Back in 2020, higher education faced multiple challenges—including student debt, administrative bloat, and the spread of contingency (also known as adjunct labor) in faculty hiring. Five years later, the challenges facing higher education are as significant but different. They include a spate of police actions on campuses, anti-DEI and anti-tenure legislation, academic freedom lawsuits, weaponization of accreditation, and political tests for everything from curriculum to top institutional leadership.
