Universities and Trump: Lessons and Needs for Reform

Nearly everything the Trump administration has brought to universities has been destructive, including policies that turn away the world's scientific talent from U.S. universities and discourage international scientific collaboration. The Trump administration's effort to turn universities away from research topics viewed by most of the world as vital to the survival of humankind—topics such as climate change—has diminished not only researchers and universities but also citizens. Crucial research topics cannot proceed without research funds and, historically, the funds for "Big Science" have come from partnership with the federal government. That partnership has been torn asunder. Nearly every Trump step toward university governance has been a step backward for universities and the United States.

 

What is easily overlooked in the current slash and burn of universities is the fact that universities do very much need reforms, just not the ones dished by the Trump administration. This presentation provides a critique of Trump-led university policies but then turns to this question: "What really needs reformation in U.S. universities and how might this happen? Is the dire set of Trump initiatives an opportunity or an incentive for addressing real problems? Probably not. However, as universities contemplate the post-Trump restoration, it is useful to finally give careful scrutiny to some of the accumulating problems that have occurred for years, including, among others, costs of higher education, apparent "return-on-investment," the limited attention in many instances to teaching obligations, the challenges of online learning, the bureaucratization of universities, the growth of ancillary university structures at the cost of core educational structures, and the walls erected between university faculty and university administrators. This presentation discusses these issues and other needed reforms—ones not requiring the intervention of the Trump administration.