Jack Stripling

What I Cover

In my role as host of our podcast, College Matters from The Chronicle, my job is to be insatiably curious. Whether I’m talking with colleagues about their reporting or interviewing newsmakers, my goal is to get at something deeper beneath the story: What does the latest faculty kerfuffle tell us about the modern workplace? How does today’s version of campus unrest reflect generational change? And what’s really going to happen if the robots take over?

The mandate of our podcast is to better understand the world through the lens of higher education, and that’s what guides my work each week. While there are myriad issues we could explore, I’m on the lookout for topics that speak to the human condition and reflect the particularities of our times. I’m attracted to stories with tension, drama, and high stakes.

My Background

I got my start covering higher education in 2003 as a beat reporter for the Opelika-Auburn News, where I wrote about Auburn University. Since then, I have written for The Gainesville Sun, where I covered the University of Florida; Inside Higher Ed; and The Washington Post, where I was an investigative reporter covering higher education.

I joined The Chronicle in 2011 as a reporter covering college leadership. My reporting has often focused on institutional crises, administrative palace intrigue, and the politics of the college presidency.

The Education Writers Association has honored my watchdog reporting on a number of issues, including college governance, plagiarism, and executive compensation. My favorite things to receive are huge batches of public records; secret documents; and emails that begin, “I probably shouldn’t be telling you this …”

I 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 me down over unpaid parking tickets. I hold a master’s degree in literature from Auburn. I have 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.