California Spotlight: Higher Education Under Attack

Higher education is facing mounting pressures, from political intervention and financial challenges to attacks on academic freedom. These tensions are visible in the University of California system, where debates over funding, governance, labor, and public mission are increasingly shaping the future of public universities.

Recorded on February 9, 2026, this panel brought together leading scholars to examine the forces challenging public higher education today. Drawing on areas spanning finance, policy, and labor, the discussion explored how these dynamics are shaping the UC System, and what is at stake for students, employees, the public, and the future of higher education.

The panel featured Charlie Eaton, Associate Professor of Sociology at UC Merced; Katherine Newman, Chancellor's Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Public Policy at UC Berkeley and Provost and Executive Vice President of Academic Affairs at the University of California; and Juan Pablo Pardo-Guerra, Professor of Sociology at UC San Diego. The panel was moderated by Christopher Kutz, C. William Maxeiner Distinguished Professor of Law.

The panel was co-sponsored by the UC Berkeley School of Education, the Center for Studies in Higher Education (CSHE), and the Departments of Anthropology, Geography, and Sociology.

A transcript of this event can be found at https://matrix.berkeley.edu/research-article/higher-ed-under-attack.