On today’s show, host Douglas Haynes is joined by journalist Molly Parker to talk about the erosion of educational access in rural areas, the value of regional universities, and Parker’s recent article for ProPublica, “A University, a Rural Town and Their Fight to Survive Trump’s War on Higher Education.”

Parker describes her experience of going to college at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale and how this was an adventure for her as a young person from a rural environment. Schools like SIU are affordable and allow students to be closer to family. They also drive up economic growth, and as regional schools contract, so too do the small communities around them. Both students and surrounding communities benefit from arts programming and sports events. Parker says that schools like SIU are resources for curious students no matter how they rank in their high school class. 

Parker traces the threats that the Trump administration poses to higher education overall, including to international students, high-level research, and elimination of DEI programs and scholarships that will hurt many students who come from disadvantaged backgrounds. She also describes how interrelated education is with other issues that she covers in her journalism.

Molly Parker is a ProPublica distinguished fellow, reporter for Capital News Illinois, and Assistant Professor of Journalism at Southern Illinois University.

Featured image: a postcard of SIU, Carbondale from 1910 via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).

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