College Matters from The Chronicle

The Justice Department’s recent release of millions of pages of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sex offender who died by suicide in 2019, shines a harsh light on a privileged network of scholars who had entered his orbit. Throughout the documents, professors butter up the financier to fund their pet projects, banter crudely about women, and appear to overlook the criminality of a man who had already been convicted on prostitution-related charges involving a minor. What do the documents reveal about the gilded world of high-profile scholarship — and about elite higher ed’s fraught relationship with money, power, and prestige?

Related Reading

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

Jeffrey Epstein’s Academic Fixer (The Chronicle)

'A Moment of Reckoning': After Epstein, Higher Ed Faces Hard Questions About Its Proximity to Power (The Chronicle) 

Guests

Nell Gluckman, senior writer at The Chronicle

Emmy Martin, reporting intern at The Chronicle 

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

As president of the American Council on Education, Ted Mitchell is at the tip of the spear. A year ago, when the Trump administration moved to slash federal research funding, ACE joined a lawsuit to stop the cuts. This was a major departure for the influential higher-ed advocacy group, which is hardly ever a plaintiff in litigation. In Trump’s second term, ACE has taken a notably pugilistic approach. In addition to fighting in courtrooms, Mitchell has been active in the court of public opinion, casting the Trump administration’s agenda as both unlawful and unwise. But not everyone agrees on the nature of the Trump threat or how to respond to it, which puts Mitchell in a tricky spot. Can he unite this disparate constituency?

Related ReadingHow Higher Ed Staved Off a Research-Funding Bloodbath — For Now (The Chronicle)

Statement by Higher Education Associations in Opposition to Trump Administration Compact (American Council on Education)

'A Robust Victory: Federal Judge Says Harvard Should have Billions of Research Dollars Restored (The Chronicle)

GuestTed Mitchell, president of the American Council on 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.

In its long and often tortured history, the faculty-job-protection status known as tenure has been defended as an essential safeguard for academic freedom. Professors, the argument goes, need to know that they won’t get fired for researching and teaching about controversial topics. In theory, tenure provides that necessary security. But critics of the system, who balk at the idea of a “job for life,” are unmoved by this defense. State lawmakers are busy chipping away at tenure’s protections or even seeking to do away with it altogether. But if the traditional argument for tenure’s existence is failing, what are its supporters to do? Is there a case for the system beyond academic freedom?

Related Reading

The War on Tenure (Deepa Das Acevedo / Cambridge University Press) 

Tenure Will Be Eliminated at Most of Oklahoma's Public Colleges, Governor Says⁠ (The Chronicle) 

The Strange, Secret History of Tenure (The Review) 

A Professor Was Fired for Her Politics. Is That the Future of Academia? (The New York Times Magazine)

Guest

Deepa Das Acevedo, associate professor of law at Emory 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.

Outcome-driven investigations. Threats of dizzying fines. Broad claims of rampant, unchecked antisemitism. The Trump administration’s playbook against higher education is familiar by now, and it always presents universities with the same stark choice: Pay up or face a potentially yearslong legal battle with an extremely powerful adversary. Washington insiders and judges say Trump’s tactics are legally dubious at best, breaking with procedural rules and even violating the U.S. Constitution. But will any of that matter in the end?

Related Reading

The Shakedown: How Trump’s Justice Department pressured lawyers to ‘find’ evidence that UCLA had tolerated antisemitism (The Chronicle/ProPublica) 

The Improbable Warrior: Why the unlikely leader of Trump’s antisemitism task force may be the perfect man for the job. (The Chronicle/ProPublica) 

Trump Wants $1 Billion From UCLA for Its ‘Hostile Environment.’ What Is That? (The Chronicle) 

Guests

Peter Elkind, national investigative reporter at ProPublica

Katie Mangan, senior writer 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.

The fatal shooting of Alex Pretti, who was killed on Saturday during an encounter with federal immigration agents in Minneapolis, has further escalated tensions in a metropolitan area dotted with college campuses. As the region reels with civil unrest, area universities are grappling with how to maintain safe operations. They’re also facing pressure to exert stronger moral leadership as their institutions’ values are tested in real time.Related Reading

Navigating Campus Life Amid ICE Enforcement (The Chronicle)

After Another ICE Killing, Minnesota’s Flagship Faces a Test (The Chronicle)

Guests

Scott Carlson⁠, senior writer at The Chronicle of Higher Education 

Fae Hodges, University of Minnesota Twin Cities student

Alexander Boni-Saenz, a law professor at the University of Minnesota