Heather Shea
Welcome back to Current Campus Context, a limited series from student affairs now the online learning community for Higher Education and Student Affairs. I’m your host, Heather, Shea, and we are recording this episode at 5:17pm, Eastern Time on Thursday, April 17, as always, things might have changed by the time you listen each week, we are breaking down the shifting landscape of higher education, what’s happening, why it matters, and how we can respond. We also begin this week with a heavy heart, holding Florida State University community in our thoughts after the tragic campus shooting, this hits close to home for me at Michigan State, and this is a painful reminder of the safety challenges facing campuses across the country and the need for care, connection and action, meanwhile, broadly, political and policy pressures continue to ramp up, from changes to federal student support to renewed efforts to influence how colleges govern themselves, respond to protest and articulate their public mission. So these are not just isolated developments. They reflect a broader coordinated effort to reshape the purpose, perception and priorities. I like the piece today, apparently, of higher education. So what does this mean for those of you who are watching or listening, and what does this mean for those of us on campuses? How do we protect not just our institutions, but also the principles we believe in? So that’s what we’re going to unpack a little bit today with our expert guests. So let’s welcome this week’s correspondence back again. I think the last time you were on, oyan, it was like the second week or the third week,

OiYan Poon
yeah, so I’m so excited to be back.

Heather Shea
Dr OiYan Poon is an expert on the racial politics of education, access, college admission systems and Asian Americans in education. She is the co director of the college admissions futures collaborative and consultant on higher education equity to Illinois Governor. JB Pritzker education team. Thank you so much for being here to be back, and also welcome back. Dr Dimitri Morgan,

Demetri L. Morgan
three in a row. Very tired of me. I love it. I love it.

Heather Shea
Dr Morgan is an expert in institutional governance, campus climate, student activism and STEM education in higher ed. He is an associate professor of education at the University of Michigan. Welcome back. Welcome back. Thank you. Thank you both for being here today. So we’re going to dive into three stories from these kind of quiet policy shifts to very bold, loud culture wars that are targeting elite institutions. And so let me get over to my news document, and I will give you the roundup. So you might have missed this story, but it really actually matters quite a bit. The Trump administration recently dismantled a small, but essential office in the Department of Health and Human Services. This is the office that’s responsible for calculating the federal poverty guidelines figures that determine who qualifies for Medicaid food assistance, and, importantly, for colleges and universities for TRIO programs and Pell Grants. Why does this matter? Because without that team, there’s no mechanism to ensure that poverty numbers are updated for inflation, and that could quietly push students out of eligibility for aid without anyone noticing until it’s too late. So it’s one more example, I think, of how higher ed is being shaped by forces far beyond campus, through the slow erosion of policies that support low income students. Now, from the quiet erosion to the very loud confrontation you might have heard this story. Over the last few weeks, we have discussed the escalating pressure on elite institutions from Columbia, Penn Princeton and now Harvard, among many, many, many others. The list is really long. These demands are often framed around addressing anti semitism. But let’s be honest, this isn’t just about anti semitism or dei This is a part of a larger campaign to de legitimize higher ed institutions perceived as liberal. What is striking is that, earlier this week, Harvard, under intense scrutiny, has pushed back. They’ve refused to fire faculty under political pressure and have rejected the demands. This marks a notable shift, especially as other institutions begin to find their footing. Columbia University, who we’ve spoken about in the past as essentially complying with the demands have has now issued a campus wide message reaffirming its stance against the federal overreach, saying that. Would not allow the government to require them to relinquish their independence or autonomy. So this is a preview of what may come to campuses everywhere. And so I guess my question is, will more campuses unite with Harvard to reject these demands? So to wrap it all up, I think we’re going to return to a topic that we talked a little bit about last week. What is the vision for higher ed? As these political attacks mount, some leaders are recentering the mission around the public value, not just the private game. Harvard’s President defended the role we’re going to put this in the show notes today of higher education in advancing equity inquiry and democracy. Meanwhile, just today, I’m here on my own campus at Michigan State, our president, President, Kevin guskowitz, launched a research for you website, a new platform that highlights how Spartan research include improves everyday life, from cancer treatments to food safety to break through technology. So this is interesting, and I think it’s a part of a broader push across institutions to show how continued federal investment is really key to continuing all of these efforts. So telling this story of higher ed’s public good isn’t just about reputation, it is about survival and relevance in this moment. So okay, let’s get into it. We have a whole lot to discuss today. Oyan, we’ll start with you given what I’ve just shared, where would you like to begin?

