Felecia Commodore: Yeah. So, so, um, and I’ve said this on here before, I, I often, um, bristle at that. I think higher ed is very reactive instead of proactive. I think we have been given a opportunity to truly be pro- proactive. Um, one of the reasons I believe what we, we, we saw be accomplished, um, be accomplished in the first two years of this federal administration is because there’s been about a 40-year plan in place, and we’ve slowly been able… They slowly have been able to implement parts of the plan. So when the opportunity came, they just had to roll things out. I don’t know that higher education advocates or those who are leaning left have a plan, but they better get one. And I think they- Bingo … need to decide what they want higher education to look like, um, for the next 30 years, 30 or 40 years. Mm-hmm. And start putting those building blocks in place while they have the opportunity to, particularly at the state level. I think when we talk about Texas, um, I also bring up Indiana, Wisconsin, Iowa. It’s not just that the, the governorship turned blue, the state legislature leaned blue. We’re talking, in Texas, we’re talking about the courts went blue.

Heather Shea: Welcome to Student Affairs NOW, the online learning community for student affairs educators.

I am your host, Heather Shea. It is 3:47 PM on Monday, November 9th, 2026, and we are recording a special edition of Current Campus Context just six days after the midterm election. This midterm election dramatically shifted the political landscape in Washington and in state houses across the country. And as always, things may have changed once again by the time you listen.

In what is being called the blue tsunami, Democrats have won control of both chambers of Congress, and we are seeing significant changes in state leadership as well, many firsts actually in those places. For those of you who work in higher ed, like me there is a lot to unpack. But before we jump in, I wanna take a quick look back.

We started Current Campus Context back in the, in March of 2025 really in the wake of all of the changes we are seeing. Remember executive orders on repeat and all kinds of other things that just had us trying to take in what was impacting higher ed. We tracked a lot during that time period in the past two, little under two years, and most of our conversations have focused on what we’ve lost, whether it was funding eliminated, offices shuttered, programs dismantled, and opportunities di- diminished.

But today, as political landscapes are shifting, we are turning to a different set of questions. What has actually changed? What hasn’t? And what might this moment make possible for those of us who work in student affairs? In short, how do we move beyond reacting to threats and uncertainty and begin imagining and actively shaping what comes next?

So that’s what we’re gonna explore today. I put out a call on, I think Friday really short notice to get a group of our expert correspondents together. So grateful to the five of you for taking time out of your schedule, particularly since you, many of you just got back from ASHE. I’m really excited to sit with you all today and examine the implications for our campuses and communities and consider where we might have opportunities to take action.

So I’m gonna introduce each of you briefly. So first Dr. Katherine S. Cho is an expert in campus activism, organizational change, and issues of educational inequity within higher education through a focus on race, gender, and labor. She is an associate professor in higher education and chair of the Higher Ed…

An international ed program at Loyola University Chicago. Welcome back, Katherine.

Katherine S. Cho: Hello. Happy to be here.

Heather Shea: Next, Dr. Felicia Commodore is an expert in leadership governance and administrative practices in higher ed with a focus on HBCUs, MSIs, and Black women in leadership. She is an associate professor in educational policy, organization, and leadership at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Hi, Felicia. Welcome back.

Felecia Commodore: Hi, glad to be back.

Heather Shea: Dr. Ethan Russ is an expert in policy and reform in higher education with a specialty in historical analysis. He is an associate professor of ed- educational leadership and d- the department chair at the University of Nevada, Reno. Welcome back, Ethan.

Ethan Ris: Thank you.

Heather Shea: And Dr. Leonard Taylor is an expert in institutional transformation and data informed change in higher ed with a focus on student success and higher ed practitioners. He’s associate professor at Indiana University Bloomington and director of the National Survey of Student Engagement. Welcome back, Leonard.

Leonard Taylor, Jr.: Thanks

Heather Shea: for having

Leonard Taylor, Jr.: me.

Heather Shea: And saving our new person for last welcome to the podcast, Dr. Reginald Reggie Blockett. Reggie is an expert in college student development, campus ecology, and critical qualitative inquiry with a focus on queer students of color, intersectionality, and graduate student socialization.

He’s an associate professor in higher education administration at Auburn University. So excited to have you with us today, Reggie. Welcome.

Reginald Blockett: Hi, everybody

Heather Shea: Awesome. This is gonna be a lot of fun today. It’s a large panel. And as, as we go, if we mention any specific articles, we will populate the show notes for this episode today.

We’re gonna dive in. So first, let’s just start with the big picture. I know I am personally still processing the results, and literally, in some cases, in terms of the Senate in Mississippi and in Alaska, we’re still uncertain. The results are still uncertain. But regardless of what, how that turns out, the shifts in political power are significant.

Before we get into specific policies and impact on higher ed, I’d love to hear from each of you. What stands out about the Democratic victories, and how does the new balance of power change the political landscape? And maybe if others wanna also talk about what are the constraints that remain. And Felicia, I’m gonna kick it to you first.

Felecia Commodore: Sure. So I would say I’m gonna start with what hasn’t changed so we can end, I can end some of the warm fuzzies. But it’s important to remember that particularly for education, some of our core level federal appointments have not changed, right? So when we’re looking at the Department of Ed where we’ve had a lot of challenges, that’s not changed.

Cabinet members have not changed. And the, some of the cabinet members that have changed are th- things like the press secretary that we saw do not align with what most of us would like to think are the ideologies that we champion in higher education. So I think it’s really important to remember that because what we saw this federal administration do is work a lot through those levels, not through the legislative level.

And so just remembering that. But what has changed, I think, is that because there’s been at the federal level, a shift in power, there at least will be a slowdown, I think, of how these things move, and that’s important. So we may not shift things, but we may be able to have a doorstop of this in a sense.

And then the second thing I think is really important, and I’m sure we’ll get into it later, the state level. I think that we have seen some deep changes in states that have had a very embattled relationship with higher education over the last two years, if not longer. And I think that is where we really need to start having a conversation of what does that change mean.

But that, the, we’ve seen states like Texas, Iowa Georgia. We’ve seen things flip in ways we’ve never seen before, and so I think that’s important

Heather Shea: Thanks, Felicia. Leonard, how about you? What are the things that stand out for you, and what hasn’t changed?

Leonard Taylor, Jr.: Yeah. S- kind of picking up where Felicia left off I think the state level is going to be where we are likely to see the most direct impact on, or immediate I should say impact on higher ed the soonest.

Particularly in states that have flipped.

And es- and and especially, So I’m thinking about Texas for example, who, r- regardless of kind of partisan leadership, there’s a s- there’s solid support for higher education. But how that support is mobilized and the priorities that- that support, is expected to, achieve has the potential to shift. And so I think those types of things are gonna happen across the state. Some folks are raising some issues, or raising some questions around w- how that will affect institutional governance. Because we know that the boards…

people have been talking about presidents as political appointees, but boards are ac- absolutely political appointees- … for public institutions. And so it would be interesting to also see what ways these state level shifts will lead to some different kind of governance perspectives, at the board level and at the state governing the state higher ed governance level as well.

