Great column by Frederick Hess:
“Big Higher Ed’s leaders don’t really grasp that they’re seen as self-interested, dishonest, and out-of-touch. Nor do they see the extent to which bribery-based admissions, college costs, and student loan debt have eroded support on the left. They don’t appreciate how much the tales of woe used to promote Biden’s student loan “forgiveness” fed the conviction that college is a rip-off. And they really don’t get how the post–October 7 pivot from policing microaggressions to stridently defending the “free speech” of violent anti-Israel protesters cemented the suspicion that their campuses are hypocritical and irreducibly political.
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In some ways, Big Higher Ed is in worse shape than Big Oil. For all the flaws of oil executives, they’re not naïve. They expect to have a target on their backs, which is why they spend a lot of time and money courting elected officials and staff on both sides of the aisle, including Democrats who sit on Congress’s energy committees (even if they know the returns may be limited). Higher education hasn’t done that. For a very long time, Big Higher Ed coasted on alumni networks, a bipartisan reputation, and their colleges’ status as big local employers. When the ground shifted, higher ed didn’t. These institutions that collect a fortune in federal funds each year made no effort to cultivate relationships with Republican officials or staff. There’s no trust and no back-and-forth. Arrogance? Ignorance? Insularity? Whatever the explanation, the result was the same.
The failure of university leaders to rally to the defense of Columbia has puzzled many in higher education. It shouldn’t. When was the last time Chevron stood shoulder-to-shoulder with ExxonMobil during a congressional grilling? Do-gooders, advocacy groups, and unions rally to one another’s defense—corporations with toxic brands whistle through the graveyard, thankful they’re not the ones getting buried.”
