Free Speech Weighs Heavily, Closures Are Just Starting, and New Presidents Are Named at Stanford and Elsewhere
In this Week's Shortstack, Leaders lawyer up, Harvard applications plummet, and Taylor Swift is in the curriculum
Campus Leaders Weighed Down and Weighed In on Free Speech
Inside Higher Ed’s annual survey of college and university presidents captures their opinions and concerns. This year’s survey of 380 respondents found that “more Americans than ever are questioning the value of higher education, and college presidents are worried about that.” One paradoxical finding: Most participants were more confident about their management of race relations, free speech, and the rise of artificial intelligence than about the ability of higher education in general to handle these issues. This disconnect corresponds to a well-documented political science phenomenon known as Fenno’s paradox, which states that “most Americans generally disapprove of Congress but often support their member of Congress within their districts.” NAS Minding the Campus opines that this survey finding “sadly reveals that many higher education leaders are oblivious to the issues of free speech on their own campuses.” Case in point: The debate rages on at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where Sally Kornbluth presides as “the lone survivor” of the December 2023 congressional hearing debacle. At the hearing she and the presidents of Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania refused to say that calls for Jewish eradication violate campus harassment rules. (We all know how that turned out for Harvard and Penn leaders.) One MIT professor believes that Kornbluth has promoted the narrative that, as he put it, “things are not as bad at MIT, and ‘most’ people feel ‘safe.’ But that’s just gaslighting what the [Jewish] community is talking and reporting about.”
On the flip side, there are several reports of non-oblivious leaders:
UC Santa Barbara took swift action after pro-Palestinian students occupied the Multicultural Center and hung anti-Semitic posters with statements such as “Zionists not allowed.” That same day, UCSB chancellor Henry Yang released a statement saying that the “signage has been removed and campus is conducting a bias incident review....The posting of such messages is a violation of our principles of community and inclusion.” In a follow-up statement, Yang promised consequences, announced a new campus-wide anti-discrimination policy, and established an office of civil rights.
After an ado on campus during a teach-in at Skidmore, President Marc Connor addressed the issue, stating, “The speech that we hate is not therefore ‘hate speech.’ Hate speech is...connected to immediate violence, intimidation, or harassment. There are things we hear that are offensive, but what that really is, is contested speech [which] needs to be engaged...interpreted....debated...something that college campuses are uniquely poised to do great privilege.”
—Jennifer Wall
Sources:
College presidents anxious about waning public trust in higher education (Washington Times)
College Presidents Are Oblivious to Their Campus Climate (NAS Minding the Campus)
UCSB Black Studies faculty plan anti-Israel ‘day of interruption’ (The College Fix)
Jane Weihe and the Blogger Are Evicted From a BLM “Teach-In” at Skidmore College
(Saratoga Springs Politics)
Pressure Grows on MIT President To Stop Antisemitic Incidents (RealClear Politics)
Further Reading:
President’s corner: President Elizabeth Davis crunches the numbers on new molds of student support (University Business)
America’s elite universities are bloated, complacent and illiberal (The Economist)
Students Are Voting to Support Boycotts of Israel. How Are Colleges Responding? (Chronicle of Higher Education)
Remote Learning, Demographics, Mismanagement, and War Lead to Campus Closures
An imbalance in demand for online versus in-person learning has led the University of Iowa to close three satellite learning centers. The National Center for Education Statistics reports that 53 percent of the 2022–23 academic body was enrolled in at least one online course, compared to 35 percent during the 2018–19 period. Iowa’s decision was not prompted by financial hardship (though over $400,000 a year will be saved) but by student preference.
Wisconsin’s closures are another story: The UW-Milwaukee Waukesha campus experienced a 65 percent decline in enrollment and will be the fifth closure of two-year campuses in the University of Wisconsin system. What’s to blame? Heavy competition among institutions of higher education and “a long history of state disinvestment that has made Wisconsin’s four-year public campuses among the lowest funded in the nation.” Two-year and rural schools have been hit especially hard. UW chancellor Mark Mone spelled it out: Cost per student is the same at both types of campuses, but with half the revenue. “There simply isn’t a positive path going forward,” he said.
After 168 years in business, Birmingham-Southern (BSC), trustees voted to close the private institution, which was called “a terrible credit risk” by Treasurer Young Boozer, who oversees Alabama’s loan program. He refused to use the state’s “taxpayer dollars for a loan to an institution which I believe has been grossly mismanaged for many years. It is beyond distressed.” BSC is planning to aid students with transfer opportunities.
One closure not driven by trends or finances was triggered by parochialism. Texas A&M University abruptly shut down its Qatar campus, which was deemed not part of the “core mission of Texas A&M...which should be advanced primarily within Texas and the United States.” The 20-year old physical presence in the Middle East was reassessed after the Israel-Hamas war broke out.
