Higher Ed’s Third Rails

Listen to the second episode of The Chronicle's new podcast, Open Questions. The Chronicle Review is where academe comes to argue with itself. On Open Questions, The Review‘s podcast, Evan Goldstein and Len Gutkin bring the argument to you by talking with leading scholars and thinkers about the debates that matter now. In this episode The UC-Riverside philosopher Barry Lam has been one of campus bloat’s biggest critics. And AI might only make things worse, he says. Why do professors have to spend so much of their time dealing with crummy software, pointless trainings, and endless meetings to do things that used to be so much easier? Why are there so many administrators? Will it ever get better? Or have we reached a tipping point when it comes to administrative bloat? Related Reading ⁠The Strategic Plan⁠ (The Chronicle Review)  ⁠Don’t Replace Professors with AI. Replace Administrators!⁠ (The Chronicle Review)  ⁠Higher Ed’s Middle-Manager Problem⁠ (The Chronicle Review) Guest ⁠Barry Lam⁠, professor of philosophy at the University of California at Riverside For more, visit ⁠chronicle.com/openquestions⁠. We aim to make transcripts available within a day of an episode’s publication.

In more than four decades of university leadership, E. Gordon Gee was seldom dull. During stints at Brown, Vanderbilt, and Ohio State Universities, Gee made news for tangling with trustees, controversial spending decisions, and impolitic jokes. In his final presidency, at West Virginia University, Gee presided over major budget cuts before retiring in 2025. Despite some public bruising, Gee is a force of personality in higher education whose unapologetic style ingratiated him to students and donors alike. But what does he make of Americans’ souring attitudes toward the sector? And why does he think so many college presidents today are crippled by fear? Related Reading Survivor: The Ohio State Edition (The Chronicle)  Gordon Gee’s Last Stand (The Chronicle)  Vanderbilt Reins in Lavish Spending by Star Chancellor (The Wall Street Journal) Guest E. Gordon Gee, president emeritus of West Virginia U. For more on today’s episode, visit chronicle.com/collegematters. We aim to make transcripts available within a day of an episode’s publication.

After a decisive electoral victory on Tuesday, Democrats will assume majorities in the U.S House and Senate, placing a partisan check on a presidential administration that has put the screws to colleges and universities for nearly two years. But what will voters’ rebuke of President Trump mean for a sector that many Americans still view as overpriced, out of touch, and insufficiently responsive to work-force needs? Related Reading Has the Campus Culture War Passed Its Peak? (The Chronicle) Higher Ed and the Midterms (The Chronicle) 6 Essential Questions for Higher Ed After the Midterms (The Chronicle Review) Guest Andy Thomason, assistant managing editor of 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.

Listen to the first episode of The Chronicle's new podcast, Open Questions. The Chronicle Review is where academe comes to argue with itself. On Open Questions, The Review‘s podcast, Evan Goldstein and Len Gutkin bring the argument to you by talking with leading scholars and thinkers about the debates that matter now. In This Episode: A Harvard dean recently suggested that "there should be acceptance, even encouragement" of AI writing in the college classroom. That sort of thing creeps Jill Lepore out. We talked to the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian about what AI is doing to higher education, what went wrong at Harvard, and why our new tech overlords want dominion not just over our pockets and our politics but also our souls. Related Reading: The Ivy League’s Surrender to AI is Insane (The Chronicle Review)  Has Administrative Bloat Reached a Breaking Point? (The Review)  Artificial Education (The Harvard Crimson)  Guest: Jill Lepore, professor of history and law at Harvard University For more, visit chronicle.com/openquestions. We aim to make transcripts available within a day of an episode’s publication.

Young college students are getting a bad rap lately. To hear it from professors, many are struggling to read, they’re glued to their phones, and they’ve become heavily reliant on AI to do their work. But what do students have to say about all of this? When is the last time they actually read a book? Are they cheating as much as people say? The answers might surprise you. Related Reading Is Reading Over for Gen Z? (College Matters)  My Students Can’t Read (The Review)  Using AI Without (Really) Cheating (College Matters) Guest Beth McMurtrie, senior writer for 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.

