlash Across U.S., Exposing Deep Rifts (WSJ, 10/11)

• Heightened Security and Shouting Matches Animate Pro-Palestinian ‘Day of Resistance’ (Chronicle of Higher Ed, 10/12)

• The Latest Victims of the Free-Speech Crisis (The Atlantic, 10/28)

back to Whiplash: Special Issue: Part I

November 

• US campuses confront extent of donor influence after Israel rows  (Times Higher Ed, 11/6)

• Billions at stake as US student athlete lawsuit wins group statu (Times Higher Ed, 11/7)

• America’s Universities Need Serious Regulation (WSJ, 11/12)

•  The Dangers of Donor Revolt (Chronicle of Higher Ed, 11/13)

•  Legacy admissions remains in the spotlight. But accurate data on the subject is elusive. (Higher Ed Dive, 11/14)

• A.C.L.U. Sues DeSantis Over Crackdown on Pro-Palestinian Group (NYT, 11/16)

• Student Borrowers Tap a New Path to Loan Forgiveness: Bankruptcy

• How a Pro-Palestinian Student Group Became a Leader of Campus Protests (NYT, 11/17)

• A Free-Speech Fix for Our Divided Campuses (WSJ)

•  War and the Collapse of the Campus Speech Consensus (Chronicle of Higher Ed, 11/29)

back to Whiplash: Special Issue: Part I

December

• The NCAA’s Radical Proposal to Pay Division I Athletes (WSJ, 12/5)

• Harvard keeps Claudine Gay as president, despite growing concerns (Times Higher Ed, 12/6)

• The New Antisemitism Is the Oldest Kind (WSJ, 12/7)

• Penn Donor Threatens to Rescind $100 Million Gift Unless President Is Ousted (WSJ, 12/7)

•  This Is a Golden Age of Academic Unionization (Chronicle of Higher Ed, 12/8)

• Harvard’s President Should Resign (The Atlantic, 12/ 11)

• How Bad Are the Plagiarism Allegations Against the Harvard President? It Depends on Whom You Ask. (Chronicle of Higher Ed, 12/ 12)

• The Hypocrisy Underlying the Campus-Speech Controversy (The Atlantic, 12/20)

• Harvard Finds More Instances of ‘Duplicative Language’ in Claudine Gay’s Work (NYT, 12/20)

• Congress’s College Financial Aid Fiasco (WSJ, 12/12)

• As Pressure on Harvard President Increases, University Board Feels the Squeeze (WSJ, 12/25)

back to Whiplash: Special Issue: Part I

2024

January       

• Can Colleges Protect Jewish Students? (Chronicle of Higher Ed, 1/2)

• Harvard President Resigns After Mounting Plagiarism Accusations (NYT, 1/2)

• Onward with Inclusiveness (City Journal, 1/2)

• House Republicans to Broaden Higher Education Inquiry Beyond Antisemitism  (NYT, 1/5)

• Conservatives Toppled Two College Presidents. They’re Not Done Yet. (WSJ, 1/5)

• How ‘Antiracism’ Becomes Antisemitism (WSJ, 1/5)

• Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts to end degree programs (Higher Ed Dive, 1/12)

• Harvard, Penn, MIT and Cornell face new House probe over campus antisemitism (Higher Ed Dive, 1/12)

• Colleges won’t receive FAFSA applicant info until March, Education Department says (Higher Ed Dive, 1/30)

back to Whiplash: Special Issue: Part II

February

• Fafsa: US student aid woes slow admissions cycle  (Times Higher Ed, 2/1)

• Harvard’s chief diversity officer faces plagiarism allegations  (Times Higher Ed, 2/1)

• This week in 5 numbers: Another FAFSA delay (Higher Ed Dive, 2/2)

• Education Department to ease FAFSA verification requirements this year (Higher Ed Dive, 2/13)

• House committee subpoenas Harvard in antisemitism probe (Higher Ed Dive, 2/16)

• Standardized Activism (City Journal, 2/19)

• Students Aren’t the Obstacle to Open Debate at Harvard (WSJ, 2/22)

• Harvard’s Plagiarism Problem Multiplies (City Journal, 2/22)

back to Whiplash: Special Issue: Part II

March

• Report Helps Answer the Question: Is a College Degree Worth the Cost? (NYT, 3/1)

• This week in 5 numbers: Transfer enrollment shows signs of pandemic recovery (Higher Ed Dive, 3/1)

• University of Florida ends diversity and equality efforts (Times Higher Ed, 3/4)

• Trump and His Allies Are Preparing to Overhaul Higher Education (Chronicle of Higher Ed, 3/6)

• How to Fix the Crisis of Trust in Higher Education  (NYT, 3/6)

• The Worst Way to Do College Admissions (NYT, 3/7)

• Biden proposes free community college, Pell Grant increases in FY25 budget (Higher Ed Dive, 3/11)

• The Most Confusing, Chaotic College Admissions Season in Years (WSJ, 3/12)

• Education Department plans to ramp up transmission of FAFSA data to colleges (Higher Ed Dive, 3/14)

back to Whiplash: Special Issue: Part II

 April

• 330,000 FAFSAs must be reprocessed, Education Department says (Higher Ed Dive, 4/2)

• This week in 5 numbers: Another FAFSA glitch (Higher Ed Dive, 4/5)

•  Education Department is ‘concerned’ about potential OPM failures as groups sound alarm on 2U (Higher Ed Dive, 4/5)

•  Biden rolls out major new student debt forgiveness plan  (Times Higher Ed, 4/8)

•  US faculty and campus leaders split wider over free speech  (Times Higher Ed, 4/11)

• Harvard and Caltech Will Require Test Scores for Admission (NYT, 4/ 11)

•  Columbia president grilled by lawmakers on Gaza protest response  (Times Higher Ed, 4/17)

• Abolish DEI Statements  (The Atlantic) Apr 18

• Columbia students fight back against protest crackdown  (Times Higher Ed, 4/22)

back to Whiplash: Special Issue: Part III

May

• A Second Chance  (City Journal, 5/6)

• IT Will No Longer Require Diversity Statements for Hiring Faculty  (NYT, 5/6)

• U.S.C. Tries to Manage ‘Train Wreck’ of a Graduation  (NYT, 5/8)

• U.S.C. President Censured by Academic Senate After Weeks of Turmoil  (NYT, 5/8)

• The Kids Are Not All Right. They Want to Be Heard (The New Yorker, 5/8)

• Cornell University’s President Is Resigning, the Third Ivy-League Leader to Depart Since December  (WSJ, 5/9)

• Put Down the Megaphones (City Journal, 5/10)

• Police Move In on Pro-Palestinian Protest Encampment at Penn (WSJ, 5/10)

• The Radical Case for Free Speech (The New Yorker, 5/10)

• More Than 100 Colleges Saw Protests Demanding Divestment From Israel This Spring (Chronicle of Higher Ed, 5/14)

• Save Higher Ed With the Chicago Principles  (WSJ, 5/14) 

• Will Louisiana require Ten Commandments displays in public colleges? (Higher Ed Dive, 5/23)

• House lawmakers grill university leaders over response to campus encampments (Higher Ed Dive, 5/23)

• Private equity-backed venture wants to cash in on college sports (Higher Ed Dive, 5/24)

• This week in 5 numbers: Spring 2024 sees uptick in undergraduate enrollment (Higher Ed Dive, 5/24)

• Delaware arts college to shutter, citing falling enrollment and FAFSA challenges (Higher Ed Dive, 5/28)

• This week in 5 numbers: FAFSA submissions unlikely to match last year’s rate (Higher Ed Dive, 5/31)

back to Whiplash: Special Issue: Part III

June

• The Martyr of Harvard’s Encampment (WSJ, 6/2)

• Speech Under the Shadow of Punishment  (The New Yorker, 6/3)

• Pro-Palestinian Protesters Arrested at Stanford After Takeover of President’s Office (WSJ, 6/6)

• Penn Bans Protest Encampments From Its Campus for the First Time  (NYT, 6/6)

• The Impossible College Presidency (Chronicle of Higher Ed, 6/11)

• Here’s what to know about a stalled $237M donation to Florida A&M (WaPo, 6/14)

• An Attack on Free Speech at Harvard  (The Atlantic, 6/21)

•  Columbia suspends top officials over antisemitism event texting (Times Higher Ed, 6/24)

• US judge blocks Biden regulation of for-profit colleges (Times Higher Ed, 6/24)

•  3 Columbia University employees placed on leave after leaked text exchanges (Higher Ed Dive, 6/24)

• Courts grant injunctions against Biden’s student loan repayment plan (WaPo, 6/25)

•  ‘Like climbing up Mount Everest’: Financial aid professionals describe a grueling FAFSA season (Higher Ed Dive, 6/27)

• Biden administration pauses collection on some student loans (WaPo, 6/28)

• Race was once factored into college admissions. Now, it’s factored out. (WaPo, 6/29)

back to Whiplash: Special Issue: Part III

Before our brief summer break, however, I want to also offer you a hint (another one) about what one of our major stories of the year will probably be: our poor higher ed punching bags in the Ivy Leagues. It’s tough being the best. A recent survey finds fewer than 10 percent of Americans think that Ivy leaguers are “better workers.” But it’s also good to remember, as William “God and Man at Yale” Buckley once said, “there are plenty of places to get a Yale education.”  Maybe so, but not every college has a Skull and Bones club.

And so we send you off to your continuing summer R&Rs with three tantalizing stories from Elizabeth “EJ” Janice this week about—what else?—the Ivys! 

Enjoy.  And do let me know what your favorite college stories, subjects, writers, professors, students, presidents, and trends of 2023–24 are.  Enjoy the issue.  See you in a few weeks. Albest,   Peter Meyer 

Source

Americans Unimpressed with Ivy Leagues  (RealClear Education) 

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Three Columbia Deans Placed on Leave Following Texting Scandal

Three deans at Columbia University have been placed on leave after they reportedly were caught mocking a campus panel on antisemitism in a group text-message chat. Dean Josef Sorett informed staff that Susan Chang-Kim, Matthew Patashnick, and Cristen Kromm, all associate deans and administrators at Columbia, were on leave “pending an investigation.” The incident took place at a panel discussion about Jewish life held during alumni weekend. The administrators exchanged crass messages, including vomit emojis, in response to the mention of an op-ed about rampant antisemitism on campus that Columbia rabbi Yonah Hain wrote last fall, as well as a text accusing one panelist of “taking full advantage of this moment” for “huge fundraising potential.” An audience member sitting behind Chang-Kim, Columbia’s vice dean and chief administrative officer, took photos of text exchanges on her phone. The screenshots soon went viral. “I’m going to throw up,” Chang-Kim wrote to her colleagues about an hour into the panel. “Amazing what $$$$ can do,” replied Kromm, the dean of undergraduate student life. Chang-Kim also exchanged texts with Sorett. The dean allegedly responded with “LMAO” (“laughing my ass off”) to a text calling Columbia Hillel director Brian Cohen “our hero.” Sorett is cooperating with a university investigation and still serves as dean. ---Elizabeth Janice

Sources

Columbia administrators caught mocking antisemitism panel via text messages now on leave (College Fix)

Columbia University Puts 3 Administrators on Leave (Inside Higher Education)

Three Columbia University deans placed on administrative leave over disparaging texts (Fox News)

‘Amazing what $$$$ can do’: New Text Messages Show Columbia Deans Sneering at ‘Privilege’ of Jewish Students (Washington Free Beacon)

3 Columbia Deans Placed on Leave Over Conduct at Antisemitism Panel (New York Times)

Further Reading

Columbia suspends top officials over antisemitism event texting (Times Higher Education)

This week in 5 numbers: Columbia employees placed on leave (Higher Ed Dive)

3 Columbia University employees placed on leave after leaked text exchanges (Higher Ed Dive)

3 Columbia University administrators put on leave over alleged text exchange at antisemitism panel (NBC News)

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Shortstack: Ten Commandments, Protecting Professors from AI, A Farewell to Academe, $1.6 Trillion in Student Debt, and more….

• California’s proposed law against AI replacing human professors:  (University World News) The state legislature of California has sent to Governor Gavin Newsom’s desk a bill that prevents the state’s 116 community colleges from replacing instructors with bots or generative artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT.

• How will Louisiana's Ten Commandments classroom requirement work?  (Los Angeles Times)  Unless a court halts the legislation, schools have slightly more than five months before they will be required to have a poster-sized display of the Ten Commandments in all public school K-12 and state-funded university classrooms. 

• Farewell to Academe:  (The Atlantic) After 42 years of academic life—not counting five years spent getting a Ph.D.—I am hanging it up.

