Emma Pettit
Emma Pettit is a senior reporter who covers faculty issues and higher-education oddities for The Chronicle of Higher Education. She loves people-driven narratives and falling down rabbit holes. Before joining The Chronicle in 2018, she reported on county government and breaking news for The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, based in Little Rock, Ark. She won several feature-writing awards there and was named the 2017 Outstanding New Journalist, presented by the Arkansas Pro Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.
Born in Nebraska and raised in Colorado, Emma attended Villanova University. She studied English and political science while she was an athlete on the varsity volleyball team. She is a writer because of her father, who would ask her to come up with metaphors for the moon during early morning drives.
When she’s not reporting on departmental drama, she can be found goofing around on Twitter, where she spends too much time. Follow her at @EmmaJanePettit, or email her at emma.pettit@chronicle.com.
Stories by this Author
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The Curriculum WarsHow a Center for Civic Education Became a Political Provocation
Behind the scenes of a controversial effort to combat “uniformity” at the University of Florida. -
Statewide Shake-Up
DeSantis’s Higher-Ed Push Just Got Bigger. Fresh Resistance Is Starting to Bubble Up.
Florida’s governor announced a slate of proposed “reforms” that would encroach on campuses’ autonomy. -
Erasing 'Trendy Ideology'
What Is Happening in Florida?
Demands for diversity data, a governing-board overhaul, and a pledge to strip “trendy ideology” from higher ed. Is Ron DeSantis just getting started? -
Sunshine Budgeting
DeSantis Asked Florida Universities to Detail Their Diversity Spending. Here’s How They Answered.
The amounts the state’s public universities reported spending on diversity and critical race theory came out to 1 percent or less of their overall budgets. -
Leadership
A Human-Rights Leader Was Denied a Harvard Post Over Alleged ‘Anti-Israel Bias.’ Now a Dean Faces Calls to Resign.
Faculty members and free-speech organizations have condemned the decision as an assault on academic freedom. -
Politics in Higher Ed
A Florida University Is Quickly Assembling a List of Courses on Diversity. Why? DeSantis Asked.
The move is likely to heighten fears among advocates of academic freedom in the state who worry that the governor is bent on curtailing professors’ speech in the classroom. -
Leadership
Colorado State Paid Ex-President Nearly $1.6 Million to Leave. Her Likely Replacement Is Raising Eyebrows.
The sole finalist for the job is Amy Parsons, previously a Colorado State lawyer and administrator. Some faculty members have questions. -
Higher Ed Under Fire
‘Private Little Hell’
A Florida committee once hunted for gay people in its universities. Sixty years later, the effects linger. -
Higher Ed Under Fire
What a 1960s Housewife Can Teach Us About Politics in Higher Ed
Decades later, the boundaries of academic freedom are still not settled. -
Higher Ed Under Fire
When Lawmakers Purged ‘Immorality’ From Florida Universities
State intrusion in higher ed is nothing new.
