Canary: Higher Ed Issues Landscape Report 05/03

May 3rd, 2024

• Deal or No Deal?
• Brown and Northwestern
• UCLA, Columbia et al
• What we’re watching: ROI, FAFSA, college sports
• What we’re reading: AI in admissions, ‘Liberated Zone’ unreality, invincible chancellors, ‘New Ivies’

Deal or No Deal?

Colleges are once again being shaken by a week of protest and police action.

The situation presents higher education decision-makers with a plethora of factors, nuances, and options to consider. But for many, it has boiled down to a single question: Whether or not to negotiate with protestors and potentially meet some of their demands.

• At Northwestern and Brown, deals were struck with protestors. As a result, encampments have been cleared. However, both universities have faced a torrent of scathing criticism in response.
• At a host of other universities, agreements have either not been reached or not attempted. Instead, administrations have relied on law enforcement assistance to confront protestors. As a result, encampments have been cleared. However, this has come at great cost to both faculty morale and public reputation.

Deal: Brown and Northwestern

Protester encampments at Brown and Northwestern were dismantled after deals with protestors were reached.

Brown agreed to:

• Allow five student protestors to meet with officials to discuss the university’s investments and the possibility of divestment.
• A vote on divestment by university officials.
• Amnesty from expulsion, suspension, or termination for students, staff, and faculty affiliated with the encampment protest.

Northwestern agreed to:

• Re-establish the Advisory Committee on Investment Responsibility (ACIR) in Fall 2024, with student, faculty, and staff representation.
• Commit to fundraising to sustain the Palestinian faculty and student programs.
• Provide a space for Middle Eastern, North African, and Muslim students.

While receiving praise from some quarters, both deals were met with vociferous criticism as well. Critics argued that the deals would encourage future protests and render university rules meaningless. Other critics accused universities of caving to chaos and antisemitism.

Negotiations have not been entirely fruitful for university leaders.

• The University of Vermont announced it would disclose a list of its investments — a move characterized as a victory by protesters on the Burlington campus. However, the move has not resulted in a deal to remove an encampment.
• At the University of Chicago, administrators made concessions to encampment leaders and declined to make widespread arrests. However, a deal remains elusive.

“Protesters should also consider that an encampment, with all the etymological connections of the word to military origins, is a way of using force of a kind rather than reason to persuade others… I ask the students who have established this encampment to instead embrace the multitude of other tools at their disposal.” - UChicago President Paul Alivisatos (Office of the President)

"I wouldn't underestimate the lengths to which students are willing to go for longevity, and just meeting their goals . . . We have enough supplies to stay for a really long time.” - Amira Sohai, UChicago student protestor (CBS)

No Deal: Columbia, UCLA et al.

At other universities, where agreements with protestors have not been reached or attempted, police were called in to clear encampments and restore order.

Columbia, UCLA, UT Austin, and Emory, among others, all encountered grueling ordeals that ignited faculty outrage and student solidarity. In particular, clashes between rival protestors and heavy-handed police responses — including the arrest of autumnal faculty — have made for incredibly damaging viral images and videos.

In response, faculty are increasingly expressing solidarity with protestors and criticizing administrations. Furthermore, at Indiana, Emory, UT Austin, Columbia, and Barnard College, faculty are seeking to oust college presidents through no-confidence votes.

“The President’s and Provost’s decision to authorize unprovoked, violent, armed attacks on the very students and faculty they are supposed to protect proves without question that they have neither the administrative competence nor the basic human decency required to lead this campus and university.” (Indiana University faculty petition)

“The behavior of University administrators that has created this atmosphere of fear is not normal or acceptable. We are working to overturn the student suspensions that have been issued and to ensure that administrators are not allowed to summon the NYPD on a whim, when there is self-evidently no danger.” (Columbia University faculty letter)