• Geopolitical tensions dim prospects for US-China exchanges: (University World News) Reports of Chinese students being turned back at United States airports despite having valid student visas, and recent remarks by senior US administration officials on the need to move away from over-reliance on Chinese researchers have signalled what some academics see as a “ratcheting up” of the science and technology rivalry between China and the US.

• US universities fear new Supreme Court ruling on regulations: (Times Higher Education)  Apparent elimination of longstanding regulatory process leaves higher education experts expecting more costs, complexities and confusions

• Student Loan Borrowers Owe $1.6 Trillion. Nearly Half Aren’t Paying: (New York Times) Millions of people are overdue on their federal loans or still have them paused — and court rulings keep upending collection efforts.

  -----------

Harvard Task Forces Find ‘Climate of Intolerance’ for Jewish and Muslim Students

Two Harvard University task forces paint a disturbing picture of life on campus for Jewish, Muslim, and Arab students, finding they are harassed, bullied, and discriminated against. The task forces, one that studied antisemitism and another that covered anti-Muslim and anti-Arab bias, released separate reports. The antisemitism task force calls the situation for pro-Israel students “dire” and cites reports of faculty discriminating against or harassing students because they are Israeli or pro-Israel. It also cites an ideological “litmus test” that prevents pro-Israel students from participating in certain extracurricular activities. The investigation into anti-Muslim and anti-Arab bias found that the freedom of expression of Palestinian and pro-Palestinian students has been broadly suppressed, with many students feeling the words “Palestine” and “Palestinian” are taboo on campus. A group of Harvard students is now suing the university, claiming the campus “has become a bastion of rampant anti-Jewish hatred and harassment.” A spokesperson for the students said the Ivy League university can protect Jewish students “in the same way that they protect gender pronouns.” ---Elizabeth Janice

Sources

Harvard Finds Jewish and Muslim Students Were Harassed, Bullied and Discriminated Against (Wall Street Journal)

Harvard Task Forces Find Climate of Bias for Both Jewish and Muslim Groups (New York Times)

Harvard slammed for ‘smoke and mirrors’ anti-Semitism response: ‘They actually make things worse’ (Fox News)

Further Reading

Jewish Groups Bring 19th-Century Weapon to Legal Fight against Antisemitism at Columbia: The KKK Act (National Review)

At Stanford, 2 Reports on Bias Show Extent of Divide Between Jews and Muslims (New York Times)

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Criminal Charges Dropped for Columbia Protestors & Yale Hid Millions in Qatari Funding

Criminal charges have been dropped for dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters who were arrested after occupying a building at Columbia University last spring. Prosecutors said that 31 people who overtook Hamilton Hall on April 30 would no longer face trespassing charges because there was limited evidence against them. The protesters covered security cameras after entering the building; therefore, there wasn’t any footage showing they damaged university property or harmed anyone, according to the Manhattan district attorney’s office. A new report alleges that Yale University failed to disclose millions of dollars in Qatari contributions—in violation of federal law. Yale reported receiving $284,668 from 2012 to 2023 from Qatari donors, a far cry from the total sum of at least $15,925,711 that the university actually acquired, according to the investigation, which was conducted by the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy. “Enforcement of the legislation is lax, to say the least,” Charles Asher Small, executive director of ISGAP, told the National Review. “There’s no such thing as a free lunch. When our terror-friendly adversaries pour money into our colleges and universities, it’s safe to say they want something in return.”   ---Elizabeth Janice

Sources

Charges Dropped Against Dozens of Pro-Palestinian Protesters at Columbia University (Wall Street Journal)

Yale University Failed to Disclose Qatari Contributions in Violation of Federal Law, New Study Finds (National Review)

Further Reading

Four Penn students suspended over pro-Palestinian demonstration (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Charges dropped for Columbia University students arrested at pro-Palestinian protests (Reuters)

Manhattan DA drops charges against Columbia University students arrested at anti-Israel protests (Fox News)

Dropping Charges Against Columbia Protesters is ‘Wrong,’ Says Janitor (Free Press)

Pennsylvania Senate passes bill to bar universities and pension funds from divesting from Israel (AP News)

House Committee on China to Probe Harvard’s Handling of Anti-CCP Protest at HKS (Harvard Crimson)

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State support for public colleges rose last year, surpassing pre–Great Recession levels for only the second year since 2008, according to an annual report from the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association. For every full-time student, states paid $11,040 on average nationwide in fiscal year 2023, a 3.7 percent increase after accounting for inflation. The growth in state support is partly due to dwindling federal stimulus dollars and the decline in students attending public colleges. Enrollment at community colleges has gone down by nearly 12 percent since 2019, and at four-year public colleges by more than 3 percent; it’s now roughly flat with pre-recession levels. But for some public colleges, modest increases to their state support may not be enough to offset the negative consequences of falling enrollment, anemic net-tuition revenue, and the end of federal stimulus money. As the report states: “The continued decline in net tuition revenue puts greater pressure on states to not cut funding to public higher education in the coming years.”    –Elizabeth Janice

Source

State Support for Colleges Continues to Rise as Federal Aid and Tuition Revenue Fall, Report Shows  (Chronicle of Higher Education)

Further Reading

Bowling Green State University Reports Record $121 Million Scholarship Gift  (Forbes)

BOARD OF TRUSTEES OKS TUITION INCREASES FOR ALABAMA SYSTEM (WVUA 23)

‘An affordable education’: Daytona State College averts tuition increase once again   (Daytona Beach News Journal)

Fiery Clashes and Faith-Based Unity: A Stanford Rally and ACE’s New Initiative

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, a Stanford interfaith rally against terror turned contentious when hundreds of rally participants bearing Israeli flags clashed with pro-Palestinian campers. Organizer Aaron Schimmel emphasized the march’s focus on “defending core freedoms” at the university. Amid these tensions, the American Council on Education (ACE) launched its Commission on Faith-Based Colleges and Universities in Washington, D.C., bringing together 35 campus presidents from 50 religiously affiliated institutions like Catholic University of America and Brigham Young University. Ted Mitchell, president of ACE, pointed out that religiously affiliated institutions excel at nurturing a “sense of belonging,” a key factor in keeping students engaged and enrolled in higher education. Shirley V. Hoogstra, co-chair of the ACE commission, praised faith-based institutions for their role in cultivating character, purpose, and a service-oriented ethos that are crucial for students’ mental well-being and sense of fulfillment. She advocated for universities to embrace students’ spiritual dimensions, aligning with ACE’s mission to share these transformative values widely. –Amy Genito

Sources

Verbal clashes mark ‘interfaith’ march to encampment at Stanford  (San Francisco Chronicle) 

New Commission on Faith-Based Institutions Launched  (Inside Higher Ed)

Further Reading

US faith-based campuses feel a political moment  (Times Higher Education)

Faith-based universities: Stability in a fragmented nation?  (University World News)

Shortstack: An AI Guide, the End of Title IX, the Endangered Small College, and More

• Harvard Task Forces Find Climate of Bias for Both Jewish and Muslim Groups: Groups investigating antisemitism and anti-Muslim bias cited instances of discrimination against pro-Israel students and “a pervasive climate of intolerance” against pro-Palestinian students. (New York Times)

• Judge halts further student loan forgiveness under part of Biden’s new repayment plan: A federal judge on Monday temporarily barred the Education Department from allowing additional loan forgiveness under a key component of President Joe Biden’s student debt relief plan. (NBC News)

• A New Guide for Responsible AI Use in Higher Ed: Generative artificial intelligence holds “tremendous promise” in nearly every facet of higher education, but there need to be guardrails, policies and strong governance for the technology, according to a new report. (Inside Higher Ed)

• The End of Title IX: The wave of boys in girls’ sports is growing, and if President Biden gets his way, that wave will crash across the country, sweeping away titles, honors, and scholarships for girls in the process. (RealClearEducation)

• The Endangered Small College: Many are on the brink, but they’ve never been more vital. (Chronicle of Higher Education)

• Columbia suspends top officials over antisemitism event texting: After enduring harsh national spotlight for pro-Palestinian student protests, Ivy League campus investigates case that hands its conservative critics powerful new ammunition. (Times Higher Education)

Colorado to Make College Free for the First Two Years

Colorado governor Jared Polis has signed a bill that establishes a state-level promise program to cover 100 percent of tuition and fees for up to two years at trade schools and community colleges, as well as four-year institutions (a rare provision in such plans). The bill, which passed with overwhelming bipartisan support, creates a refundable income tax credit that will cover the cost of two years of in-state college for students from families making less than $90,000 a year. The goal is to increase access to higher education and also to encourage students to stay in the Rocky Mountain state—nearly a third of Colorado high school graduates go out of state for college. Eligible students can begin claiming the credit on their 2025 taxes. Higher education leaders say the new legislation is a win for middle-income families who often make too much to qualify for significant financial aid. However, the fact that it’s based on a refundable state income tax credit means they must pay tuition and fees upfront and then wait to receive a refund the following tax season. For families that are struggling, this could be tricky.   –Elizabeth Janice

Sources

Colorado to Cover Two Years’ Tuition at Any Public College  (Inside Higher Ed)

Colorado will ease path to college by paying back 2 years of tuition for lower-income students  (Denver Post)

Further Reading

Congress Extends In-State Tuition for Pacific Islanders  (Inside Higher Ed)

Scholarship Money Available Just for Having the Right Name

Higher education is increasingly out of reach for many. But for resourceful students who are willing to do the work to track them down, quirky scholarship opportunities abound. There are scholarships for golf caddies, tall children, and even people who can trace their lineage directly to specific individuals or who just happen to have the same last name as the benefactor—without necessarily being related. Loyola University Chicago offers scholarships to Catholic students with the last name Zolp. North Carolina State University provides them for students who were born with the surname of Gatlin or Gatling. A University of California scholarship gives preference to graduate students from Colombia and direct descendants from the family of the benefactor, Miguel Velez. And Harvard University has more than a half-dozen “ancestry-based scholarships” (as Harvard labels them), including one for descendants of Thomas Dudley, who served as governor of the Massachusetts Bay colony in the 1600s.      –Elizabeth Janice

Source

The College Scholarship Secret Hiding in Plain Sight: Your Last Name  (Wall Street Journal)

Further Reading

Low-income students choosing college thanks to new opportunities like Quest Bridge scholarship  (Spectrum News)

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Early Summer Beach Reading Issue

PURPOSE/CURRICULUM

Intelligence, Part 3: The CIA and its “Brightest Bulbs”

I did not plan to highlight a story about the CIA in Paideia Times when I started reading Daniel Immerwahr’s review of “When the C.I.A. Messes Up” in the New Yorker  a few days ago—until I came to a couple of sentences about the agency’s birth in 1947: “The United States was in the strange position of towering over other countries while knowing little about them.” So its founders “sought the brightest bulbs” by reaching out to Ivy League professors and “tasked [them] with steering top students toward intelligence careers.”   

Immediately, this terrifying and dramatic piece (it begins with Saddam Hussein executing his minister of health and ends with Hussein’s own execution) became part 3 of my little series on intelligence (see here and here for parts 1 and 2), a little different take on intelligence. It is a story about how America stumbled broadly and badly when it set up a spy agency after World War II (an ambitious successor to the wartime Office of Strategic Services), in large part by seeking out the country’s “brightest bulbs” at the Ivy League. The new book, “The CIA: An Imperial History,” by Hugh Wilford, is an “adroit new overview,” says Immerwahr, a historian at Northwestern, who, it would seem, uses the phrase “U.S. intelligence officers” with some significant tongue-in-cheek thanks to Wilford’s amply documented case, one that can only rub salt in the Ivies’ latest wounds. One Yale professor described the recruitment process in those early days as “the laying on of hands, quietly and effectively, in the college and in the classroom, at the master’s tea and in the seminar, over at Mory’s and during a break in crew practice.”

As became abundantly clear, all too quickly, according to Immerwahr’s summary, the early recruits were great at textual analysis—James Jesus Angleton, the agency’s longtime director of counterintelligence, had “founded two surprisingly good literary journals while at Yale”—but were abysmally poor at the actual spy business. “To interpret a text you first must have a text,” writes Immerwahr, “and that is where the Yale crew team was less helpful.” In fact, this is a sad tale of an “expertise shortage” that results in terrible numbers of lives lost (on our side!) and carried on with such ineptitude for the rest of the next 55 years (Wilford ends with the overthrow of Saddam), a sad story largely masked by America’s “imperial” powers. As Hussein himself once noted, “The U.S.A. is the strongest state. But it is not the most capable.”

