Zachary Schermele

Zach Schermele is a reporting intern at The Chronicle who is interested in covering college leadership, finances, and fundraising.

Schermele recently graduated from Columbia University with a degree in political science. He previously worked as a reporting intern for Politico New York, where he covered City Hall. Prior to that, he covered LGBTQ news for NBCNews.com. He has also worked as an intern at NBC News Now and MSNBC, and before that he was a reporter for the Montana Television Network. Schermele was an editor at the Columbia Daily Spectator and started out in journalism as Teen Vogue’s education columnist.

Follow him on Twitter @ZachSchermele, or send him an email at zachary.schermele@chronicle.com.

Stories by This Author

NC Highway Patrol at UNC-Chapel Hill after a shooting of a faculty member. August 28, 2023.

'Beloved Colleague and Mentor'

Fatal Shooting of Chapel Hill Professor Sends Campus Into Disarray

By Zachary Schermele August 29, 2023

A professor was shot and killed, allegedly by a graduate student, the police said, bringing waves of panic and grief to the North Carolina flagship.

Breaking Up Is Hard to Do

Is #AcademicTwitter Over?

By Zachary Schermele August 28, 2023

The once-popular, ever-controversial website is imploding, critics say. What, if anything, does higher ed stand to lose?

Photo illustration of Paul Crenshaw as a trptych in hues of yellow and green

A Dreaded Phone Call

A College Gave This Adjunct 3 Classes to Teach. Then It Forgot to Tell Him.

By Zachary Schermele August 21, 2023

Paul Crenshaw’s experience, which went viral online, was the stuff of nightmares — at least for higher ed.

New College of Florida students and supporters protest ahead of a meeting by the college's board of trustees, Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2023, in Sarasota, Fla. (Rebecca Blackwell, AP)

Academic Freedom

Florida’s DEI Ban Censors Classroom Instruction, Lawsuit Says

By Zachary Schermele August 15, 2023

Faculty members and students at New College of Florida are suing the state over its restrictions on diversity spending and gen-ed instruction at public colleges.

illustration of protest hands speech bubbles and flames on a campus

'Collective Action'

College Presidents Are Planning ‘Urgent Action’ to Defend Free Speech

By Zachary Schermele August 15, 2023

The effort by the leaders of 13 colleges, most of them private, is the latest example of an increasingly forceful defense of free-speech principles.

illustration of book with multicolored text that has been redacted, with bookmark of a gavel overlaid

Faculty Hiring

Diversity Statements Get the Ax at Arizona’s Public Universities

By Zachary Schermele August 9, 2023

A spokesperson for Arizona State University told The Chronicle that the campus had begun carrying out the change last spring.

Photo-illustration of a collage of texts over a photo of the Texas A&M University campus

Foes Were 'Gunning for Her'

Who Had a Say in Derailing Texas A&M’s Hiring of Kathleen McElroy?

By Zachary Schermele August 4, 2023

New hires are typically matters reserved for deans, chairs, and a few others. Not so at Texas A&M.

Behind-the-Scenes Look

‘We Dodged a Bullet’: Texts Between Texas A&M President and Dean Show How Faculty Hire Fell Apart

By Zachary Schermele August 3, 2023

The messages discussed Kathleen McElroy, recruited as a journalism professor. In one, M. Katherine Banks, then the president, called her an “awful person” for going to the press.

Boston, MA - September 14, 2022: Law enforcement exit Meserve Hall on the campus of Northeastern, a day after a package exploded in the hands of a university employee. (Suzanne Kreiter, The Boston Globe, Getty Images)

Violent Warnings

Campus Bomb Threats Increased More Than Fivefold Last Year

By Zachary Schermele August 2, 2023

In 2021 there were 64 threats aimed at colleges and universities. Last year there were 353.

illustration of a male student standing on a pyramid of books while a female student looks up from below

A Legacy of Privilege

New Research Lays Bare Just How Inequitable Elite Colleges Are

By Zachary Schermele July 24, 2023

Students from wealthy families are twice as likely to get into the nation’s most-selective colleges than students from middle- and low-income backgrounds — even if they have similar test scores.