Good morning, and welcome to Wednesday, November 13. Rick Seltzer wrote today’s Briefing. Brian O’Leary compiled Comings and Goings. Get in touch: dailybriefing@chronicle.com.

The red wave

The states are the laboratories of democracy and key players in higher-ed regulation. So, in addition to understanding likely federal policy changes coming after last week’s election, keep an eye on what’s unfolding in statehouses.

Buoyed by favorable election results, Republicans are turning many statehouses’ attention to higher ed. The GOP now enjoys supermajorities in states including Indiana, Kansas, North Dakota, South Carolina, and Tennessee, Pluribus News noted. But higher-ed changes could be in store even in states like Ohio, where Republicans lost seats.

Expect some state GOP education-related priorities to spread across the country, as was the case with bans on diversity, equity, and inclusion. Top candidates include:

• Bathroom use: Ohio lawmakers might take up a bill that would require K-12 schools and colleges to only allow students to use bathrooms and locker rooms that match their gender recorded at birth, the Ohio Capital Journal reported.
• The classroom: A Senate subcommittee hearing in Texas on Monday seemed to open the door for regulating DEI-related instruction, which is currently exempt from a state ban. “While DEI-related curriculum and course content does not explicitly violate the letter of the law, it indeed contradicts its spirit,” said Sen. Brandon Creighton, who wrote the DEI ban. He added that the subcommittee will scrutinize programs that “perpetuate any discriminatory efforts within diversity, equity, and inclusion,” The Dallas Morning News reported.
• Faculty protections: Ohio’s House of Representatives could use a lame-duck session to pass a stalled bill that would change tenure and collective-bargaining policies. The bill, which the Senate already passed, would also ban most diversity, equity, and inclusion training, according to the Ohio Capital Journal.
• Preferred pronouns: Newly introduced Ohio legislation would prevent public universities from asking prospective students and employees their preferred pronouns, according to the Ohio Capital Journal.
• Shared governance: At Monday’s hearing in Texas, Creighton also suggested that faculty members make choices that are out of step with state law, even as students and professors defended faculty members’ participation in making decisions, KXAN reported.

Remember, the political climate has consequences even when new laws don’t pass. Among the developments to watch for:

• Regulatory revisions: Kentucky’s Council on Postsecondary Education paused its annual evaluation of state colleges’ progress toward equal-opportunity goals as it works on an overhaul, the Kentucky Lantern reported. The evaluations drew criticism from Republican lawmakers who want to nix DEI. The council says it paused the evaluations last month, but its top lawyer told lawmakers about the move on Friday. He said a new policy could ask institutions to work toward goals like diversity of thought and civil engagement.
• Rewards for favored programs: Rick Gallot, the president of the University of Louisiana system, anticipates benefits from last week’s election, according to the Louisiana Illuminator. They include congressional Republican support for a new Universities of Louisiana Maritime Academy and potential advantages for a center at McNeese State University that studies the liquefied natural-gas industry, due to the anticipated loosening of federal fossil-fuel regulations.
• Speech policing: The University of Iowa’s president, provost, and Faculty Senate president circulated a letter after last week’s election reminding instructors that they’re prohibited from teaching “controversial matters” that have no relationship to a class’s subject matter, The Gazette reported. While faculty members can organize, join political associations, and publicly express their opinions, they must make clear that they don’t speak for the university, the reminder said. “As the university vigorously supports your intellectual freedom, we ask that you continually dedicate yourselves to the responsibilities that come with that freedom,” they wrote.

The bigger questions: Which proposals catch on widely? Which provoke a backlash? Which are countered, ignored, or adopted in states where Democrats have more power?