Do we now blame the Ivies for the failures of the CIA along with pro-Palestinian protests? Or do we simply look again to America’s failure to follow Washington’s advice to avoid “foreign entanglements”? And what is higher education’s role in guiding the country to true intelligence—or even counterintelligence?  Is it right to apply David Brooks question (part 2 above), “what happens to the extremely intelligent?” to foreign policy? Or did David Halberstam already do that? Or Harvard man Henry Kissinger? Why did the “brightest bulbs” not see the “expertise” gap in 1947?  Do smart people help us find the smartest course? Are they better at building empires than republics? I don’t know, but as a bonus, our Further Readings (below) provide a short list of titles about our education system’s role from the last 60-some years that might help shed some more “brighter bulb” light on these big questions.    —Peter Meyer

Sources

When the C.I.A. Messes Up: Its agents are often depicted as malevolent puppet masters—or as bumbling idiots. The truth is even less comforting.  (New Yorker)

The Best and the Brightest (1973) (David Halberstam)

Further Readings

Anti-Intellectualism in American Life (1963) (Richard Hofstadter)

A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform: A Report to the Nation and the Secretary of Education United States Department of Education (1983) (National Commission on Excellence in Education)

The Closing of the American Mind: How Higher Education Has Failed Democracy and Impoverished the Souls of Today's Students (1987) (Allan Bloom)

The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future (Or, Don 't Trust Anyone Under 30) (2008)  (Mark Bauerlein)

Project on Governance for a New Era: A Blueprint for Higher Education (2014) (Benno C. Schmidt, Chairman, Project on Governance for a New Era)

The Dumbest Generation Grows Up (2022) (Mark Bauerlein)

A Nation at Thought: Restoring Wisdom in America’s Schools (2023)  (David Steiner)

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PUBLIC TRUST/STUDENT DEBT

Fiasco: The New Financial F-Word for Colleges?

Dubbed the "FAFSA Fiasco," Inside Higher Education reported the chaotic rollout of the revamped federal aid form that has been plagued by technical glitches and bewildering new rules. Students, grappling with delays and overwhelming paperwork, describe the experience as "a total nightmare." Navigating this bureaucratic maze is likened by one student to be "one of the most tedious and panicky" chapters in their academic journey. As new applicants endured delayed financial aid, risking enrollment dips for many institutions—particularly for low-income and first-generation students— returning students faced their own hurdles with website shutdowns and perplexing instructions, adding to the tumult of financial aid renewal. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona issued a mea culpa for the rocky rollout, boosting Department of Education efforts with a $50 million infusion for school district outreach, but bipartisan lawmakers call it too little, too late, foreseeing future admission cycle woes. Higher Ed Dive reported FAFSA completion for the class of 2024 is slowly improving, with around 41% completing submission—still over 15% behind last year's rate—prompting calls for legislative action to prevent future gaps in financial aid access. —-Amy Genito

Sources

 Faces of the FAFSA Fiasco (Inside Higher Ed)

‘Very unpredictable’: Colleges fear FAFSA fiasco will hurt enrollment  (Washington Post)

The FAFSA Fiasco’s Forgotten Students  (Inside Higher Ed)

Biden's education secretary apologizes for FAFSA rollout amid new concerns about next year  (USA Today) 

The FAFSA completion gap is shrinking. Will it disappear entirely?  (Higher Ed Dive)

Further Reading

How FAFSA complications are disproportionately affecting Black students (npr)

Four cities of FAFSA chaos: Students tell how they grappled with the mess, stress  (The Hechinger Report)

For Some Frustrated Students, the FAFSA Is Still Broken (Chronicle of Higher Education)

Biden administration launches review of office overseeing FAFSA, student loans  (USA Today)

Higher Ed’s Challenges Are Bigger Than FAFSA: We Need To Make A Better Case For College (Forbes)       

Colleges Are Swimming in Financial Uncertainty Amid the FAFSA Mess (Chronicle of Higher Education)

How the Effort to Revamp Financial Aid Resulted in Chaos  (Wall Street Journal)

Biden’s Unrecognized Successes on Student Debt Relief  (The Century Foundation) 

Biden Administration Transfers Another $7.7 Billion in Student Debt to Taxpayers  (National Review)

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PUBLIC TRUST/NEWS FROM ALL OVER

Shortstack: From Roger Federer (an online hit), to Expanding the Options for Dreamers, to the new Tracker for Dismantling DEI.

• Roger Federer’s Graduation Speech Becomes an Online Hit: At Dartmouth College, the retired tennis champion offered his thoughts on winning and losing. (And don’t miss Conan O’Brien’s 2011 classic, highlighted in this story.) (New York Times)

• Tracking Higher Ed’s Dismantling of DEI: The Chronicle has a regular section devoted following higher ed’s progress undoing one of the sector’s fastest-growing fads (Chronicle of Higher Education)

• Politicization of higher education alarming: While political spin is a common tool in America today, the implications associated with that rhetoric are becoming increasingly intolerable. (News-Press)

• More Downsizing at Beleaguered ETS: The former SAT administrator and owner of the GRE offered buyouts to most of its U.S. workforce Tuesday morning, kickstarting its second round of job cuts in under a year. (Inside Higher Ed)

• 26 States Challenge Title IX: Experts expect a long legal fight that could end at the Supreme Court. (Higher Ed Dive)

• Higher Education Leaders Applaud The Biden Administration For Expanding Protections for Dreamers: The Biden-Harris Administration is announcing a suite of affirmative relief policies that could provide protections to long-term residents, including Dreamers. (Presidents Alliance)

• Polls: Confidence in colleges and universities continues plummet to ‘new lows’ (The College Fix)

• Stanford becomes latest elite college to reinstate SAT requirement:.The university joins Yale, Brown, Dartmouth, Cornell, Harvard and California Institute of Technology — all top-notch colleges which have reinstated the requirement this year. (The College Fix)

• The New Age of College Athletics Will Strain Higher-Ed Budgets Athletes today may well get compensated fairly, but perhaps at the cost of accelerating contraction in higher education. (National Review)  

• Universities Failed to Protect Students from Antisemitic Harassment during Protests, Education Department Finds: Two universities failed to adequately protect both Jewish and Muslim students in the heated days after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel and during the war in Gaza that followed. (National Review)

• Professor loses job after lectures ‘secretly recorded’ The UNC-Chapel Hill professor who called out school administrators for launching an apparent investigation and secretly recording his classes will not have his contract renewed. (Times Higher Ed) 

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GOVERNANCE/CLOSINGS

Financial Struggles Force Wells College to Shut Down After More Than 150 Years

A statue of Minerva, the Roman goddess of wisdom, was damaged while it was being moved at Wells College in upstate New York. Students in the Finger Lakes town of Aurora have long kissed the statue’s feet for good luck. Minerva’s beheading is an unavoidable metaphor for the angst surrounding the sudden closure of the 156-year-old small liberal arts college. On April 29, school officials announced that Wells would close its doors permanently at the end of the spring semester. Wells, which was a women’s college for the bulk of its history (it began accepting male students in 2005), did “not have adequate financial resources to continue.” The institution’s precarious financial situation was exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic, inflation and a shrinking pool of students. Only 353 students were enrolled in the fall 2023 term. The last-minute announcement left student scrambling to figure out their future education plans. Officials say they will be able to transfer to Manhattanville University (formerly, Manhattanville College). —-Elizabeth Janice

Sources

Students Kissed Her Feet for Good Luck. Now She’s Missing Her Head. (New York Times)

Wells College closing after 156 years, MU taking students (Ithaca Journal)

Further Reading

This Small College Warned of Imminent Closure. Here’s How It Kept the Lights On. (Chronicle of Higher Education)

Alverno College Declares Financial Exigency, Cuts Faculty And Programs (Forbes)

Emerson College’s Preventable Enrollment Crisis (National Review)

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GOVERNANCE / CLOSINGS

Philadelphia’s UArts Abruptly Closes, Leaving Students and Faculty in Limbo

The University of the Arts sent shockwaves through Philadelphia when it gave just a week’s notice that it was permanently shutting down. On May 31, Kerry Walk, who had been president of UArts for less than a year (and has since resigned), announced that the nearly 150-year-old institution would be closing on June 7 due to declining enrollment numbers and a fragile financial state. Her handling of the situation has been roundly criticized. Many of the 1,149 students and 700 faculty and staff members first got the news from social media. A university trustee said $40 million would be needed to stave off the financial crisis. UArts owns a string of iconic properties in City Center said to be worth $162 million. What happens to the real estate is unclear. Four lawsuits have already been filed. In two of them, former employees claim administrators violated a federal law requiring employers to give at least 60 days’ written notice of mass layoffs. Nearby Temple University is exploring a possible merger with the beloved institution. “I’m working with their chair to see if we can put this genie back in the bottle,” said Mitchell L. Morgan, Temple’s board chair. “If it’s a win-win, we are interested.” —-Elizabeth Janice

Sources

Upheaval continues at UArts: Its president resigns, but Temple offers a possible merger (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Philadelphia’s University of the Arts Announces Sudden Closing (New York Times)

UArts fallout continues | Morning Newsletter (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Pressure to investigate UArts closure ramps up with latest letter from faculty union (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Temple University is exploring a potential merger to save University of the Arts, chairman says (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Further Reading

UArts’ sudden closure was a shock, but not a big surprise in the turbulent higher-ed landscape (Philadelphia Inquirer)

UArts closure leaves the future of Pig Iron School’s MFA program uncertain (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Here’s what to know about UArts president Kerry Walk, who has resigned from the university (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Why Did This Beloved Arts College Have to Close? (Chronicle of Higher Education)

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GOVERNANCE/MERGERS

NYC Liberal Arts College to Merge With Northeastern University

Marymount Manhattan College, a small liberal arts school on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, has agreed to merge with Northeastern University, giving the Boston-based institution a foothold in the Big Apple. Northeastern’s global network—which already includes campuses in London, Silicon Valley and Toronto—has been expanding, in part, by absorbing smaller colleges. After the merger, Marymount Manhattan will be known as Northeastern University-New York City. Despite a $28 million endowment, the outlook was just “not sustainable.” Marymount Manhattan began as a two-year women’s college in 1936, became a four-year school in 1948 and awarded degrees to its first male graduates in 1973. Alumni include Geraldine Ferraro, the first woman to run for vice president, and Rose Ann Scamardella, a former anchorwoman and inspiration for Roseanne Roseannadanna, the Gilda Radner character on “Saturday Night Live.” The timeline for the merger is uncertain, but it could take two years or more. —-Elizabeth Janice

Sources

Marymount Manhattan to Merge With Northeastern (New York Times)

Northeastern University and Marymount Manhattan College merger FAQ (Northeastern Global News)

Further Readings

Northeastern University and Marymount Manhattan College to merge (Boston Globe)

‘Students May Be Harmed’: Pittsburgh Technical College Is in Danger of Closing

(Chronicle of Higher Education)

US ends academic year with another wave of closures and cutbacks (Times Higher Ed)

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GOVERNANCE/CLOSINGS

Colleges Continue to Close as the Number of Bachelor’s Degree Programs Grow

Colleges are now closing at a rate of one per week. And following this spring’s FAFSA fiasco (only 41.5 percent of high school seniors have completed it this year vs. 50 percent in 2023), (see F-Word above) even more closures are likely. Until recently, college closures were overwhelmingly confined to private institutions. But state lawmakers—long willing to cut the budgets of their colleges but not actually close them—are starting to reconsider that stance. Pennsylvania is in the middle of consolidating six public universities into two. Wisconsin has also taken steps in that direction, and earlier this year, Oklahoma’s governor broached the idea publicly. While college closures continue to make the news, an analysis done by The Chronicle of Higher Education found the number of bachelor’s degree programs has actually grown by 23,000 over the past two decades. A small number of disciplines, mainly career-focused ones, are driving this growth. In the No. 1 spot, with 2,700 new programs, are health and clinical sciences programs—such as nursing, public health, radiologic technology and physical therapy. In the No. 2 spot, with 2,600 new programs, are the visual and performing arts—which includes design, drama and film, video and photography. —-Elizabeth Janice

Sources

Can Small, Struggling Colleges Survive? (Chronicle of Higher Education)

US college closures could spread to public universities (Times Higher Education)

Is Higher Ed Growing or Shrinking? (Chronicle of Higher Ed)

Further Readings

At the Edge of a Cliff, Some Colleges Are Teaming Up to Survive (New York Times)

Private US college closures look to gain public attention (Times Higher Education)

Minnesota university ends 30% of degrees, cuts staff (The College Fix)

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More Brooks Brilliance and a Plethora of Top Ten story ideas 

Last week David Brooks took on the apparent (if unrecognized) predicament of elite schools as training grounds for progressive ideologies (see here).  This week Brooks tackles the “gifted students” challenge (in the K-12 arena, which, according to the National Association of Gifted Children (NAGC),  constitutes six percent of public school students, some three million children). “What happens to the extremely intelligent?” asks Brooks. “Do they go from success to success, powered by their natural brilliance? Or do they struggle in a world where they don’t fit in?” Brooks approaches the question with his usual brilliance and critical thought, offering fascinating insights into this marginal but fascinating and important part of education—as much a barometer of system health as any other.  And for that reason it needs to be read for what it reveals about higher ed at the low and middle levels of the brilliance scale—not to mention the current tsunami growing over artificial intelligence, which Elizabeth Janice updates below.

