News: What college presidents are really thinking

Monday, September 9, 2024

What college presidents are really thinking

Sep 09, 2024

Presented by

With help from Juan Perez Jr.

The presidents of 11 liberal arts college presidents.

Your host joined John Bravman, president of Bucknell University in Pennsylvania, and about a dozen private liberal arts college presidents and other reporters for a wide-ranging, on-the-record discussion at the National Press Club Thursday. | Emily Paine/Bucknell University

MEET THE PRESIDENTS — There is a lot on the minds of college presidents — especially on the heels of a tumultuous last school year that included a wave of student anti-war protests, polls showing a decline in trust in higher education and a consequential presidential election just a few months away.

— Your host joined John Bravman, president of Bucknell University in Pennsylvania, and about a dozen private liberal arts college presidents and other reporters for a wide-ranging, on-the-record discussion at the National Press Club Thursday.

Guests included: Agnes Scott College President Leocadia Zak; Amherst College President Michael Elliott; Carleton College President Alison Byerly; Davidson College President Douglas Hicks; DePauw University President Lori White; Furman University President Elizabeth Davis; Kalamazoo College President Jorge Gonzalez; Oberlin College President Carmen Twillie Ambar; Pomona College President G. Gabrielle Starr and Willamette University President Steve Thorsett.

Each leader gave insight and candid responses to some of the most pressing issues in higher education. Here’s what some of them had to say…

What they have to say about the protests on campuses across the country:

— “One of the things people get wrong is this notion that our campuses are full of students who are protesting all the time … and it always tends to be 2 or 3 percent of the students who are engaged in activism,” Ambar of Oberlin College said. “But most of the students on campus are trying to figure out where organic chemistry is.”

— “It's hard for people to remember that our students are students,” Byerly of Carleton College said. “They come to us to make mistakes and to learn … Just last week, I read an editorial that said, ‘You know, what colleges need to do is balance free speech with respect for other people.’ No kidding. It's not as easy as it seems.

“When many of us were in college, if you wrote something stupid or offensive in the student paper, it got thrown in the trash on a Friday afternoon,” she added. “Now it can lead to you being harassed by people nationwide because it's found on the internet. I would like people to extend a little more grace to our students.”

Whether they’re considering changing their campus policies in response to protests:

— “Part of the challenge is that conflict is about people, not about policies,” Starr of Pomona College said. “What we all are dealing with on campus are people who are in the throes of trying to counter and responding to really big issues in the world. We all have to have policies, and we all have to enforce them, but if you try to make policy based on a crisis, you're going to do stupid things.”

What they’re worried about under a Donald Trump or Kamala Harris presidency:

— “Endowment taxes are politically popular,” Elliott of Amherst College said, adding that he is opposed to them and would be worried about this under a Trump or Harris presidency.

— “Various legislative efforts to change or monitor or control … what you teach, how you teach,” Bravman of Bucknell College said.

What keeps some of them up at night:

— “The thing that really keeps me up at night are the opinion polls after opinion polls that show the declining trust in institutions of higher education,” Elliott said. “No matter what else we do, the skepticism and cynicism — that has become bipartisan — about institutions of higher education is incredibly difficult for us in our work. It means that we are educating students who are more skeptical and cynical about what we have to offer them for their future.”

IT’S MONDAY, SEPT. 9. WELCOME TO WEEKLY EDUCATION. Let’s grab coffee. Drop me a line at bquilantan@politico.com. Send tips to my colleagues Rebecca Carballo at rcarballo@politico.com, Mackenzie Wilkes at mwilkes@politico.com and Juan Perez Jr. at jperez@politico.com. And follow us: @Morning_Edu and @POLITICOPro.

A message from Sallie Mae®:

Only 40% of families reported having a plan to pay for higher education, according to Sallie Mae’s How America Pays for College 2024 report. Find out how Sallie Mae is helping more families get prepared for college and connecting them to scholarships and other “free money” before borrowing.

