By Josh Moody
The talk at the annual Middle States Commission on Higher Education conference last week centered on the changes coming to higher education as President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House in January.
But exactly what those changes will look like remains a matter of pure speculation, given how disconnected Trumpâs rhetoric often is from the realities of his policies. Before an audience of college leaders, accreditation liaisons and commission members, speakers pondered whether Republicans can enact Trumpâs sweeping higher education agenda amid regular GOP infighting, competing policy priorities and looming midterm elections.
Trumpâs pledge to reshape higher education has often focused on accreditation. He has threatened to fire accreditors or force them to drop diversity, equity and inclusion from their standards, and vowed to open up the marketplace for new accrediting bodies. Whether he canâand how he would go about itâremains unclear.
But it gave the participants at last weekâs MSCHE conference plenty to discuss. Hereâs a look at what transpired:
Previewing the Trump Agenda
At an early breakfast on Thursday, Vic Klatt, a principal at Penn Hill Group, a lobbying and consulting firm, offered a group of presidents and provosts a glimpse of the year ahead.
The people driving education policy are changing, he noted, pointing to the end of an era on the House Committee on Education and the Workforce as Chair Virginia Foxx, a North Carolina Republican, steps down. Klatt notedâbefore the pick was made official later that dayâthat Michigan Republican Tim Walberg was one of two candidates proposed to fill Foxxâs seat on the committee.
âThe fact that sheâs not there is a big deal,â Klatt said, adding that Walberg âhasnât cut a big pathâ on education policy but âheâs very familiar with the issuesâ and âan interesting choice.â
Another big personnel change is Linda McMahon, whom Trump nominated to be secretary of the Department of Education, Klatt said. He pointed out that she has long-standing ties to the president-elect given her role as head of the Small Business Administration during his first term, as well as her work on his transition team.
Klatt also cited McMahonâs time as a top executive in WWE from the 1980s through 2009, noting she would bring management experience that could be useful to a department beset by management issues. Specifically, Klatt pointed to the bungled rollout of the simplified Free Application for Federal Student Aid form, which he referred to as âthe FAFSA screwups,â as an example of management issues.
âThe education world, in my view, could have done a lot worse,â Klatt said about McMahon.
He also focused on politics, process and policy, noting that Trumpâs policy aims have been vague but bold. Some proposalsâsuch as eliminating the Department of Educationâseem unlikely, he said. Such a move would be a massive undertaking that would require the legislative support of Democrats, given the narrow Republican majorities in Congress.
Klatt argued that Trumpâs threats to undo DEI might be similarly hard to carry out. While he expects âan executive order or something to that effect to come out very earlyâ in Trumpâs second term, it remains unclear how the Department of Education might act on such a demand.
âThe Education Department is going to run into several complications,â including the lack of a consensus on what constitutes DEI, which will require ED to craft a clear definition, he said.
While he expects Trumpâs rhetoric to align more closely with policy in his second administration than it did in his first, Klatt said one key question for him is âCan Republicans govern?â Though the GOP has control of the House, the Senate and the executive branch, Klatt said he wouldnât be surprised to see challenges due to infighting and the possible reluctance of some incumbents to make politically risky moves with midterms around the corner.
But for all the uncertainty around the incoming administrationâs impact on higher ed, Klatt said he thought it was clear that Trump would roll back a number of regulations, likely striking down the Biden administrationâs Title IX regulations and student loan relief efforts.
A Candid Conversation With College Presidents
At a conference session moderated by Inside Higher Ed, three presidents fielded questions on such topics as federal policy, college financial issues and the role of accreditor oversight.
Asked about Trumpâs threat to fire accreditors, Jonathan Peri, president of Manor College and a MSCHE commissioner, was skeptical that the president-elect could deliver on that promise.
âThatâs going to require an act of Congress,â Peri said, noting that tight margins will make it difficult for Trump to dump accreditors or launch new accrediting bodies.
Inside Higher Ed also asked the panel of presidents about Trumpâs threat of mass deportation for undocumented immigrants and what effect that might have on their students and community.
Washington & Jefferson College president Elizabeth MacLeod Walls said that while the issue largely âdoes not affect [our] student population as it is today,â she worries about studentsâ families and the surrounding communities. She said her focus is not on âanticipating any particular policy change from the Trump administrationâ but rather on being ready to support students.
Randy VanWagoner, president of Mohawk Valley Community College in Utica, N.Y., expressed concerns about how such threats might be perceived by the large refugee population in his area, who go through a rigorous immigration process. He worried about the âthe potential for them to be lumped into undocumented migrants and immigrantsâ and also face threats of deportation.
Panelists also fielded a question about whether Pennsylvaniaâwhich faces grim demographics âhas too many colleges and whether some should close. (Four Pennsylvania colleges announced closures this year, the most of any state, while others merged.)
âMy perspective here is that the issue isnât too many institutions; itâs what is preventing students from being able to access or achieve college?â Peri said, noting cost concerns as one factor. Peri also emphasized the need for colleges to grow auxiliary revenues to stabilize their finances.
One Pennsylvania institution that closed abruptly this year was University of the Arts, located minutes away from where the MSCHE conference took place in downtown Philadelphia. That closure was brought on by mysterious financial issues that have not been fully explained.
Asked if accreditors were doing enough to detect financial issues early, Peri suggested that âthe relationships that our institutions have with our accreditors are ones of synergy and strong communication, and what weâve seen in the press are the outliersââtroubled colleges marked by a âprecipitous drop-offâ in enrollment and a lack of âeffective communicationâ from administrators. He added that MSCHE is always working to improve communication with colleges as it updates processes.
MacLeod Walls said accreditors appear to be paying more attention than ever. But she noted that sometimes accreditors canât keep up with events; while colleges regularly provide financial data, it can be hard for accreditors to account for unexpected fiscal issues that arise suddenly and deal severe, or fatal, blows to institutions.
âVery often, financial stress that leads to closure happens very quickly. Itâs cumulative, and it doesnât take people by surprise, but one bad financial move by an institution thatâs already suffering can lead very quickly to having to make really tough decisions,â MacLeod Walls said.
Ending the session on a positive note, the presidents discussed what gave them hope. MacLeod Walls and Peri both answered students, noting their creativity and the thrill of seeing them grow as people. They cited examples of character and sportsmanship from student athletes.
VanWagoner expanded that notion to the workers who keep colleges running.
âWhile our students provide us inspiration, itâs the adaptability of our faculty and staff that I have witnessed over the last 10 years in particular that gives me hope,â he said.