Yes, “intelligence matters,” says Brooks, but “other things also matter a lot.” That well-documented fact, however, leads Brooks into the briar patch that has bedeviled much of late 20^th century American education: the “industrial model school system that sometimes treats children as interchangeable widgets.”  He doesn’t question that model, but instead cites Vanderbilt researchers who, Brooks says, believe that “we should do more to personalize education so it’s tailored to the abilities of each child.” Unfortunately, however, he doesn’t mention that, beginning with the Reagan Administration’s 1983 Nation at Risk task force report and continues up to and including David Steiner’s recent  A Nation at Thought, the research about such personalized education suggests that it is not only not possible as a practical matter (who exactly is going to do the tailoring at ground level?), but is wrong as a pedagogical proposition (how do you design a curriculum that depends on individual needs?).  Much more relevant and true, as study after study reveals, is E.D. Hirsch’s argument in his 1987 surprise bestseller Cultural Literacy, with its controversial subtitle, “what every American needs to know.” That offers a level playing field, for kids with IQs of 80 and 120, black and white, for sanity, with goal posts that don’t shift.

Finally, our favorite new challenge: What are the most important higher education stories of 2023-24?  Will AI be on the list? DEI? Will the Congressional grilling of four Ivy League presidents last fall be there? Standardized tests?  Send in your suggestions via the Comment button below.

Source

What Happens to Gifted Children? (New York Times)

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PURPOSE / GOVERNANCE

AI & Higher Ed: Learning to Play by New Rules

There will be “more victims than winners” as artificial intelligence makes inroads into education, according to Paul LeBlanc, the departing president of Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU), who transformed SNHU from a small regional institution into one that teaches 225,000 people around the world online. To survive, institutions must be “brave” and learn to “play by different rules,” LeBlanc said at a University of London event. Tech giants see education as the next big market. OpenAI just unveiled ChatGPT Edu, a new version of ChatGPT designed specifically for the academic world. As AI tools continue to be introduced at a fast and furious pace, some experts are advising educators to take a pause and “slow walk” the use of AI in classrooms.  D’Youville University in upstate New York, which has already fully embraced AI, capped off the academic year by having a human-like robot named Sophia as the spring commencement speaker. More than 2,500 students signed a petition to have Sophia replaced by a real human, but the university went ahead with the AI version. Not everyone was impressed. Faculty members (who have been without a contract for nearly three years) said the money could have been better spent on other things.

---Elizabeth Janice

Sources

‘More victims than winners’ in AI’s upheaval of universities (Times Higher Education)

Latest AI Announcements Mean Another Big Adjustment for Educators (EdSurge)

This University Had an AI Robot as Commencement Speaker. Yes, It Was Weird. (Chronicle of Higher Education)

Further Reading

AI: a rising force in higher education (The Daily)

Report: Experts predict major AI impact on education (Inside Higher Ed)

‘Definitely different’:AI robot speaks at D’Youville University commencement ceremony (WIVB)

What OpenAI did (One Useful Thing)

Colleges Bootstrap Their Way to AI Literacy (Chronicle of Higher Education)

Charting a Bipartisan Course: The Senate’s Roadmap for AI Policy (AEI)

OpenAI builds ChatGPT system for colleges and universities (EDSCOOP)

https://edscoop.com/openai-chatgpt-edu-colleges-universities-artificial-intelligence/

AI and the Death of Student Writing (Chronicle of Higher Education)

AI tools come with risks. This Wharton professor is teaching ‘accountable AI.’ (Philadelphia Inquirer)

How A.I. Is Revolutionizing Drug Development (New York Times)

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PURPOSE / GOVERNANCE / PUBLIC TRUST / EMERGING ORDERS

Shortstack… with butter, maple syrup, and a bit of bitters

• 1983 NC State title team members sue NCAA over NIL compensation: Ten players… have sued…  seeking compensation for unauthorized use of their name, image and likeness. (ESPN)

• Surgeon General Calls for Warning Labels on Social Media Platforms: Dr. Vivek Murthy said he would urge Congress to require a warning that social media use can harm teenagers’ mental health. (New York Times)

• U of Michigan, CUNY mishandled shared ancestry complaints, Education Department finds: The two institutions each misstepped as campus tensions — and reports of harassment — rose in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war. (Higher Ed Dive)

• Biden Administration’s New Title IX Rules Are Blocked in Six More States: Conservative groups and Republican attorneys general have argued that the protections for transgender students come at the expense of others’ privacy and conflicts with a number of state laws. (New York Times)

• DePaul University dismisses biology professor after assignment tied to Israel-Hamas war: Anne d’Aquino told students in May that they could write about the impact of “genocide in Gaza on human health and biology.” The theme of the spring class at the Chicago school was how microorganisms cause disease. (AP) 

• “Grow PA” Offers a Higher-Ed Reform Model for the Nation:  Pending Pennsylvania legislation would address college affordability, labor shortages, and university accountability in one package. (The Martin Center)

• Can Harvard Win Back America's Respect?  Harvard has had a very bad year. It began last summer with the Supreme Court’s verdict in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, then continued when Hamas attacked Israel, and Harvard, along with many elite universities, issued public statements that revealed, to put it delicately, an absence of moral clarity. Then came the disaster of Claudine Gay’s testimony in Congress, followed by the humiliating exposé of her history of plagiarism, followed by her grudging resignation.  (Law & Liberty) 

• We Should Worry about What Columbia Is Teaching Teachers, Too: A review of courses offered exposes an obsession with the same radical politics as those of the campus protesters.  (National Review)

• Should financial aid be based on family wealth, rather than income alone?:  Family wealth affects education savings and how likely students are to go to college (The Hechinger Report)

• ‘The Indispensable Right’ Review: Why We Need Free Speech  American democracy cannot function without the protections of the First Amendment. Our faith in free expression is a faith in our fellow citizens. (Wall Street Journal)

• Harvard Goes Only Halfway Toward Institutional Neutrality  It won’t make public statements, but reserves the right to do so with its investment decisions.

• UCLA names first Latino chancellor as antiwar protests, arrests continue:  University of Miami’s president, Julio Frenk, will be the first Latino to lead UCLA in the school’s 105-year history. (Washington Post) 

• ‘Very unpredictable’: Colleges fear FAFSA fiasco will hurt enrollment  (Washington Post)

Just this morning we read in the New York Times that L.A. police arrested more than 30 pro-Palestinians protestors at UCLA after the students (we think) had “marched through campus, pitched tents and occupied various quads in demonstrations that became confrontational at times.” (See our Shortstack story “The Harvard Corporation Tries to Kill Faculty Governance” below.)   Not only is this school year not yet over, but we all know that the biggest challenge of finding the top ten stories of this rather remarkable year is finding the two through ten contenders. So help us put together our Summer Special Issue. (Extra points for creative ways of saying campus protest.)  Send us your suggestions with the comments button below. Or email them to me at paideiatimesweekly@gmail.com. Subject line: Top Stories. —peter meyer

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Source

At U.C.L.A., Police Arrest More Than 20 Pro-Palestinian Protesters (New York Times)

Further Reading

You tell us

-----------------------

PURPOSE

Elite Campuses as Training Grounds for Progressive Thinking

“To be progressive is to be against privilege,” writes David Brooks in The New York Times. Yet ironically, today’s most elite institutions—the exclusive universities, the big foundations and the top cultural institutions—are filled with progressives. During the information age, “the center of progressive energy moved from the working class to the universities, and not just any universities, but the elite universities,” Brooks continues. The share of progressive students and professors has been steadily rising, to the point where they never have to encounter ideas other than their own. At Harvard, 82 percent of progressives say all or almost all of their close friends share their political beliefs. Brooks highlights an investigative report published in May in The Washington Monthly that looked at the pro-Palestinian campus protests. The researchers surveyed more than 1,400 public and private colleges and concluded that, with few exceptions, protests have taken place disproportionately at elite colleges. Progressivism has now become an entry ticket into the elite. This, Brooks, writes, helps to explain the following: “Society pours hundreds of thousands of dollars into elite students, gives them the most prestigious launching pads fathomable, and they are often the ones talking most loudly about burning the system down.”

---Elizabeth Janice

Source

The Sins of the Educated Class (New York Times)

Further Reading

On Institutional Neutrality and the Purpose of a University (SSRN)

U.S.C. Holds Graduation Event With No Mention of Protests or War (New York Times)

Why Bad Commencement Speeches Are a Good Thing (New York Times)

Their Diplomas Came With Envelopes of Cash, and a Catch (New York Times)

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PUBLIC TRUST

Americans Divided on the Value of a College Degree

Is a college degree still worth the time and money involved? It depends on who you ask. While public trust in higher education has never been lower, according to one recent online survey, a resounding 80 percent of registered voters say a four-year degree is valuable. Among younger voters, ages 18 to 44, this rises to 85 percent. Across party lines, 65 percent of Democrats, 52 percent of Independents and 48 percent of Republicans have a favorable view of higher education. On the other hand, a recent Pew Research Center study found that only one in four U.S. adults say it’s extremely or very important to have a four-year college degree in order to get a well-paying job. Roughly half (49 percent) feel it’s less important today than it was 20 years ago. And 47 percent say going to college is worth it only if they don’t have to take out loans. Another reason driving the negative views not mentioned in the Pew survey is the so-called “direction” of education. By a large margin, 79 percent of Republicans believe that liberal professors bring their political views into the classroom. Only 17 percent of Democrats share this concern.

---Elizabeth Janice

Sources

Voters Want Less Talk and More Action on Higher Ed Value (Third Way)

Is College Worth It? (Pew Research)

Pew Research: Is college worth it? Yes, with caveats (University World News)

Further Reading

College is still worth it, outgoing UNH president says (Boston Globe)  

OPINION: Yes, College Is ‘Worth It’ (Chronicle of Higher Education)

Is College Worth It? Depends on the Student Debt. (Chronicle of Higher Education)

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SHORTSTACK: A Shoutout to the 46-year-old Chronicle of Higher Education… A quick sampling from a recent issue

• ·       Why Did This Beloved Arts College Have to Close?:  At the heart of the university’s troubles appears to be the same issues that have plagued numerous other small, private institutions: too few students and rising expenses. 

• ·       This Small College Warned of Imminent Closure. Here’s How It Kept the Lights On.: It was, she joked, the hardest decision she had to make in her first year as president of the financially struggling Lake Erie College, in Ohio.

• ·       College Alone Can’t Save Women: In the fall of 2020, Jessica Calarco encapsulated what so many families were experiencing during the pandemic in a memorable phrase: “Other countries have social safety nets. The U.S. has women.”

• ·       This Extremely Online Regent Has an Unorthodox Vision for College Governance: Jordan Acker’s law office was vandalized on Monday. The police are investigating.

• ·       How Wealth — Not Just Income — Affects College Access: To understand racial inequities in higher education, don’t just look at income disparities among different groups of Americans. Be sure to look at enduring wealth gaps, too.

• ·       Iowa Businesses Are Making Their Pitch to High-School Graduates. Colleges Struggle to Compete: To understand racial inequities in higher education, don’t just look at income disparities among different groups of Americans. Be sure to look at enduring wealth gaps, too.

• ·       It’s Time to Stop the Double Talk Around Diversity Hiring: First, let’s admit it’s happening.

• ·       The Harvard Corporation Tries to Kill Faculty Governance: This is about a lot more than one university’s disciplinary action.

• ·       The Specter of ‘Indoctrination’: How a military term became a culture-war shibboleth.     

• ·       Can Small, Struggling Colleges Survive?: There are paths forward, but they all require acting early.

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PURPOSE / Athletics

What Does the NCAA’s Antitrust Settlement Mean for Women’s Sports?

