Hello, friends. As you know, higher education is in crisis, and it's back on its heels, reacting to events and bad news. We've got a plan to change that.

AAC&U’s @jeremycyoung.bsky.social pays tribute to the legacy of the late Harry Keyishian, noted advocate for academic freedom, in the latest article for APT Words. Read more on Substack: https://bit.ly/48SkWSX

Wondering what the Advancing Public Trust in Higher Education team @aacu.org has been up to over the past month? We've got you covered. aptwords.substack.com/p/the-april-...

My in memoriam post on Harry Keyishian, a hero of academic freedom who died last month. I was privileged to meet Harry in November 2024, and to interview him by email in January 2025, when he was ninety-two years old. aptwords.substack.com/p/academic-f...

RIP to a fake one

New at APT Words: my colleague Felicia Fullilove analyzes a recent budget conflict in the Wyoming state legislature, arguing that the lawmakers’ lack of trust in public universities does not always match what the local public thinks. aptwords.substack.com/p/a-wyoming-...

My thoughts on that Yale report on public trust in higher education. Some good and some bad, but overall more agreement than disagreement. Our report on the same topic will be out in a few months. aptwords.substack.com/p/the-good-a...

Woohoo, here's my essay with my fav co-author on 30,000 fellowship wins across the Guggenheim, Stanford CASBS, NAEd, National Humanities Center, RSF visiting scholar, and Harvard Radcliffe. Spoiler: it's the people working at prestigious universities www.publicbooks.org/who-gets-gug...

Glad to be featured in @cflaihe.bsky.social's story for @insidehighered.com about how to build public trust in higher education. Read my comments here: www.insidehighered.com/news/governa...

This is happening now! Tune in if you can!

AAC&U's @jeremycyoung.bsky.social will join The Global Observatory on Academic Freedom for the webinar "How Academic Freedom is Conceptualised, Codified, Enacted and Contested: Country and Region Health Checks" on April 8, 9:00-10:30 a.m. ET. Learn more and register: https://bit.ly/4c0KsWJ

If you can get to Durham, NC on May 22-23, please come to this exciting free conference on higher ed, democracy, and illiberalism. Our fearless leader, Lynn Pasquerella, will help kick off the event, and I'll be rolling out some of the ideas from our forthcoming report on public trust in higher ed.

Where we've been, where we're going: @aacu.org's Advancing Public Trust in Higher Education team havs been taking the show on the road. Read this post to learn what we've been up to in March, and what's coming in April and beyond. aptwords.substack.com/p/apt-on-the...

"Young...wants people to view college much like the local fire department.... 'Colleges offer concrete benefits to ordinary people, not just students,' he said." Thanks to @karinfischer.bsky.social @chronicle.com for quoting me on the case for college. www.chronicle.com/article/why-...

There’s less talk about this stuff bc his DOJ is suing companies and universities that talk about it!

Sign up for our new Substack, please! It's your one-stop shop for updates on my team's work on advancing public trust in higher education. If you'd like to see higher ed do better -- and be treated better -- this one's for you.

A poem about public trust in higher ed? Liz Hutchison found one in her research for our forthcoming @aacu.org report. The poem, and Liz's analysis of its reflections on South African apartheid, form this week's APT Words post on Substack. Subscribe if you haven't already!

"To revitalize rural trust in higher education, institutions... should be willing to adopt some responsibility for building durable, reciprocal connections with rural communities." Read more from Scout Meredith Best and me, and please subscribe! aptwords.substack.com/p/recasting-...

How can #highered rebuild public trust? We can start, write Scout Meredith Best and @jeremycyoung.bsky.social#highered by reexamining our relationship with rural America. Read more on APT Words, a new Substack from AAC&U’s Advancing Public Trust in Higher Education initiative. https://bit.ly/4sE9tOh

NEW: we're live with APT Words, a new Substack @aacu.org that will offer our latest program updates and commentary about public trust in higher ed. Please subscribe to stay informed about our work, and check out our lead story today on higher ed and rural America. aptwords.substack.com

Our little book on a big issue is out, with thought-provoking essays from @annieabrams.bsky.social, @lydiamillet.bsky.social, @briankgoodman.bsky.social, @electrostani.bsky.social, @jeremycyoung.bsky.social, @edrabinski.bsky.social, and more who are not on here--hoping people find it useful

This is tomorrow at 1 PM ET! Come hear me, Heidi Tseu, and Joe Brenckle talk about public trust and higher ed leadership. Thanks to the Association of Governing Boards for organizing.

I'll be speaking about public trust in higher education at this webinar hosted by the Association of Governing Boards. Sign up for free at the link. agb.org/events/webin...

Higher ed is where we name who we are and dream of who we want to become. That dream is under threat. I’m proud to introduce the @alliancehighered.bsky.social and humbled to serve as its inaugural president. Join the movement in support opportunity and democracy: allianceforhighered.org

"Even after accounting for the upfront costs and delayed benefits, enrolling marginal applicants to public universities generates substantial net returns for society, the marginal students themselves, and the government budget." Public Universities FTW!