The other thing that I will say that, that hasn’t shifted but in a in a good way, is students’ commitment to their kind of- … civic engagement. And so I think historically we’ve overlooked… I won’t even say we’ve overlooked. If we look at the history of the US over the last four years, we have and we, higher education institutions, have actively suppressed, students’ expression of opinions and perspectives, especially when they diverge from, kind of the institutional perspectives. I’m sure Katharine will have some thoughts about this. This is just another example of those students having their, exercising their rights to voice their opinions and perspectives on the world.

And so I think this is, What hasn’t changed I think is students’ level of commitment to the outcomes of this election. So I’ll stop there.

Heather Shea: Awesome. And I am posting an article about how young voters fueled Democratic victories as one of those key points. Thanks for bringing that up, Leonard.

Catherine, your thoughts?

Katherine S. Cho: Yeah. So I wanna just clarify that I did not bribe Leonard to set me up in this way. But it is truly the perfect setup, because for me what I think about for this in, in all of these sort of victories and things like that is that this is an example, I think, for students of what on-the-grounds community organizing, what the result of that can look like, right?

And so as we are celebrating a lot of changes, I think a lot about Stacey Abrams, I think a lot about Beto O- O’Rourke. And I think a lot about previous and past elections and how much mobilization has happened, and I think that in many ways- … as student activists, especially on college campuses, have seen sort of loss after loss in the ways that they continue to be suppressed that this is a moment where it’s oh, and this is what happens when we’re actually able to mobilize in ways where we’re now being able to harvest the fruits of people’s labors that have been planted years before.

So I think that offers that type of critical hope that I think people are really excited for. I think for me, also to go on the sort of what hasn’t changed or I am cautiously hopeful of what will change is that in addition to the massive rollbacks on, academic freedom, curricular criticality and thinking about data, databases, the stripping and divestment, both on a federal and state level there have also been lots of different resolutions that have been passed on what students can and can’t protest about both on state and federal le- levels.

And so I am cautiously and optimistically hopeful that, … this new wave will actively work to repeal and pass new bills and respond to those ’cause those have such important consequences that exist for students who are gonna graduate this May, right? And so I’m really cautiously hopeful that’s going to be something that’s gonna particularly change.

Heather Shea: Awesome. Thanks, Catherine. Reggie?

Reginald Blockett: Yeah. I think about one of the things that has changed that sort of speaks, we see the big, what they call the, the blue tsunami, but- … we need to remember that group is not homogenous. That group is- … not monolithic, right?

It is a very different type of blue if you will. It’s wild to think that just 10 years ago a progressive candidate in a Democratic party was unpopular in a lot of ways. Or I sh- maybe I shouldn’t say that. They were popular, but had a hard time, reaching the top. I’m thinking about, Bernie Sanders, for example.

But now we have up and down, the s- the both sort of state, local and certain at the national level so many folks within the Democratic Party that have leaned further into the sort of progressive and even some, some, a number of socialist candidates. And I think about that piece, that this is not the same set of Democrats, and that the electorate itself has changed and shifted alongside that.

What I think hasn’t changed, I hark back to what my good friend and colleague Leonard said students and student activism- … the student voice has not changed. I think specifically about what we saw in Greensboro, North Carolina with- … students at NCA&T UNC Greensboro Greensboro that said absolutely not.

You will not stop early voting on our campuses. We’re gonna have something to say about it. We’re going to not just cause a big fuss, but we’re gonna organize.” NCA&T, they have a history of sort of Aggie activism. And it was dope to see that hasn’t changed, that students are still very much up on game in terms of when we see things that are disrupting their political engagement, their ability to participate in a democracy they are going to disrupt and let us know that’s not okay.

That played a big role in North Carolina’s flipping, if you will-

Heather Shea: Yeah. Thanks, Reggie. Ethan, at the end, I don’t know if you recall this, at the end of the last episode, you talked about our state rep here in Michigan, and to get to that point again about how you mobilize the college vote. He was elected based on his extremely popular presence at Michigan State, so Will Lawrence congressional district in Michigan.

So Ethan you talked about it last time. I don’t know if you wanna add about that or share other things.

Ethan Ris: Yeah very cool to see Will Lawrence win that seat and, by a pretty good margin as well. And definitely, yeah, seeing students step up in places like North Carolina and Mississippi for sure in, in huge numbers, and Texas, of course, that nobody expected, especially in a midterm election.

But I’ll cy- circle back to where Felicia started us and Leonard picked up as well, which is we see these headlines about the Senate races and the House flipping to blue, and that’s really important. But I think and maybe this is gonna come up again in our conversation, but when it comes to implications for higher education, students and institutions, I think the, the state-level changes are gonna be pretty profound.

And really drilling down well past the headlines, even the governorships that have flipped, that’s big but I was able to count five states at least where there already were Democratic governors, but they were getting blocked by Republican legislatures in terms of legislation as well as appointing regents and other or trustees in states that do it that way.

And so North Carolina being one. Minnesota, Wisconsin, Arizona, and Pennsylvania all had Democratic governors before. They still have Democratic governors now, but those House or Senate, or in some cases both chambers, flipped, and that’s gonna actually s- be where you’re gonna see a lot of changes in sort of the more immediate the next year, there’s gonna be real implications there.

And then zooming out a little bit, I think, Several people touched on this. I think we’re already seeing, and this will continue, a vibe shift. There was a lot of talk about vibe shift two years ago, right after after Trump came in with a pretty decisive victory and the left was shell-shocked.

And people sailed into Washington and some state capitals, guns a-blazing, and the, the vibes were, intense. And a lot of higher education institutions or advocates very quickly, moved to do some preemptive acquiescence and to, try to play nice with the administration, or make quick changes to not not get in trouble.

Obviously, there were plenty of other individuals and institutions who didn’t do that and pushed back. And I think th- they’re looking pretty good today. But I really do anticipate, the vibe shifting right back and this, this anticipation that Congress is now very decisively run by Democrats, and that, the momentum looking to the 2028 elections is gonna be with the Democrats again.

Hopefully we’re gonna see leaders and institutions who are not going to be so eager to please the Trump administration, or who are gonna be willing to stand up for their students and their faculty and their communities.

Heather Shea: Awesome. So let’s take it to, like most directly, what does this mean for higher ed?

As we talked about the political landscape these two years of tracking consequential policy developments I am curious about where you see the greatest potential for change and where you think, again, within higher ed, things will remain largely unchanged. And Leonard, I’m gonna start it off with you this time.

Leonard Taylor, Jr.: Yeah. Power and control-

…

Leonard Taylor, Jr.: Are what I come back to. I think as Katharine mentioned, one of the, topic that has had states, very embattled is the con- the control that states have been exercising over curriculum and governance- … particularly in ways that restrict or preclude faculty’s influence or a diminished, hi- a historical tradition or at least aspiration of shared governance.

