What Doug Says Behind Closed Doors

From Doug Lederman

I’m frequently asked if public support for higher ed has indeed declined. Skepticism about the academy isn’t new—think of Bill Bennett’s rampages against colleges as education secretary in the 1980s, the Contract with America in the 1990s, and Scott Walker’s reign (of terror) in Wisconsin in the 2010s, among others. 

But the public dissatisfaction is unfolding on a broader set of issues, coming from a wider set of critics and, while still driven by politicians, has seeped into public attitudes more deeply than before. So yes, you're not crazy—it's worse than I can ever remember. 

As for the critiques themselves, some are deeply exaggerated, some are wrong-headed, and many are politically motivated. That’s unfair, and it can be legitimate to challenge the veracity of the critiques and defend your students, employees and institutions against misguided attacks and true threats.

But—and you probably figured there was a “but” coming—the current crisis of public confidence in higher education will not be resolved mainly by rebuttals or by “telling [your] story better.” (There is a place for both, within reason.)

All you need do is look up from your campus office to see that higher ed’s collective credibility is in question. Colleges are viewed as just another interest group, and their leaders are not seen nearly as much as national “thought leaders” as they once were (though many are still highly respected locally as civic leaders). 

This can be hard to accept; trust me, as a journalist, I know how far one’s star can fall in the public eye. It’s painful.

And as with journalism, for all the exaggeration and politicization behind some if not many of the critiques, there is also truth behind some of them—truth that requires acknowledgement and a commitment to improve. 

We created The Sandbox to provide something different for the higher ed industry. Rachel is concerned about the lives of individuals in leadership roles and how we can support good people who are getting beat up on many fronts.

I am often asked to address groups about what I see as the problems in higher ed. I do this behind closed doors and off the record, in the interest of freely exchanging ideas with higher ed leaders in a safe space. [Note from Rachel: one president referred to Doug as “the confessional.”] 

While it’s not entirely comfortable for me to do this in writing (three decades of journalistic practice are hard to shake), in this space I’ll give you my thoughts about the various critiques. My sense of what’s exaggerated/unfair, what’s real, what’s addressable.

Because we want to keep The Sandbox a quick and lively Saturday morning read, in bites that are, in Rachel’s words, as delicious as they are nutritious, I’ll do this bit by bit, and focus in order from the least to the most credible critique, in my humble opinion.

This week I’ll start with the notion that America's colleges and universities are indoctrinating America's youth.

There is plenty of circumstantial evidence to suggest that higher education is a generally liberal enclave—data on the political affiliations of the faculty, for instance, and individual donations to political campaigns.

And it doesn’t take too many videos of professors going on rants about President Trump to get circulated (and re-circulated) on right-leaning news sites to create the perception that colleges and universities are setting out to build the future of the Democratic (if not the Communist) Party. 

This is by far the most political of the critiques, and the one most likely to come and go with the political tides. I also find this critique to be less broadly credible than the rest, and I think it has the least staying power as a result.

That doesn’t mean college leaders shouldn't take the issue seriously, especially given the political damage it’s causing. Many clearly do: in our 2023 survey of campus leaders, just as many presidents (44 percent) agreed as disagreed that “the perception of colleges as places that are intolerant of conservative views is accurate.”

If there’s a “to do” for leaders in response, I’d focus on the students, who in my view are more likely than faculty members are to try to squelch the perspectives of other students. 

Many students are entering college having been shielded from discomfort and challenge, which means colleges may have more work to do than in generations past. 

Impressing on students the importance of respecting opposing and even offensive points of view, teaching them about the importance of free speech, and training them to engage in hard conversations can’t be left to happenstance.  

Next time: affordability and value.