Our new golden age of free speech, where opposition to immigration enforcement can trigger a federal investigation

For higher ed's next steps, "internal reform, improved communication, and better defense are inseparable parts of a whole." Kathryn Enke and I are @insidehighered.com, responding to @saracuster.insidehighered.com on higher ed's public trust problem. www.insidehighered.com/opinion/lett...

As someone who has been friends with @hcrichardson.bsky.social since before she was famous, I think this Nate Silver piece offers an interesting analysis of Democratic Party politics but misunderstands Heather and her appeal a bit. www.natesilver.net/p/what-is-he...

An outstanding @nytopinion.nytimes.com op-ed on homeschooling from @Stefan Merrill Block, which includes extensive coverage of the Coalition for Responsible Home Education and its work. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/14/o...

What a pleasure it was today to read a profile of my brilliant and generous friend @boddice.bsky.social in @theatlantic.com. Overall it's a great piece, and more people should understand the revolutionary potential of Rob's work. www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...

Hey authors! Check to see if Anthropic stole your book to train their slop generator on. You’re entitled to $1500 per stolen Work. Look up your work, and if you’re in the database, file a claim secure.anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com/lookup/

This is true but so maddening. The promise of social media was that you could make friends with people who didn't live near you or travel in your circles. Because social media companies have monetized sharing your thoughts with the world's worst trolls instead, that promise is gone.

Higher Education’s Compact with America: Shared Principles for the Common Good https://bit.ly/3WbZv8K

Great piece by @compact.org's Bobbie Laur in response to the other "Compact" being proffered to universities by the administration. compact.org/news/a-highe...

I enjoyed speaking with Juliet Schulman-Hall for @masslive.bsky.social about how the Professor Watchlist and Canary Mission get us farther from, not closer to, a free exchange of ideas on campus. www.masslive.com/news/2025/10...

“Surviving for a purpose means keeping the mission of an institution at the forefront of decision-making.” Read AAC&U's @jeremycyoung.bsky.social’s “Survive for a Purpose.” https://bit.ly/4h1cUtE #LibEdMag

We got some coverage for the new Advancing Public Trust initiative in @theeduledger.bsky.social (formerly Diverse)! www.theeduledger.com/leadership-p...

AAC&U Launches Initiative to Restore Public Trust in Higher Education: https://bit.ly/46JDLqN

And we're live! Announcing the launch of @aacu.org's new Advancing Public Trust in Higher Education (APT) initiative, which I co-lead with Kathryn Enke. You'll be hearing a lot more about APT in the coming months. www.aacu.org/newsroom/aac...

As colleges consider the "Compact," I write @aacu.org, "higher education leaders need to make hard choices that will allow their institutions to survive—but they must remember that their goal is to survive for a purpose, not merely to continue to exist." www.aacu.org/liberaleduca...

Our statement @aacu.org: "In renewing the call for constructive engagement, AAC&U also strongly opposes any alternative that would erode or eviscerate essential freedoms and promote instability."

I'm hiring! www.aacu.org/about/employ...

Enjoyed speaking with Gianna Jakubowski for this piece in the GW Hatchet! gwhatchet.com/2025/09/15/t...

When the Founding Fathers adopted the First Amendment, the censorship that kept them up at night was censorship or private citizens by the government. That's what they made unconstitutional. Not social pressure. Not social media pile-ons. Not hate speech. Censorship by the government.

I'm thrilled to welcome Tess Ulrey as @responsiblehs.bsky.social's newest Executive Director. As I said in the release, "Tess is an expert in helping nonprofits fulfill their potential…[her] proven record of accomplishment in youth development, advocacy, and fundraising makes her the ideal choice."

NEW: two recent polls show an uptick in popularity for higher ed. That says more about the "thermostatic effect" in politics than it does about colleges, I explain in @aacu.org's Liberal Education Online -- but it does give us an opening to make our case. www.aacu.org/liberaleduca...

Dreamed that Clint Hurdle added me to the Pittsburgh Pirates' roster even though I can't play baseball, because he valued my ideas and charisma. Team activities consisted of him calling the players together and imparting life lessons about equality and social justice, and he wanted my contributions

Scholars push back against Trump’s Smithsonian review. #HigherEd #AcademicSky www.forbes.com/sites/michae...

This is not an accurate description either of how science works or of how it is viewed by the administration. It's as if RFK Jr. doesn't exist. This every-man-for-himself panic just sets us further back. We must all hang together, or we will surely all hang separately.

In my first piece for @aacu.org's Liberal Education Online, I discuss an alarming feature of the DOJ's recent anti-DEI memo: targeting thought crimes like "proxies," "perceptions," and "intent," even when they don't involve actual differential treatment of students by identity group.