1     Classics: in "Terminal Decline"?   With the number of U.S. classics degrees awarded collapsing to a mere 736 in 2019–20 (from over 1200 in 2012-13) and schools shuttering classics departments, many view this field of study as being in “terminal decline.” Some reasons for a decline are practical: Parents writing tuition checks doubt a classics degree will be a pathway to a job, for example, and, more basically, learning Latin and Greek is just darn hard. Other reasons are philosophical: The field “is inextricably bound up with white supremacy,” argues Princeton University classics professor Dan-el Padilla Peralta. But not everyone agrees. Howard University scholar Anika Prather, who taught in Howard’s classics department until it was closed this year, asserts that “Black history is intertwined with the classics.” Strategies to reverse the decline include eliminating the requirement to become proficient in Latin and Greek—which was controversially adopted at Princeton—and having classics departments join up with other departments to create interdisciplinary programs. to the top

2     Trigger Warnings Could Be Harming Students   A review of the latest research suggests that trigger warnings don’t work—and might even be making things worse for students. The origins of trigger warnings date to the 1970s when post-traumatic stress disorder was first codified as a psychiatric condition. (It’s estimated that 3.5 percent of the U.S. adult population suffers from PTSD.) About a decade ago, the term made its way to college campuses. The idea was that classroom material should be prefaced with warnings in order to “empower students suffering from trauma to delve into difficult material.” Today virtually any topic that can evoke an intense negative emotion is a potential trigger—including Nazi symbols, alcohol and sexual misconduct, profanity and slurs, and even Abraham Lincoln. Two professors from Carleton College, in Northfield, Minnesota, looked at 17 peer-reviewed research studies and concluded that trigger warnings do not help to alleviate emotional distress. According to the professors, such warnings actually cause anxiety to increase and “may be most harmful to the very individuals they were designed to protect.”  to the top

3     The Growth of Microcredentials Is Transforming Higher Ed   Not everyone who goes back to school is willing to commit to a two- or four-year degree program. “Microcredentials” and badges, which can take a few weeks to a few months to complete, are quickly gaining momentum as an attractive learning option. Nondegree certifications aren’t new. Yale University established the first certificate 200 years ago. Today colleges offer certifications in virtually every subject. What’s new, though, is calling them badges and microcredentials and using them to certify specific skills—everything from welding to conversational Spanish. (Microcredentials are certifications of mastery; badges verify the attainment of specific competencies.) Last year, according to a study by the nonprofit Strada Education, 68 percent of adults considering enrolling in higher education said they preferred nondegree pathways. As the perceived value of a college degree continues to drop—in a Gallup poll only 51 percent of Americans said a college degree is very important—there are fears that microcredentials could overtake bachelor’s degrees. The list of major employers that no longer require college degrees for employment is growing—and now includes Google, Ernst and Young, Penguin Random House, Hilton, Apple, Nordstrom, IBM, Lowe’s, Publix, Starbucks, Bank of America, Whole Foods, Costco, and Chipotle.  to the top

4     Beverly Gage, Yale, and Academic Freedom   Beverly Gage, tenured history professor and director of Yale University’s coveted Brady-Johnson Program in Grand Strategy, announced her resignation from the program in September. Gale’s departure comes after Yale agreed to appoint an advisory board made up of donor-endorsed conservatives, including Henry Kissinger, to handpick faculty appointments to the prestigious global politics and diplomacy program—a move that Gage says directly impacts the program’s curriculum and threatens academic freedom. Gage told The New York Times that Yale president Peter Salovey suggested she comply to avoid the loss of a $250 million donation (Yale’s endowment currently sits at $31 billion). Donors originally endowed the Grand Strategy program under the pretext that a majority conservative advisory board would oversee appointments to the program, but successive administrations have avoided implementation of a board in favor of upholding Yale’s non-partisan core mission to “improv[e] the world today and for future generations through outstanding research and scholarship, education, preservation, and practice.” Now, under President Salovey, the 15-year-old gift agreement is being implemented on the heels of an instructor in the program referring to Donald Trump as a demagogue in a New York Times opinion piece. President Salovey stated that “the University [has] an obligation to our donors to meet the agreements to honor the agreements we make with them,” while also noting that the administration needs to make changes to the donor process.  (See Are Colleges Doing Enough to Protect Free Speech? #5)  to the top 