And so I think that there’s going to be some interesting pivots in states where, you know, the, the political bill weather has shifted when it comes to the types of control that are being exercised or the types of oversight. And I’m gonna be careful to say, it’s not that red or blue, there’s always governmental control that’s at play in higher education.

But- … the types of things that have been trying to, fall under the the legislative purview at the state level, I think is going to is gonna be unsettled. I don’t know how drastically- that drastically is gonna shift, especially given, some of the context that Ethan shared, but I think there’s gonna be some new questions or a new opening for organizations like AAUP at the state level- to do some advocacy related to shared governance, and perhaps some of that same slowing in states that have not been as aggressive about diminishing the power of shared governance. So I think that is one of the things that I think we can, expect in the higher ed space.

The other thing I think at the federal level that has been an ongoing conversation as well many of these conversations have been ongoing, I guess it just depends on who you’re talking to but it’s financial aid. And I think that’s another topic that touches both state and federal. So we’re in need of some serious Pell reform.

And that, is an access issue, but also it’s, it’s federal legislation. And so figuring out how to advocate and advance reform of Pell is gonna be, I think a, a ongoing priority that folks are gonna be watching for and that folks are gonna be lobbying for.

And financial aid at the state level. Because, similarly we tend to focus on financial aid from the federal perspective, but state level financial aid and the mechanisms that different states offer to finance and support post-secondary pathways is also really important. And so I think there’s gonna be a strategic opportunity for states to figure out how they are either proactive about supporting student financial aid, given the current uncertainty, or how they’re strategic in positioning themselves to support pathways for, people of their state through the post-secondary.

So those are that, those are the two things that I’ve been thinking about the, the most over the last couple weeks.

Heather Shea: Great. Reggie, what about you? What would you add to these implications for higher ed?

Reginald Blockett: Yeah. I hate to keep, piggybacking, as they say, off you, glitter, but I was literally thinking about the f- the, on at the federal level, the sort of financial aid implications.

And I’ll take a different take. I’ll I certainly agree and I think and I hope that Cong- this new Congress might be able to offer some sort of relief to college students currently- … to past graduates, to folks who are still paying off their student loans who… I was just talking to a colleague this morning who’s just my repayment has shifted and I’m now up went up another $400 or $500 on what I’m expected to pay in a month-to-month bill.”

Those kind of things that, that has a true real life material economic impact on what people are able to do and not able to do, whether it is buying a house, buying a new car, doing things that contribute to the economy that, that f- folks feel like they just don’t feel like they’re comfortable with moving in, in those directions.

In addition to that, I think correct me if I’m wrong, it’s been some time since the reauthorization of Higher Education Act has been talked about, has been reauthorized. My God, what did it expire in, 2013? And so that I hope that might be an avenue towards, f- that Congress might utilize to considering having some conversations about what reform looks like.

Having some conversations about, how do we give a, a reboosting to higher education in some ways. And I don’t know about you all, I know we are, we all all of us working and teaching higher education programs, work in the profession our field I feel the crunch that our field feels- Yeah

because of the realities that our enterprise feels, right? And so I just think that there could be space for a, a kind of reboost and reigniting the purpose of higher education, the pathways to, to broader higher education. There was so much really good progress being made, and it seems like that just came to a halt.

And I hope that might be on the conversation list of things we might jump back into. On a state and like regional level, I’ll look at Texas and I think it’s because of my current context- … of being in the Deep South. Being in in, in Alabama and Georgia states like Texas and Florida- set the agenda for where the South goes, right?

And literally in a lot of ways the state of Texas sets the agenda for some of our national conversation around both secondary and post-secondary education. And I hope that one of the impacts of, Texas having a, a brand new state legislature, a brand new governor, first time having a Democrat in, what?

Some 30 some years. I hope that there may be space for thinking about where the direction, where the the political agenda goes in Texas, and how that sort of fosters where the rest of the South goes. Because I just think in this moment, there’s some major changes needed.

I definitely echo the sentiment around the need to revisit the conversations around academic freedom. … Currently experiencing some real tensions with that in my own state of Alabama and at my own university. I think about the opportunity to revisit conversations about whether we refer to it again as DEI or however you wanna talk about it- Yeah

but the reality that we had cultural center spaces that students needed, that they are still yearning for- … that they don’t have- … at campuses like UT Austin, at campuses like Ole Miss or Mis- you know, all these places that, I watched on my own campus of Auburn when I was first hired in 2022, the first year of us having a Pride Center.

And unfortunately, within two years in 2024, that center went away because of the sort of anti-DEI movement. And I realize that some states are gonna… They have state policy that is gonna still make those realities, but I hope that there might be space to kinda revisit a conversation about, call it whatever you wanna call it, students need support.

This is a student success issue and a student engagement issue. And those students are feeling very much disengaged because of the lack of staff who have been dedicated to their success for some years and that kinda being taken away. So I hope that there may be some space in the regional South to think differently as we’re looking at Texas.

Which- Yeah … seems weird that we’re s- we’re talking about looking at Texas, but we’re looking at Texas.

Leonard Taylor, Jr.: And so I just real quick- Probably looking at Texas a little bit. Yeah. Clearly, yeah. It’s big. It’s big. The big- But to, just to, since we’re piggybacking Reggie, one- … one more quick thing or two more quick things on this question that I think are important to consider too, is one, how folks who advocate for higher education will help to position higher education as a policy agenda issue.

Because the other thing is these people in power are having lots of different topics and lots of folks with interests, that they wanna advocate for, under this kind of refreshed set of political actors. And so how higher education is positioned as a national priority will determine a lot of how- Things happen or not or won’t.

And then the other thing that is a concern that just came to mind too as as you mentioned Reggie is that in the states where the balance of power has shifted blue, but were historically red and in favor of higher education-

…

Leonard Taylor, Jr.: That could slow the investments, or the contributions if we get m- mired in bureaucracy and infighting.

So if folks can work together collectively, I think that, those shifts are going to potentially be positive. ‘Cause I, a state like Texas, I think could be in the same conversations as states like California when it comes to setting the tone for, higher education policy in the country.

But it’ll depend on how productive those state level legislators are in working with the governor to advance those priorities.

Katherine S. Cho: And I think to to add to this, to think about not only higher education being a priority for the policy, but also the reverberating effects of it. In terms of, I think about ICE and I think about immigration- and how those two policies have set the stage in many ways, and shaped for us the declining enrollment of international students. Yes. That then now impacts so much of how we are looking at enrollment right now, and we literally have countries that are like, “Do not come into the US. You will not be safe here.”

And I think as higher education should be, and we hope it is a, a priority, that immigration and internationalization and questions about visas and length of stay and term of stay for international students, those also all set the stage of then to this larger question of who belongs on college campuses.

And so I’m really hoping that state legislatures, governors offices, across all levels are really paying attention to that, ’cause that also has such a deep impact, towards where higher education can and should be going. And hopefully we’ll also reclaim things that we’ve lost in the past however many years.

Heather Shea: Yeah. Anyone else wanna chime in on this one? Ready to move to the next question? The next question that I have is really about what might this moment make possible. Again, so much has been about responding to threats and restrictions, uncertainty. And I feel like I just woke up last week on Wednesday and then just stuck with me through the remainder, still a little bit today, with just this feeling of hope, right?

