Jack Stripling

Jack Stripling, an investigative reporter covering higher education for The Washington Post, was a senior writer at The Chronicle of Higher Education, where he often wrote about college leaders navigating crises, administrative palace intrigue, and the politics of the college presidency.

Jack started covering higher education in 2003 as a beat reporter for the Opelika-Auburn News, where he wrote about Auburn University. He later covered the University of Florida for The Gainesville Sun. Before joining The Chronicle, in 2011, Jack was a reporter for Inside Higher Ed.

The Education Writers Association has honored Jack on several occasions for his watchdog reporting on a number of issues, including college governance, plagiarism, and executive compensation. His favorite things to get in the mail are huge batches of public records and anonymous tips, preferably stuffed with secret documents.

Jack earned a bachelor’s degree in English with a creative-writing emphasis at Florida State University, which, years later, employed a collection agency to chase him down over unpaid parking tickets. He holds a master’s degree in literature from Auburn. He has also taught at the college level, as an adjunct professor of English at Santa Fe College, in Florida, and as a graduate teaching assistant at Auburn.