"Last year turned out to be a tumultuous one for higher education, with institutions buffeted by the Trump administration's sweeping federal research cuts, unprecedented intrusion into classrooms and relentless crackdown on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and speech rights. In response, campus leaders engaged with lawmakers behind closed doors, spent heavily on lobbying and co-signed higher education associations' efforts to fight government policies that threatened academic freedom and their institutional missions."
""Unique challenges facing presidents included that difficult balance between what campus constituents wanted for presidents to say and the desires of trustees to hold very different positions, either based on pressures from legislatures or their own political beliefs," said Teresa Valerio Parrot, principal of TVP Communications, a sector-focused public relations firm. "Often presidents found themselves in this very interesting position of trying to please internal audiences and also meet the expectations of their bosses when they weren't congruent.""
"Caught Unprepared Experts said most presidents were caught off guard by the onslaught of challenges unleashed by the federal government. Brian Rosenberg, president emeritus of Macalester College and a visiting professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, told Inside Higher Ed that last year was "traumatizing" for campus leaders who struggled "to not get snowed under by all of the challenges they faced.""
Colleges faced aggressive federal actions including research funding cuts, classroom oversight, and restrictions on diversity, equity and inclusion and free speech. Campus leaders responded mostly with private lobbying, closed-door engagements with lawmakers, and association-led legal or policy efforts while rarely speaking out publicly. Many presidents tried to balance competing demands from faculty and students seeking public advocacy and trustees or state officials pressuring restraint or opposing statements. That tension left leaders cautious and often silent. A number of presidents reported being unprepared and overwhelmed by the scale of federal interventions and the rapid succession of challenges.
Read at Inside Higher Ed | Higher Education News, Events and Jobs
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