HIGHER EDUCATION, LOWERING ITSELF.

The house organ for all wokeness, all the time, in higher education anticipates the second Trump presidency.  "We asked some of academia’s sharpest minds to identify their highest hope—and biggest worry—for the sector in the next four years. Their responses may surprise you."

It's a long essay, with numerous contributors, following a prologue of Wagnerian proportions.

And while Republicans are raring to reform higher ed, the sector limps into Trump Part II in a weakened state, scarred from plummeting trust in the value of a college education as well as scalding political rhetoric, congressional probes into campus antisemitism, state laws banning DEI programs and dictating curriculum changes, and the politicization of boards and presidencies—not to mention the imminent arrival of the long-dreaded demographic cliff.

It might sound like a grim state of affairs. But the priorities of the new administration and Congress—and how they might affect colleges and universities for both good and ill—are anybody’s guess at this point. So is their ability, or political will, to pass and implement sweeping reforms.

Not everyone is guessing, though. This is academia, after all—experts know things, or at least have highly educated guesses. So we asked a range of prominent leaders and scholars to identify their highest hope and greatest fear for the sector in the second Trump administration. No consensus emerges—again, after all, this is academia. But their collective insights shed some unexpected light on both the challenges and opportunities Trump's second four years may present.

Some of their fears might not surprise you. But some of their hopes probably will. The responses have been edited for clarity and concision.

Concision?  From academicians?  The horror!  Interestingly, there's not a single president or chancellor of an Ivy, let alone a state flagship university, in the lineup. Given how those Ivy presidents acquitted themselves, perhaps that's not so surprising.  Lots of diversity deanlets.  Lots of heads of lobbying organizations. Perhaps -- the format of Inside Higher Ed looking to be organized to advise managers -- that's not so surprising.  One black swan, Greg Lukianoff, who might be the first Insta Pundit contributor to have an opinion solicited by Inside Higher Ed.