Texas A&M Chancellor John Sharp has built an empire in College Station. And, relief from student loan payments meant one man could afford to start a family.

‘If it’s not Sharp, then who would it be?’

John Sharp — who has led the Texas A&M University system for over a decade — is the longest-serving chancellor since the system was created in 1948. His staying power, Kate McGee writes for our partner the Texas Tribune, stems from his ability to balance the demands of the state legislature and the needs of faculty. Political maneuvering is necessary for longevity in the role — and Sharp’s a pro.

“When he walks into the Capitol and says, ‘If you give us this money, we’re gonna go build this thing for you,’ I think people go, ‘Okay, how much do you want?’” said Nim Kidd, head of the Texas Division of Emergency Management, a state agency that coordinates the state’s disaster response.

Sharp’s contract runs through 2028. And, he has goals left to achieve: improve the medical school, grow the research campus into a national laboratory.

But Sharp isn’t immune to the state’s political headwinds. He was involved in the decision to suspend a professor who allegedly criticized the lieutenant governor. And complaints persist that the system hasn’t tried hard enough to increase student diversity. Black students represent 3% of student enrollment at the flagship compared to 13% of the Texas population.

Still, few people seem to want him to leave, Kate found.

“If it’s not Sharp, then who would it be?” asked Erica Davis Rouse, a 1995 graduate of the university and current president of the Black Former Student Network. “Because we could go further backwards than we already are.”

++ I talked with Kate, Divya Kumar, and Ian Hodgson last month about political influence on college campuses. Watch our conversation here using passcode Mq7=9u9m.

Growing a family during the student-loan payment pause

For Andrew Palomo — who owes $186,000 in student loan debt — the three-year payment pause was life-changing. He put the money he would have spent paying down that debt toward the costs of adopting a child.

He and his husband adopted their daughter Teresa in early 2022. Read more from Lisa Philip at our partner WBEZ Chicago.

For Palomo and scores of others, the stress of making those payments is back.

“How does this figure into … what’s going on in my current life, like paying for daycare,” said Palomo, the anxiety rising in his voice. “Everything is costing more, so you’re constantly trying to juggle. It’s almost like I can’t get my head above water.”

++ Lisa wrote a great student-loan explainer answering reader questions about interest, student loan servicers, and tax impacts.

Local reporter summit in D.C.

Last month, we celebrated an exciting first at Open Campus: We brought our Local Reporting Network together in-person. This has been a goal of ours since Scott and Sara started Open Campus in 2019.

Eight of our reporters were able to join us in D.C.. We spent two days together brainstorming story ideas, talking about the higher ed landscape and the role of colleges in their communities, and planning for the months ahead.

Abigail Seldin, one of our board members, held a reception for the Local Network — it was a great night of conversations with higher ed policymakers, experts, board members, and friends of Open Campus.

++ We’re hiring a higher ed reporter in Indiana, who will work with us as part of our partnership with the Indiana Local News Initiative. The initiative is a new nonprofit newsroom aiming to fill gaps in local coverage. We’ll work with this reporter to tell stories of Indianapolis’s colleges and universities. Learn more and apply here.

Elsewhere on Open Campus

From Pittsburgh: Current and former faculty members at Chatham University described a messy financial system to Emma Folts, our reporter at PublicSource. Some manage program budgets using only Excel spreadsheets. Others say administrators have shared conflicting information about budgets. They described it as “god-awful” and “always an adventure.”

Faculty are reflecting on the messiness amid a broader budgetary reckoning: The University faces a $6 million deficit it attributes to declining graduate enrollment, rising costs, and an aging financial reporting infrastructure.

The university’s auditor hasn’t found “material weaknesses” in its internal financial reporting mechanisms, according to 10 fiscal years’ worth of audited financial statements. Still, accounting experts say using Excel spreadsheets to manage funds could reflect a poorly managed system.

“I don’t think ‘chaotic’ is something anyone would want as a descriptor of an accounting system,” said Brian Mittendorf, a professor at The Ohio State University specializing in nonprofit accounting.

From California: Every year, about 120,000 students across California lose their financial aid because they can’t meet academic requirements, writes Adam Echelman at our partner CalMatters. A bill awaiting a signature from Gov. Gavin Newsom could change that by loosening extra-strict requirements at some institutions.

“The goal is for students to graduate,” said Marc Berman, the Palo Alto Democrat who co-sponsored the measure with Corona Democrat Sabrina Cervantes.

From Florida: Trustees at Sarasota’s New College tapped Richard Corcoran to be its permanent president, after serving in an interim role since January.

Corcoran took over at New College in January as part of Gov. Ron DeSantis’s broader overhaul.

In addition to ousting the college’s former president, this year trustees voted to eliminate the women and gender studies program, denied faculty tenure without explanation, and scrapped the department focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. A third of faculty have departed in recent months, writes our reporter Divya Kumar at the Tampa Bay Times.

Corcoran’s selection won’t be official until the Board of Governors weigh in next month.

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