Canary: Higher Ed Issues Landscape Report 10/28

October 28th, 2024

• What we’re watching: academic X, vanishing freshmen, college use of video footage, sexual misconduct survey
• Transgender participation in college sports: SJSU and beyond
• What we’re reading: the NIL economy, the politics of a college presidency, ROI beyond earnings potential

What we’re watching

X-Twitter users

New research suggests that academics are engaging on X significantly less since Elon Musk bought the platform in 2022.

Published in PS: Politics and Science, researchers used a “snowball sample” of 15,000 academic X accounts to show the decline, leading to a debate on the “Musk effect” as well as the utility of using social media for academic thought leadership.

“There’s still a sizable group of academics on Twitter, but also voices that have been there in the past are no longer there — and there’s so many more trolls and spammers entering the conversations.” - Robert Kelchen, University of Tennessee (Inside Higher Ed)

Vanishing freshmen

Freshman enrollment declined 5 percent this fall, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center (NSCRC.)

Much of that decline was at four-year colleges (-7.5%) as opposed to two-year (-1.1%). News media coverage of the decline explored rising costs, FAFSA delays and the coming enrollment cliff. However, enrollment of students in their 20s and 30s saw significant increases.

“It’s very hard to pinpoint any single cause of the changes, particularly in freshmen, this fall. There have been so many different headwinds, and so I hesitate to single any of these out.” - Doug Shapiro, NSCRC executive director (University World News)

“By itself, the enrollment data does not establish that errors with the FAFSA form caused a significant number of students to postpone college. . . But the numbers . . .highlighted a drop in freshman enrollment, particularly at schools serving students from lower-income families that disproportionately depend on federal aid.” (New York Times)

“You have a long-term decline in college enrollment, punctuated by the pandemic. Recently, we’ve had a bit of a comeback — it’s hard to know if that progress last year was sort of a new base line or if that was a one-time surge.” - James Kvaal, Under Secretary of Education (New York Times)

Video Footage

Two campus incidents of a very different nature help to highlight the evolving use of video footage in student conduct processes.

In an unusual move, Cornell shared bodycam footage from a September 18th protest which the school said “shows initial forced entry” into a university building. Prior to its release, there was debate around whether or not students forced entry. However that debate has continued in some quarters even with the footage released.

In other news, the Southeastern Conference fined the University of Texas $250,000 in response to some fans throwing trash on the field during UT’s football game against Georgia. In addition, the SEC demanded the school use video footage to identify unruly fans.

UT’s president subsequently told students in a campus-wide email that the school would use “all means available to identify those who threw debris and revoke those students’ ticket privileges.” Social posts have since claimed that UT has already begun purging the rolls and speculated about the?use of facial recognition technology. A UT spokesperson confirmed to local news outfits that reports of text messages going to ticket holders were false.

Sexual Misconduct

Westat released the results of its 2024 Higher Education Sexual Misconduct and Awareness (HESMA) survey.

The survey included responses from over 42,000 students at 10 major universities. The HESMA found that:

• Nearly 1 in 5 female students surveyed reported “nonconsensual sexual contact by physical force or inability to consent.”
• Of those who reported sexual contact, 2/3rds were undergraduates.
• Less than a third of those who reported non-consensual contact formally reported those incidents.
• The most common recipients of formal reporting were counseling services (54.8%), campus police (14.9%) and local police (7.1%)
• For women who did not formally report contact, 52.3% said they thought they could “handle it” themselves, 47.2% didn’t think the incident was serious enough to report, and 37.8% said it would be too emotionally stressful to do so.

• The primary locations for 40% of those reports were university residences or dorms. For 8%, the location was a fraternity house.

SJSU: Forfeits and Flashpoints

The University of Reno Nevada’s forfeiture of a women’s volleyball game against San Jose State University has brought transgender participation in college sports back into the spotlight. UNR joined Wyoming, Utah State, Boise State, and Southern Utah in forfeiting matches in protest of SJSU fielding a transgender student athlete.

