We share takeaways from our conversation about political interference on college campuses. And, our reporters explore the use of tablets in prison and growing economic divides out West.

The local view on the politicization of higher ed

Our reporters in Texas and Florida have been writing some of the biggest higher ed stories of the year as their public-university systems continue to sit at the center of prominent political agendas.

Among their steady drumbeat of stories, Divya Kumar and Ian Hodgson of the Tampa Bay Times detailed, for example, how Gov. Ron DeSantis’s push to rid higher ed of “woke” influences has begun to spur a faculty exodus. And in Texas, Kate McGee of the Texas Tribune broke major news when she revealed that Texas A&M University backed away from offering a tenured teaching job to Kathleen McElroy, a veteran Black journalist, amid political pressure.

The three of them talked with Colleen about what they’ve taken away from reporting on all of this turmoil and why it matters this week in an Open Campus webinar, Reporting at the Center of Higher Ed’s Political Battles. (You can watch the whole thing here, using this passcode: Mq7=9u9m.)

In Texas, Kate said, “conservative politicians who control the statehouse see higher ed as an easy target in these culture wars — and it’s an effective talking point with voters who distrust higher ed.”

That means that politicians aren’t afraid to reach into the classroom to make changes, she added. And that is forcing university leaders to thread a difficult needle: wanting to keep lawmakers happy, on one hand, and understanding that if they don’t do enough to protect academic freedom, on the other, that their universities’ reputations will take a hit on the national stage.

“It’s funny because this year a lot of Texans have been saying that we’ve been really trying to just keep up with Gov. DeSantis and what he’s been doing in Florida,” Kate said. “But Texas is a very big, powerful state, and they’re kind of a test case. What happens in our legislature really has a ripple effect across the country, and I think it’s a place to watch for what might be happening in other statehouses moving forward.”

In Florida, people have been questioning whether the governor’s anti-woke ideology amounts to anything more than political sloganeering. When you look at the political rhetoric, Ian said, it is true that some of the bills have been written vaguely and don’t always seem to clearly address a concrete policy issue.

But the rhetoric is having real impact. It’s affecting what teachers are teaching in the classroom, where students are deciding to go to school, and whether faculty members are staying or leaving the state.

“The impacts are wide, wide-ranging,” Ian said, “even in an atmosphere where there is so much ambiguity and so much uncertainty about what exactly woke or anti-woke means.”

— Sara Hebel

What it’s like to use tablets in prison

Corrections departments have pitched tablets as useful tools that can play a range of roles for people in prison — people inside can use them to complete coursework, communicate with family members, and watch movies. But according to people surveyed by Open Campus, the technology doesn’t live up to that promise. Charlotte West, our reporter covering prisons, dove in this week in a story we co-published with Future Tense.

User experience varies widely across states and systems. For Atif Rafay, in Washington state, his tablet lacks the option to copy-and-paste outside of his own messages. There’s no word processor or external keyboard. He spends about $130 a month on his tablet, mostly on phone calls. He’d pay to access more content if he could.

“I would pay $50 a month—or half of all I earn—for real education access,” he wrote in response to our survey. “It’s fine to charge money, but not when you are disabling our devices and preventing us from learning, writing, and working.”

Inside ‘Billionaire Wilderness’

The average per-capita income in Wyoming’s Teton County is now $318,291 — no other county in America passes $200,000. In Idaho’s Teton County, the average income is $34,714.

Nick Fouriezos, our reporter covering rural higher ed, explores this inequality in a story we co-published with USA Today this week. Employers, especially in the trades, need talent more than ever. But workers can’t find jobs that pay enough to cover their rapidly rising bills.

“And these trends have only become more pronounced since the pandemic, fueled in part by remote white-collar workers and others who brought with them an increase in housing demand without an increase in the local expertise to address it,” Nick writes.

Ira Koplow, who started the Chamber of Commerce in Teton County, Idaho, decades ago, summed it up when Nick visited this summer: “It used to be that you had great views, but no way to pay the bills. Now, I refer to it as the 3-or-3 rule: You can only afford to live here if you have three jobs or three houses.”

Presidential turnover and underfunding at HBCUs

Our reporting fellows in the HBCU Student Journalism Network began earlier this month, and each started with a Q&A as their first story assignment. We have two out this week — and more to come.

• From Tamilore Oshikanlu: Sydney Freeman, a University of Idaho professor who studies HBCU leadership, shares his perspective on the spurt of presidential turnover we’ve seen at historically Black colleges and universities over the last year.

  • “Stability is in jeopardy, especially in states like Florida, North Carolina, and Texas, where there is an attack on Black life, Black history, and how money will be allocated. If an HBCU doesn't have a president who has a strong vision and is leading them in navigating those challenges, it leaves the institution vulnerable.”

• From Tatyanna McCray: The Biden administration recently called attention to the vast and longstanding funding gap between HBCUs and predominantly white institutions. Tatyanna spoke to Morgan State University professor Steven Mobley to learn more. (This Q+A was co-published with Capital B!)

Elsewhere on Open Campus

From California: Dual-enrollment and adults over 30 are bolstering community college enrollment numbers, while students in their 20s aren’t returning.

That’s a big shift. For over a decade students between the ages of 20 and 30 made up most students on community college campuses, writes Adam Echelman at our partner CalMatters.

From Chicago: Chicago State University, Northern Illinois University, and Northeastern Illinois University have joined hundreds of colleges in committing to standardize financial aid offers so admitted students can easily decipher costs. Northwestern University, the University of Chicago, and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign didn’t sign on, WBEZ’s Lisa Philip found.

From Colorado: Colorado offers a range of options to help students pay for college. Jason Gonzales, our reporter at Chalkbeat Colorado, breaks them down.

From Mississippi: For the next five years, when Mississippi’s public universities seek to cover tuition with federal financial aid dollars, they will have to jump through extra hoops. That’s because the Department of Education placed the system on what’s known as heightened cash monitoring after it was late to submit its annual audit.

Typically, universities can draw down federal funds in advance. Now, the universities will have to provide extra documentation. The system’s governing board will also have to submit any new academic programs for a full review by its accreditor, as part of the sanction.

++ Mississippi’s state auditor is scrutinizing what he describes as “garbage” liberal arts degrees that don’t boost the economy. It’s not enough to simply let the market guide college students — the state should take funding away from programs that “aren’t economically beneficial to taxpayers,” Shad White told our reporter at Mississippi Today, Molly Minta.  

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