As we were compiling this newsletter, our nation's campuses have been engulfed with protests, encampments, and police actions to shut these down. We will discuss this issue in our next communication.

As we come to the end of this academic year, I am struck by the growing salience of higher education issues in American politics. Whether we are talking about antisemitism or Islamophobia on our campuses, President Biden’s efforts to forgive student debt, the future of DEI, or the impact of the Supreme Court decision to ban affirmative action in college admissions, the Ivory Tower has come under uniquely intense scrutiny. 

And though the political parties are far apart on so many issues facing our sector, we in this project remain committed to hosting dialogues with a wide range of viewpoints and perspectives. It is also worth noting that there are in fact higher education efforts that can bring otherwise diverging political viewpoints together. Two areas where this is the case include the growing movement to ban legacy admissions (as has been codified by many states) as well as a renewed sense — across the political spectrum — that reinvigorating undergraduate teaching is a goal worth pursuing.

I have also become increasingly convinced that we are able to both state our own very clear views on these important issues — as I recently did at an alumni event here at Duke — and to foster conversations with those who agree as well as disagree with us. My views on these issues are public and very clear: I fear the intrusions of right wing populists and the threats they entail to universities’ missions and roles in upholding liberal democracy. And still, I want to include, talk to, and learn from those who believe — unlike me — that these intrusions will indeed save American higher education and that there are greater threats coming from what some call the intolerant left.

When we reach out again in the fall, we will be only months away from an election that will do much to determine the future of American higher education. Our project is committed to keeping you informed about debates and developments in this area and to remaining open to hearing from you on these important issues.

Eric Mlyn

Lecturer, Sanford School of Public Policy

Distinguished Faculty Fellow, Kenan Institute for Ethics

Director, Project on Democracy and Higher Education

We are seeking your feedback on our project.

How do you engage with Democracy and the Politics of American Higher Education? What would you like to see from us in the future?

Political conservatives are gearing up for a potential Republican administration. The 2025 Presidential Transition Project, also known as Project 2025, is the agenda published by the Heritage Foundation that outlines its goals for the first 180 days of the next conservative administration.

Project 2025 is a collective effort from a broad coalition of more than 100 conservative organizations united under the goals of reinvigorating the conservative movement and efficiently fighting Left ‘woke’ culture. The proposed policies warn against the “destructive Left,” including language like “undoing the damage the Left has wrought” and “rescu[ing] the country from the grip of the radical Left.”

The project identifies four essential pillars: “a policy agenda, personnel, training, and a 180-day playbook.” 

The nearly 900-page policy document includes 45 pages of proposals focused on reforming education. The section proposes dramatic changes to higher ed altogether in its first line: “federal education policy should be limited and, ultimately, the federal Department of Education should be eliminated.”

Concrete proposals include:

The project has also curated a “Presidential Personnel Database” for candidates seeking positions in the new administration, as well as a “Presidential Administration Academy” to train political appointees, including online classes, in-person training, and full certificate programs.

Through Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation has the potential to powerfully impact the 2025 higher education policy landscape, as it has in the past: during his first term, Former President Trump embraced approximately 64% of the Heritage Foundation’s policy recommendations in “Mandate for Leadership” within one year in office.

Amiya Mehrotra

Duke University Class of 2024

As Duke University celebrates its centennial year, Durham City Council Member Nate Baker has called for Duke and its health system to make direct voluntary payments to Durham in lieu of property taxes. Most universities, public and private alike, enjoy tax-exempt status because of their educational and civic purposes. However, some argue that universities owe more to the cities, towns, and communities of which they are part. 

Whether universities deserve to be tax-exempt is one rare point on which some on the Right and on the Left alike share skepticism. The Left and Right perspectives, however, still differ greatly. Former President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to end tax exemptions specifically for schools he deems “left-leaning.” Generally when criticizing higher ed tax exemptions, the Right invokes universities’ “political agendas” whereas the Left invokes universities as “engines of inequality.” Both criticize exorbitant tuition. 

Voluntary payments are not taxes, and supporting voluntary payments requires no particular stance on universities’ tax exemptions. Voluntary payments are, however, one way that universities can contribute to the communities around them — especially when they do not pay taxes. This is why these voluntary payments are known as PILOTs: Payments In Lieu Of Taxes. 

Council member Nate Baker’s call asks Duke to join the many peer institutions that contribute PILOTs, such as Penn ($10 million a year for 10 years to address environmental hazards in Philadelphia’s public schools), Princeton ($28.2 million in unrestricted funds to the Municipality of Princeton plus additional payments for specified projects), and Yale ($135 million to the City of New Haven over a six-year period). We will continue to follow and report on this issue.

Jac Arnade-Colwill

Program Coordinator

“Resistance from the Right: Conservatives and the Campus Wars in Modern America” (UNC Press, 2023)

Lauren Lassabe Shepherd

As this project turns its attention to battles at the federal level over the politics of American higher education, Shepherd’s book is an important reminder that the right’s concerns did not begin with Chris Rufo or Ron DeSantis. Even more importantly, the story Shepherd tells resonates today. Its account of what was a very public and transparent attempt to dislodge a stated liberal takeover of universities in the late 60s and early 70s sounds very familiar.

