March 3, 2017

Welcome to The Chronicle’s third annual Trends Report. With the political uncertainties of the Trump administration, it’s a dicey business trying to project into the future these days. Last year our Trends Report reflected the growing upheaval in higher education; this year it reflects broader…

As an Indiana county tries to stay afloat in a 21st-century economy, local colleges prove to be an integral part of the future.

Descriptions of the latest titles, divided by category.

Government officials moving into higher education include Janine Davidson, former under secretary of the U.S. Navy, who will lead Metropolitan State University of Denver, and John Kerry, the former U.S. secretary of state, who will join Yale.

Two veteran college leaders share their lessons learned, including how to deal with becoming “the man” you’ve spent your whole life fighting against.

Players test their power with protests on and off the field.

Other difficult topics may include whether colleges discriminated against Jews and gay men and whether administrators and trustees stood up for academic freedom in the early years of the Cold War.

Cornell was also interested in learning whether the approach could reach alumni who had not donated before. The experiment has worked.

Giving days, one-year reunions, postevent promotion, and more.

Elon University and other colleges experiment with ways to keep recent graduates engaged.

Working to meet a national shortage of computer-safety personnel, colleges find customers and complications.

Teachers of these courses find themselves positioned as our society’s first line of defense.

Teaching students to separate fact from fiction has become a priority after an election in which false “news” played a large role.

A professor of library science at Purdue University talks about efforts there to bring information literacy into the classroom.

American colleges are in a unique position, both practically and morally, to do justice to their own history of slavery.

Some colleges consider “sanctuary” status for undocumented students. But what effect would that have?

A homeless student wondered why her college cafeteria didn’t take food stamps. Now she’s part of a nationwide effort to make that happen on more campuses.

Here’s what’s at stake in several of the legal cases pursued by students who say they were falsely accused of sexual misconduct.

In what many see as a much-needed shift, colleges are paying more attention to the rights of the accused in sexual-assault cases.

Recent actions by departments and scholarly groups show a new focus on what happens at social events.

Not everyone in academe is oblivious about what’s happening in middle America.

A first-generation student from a small, conservative town explains how faculty members hold the key to reaching students like him.

Scholarly societies and academic departments are becoming more vigilant about monitoring and preventing sexual harassment in their profession.

Gary Lavergne used qualitative and quantitative evidence to demonstrate the benefits of racial diversity.

Some professors see the election as a sign that they should reach out to people who hold different views. Others are doubling down.

Without gauges of effectiveness, diversity policies can be legally risky.

Instead of individual sanctuary declarations, colleges and universities need to take collective action to defend DACA and undocumented students.

Colleges with programs that go beyond just teaching code may do more for the country than help students find jobs.

Members of the men’s basketball team went into the stands and invited people of different races onto the court for the national anthem.

Along with professorships and scholarships, recent gifts have been devoted to sports facilities, study of the environment, and other causes.

The author of a new book on for-profit higher education says the industry takes advantage of the slack in the labor market.

Many college leaders are more than willing to see the Liberty University president champion deregulation. But fewer are eager to be associated with his political views.

Researchers’ anxiety was evident at the AAAS meeting in Boston over the weekend. They want to push back against attacks on science, but don’t want to be seen as just another political interest group.

The disastrous endowment performance was widespread, but it left a handful of elite institutions with most of their wealth intact.

Strong foes of the Education Department’s recent handling of Title IX and race-based discrimination are seen as the Trump administration’s top candidates for assistant secretary for civil rights.

Many of the new secretary’s critics have worried about what she might do, but most education secretaries have left a limited mark on higher education. Here’s why.

It’s not a good sign when the search committee is more interested in snapping food pics than in chatting with you.