And moving from that defensive mode to a more proactive space vision for higher ed. And I’m really curious, I’m also paralleling this question to what happened after COVID, right? What do we think about restoring reimagining, or completely rebuilding or even letting continue to to fall away, right?

I had a side conversation with Vernon Wall who some of you know does a lot of DEI training work. And so fast-forward, we’re gonna have an episode specifically about this. But to what, in what way should we completely just wholesale bring everything back exactly the way it was?

And his thought was, “No,” right? We learned some things over the last two years just like we learned some things during COVID that might have forever changed us. Ethan, I’ll start with you. What do you think this moment makes possible?

Ethan Ris: Yeah, great question. So and really good segue about thinking about, yeah, what do we wanna keep?

So Reggie mentioned it’s been… Yeah, it’s now been almost 19 years since the Higher Education Act was fully reauthorized in 2008. It expired in 2013, and we’ve just been on continuing resolutions ever since. So at some point, there will be an opportunity to reauthorize that fully, and heck no, we should not just recreate it- ’cause it has a lot of issues. And I can tell you all about how those developed historically and- … what some of the problems are, and we’ve seen a lot of the problems in relief the last couple of years, realizing how brittle some of our structures and policies and forms of organization are. And so that when you have bad faith actors in Washington, in the White House, or in the Department of Education, things can get bad really fast.

So whatever we come back with should be better and stronger and less vulnerable. Now, to be realistic, we are not going to get a reauthorization of that major legislation in the next two years. Yeah. I certainly do hope that the House and Senate committees with responsibility for those who are gonna be run by in…

If leadership continues, Senator Sanders, Bernie Sanders is gonna run the Senate committee. And I think it’s Bobby Scott from Virginia who’s gonna run the the House Education Committee. I hope they have hearings and start the work on what legislation could look like so that when 2029 rolls around, and hopefully we have an administration that cares a little bit more about things like access and equity, that we can hit the ground running with big legislation.

Now that being said, that doesn’t mean you just need to wait two years. I think, I genuinely think there are places where smart members of Congress can work with the Trump administration to get some things done, not on the biggest possible scale. Obviously we saw some increased funding for HBCUs in the first Trump administration.

It was fraught. We can talk about that. But I think there is potential for, funding for MSIs. I think there could be potential. Leonard mentioned Pell reform. I think Republicans and Democrats can both agree that the, the Pell Awards have not even come close to keeping up with basic inflation, let alone the cost of college.

That might be a place to have some targeted legislation to- Get Pell Grants closer to where we all agree they should be. And I think one huge piece of opportunity would be in legislation or policy focused on supporting community colleges. Community colleges are a bipartisan area where people trust them on the right and left.

They believe they need more money. They believe they need more resources and support, and that their students need more resources and support. And I really genuinely think that there could be some sort of legislation working with Democrats in Congress and Trump officials on increasing Pells and supporting community colleges.

It’ll take some work. So my point is, we don’t need to wait a full two years. But l- let’s get to work. Yep.

Heather Shea: Yeah. Felicia, what would you add to this? What does this make possible?

Felecia Commodore: Yeah. And I’ve said this on here before I often bristle at that. I think higher ed is very reactive instead of proactive.

I think we have been given a opportunity to truly be pro- proactive. One of the reasons I believe what we saw be accomplished be accomplished in the first two years of this federal administration is because there’s been about a 40-year plan in place, and we’ve slowly been able… They slowly have been able to implement parts of the plan.

So when the opportunity came, they just had to roll things out. I don’t know that higher education advocates or those who are leaning left have a plan, but they better get one. And I think they- Bingo … need to decide what they want higher education to look like for the next 30 years, 30 or 40 years.

And start putting those building blocks in place while they have the opportunity to, particularly at the state level. I think when we talk about Texas I also bring up Indiana, Wisconsin, Iowa. It’s not just that the, the governorship turned blue, the state legislature leaned blue. We’re talking, in Texas, we’re talking about the courts went blue.

We’re talking about the Board of Ed went blue. These things matter insofar as codifying policies that you want to be long lasting, right? So I think this is the time. What is the plan for the next 40 years, not just how do we fix what happened in the last two years? And get that stuff rolling so it is entrenched for whatever comes for comes in, in the future.

I think the other thing I think we need to think about is- we know that the big, beautiful budget is about to hit, right? We’re gonna fit- Yeah … feel the actual impacts of it on the state level. These states who now have more liberal power, we’ll say, in thinking fiscally, how are they gonna fill the gap- yeah … in respect to higher education? I think this is a opportunity for them to … and think that there’s gonna be eyes on them. You’ve made these promises, you’ve said these things that you believe about investing in education. Here’s gonna be your opportunity because if not, I do think there’ll be a backlash, right?

They’re g- we’re gonna look at these states like, “We put you there, you said you would fill these gaps, and you didn’t,” right? And so I do think we need to take time. How can we do that? And we know it’s gonna be hard, right? Because we’re still feeling the economic impact of all the other policies that have happened.

But I think the states that pull that off will put themselves in a really good position moving forward. And lastly, what I’ll say too is so I lived in the state of Virginia when we had a the governorship, the, and both houses in the state legislature. And one of the things I witnessed during that time was

I saw a state legislator move like I had never seen move before. They did not waste ti- I think they passed 250 laws. It was the wildest thing I had ever seen. They got in first day and was like, “We’ll stay here all night. We’re just gonna just keep pushing through.” And not saying you do that recklessly, but I do think this isn’t the time to sit and kinda how do we make friends?”

How do … What do we have the power to do? How quick can we get it done? How well can we codify it? Because we don’t know that we’ll have that for time. And I do think if you look at the state of Virginia, when the governorship flipped the following year, there were a lot of things that were hard to undo because the state legislature did a really good job of codifying things.

And then lastly- and this speaks to something Reggie shared earlier about the, the electorate looking different.

I think we have a opportunity to hear from voices that we don’t, that don’t usually get to be heard. And what I hope that in these spaces, especially I think about when we looked at Indiana, if you look at the shift, even though m- most of it stayed red, when we looked at the shift, every, every county shifted blue.

We broke the Indiana broke the s- state super majority in the legislature. So looking at who were the voices that kind of broke that up, you’re seeing a more diverse a group of representatives, state legislatures, ideologies. And sometimes we have the opportu- sometimes we take, we, what we do is we thank you for your vote, and then we ask you to be quiet.

And I think the, that will not work this time, especially because people are feeling like their voices finally were heard, and they’re gonna keep screaming because now it feels like it works. Thinking about how do we invite voices in and ideas in that maybe before we haven’t listened to, so do have a pulse on the people, and we are addressing the issues of the people and not just a- agendas.

Heather Shea: Thank you, Felicia. Catherine, what are your thoughts? What do we think this moment makes possible?