5      Are Colleges Doing Enough to Protect Free Speech? Across the country, according to many observers, universities are failing to uphold core values such as freedom of speech and free inquiry—values that some governing boards feel obligated to protect. As the Biden administration and Congress plan to distribute billions of dollars of new funding to colleges and universities, some of those boards and their supporters are suggesting that those funds are directed to free speech on campus programs. A recent survey of nearly 40,000 students conducted this fall by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), College Pulse, and RealClearEducation shows that only one third of college students feel that their school’s administration is taking steps to protect free speech. This fall, MIT buckled to a group of angry alumni and activists, agreeing to cancel an appearance by geophysicist Dorian Abbot when his past remarks about diversity and inclusion sparked controversy. (Princeton later invited Abbot to speak and he packed the house.) (See Cancel Culture War Games #17) According to the survey, two thirds of students feel it’s acceptable to shout down a controversial guest speaker and many say they would even resort to violence. Additionally, over 80 percent of students admit that they regularly censor themselves from sharing personal views on their college campus and in the classroom.  (See also Beverly Gage, Yale, and Academic Freedom #4 and #17 The Silent Campus--Faculty Fear the Scarlet C .) to the top

6  UT-Austin Faculty Blindsided by Plans to Create a Conservative “Liberty Institute” on Campus Leaders of the University of Texas at Austin have been quietly working for years with the Lone Star state’s Republican lieutenant governor, Dan Patrick, and private donors to create a think tank—known as the Liberty Institute—“dedicated to the study and teaching of individual liberty, limited government, private enterprise and free markets.” Most of the school's faculty, however, just learned about the proposed center only late this summer, through a Texas Tribune investigation. The Tribune found that many of the state's legislators had already approved $6 million in initial funding for the institute in the 2022–23 state budget, even though no details about the project had been made public; the newspaper’s investigation was based largely on emails and other documents obtained via open-records requests. The institute’s intent is to “support and help attract faculty,” Provost Sharon Wood said in an attempt to reassure faculty members, but many concerns remain. “Why is the university allowing itself to be politicized by the legislature?” one professor asked. “It seems a very dangerous precedent for us to set.” And it’s still unclear who wrote the proposals for the institute or when they were written. Emails show that UT-Austin President Jay Hartzell has been involved in discussions since at least 2016.  to the top

7    Elite University Endowments Post Record Gains. Will This Last?   Despite a pandemic economy some college endowments are seeing their largest investment gains in decades, thanks to soaring stock markets and the success of venture capital funds, according to a new report by The Wall Street Journal. Duke University’s endowment grew a stunning 55.9 percent, while the University of Virginia’s bequest funds rose 49 percent. Washington University in St. Louis reported a 65 percent return—the school’s largest gain ever—bringing the size of its managed endowment pool to $15.3 billion. Experts say that venture capital is on track to see its biggest returns since the dot-com boom of the late 1990s—which could rekindle the debate over whether and how wealthy universities should be taxed. Some, on the other hand, fear the recent surge in returns is only temporary and that valuations might collapse. (See Bowing to Pressure #8.)   to the top

8   Bowing to Pressure, Harvard to Phase Out Fossil Fuel Investments  After years of  public pressure, Harvard University finally announced that it “does not intend” to make any future investments in fossil fuels. This marks an abrupt change of course for the world’s richest university, with an endowment totaling $42 billion, and a major victory for the climate change movement. Despite intense lobbying by student, faculty and alumni activists, Harvard had resisted putting its full weight behind the green movement. A public relations turning point came in 2019 when activist students staged a protest at the famed Harvard-Yale football game (dating to 1875, the oldest such competition in the nation) that brought the issue into the national spotlight. Recently, protesters succeeded in getting four pro-divestment candidates elected to Harvard’s Board of Overseers. The tipping point, however, may have been a legal complaint filed with the Massachusetts Attorney General’s office earlier this year. The complaint argued that fossil fuel investments “aren’t just immoral but illegal,” and that universities had a legal duty to invest responsibly. Five months later, Harvard pledged to make its endowment greenhouse-gas-neutral by 2050. Divestment advocates are hoping that Harvard’s action will have a domino effect. Other universities that have committed to quitting fossil fuel investments include Oxford, Cambridge, Brown and Cornell. (See Elite University Endowments Post Record Gains #7.)  to the top