Driving the day

CONGRESS IS BACK, SO IS THE FEDERAL FUNDING FIGHT — House Republicans on Friday unveiled a stopgap funding bill, also known as a continuing resolution, to fund the government at largely current levels through March 28. The measure, which could be taken up by the House as early as Wednesday, includes a GOP proposal to require proof of citizenship to vote in federal elections. This is a top Republican focus heading into peak campaign season but a non-starter for Senate Democrats that could tee up a high-stakes fight ahead of the Oct. 1 shutdown deadline.

— House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) called the bill rollout “a critically important step” for House Republicans, saying in a statement that Congress “has a responsibility” to both fund the government and “ensure that only American citizens can decide American elections.”

— However, the spending plan is likely doomed in a Democratic-controlled Senate. “If Speaker Johnson drives House Republicans down this highly partisan path, the odds of a shutdown go way up, and Americans will know that the responsibility of a shutdown will be on the House Republicans’ hands,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Appropriations Chair Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said in a joint statement. Catch up on the latest.

K-12

NYC CELLPHONE BAN TURBULENCE — New York City once led the nation in curtailing the use of electronic devices in classrooms. But concerned parents and unionized teachers are causing New York City Mayor Eric Adams to delay a plan to limit cellphone use in public schools.

— Adams’ simple pledge to prohibit the use of cellphones in classrooms has become mired in both logistical complications and concerns as the moderate Democrat faces reelection in 2025. As a result, last month he walked back his administration’s earlier comments with the aim of giving city officials more time to hash out the particulars.

— “We want to do it right,” Adams said during an August television interview. “It happened before: Previous administrations attempted to ban cellphones. They failed.”

— States and school districts across the country — like California and Ohio — are enacting smartphone restrictions as elected officials and education leaders worry about lagging test scores and social media’s effect on young brains. Yet even with broad, bipartisan support, policymakers have struggled to strike the right balance. Read more about the efforts and how they’re unfolding in New York City.

Want to receive this newsletter every weekday? Subscribe to POLITICO Pro. You’ll also receive daily policy news and other intelligence you need to act on the day’s biggest stories.

Cardona Today

WHAT’S ON CARDONA’S MIND? — Our Juan Perez Jr. asked Education Secretary Miguel Cardona about what more schools can do to prevent school violence, especially when many already have things like school resource officers and panic alarm systems on their campuses. The conversation comes after a 14-year-old student fatally shot four people and wounded nine others at a high school in Georgia last week.

Here’s what Cardona told POLITICO while on the last leg of his back-to-school bus tour in Pittsburgh on Friday.

— “When I saw that, and heard about it, I thought ‘Here we go again,’” Cardona said of the Georgia shooting. “The school alone can't handle all this. We need safe communities. There is no reason a [14] year-old should have access to an assault weapon. That's not something that the school is going to be able to fix.”

— “I sent a letter out to all the principals in the country talking about proper gun storage. There is a role, in some ways, for trusted messengers, school principals, to make sure that families have what they need. I called very clearly for Congress to act. We need more,” he said, while praising the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act approved in the wake of the 2022 Robb Elementary shooting.

— “I worry,” he said, “that we’ve become desensitized as a country. We normalize this. It's not normal. I'm speaking not only as secretary of Education. I'm speaking as a father who drops his children off and wants them to come home. It's unacceptable. No parent should have to deal with that.”

A message from Sallie Mae®:

MOVERS AND SHAKERS

— Attendance Works, The Education Trust and Nat Malkus with the American Enterprise Institute launched a national challenge to reduce chronic absenteeism by 50 percent in 5 years. Fourteen states have committed to the challenge, including Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Iowa, Maryland, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, Ohio, Rhode Island, Virginia, Washington and West Virginia.

Syllabus

— A new era of special education begins with inclusive AI: Time

— Facing entrenched school segregation, New Jersey tries something new: The New York Times

— Mother of Georgia suspect is said to have called school before shooting, warning of ‘emergency’: The Washington Post

— Democrats go to new heights to spotlight Project 2025, flying banners over college football stadiums: The Associated Press

A message from Sallie Mae®:

We need a federal higher education financing system that provides more clarity around the actual costs of college, offers greater transparency in federal lending programs, and better connects students to grants and scholarships. Learn more about what we think.