Christa Dutton

What I Cover

I write about many facets of academe, usually going where the headlines of the day or week take me. I’m especially curious about how colleges protect free speech, preserve academic freedom, and promote civic dialogue. I’ve also written about moments when politics and the academy collide, like a controversy around gender equity in college volleyball or how the presidential election tested colleges’ commitment to institutional neutrality.

My Background

I got my start in journalism at Wake Forest University when I joined the student newspaper, the Old Gold & Black. As a student journalist, I earned 2nd place for human-interest story of the year from the Associated Collegiate Press and was named a finalist for Reporter of the Year. I also earned the Bynum G. Shaw Prize from the Wake Forest journalism department for outstanding work at a campus publication.

I joined The Chronicle in 2024 as a Reporting Fellow. Prior to that, I interned at the Triad Business Journal, covering the restaurant and retail industry in North Carolina’s Piedmont Triad region. I earned a bachelor’s degree in English from Wake Forest University.

Connect

You can email me at christa.dutton@chronicle.com or follow me on social media:

X: @christa_dutton
Bluesky: christadutton.bsky.social
Linkedin: christa-dutton

Highlights

Austin Smith is a poetry instructor protesting a shift in Stanford University’s Creative Writing Program, which will cycle Jones lecturers out instead of the previous practice of renewing their contracts annually. He is photographed at Mariposa House, which houses the program.

The Workplace

At Stanford, a Change to Creative Writing Feels Personal

By Christa Dutton October 28, 2024

Vector illustration depicting two hands with visible suit sleeves hitting a white ball bearing the transgender symbol over a volleyball net.

'A Flash Point'

The Controversy Roiling College Volleyball Just Keeps Growing

By Christa Dutton November 20, 2024

illustration of different colored speech bubbles

'Dialogue Is a Skill'

Can You Teach Free Speech? These Colleges Are Trying.

By Christa Dutton September 3, 2024

Recent Stories

Illustration of a steamroller rolling over a colorful road and leaving gray asphalt in its wake.

Dismantling of DEI

Tracking Higher Ed’s Dismantling of DEI

By Erin Gretzinger, Maggie Hicks, Christa Dutton, and others May 9, 2025

We’ve documented actions taken on hundreds of college campuses to alter or eliminate jobs, offices, hiring practices, and programs amid pressure to end identity-conscious recruitment and retention of minority staff and students.

New York City police arrested dozens of Pro-Palestinian protesters on Columbia University on Wednesday evening after they took over part of a central library in New York, USA on May 7, 2025.

'A Different Playbook'

Facing New Protests and Political Pressure, Colleges Are Taking a Harder Line

By Christa Dutton May 8, 2025

Pro-Palestinian demonstrations in the past several days have led to more than 100 arrests, as well as suspensions for violating colleges’ policies and protest restrictions.

Presidents Jeffrey Armstrong (Cal Poly SLO), Wendy Raymond (Haverford College), and Robert Manuel (DePaul University).

On Capitol Hill

5 Key Moments From Another Congressional Grilling of College Leaders

By Christa Dutton, Alissa Gary May 7, 2025

The hearing featured attempts at contrition, testy exchanges, and a brief discussion of donuts.

Indiana University professor Ben Robinson talks at during a "Day of Action" press conference on April 17.

Teaching Under Scrutiny

Indiana Required Colleges to Accept Complaints Against Instructors. Here’s How Many They Got.

By Christa Dutton May 1, 2025

Less than two dozen complaints were submitted in the six months after a controversial law was enacted last year. But its influence has been felt in other ways.

Indiana Gov. Mike Braun at the Evansville Vanderburgh Public Library Central in Downtown Evansville, Ind., Friday, Feb. 7, 2025.

Law & Policy

In Indiana, Last-Minute Additions to the Budget Take Aim at Higher Ed

By Christa Dutton April 29, 2025

The budget bill, expected to become law, adds productivity standards to post-tenure review, targets low-enrollment programs, and defines faculty senates as “advisory only.”

Photo illustration of a tree growing out of a book, with bubbles suggesting thought and ideas

Curriculum Decree

Utah Lawmakers Mandate a University Refocus Gen-Ed Courses on Civics and Viewpoint Diversity

By Christa Dutton March 27, 2025

A new law directs Utah State to overhaul its curriculum to highlight the Western canon and civil discourse. It’s part of a pilot program legislators want to expand to more campuses.

Protestors gather outside the Department of Education headquarters in Washington, D.C., on March 14, 2025 to protest the Trump administration's cuts at the agency. Michael Theis, The Chronicle.

Mass Layoffs

‘I Want to Stand Up for Higher Ed’: Protesters Rally Against Education Dept. Cuts

By Christa Dutton March 14, 2025

As demonstrators gathered in Washington, D.C., researchers met across town to discuss the toll that drastic reductions at the agency would have on their work.

Students held a rally to protect DEI on Friday at the University of Louisville.

Swift shifts

In Trump’s First Weeks, Dozens of Colleges Have Shut Down DEI Efforts

By Christa Dutton March 5, 2025

The president has aggressively targeted campus diversity initiatives. Many institutions have made changes.

BLOOMINGTON, INDIANA - FEBRUARY 25: David McDonald, Associate Professor, Folklore and Ethnomusicology, at Indiana University on Tuesday, February 25, 2025. “Since 2000, McDonald has worked closely with Palestinian refugee communities dispersed throughout Israel, Jordan and the Occupied Territories,” according his bio page at IU. (Photo by Jeremy Hogan for The Chronicle)

“A new Indiana law requires campuses to come up with a system through which professors may be denied tenure or disciplined if they do not foster a climate of intellectual diversity in their classrooms, or if they make remarks outside of their areas of expertise. Several professors say they've made subtle changes to their teaching in response to this, out of a fear they'll be reported by students.”

Academic Freedom

How One State’s ‘Intellectual Diversity’ Law Has Changed Professors’ Teaching

By Christa Dutton March 5, 2025

Public colleges in Indiana are now required to make rules for disciplining faculty who don’t promote free expression. Instructors across the state say they’ve gotten the message.