9   Even With Vaccines Available, Student Numbers Slide  College enrollment dropped during the pandemic, and many hoped enrollment numbers would rebound during a more normal fall 2021 semester. In fact, enrollments this fall fell once again, a 3.2 percent drop from fall 2020, for a cumulative 6.5 percent drop from fall 2019. However, the story is not same at colleges everywhere. Elite private schools are seeing healthy enrollments. At public universities, it’s a mixed picture. At many publics, including the University of North Carolina System, University of California System, University of Texas System, and Purdue, enrollments are surging. However, at the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education, University of Wisconsin System, and such public universities as the University of South Dakota, University of Wyoming, and—especially—the University of Northern Michigan, enrollments dropped. Community colleges and for-profit colleges are seeing the steepest declines. To woo students, colleges are turning to virtual tours and personalized email messages. Graduate student enrollments are up; however, some schools are limiting them—a mistake, Georgetown University historian Greg Afinogenov argues, that will undermine already weak humanities fields. Who’s not showing up for college? Increasingly, men: in the 2020–21 academic year, there were three women enrolled in college for every two men, raising questions about how this gender enrollment gap will affect higher education—and the country. (See Community College Enrollments Still Falling #10 and Where Have All the Men Gone? #13.)  to the top

10    Community College Enrollments Still Falling Almost Two Years Into the Pandemic   Preliminary data released by the federal government shows that the Covid-19 pandemic wreaked havoc on fall 2020 enrollments, particularly at community colleges. College and university enrollment nationwide declined by more than 3 percent, but community college enrollments were especially hard-hit—plummeting by 15 percent. Public two-year institutions lost more than 700,000 students from fall 2019 to fall 2020. The one bright spot was two-year for-profit schools, where enrollment increased by 11 percent. The enrollment drop is worrisome because community colleges traditionally serve as gateways to four-year institutions and as centers of workforce training for adults of all ages. A number of new laws in California will make it easier for community college students to transfer to the state’s public university systems. State Chancellor Joseph Castro believes the legislation will dramatically increase the number of transfer students by providing a clearer pathway, “especially for our underrepresented students.” According to a new survey, community colleges, and especially their noncredit programs, drive job-focused education, a boon when the country faces a growing demand for technical workers. Today, 30 percent of jobs require some postsecondary education or training but not a four-year college degree.   to the top

11    Vaccines and Masks: To Mandate or Not to Mandate  With hopes of a more normal academic year, but with the Delta variant on the ascent, this past summer colleges and universities faced the decision about whether or not to mandate students, faculty, and staff to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Many schools required the vaccine—disenrolling students who did not comply—while other colleges relied on education and incentives including cutting the unvaccinated off from campus Wi-Fi. A few weeks into the semester, the Biden administration announced a vaccine mandate for large businesses and businesses with federal contracts, with a December 8 deadline. It was unclear how the federal mandate would apply to colleges and universities. Among the issues: The definition of federal contract does not include student aid and research grants; for schools in states where the governor or public-university-system trustees had forbidden vaccine mandates, the federal mandate created “unprecedented” tension between contradictory federal and state requirements. Nevertheless, many schools have announced they will comply with the federal mandate. At colleges without vaccine or mask mandates, faculty faced discipline for objecting to or not complying with COVID-19 policy. As they approach the Thanksgiving holiday, campuses have remained mostly open; even so, a few colleges with vaccine mandates have had to return to online instruction.  to the top

12  More Companies Are Enticing Workers With Free College Education   Generous tuition assistance programs are all the rage at corporations that employ a lot of lower-wage workers. Employer-sponsored education has been around for decades, but programs aimed at frontline workers are a new niche as the battle for hourly employees escalates beyond minimum wages. Amazon, for example, is offering more than 750,000 U.S. hourly employees the chance to enroll in a fully paid bachelor’s degree program after 90 days on the job. Some experts, however, are skeptical about the companies’ motivations, saying the programs are a good messaging vehicle, and easier and cheaper than actually increasing wages or improving job conditions. Historically, the participation rate in tuition assistant programs has been low, particularly in tuition reimbursement programs that require employees to pay for classes up front. Two years ago, Chipotle introduced a debt-free, 100 percent payment option, and participation rates skyrocketed. The company says workers who take advantage of education benefits have a retention rate 3.5 times higher than the typical Chipotle worker, and they are 7.5 times more likely to move into management.  to the top

13  Where Have All the Men Gone? Women Now Outnumber Men 60–⁠40 on College Campuses   Men—once the predominant group on American campuses—are abandoning college at alarming rates. At the close of the 2020–⁠21 academic year, women made up 59.5 percent of college students, an all-time high, and men 40.5 percent, The Wall Street Journal reports. The college gender gap, which holds true at both two- and four-year colleges, has been slowly widening for 40 years and cuts across race, economic background, and geography. The pandemic combined with skyrocketing education costs have made things worse. From spring 2019 to spring 2021, the number of male college students fell by more than 535,000, well over three times the decline observed for women, according to National Student Clearinghouse data. Many men say they no longer see enough value in a college degree. Anti-male sentiments on some campuses may be another contributing factor. “From orientation to graduation, they are likely to hear that their masculinity is toxic and must be suppressed,” two researchers pondered. “If that’s the case, why would a young man even try to succeed on campus—or even matriculate at all?” With no reversal on the horizon, tacit affirmative action for boys has become higher education’s “dirty little secret”—practiced but not publicly acknowledged by many private universities.  to the top