Women’s college sports have never been more popular. Yet the progress that’s been made could be stymied by a proposed $2.8 billion settlement that would allow the first revenue-sharing plan for college athletes. The NCAA and its major conferences agreed to the settlement to resolve a host of antitrust claims. The deal, which is subject to a federal judge’s approval, has two main components, both of which could invite scrutiny under Title IX, the federal law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in any school that accepts federal funding. One component would essentially allow for back pay of name, image, and likeness rights dating back to 2016. Under the proposed deal, this money would overwhelmingly go to athletes from the major revenue sports—namely football and men’s basketball—raising questions about its overall fairness to women. Schools would also be allowed to set aside $20 million per year, beginning in fall 2025, to pay both male and female athletes. There’s no clarity on how that money should be distributed or what happens if athletes win the right to collectively bargain and renegotiate. But if the money is not distributed proportionally, schools are “just asking to be sued,” legal experts warn.

                                                                                                   ---Elizabeth Janice

Sources

With Payments to College Athletes, Another Fight Looms for Women  (New York Times)

No, College Sports Aren’t Over. But They’ll Never Be the Same.  (Wall Street Journal)

Further Reading

MIT Hit with Civil-Rights Complaint over ‘Women of Color’ Mentorship Program  (National Review)

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GOVERNANCE/Title IX

Red States Lead a Revolt Against President Biden’s New Title IX Rules

The Biden administration’s revision of Title IX was released in mid-April. Within a week, 16 states sued the administration. Since then, the number of states suing has climbed to 26—more than half the states in the nation. One of the most prominent red-state governors, Texas’s Greg Abbott, instructed multiple public universities and colleges in his state to ignore the revision, which goes into effect on August 1. Under the new regulations, sex discrimination will be extended to include discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity, and sex characteristics. The revision will also roll back a Trump-era policy that requires live hearings and cross-examinations where students accused of sexual assault can question their accusers. Governors defying Biden’s new rules are taking a gamble. Schools in their states risk losing federal education funding—although it should be noted that the Department of Education has never revoked federal funding from a school for Title IX noncompliance.     

  —-Elizabeth Janice                                                                                                                

Sources

States Lead a Happy Title IX Revolt  (American Greatness)

Greg Abbott Instructs Texas Universities, Colleges to Ignore Biden’s Title IX Revision  (National Review)

Red States Defying Biden’s Title IX Rules Is a Risk — and It May Be Worth Taking  (New York Sun)

Further Reading

Red States Revolt and Roll over on Title IX  (AEI)

As states roll back DEI efforts, U.S. ratchets up anti-discrimination pressure

(Chronicle of Higher Education)

Title IX Turned Upside Down  (Capital Research Center)

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PUBLIC TRUST/Media

SHORTSTACK 

Enrollment’s Up and Morale Down, a Black Scholar Opposes DEI, a Battered Faculty Faces a Long Summer, and more….

• A Black Scholar Who Opposes the “Diversity” Mania: Carol Swain’s latest book takes DEI ideologues to task. (Martin Center)

• New Honors Will Foster Free Speech: To counter the chaos on campuses, we need fresh thinking on how to stand up for ordered liberty. (Wall Street Journal)

• Higher Ed Has a Progressive Disease. Can It Be Reversed?  The prognosis seems grim, but I found signs of life as a proud father at Notre Dame’s commencement. (Wall Street Journal)

• Colorado will ease path to college by paying back 2 years of tuition for lower-income students:  HB24-1340 will pay out through refundable state income tax credit available to qualifying students (Denver Post)

• Battered US faculty plan long summer of strategising: After nationwide failure to stop their presidents from arresting student demonstrators, college instructors ponder which approaches—and friends—they can turn to (Times Higher Education)

• College Enrollment Up For Second Semester In A Row, Finds New Report  (Forbes)

• Why Is N.Y.U. Forcing Protesters to Write Apology Letters? The university calls it a “restorative practice”; the students call it a coerced confession (New York Times)

• Pew Research: Is college worth it? Yes, with caveats  (University World News)

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EMERGENT ORDERS/Student Debt

Navient’s Bold Move, Biden’s Billions, and the Call for Transparency

In the dynamic world of student loans, Navient, once known as Sallie Mae, has stirred excitement with its discreet launch of a groundbreaking forgiveness program. While borrowers celebrate, advocacy groups like the Project on Predatory Student Lending meticulously scrutinize the fine print, urging for transparency, while Senator Elizabeth Warren’s office amplifies calls for full disclosure. Against a backdrop of past controversies with for-profit schools, Navient’s unveiling of the “school misconduct discharge” program in 2022 offers a glimmer of hope. Simultaneously, recent revelations in The Wall Street Journal shine a light on the chaos engulfing FAFSA and the Education Department’s management of financial aid, highlighting pressing issues from processing delays to aid miscalculations. The chaos underscores the need for reform and transparency, echoing calls within the financial aid realm. This week, the Biden administration hit a whopping $167 billion in student loan discharges, but public awareness lags. Despite nearly 4.75 million borrowers benefiting, a disconnect emerges from polling by the Century Foundation and Morning Consult.

                                                                                     ---Amy Genito

Sources

            There’s a Program to Cancel Private Student Debt. Most Don’t Know About It.  (New York Times)

            How the Effort to Revamp Financial Aid Resulted in Chaos  (Wall Street Journal) 

            Biden’s Unrecognized Successes on Student Debt Relief  (The Century Foundation)

Further Reading

            Unchecked student debt will affect all areas of the economy  (University World News)

            How FAFSA complications are disproportionately affecting Black students  (NPR)

Mind on Money: Financial aid mess begs discussion of government’s role in higher education  (nwi.com)

Biden Administration Transfers Another $7.7 Billion in Student Debt to Taxpayers  (National Review)

Is College Worth It? Depends on the Student Debt.  (Chronicle of Higher Education)

Colleges Are Swimming in Financial Uncertainty Amid the FAFSA Mess  (Chronicle of Higher Education)

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PURPOSE/Community

PTSD Rates Skyrocket Among College Students

Crisis on Campus: Unraveling the Mental Health Surge

In a jolting revelation, as reported by New York Times columnist Ellen Barry, PTSD diagnoses among college students surged twofold from 2017 to 2022, a stark fallout of the Covid-19 era. According to data from the Healthy Minds Study (an annual survey assessing college students’ mental health), rates skyrocketed from 3.4 to 7.5 percent in just the last five years. Lead author Yusen Zhai underscored “broader societal stressors” like campus shootings, while Dr. Shannon E. Cusack from Virginia Commonwealth University questioned if pandemic hardships truly trigger PTSD. Meanwhile, Professor Stephen P. Hinshaw of UC Berkeley offered an intriguing insight: These challenges may corrode students’ emotional resilience. Adding to the turmoil, a recent Gallup poll exposed a burgeoning crisis, over half of students considering dropout cite emotional stress, a factor that nearly doubled from 2020 to 2023, with financial woes also casting a looming shadow. Enter Worcester Polytechnic Institute, thrust into action by a series of tragic suicides. With an emergency task force in motion, they dove headfirst into data analysis, pattern recognition, and targeted intervention proposals. Universities nationwide are heeding a similar call to arms.

                                                                                                                                                                                ---Amy Genito

         Sources

            PTSD Has Surged Among College Students  (New York Times)

            College students list mental health, stress as top reasons to consider dropping out: Gallup  (The Hill)

            Mental Health Crisis at a Small College  (New York Times)

       Further Reading

            ‘High-Functioning Anxiety Isn’t a Medical Diagnosis. It’s a Hashtag.’  (New York Times)

            After a Suicide, What Information Does a College Owe Its Campus?  (Chronicle of Higher Education)

          Colleges Don’t Know Much About the Mental-Health Apps They’re Buying  (Chronicle of Higher Education)

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PUBLIC TRUST / Jobs

Employers Are Increasingly Reluctant to Hire Campus Protestors

Even with a relatively low employment rate—currently 3.9 percent—the class of 2024 is facing a tough job market. And students who engaged in anti-Israel campus protests could find it even tougher, as not all employers look kindly on an encampment stint on someone’s resume. In November two dozen leading law firms wrote to top law schools implying that students who participated in what they called antisemitic activities, including calling for “the elimination of the state of Israel,” would not be hired. Since then more than 100 firms have signed on. Unlike the antiwar protestors of the 1960s and ’70s, today’s student protestors often wear masks or kaffiyehs. Some admit they do so to obscure their identity from potential employers; some as a sign of solidarity.  Ohio’s attorney general recently warned student protesters wearing such coverings risked possible felony charges and prison time due to a little-known state law that says “no person shall unite with two or more others to commit a misdemeanor while wearing white caps, masks, or other disguise.” (The 1953 statute was originally written to go after the Ku Klux Klan.) Fifteen other states have similar anti-masking laws, including Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, Florida, and Georgia.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 ---Elizabeth Janice

Sources

Why Can’t College Grads Find Jobs? Here Are Some Theories—and Fixes. (New York Times)

And Now, a Real-World Lesson for Student Activists  (New York Times)

Campus Protesters, Unmasked  (Wall Street Journal)

Further Reading

Civil disobedience has consequences  (The Princetonian)

California University President Placed on Leave after Approving Israel Boycott  (National Review)

Far From the Protests, Some Students Try to Meet in the Middle  (Wall Street Journal)

Why Is N.Y.U. Forcing Protesters to Write Apology Letters?  (New York Times)

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Graduation Turmoil: USC Graduation Upended by Protests, Alternative Ceremony Birthed, Biden’s Encouragement Echoes Nationwide

The Beat Goes On: What Will the Resumes Look Like?

USC canceled its main graduation ceremony after earlier protests over the Israel-Hamas conflict led to over 90 arrests. That decision followed the axing of a speech by a pro-Palestinian valedictorian due to safety concerns. The alternative? The sand-and-sun Southern California college proposed smaller ceremonies, explaining, “We understand this is disappointing.” Meanwhile, near Columbia University, 550 students, professors, and religious leaders gathered for “The People’s Graduation,” an alternative ceremony celebrating political expression. It followed the recent violent arrests of protestors in the same area. The event featured speeches by pro-Palestinian activists. Barnard—its faculty is now joined to that of Columbia—professor Manu Karuka, who helped organize the ceremony, said, “We looked through the historical archives for inspiration”; they discovered  a 1968 counter-commencement. That event symbolized political expression and solidarity, with participants chanting, “We are dismantling this empire.” In a commencement address to Morehouse College graduates, President Biden praised their resilience and activism. Biden emphasized the importance of their contributions to social change: “Your generation is making its mark."” Amid silent protests Biden brought up the Gaza crisis during his speech, describing the situation as “heartbreaking.” His words resonated with valedictorian DeAngelo “DJ” Fletcher’s urgent plea for an immediate and permanent cease-fire in Gaza.

Sources

U.S.C. Tries to Manage ‘Train Wreck’ of a Graduation  (New York Times)

Columbia Professors Host an Alternative Graduation for Students  (New York Times)

The People’s Commencement at Columbia  (New Yorker)

Invoking Struggle and Faith, Biden Reaches Out at Morehouse  (New York Times)

Biden faces silent protests at Morehouse commencement  (ABC News)

Further Reading

At Morehouse, Biden says dissent should be heard because democracy is 'still the way’  (NPR)

USC cancels main graduation ceremony  (Inside Higher Ed)

Pro-Palestinian Student Protesters Celebrated for ‘Moral Clarity’ at ‘The People’s Graduation’  (Time)

PURPOSE

Anyone Want to Be a College President?

So asked The New York Times in what could be the college-related understatement of the year. Times education reporters Alan Blinder and Stephanie Saul summed up perhaps one of the most tumultuous leadership crises in American higher education in—well, a long time. “Look no further,” they wrote, than the witnesses who testified before the now infamous House Committee on Education and the Work Force on May 23, at the fourth hearing “in a fiery series on campus antisemitism that has helped topple two university presidents” (three counting Martha Pollack at Cornell). There was Jonathan Holloway,  “the Rutgers University president and possible contender to succeed the Yale leader who is stepping down next month,” as well as Chancellor Gene Block of UCLA, “who will leave his post in July and hand off his job of 17 years to someone so far unnamed. In most any other era, the next leaders of U.C.L.A. and Yale would have already been announced. But the uncertainties from California to Connecticut show just how complex top campus jobs have become in an environment that has grown increasingly polarized.” To mark the “Anyone Want to Be a College President?” era, and substituting for this week’s Shortstack, we offer an expanded Further Reading today, a wonderful collection.