OiYan Poon
Well, it is April 17, and I think it’s notable. There’s something that there’s something in the air that’s feeling like things are shifting just a wee bit, which is really encouraging. Today is a national day of action for higher ed. And so I think something like 200 or 300 couple 100, right? So hundreds of campuses have been holding teach ins, in person, protests, actions, virtual, teach in so I attended one today by the debt collective, virtually. And I think this is exactly what we need, right? Is this popular education and reclaiming this kind of civic mission for higher education. I think it’s also interesting. Um, okay, so I was born and raised in Boston, and so anything Harvard, you know, the people of the area are, you know, regular people like me, my family. We’re like, okay, Harvard, right? But it’s that kind of weird to be like, Go, Harvard. Ah, yeah, but you know, as Felicia said last week, these institutions, especially like Penn and Philadelphia, employ massive amounts of folks in the region, and so they’re an economic driver. And so it’s interesting to watch the landing page for when you go to harvard.edu, now is, you know, right to all the public benefits the research projects. But I was trying to look for because Dimitri and Felicia were talking about this last week, I was trying to look for, you know, what percentage of the employed labor force do they employ in Massachusetts or in the New England region. I didn’t see that right like, I think these are also interesting things to highlight that hasn’t really been there. Also, though I was thinking this is an interesting moment of helping the public understand what higher ed is, because I think too often, yes, there is a element of, you know, the admissions game, and who gets to go benefit from being a student in these institutions, and who is denied? And you know, that kind of question that is always in the news. But I think, I hope that this is a moment of course correcting and helping the public think more complexly about, you know, the research, education and service mission, this tripartite mission of higher education. And maybe some people are learning like, Oh, these are, these are not like schools in the traditional sense, right? So I’m interested to see what will happen from this potential learning that people are being invited into doing.

Heather Shea
Yeah. Dimitri, what would you what would you add? Yeah,

Demetri L. Morgan
so I had it was my last week of class this this week, I was teaching a class called college students in the US, and the students did fantastic projects. They some did documentaries, some did infographics, some did case studies, but one of the students worked on an infographic. So. Talking about food insecurity. And I had a moment where, you know, when I was a master’s student, not that long ago, but you know, longer than we didn’t have as much of that language about food insecurity on campus, and you know how to sort of think and talk about it. And so it was kind of this moment of like, wow. Like, you know, here we are now teaching about it, talking about it, talking about it. There’s much more scholarship and literature about, you know, sort of all of this sort of insecurities that can show up for students in college. But food insecurity one and so this, this sort of first story you talked about really, um, hits at a lot of the things that I think about a lot when we talk about poverty, uh, food insecurity, housing and housing insecurity. And even listening to my students in class talk about, you know, Ann Arbor, which, for all intents and purposes, is a really kind of wealthy and robust and well developed area, but how even for some students in certain pockets of the city, access to, you know, sort of healthy grocery or grocery store where they can get healthy food fresh produce isn’t, isn’t as, you know, sort of accessible, as one might take, even in a sort of place like like this. So all that to say, what has been making me worried about, What the What’s going on with health and human services is that measuring those, those things, being able to talk about and measure poverty and think about how we how we make that case to the public, how we make that case internally to faculty and others, is really important. And what I worry about is the kind of socialization that I came up in, which is, we should have soup kitchens, and we should have, you know, sort of these, like volunteer acts to support people, right, instead of really thoughtful and productive policy conversations about how we are ensuring that, you know, sort of all of our community and our neighbors have Access to housing and food. And so I was sort of in real time thinking about like, wow, how far the conversation has come, and wow, how fragile it is that when then you can start to dismantle Health and Human Services and make it that much more difficult to have policy relevant conversations about these really important things. So it was just a very like, one of those moments where you’re like, oh, wow, we’ve come so far, and then you’re like, but like, all progress is so fragile, and I think we’re seeing that with that particular story. Yeah,

Heather Shea
I’ve been thinking about this as well. I mean, I oversee four different programs, and we have just recently added an essential needs pantry to the resources that we provide. And it’s true like, Well, are we addressing the symptom? Are we addressing the larger system and and also we, we are trying to counter the narrative that higher ed is elitist, out of touch, you know? And there’s, how do we how do we quote, sell that story, that this is about access, equity, democracy, engagement in larger civic life. I’d love to hear your thoughts on, on, on that kind of component and and as Harvard’s as elite institution, do they help us with that narrative, or does it? Does it keep that narrative a little bit further away?

