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Brendan Cantwell

Brendan Cantwell is a professor of higher, adult, and lifelong education at Michigan State University.

Stories by This Author

illustration of brambles and thorns overcoming a university building
The Review | Essay
Higher Ed Is Trapped in Trump’s Chaos
By Brendan Cantwell February 4, 2025
Here’s how the sector can find its footing.
INDIANA, PENNSYLVANIA - SEPTEMBER 23: Republican presidential nominee, former U.S. President Donald Trump, pumps his fist as he finishes speaking at a campaign rally at the Ed Fry Arena September 23, 2024 in Indiana, Pennsylvania. Trump is campaigning throughout western Pennsylvania today.
The Review | Opinion
A Second Trump Term Could Devastate Higher Ed
By Brendan Cantwell October 31, 2024
Trump’s first term landed a glancing blow. A second could yield a direct hit.
illustration showing contradictory views of higher ed; top part is rosy and aspirational; bottom part is stoic and traditional
The Review | Essay
The Left’s Contradictory Goals for Higher Ed
By Brendan Cantwell January 24, 2024
It’s time to acknowledge that progressive aims are in conflict.
Illustration showing red tentacles invading a classroom through open windows
The Review | Opinion
The Right-Wing Attempt to Control Higher Ed
By Brendan Cantwell, Barrett J. Taylor October 10, 2022
Demolishing independent expertise is a central goal of the Republican Party.
Golden Cosmos for The Chronicle
The Review | Opinion
Against Social-Mobility Rankings
By Brendan Cantwell February 9, 2022
They tell a simple story: Harvard is bad, CUNY and Cal State are good. It’s not that straightforward.
partisan-divide-full-bleed.jpg
The Review
The Culture War Has Come for Higher Ed
By Brendan Cantwell July 12, 2021
Now is the time for academic leaders to fight.
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The Review
The ‘Flagship’ Folly
By Brendan Cantwell, W. Carson Byrd April 28, 2021
The nautical metaphor is a shoddy classifier of colleges — but a clear signal of higher ed’s obsession with status.
It’s Time for Radical Reorganization 1
The Review
It’s Time for Radical Reorganization
By Brendan Cantwell, Barrett J. Taylor April 15, 2020
Crises spur intense competition among colleges. There’s a better way.