—Jennifer Wall
Sources:
Demand for Online Classes Prompts Closure of Satellite Centers in Iowa (Inside Higher Ed)
Wisconsin Is Closing Another 2-Year Campus but Hopes It’s Found a Solution to Its Biggest Challenges (Chronicle of Higher Education)
Birmingham-Southern Announces Abrupt Closure (Inside Higher Ed)
The Closure of an Overseas Campus Raises Fresh Concerns About the Future of International Ed (Chronicle of Higher Education)
Further Reading:
A Small College Tried and Failed to Persuade Lawmakers to Save It. Now It’s Closing. (Chronicle of Higher Education)
Birmingham-Southern College closing May 31 as loan bill fails to gain support: ‘This is a tragic day’ (AL.com)
Why It’s So Hard to Figure Out What to Do With a College Campus When It Closes (Chronicle of Higher Education)
What the Data Says About Pandemic School Closures, Four Years Later (New York Times)
The Damaging Legacy of Covid School Closures (National Review)
School Closures During Pandemic Set Students Back More Than Half a Year in Math, Analysis Finds (Daily Signal)
Stanford Names Jonathan Levin New President
Jonathan Levin, Stanford’s business school dean since 2016, has been tapped to take the helm of one of the “world’s most prestigious, and wealthiest, universities at a challenging time in higher education,” as described by The Wall Street Journal. The “renowned economist” takes the top spot last held by Marc Tessier-Lavigne, who stepped down after an investigation into allegations of data manipulation in reports he coauthored. (See Dramatic Fall from Top, PTQ Summer 2023). Levin, who earned undergraduate degrees from Stanford, a master’s from the University of Oxford, and a PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is “viewed as a stabilizing force,” given the recent campus protests over the Israel-Hamas war and the prior president’s research controversy. The search committee sought “someone who could chart a course for the university during these politically fraught times.” Regarding such, Levin has stated that the university should “get out of the business of making statements on current events” and instead “should focus on encouraging students to listen to different perspectives and engage in dialogue and form their own opinions.” Notably, Levin has served on President Biden’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, where he focused on topics ranging from “modeling and predicting extreme weather to artificial intelligence’s prospects for scientific discovery.”
Sources:
Stanford Taps Jonathan Levin as Next President (Wall Street Journal)
Stanford’s New President Is Jonathan Levin, Dean of Business School (New York Times)
Stanford appoints business school dean as its next president (Washington Post)
Further Reading:
Stanford business dean Levin named new president (Times Higher Education)
Stanford names Jonathan Levin, business school dean, new president (Los Angeles Times)
Stanford University names Jonathan Levin as its new president (San Francisco Chronicle)
ShortStack: Leaders lawyer up, Harvard applications plummet, and Taylor Swift is in the curriculum
In Praise of F’s (Martin Center)
The Big Money of College Basketball (The Atlantic)
Colleges are lawyering up to avoid becoming the next Harvard (Politico)
Historical Book about Conservatives and Campus Wars Has Relevance in 2024 (Diverse)
The FAFSA blunders haven’t let up. Now the Education Department has a credibility issue. (USA Today)
Harvard applications plummet in potential harbinger for other schools dealing with antisemitism (Just the News)
Harvard University to Offer Segregated Graduation Ceremonies Based on Race, Class, Sexuality (National Review)
Why Colleges Are Dying (National Review)
FAFSA delays are just the beginning: This college admissions cycle is full of changes (Star Tribune)
For Taylor Swift, professors find a place in this world (Times Higher Education)
US university suggests AI could help ‘offset’ striking instructors (Times Higher Education)
Gates Foundation open access move ‘shifts needle in right direction’ (Times Higher Education)
America has legislated itself into competing red, blue versions of education (Washington Post)
Colleges Go Above and Beyond for the Solar Eclipse (Chronicle of Higher Education)
A Little-Known Loan Program Meant to Help Rural Colleges May Actually Be Hurting Them, (Chronicle of Higher Education)
A Public University Wants to Prevent ‘Disruptive Activities.’ That’s Complicated. (Chronicle of Higher Education)
Leadership Comings and Goings at MSU, UArizona and Elsewhere
In East Lansing, the Michigan State University Board of Trustees named Kevin Guskiewicz as president, just as the MSU board was amid a shake-up—Chair Rema Vassar resigned after an independent investigation revealed that she and fellow trustee Dennis Denno “bullied colleagues and interfered in school business.” In addition, another trustee has been censured. Governor Gretchen Whitmer will determine whether Vassar and Denno will remain on the decimated board. In addition to regular presidential duties, Guskiewicz will be busy navigating the fallout from the Larry Nassar sexual abuse scandal. Search for a new president at the University of Arizona is underway after Robert C. Robbins announced plans to step down as soon as a successor is named. The for-profit university is “facing a $177 million shortfall caused by a flawed budget model and overspending on strategic initiatives.” Tom Stritikus will become Occidental’s 17th president on July 1 “at a time of significant uncertainty for small liberal arts colleges like Occidental.” His plan for the Los Angeles college, which is facing diminishing numbers of college-age students, is “raising our visibility nationally and internationally as the destination for an urban liberal arts experience.” For additional leadership changes, see transitions coverage in The Chronicle of Higher Education.
—Jennifer Wall
Sources:
New MSU President Starts Position as Problems Pile Up (Michigan News Source)
University of Arizona President to Step Down (Inside Higher Ed)
New Occidental College president bullish on liberal arts, champion of equity and inclusion (Los Angeles Times)
Transitions: Connecticut College Names New President (Chronicle of Higher Education)
Further Reading
Michigan State University's Rema Vassar resigning as board chair (Detroit News)
Transitions: Connecticut College Names New President (Chronicle of Higher Education)
Amid a Financial Crisis and a Governor’s Ire, U. of Arizona President Will Resign (Chronicle of Higher Education)
U of A President Robbins to take 10% pay cut amid $177 million deficit (Arizona Daily Star)
Transitions: Hamilton College Names New President; Colorado College President to Step Down (Chronicle of Higher Education)
Black UVA trustee rips cancel culture as board strips president’s name off library (College Fix)
Robbins to depart Arizona amid deep financial woes (Times Higher Education)