OiYan Poon
That’s a good question. Yeah, going after Harvard is like, has cultural significance, right? Because it’s like a Rorschach test, right? Of how you feel about higher education. But at the same time, I think what we’re seeing it’s I was thinking about because I used to teach organization and governance and higher education, and of course, you had the iron cage article with isomorphism, right? Yes, and the three different types of isomorphism, and what we’re seeing, right? You know, with the Trump administration, they’re practicing coercive isomorphism, like forcing changes. You’re seeing institutions follow suit, and seeing Harvard act first and stand up finally. Now you’ve got like lists of open letters signed by dozens institutional leaders saying, like us too.

Heather Shea
Where were you before? Right? We’re with you, Harvard. We lead the charge. We’re boycotting Columbia, right? I know so. But

OiYan Poon
then Columbia came along too, right after, right? So there’s this medic isomorphism, right? And so it’s interesting to watch these theories that we teach about and talk about and write about in our field, like, here it is. So if anyone’s listening, and you’re in an org class right now, or you’re teaching one, here we are, you’re seeing it live. I you know I’ve been I’ve been thinking about that, and as much as I. Have a fraught relationship with a place like Harvard and these kind of elitist, rejective institutions. At the end of the day, they do. They are pillars in this democracy we live in, for better or worse, right, as employers, as folks who produce the future leaders. As you know, should it be this way that so many of our national global leaders come from these institutions? I don’t think so like I think need to remember that we have a very rich and robust and diverse ecosystem of higher education in this country, and it’s more than just those top 100 that get listed in this magazine that isn’t really a magazine anymore, right? And those rankings. So I think, on the one hand, it is helpful to have Harvard lead the way, because I think they are shining a light on possibilities. But we can’t forget that there are other leaders out there who have been doing this, who’ve been speaking up, I’m thinking especially of like Michael Rothstein at Wesley, or President Holly at Mount Holyoke College. Right? Folks are speaking, but for all these cultural reasons, right? The cultural baggage in this country. Harvard has a platform that then, you know, oh, Harvard speaking, who Michael Rothstein, who, right? Like, yeah, all of a sudden it’s like, we don’t recognize these other leaders. And I think we do have to remember. So there’s this power, but then there’s also, there’s others out here too. And I think at the end of the day, if we’re really going to move towards a direction of justice, we need to lean into the popular education that’s happening today, right? And hopefully see this day of national, Day of Action for higher ed, really build further into a movement I love seeing, for example, locally at Northwestern they had a teach in around shared governance, right? Like the faculty. Faculty showed up. Like, who are the trustees? I need to know who the trustees are. How do we pressure, right? Like davici, I see you nodding, right? It’s like, this is where it’s at, right? And why has this not been happening all along?

Demetri L. Morgan
Yeah, it’s funny. I’ve been saying that I feel like, around Michigan a little bit, I’ve become the governance whisperer, because I’ve been trying to, you know, like, explain, you know, sort of governance to people you know, that, you know, faculty who have worked, you know, for decades, but haven’t really understood all the structures. And so I do think having people, and this is when I tell my students all the time, people that have student affairs degrees have higher ed degrees like this is one of our moments to shine, because we do have language to help describe these things. We have theories. We have concepts that are not that are common for us within the field, but are not common in other disciplines. And so this is a time to be a translator to explain. You know what’s going on. You know, within your department, within your and when you’re interfaced with other units, because people are really thirsty for ways to help make sense of what’s going on. But to the Harvard question, you know, I watch, you know, way too much sports, so I always think of things in sports metaphors. But you know, I think people love an underdog story, which is sort of ironic to call Harvard an underdog. But I think in the context of the this sort of political battle, and just the kind of sheer force that the Trump administration has put on so many aspects of society there, you know, I think that kind of trope is being activated, the sort of like standing up to the bully trope is being activated. And so, you know, this underdog narrative of like, you know, can Harvard actually do it? I do think galvanizes people’s interest, not because they sort of necessarily like Harvard, as we heard we on talk about, but because now these sort of type roles have been cast right where you have, and people can understand it through these lenses in which we, you know, watched decades of TV and movies where, like, there’s the bully and there’s the underdog and you know what’s going to happen, and you Want to see it play out, and in Trump, Trump himself benefited from that narrative, you know, with the attempted assassinations and, you know, being on the outside of the political realm and then kind of sweeping back in. So, you know, that narrative, that kind of trope and template, fits a lot of different, you know, dynamics, but you sort of live long enough to sort of become the villain arc as well, which is kind of where we’re, we’re seeing, you know, things now too. So I think that is how, at least, I’m trying to understand Harvard, where it’s like, it’s not hard, you know, is it’s not that people are so cheering for Harvard, given, you know, that they’re highly rejective and all those things. But I do think it fits into a narrative that, you know, I’m comfortable, sort of. Thinking through like, oh, yeah, I want to see you know what happens, and are they able to push back? And ultimately, are they able to win? Yeah,