Sources

Anyone Want to Be a College President? There Are (Many) Openings  (New York Times)

Cornell’s President Resigns: ‘There Will Be Lots of Speculation’  (National Review)

U.C.L.A. Faculty Votes Against Rebuking University’s Chancellor  (New York Times)

Further Reading

President Alivisatos explains why he ended our Encampment  (Why Evolution is True)

U.S.C. President Censured by Academic Senate After Weeks of Turmoil  (New York Times)

College is still worth it, outgoing UNH president says  (Boston Globe)

U-Va. president, other leaders defend steps that led to arrests at protest  (Washington Post)

More college presidents face no-confidence votes over handling of protests  (Washington Post)

The Past Month Has Seen a Flurry of No-Confidence Votes in College Presidents  (Chronicle of Higher Education)

Transitions: Presidents of Trinity College and Washington State University to Retire  (Chronicle of Higher Education)

Transitions: Bryn Mawr College and Stanford U. Named New Presidents  (Chronicle of Higher Education)

When Trustees Run for Public Office  (Inside Higher Ed)

Columbia Faculty Group Passes No-Confidence Resolution Against President  (New York Times)

The Most Important Trait for Yale’s Next President: Courage  (RealClear Education)

University Leaders Headed Back to Congress To Face Antisemitism Charges, This Time With Widespread Campus Unrest as a Backdrop  (New York Sun)

Northwestern President Schill Contradicts Himself, Refuses to Answer Questions in Contentious Antisemitism Hearing  (National Review)

Campus Leaders Stand Their Ground Before Congress  (Inside Higher Ed)     

What business does Congress have questioning university presidents anyway?  (New York Times)

UCLA, Northwestern, Rutgers leaders face scrutiny from lawmakers  (Washington Post)

Yet Another Congressional Hearing Came for Higher Ed. College Presidents Tried to Fight Back.  (Chronicle of Higher Education)

Can Colleges Be Global if Their Presidents Aren’t?  (Chronicle of Higher Education)

University Leaders Face a Long, Complex Summer (New York Times)

Power 5 Approves Historic Settlement, But What's Next for College Sports?

In an unprecedented move, the NCAA and its Power 5 conferences—the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12, and SEC—have given the green light to a groundbreaking agreement, ushering in a new era in which collegiate athletes can finally be directly compensated. This monumental shift, spurred by the approval of a $2.7 billion settlement from a lawsuit brought by former athletes challenging restrictions on earnings, and the introduction of a revolutionary revenue-sharing model, signifies the end of decades-long amateurism in college sports. Division I schools are now empowered to allocate approximately $20 million annually to athletes. Yet, in this watershed moment, uncertainty hangs thick in the air, leaving coaches, leaders, and athletes grappling with the unknowns of what lies ahead. The impending dilemma of how colleges will foot the bill for these payments has institutions scrambling to strategize over the potential multi-billion-dollar impact.

---Amy Genito

Sources

NCAA, Power 5 agree to deal that will let schools pay players  (ESPN)

NCAA settlement a historic day for paying college athletes. What comes next?  (ESPN)

In major change, college athletes set to be paid directly by schools  (Washington Post) 

Further Reading:

Colleges Have Agreed to Pay Athletes. What’s Next?  (Chronicle of Higher Education)

The N.C.A.A. Agreed to Pay Players. It Won’t Call Them Employees.  (New York Times)

NCAA Agrees to Share Revenue With Athletes in Landmark $2.8 Billion Settlement  (Wall Street Journal) 

Federal Judges Slam Columbia Over Anti-Israel Protests, Vow to Boycott Law Graduates

Thirteen federal judges have fired a warning shot across Columbia University’s bow, declaring they’ll no longer hire its law graduates. Their decision, fueled by concerns over the school’s response to anti-Israel protests and student conduct, reflects a growing rift between academia and conservative viewpoints. In a bold letter to Columbia’s president, Minouche Shafik, these Trump-appointed judges accused the university of failing to nurture diverse perspectives and labeled it an “incubator of bigotry.” The move comes amid ongoing campus unrest, with U.S. Circuit Judges James Ho and Elizabeth Branch helping to lead the charge. It signals a broader pushback against what some see as ideological bias in higher education and echoes concerns voiced by other conservative figures about the general state of higher education. Despite repeated attempts for comment, Columbia University has remained tight-lipped on the matter.

---Amy Genito

Sources

Thirteen Federal Judges Pledge Not to Hire from Columbia, Call It an ‘Incubator of Bigotry’  (National Review)

Conservative Judges Plan to Blackball Columbia University Graduates  (Wall Street Journal)

Conservative federal judges say they won’t hire Columbia graduates (The Hill)

Further Reading:

Conservative judges say they will boycott Columbia University students  (Washington Post)

13 Trump-Appointed Judges Vow Not To Hire Columbia Graduates (Forbes)

Trump-appointed judges say they’ll boycott Columbia grads over university’s handling of protests (CNN)

Trump-appointed judges vow to boycott Columbia graduates  (University World News)

Unpacking the absurd and unethical boycott of Columbia graduates  (The Hill)

Why Judges Are Boycotting Law Clerks From Columbia  (Wall Street Journal)

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Free Speech Showdown: Tents Fall as Principles Rise

At the University of Chicago, a clash over free speech erupted as an encampment challenged institutional norms. Known for its commitment to open dialogue, the university faced a dilemma that, at first, they didn’t know they had: maintain neutrality or permit robust expression? As police intervened, tensions mounted, highlighting the fragile balance between principle commitment and policy enforcement. Meanwhile, across campuses, veteran professors led the charge for free speech; for many, risking reprisals to stand in solidarity with students, it became reminiscent of their activism during the Vietnam War era.. The once celebratory season has turned into a battleground, with over 2,600 arrests reported nationwide, transforming campuses into arenas of unrest and heavy-handed enforcement. At UChicago, protests turned violent, prompting President Paul Alivisatos to intervene, citing disruptions to free expression and learning. Elsewhere, Rhode Island School of Design negotiated with occupiers, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology faced a renewed encampment after shutting one down. Dozens of suspensions and disciplinary referrals were initiated at MIT. Since April 17, when protests began at Columbia University, administrators have grappled with preserving free speech while ensuring campus safety, mindful of the majority of students not participating in demonstrations.

--Amy Genito

Sources

UChicago Says Free Speech Is Sacred. Some Students See Hypocrisy.  (New York Times)

Baby Boomer Professors Join Student Protests, Risking Arrest and Violence  (Wall Street Journal

Once champions of free speech, colleges crack down on pro-Palestinian protests  (NBC News)

Further Reading

Those Who Preach Free Speech Need to Practice It  (The Atlantic)

Colleges Have Gone off the Deep End. There Is a Way Out.  (New York Times)            

The Radical Case for Free Speech (New Yorker)

’Tis the Season: Commencement Chaos Erupts

Our United Nations Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield had the distinction of being disinvited to be a commencement speaker at both the University of Vermont and Xavier University of Lousiana    Columbia and Emory Universities were forced to shake up graduation plans amid campus uproar. Columbia canceled its main commencement ceremony in a safety-driven move amid pro-Palestinian protests, opting for smaller gatherings, while Emory relocated its events off campus in response to escalating tensions. This upheaval follows the University of Southern California’s precedent-setting cancellation of its main commencement last month. Simultaneously, Xavier University of Louisiana followed in the footsteps of the University of Vermont in disinviting U.N. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield amid Gaza-conflict upheaval, triggering a wave of controversy. Echoing student concerns and emphasizing a disruption-free ceremony, Xavier’s president, Dr. Reynold Verret, expressed regret but prioritized a smooth ceremony, stating, “The vast majority of students want to enjoy commencement without disruptions.” Despite the turmoil, the University of Michigan, Indiana University, and Northeastern University showcased resilience as they bolstered security for their commencement ceremonies. At Michigan’s event, amid a sea of graduates, pro-Palestinian flag-waving protests added tension, yet U.S. Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro steered through disruptions to deliver his address.

--Amy Genito

Sources

Universities rescind commencement invitations to U.S. ambassador to U.N. over conflict in Gaza  (CBS News)

Columbia University Cancels Main Commencement Ceremony After Protests  (Wall Street Journal)

Two Universities Cancel Speeches by U.N. Ambassador  (New York Times)

A look at commencement ceremonies as US campuses are roiled by protests over the Israel-Hamas war (AP News)

Further Reading

Hold On to Your Hats, America (New York Times) Columbia Cancels Commencement Ceremony as Anti-Israel Protests Roil Campus  (National Review)

USC Leaders Censured for Handling of Anti-Israel Protests, Commencement Cancellation

Columbia cancels main commencement; universities crackdown on encampments: Live updates  (USA Today)

Columbia cancels commencement as US-wide protests continue  (Times Higher Education)

Columbia University cancels main commencement after weeks of protests  (Los Angeles Times)

Gaza Protests Are Coming for Commencement. Here’s How Colleges Are Preparing. (Chronicle of Higher Education)

Hold On to Your Hats, America (New York Times)

Campus Revolt: Protests, Alumni Backlash, and Calls for Peace

Across the U.S., campuses ignited with protests, notably at Columbia University, where over 100 students faced arrest. The movement, calling for an end to the conflict and financial divestment from Israel, elicited a stern warning from individuals purporting to be Columbia University alumni, vowing to withhold a staggering $77 million in donations. Patriots owner and Columbia alumnus Robert Kraft pledged to withhold donations and echoed safety concerns, lamenting the presence of what he termed “virulent hate” on campus. With over 2,000 arrests documented across 46 campuses, the burgeoning youth activism now casts a shadow over the upcoming presidential election. Simultaneously, UK universities echoed this fervor, sparking a resurgence reminiscent of historic antiwar demonstrations. In a post-protest analysis, USSC Associate Professor Dr. David Smith emphasized the importance of peaceful resolutions, stating, “Prioritizing dialogue over conflict is paramount.” He highlighted Brown University’s recent divestment vote as a step forward and cautions against dismissing student demands, noting the situation at Columbia.

            Sources          

Columbia Alumni Supporting Anti-Israel Protesters Pledge to Withhold $77 Million in Donations  (National Review)

The Kids Are Not All Right. They Want to Be Heard  (New Yorker)

How universities raised a generation of activists (The Spectator) 

Can US universities ‘heal’ after campus clashes over Gaza?  (Times Higher Education) 

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Shortstack

Why Florida is #1 in Education, MIT is #1 at Canceling Mandatory DEI statements, and Martha Pollack is #3 Ivy League Prez to Resign

• A law to fight antisemitism. But what about free speech?  (University World News)

• This state is hiring: Bachelor degree holders need not apply  (University World News)

• A New Accreditor Has Money in Mind  (Martin Center) 

• Yes, Florida Is No. 1 in the Country for Education. Here’s Why.  (US News)

• No One Knows What Universities Are For  (The Atlantic)

• How Trustees Can Save Columbia, Brown, Northeastern, Penn, Indiana, Yale...  (RealClear Education)

• MIT First Among America’s Elite Colleges To Jettison Mandatory ‘Diversity Statements’ for Prospective Employees  (NY Sun)

• Bowling Green State University Reports Record $121 Million Scholarship Gift  (Forbes)

• Cornell University’s President Is Resigning, the Third Ivy-League Leader to Depart Since December  (Wall Street Journal)

• Biden’s education secretary apologizes for FAFSA rollout amid new concerns about next year  (USA Today) 

• US colleges face ‘perfect storm’ on international recruitment  (Times Higher Education)

• Cornell University president Martha Pollack to step down  (Times Higher Education) 

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Just when you think that protest fatigue has won the day—how else do you explain Robert Kennedy and the dead worm in his brain, the almost-nudes at the Met Gala (they weren’t hanging on the walls), and the tabloid maestro himself (our 45th president) in a courtroom reunion with alleged paramour Stormy Daniels all capturing huge headlines? How about this: The New York Times came out on Friday, finding places for twelve protest stories; The New York Review of Books is out with a masterful essay (in the guise of a review) about slavery, how colleges used it, and how now we must tell the story to our students; and Education Next is promising that there’s “hope for higher ed.” Let me know what you think of our own new issue. And welcome our multitalented assistant managing editor Jennifer Wall, who wrote our protest stories.   –peter meyer 

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PURPOSE / Curriculum

Slavery in Higher Education and How to Teach It

Neither the headline in the latest New York Review of Books, “How Bondage Built the Church,” nor the title of the book under review, Rachel L. Swarns’s The 272: The Families Who Were Enslaved and Sold to Build the American Catholic Church do this review by Tiya Miles justice. Miles, a Harvard historian, begins her review by talking about Florida’s new middle school curriculum, approved by the State Board of Education last July. “There was an uproar,” says Miles, because those standards “advised teachers to tell their students that enslaved people had acquired skills that ‘could be applied for their personal benefit, suggesting an upside to dehumanization and forced servitude.” And isn’t this the nub of the question? Miles calls it “rhetorical acrobatics.” With perhaps some parallels with the current campus protests over the war between Hamas and Israel, Miles manages to describe the debate over African-American history curricula involving slaveholders and enslaved people as often reflecting something between wishful thinking and reality. And the point of all this ambiguity is to suggest that Miles’s review is a masterpiece of what an old friend of mine, in a book he wrote in 1974, called “intellectual skywriting.” She acknowledges that “many Americans” recognize “the harms of minimizing slavery—both to the memory of those who lived through it and to our ability to improve race relations today—those who attempt to white-wash it face opposition.” Miles covers the 1619 Project, the 2022 Harvard report on American universities and their “widespread ownership and sale overseas of Black and Indigenous bondspeople,” and various other reports, studies, and books showing how schools “where bondspeople were held on campus, where enslaved laborers maintained the grounds, where institutional programs depended on proceeds from slavery, and where the knowledge and technologies produced relied on enslaved people’s presence and contributions.” 

