Canary: Higher Ed Issues Landscape Report 11/11

November 11th, 2024

• What we’re watching: CSU’s new graduation initiatives, law school, football ticket price hikes, foreign influence at universities.
• Election redux: President-elect Trump and higher education.
• What we’re reading: Fostering a pluralistic community, college leadership turnover in Texas, education and religion.

What we're watching

CSU’s new graduation initiative

California State’s graduation initiative is getting a new focus: what happens after graduation.

While improving graduation rates will remain foundational, CSU plans to boost efforts that link degrees with job opportunities including more intentional advising that connects major selection, career paths, internships and networking opportunities among students and alumni.

“We have to show students what’s the endgame. It’s not graduation. It’s how do we connect graduation to either a career that they’re studying or graduate school.” - CSU Chancellor Mildred García (LA Times)

“The CSU system is to promote career direction [but] isn’t that what college is supposed to do? . . Going to college just to be drenched in the glory of knowledge is clearly myopic.” (San Diego Tribune | Letter to the Editor)

Law degrees

Early data from the Law School Admission Council evidences a surge in early applications received by law schools.

Currently, applications are running 26-37% more compared to last year at the same time. While the rate of applications may slow down, other data shows that 13% more people sat the LSAT this Fall compared to the previous year.

“The sharp increase early on may be due to the removal of the so-called logic games from the LSAT . . . which involved mind-bending hypotheticals [and] were considered to be the most difficult section.” (Reuters)

College Football ticket prices

News outlets are increasingly focusing stories on “talent fees” and “athletic surcharges” that universities have innovated to cover the costs of revenue sharing between programs and student-athletes.

Universities are justifying such costs as necessary for programs to remain competitive. However, news media are portraying such costs as a shifting of the financial burden for revenue sharing from programs to fans.

“Maintaining a high level of support for our 29 NCAA athletic programs will take an elevated commitment from everyone.” - Warde Manuel, Michigan athletic director (The Detroit News)

“College sports fans, students and boosters are willing to continue absorbing the operational costs while the team’s coaches and administrators get richer because they view athletics as separate from the university.” - Rick Karcher, Eastern Michigan (Associated Press)

Foreign influence

Congressman John Moolernaar, R-Michigan, has urged the University of Michigan to break ties with Shanghai Jiao Tong University, alleging that such ties pose a risk to national security and research integrity.

In his letter to UMich, Moolenaar pointed to the recent arrest of five Chinese nationals (previously enrolled at the university) for secretly photographing a training exercise conducted by the Michigan Army National Guard.

“Given these concerning developments, I strongly encourage you to shutter the partnership between U-M and Shanghai Jiao Tong and take the necessary steps to safeguard the integrity of federally funded research at U-M and carefully vet international students studying on U-M’s Campus,” - Congressman John Moolenaar (Letter to University of Michigan President Santa Ono)

Election Redux

American college campuses were relatively quiet during last week’s election — certainly in comparison to the height of the protests related to the Israel-Hamas conflict.

The most notable flash points in and around the election included:

• Howard University hosting Vice President Kamala Harris’ election watch party and concession speech.
• Students at UC Berkeley holding an anti-Trump protest.
• A number of students receiving racist messages in what appeared to be a targeted campaign from those claiming to be Trump supporters.
• Ohio State’s X post congratulating alumnus Vice President-elect JD Vance turning into a partisan battleground.
• Harvard, Columbia and Barnard professors being criticized for canceling classes in order to allow students to process the election result. Numerous critics contrasted the cancellations with a lack of such action on October 7.

Institutional messages

With the last year seeing many universities adopting institutional neutrality policies, statements from college presidents were not as prevalent as in 2016 or 2020.

A number of messages, such as those from American University and Emerson, focused on empathy, respect for others, and mental well-being resources on campus. More overtly political messages sought to tie election responses to wider higher education missions.

“College campuses, like ours, are one of the best spaces to analyze and learn about the times we are living in . . . Like all elections, this one calls us to do what we do best here — listen, love, learn, and go forward acting on our beliefs about what kind of campus, what kind of country, and what kind of world we want to help create and live in.” - President Wendy Cadge (Bryn Mawr College)

“However we feel about the election’s results, we must strive to make education and democracy protect and nurture one another. At our university that will mean a very intentional effort to protect and nurture the seeds of a democratic culture. We must reject the cultivated ignorance that is used to fan the flames of hatred.” - President Michael Roth (Wesleyan University)

Renewed scrutiny?