"We are super disappointed by the cancellations. . . Our kids want to play." - SJSU spokesperson Michelle Smith McDonald (USA TODAY)

While the player in question has competed for two seasons without incident and is in compliance with NCAA rules, news reports claimed they had been “outed” by teammates in April. In addition, political pressure and coordinated activism have pushed colleges into making public statements.

In an attempt to minimize controversy, forfeiting schools have usually issued brief announcements.

"Utah State University will not participate in its scheduled October 23, 2024, volleyball match at San Jose State University. The University will abide by Mountain West Conference policy regarding how this match is recorded." (Utah State University Athletics)

“After a lengthy discussion, the University of Wyoming will not play its scheduled conference match against San José State University . . . Per Mountain West Conference policy, the Conference will record the match as a forfeit ." (University of Wyoming Athletics)

Though devoid of specific reasoning, political and cultural commentators have been quick to jump on these statements.

Administrators vs. Athletes

The UNR volleyball team has framed its position as advocating for rights and fairness in the face of injustice. However, the university quickly distanced itself from the team’s position and claimed the match would move forward while stressing that stressed that players who refused to participate would not be punished.

The juxtaposition of UNR’s administration and team taking different positions on the issue has fueled news and social media attention, while also adding fuel to the fire of the wider issue of transgender participation in college sports.

A conspiracy of silence?

While universities have chosen to speak, neither the NCAA nor the Mountain West Conference about the forfeits. News media have criticized conferences for the lack of an official voice in the debate about SJSU while also framing it as part of a wider, election-supercharged issue.

“[School administrators] are teaching fear-mongering and discrimination instead of fostering the camaraderie and competition college athletics should be about. Less than 2% of NCAA athletes identify as transgender or nonbinary, and the NCAA already has strong policies in place.” (Equality California)

The wider context

Legend Labs has been monitoring the wider context of transgender participation in college sports.

Over the summer, transgender participation in Olympic boxing was widely covered in the news media, effectively priming the national audience for the SJSU controversy.

Meanwhile, national and state politicians have lent into the culture wars around transgender issues in general, making college athletics and even greater flashpoint in the debate. Voices against participation are currently drowning out voices defending participation. Anti-participation voices stress biology, safety and fairness in their pronouncements, while pro-participation voices leverage terms like discrimination, equality and inclusion.

?? What we’re reading

Washington Post: The hidden NIL economy of college sports

• “It’s been three years since the NCAA started allowing college athletes to make money from their personal brands — their “name, image and likeness,” or NIL. But what this NIL economy actually looks like has remained largely hidden. . . The Post used public records laws to request NIL records from 56 public universities in major college sports conferences. . . The result is an unprecedented look into the first three years of the NIL economy.”

Hechinger Report: College Uncovered: The Politics of the College Presidency

• “Presidents of colleges and universities serve for less than six years on average. For women and people of color, that tenure is even shorter – a full year shorter. So what’s going on? College presidents are under fire for what they say about issues such as systemic racism, abortion access and war in the Middle East, and what they do — or don’t do — about campus protests. Why would anyone want to be a college president? And does it even matter to a student or a parent who the college president is?”

Higher Ed Dive: How college leaders can articulate higher education’s ROI — beyond earnings

• “For years, educators have relied on clear and convincing research to show that college degrees significantly improve adults’ employment prospects and earnings potential. But there are many personal and societal benefits a college degree imparts. Data on other areas of the college graduate’s life — their financial security, access to critical benefits and healthy behaviors — should also be used to make a broader and more compelling case for higher education’s value proposition.”

#?? Trending on Social This Week

Sources:

• David Kaib (@DavidKaib)
• Lisa Kurian Philip (@LAPhilip)
• Shai Davidai (@ShaiDavidai)

Legend Labs is a brand and communications consulting firm for the digital age. We help ambitious leaders create, grow, and protect their Legends. This analysis of reputation-related trends in higher education features insights from Meltwater and direct social media & web analysis.

For more information, email us at [email protected].