Katherine S. Cho: Yeah, I wanna really elevate what Felicia’s example was, right? Because I, I think a lot of times we assume bureaucracy is so slow-moving, but over the past, four, four years, man, people moved real quick to repeal rights.

It was the, the fa- the fastest I’ve ever seen bureaucracy move. A- and then s- universities and colleges that are notoriously slow also moved very fast, actually even anticipated, and then moved in advance, which we also- Yeah … rarely see colleges and universities doing. Yeah. And I do…

I really just wanna elevate that speed is often used as an excuse when we’ve seen the exact opposite for the past four years, and so we need to move quickly. And this is, part of the in order to be ready, you have to stay ready. I forget who said this but I know that’s like a, it’s a very famous quote or, and part of a song.

I think in the midst of that, part of what, for me as we’re, trying to move quickly one of the biggest areas that I think we need to repair is data, and the, the rollback- Ah … of all the data infrastructure, right? Like National Center for Educational Statistics, what is that right now, right?

Yeah. And any breach and gap of data is always bad, right? And I know on our call, Leonard, runs NC NCES, so can definitely say more about this as well. I think a lot about that. I think about the, the years that we’ve lost right now, and how we need to make up for that.

Yeah. But also recognizing that all the data we collected, we sh- there are better ways to have improved that as well, right? So it’s not just a, oh, let’s just keep doing what we’ve done, and there are better ways to do that. But that, for me, is one of the higher priorities, because, if we don’t have data, then we don’t have the research, and then that doesn’t give us the data-informed decisions, although we could also argue that many decisions that have been made right now are not data informed, right?

But I think a lot about that, of, what happens to scholarships, to knowledge, to policy ideas if we don’t have data, right? And that is part of the reason why destroying our data infrastructure was one of the top priorities over the past four years. And so that’s, for me, I think a central priority that I think we have to reinstate.

And that way we can have consistency, but also improvements as we continue, especially as we think about, changes to census and all these different categories that we should be updating as well.

Heather Shea: For those of you who are listening, there was overwhelming enthusiasm about NCES and data, and NESE.

And it I just think that your all’s faces were like, “Yes, we need this.” Yeah. Felicia?

Felecia Commodore: Yeah. I just wanted to in the thought about speed. I just wanted to kinda maybe it, it will a, a kinda piecemeal metaphor, but roll with me. So when I think about, like, when you think about race car drivers, right?

The reason they can perform so accurately at such high speeds is because they got it. They’re used to it. They know their car, they know their vehicle. They know exactly how it works. They know how the terrains work. They understand the spaces between each other. I think one of the challenges we have with speed is that we don’t know how car works, and we’re spending so much time trying to figure out how the car works, by the time we figure out how car works, time is fast to stop.

So I really wanted to use this kinda, this time where we’re transitioning what is it that we need to know how it works, exactly where it works, what we need to tweak, what we need, so we can move fast. And then if we hit something that makes us have to stop, are we ready to move, repair and move fast?

That is the other thing that works with race cars, right? When my tire blows, when my, when something goes off, I can hit that pit stop, they can change it quickly, and we can get back on the road. I just really think we need to make sure that when we hit these legislative sessions, that we have a plan, we know how things work, we know how things move.

And that may mean getting new people up to speed and getting old people to shift their mindset around things, but let’s get there before day one, so on day one we’re ready to hit the ground running.

Heather Shea: Love that metaphor

Leonard Taylor, Jr.: It’s a… Yeah, a- absolutely. And I think, the, the cars that we know the best are our institutions.

So right now, there’s still a lot of uncertainty between, now and the first week of January before a power shifts, right? So what are the ways that colleges and universities are preparing- Yes … for what will be a new vibe at the state level for those states where there’ve been significant shifts?

Because what I think is also, and this goes back to what Katharine mentioned around that proactive compliance that was happening, there was a particular kind of coercion that w- that is, we’re used to in higher education, but was amplified.

Right? The federal government doesn’t have any direct powers over, higher education institutions from a governance perspective, but wield great power, via- Totally

funding and other federal me- mechanisms. And so under this new vibe, what is possible for colleges and universities will shift at the state and federal level. Are presidents and cabinets, are governing boards prepared for that? And so I, I think that’s a piece too that we, sometimes institutions, Our institution- many institutions have been conditioned to take cues from state level politics and whoever else qu- you know, holds the purse.

And I don’t know that will shift in the long term, but as things are shifting, I think there will be opportunities to move fast. The other piece I think with data that Catherine mentioned, and I think the good thing is, I don’t know that our federal h- post-secondary data landscape was dismantled as much as it was sequestered, right?

So like da- lots of the data has continued to be collected, but people have not had access to those data to do th- meaningful things with them. And so I think the promise in that as well is thinking “What are, what’s the low-hanging fruit? What are the things that we can flip and turn, to continue to reopen the spigots when it comes to to data?”

And I think Catherine also alluded to the census, which is one of the things that I’m paying a close attention to- Yeah … is like what are the things that were coming changes that we can interrupt now that we’re in this space? And, what kind of advocacy can happen at the, at, at the, the two-year and four-year level to do that?

So anyway, I just wanted to add those little pieces to the, these great comments.

Felecia Commodore: I’ll say, where can fill the data gap, right? Like, why do we have to wait on the federal government? I think there’s a great opportunity for these states to say we can collect our own data,” right?

Leonard Taylor, Jr.: And they do, right?

Yeah. Like this is, so this is, I think- Yeah … the and in the most comprehensive ways, right? So one of the, the biggest ch- challenges, or critiques that I would offer around a post-secondary data landscape is that it’s just like the Wild West in some ways. The federal government has its stuff that it collects, IPEDS is what we talk about, most, but there are other important federal level data that gets collected, related to labor, for example.

Tax data for institutions is also really important, whatever. But state level data systems have s- needed some attention for some time. States like Texas, however, have a really robust state level data system where they can integrate, education data, kind of P through 20 labor outcomes, et cetera, et cetera.

And so I think that a lot of the focus, and I’ll return to this in a future comment, but a lot of the focus around agility should be at the state level for post-secondary

Heather Shea: That’s right.

Ethan Ris: I mean- it’s also worth just quickly mentioning on the federal- Yeah … thing the dismantling of the De- Department of Education’s NCES- and IES is clearly illegal, but has not been able to be a court case for the last two years because- … the body that has standing to sue the administration is Congress. So I’m hoping that a Democratic Congress will now sue the Department of Education and say, “We appropriated this money so that you would do these things.”

Yeah. “You have to do them.” And the judges will back them up, because we haven’t seen that. So fingers crossed.

Heather Shea: Thank you. Similarly with the MSI

Felecia Commodore: grant

Reginald Blockett: money too. Yeah.

Heather Shea: Exactly.

Ethan Ris: Yes. Yeah.

Heather Shea: Yes. Yes. Yeah. And I’m, I oversee a TRIO program, and I know we’re waiting on several different competitions to reopen, whether it’s McNair or others.