Quick hits

• Tufts says it’s not yanking internships over trans athlete comments: Rep. Seth Moulton, of Massachusetts, reported that the head of the political-science department at Tufts University said it wouldn’t facilitate student internships with his office after he told The New York Times that, as a Democrat, he is “supposed to be afraid” to say that he doesn’t want his daughters “getting run over on a playing field” by transgender athletes. Moulton then said on MSNBC that “this is just everything that’s wrong with this cancel culture.” But a Tufts spokesperson says the university isn’t limiting internships with Moulton’s office. (The Chronicle, The New York Times)
• Tuskegee closes campus: The private institution in Alabama will require guests to wear visitor badges after a homecoming-weekend shooting on campus that killed one person and injured 16. Tuskegee also fired its security chief and announced a review of the shooting. An 18-year-old who wasn’t affiliated with the institution was killed, and a 25-year-old was arrested. (USA Today)
• U. of Michigan Faculty Senate rebukes board: Faculty members accused the institution’s Board of Regents of “increasingly exhibiting authoritarian tendencies,” chilling speech, and not tackling gender-based violence. Specific complaints include an institutional-neutrality policy adopted in October, the use of police officers to break up protests, and the hiring of private security. (The Detroit News)
• University in the Forest won’t own the forest: Drew University, in New Jersey, struck a deal with local government that will have it selling wooded land that’s given the private institution its nickname of “The University in the Forest.” Terms call for the Borough of Madison to buy and preserve 51 acres and for Drew to sell other land to developers who plan to build multifamily housing. The purchase price hasn’t been shared, even after the borough publicly touted a "$65-million final offer” during lengthy negotiations. (NJ.com)

Quote of the day

“We’re more than just an ATM for the institution.”

— Ken Anselment, vice president of enrollment management at the consultancy RHB and host of the Admissions Leadership Podcast

Anselment has a new book of insights on leadership in the admissions profession. He spoke with our Eric Hoover about the profession that finds the students who enroll.

📱 Read the full story from The Chronicle: A ‘Love Letter’ to the Admissions Profession

Stat of the day

24 percent

That’s the interest rate on a $7-million loan taken out by Saint Augustine’s University so that it could hold classes this fall. The institution in Raleigh, N.C., is also on the hook for a 2 percent loan-management fee and listed its campus as collateral.

“The interest rate was based on the financial challenges facing the university,” Kip Johnson, who founded the company lending the money, told WRAL.

But the loan is drawing criticism as predatory. One lending expert said the interest rate should be no higher than 9 percent.

The bigger picture: Saint Augustine’s has just 200 students this fall, down from 1,100 last year. It has to pay back the loan next year. While its land in fast-growing Raleigh could be valuable, turning real estate into real dollars is often harder than it sounds.

Comings and goings

• Sandeep Mazumder, dean of the Hankamer School of Business at Baylor University, has been named president of Berry College, in Georgia.
• Kara Zografos has been named dean of the College of Health and Human Services at California State University at Fresno after serving as interim dean.
• Clifton T. Jones, vice provost at Angelo State University, has been named provost and vice president for academic and student affairs at Texas A&M University-Central Texas.

To submit a new-hire announcement, email people@chronicle.com.

Footnote

Facebook’s parent company, Meta, is serving up a new set of virtual-reality dreams through a deal with 13 higher-education institutions in the United States and United Kingdom.

The lucky baker’s dozen universities “have the opportunity to provide feedback on Meta for Education ahead of its official launch,” a Monday announcement reads. “Just as early adopters had a leg up as email and the internet became the norm rather than an outlier, those who dive into this technology now should be all the more skilled and comfortable with its use as it evolves over time.”

Meta proceeds to dangle virtual reality’s tantalizing potential benefits. Attendance rates increased at one college! Students can “visit” inaccessible locales, like outer space, where they can observe the phases of the moon!

Let’s not dismiss the possible upsides. Virtual reality very well could be useful for those who can’t meet and communicate in person. I’d rather a surgeon in training practice with VR than on me. I’m also sympathetic to the argument that students should learn about the tools of tomorrow.

Less convincing is the implication that learners can benefit from being product testers for companies that want to gobble up market share in a speculative industry. As Jared Cooney Hovrath recently put it, “You might believe we should teach table manners to students (curriculum), but that’s different than arguing we should teach all classes in a dining room over dinner (pedagogy).”

Do we really need equipment engineered by a social-media giant to learn about the phases of the moon? Last time I checked, it remains visible in the night sky.