The leadership carousel at the University of Florida has turned swiftly of late. Now on its second interim president in as many years, and fresh off of a failed presidential search last summer, the state’s flagship is desperate to install a permanent leader. This month, the university's Board of Trustees voted to give the job to Stuart Bell, defying critics who have assailed the former University of Alabama leader over his past support for diversity initiatives. All of this has made for a rocky process, casting doubt on Bell’s prospects for confirmation from a state-level governing board. But the battle over Bell’s appointment may say more about a political fight to control higher education than it does about diversity or even Bell himself.

Related Reading

U. of Florida Plays Punching Bag — Again (The Chronicle) 

The U. of Florida Rejected a Former DEI Champion. Will Stuart Bell Face the Same Fate? (The Chronicle) 

Santa Ono Wanted a Presidency. He Became a Pariah. (The Chronicle)

Guest

Jasper Smith, staff reporter at The Chronicle of Higher Education

For more on today’s episode, visit chronicle.com/collegematters. We aim to make transcripts available within a day of an episode’s publication.

College Matters listeners, we want to hear from you. Please help us to improve our show by completing a brief audience survey at chronicle.com/podcastsurvey.

Last week, Kevin Guskiewicz took a pay cut to leave Michigan State University’s presidency for the top job at Clemson University. And he lobbed a grenade on the way out by criticizing the institution’s trustees, a group of eight elected officials who in recent years have been accused of dysfunction and backbiting. It’s the latest example of how partisan governing boards, willing to throw their weight around in new ways, are making presidents uncomfortable. Are those boards overstepping their bounds? Rema Vassar, an outspoken Michigan State trustee, argues that leadership tension is “a gift” — and discusses an audio recording in which she told students how they might “crucify” a past president.

Related Reading

He Came From the Frying Pan. Can He Manage the Fire? (The Chronicle)

After an Embarrassing Report, Squabbles on Michigan State’s Board Head Toward a Political Conclusion (The Chronicle)

The New Order (The Chronicle)

Guests

Andy Thomason, assistant managing editor of The Chronicle of Higher Education

Rema Vassar, member of the Michigan State University Board of Trustees

For more on today’s episode, visit chronicle.com/collegematters. We aim to make transcripts available within a day of an episode’s publication.

College Matters listeners, we want to hear from you. Please help us to improve our show by completing a brief audience survey at chronicle.com/podcastsurvey.

Dan Ariely has made a career of examining the dark side of humanity. As a social scientist and a Duke University professor, he has drawn attention — and some criticism — for his research into subjects like lying, cheating, and criminality. Of late, though, it’s Ariely’s long-running email correspondence with Jeffrey Epstein, the notorious sex offender who died in 2019, that’s drawing interest and scrutiny. What did Ariely want from Epstein? What did Epstein want from him? And why was Ariely asking Epstein for a woman’s phone number?

Related Reading: 

Is Dan Ariely Telling the Truth? (The Chronicle) 

Inside the Epstein Files (College Matters) 

Unmasking Academe’s Gilded Boys’ Club (The Chronicle) 

Guest

Dan Ariely, professor of business administration at Duke University

For more on today’s episode, visit chronicle.com/collegematters. We aim to make transcripts available within a day of an episode’s publication.

College Matters listeners, we want to hear from you. Please help us to improve our show by completing a brief audience survey at chronicle.com/podcastsurvey. 

Last week’s shutdown of Canvas, an online learning-management system used by thousands of colleges and schools, was a sharp illustration of higher education’s increasing reliance on technology. Students, too, are leaning on artificial intelligence and other tech tools to navigate schoolwork and campus life. All of this is being done in the name of greater efficiency, as colleges face pressure to educate and graduate students at an ever-faster clip — and students demand a frictionless educational experience. But what happens to higher education when it’s built for speed?

Related Reading

Canvas: Live Updates (The Chronicle)

Another Undergrad is Trying to Disrupt College with AI. He Says His Version Isn’t Cheating. (The Chronicle) 

A University Is Scraping Course Materials for Its New AI Platform. It Didn’t Ask the Faculty. (The Chronicle) 

Guest

Beth McMurtrie⁠, senior writer for The Chronicle of Higher Education

For more on today’s episode, visit chronicle.com/collegematters. We aim to make transcripts available within a day of an episode’s publication.

Ken Burns, who has helped to tell the story of the nation's history through celebrated documentaries, attributes much of his success to the education he received at Hampshire College. Faced with the recent news that his financially struggling alma mater will soon close its doors, Burns is reflecting on the larger forces that helped to seal the college’s fate. Hampshire bills itself as a learning laboratory in which students are encouraged to follow their passions, driving toward a goal of personal transformation rather than the pursuit of any single vocation. If that’s not a marketable idea, Burns says, something is truly amiss in higher education and the American psyche. The nation’s “reprehensible culture wars,” Burns says, are only making matters worse.

Related Reading

Hampshire Announced Its Closing. Will Other Small Colleges Follow? (The Chronicle) 

Nearly One-Third of Faculty in Red States Say They’ve Censored Their Research (The Chronicle) 

A War on ‘Woke’ Classes (College Matters) 

Guest

Ken Burns, filmmaker

For more on today’s episode, visit chronicle.com/collegematters. We aim to make transcripts available within a day of an episode’s publication.