And so I think there’s a whole bunch that the college or that the Department of Education is holding that, yes, accountability matters. I th- we’re already drifting into this, so I’m gonna bring it down to the the day-to-day student affairs educator level, because I do think, when we talk about the possibilities and what this moment might make possible, I think it’s g- it’s giving me a lot of hopeful vibes, but critical hope for me requires action.

And there’s a lot that we can’t control that’s happening out in Washington or in our state houses, but what do we have within our individual spheres of control as higher ed student affairs educators? What should we be paying attention to? What should we be a- advocating for or acting on right now?

And Felicia, I’m gonna pass to you first.

Felecia Commodore: Yeah of course I’m gonna think about the institutional governance level. I think this is a really good time for us to identify whether it’s cues from our leaders or pushing our leaders and asking them questions where our institutions are trying to be in this moment.

And particularly in relationship to state changes. And definitely for public institutions, but all institutions. What, how are we making sure we’re part of the conversation, and not that the conversation’s happening around us and then we just wait for it to happen to us? I think when you look at some of the flagships, because of the power and influence that they have, they make sure they’re in the conversation that they’re shaping the conversation.

So thinking about how not just those institutions, but other institutions can make sure that they’re a part of shaping the conversation around wh- where we’re heading policy-wise, where these institutions fall, where budgets how budgets are gonna be shaped and allocations and appropriations are gonna happen, and how board appointments are going to happen.

I think that, we, again, I I know I pick on Virginia, but I study them a lot. But, like, when we looked at Virginia, when they had some leadership changes, they went right in those boards and started moving things around. And so really trying to understand what, how does leadership feel about the relationship between board appointments and the state government.

I think also what’s important to note, and I think faculty should pay attention to this, or institutional leaders, this was the first time that we saw AAUP endorse candidates.

Leonard Taylor, Jr.: True.

Heather Shea: Yep.

Felecia Commodore: And I looked at a list, and all but one of the candidates they endorsed won their race My guess is they have proof of concept now.

And so this-

This is not, it’s not gonna be like, “Oh, we got it done this time.” It’s gonna, there’s gonna be a push to expand how these different higher education associations engage in advocacy.

And so I think that’s something we need to pay attention to. Again, who’s shaping that conversation?

How are those decisions being made? Who how are they putting themselves, is, what, both at the federal and the state level that we may not have seen before. But I think that, that is something that is going to definitely expand. And then saying on the campus level, and the same way I said about everything else I think each unit, each department needs to have a plan.

What is our plan both ways, if things don’t shift and if things do shift?

We need to be ready to get in front of people when the time comes, and say what we need and how we need it done and again, not wait for things to happen to us. I, I think as we talk about things that haven’t changed, I think private money and venture capital is- still making its way into higher education. So how do we then navigate that in addition to a possibility of having more investment from state and possibly federal level? How are we gonna navigate that on a unit level? And then lastly, when we had a conversation about student voice, one of the things we did see was a a really kind of passionate- Involvement, engagement of the younger col- trying to traditionally age college student in this election.

I think I saw some exit poll data where young white males between 18 and 30 overwhelmingly leaned blue which we know was some of the right’s target audience. So to me what that means is there’s gonna be a shift to try and get some of that demographic back to the right or less engaged.

So on our college campuses, how are we going to create environments to keep students engaged civically- Yeah … provide opportunities for them to think through different i- ideologies and how they can enact them, and ensure that when the attacks come to the colleges, ’cause they’re coming, that we have set things in place to protect our students.

So I think that’s something to think of.

Heather Shea: Awesome. Reggie, what about you? What are your thoughts about what we can do about it? What can student affairs and higher ed folks do?

Reginald Blockett: Yeah. I think about this a lot. I think about we know a lot of times the ways that we the things we ought to be doing, the, the things that we need to be doing in higher education.

We let those things like bureaucracies or things like stock stories get in our way. And I hope that my, my critical hope in this moment is that we really take this time to reinvent ourselves and we do things anew, right?

Leonard Taylor, Jr.: Yeah.

Reginald Blockett: We… How do I say this? We’ve, we, we know the realities of the things that work and don’t work on, on, in our institutions and in higher education.

For example student affairs units and academic affairs units we’ve been talking for probably, I, I’ve only been in the field for about 20 years, but at least 30, 40 years about the siloing of our various- Yes. … divisions, right? This is the time to destroy the silo, right?

Like- … this is the time to stop it. I- if we’ve had those battles with academic affairs, student affairs, this is the time to put that stuff to rest. What we’ve come to learn in this moment is that we were caught flat-footed and we were not prepared for the things that came our way, and we, our resources were snatched up from under us, right?

Everything from federal grants and federal opportunities for funding to the NSF and things like that, NIH, being taken away to the impacts of the financial aid. The sort of reform, if you will, this, this current financial aid structure. Let’s not be caught flat-footed.

Let’s have a plan. Let’s do things that we’ve not done before. So if we get an opportunity, for example, to certain places DI never went away, other places it’s, the conversations been toned down or completely went away. If we get a, if we have an opportunity to reestablish ourselves, let’s do things differently, right?

Let’s, maybe let’s not have more siloing of identities, for example, in terms of how we do identity based centers. Why don’t we match those things along- alongside our academic affairs partners in, in making sure that we are presenting this work as a student success mandate, a student success necessity.

How do we get to ourse- find our- ourselves not back in the same trap that we always fall into when it comes to competition for students, right? I know in Michigan, I just saw the report that said I don’t know, 13 of the 15 public universities all experienced a enrollment decline, right?

It’s not enough to just say, “Okay, this school’s gonna compete against this school’s st- Yep … students and things.” We gotta be thinking about a national and a global transition of how we think of, how we redo college admissions and enrollment. So I just, for me in this moment, it’s just thinking we, we all, us as academics, we always writing about implications for practice.

Practitioners and administrators always said, “What are the implications?” We know the implications. Like this is the time to do the things we’ve been talking about for 40 years. Otherwise we’re gonna fall ourselves right back in the trap of accountability and other people dictating- Yeah … how we do what we know best.

And so I just hope that in this moment let that be our critical hope. Who knows what the next two or three or four or 50 years are gonna bring, but at least like Felicia said, let’s have a plan in place, let’s know where we wanna go. Otherwise I’m hearing echoes of Dr.

Chris Ren’s what was her talk? She gave her presidential address and talking about the low consensus field, and it’s higher education. Yeah. We gotta build more consensus because if we don’t, we- we’re starting to see, we can dwindle away like all other structures and functions in society as well.

Yeah. So that’s my two cents there. Shout out

Heather Shea: to Dr.- Let’s not be caught flat-footed. Shout out to Dr. Ren, my di- my dissertation chair and faculty. Just amazing person who I just had an email just while we were recording. I was like, “Oh.” I also think- Oh. And yeah, Felicia, did you wanna add something?

Felecia Commodore: Yeah, I just wanted to add to that and Reginald, we’ve been writing about this and implications, and y’all know this is like my soapbox I get on every time. We’ve got to get better at communicating what we know outside- Yes … of the academy- Yeah … and in ways that is, that are accessible. I know we were very excited to saw we got some PhDs now in the Congress, and that’s all great.