The ostensible point of the book and the review is to trace the Catholic Church’s 17^th- and 18^th-century slave-trade abominations. Swarns’s book, says Miles, is not just “about a mass sale of enslaved people by Jesuit priests to save Georgetown University [but also] reminds us that the legacy of slavery is simultaneously the legacy of resistance.” A bonus here is Eric Foner’s also-masterful 2022 story in the NYRB, “The Complicity of the Textbooks.”

Sources

How Bondage Built the Church (New York Review of Books)

Intellectual Skywriting (New York Review of Books)

The Complicity of the Textbooks (New York Review of Books)

Further Reading

Yale University apologizes for its role in slavery  (Washington Post) 

Scientists oppose retractions for racism, sexism and fraud  (Times Higher Education)

Embrace Pluralism over Racialism  (City Journal)

Harvard University to Offer Segregated Graduation Ceremonies Based on Race, Class, Sexuality  (National Review)

Name-Calling and Calling the Police: How N.Y.C. Parent Meetings Got Mean  (New York Times)

In a post–affirmative action world, Harvard admits its first class—discounting race  (GBH News)   

How Colleges Are Fighting Racism Head-On  (Chronicle of Higher Education) 

GOVERNANCE

Campus Chaos Continues

Many 2024 college graduates were deprived of in-person high school graduations because of the pandemic, and this year’s waves of protest, encampments, and, in some cases, “horrific acts of violence” are shutting out this rite of passage for a large part of this cohort again. Columbia University canceled its main commencement ceremony (but is retaining smaller ceremonies in its 19 colleges). One Politico-bound graduating student bemoans her lost “senior spring [that] was supposed to be a time to relax and recharge” and writes about her “nightmare on 116^th Street.” USC canceled the valedictorian speech planned for Asna Tabassum, after pro-Israel groups complained about a pro-Palestinian link she had on her social media bio. The ensuing fallout included self-cancellation of many “Very Important Speakers.” As one USC student put it: “To have the finish line disappear in front of your eyes is disappointing.” Read advice on how colleges can re-draw the lines on campus and how 50 campus leaders responded to the challenge.

---Jennifer Wall

Sources

‘Horrific Acts of Violence’: Demonstrators Spar at UCLA Before Police Move In  (Chronicle of Higher Education)

After Weeks of Protests, Columbia Cancels Main Commencement Ceremony  (New York Times)

Inside the chaos at Columbia (Politico)

U.S.C. Tries to Manage ‘Train Wreck’ of a Graduation  (New York Times) 

Campus Protests Aren’t Going Away. Colleges Need to Draw Lines  (New York Times)

We Looked at 50 Colleges to See How They Handled Student Encampments. Here’s What We Found.  (Chronicle of Higher Education)

Further Reading

A Thank-You Note to the Campus Protesters  (New York Times)

The Road Back to Normalcy Starts Where the Problem Began: College Campuses  (RealClearEducation)

Cornell University’s President Is Resigning, the Third Ivy-League Leader to Depart  (Wall Street Journal)

U.S.C. President Censured by Academic Senate After Weeks of Turmoil  (New York Times)

After Negotiations Collapse, Police Sweep Through Columbia U. and Arrest Dozens  (Chronicle of Higher Education)

‘These Terms Are Just Absurd’: How One University Disciplined Professors Accused of Assisting an Encampment  (Chronicle of Higher Education)

Student Protest Is an Essential Part of Education  (New York Times)

A Way Back from Campus Chaos  (New York Times)

The House Republican Going After Universities on Antisemitism  (New York Times)

What the First Amendment Means for Campus Protests  (New York Times)

It’s Not Just Gaza: Student Protesters See Links to a Global Struggle  (New York Times)

Why Antiwar Protests Haven’t Flared Up at Black Colleges Like Morehouse  (New York Times)

A Rising Democrat Leans Into the Campus Fight Over Antisemitism  (New York Times)

British universities have adopted a more permissive attitude to pro-Palestinian encampments. Will it pay off?  (New York Times)

A Failure of Leadership at American Universities  (New York Times)

PUBLIC TRUST

Words and Images: Protest Rhetoric and Pics

In an essay in The New Yorker, Zadie Smith, notes that words are “weapons of mass destruction.” She observes that when someone asks, “Where do you stand on Israel/Palestine?,” words that get bandied about are like “a series of shibboleths...phrases that can’t...or...must be said…(river to the sea...right to defend, one state, two states, Zionist, colonialist, imperialist, terrorist).” Their usage establishes the speaker’s position and determines whether the speaker is ignored. Thomas L. Friedman also picks up on the shibboleth “from the river to the sea” and opines in The New York Times that the speaker is “essentially calling for the erasure of the state of Israel, not a two-state solution,” and thus is “part of the problem.” The “problem” with some of the protest rhetoric, according to some, is that there is an ignorance of the history of these phrases—a knowledge of history that Hillary Clinton called out in a recent interview on MSNBC. She believes that student protesters “don’t know very much at all about the history of the Middle East, or frankly about history, in many areas of the world, including in our own country.” Those lacking this knowledge should perhaps enroll in Steven David’s course at Johns Hopkins University, “Does Israel Have a Future?” If someone does not have an opportunity to study the subject or read up on it, they can certainly look at photos (worth a thousand words). Time magazine has a campus-protest photo essay showcasing “the power of photography to capture moments of truth” in which they describe the subjects as “young Americans who have known Israel only during its occupation of the West Bank” and are not “old enough to remember...fighting, in the shadow of the Holocaust.” They can also view “Scenes From the Student Protests Churning Across the Country,” in The New York Times.

---Jennifer Wall

Sources

Shibboleth (New Yorker)

Three Reasons the Campus Protests Are Part of the Problem  (New York Times)

Hillary Clinton Accuses Protesters of Ignorance of Mideast History  (New York Times)

Yes, Students Can Have a Reasoned Debate About Israel-Hamas  (Chronicle of Higher Education)

What America’s Student Photojournalists Saw at the Campus Protests  (Time)

Scenes From the Student Protests Churning Across the Country  (New York Times)

Further Reading

What the First Amendment Means for Campus Protests  (New York Times)

House Republicans to Examine K-12 Schools in Latest Antisemitism Hearing  (New York Times)

UCLA Defends Dismantling Camp  (Los Angeles Times)

The Story Behind TIME’s Campus Protests Cover  (Time)

This is not a problem that will go away on its own     (New York Times)

EXTERNAL ORDERS

Money Talks and Walks and Opportunities Vanish

“Disclose, divest, we will not stop, we will not rest” were the words frequently chanted on campuses this spring during pro-Palestinian protests. They did not fall on deaf ears. In an attempt to staunch these protests, a few colleges are reconsidering their investments in companies with Israeli ties. Brown University will vote this fall on whether its $6.6 billion endowment will divest those holdings; they did this in exchange for the dismantling of the pro-Palestinian encampment on the main lawn. Strings were tied to a grant from the Russell Berrie Foundation to Columbia. The widow of the foundation warned that “future giving would partly hinge on ‘evidence that you and leaders across the university are taking appropriate steps to create a tolerant and secure environment for Jewish members of the Columbia community.’” Judges piled on too. A dozen federal bench judges signed a letter stating “we won’t hire law clerks who matriculate at Columbia.”They believe that “the reputational costs from our boycott ought to provoke some soul-searching at the school.”

---Jennifer Wall

Sources

Elite Colleges Walked Into the Israel Divestment Trap  (New York Times)

Calls to Divest From Israel Put Students and Donors on Collision Course  (New York Times)

For Columbia and a Powerful Donor, Months of Talks and Millions at Risk  (York Times)

Why Judges Are Boycotting Law Clerks From Columbia  (Wall Street Journal)

Shortstack: Bad News for Fulbright Scholars, FAFSA, and a New Hope for Higher Ed

·        Education Dept. Announces a Long-Awaited FAFSA Fix. But s It Too Little, Too Late? (Chronicle of Higher Education) 

·        How the Fulbright Program Got Sucked Into Tensions With Russia: Fulbright scholars caught in the middle as Russia blacklists international-exchange group  (Chronicle of Higher Education)

·        A New Hope for Higher Education: Regulatory red tape has tangled the launch of the University of Austin, but motivated founders are cutting through it. (Education Next)

·       Yale sparked a U.S. News rankings revolt. Here’s what happened next. (Washington Post)

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DEI Rebranding

The pushback on DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) has been growing in the last year, with dozens of states and campuses beginning to shut down a decades-long effort to institutionalize what supporters believed would allow neglected minorities to share more fully in the benefits offered by colleges by establishing separate offices of DEI and requiring employees to sign DEI statements (see Further Reading below). Baruch seemed to be a lone DEI success story when the New York Times hailed the school as “a model college in a new report on diversity in higher education” last month. And Harvard choosing a DEI proponent and former McKinsey consultant “who has criticized meritocracy and published controversial research on the benefits of diversity in business,” according to the Washington Free Beacon, to be included in its presidential search committee was a quiet nod to Claudine Gay, its recently defrocked leader. But it was news-making when professor Randall Kennedy, an eminent African American scholar of race and civil rights at the school, wrote an op-ed in The Harvard Crimson denouncing the use of DEI statements in academic hiring. “I am a scholar on the left committed to struggles for social justice,” Kennedy wrote. “The realities surrounding mandatory DEI statements, however, make me wince.” As it turns out, Kennedy may be a step ahead of what the Times unveiled last month as a “workaround” for avoiding the attacks on DEI: “Welcome to the new ‘Office of Access and Engagement.’ Schools are renaming departments and job titles to try to preserve diversity programs.”

Sources

Mandatory DEI Statements Are Ideological Pledges of Allegiance. Time to Abandon Them (Harvard Crimson)

Baruch College, an Upward-Mobility Machine (New York Times)

Harvard Taps Longtime DEI Advocate To Help Pick University’s Next President  (Washington Free Beacon)

With State Bans on D.E.I., Some Universities Find a Workaround: Rebranding (New York Times)

Further Reading

Dozens of Campuses Shed or Alter DEI Efforts as Political Pressure Mounts  (Chronicle of Higher Education)

Texas’ diversity, equity and inclusion ban has led to more than 100 job cuts at state universities  (Wisconsin State Journal)

Abolish DEI Statements  (The Atlantic)

Kansas’ higher ed board adopts an anti-DEI policy after pressure from GOP legislators  (AP)

Tracking Higher Ed’s Dismantling of DEI  (Chronicle of Higher Education)

New wave of job cuts follows DEI bans  (Chronicle of Higher Education)

Faculty diversity at universities lags behind students: Watchdog  (The Hill)

University of Texas professors demand reversal of job cuts from shuttered DEI initiative  (Associated Press)

GOVERNANCE

Campus Protests: A Few New Wrinkles

This week’s protests offered some interesting twists  on what were the fairly predictable “crackdowns” by university officials this week; the latter best summarized by this Los Angeles Times front-page headline, UCLA Defends Dimantling Camp.  Hundreds of camps were taken down and more hundreds of students arrested. But new this week was the idea that the students were being used. Conspiracy theorist Naomi Wolf (not Naomi Klein Wolf) was certainly there, warning that American students were actually “targets” in these protests and may in fact be  “walking into a terrifying trap.”  Wolf, a la Jonathan Haidt (see PTW), says that “a generation which has grown up on its phone, finally

has a battle, replete with heroes and villains, risk and tactics, exciting enough ‘IRL’ [IN REAL LIFE] to compete with Mortal Kombat; and ignorance, as naive students who have no knowledge of the complexities of the agony of Israel/Palestine’s conflict, credulously mouth reductive, inflammatory slogans, including `We are Hamas,’ `Intifada Now’ and `From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be Free.’  