OiYan Poon
I really don’t think Chris Rufo and friends thought that Harvard would strike back. Agreed at all. So I think they were kind of caught flat footed, although now they’re like, we’ll just pull your whole nonprofit status. And I’m like, oh, yeah, the

Heather Shea
I think I saw one list of the amount of money different institutions have to lose, right, if their endowments are taxed, or nonprofit status is lost, or if they lose this federal funding. And we did include a piece in our show notes for today that that touts, actually, by Chris Rufo, this idea that the right is winning the battle over higher education. And I’m like, I don’t know what I mean. I don’t know if we can say the there’s a battle that is being won. But I am really struggling with the they’re trying to make it sound like it is right. So, yeah, right. Isn’t that what

OiYan Poon
Felicia says? Yeah,

Demetri L. Morgan
yes. Propaganda, yeah. And I think that that’s important to like, honor too. Like I spend a lot of time kind of, like following kind of conservative media outlets, conservative talk radio, and a lot of it is, you know, sort of tied into sort of different narratives that kind of are, are profitable, not necessarily, not only in the economic sense of profitable, profitable in the in the sense of keeping engagement, keeping people sort of on edge, and Raising and the winning and losing is one of those things, right? Like, we even saw it with the tariffs, right? Like, as soon as it seemed like the losses were going to be too much to Summit, we started to see some litigation. And so I think that narrative of, like, yeah, like, we need to communicate that we’re winning so that we don’t, you know, come across as losers, or having, you know, lost certain battles is an important part of kind of propping up that particular way of communicating with you know that that segment of society that wants to be able to kind of keep score,

OiYan Poon
yeah, they’re pretty chickens. This is all the tariff. Game is chicken. This whole battle is chicken. Who’s going to blink? Yeah, whoever’s got enough money where they don’t need to blink. But I want to, also want to lift up Kevin Carey’s essay in Vox, where he from New America, and he talked about like, what would happen if these institutions with their massive endowments leveraged their collective wealth to to lead the fight, right So, yes, Harvard’s out front right now, but that’s one endowment, and can you bring all together, like in their credit ratings all together? Astounding, right?

Demetri L. Morgan
Yeah, yeah, I had a colleague mentioned that to me, who kind of comes from sort of a more global paradigm where endowments are understood as protection from government intrusion. And, you know, so had some questions for me about, like, well, you know, why isn’t that happening more? Like, shouldn’t these endowments be able to be leveraged? And then got into the nuances of donor agreements, and, you know, sort of, you know, land, your wills and all of those things that are the less sexy side of endowments. But I do think that the bigger question that Kevin was raising, and the bigger point still stands very much so, and could even stand with with while taking into account that much, you know, most, most, much of an endowment is kind of spoken for. But to your point, about the credit rating or and thinking of it sort of in mass, raises a lot of different questions,

Heather Shea
fascinating. So I thinking a little bit about, like, what we can do, right? And I think we’ve kind of started talking a little bit about this when we’re talking about, like, using our voices and and sharing our, you know, personal stories and value and, and I will be honest, I would not have known about the first story had I not been talking to the program director of the TRiO program in my office, and he brought it to my attention, and I was like, Oh my gosh. Like, we need to all keep Did you know, and how is this affecting you? And keep that conversation going. What other actions do you think folks who are working in around Student Affairs in Higher Ed can kind of take within their spheres of influence. Dimitri, I’ll start with

Demetri L. Morgan
you, yeah. So I’m going to shout out u on. But you can see in the in the in the in the back that the Red Book, Asian American, is not a color. One of the things that I appreciate about about that book, in his approach, that I think we all need to get better at doing is so for those that have not like the book is, and I always pronounce this wrong, epistolatory, which just sort of just means letters.