But we- And former professors … yeah, the DCL, the ca-… Yes. And so that’s a good opportunity, but we saw candidates that were successful who were able to distill down very complex information to the public very easily. We know w- we’ve been studying this. We know what works. We know what doesn’t work. We know the weird intricacies of higher education that most people do not.

We do not communicate it well. We do not place ourselves in space though to have those conversations. And then when we’re in these, these spaces, we’re so busy trying to prove that we can educate people that we actually don’t learn how to learn the language to communicate well with people. So I think this is a really good opportunity for higher education scholars and activists to really think about, how do we get what we know into the places of power that it can influence in ways that people understand what we’re talking about?

Heather Shea: Yes.

Leonard Taylor, Jr.: And this is the… I think this is the it’s reverberating through the conversation. Higher education has to articulate or and that could be… often we talk about higher education in the abstract, but Felicia and I actually wrote a wrote an article about this, right?

Yeah. Colleges and universities other higher education organizations and advocacy groups state level legislative bodies, that focus on higher education, federal legislative bodies that focus on higher education, philanthropies, right? Everybody needs a point of view about the role of higher education in American democracy.

Because where we’ve been caught flat-footed, to use the announ- use the saying that Reggie introduced is that we’ve been pivoting to respond to political priorities and pressures, and we’ve lost in a lot of ways, our institutions have lost our kind of democratic soul. And so- you know, reclaiming that is gonna be integral for the future of, sure, the future of, democracy in the US, but also the future of higher education’s relevance to the general public. So going back onto Felicia’s point like one of the biggest gaps, the, the, the hill that I’ve been fighting on is the fact that higher education institutions don’t- Do a good job of building relationships with local and regional communities when they are focused on these, like, higher or global levels of attainment.

So two-year colleges- Yes … are great at that. Regional publics are great at that. HBCUs and other MSIs, religiously affiliated independent colleges all tend to be really focused on curating that relationship between communities. But those, the, a lot of the universities that we’re at, that we work at, tend to wanna have this global impact and disregard the local communities.

And so I think that is gonna be an opportunity to rethink what ways we support democracy in the local level, and what the role of colleges and universities are to do that. And I would really love if there were some different players in the US higher education institutional landscape to- that, that would take the lead and take the charge and become the exemplar. Yes. And so I say this often about HBCUs, is that, what we saw at North Carolina State, and we saw, what we saw with those students marching to the polls after they were after the polling location was r- Yeah

moved from the institution- Yeah … there were practitioners and administrators that were supporting them and helping them organize, or at least- Yes … creating the space for them to act, right? And that culture of action is endemic to HBCUs when it comes to students’ access to administrators. It’s something that we asked about in, in the NSSE survey, for example.

Yeah. And so I think that there’s gonna be a really unique opportunity for colleges and universities who have strong ethos, or strong commitments to local communities, and a good relationship with their students from an empowerment perspective, to really cultivate not only the next kind of legion of voters, but also the next elected officials that will be running for office, right?

One of the alumni from our higher ed program, ran for school board here in Indianapolis. She didn’t win, but she becomes an example of what you can do- Yeah … with a higher ed degree, or what you can do- Yeah … when you come out to student affairs and having a positive impact on the world.

So s- sorry for all that that just… It- Felicia’s comment made me think “Yes, here’s another thing that we could be reimagining about how higher education shows up- Yeah … in our society.”

Heather Shea: And I say, as I think about, like, why, exactly why I think current campus context is such a fabulous venue for these conversations is exactly you all are, what you all are demonstrating, is that when we are able to communicate the knowledge that we have…

just because you went to college doesn’t mean you’re an expert on higher education. Ah. But when you bring experts- I’ll divorce that. Yeah. We bring experts- You put that on

Ethan Ris: a bumper sticker?

Heather Shea: Yeah. I didn’t go to medical school, so therefore I don’t know anything about med… but, like- Yeah

everybody thinks that they are a product of higher ed, so therefore they could run it. We need more opportunities for folks who actually have the background and degrees to, to bring that knowledge forward. So that’s

Leonard Taylor, Jr.: amazing. And to piggy- one- and Heather, you bring up a really good point as well about perspectives.

Yes. Because also, just because you don’t go to college and don’t wanna go to college- … doesn’t mean that your opinion about what higher education doing is moo- or, or- True … or unimportant. Yes. Important. Absolutely. And that’s in a variety of different ways. Like one, public tax dollars, right?

People are voting for their issues. Yeah. Yep. And two, one of the things that I think we also overlook is the fact that higher education institutions writ large are not just places of education. They are sources of employment. So some, in some regions or in some towns, these are the largest employers.

They are the employment. So federal labor law-

Katherine S. Cho: Yeah,

Leonard Taylor, Jr.: the largest. Yeah. Healthcare providers. They are the employment. So federal labor law- Yeah. … Is something that they also are contending with that is important. This is sometimes access to healthcare, right? Yeah. Or childcare in areas where, the university hospital is the hospital or is the best hospital.

And so there are some other ways that people- Yeah … engage with co- colleges and universities that- require us, not just in higher education student affairs, but folks who are in higher ed outside of the student facing space, to think about how are the public our constituents and how does that shape the ways that we think about them when it comes to relationship building, advocacy and empowerment?

Heather Shea: Yeah. And it’s all, to me, about how do we make the broad case for the public good, right? And how do we bring that m- that message out to the larger voter? ‘Cause it, that’s probably part of the problem too is higher ed not being as effective in telling its story and being seen as, these elitist spaces.

We need to also work to dismantle that. Oh my gosh, I could keep going. I’m gonna mo- move us towards our final segment, which is the what are we, you watching. Last fall, or earlier this fall we switched our final question from what’s keeping you up at tonight to what are you watching? What are the things that might not be headlines yet?

And there is so much, I think, af- in the wake of these election results that I think might translate into those things. About 30 seconds each, what’s one development you’ll be watching in the coming weeks or months that you think the rest of us in higher ed and student affairs should be paying attention to?

And Ethan, I’m gonna start with you.

Ethan Ris: Oh, that’s tough. That’s too big a question ’cause there are so many things from- So many … the leadership of congressional committees to, s- state who comes in as directors of education. But I think, I don’t wanna change the subject too much.

Let’s keep it at the high end and echo what everybody else has been saying, is like I’m gonna watch, like can we get higher education issues and advocacy for our students to be in the conversation? It’s not gonna be number one, but can we not be forgotten? And part of that- … is gonna be like, yeah, it’ll be nice for folks to call us and ask us for our help.

But to Felicia’s point, like we probably shouldn’t wait for the phone to ring. We have to get out there. And so let’s see what, the six of us on this call can do and our colleagues who are experts in this stuff. Let’s go, make the calls ourselves, write the op-eds, get out on TV, on podcasts, on the radio- Yeah

as much as we can. And I’m gonna be watching, do we get any bites? Do people- Yeah … start paying attention to us? But we won’t know unless we try.

Heather Shea: Thank you. That’s perfect. Reggie, what are your thoughts? What are you watching?