14    The Pandemic Worsened Food Insecurities on Campus   An alarming number of college students don’t have enough food to eat—and the problem has gotten worse with the Covid-19 pandemic. According to one report, 29 percent of college students have missed at least one meal a week since the start of the pandemic. More than half—52 percent—sometimes use off-campus food banks, while 30 percent use them at least once a month or more. The situation is especially challenging for students who live off campus, another report found. And it’s not just undergrads who are going hungry. Graduate students, low-paid support staff, and adjunct faculty face food insecurities as well. In an effort to help more people who are struggling to put food on the table, Swipe Out Hunger and the College and University Food Bank Alliance are forming a network of campus food pantries across the country. Food insecurity manifests in various ways, including forgoing meals, eating an imbalanced diet, skipping classes, using emergency funds to buy food, and accessing food pantries at school. But many students choose not to take advantage of available campus resources because of guilt, stigma, or the fear of what their peers will think. to the top

15  Catherine Lhamon Reinstated to Civil Rights Post, With Kamala Harris Casting the Tie-Breaking Vote A divided Senate confirmed Catherine Lhamon to lead the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, a position she previously held during the Obama administration. The Senate voted 50 to 50 along partisan lines, forcing Vice President Kamala Harris to cast the deciding vote, reminiscent of the vote that installed Donald Trump’s secretary of education (see Betsy Wins by a Pence). Lhamon faced vehement opposition from Republicans, who questioned her views on transgender students’ rights and how schools should address sexual misconduct. During the Obama years, Lhamon was known for her “hyper-aggressive approach to Title IX,” spurring concerns the federal government was ignoring the due process rights of students accused of misconduct. She also helped draft 2016 guidance to schools directing them to allow transgender students to use restrooms and locker rooms that matched their gender identity. Senator Richard Burr, a North Carolina Republican, said Lhamon’s history with the Obama administration was “deeply troubling if not outright disqualifying.” Even some victims’ rights advocates were lukewarm on Lhamon’s nomination, saying she was too polarizing. Others, however, have praised her as a champion of civil rights. The Biden administration expects to publish new Title IX regulations in May 2022. to the top

16    The Silent Campus—Student Self-Censorship    Over half of American students report fear of expressing political and social views on campus.  A survey by Intelligent.com revealed that the self-censorship trend extends equally to those on the political right and left as well as moderates. In addition to fearing backlash and consequences, such as being targeted on social media for their views, students lack the skills to disagree constructively, according to James Patterson, professor of politics at Ave Maria University, in Ave Maria, Florida. Patterson says students believe that the only way to disagree is by taking sides and fear that any expression of opposition will lead to conflict. The Marshall Center for Intercultural Learning at Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts, is taking steps to combat trepidation over self-expression by safely opening the lines of communication with their launch of Intergroup Dialogues, 10-week programs designed to build trust among students by focusing on “listen-and-learn skills,” teaching students to respond to one another without over-reacting. Raquel Ramos, dean for the Marshall Center, emphasized the need to keep the program participants diverse to ensure that students learn to respond appropriately to differences in thoughts and opinions.    to the top

17   The Silent Campus—Faculty Fear the “Scarlet C”    It is not only students who are often keeping mum; faculty too fear free speech and open inquiry—the foundational values of the American university—are increasingly imperiled. In a recent article in The Atlantic, Anne Applebaum draws comparisons between The Scarlet Letter (the classic Hawthorne novel (1850) in which Hester Prynne, an adulteress was sentenced to wear a scarlet A in public for the rest of her life) and the current campus "cancel culture," in which, many claim, outspoken faculty are sometimes shunned or worse, and, in effect, tagged with a scarlet C. Fearful of finding themselves the latest outcast on social media or their career in ruins, many in academia are quitting the profession or retiring early, and some are experiencing mental-health problems amid growing pressure to adhere to an environment where classrooms and their professors are expected to demonstrate complete “wokeness," what used to be called political correctness. In response to the state of free expression in academia, the Campus Free Speech Restoration Act, introduced by North Carolina Congressman Greg Murphy, aims to protect and restore free expression on campus—a welcome reprieve for professors who seek to introduce intellectual discussions in the classroom without fear of being shut down by a “bias response team” or moving class to a “free speech zone.” Murphy’s bill also aims to curb “shout-downs” and intimidation of guest speakers (two-thirds of students say it is acceptable to shout down a speaker), resulting in canceled guest lectures in anticipatory fear of such behavior by holding Title IV funds over the heads of universities who, some say, are often quick to give in to protestors’ demands. (See Are Colleges Doing Enough to Protect Free Speech? #5, and Cancel Culture War Games #18.)   to the top