OiYan Poon
I learned that word recently. Yeah,

Heather Shea
we did an episode. I will, I will also. Link to the episode that you did, because at is a beautiful and I actually listened to the audiobook version of it, which was fantastic. Okay, so anyway,

Demetri L. Morgan
yeah, but I wanted to say, like, how we tell stories about our work, like, what we’re doing, how we explain things in in story style, in this particular moment, I think is really important because, you know, to the point I was making earlier, we might have a lot of theories and knowledge and concepts and information, but if it’s not woven into a way that’s accessible for people. And again, I think the skill sets that student affairs practitioners have when we think about how to support students, how to meet, you know, students, where they are, how to connect people in programs. A lot of that is storytelling, like, Hey, you should, you know, come to this resource or come to this program, because I think it would be good for you. Because, you know, I used to have a friend that was like, you and blah, blah, blah, like, whatever in we use. And so I think that that’s a sort of under utilized. And there are good examples, both in Britain, and other formats of like people talk stories like this podcast series in general, that gets people to tell and share their stories. And so I think about how we’re doing that, and how we have opportunities to do that in in our sort of local spaces, in our local spheres of influence, and really encouraging people to do that right now, because people need different ways of understanding all of this information, and if it’s not, if it’s not done in story form, it’s harder to retain, because it’s just another thing, and the other thing is trying to identify. So I was in a symposium a couple weeks ago listening to kind of media and journalists like faculty and practitioners talk about and they’re trying to move away from the language of influencer, because how that has certain bag is they’re using the language of trusted messengers. And so I’ve been thinking a lot about that, like, who are trusted messengers, sort of within the ecosystems and bubbles of or influencers, if you prefer that within, within student, you know sort of information ecosystems within, you know the information ecosystems of of staff and departments and units. And in, how are we identifying who those trusted messengers are and helping equip them to be able to go and explain things. And so I think that’s also kind of an interesting exercise for units or departments to do, like, who are trusted messengers, like, who, you know, who is really good at, you know, talking with with students, and why and how can we, you know, share and provide information. And I think the same thing on a broader scale with the universities, like, I think all of these kind of new websites and things are popping up, but it’s still not going to puncture people’s kind of information bubbles if it’s not being communicated to them via their trusted messengers or their influencers that they sort of looking at and listen to. And so I think there’s, there has to also be ways that we’re thinking about, you know, YouTubers and podcasters, right? Like, literally, the, you know, arguably, the election was turned on, the sort of podcast ecosystem of trusted messengers, influencers being able to convey things. And so I think I’m glad the websites, because I’m like, That’s better, but it’s like, but the information has moved along so much that

Heather Shea
websites, yeah, are you

OiYan Poon
saying that? Like, tell stories of isomorphism. You mean isomorphism, but

Demetri L. Morgan
You wove it in though, right? Like you, you place it in examples. And I think that’s, that’s what makes it relevant and accessible,

OiYan Poon
yeah. I mean, everyone’s trying to be like the Joneses. In this case, the Joneses is Harvard, right? And that’s what we need to do.

Heather Shea
Yeah, but what other things would you add as recommended actions? Oyon,

OiYan Poon
you know, going back to that HHS little data center, and we were also talking about how there’s also another data center that determines Title One, funding for public schools, for low income public schools, and that data center is, I think, gone also. And so there’s a big question as to determining title one funding for 2026 27 so all of these little things, right? It’s like things that we don’t even know about, right? Like, it just disappears. And so I, I’ve been thinking a lot about how, okay, we’ve been relying I don’t think this is a solution, but I’ve been thinking about this anyway, like, there were these federal data centers and ces iPads, right? This little HHS shop, but in the absence of these right, we’ll keep fighting for these federal infrastructures, but they’re destroying infrastructure. Can we? Because every state has a lot of data. We all. All have our state data systems. Is there a way at the state level to kind of shore up? Okay, in the meantime, let’s just make because even like a place like Texas, I have to say I actually like Texas’ state education and higher ed data system, right? And you’d be surprised, right? But there’s a ton of schools and colleges that will not students who will not get their funding because of this lack of data. So this is kind of like a lesson from, I think, decades of conversations within the API community with the lack of disaggregated data. For over a decade, I kept hearing people say, like, we need to advocate for these government systems to include disaggregated data. And finally, I think folks started saying, like, we can’t rely on the national government, so how do we create our own data systems or advocate within our local, districts and states and whatever scopes of governance There is to be like, let’s figure this out. And when you’re talking about students who are on Pell Grants, and, you know, who have have financial need, and we were talking about food pantries, like we we have to figure it out the both and right fight, that federal, national fight, and at the same time, find a plan B, yeah, yeah, you know.