In recent months, politicians from both sides of the aisle have been busy exerting influence on state universities. In Virginia, a newly elected Democratic governor has quickly put her stamp on higher ed, adding political allies to university governing boards and reportedly forcing out some members with whom she disagrees. Citing concerns about recent personnel decisions at the University of Kentucky, the state’s Democratic governor declared this month that he was losing confidence in the flagship’s leadership. Meanwhile, Republicans in states across the country are ever more aggressively targeting universities over diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. Politicians and governance experts alike often extol the virtues of depoliticizing universities, but does anyone actually think that’s realistic now?

Related Reading

Virginia’s Boards Leap Left (The Chronicle) 

At Texas Tech, Even Some Student Research on Gender Will Be Banned (The Chronicle) 

The New Order: How the Nation’s Partisan Divisions Consumed Public-College Boards and Warped Higher Education (The Chronicle) 

Guest

Andy Thomason, assistant managing editor at The Chronicle of Higher Education 

For more on today’s episode, visit chronicle.com/collegematters. We aim to make transcripts available within a day of an episode’s publication.

Frank Bruni’s classroom has gotten a bit bleak lately. As a professor of the practice of journalism and public policy at Duke University, the longtime New York Times writer often finds himself talking about grim trends: the decline of local news, threats against a free press, and the corrosive nature of political polarization. But Bruni says he’s trying to strike a delicate balance with his students, who need reasons for hope as much as they need a clear-eyed regard for the challenges ahead.

Related Reading

Teaching in an American University Is Very Strange Right Now (The New York Times) 

Frank Bruni’s newsletter (The New York Times) 

Higher Ed Has a Trust Problem. Yale Thinks It Has Solutions. (The Chronicle)

Guest

Frank Bruni, a contributing opinion writer at The New York Times and a professor of the practice of journalism and public policy at Duke University

For more on today’s episode, visit chronicle.com/collegematters. We aim to make transcripts available within a day of an episode’s publication.

In states across the country, conservative lawmakers and university governing boards are purging what they describe as gender ideology from college campuses. As part of a larger backlash against diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, several universities have in recent years shut down women’s and gender-studies programs and closed LGBTQ-focused campus spaces. These developments are particularly worrying to Judith Butler, a pioneer of queer theory whose 1990 book, Gender Trouble, is considered a seminal work of the field. But what does Butler, a distinguished professor in the Graduate School at the University of California at Berkeley, have to say to the increasingly vocal critics of the discipline they helped to popularize?

Related reading

Berkeley Professor Explains Gender Theory (Big Think) 

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

This President Defended Taking Pride Flags Off Faculty Windows. Now She’s Paused the Practice. (The Chronicle) 

Berkeley’s Judith Butler Revels in Role of Troublemaker (The Chronicle)

Guest

Judith Butler, distinguished professor in the Graduate School at UC-Berkeley 

For more on today’s episode, visit chronicle.com/collegematters. We aim to make transcripts available within a day of an episode’s publication.

As a professor of computer science and engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, Ian Bogost spends a lot of time trying to connect with his Gen Z students. He knows the stereotypes about this crop of young people: lazy, grade-grubbing, incapable of resolving problems without running to an administrator. But Bogost, who frequently writes about his teaching experiences for The Atlantic, says there are larger forces at work that have changed the way college students think about higher education. If there’s a problem with “kids today,” Bogost says, the adults who’ve shaped their world have a lot to do with it.

Related Reading

⁠Why Are Students Obsessed with ‘Points Taken Off’⁠ (The Atlantic)

⁠Is Gen Z Unemployable?⁠ (The Wall Street Journal) 

⁠Nobody Cares if Music is Real Anymore⁠ (The Atlantic) 

⁠What We Know About Gen Z so Far⁠ (Pew Research Center) 

Guest

⁠Ian Bogost⁠, professor and director of film and media studies, and professor of computer science and engineering at WashU

For more on today’s episode, visit ⁠chronicle.com/collegematters⁠. We aim to make transcripts available within a day of an episode’s publication.

As public attitudes toward higher education sour, many college presidents are either staying mum or defending their institutions. But a handful of high-profile college leaders have taken a different tack of late, publicly conceding that the sector’s critics have a point. Concerns about rising tuition, the value of degrees, and higher education’s liberal tilt are all valid, these leaders argue. But what’s driving these self-critical administrators? Is this about principle? Branding? Or is it just a cynical ploy to cozy up to the Trump administration?

Related Reading

The Self-Flaggelating President (The Chronicle)

Sian Beilock’s Star Turn (The Chronicle)

The University’s Voice: Principled Silence and Purposeful Speech (Johns Hopkins University Press)

Guests

Nell Gluckman, senior reporter for The Chronicle of Higher Education

Eric Kelderman, senior writer for The Chronicle of Higher Education

For more on today’s episode, visit chronicle.com/collegematters. We aim to make transcripts available within a day of an episode’s publication.