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Special Report

Higher Ed Is on the Ballot

Academe has assumed a symbolic importance it hasn’t had since the height of the Cold War.

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Richard Turtletaub for The Chronicle

The midterm elections are fast approaching, and higher education is on the ballot. According to the memoirist turned ultra-conservative political hopeful J.D. Vance, “The professors are the enemy” — an attitude whose legislative corollaries include a widespread focus on the teaching of “critical race theory” in college classrooms and high-profile political disputes over controversies like the University of North Carolina’s attempt to hire Nikole Hannah-Jones. Meanwhile, President Biden’s debt-cancellation plan faces Republican pushback and is likely to meet legal challenges. Two landmark anti-affirmative-action cases await their day at the Supreme Court. The elections may turn on questions of money, access, meritocracy, censorship, expertise, and even of competing social and cultural styles — and all of those charged topics converge on higher ed, which has, in recent years, assumed a kind of symbolic importance it hasn’t had since the height of the Cold War.

We’ve reached out to academics and writers of all stripes to help make sense of what this fall will mean for higher ed. Over the next couple of months, we’ll be publishing their responses here. —The Editors

The Review | Opinion
Progressives who insist on inflexible rules are playing into the GOP’s hands.
The Review | Opinion
Conservatives are mobilized to oppose the left’s long march through higher ed.
The Review | Opinion
Republicans say professors are the enemy. They’re right — we are.
The Review | Opinion
Political solutions face fierce headwinds, but there’s still hope for progress.
The Review | Opinion
Colleges are in the middle of the culture wars, whether they like it or not.
The Review | Opinion
Biden’s plan will help millions of people who deserve relief. But it will be messy.
The Review | Opinion
The university’s core values are under attack. We must speak up.
The Review | Essay
A populist conservatism that bears an uncomfortable resemblance to McCarthyism confronts colleges.
The Review | Opinion
Demolishing independent expertise is a central goal of the Republican Party.
The Review | Opinion
If academics don’t fight for their autonomy, who will?
The Review | Essay
To understand today’s political battles, you need to know how they began.
A version of this package appeared in the Oct. 28, 2022 issue.