“Our primary concern is about the president, Emory’s president, calling in police trying to delegitimize any dissent, saying it was outside agitators, just completely trying to make disappear the fact that it was many students” - College Senate President-elect and Philosophy Department Chair No?lle McAfee (The Emory Wheel)

“The President has shown himself to be unresponsive to urgent faculty, staff, and student concerns. He has violated our trust. The University is no longer a safe and welcoming place for the diverse community of students and scholars who until now have called this campus home.” (UT Austin AAUP faculty letter)

?? What we’re watching

Return on investment

The conversation around the value of a college degree continues to simmer, likely fueled by an increased national focus on university protests. This week, GOBankingRates published an analysis of college costs by state over the past 8 years, while Forbes announced a list of "New Ivies" — mostly public universities that rival or even surpass elite colleges regarding return on investment. Bloomberg reported a similar crop of colleges last month.

“You’re not imagining things: The Ivy League is forfeiting its standing as America’s producer of great talent. Here are the schools producing the hard-working high achievers that employers crave.” (Forbes)

FAFSA disaster

Citing “ongoing problems” with FAFSA’s rollout, West Virginia Governor Jim Justice issued a disaster declaration that temporarily suspends the requirement that students complete the FAFSA in order to unlock certain types of state financial aid.

“I simply cannot and will not stand by as money sits on the table that could be helping our students continue their education,” - Gov. Jim Justice (Office of the Governor)

On Tuesday, the Department of Education announced an update to FAFSA and urged students who had not yet applied for financial aid to do so. According to some estimates, FAFSA applications are down by 40% this year, leading many colleges to postpone decision day, typically May 1, to later in the month or even into June.

College sports: a tale of two lawsuits

College sports leaders are closer to agreeing to a settlement with the NCAA over the anti-trust class action lawsuit, House vs. NCAA. Any settlement has the potential to transform the landscape by laying out a new framework for revenue sharing between universities and student-athletes.

Conservative-led states are suing the Biden administration to block new Title IX rules. Texas governor Gregg Abbott and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis have already announced that their states would not comply with the new rules, which critics argue are a form of government overreach and compromise the integrity of women’s sports.

"The Biden administration is destroying women’s sports by gutting commonsense provisions that protect female athletes and demanding that biological males be allowed to compete against females. . .Today we have taken action to defend women’s rights to fair competition, and we will keep fighting until we end this absurdity once and for all." - Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr (Office of the Attorney General)

?? What we’re reading

Inside Higher Ed:?Art-focused university using AI in admissions

Both O’Connell and Devoe were quick to point out the technology is not being used to dictate which students should and should not be accepted into the institution. Instead, the data illuminate the likelihood of the already-accepted students choosing to attend the university.

“There are certainly things you could do with AI that are terrible, but the things a school would do with data is want to know more about directing resources and energy toward people we can help the most,” O’Connell said. “It’s, ‘How can we find them better and earlier?’”

The Atlantic:?The Unreality of Columbia’s ‘Liberated Zone’

During my nine-hour visit, talking with student protesters proved tricky. Upon entering the zone, I was instructed to listen as a gatekeeper read community guidelines that included not talking with people not authorized to be inside—a category that seemed to include anyone of differing opinions.

I then stood in a press zone and waited for Layla Saliba, a social-work graduate student who served as a spokesperson for the protest. A Palestinian American, she said she has lost family in the fighting in Gaza. She talked at length and with nuance. Hers, however, was a near-singular voice. As I toured the liberated zone, I found most protesters distinctly nonliberated when it came to talking with a reporter.

The Chronicle of Higher Ed:?The Politically Invincible Chancellor

Since Woodson’s arrival, neighboring University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has had four chancellors, including one serving now as interim; there have been six presidents, including two interim appointments, of the UNC system. Many who have cycled through those jobs have departed amid contentiousness and controversy.

N.C. State trustees would like Woodson to remain longer — when he was last offered another five-year contract, he agreed only to a two-year extension. He said he would stay during a search for a new chancellor.