Part I. Higher Education and the State: How Politics are Reshaping America’s Great Universities

Thursday, January 30, 2025
4:00-5:30pm ET
Kleinman Center Energy Forum (Fisher Fine Arts Library, 4th Floor)
202 S. 34th St., Philadelphia

Over the past decade, both state and federal government actors have exerted increasing pressure and influence on higher education. They have threatened to withhold funding, and sometimes done so, to express their displeasure about some aspect of university operation—raising the possibility of cutting off federal funding to major research universities alleged to have violated Title VI is one recent example. They have sought to influence the hiring of faculty and the content of the curriculum, sometimes successfully. And they have, with help from the courts, significantly reshaped the demographic profile of the student population. This panel will explore the relationship between higher education and the state, especially current threats to the academy that could transform the future of higher education.

Welcome:
J. Larry Jameson, Interim President, University of Pennsylvania

Panelists:
Irene Mulvey, Past President, American Association of University Professors
Michael Roth, President, Wesleyan University
John Sexton, President Emeritus, New York University

Moderator:
Kathleen Hall Jamieson, Elizabeth Ware Packard Professor of Communication; Director, Annenberg Public Policy Center, University of Pennsylvania