Many outlets have reported on the growing divide between college graduates and non-graduates in voting choices. In addition, both President-Elect Donald Trump and Vice President-Elect J.D. Vance have shared disdain for academia and made pronouncements about higher education policy that have irked many college leaders.

Title IX rules, transgender student-athlete protections, free speech policies, antisemitism definitions, and even the Department of Education could all end up on the legislative menu in 2025.

“The Trump campaign has gone after college accrediting agencies, which serve as the gatekeepers for billions of dollars in federal student aid, claiming that the entities are part of the ‘radical Left’ and have ‘allowed our colleges to become dominated by Marxist Maniacs and lunatics.’… Both Trump and Vance have taken a hard stance against affirmative action and diversity initiatives. . . Vance also has argued that conservative students are being silenced on college campuses.” (Hechinger Report)

“How do [college presidents] figure out how to backpedal in a way that’s credible and where they can actually maintain the respect of the campus community?” - Frederick Hess, American Enterprise Institute (Inside Higher Ed)

A new comms landscape?

While university presidents have very different constituencies from politicians, the election hinted at a changing landscape for executive communications.

Long form podcasts: at the expense of traditional media appearances, both Trump and Harris appeared on multiple podcasts in the run-up to the election. While media interviews are usually short and sound-bitey, podcasts are often much longer — Trump and Vance both spent three hours as guests of The Joe Rogan Experience.

“Podcasting is an intimate medium. People like Cooper and Rogan are in our earbuds, our car stereos, our smart speakers. . . It's easy to feel like the person speaking directly into your ear.” (Chron)

New debate forums: YouTube platforms like Jubilee and campus-focused initiatives like Turning Points USA are introducing a few forms of debate that make the clash of talking heads on traditional media — and presidential debates —seem quaint and boorish. Speaking on many campuses over the course of the election, right wing activist Charlie Kirk relished debating multiple students at events that were mostly civil. The content created at these forums was then eagerly consumed on social media.

Caution as risk: there is a general consensus that Harris ran a cautious campaign with limited media appearances, whereas Trump spoke his mind across many forums to the point of recklessness. Harris was punished for her cautious, scripted style, while Trump was rewarded for his brash and untidy off-the-cuff manner. Higher education leaders typically take a cautious approach to messaging — is continuing to do so a risk?

📖 What We’re Reading

Real Clear Education: This Admissions Season, Let’s Rethink How We Talk About Opportunity in America

• It's time to rethink how we message opportunity to young people. Purpose and passion do not always come right away in a job, but they are elements we should teach our children to strive toward regardless of what learning and career paths they choose.

Associated Press: Why Argentina’s Public Universities Are Paralyzed by Protests

• Professors and non-teaching staff at public universities across Argentina are demanding a pay raise to compensate for sky-high inflation that they say has shrunk their purchasing power by 60% this year. . . The irascible president has lambasted universities as leftist indoctrination camps. . . Some say Milei is justified in requesting more financial transparency, pointing to the alleged misuse of funds and creeping politicization of what was once a universally respected institution.

The New York Times: Professors Are Uniquely Powerful. That May Be Changing.

• For more than a century, professors have regularly had vast influence over instruction, personnel and other hallmarks of campus life, sharing sway with presidents and trustees in decisions shaping many parts of campus life — an authority that is unfathomable in many workplaces.

The Los Angeles Times: Letters to the Editor: There’s still affirmative action in college — for rich kids and athletes (archive link)

• In 2023, a U.S. Supreme Court ruling outlawed affirmative action in higher education, yet no one challenges schools for accepting academically mediocre students who excel at any given sport. . . we value athletes far more than we value educating minorities. And the fact that many college athletes move from school to school looking for a better team (not a better education) or do not finish their education at all makes the notion of a “student” athlete laughable.

#️⃣ Trending on Social This Week

Sources:

• Insurrection Barbie (@DefiyantlyFree)
• Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11)
• Peter Schweizer (@peterschweizer)

Legend Labs is a brand and communications consulting firm for the digital age. We help ambitious leaders create, grow, and protect their Legends. This analysis of reputation-related trends in higher education features insights from Meltwater and direct social media & web analysis.

For more information, email us at hello@legendlabs.com.