College Matters from The Chronicle

Andy Thomason, assistant managing editor at The Chronicle with deep chops in higher‑ed reporting. He and Jack probe the growing sense of crisis in colleges. They trace waning public trust, economic pressures on degrees, AI’s disruptive potential, and political threats to university autonomy. The conversation maps where higher education might fracture and how its role could be recast.

Dacher Keltner, UC Berkeley psychology professor who studies power and behavior. Sarah Brown, senior editor covering higher-education leadership and politics. Nell Gluckman, senior reporter on higher-education policy and institutional news. They unpack the Ohio State president’s resignation, conflicts of interest and optics, how power shapes conduct, and what boards should demand of university leaders.

Martin Peterson, philosophy professor and Academic Freedom Council chair who challenged a ban on Plato. Jasper Smith, Chronicle reporter who uncovered Texas A&M’s sweeping course reviews. They discuss how course reviews began, regents’ political influence, the viral classroom incident that sparked the crackdown, behind-the-scenes emails, removed courses and program cuts, and the wider risk of self-censorship in academia.

Scott Galloway, NYU marketing professor and entrepreneur known for blunt takes, rails against elite universities and their self‑made scarcity. He tackles constrained enrollments, donor influence, credentialing’s power, admissions inequities, and the push for expanded access in concise, fiery conversation.

The Justice Department’s recent release of millions of pages of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sex offender who died by suicide in 2019, shines a harsh light on a privileged network of scholars who had entered his orbit. Throughout the documents, professors butter up the financier to fund their pet projects, banter crudely about women, and appear to overlook the criminality of a man who had already been convicted on prostitution-related charges involving a minor. What do the documents reveal about the gilded world of high-profile scholarship — and about elite higher ed’s fraught relationship with money, power, and prestige? Related Reading Unmasking Academe’s Gilded Boys’ Club (The Chronicle) Jeffrey Epstein’s Academic Fixer (The Chronicle) 'A Moment of Reckoning': After Epstein, Higher Ed Faces Hard Questions About Its Proximity to Power (The Chronicle)  Guests Nell Gluckman, senior writer at The Chronicle Emmy Martin, reporting intern at The Chronicle  For more on today’s episode, visit ⁠chronicle.com/collegematters⁠. We aim to make transcripts available within a day of an episode’s publication.

Ted Mitchell, president of the American Council on Education and former U.S. undersecretary of education, leads higher-ed advocacy and litigation. He discusses ACE’s unusual turn to court to block federal research cuts. He frames threats to campus autonomy, worries about international-student restrictions, and explains the fight over indirect-cost research funding.

In its long and often tortured history, the faculty-job-protection status known as tenure has been defended as an essential safeguard for academic freedom. Professors, the argument goes, need to know that they won’t get fired for researching and teaching about controversial topics. In theory, tenure provides that necessary security. But critics of the system, who balk at the idea of a “job for life,” are unmoved by this defense. State lawmakers are busy chipping away at tenure’s protections or even seeking to do away with it altogether. But if the traditional argument for tenure’s existence is failing, what are its supporters to do? Is there a case for the system beyond academic freedom? Related Reading The War on Tenure (Deepa Das Acevedo / Cambridge University Press)  Tenure Will Be Eliminated at Most of Oklahoma's Public Colleges, Governor Says⁠ (The Chronicle)  The Strange, Secret History of Tenure (The Review)  A Professor Was Fired for Her Politics. Is That the Future of Academia? (The New York Times Magazine) Guest Deepa Das Acevedo, associate professor of law at Emory University For more on today’s episode, visit chronicle.com/collegematters. We aim to make transcripts available within a day of an episode’s publication.

Outcome-driven investigations. Threats of dizzying fines. Broad claims of rampant, unchecked antisemitism. The Trump administration’s playbook against higher education is familiar by now, and it always presents universities with the same stark choice: Pay up or face a potentially yearslong legal battle with an extremely powerful adversary. Washington insiders and judges say Trump’s tactics are legally dubious at best, breaking with procedural rules and even violating the U.S. Constitution. But will any of that matter in the end? Related Reading The Shakedown: How Trump’s Justice Department pressured lawyers to ‘find’ evidence that UCLA had tolerated antisemitism (The Chronicle/ProPublica)  The Improbable Warrior: Why the unlikely leader of Trump’s antisemitism task force may be the perfect man for the job. (The Chronicle/ProPublica)  Trump Wants $1 Billion From UCLA for Its ‘Hostile Environment.’ What Is That? (The Chronicle)  Guests Peter Elkind, national investigative reporter at ProPublica Katie Mangan, senior writer at The Chronicle of Higher Education  For more on today’s episode, visit chronicle.com/collegematters. We aim to make transcripts available within a day of an episode’s publication.

The fatal shooting of Alex Pretti, who was killed on Saturday during an encounter with federal immigration agents in Minneapolis, has further escalated tensions in a metropolitan area dotted with college campuses. As the region reels with civil unrest, area universities are grappling with how to maintain safe operations. They’re also facing pressure to exert stronger moral leadership as their institutions’ values are tested in real time.Related Reading Navigating Campus Life Amid ICE Enforcement (The Chronicle) After Another ICE Killing, Minnesota’s Flagship Faces a Test (The Chronicle) Guests Scott Carlson⁠, senior writer at The Chronicle of Higher Education  Fae Hodges, University of Minnesota Twin Cities student Alexander Boni-Saenz, a law professor at the University of Minnesota

Politics. Culture. Affordability. The biggest issues facing the country are playing out in higher education, and College Matters from The Chronicle is here to make sense of it all. Beginning January 28, tune in for all new weekly episodes of The Chronicle of Higher Education’s podcast. Catch up on previous episodes Interview: Chris Rufo Floats Calling in the ‘Troops’  Why Faculty Hate Teaching Evaluations  Has Harvard Gone Soft? For more on today’s episode, visit chronicle.com/collegematters.