The fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk, whose political movement targeted liberal faculty and pushed the boundaries of free speech, immediately took on powerful symbolic resonance as a pivotal event in higher education’s long-running culture wars. Kirk, who founded Turning Point USA, a provocative right-leaning group popular on college campuses, was killed on Wednesday during a campus speaking engagement at Utah Valley University. His death shocked the country, lending a dark gravity to already-contentious debates about political polarization, intolerance, and free expression on college campuses.
Related Reading 
Making of a Martyr: Charlie Kirk’s Killing Silences a Conservative Voice. His Movement Could Grow Louder. (The Chronicle) 

Inside a Stealth Plan for Political Influence (The Chronicle) 

Was an Instructor's Firing a Violation Academic Freedom? Or an Example of 'Academic Responsibility' (The Chronicle)

Charlie Kirk Was Practicing Politics the Right Way (The New York Times) 

Guest
Nell Gluckman, senior 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.

Higher education is at the center of the biggest stories in the country today, and College Matters is back to make sense of it all. Tune in for new weekly episodes starting on September 11.

Catch up on previous popular episodes:

Is Reading Over for Gen Z Students?

Why Faculty Hate Teaching Evaluations

Mr. Varsity Blues Claps Back

For more on today’s episode, visit chronicle.com/collegematters.

For decades, Bruce Springsteen’s songs about fast cars, working-class dreamers, and loves lost and found have helped to define a quintessentially American notion of freedom and rebellion. But do the music and lyrics of “The Boss” speak to the college students of Gen Z? Louis P. Masur, a distinguished professor of American studies and history at Rutgers University, thinks they do. After years of teaching a course titled “Springsteen’s American Vision,” Masur says he is as convinced as ever that the rock icon’s songs are as timeless as Huck Finn and as durable as a “big old Buick.”

Guest: Louis P. Masur, distinguished professor of American studies and history at Rutgers University
Related reading

Runaway Dream: Born to Run and Bruce Springsteen’s American Vision (Louis P. Masur)

The Boss in the Classroom (Chronicle)

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

After the loss of a pet, many people wonder whether they'll ever see their beloved companions again. In her course, "Do All Dogs Go to Heaven?", Chelsea Jordan King, an assistant professor of Catholic studies at Sacred Heart University, presses her students to answers that provocative question. To do so, King encourages students — believers and nonbelievers alike — to use critical thinking and research to articulate and defend their positions. Along the way, students learn about the Roman Catholic Church's position on evolution, what makes human beings special, and how to better appreciate their natural surroundings.

Guest
Chelsea Jordan King, assistant professor of Catholic studies at Sacred Heart 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.

Food shapes our daily lives in profound ways, yet it's often taken for granted or misunderstood. In the course "Sociology of Food" at Texas Christian University, students learn how food functions as sustenance, commodity, and a sociocultural force. The course covers food from its starting point to its end — tracing its path as an agricultural product and a commodity to be traded, marketed, shopped for, prepared, and finally consumed. Edgar Jesus Campos, an assistant professor of sociology at TCU, says some of his students enroll in the course to better understand their own bodies and consumption patterns. While they gain that knowledge, they also leave with a deeper understanding of how global economic and political forces play into their personal diets.

Guest
Edgar Jesus Campos, assistant professor of sociology at Texas Christian 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.

Conspiracy theories have played a role in American culture and politics for decades. In the course "Conspiracy Rhetoric: Power, Politics, and Pop Culture" at Bates College, students closely examine what propels those theories. Stephanie Kelley-Romano, a professor of rhetoric, film, and screen studies, says many students begin her course with a basic understanding of conspiratorial thinking. Often, she said, those students seek to understand how some people — sometimes people they love — can fall under its thrall. While students learn what to say to a true-believing friend or relative, the course also teaches them how to recognize narrative framing, conduct their own research, and identify trends in language, media, and storytelling that fuel conspiracy theories.