Heather Shea
All right, we’re gonna move to final thoughts. So I’d love to hear what you all have on the horizon and what’s keeping you up at night. I think I say this every week, that could be the same thing. And then what’s bringing you joy right now? So I’ll let you choose. Who wants to go first. Yeah,

Demetri L. Morgan
I’ll go. Okay. So one of the things that’s on the horizon we released through Raquel and my center, we released a bunch of resources today, and one of our big kind of push was, and this, I think applies for everyone, is, what are the important, but not urgent conversations in dates and discussions that your unit or your board hasn’t putting off because You’ve been dealing with the urgent, what does it look like to in the next week, in the next two weeks, figure out what’s that list of important but not urgent, and not lose sight of that because you know our our our sort of hope is that shifting even for a moment to the consideration of the important but not urgent might give us insight and how to deal with the urgent, but if we are only always dealing with the urgent, then those important and so the sort of ask and task was like, what’s that list for your unit? What’s that even, even, you know, if you’re not a supervisor, like, what is that important? But, you know, but not urgent thing that you’ve been putting off because you’ve just been trying to be present and respond, and how do you locate that and not lose sight of that? And so that’s sort of on my rise, and that’s sort of the thing I’ve been kind of sharing with people, that it’s really difficult. And I sort of say it like, it’s easy, it’s really difficult to take, you know, a beat and say, like, what is really important from for the success of my unit, of the success of my of the role that I’m in, but does not feel urgent right now, and they, you know, the example I always use is, like, it’s like working out, or, you know, like filing your taxes, right? Like, things that, like, really, until, until then it becomes, it gets urgent, then you gotta figure it out. So what does it mean to kind of engage in a reflective exercise to think about that? So that’s on my horizon. I’ve been trying to share that, and then this what’s been bringing me joy. And I’m kicking myself. I didn’t actually say anything to this individual, but I was walking the other morning into and, you know, there’s like so much chaos going on in higher ed, and there was a maintenance grounds professional who was in a tractor and was getting ready to kind of prep the mulch and put the mulch out right? It’s almost graduation season. It’s, it’s, it’s spring, and, you know, like, Here I am, like, with my back, like, walking and getting ready to teach class and and I’m just like, there’s, there’s a lot of us, a lot of people who are just like, doing good work. And like, he was like, doing good work putting the mulch out, and just brought me joy. I was like, thank you for putting the mulch out. Like, you’re like, beautifying campus. And I said in my head, I’d say to him, because the tractor was real intense, but I wish I did. But like, I’ve just been trying to find those moments of like, appreciation, where it’s like, yeah, now, like, it’s beautifully emotional when I walk to the office and, you know, Barry was, like, early that morning, kind of, and I’m like, Don’t put me in the tractor. Like, the skill, like, you know, like, I the skill to do that. So just trying to find moments and things like that. And, but that one, you know, because it’s been a dark winter Michigan, so it has, yes, like. Spring is here. The mulch is getting out like it’s almost graduation. Was was really exciting for me.