18   Cancel Culture War Games – MIT, Princeton, and Dorian Abbot Campus cancel culture resulted in a game of hot potato between MIT and Princeton this fall.  Dorian Abbot, associate professor of geophysical sciences at the University of Chicago was scheduled to give a lecture on climate change in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences at MIT when it was learned that Abbot had once criticized affirmative action and diversity programs, once stating that “we are trying to fix bias problems by creating new biases.” After MIT canceled Princeton picked up the lecture, via Zoom, and David Romps, a professor of climate physics at the University of California, Berkeley, resigned as director of the school’s Atmospheric Sciences Center when fellow scientists and professors refused to invite Abbot to speak at UC Berkeley.  to the top

19  USC to Apologize to Imprisoned WWII Japanese-American Students While UC Berkeley Starts a Program to Support Ex-prisoners   The University of Southern California will make amends to former Japanese American students who were impeded from finishing their degrees and forced into internment camps during World War II. Next spring—some 80 years after the incarceration—USC President Carol Folt will issue a formal apology on behalf of the university at an alumni gala and award honorary degrees. Most, if not all, of the former students are likely deceased, and USC is asking the public for help locating the families of about 120 Japanese American students who attended the university during the 1941–42 academic year. At UC Berkeley, a new program supports formerly incarcerated individuals. According to a 2018 report by the Prison Policy Initiative, ex-prisoners are eight times less likely to complete college than the general public. Participants in Berkeley Underground Scholars receive help with the UC application, financial aid, housing, and employment, but many say finding a sense of community on campus is the most valuable benefit.   to the top

20    Steven Pinker, Harvard, and Freedom of Expression Steven Pinker, cognitive psychologist, Harvard psychology professor and author of numerous books, is no stranger to controversy. In his latest book, The Better Angels of our Nature, Pinker discusses the issue of social justice, specifically crediting a decline in violence over the past two centuries to Enlightenment and Western institutions. Authors and proclaimed “culture warriors” Philip Dwyer and Mark Micale released The Darker Angels of Our Nature, a rebuttal of Pinker’s book (keeping their debate mostly civilized). Many have denounced Pinker’s work for having an overly rosy outlook and minimizing the harms of racial injustice, including more than 550 scholars who, according to a report in The New York Times, signed a letter asking that Pinker be removed from the list of “distinguished fellows” of the Linguistic Society of America. Pinker has accused the “speech police” of rifling through his writings and focusing on “offensive lines and adjectives” taken out of context. In their letter, Pinker’s critics criticized his use of the terms “urban crime” and “urban violence” (deemed racial dog whistles), as well as focusing on one of Pinker’s tweets from 2015, “Data: Police don’t shoot blacks disproportionately,” which included a link to an article from The Upshot, “Problem: Not race, but too many police shootings.” Pinker says he is able to weather the cancel culture storm but is concerned about junior faculty who may be disinclined to express views that are not in line with the current culture.   to the top

21   Biden Administration Temporarily Lifts Rules for Public Service Loan Forgiveness The Education Department has announced a temporary overhaul to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program that will make it easier for service members, teachers, and other public servants to have their federal student loans discharged. The agency is invoking a 2003 law known as the Heroes Act to clear the way for millions of borrowers who were previously rebuffed. The PSLF program was created by Congress in 2007 to encourage college grads to pursue public service careers. After a decade of work and on-time payments, the borrower’s remaining debt was supposed to be dismissed. However, many borrowers claim they were misled by loan servicers into thinking they were paying down their debt over the years when, in fact, they were not. And due to “convoluted rules and sloppy administration,” more than 98 percent of people who applied to the program were rejected. Under the new rules, any prior loan payments that a borrower made while working for a qualifying employer will count toward PSLF, regardless of the type of loan or repayment plan. Borrowers have until October 31, 2022, to apply. The Biden administration estimates the move will bring more than 550,000 people closer to debt cancellation, including 22,000 who will be immediately eligible.  to the top