Guest

Stephanie Kelley-Romano, professor of rhetoric, film and screen studies at Bates College

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

After 16 months in a federal prison camp, William (Rick) Singer has had time to reflect on his role as the architect of a college-admissions bribery scheme that became known as Varsity Blues. The college consultant has apologized for concocting a plot that helped wealthy families, including some Hollywood celebrities, secure admission for their children to prestigious universities. But he isn’t slinking into the shadows. Singer says he’s already back in the consulting business. And he has come out of prison swinging, blasting the FBI, the college-admissions system, and anyone who might question the credentials of the students he represented.

Related Reading:

‘It’s an Aristocracy’: What the Admissions-Bribery Scandal Has Exposed About Class on Campus (The Chronicle)

Higher Ed’s Bribery Scandal Is Decadent and Depraved. Here Are 8 Truly Tasteless Allegations (The Chronicle)

We, the Privileged Parents That Matter, Applaud the Netflix College-Admissions Scandal Doc (The Chronicle)

Admission Through the ‘Side Door’ (The Chronicle)

Guest:

William (Rick) Singer, college consultant 

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

More than two years after Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis installed a slate of conservative members to its governing board, New College of Florida has seen transformations large and small. In some of the first shots of what became a wider war on “woke” education, New College’s trustees ditched gender studies, endorsed a curriculum focused on the Western canon, and made the Sarasota, Fla. campus inhospitable to some faculty and students. New College is more appealing now to jocks, and it's flush with money appropriated by Florida’s Republican-controlled legislature. But what does all this mean for the quirky institution that had long been known as “Barefoot U.”?

Related Reading

The College That Conservatives Took Over (The Chronicle) 

A Professor at New College Quits in Dramatic Fashion. Here’s Why He Felt He Had to Go. (The Chronicle) 

Why I Am Joining the Reconquista: Taking back power from the academic left depends on storming the public institutions, not fleeing from them. (The American Conservative) 

Will a Small, Quirky College Become ‘DeSantis U.’? (The Washington Post) 

Guest:
Emma Pettit, senior reporter at The Chronicle of Higher Education

On paper, student teaching evaluations make a lot of sense. Who is better positioned to say whether a professor did a good job than the students who took the course? But dig a little deeper, and there’s good reason to question whether colleges should be relying on teaching evaluations to inform big decisions about an instructor’s promotion, pay, or even continued employment. So what’s wrong with this system? And why do colleges still cling to it, despite research that shows it’s flawed?

Related Reading: 

Sign up for The Chronicle’s Teaching Newsletter (The Chronicle) 

Teaching Evaluations are Broken. Can They Be Fixed? (The Chronicle)

A University Overhauled Its Course Evaluation to Get Better Feedback. Here’s What Changed. (The Chronicle)  

Meta-analysis of faculty’s teaching effectiveness: Student evaluation of teaching ratings and student learning are not related. (ScienceDirect)

Guest:

Beckie Supiano, senior writer at The Chronicle of Higher Education

For more on today’s episode, visit chronicle.com/collegematters.

In this special episode, recorded live at the ASU+GSV Summit, Future U. hosts Jeff Selingo and Michael Horn dive into the rapidly evolving higher ed landscape in President Trump’s second term. They discuss massive cuts at the U.S. Department of Education, mounting challenges around international student enrollment, and looming threats to federal research funding. They examine the broader, longer-term implications of these shifts for colleges and draw from their recent research to discuss how leaders can nurture positive campus culture during these challenging times. This episode is made with support from Ascendium Education Group and the Gates Foundation.

Links We Mention

Mark Schneider: Blowing Up Ed Research is Easy. Rebuilding it is ‘What Matters’

Chapters

0:00 - Intro

7:32 - Cuts to the Department of Education

20:40 - Targeting International Students

23:48 - Withholding of Federal Research Grants

39:25 - Our Favorite Higher Ed Commentary

46:31 - Changing Campus Culture

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