College Matters from The Chronicle

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Last week, Kevin Guskiewicz took a pay cut to leave Michigan State University’s presidency for the top job at Clemson University. And he lobbed a grenade on the way out by criticizing the institution’s trustees, a group of eight elected officials who in recent years have been accused of dysfunction and backbiting. It’s the latest example of how partisan governing boards, willing to throw their weight around in new ways, are making presidents uncomfortable. Are those boards overstepping their bounds? Rema Vassar, an outspoken Michigan State trustee, argues that leadership tension is “a gift” — and discusses an audio recording in which she told students how they might “crucify” a past president.

Related Reading

He Came From the Frying Pan. Can He Manage the Fire? (The Chronicle)

After an Embarrassing Report, Squabbles on Michigan State’s Board Head Toward a Political Conclusion (The Chronicle)

The New Order (The Chronicle)

Guests

Andy Thomason, assistant managing editor of The Chronicle of Higher Education

Rema Vassar, member of the Michigan State University Board of Trustees

For more on today’s episode, visit chronicle.com/collegematters. We aim to make transcripts available within a day of an episode’s publication.

College Matters listeners, we want to hear from you. Please help us to improve our show by completing a brief audience survey at chronicle.com/podcastsurvey.

Dan Ariely has made a career of examining the dark side of humanity. As a social scientist and a Duke University professor, he has drawn attention — and some criticism — for his research into subjects like lying, cheating, and criminality. Of late, though, it’s Ariely’s long-running email correspondence with Jeffrey Epstein, the notorious sex offender who died in 2019, that’s drawing interest and scrutiny. What did Ariely want from Epstein? What did Epstein want from him? And why was Ariely asking Epstein for a woman’s phone number?

Related Reading: 

Is Dan Ariely Telling the Truth? (The Chronicle) 

Inside the Epstein Files (College Matters) 

Unmasking Academe’s Gilded Boys’ Club (The Chronicle) 

Guest

Dan Ariely, professor of business administration at Duke 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.

College Matters listeners, we want to hear from you. Please help us to improve our show by completing a brief audience survey at chronicle.com/podcastsurvey. 

Last week’s shutdown of Canvas, an online learning-management system used by thousands of colleges and schools, was a sharp illustration of higher education’s increasing reliance on technology. Students, too, are leaning on artificial intelligence and other tech tools to navigate schoolwork and campus life. All of this is being done in the name of greater efficiency, as colleges face pressure to educate and graduate students at an ever-faster clip — and students demand a frictionless educational experience. But what happens to higher education when it’s built for speed?

Related Reading

Canvas: Live Updates (The Chronicle)

Another Undergrad is Trying to Disrupt College with AI. He Says His Version Isn’t Cheating. (The Chronicle) 

A University Is Scraping Course Materials for Its New AI Platform. It Didn’t Ask the Faculty. (The Chronicle) 

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.

Ken Burns, who has helped to tell the story of the nation's history through celebrated documentaries, attributes much of his success to the education he received at Hampshire College. Faced with the recent news that his financially struggling alma mater will soon close its doors, Burns is reflecting on the larger forces that helped to seal the college’s fate. Hampshire bills itself as a learning laboratory in which students are encouraged to follow their passions, driving toward a goal of personal transformation rather than the pursuit of any single vocation. If that’s not a marketable idea, Burns says, something is truly amiss in higher education and the American psyche. The nation’s “reprehensible culture wars,” Burns says, are only making matters worse.

Related Reading

Hampshire Announced Its Closing. Will Other Small Colleges Follow? (The Chronicle) 

Nearly One-Third of Faculty in Red States Say They’ve Censored Their Research (The Chronicle) 

A War on ‘Woke’ Classes (College Matters) 

Guest

Ken Burns, filmmaker

For more on today’s episode, visit chronicle.com/collegematters. We aim to make transcripts available within a day of an episode’s publication.

In recent months, politicians from both sides of the aisle have been busy exerting influence on state universities. In Virginia, a newly elected Democratic governor has quickly put her stamp on higher ed, adding political allies to university governing boards and reportedly forcing out some members with whom she disagrees. Citing concerns about recent personnel decisions at the University of Kentucky, the state’s Democratic governor declared this month that he was losing confidence in the flagship’s leadership. Meanwhile, Republicans in states across the country are ever more aggressively targeting universities over diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. Politicians and governance experts alike often extol the virtues of depoliticizing universities, but does anyone actually think that’s realistic now?

Related Reading

Virginia’s Boards Leap Left (The Chronicle) 

At Texas Tech, Even Some Student Research on Gender Will Be Banned (The Chronicle) 

The New Order: How the Nation’s Partisan Divisions Consumed Public-College Boards and Warped Higher Education (The Chronicle) 

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.