Heather Shea
That’s great. How

OiYan Poon
about you? Owen, so on the horizon, I’m very uncomfortable with self promotion, but next week is a era, and I’m going to Denver to accept the outstanding book of Bucha. Thank you. So I’m trying to, just like a friend of mine just told me, like, stop pushing this away, just soak it in, right, especially in these times, just to enjoy it right and and to be with community of the scholarly community at a era next week. So that’s also bringing me some joy, just like, affirmation there that, like, wow, this years and years of work is like, Okay, people see it. I feel seen, you know, and so also, you know, also keeping me up at night is still, it’s something that I’ve been thinking a lot about, is all these accusations of these universities of anti semitism, right? And in order to weaponize that against the whole field of higher education, is so eerily similar to what happened to Asian Americans with race conscious admissions, right? FFA lawsuits, right? It was a weaponization of like, look at these poor Asians getting discriminated by race conscious admission. Meanwhile, Asian Americans are, like, the majority of us actually support this policy. We benefit from this policy. And it was like, We don’t care, like, we’re just gonna fight this. And you know, this, this eerie parallel, I’m like, re triggered through this moment of seeing these parallels and the experiences of of a weaponization of a minoritized community to benefit white supremacy. Yeah, that’s keeping me up at night, but then coming back to Joy again. There’s two things. I’ve been in a season of reading a whole lot, just for funsies, but so I waffle between, like, smutty romance, I think I’ve said this before, also just really good fiction, fictional novels, and listening to non fiction audio books on libro. And I just finished reading this. It’s, I don’t know if it’s reading, but it’s a workbook, and I think I really want to recommend is by Deepa Iyer. It’s called, where is it? It’s Oh, social, social change. Now a guide for reflection, and it’s so it’s like spiral bound, and it’s got, you know, these worksheets and reflection questions. It’s excellent. And I was thinking like, if I ever teach an organizational leadership class. Again, I’m totally using this book, but I feel like it’s a good anecdote. Antidote, cure, yeah, antidote to burnout, because it really pushes you to think about your role. Because I think oftentimes in these crises, we think about like, I gotta go all in. I gotta fight, fight, fight, right? But we can’t do everything all at once, right? So when we’re all kind of positioned in different ways to play certain roles. And so this leads me to my second part of joy. The NBA Playoffs is, yeah, started, and my Boston Celtics are the two seed in the east. Very excited. And I think about like, you Demetri, I think about these sports metaphors around you, know, similarly, right? Like Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown, they play different roles. Derek white, right? They all, every player plays a different role in the team to make the campaign for a championship successful, right? And so I feel like this is, I always think about basketball in this way of like, okay, it’s this long slog of a season, and you have to think strategically of all your role players, all your strengths and areas, the gaps and how you fill it in. And, you know, work together collectively. And I think it’s a great metaphor for who it’s only been 100 days, but, you know, yeah, we gotta think more strategically in these kind of team. Teams make dreams. Yeah, that’s,

Demetri L. Morgan
that’s a take though, to like, to not like Harvard, but to like the Celtics, like they’re basically

OiYan Poon
watch Celtic city right now on max. It is an excellent it explains, listen, it’s still my hometown. I know, I know I’ll still go in the home team. I love it.

Heather Shea
It’s so great. Go sell drag me. Oh, well. And as you were talking about. Boston just generally, right? Like, it’s not just Harvard. There’s how many different institutions in that greater metro area. So I going back to when we were talking earlier about employers. You know, higher education is a major employer. I think that’s the other, the other piece. So, before we wrap up, just huge. Thank you to both of you for joining this conversation today and to all of the correspondents that have been contributing to the series, it’s been a lot of fun, and for me at least, it’s been cathartic and an opportunity to discuss and also think forward. You know, what can we do within our spheres of influence. So I look forward to next week’s conversation. You can pat I took on all the past episodes. I think we’re this is episode six or seven, and I just want to give a huge shout out to the Student Affairs now host team, especially Dr Keith Edwards. He sent me a text like literally minutes before we were getting ready to record today. And so I’m just so grateful for him and him thinking. You know, alongside me, as we’ve been working on this project, as we all know, higher ed is evolving rapidly. So if you have found these resources to be useful, we’d love it for you to share, post your takeaways, tag us on Instagram, Facebook, blue sky, and if you have specific questions or topics you’d like to hear us cover, send us an email or DM us on any of those platforms. Host at studentaffairsnow.com thanks again for tuning in to current campus contacts brought to you by Student Affairs now we’ll see you next week.

Nearly 80 million Americans are legally entitled to income-based help like Medicaid and food assistance. The Trump administration dismantled the office that establishes eligibility – Forbes (April 13)

Trump HHS eliminates office that sets poverty levels tied to benefits for at least 80 million people – CBS News (April 11)

Harvard Resists Trump’s Demands – Inside Higher Ed (April 14)

Columbia Vows to Reject Any Trump Deal That Erodes Its Independence – The New York Times (April 15)

Inside Trump’s Pressure Campaign on Universities – The New York Times (April 14)

Christopher Rufo: The Right Is Winning the Battle Over Higher Education (April 15)

The Promise of American Higher Education – Harvard University President (April 14)

https://www.harvard.edu/research-funding/

https://www.deepaiyer.com/home/social-change-now

https://msu.edu/researchforyou