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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

Photo-based illustration of a hedges shaped like dollar signs in various degrees of having been over-trimmed by a shadowed Donald Trump figure carrying hedge trimmers.
The Review | Essay
What Will Be Left of Higher Ed in Four Years?
By Brendan Cantwell June 18, 2025
The Trump administration’s moves are impoverishing the sector.
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.