“Students more knowledgeable and compassionate,” says Wolf, “could as easily call for a ceasefire, for peace talks; and for all sides to obey the international rules of war,” which is something of what happened at Brown last week when “Brown University and others have agreed to consider ending investments linked to Israel.” At the same time Wolf’s worry about “students being used” was similar to what the mayor of New York City voiced in blaming the protests on “external actors” and the New York Times to actually find some.

And leave it to the Times to find the next wrinkle in the protest movement, in a cagey headline on Sunday morning: A New Issue Flares in the 2024 Race: Campus Protests, suggesting that the ostensible free speech brouhaha on campus might help determine who the country’s next president is. We can let David Brooks, also of the Times, explain. Leaving aside the outside agitator talk and assuming that “most of the protesters are operating with the best of intentions — to ease the suffering being endured by the Palestinian people,” Brooks points out that the “protests have unexpected political consequences,” including who we elect president. It’s worth a read.  See also Further Reading below for more, but I can’t help but end with these words from Naomi Wolf,

  These protests are not solely organic. It is important at a time such as this to remember something that I have tried to warn the world since 2007, during the “Global War on Terror.” An event can be both real and orchestrated or hyped. A threat can be both real and exaggerated. People involved in an “action” or protest can be authentically moved by an issue, and also be pawns in the strategy of cynical infiltrators or agitators, working with guidance from much higher up, who are themselves directing activity on a very big chessboard. 

Sources

UCLA Defends Dimantling Camp (Los Angeles Times)

US Campus Chaos: A New Oct 7 on the Way?  (Substack)

Calls to Divest From Israel Put Students and Donors on Collision Course (New York Times)

Outsiders Were Among Columbia Protesters, but They Dispute Instigating Clashes  (New York Times)

A New Issue Flares in the 2024 Race: Campus Protests (New York Times)

Why the Protests Help Trump (New York Times)

Further Reading

Biden Fails the Campus Protest Test  (Wall Street Journal)

Why Are Prestigious Colleges In Chaos? Perhaps Because Students Are Bored  (Forbes)

Columbia Faculty Call for No Confidence Vote in Shafik  (Daily News)

College Idiots Calling for ‘Intifada’ Have No Clue  (New York Post)

Columbia’s Violence Against Protesters Has a Long History  (The Nation)

Police Officer Fired Gun at Columbia  (Associated Press)

America’s Colleges Are Reaping What They Sowed  (The Atlantic)

Half of Arrests at Columbia and CCNY Not Affiliated with Schools  (CNN)

These 3 Colleges Struck Deals With Their Protesters 

(Chronicle of Higher Education)

How Trustees Can Save Columbia, Brown, Penn, Yale  (Real Clear Education)

Jailed students, a canceled ceremony and angry parents  (Los Angeles Times)

Substack: More Colleges Closing, More Athletes Transferring, More Protest News,  and Some Good Ideas

·       When a Pro-Free-Speech Dean Shuts Down a Student Protest  (The New Yorker) An online argument erupted after a video of a law professor grabbing a microphone from a student went viral. But the debate has obscured some fairly basic truths.

·       Sending college students into classrooms to help our struggling students could be a winning post-pandemic solution  (The Hechinger Report) If we remove obstacles, the federal work-study program could bring thousands of tutors into the nation’s schools

·       Colleges are now closing at a pace of one a week. What happens to the students?  (The Hechinger Report) Most never finish their degrees, and alumni wonder about the value of degrees they’ve earned

·       They Entered College in Isolation and Leave Among Protests: The Class That Missed Out on Fun  (Wall Street Journal) The pandemic left many students anxious and lonely, still choosing to go to class online, watch games on their phones and eat meals in their rooms. ‘We’ve never had a calm time when we can just focus on being kids.’

·       Defining Free Speech Down on Campus  (Wall Street Journal) Anti-Israel protesters invoke a First Amendment they don’t understand.

·       Athlete Transfers Are on the Rise. So Is the ‘Grueling’ Work That Makes Them Possible. (Chronicle of Higher Education) Twenty college athletes wanted to transfer to a new campus. Could they? It fell to Ronald Moses to help sort it out.

·       Winning a Fulbright Was a High Honor for Russians. Now It Could Jeopardize Scholars Who Go Home. (Chronicle of Higher Education) For scholars from around the world, a Fulbright award is an academic triumph, a chance to study and live in the United States.

·       How Columbia’s Campus Was Torn Apart Over Gaza  (The New Yorker) The university asked the N.Y.P.D. to arrest pro-Palestine student protesters. Was it a necessary step to protect Jewish students, or a dangerous encroachment on academic freedom?

·       Cornell Becomes Latest Ivy-League to Reinstate Standardized-Testing Requirement for Admissions  (National Review) Cornell University is reinstating the standardized testing admissions requirement for applicants seeking admission for Fall 2026.

·       Faculty-administrator distrust is making US universities ungovernable  (Times Higher Education) We must rethink higher education’s intellectual mission in terms that transcend Manichaean critiques of the neoliberal university, says Nicholas Dirks

·       ‘DIVEST’: College endowments turn into flash point of student protests  (Washington Post) Student groups are pushing schools to cut any financial ties to Israel. Experts say that wouldn’t be so easy.

EXTERNAL ORDERS

Debt Relief Revolution

The rallying cry echoes: “Student loan forgiveness is an investment, not a handout!” Amidst the weight of $30,000 average debt, President Biden’s latest announcement of a $7.4 billion loan cancellation aims to ease the burden for 277,000 borrowers. Among them: over 200,000 who borrowed smaller amounts and are enrolled in income-driven repayment plans, and 65,000, including educators and public-service workers, who will see adjustments or forgiveness in their student debt. Targeting young voters, this broader strategy includes a focus on minority-serving institutions and for-profit colleges. Biden’s new plan offers up to $10,000 in relief per borrower, extending a much-needed lifeline to communities disproportionately burdened by education debt. All the good news didn’t stop attorney generals in eight states from suing.

—-Amy Genito

Sources

Biden Wipes Out Another $7.4 Billion in Student Loan Debt  (New York Times)

Biden rolls out major new student debt forgiveness plan  (Times Higher Ed)

Missouri Attorney General leads coalition challenging Biden student debt relief  (Missouri Independent)

Further Reading

Biden Administration Announces Plan to Shift Another $7.4 Billion in Student Debt to Taxpayers  (National Review)

Biden will once again try to pay off student loan debt for millions of Americans  (NPR)

President Biden’s Plan B to Cancel Student Debt Faces Legal Challenge  (AEI)  

Missouri, Six Other States Sue Biden Administration over Student-Debt Plan  (National Review)

Biden’s Student-Loan Plan Seeks to Slash Debt for 30 Million Americans  (Wall Street Journal)

Biden’s New Student-Loan Forgiveness Plan: Who Qualifies and How It Would Work  (Wall Street Journal)

PUBLIC TRUST

FAFSA Fiasco: Lawmakers Slam Bumpy Rollout of Student Aid Overhaul

Despite aims to simplify, the revamped Free Application for Federal Student Aid triggered a 40% decline in high school senior completion rates, igniting bipartisan uproar. The goal of the FAFSA Simplification Act was to reduce the number of questions students and their families had to answer and increase the amount of aid they could receive. “Regrettably, it hasn’t worked out that way,” said Rep. Bobby Scott, a Virginia Democrat. While colleges scramble to mend aid packages with persistent errors and amidst the chaos, a beacon of hope emerged: the California Student Aid Commission introduced the Dream Act Application offering relief for low-income students and those with a parent lacking a social security number, providing access to vital aid for aspiring attendees of UC, Cal State, and California community colleges.

—-Amy Genito

Sources

‘Crisis of credibility’: FAFSA rollout panned during congressional hearing (Higher Ed Dive)

There’s a lot happening with the FAFSA (Washington Post)

Caught up in the FAFSA chaos? Some students now have a workaround (Los Angeles Times)

Further reading

A FAFSA Fiasco Has Students Still Asking: Which College Can They Afford? (New York Times)

Frustrations with FAFSA linger as groups rush to get students to apply  (Washington Post) 

Visualizing FAFSA Fiasco by Geography  (ON Ed Tech)

Federal Student Aid office chief to step down amid criticism over FAFSA  (Washington Post)

PUBLIC TRUST

A Larry Nassar Settlement: Unmasking FBI Blunders

In a landmark move, the U.S. Department of Justice announced a $380 million settlement with victims of Larry Nassar`s sexual abuse, marking a significant step in the pursuit of justice for survivors. The settlement follows a damning investigation into the FBI’s mishandling of Nassar’s case, which included more than 150 women and girls alleging that the Michigan State employee sexually abused them over the course of 20 years. More than a dozen survivors filed claims against the government over its negligence in the investigation. Acting Associate Attorney General Benjamin Mizer said that the “allegations should have been taken seriously from the outset.” The settlements “won’t undo the harm,” Mizer continued, “our hope is that they will help give the victims of his crimes [139 of whom have settled] some of the critical support they need to continue healing.” An apology from Acting President Satish Udpa at a MSU Board of Trustees meeting in February of 2019 -- “We were too slow to grasp the enormity of the offenses” – appear all too frequently on MSU’s website.

—-Amy Genito

Sources

Justice Dept. Reaches $138.7 Million Settlement Over F.B.I.’s Failures in Nassar Case (New York Times)

Justice Department nearing settlement with sexual assault survivors of disgraced USA Gymnastics doctor Nassar (CNN)

US government agrees to $138.7M settlement over FBI’s botching of Larry Nassar assault allegations (AP)

Nassar-related information  (Michigan State)

Further Reading

Larry Nassar Fallout at Michigan State Keeps on Spreading (Paideia Times Quarterly)

U.S. to Pay Victims of Larry Nassar $100 Million Over FBI Failures (Wall Street Journal)

PUBLIC TRUST

From Michigan to California: Unveiling Title IX's Tangled Web

As Michigan State University faced renewed scrutiny for its mishandling of sexual abuse allegations against Larry Nassar in 2018,  multiple colleges grapple with their own Title IX challenges today. MSU's failures highlight a culture of indifference some twenty years ago, but UC Davis's mandatory training session faux pas today reveal a blend of advocacy and ambiguity that can cause problems. While billed as essential for campus inclusivity, the training at UC Davis left students and staff grappling with vague policies and blurred boundaries, similar to what befell the University of Maryland with Chad Cradock and the multi-year sexual assault fiasco that enveloped UMBC as it ignored multiple violations of Title IX, including sexual assault. Cradock’s case  underscores systemic challenges still facing many colleges, including what befell a University of Nevada faculty member after she accused her adviser of abuse.

—-Amy Genito

Sources

‘Culture of Indifference’ and ‘Institutional Protection’ at Michigan State Stymied Investigation of Larry Nassar (Chronicle of Higher Education)

Vague Title IX Rules At UC Davis Turn Free Speech Into Sexual ‘Harassment’  (The Federalist) 

DOJ investigation finds deceased UMBC swimming and diving coach abused students on team (Maryland Matters)

State set to pay $4.1M settlement for students abused by former UMBC swim, diving coach (Maryland Matters)

Nevada Faculty Member Who Accused Former Adviser of Sexual Abuse Says She’s Been Fired (Chronicle of Higher Education)

Further Reading

Is Biden’s Title IX rule built to last? This expert is unsure  (University Business)

Title IX Rule on Trans Athletes Delayed Until After Election  (Inside Higher Ed) 

Biden Title IX rules on trans athletes set for election-year delay  (Washington Post)

Biden Title IX rules set to protect trans students, survivors of abuse  (Washington Post) 

Head of federal student-aid office steps down; Florida governor balks at new Title IX rules (Chronicle of Higher Education)

U of Louisiana System Subpoenas Journalist in Title IX Lawsuit (Inside Higher Ed)

Biden Admin Adds ‘Gender Identity’ as Protected Class in New Title IX Rules, but Sidesteps Trans-Athlete Policy  (National Review) 

New Title IX Rules Erase Campus Due Process Protections  (Reason)

Biden's new Title IX rules do not address transgender athletes  (Los Angeles Times)

The Baffling ‘Bull’ Behind Title IX  (NAS Minding the Campus)  

Biden Administration’s Final Title IX Rule Goes Into Effect Aug. 1  (American Council on Education)

Title IX and the Assault on Hillsdale College  (Wall Street Journal)