“[T]he history that follows is not of a vast right-wing conspiracy...[R]ather it is about the overt development of a broad network of men and institutions committed to restoring the United States to a preexisting — even imagined — time when plutocratic white Christians dominated the educational, political, and cultural sphere.” 

As this project turns focus to what right wing actors might do if they take the White House in 2024, their work, too, is not best framed as a conspiracy but rather as a well-planned policy agenda, easily accessible on the websites of think tanks like the Heritage Foundation, the Manhattan Institute, and the Goldwater Institute.  

Shepherd reminds us that “[c]onservatives’ ability to gain power over the academy, implement the Right’s favored restraints, and punish those who threaten their minoritarian capacity is not a recent phenomenon but part of a longer iterative process. The Right has developed, refined and expanded these strategies through sixty years of practice.”

Duke in the News:

Op-Ed: On Its Centennial, It’s Time for Duke University to Strengthen Its Partnership With Durham Through Direct Payments in Lieu of Taxes (INDY Week, 4/17/24)

Federal Legislation:

House Panel Advances Anti-‘Political Litmus Test’ Bills (Inside Higher Ed, 3/22/24)

Federal discrimination complaints continued upswing in 2023 with no signs of slowing (K-12 Dive, 2/22/24)

Leadership in the News:

Columbia's President Tells Congress That Action is Needed Against Antisemitism (The New York Times, 4/17/24) 

Cease-Fire Now: Michael S. Roth pushes back against calls for college leaders to stay silent (Inside Higher Ed, 3/25/24)

The Future of DEI:

Twice as Good: DEI Backlash at Duke University and What It Means for Black Scholars (URL Media, 4/26/24)

Motion to vote on UNC System DEI policy change approved by BOG committee (The Daily Tar Heel, 4/17/24)

Are DEI Office Name Changes Enough? (Inside Higher Ed, 4/10/24)

The State That’s Trying to Rein in DEI Without Becoming Florida (The Atlantic, 3/31/24)

S.C. House Bill Says Colleges Can’t Request DEI Statements (Inside Higher Ed, 3/29/24)

As Alabama Republicans Target DEI, They Propose ‘Gag Order’ on Professors (Inside Higher Ed, 3/1/24)

Protest, Dissent, and Action: 

Columbia President Accused of Dishonest Testimony, Throwing Professors ‘Under the Bus’ (Inside Higher Ed, 4/19/24) 

Columbia Told Congress It Would Crack Down on Student Protests. Now It Has. (The Chronicle of Higher Education, 4/18/24)

On National ‘Day of Action for Higher Ed,’ Some Rally, Others Strike (Inside Higher Ed, 4/18/24) 

Open Letter from Jewish Faculty to Columbia University President Minouche Shafik (Academe, 4/15/24) 

At Berkeley, a Protest at a Dean’s Home Tests the Limits of Free Speech (The New York Times, 4/12/24) 

Other Education and Democracy in the News:

Lost ‘Fight to Prevent State Overreach’ at Tennessee State: The historically Black university’s Board of Trustees has been replaced by the governor’s picks (Inside Higher Ed, 4/9/24)

U. of Southern California Cancels Valedictorian’s Speech Over Safety. But Critics Call It Censorship. (Chronicle of Higher Education, 4/16/24)

May 7, 2024,  2:30 pm–3:30 pm (virtual): James Martin Center for Academic Renewal hosts A Critique of Anti-Racism in Rhetoric and Composition: An Education Book Webinar with Erec Smith.

June 13–16, 2024 (in person): The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) hosts 2024 AAUP Conference and Biennial Meeting.

Duke Law Campus Speech Database, First Amendment Clinic

Duke Law’s Campus Speech Database, run by the First Amendment Clinic, tracks speech issues on U.S. campuses. It seeks to provide a comprehensive overview of such speech issues and offers a form to report new incidents.

DEI Legislation Tracker — Chronicle of Higher Education 

The Chronicle tracks legislation related to DEI offices, staff, and procedures in higher education. They are currently tracking 81 bills in 28 states and the US Congress.

Recording: Coalition for Carolina Webinar Featuring Interim Chancellor Lee Roberts

On March 20, the Coalition for Carolina, a “nonpartisan group of concerned alumni, faculty, staff, students, and allies of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill” spoke with interim UNC Chapel Hill Chancellor Lee Roberts. 

Democracy and the Politics of American Higher Education gathers faculty, administrators, and members of the public to reflect on how the university should respond to ongoing threats towards democratic values and principles. We critically examine the current political debates surrounding higher education to identify areas for intervention. We also embrace a view of the university as a place where different ideas come together, and we seek to promote democracy on our campuses while remaining non-partisan and engaging a diverse range of viewpoints.

Democracy and the Politics of American Higher Education is a project at the Kenan Institute for Ethics.

Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University
Box 90432
102 West Duke Building
Durham, NC 27708