Colleges across the country are cutting programs and slashing budgets on a grand scale. What began as a slow trickle from some seemingly unlikely places, like Princeton and MIT, has become a sector-wide deluge. Wealthy private colleges, major public research universities, and lower-resourced institutions alike are eliminating courses of study, laying off staff, and cutting some faculty jobs. How bad is it out there, really? And how will these cuts define the next era of higher education? Related Reading The Latest News on Campus Finance (The Chronicle / Live Updates)  How Colleges Cut (The Chronicle / Robert Kelchen)  This is Why Some Regional Colleges Are in So Much Trouble (The Chronicle)  Guests Dan Berrett, senior editor at The Chronicle of Higher Education  Robert Kelchen, professor and head of the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville For more on today’s episode, visit chronicle.com/collegematters. We aim to make transcripts available within a day of an episode’s publication.

For weeks, the world has been reeling over allegations that multiple Cornell University students raped a woman at a fraternity house. The lurid case has renewed calls for banning fraternities, but pushback from alumni and fears of the groups going underground tend to scuttle these efforts. Fraternities, it seems, are a proverbial third rail in higher education. Not unlike big-spending athletics programs, Greek Life is supported by powerful people whom college leaders are loath to confront. What are higher education’s other third-rail issues? And why are they so challenging to take on? Related Reading Cornell’s President Says Banning Fraternities Would Make Things Worse. Is He Right? (The Chronicle) Why Don’t Colleges Just Ban Fraternities? (New York Magazine) Discredited: The UNC Scandal and College Athletics’ Amateur Ideal (Andy Thomason/ U. of Michigan Press) Guests H. Holden Thorp, editor in chief of Science Andy Thomason, assistant managing editor of 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 details of a lawsuit filed last month by a former Cornell University student, who says she was raped two years ago by multiple men at the Chi Phi fraternity house, are tough to stomach. Ketamine, alcohol, and misogyny figure prominently into the account laid out by the plaintiff, who is identified in the lawsuit only as Jane Doe. The suit has raised troubling questions about how the university and the county’s district attorney handled the case. More than that, the charges at Cornell have recentered waning conversations about the Greek system, the college party scene, and campus safety. Why has this case broken through, and what does it say about the darkest aspects of our culture? Related Reading At Cornell, a Rape Case Defines an Era (The Chronicle) More to Hate (Substack/Kate Manne)  How a Cornell Student Went from Shame to Action (The New York Times) Guests Nell Gluckman, senior reporter at The Chronicle of Higher Education  Kate Manne, philosophy professor at Cornell 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.

Nearly four years after the introduction of ChatGPT, colleges and universities have propagated plenty of rules related to students’ use of AI. But what about administrators and faculty? Can they live by the same standards they’ve handed down? Should they? As more faculty and even some college leaders admit to using AI in their writing, charges of hypocrisy abound. News last week that Dartmouth College will investigate its provost for his use of AI has further intensified concerns that even the nation’s top institutions lack clear guidelines in this area. It’s also brought urgency to a deeper question: If everyone is using AI to write, what constitutes an original work? Related Reading What Even is an Author? (The Chronicle)  When AI writes the words, who is the author? (Nature Africa)  The Dartmouth’s provost investigation (The Dartmouth)  Why I Want More AI at Dartmouth (The Atlantic)  Guest Andy Thomason, assistant managing editor 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.

University of Texas at Austin football fans have good reason to be happy right now. After narrowly defeating the Ohio State University Buckeyes earlier this month, the Longhorns are sitting pretty at No. 1 in the college football rankings. But all is not well in Austin. The morning after the Longhorns’ big win, a Republican political candidate posted an inflammatory message on X, expressing dismay at a photo of students of South Asian descent celebrating in the stands. Bo French, who is running for a seat on the Texas Railroad Commission, has stirred a tempest, suggesting that students of color have overrun the flagship university and “displaced” more deserving “Americans.” The controversy has ratcheted up tensions over immigration, diversity, and admissions in a state where some students from immigrant families say they feel unwelcome. It’s also shed light on the power of football fandom to shape a culture and define a community.  Related Reading Hook ‘Em, But Not All of ‘Em (The Daily Texan)  ‘A Slap in the Face’: How UT-Austin Axed a DEI Division (The Chronicle)  Disappearing White Students (College Matters)  Bo French’s social-media post (X)  Guests Thomas Oates, professor of journalism and American studies at the University of Iowa Pauline Strong, professor of anthropology and past president of the UT-Austin chapter of the American Association of University Professors Isaiah Williams, news editor of The Daily Texan For more on today’s episode, visit chronicle.com/collegematters. We aim to make transcripts available within a day of an episode’s publication.