Reginald Blockett: What I’m watching is these, these two Supreme Court justices who are, Yeah

I don’t wanna be ageist here, but they are approaching a next level. And they’re each- They’re in their golden years okay. The go- the real golden years. I, there’s been talk about retirement and things like that. I’m watching those two seats. I’m thinking to myself, I don’t know that we see ourselves moving to a place of trying to force in new Supreme Court seats.

But at least let’s be watching to see what happens to to justices who are looking to retire. So many of our troubles, if you will, or our complications that impact us in higher ed many of them lately, affirmative action cases, the next ones, they have come down from Supreme Court rulings.

Yep. So we can do all the things we want with Congress. Let’s look to see what those these two justices. One of them Alito, was talking about retirement this fall. I’m sure they’re gonna try to hold out at this point as long as they can. But I just… i’m like, let’s see.

And let’s not forget either that, I hate to play tit for tat, but when it was the other way around, and, you know- That’s right … Obama wanted to move forward. Obama. They held it up. So we gotta- They did … hold up for two years. Let’s find out how we can hold up. Yeah

but all that to say, I’m just, I’m watching that to see what that means for our political context.

Heather Shea: That’s a great point. Catherine, how about you?

Katherine S. Cho: Outside of the indictments that I’m waiting on, right? I think a lot of us are waiting for those. I would say so December 2nd, the IRS is holding a hearing about the about racial non-discrimination.

And it’s essentially a way to weaponize private K through 12 schools as well as colleges and universities that the reverberations of this are, for example, pulling a tax-exempt status if schools decide to have Black studies or have, you know- … any form of racial discrimination, however that gets utilized, interpreted, et cetera.

And a school y- losing their tax-exempt status is a huge blow financially. Yeah. And that’s another way that you see the type of impact that, that can happen. And it’s happening December 2nd, so I’m gonna be paying very close attention, not just because I work at a private institution, but just really thinking about that’s one of the continued vestiges of this administration.

Heather Shea: Yeah. That’s great. Not great. Scary. Leonard.

Leonard Taylor, Jr.: I’m watching Mississippi.

Heather Shea: Yeah.

Leonard Taylor, Jr.: I’m, Yeah … I’m waiting on these ballots to roll in- Yeah … for my fraternity brother and and candidate Scott Collum. I’m, as a former Mississippi resident, I am very excited about that. But for what it does to dispel the myths that we have in the US about the rural South-

Rurality- … in general, the Deep South, like all of those things. A lot of people who have never lived in the South don’t really understand how the South works socially, politically, or socio-politically. And so we count out states that have big contributions. We assume good things aren’t happening in places because who’s re- who they’re represented by, and that’s just not true, right?

Yeah. I’ve lived in Mississippi, lived in Alabama Indiana feels like the South sometimes. And there’s good things that are happening in these places and people who genuinely care about the people in these places- okay … that, that’s one of the things that I think I, I can say that th- that race has been inspiring because I think it has the potential to shed a different light and for, states in the South to be different kind of political players.

And then the other thing I think about my home state, where I’m from, Wisconsin, we have a a, a Democratic governor, first Black governor of the State of Wisconsin, but also the UW system, University of Wisconsin system- Yeah. … Just hired an HBCU alum who was formerly working in extension at University of Alabama.

And so there’s tho- those middle level kind of- … interactions between state and system governance are also gonna be really important to pay attention to. So we talked about university presidents, but system leadership I think is also gonna be really- Yeah … interesting in those states that have newly elected leaders.

Heather Shea: Awesome. Thanks, Leonard. Felicia, your final thought?

Felecia Commodore: Yeah. Transparently when you first said, what are you watching?” I was thinking about TV, and I just watched- … the Saban documentary, which was better than I thought it was gonna be and may have taught me a little bit about myself.

But what I am watching with the policies is, I think one of the things that we have to be honest with is how these past two years have accelerated the decline in public trust in higher education. So I think this what we have seen somewhat is a referendum not just on higher education, but including how states and the federal government have handled higher education.

I’m cur- I want to watch how this new majority of leadership works to reestablish public trust in higher education.

I don’t think they can ignore that and think they can just move forward. Yeah. W- it is irrevoc- it’s very broken. And so in order for us to move certain policies forward, I want to see how that trust is gonna be rebuilt, how it’s gonna be communicated, and who’s gonna be involved, which brings me to my next thing, which Ethan spoke to.

I wanna see who these committee appointments are gonna be, particularly- … the higher edu- or the education committees, the budget committees the, the these policies. I want to see not just at the federal level, but- … at the state level. Because I think they will signal to us what the main agenda points are gonna be.

And then I wanna see how the agenda is communicated. Again- … I think this is a situation where we have, where the new leadership has to say, “This is what we’re doing.” “This-” Yeah … “how we’re gonna hit it.” And so we’re very clear what the agenda is. But I wanna see if the agenda and the appointments match.

If they line up. And then lastly talk about system level changes at state level governing board appointments and institutional appointments of boards. Are we shifting? Are we not shifting? And I think that will matter from state to state context a- because you have to think about the local politics of things.

But again, I think how we see the relationship between board appointments at both the institutional level and the state level, governing board level, will also signal to us some agendas and where this leadership, particularly at the state level, sees higher education’s relationship in the social contract of society.

Are we just there for economic gains? Are we here to help with the d- democratization and the building of a educated and engaged citizenry? What is what is the new frontier for the new social contract with higher education in soc- US society?

Heather Shea: Wow. So many good thoughts, and I am definitely gonna track all of these as we move into the last month of the year.

We’ll be back in December with our final episode of 2026 of Current Campus Context. As we wrap up today, I just keep coming back to this idea that a shift in political power creates possibilities, but it doesn’t guarantee change. And as we’ve spent the past two years talking about what we have lost, we haven’t erased any of those challenges that are facing our institutions, but I think we now need to ask and think about collectively, what do we wanna build?

And what can we do within our own spheres of influence to shape what comes next? I am so grateful to the five of you part of a larger group of expert correspondents for making time on such short notice, bringing your insights to the conversation. And to our listeners and viewers, we’d love to hear from you.

What are you paying attention to, and what opportunities for action do you see? You can keep the conversation going with us on social media or on our Patreon. And if you haven’t already subscribed, you can get updates about our latest episode delivered every Wednesday to your inbox. All you have to do is sign up for our newsletter and you can also explore our entire Current Campus Context archive at studentaffairsnow.com.

Special thank you to our producer, Nat Ambrosey, for turning this, our episode around super quickly. You are the best. We appreciate you, Nat. And finally, I’m Heather Shea. Let’s stay curious, stay engaged, and remember we all have a role to play in shaping what comes next for higher ed.

Associated Press – Calling Control of Congress in the 2026 Midterm Elections. (November 5, 2026) 

National College Attainment Network (NCAN) — Midterm Recap: What’s Ahead for Federal Higher Education Policy? (November 6, 2026) 

The Chronicle of Higher Education — 6 Essential Questions for Higher Ed After the Midterms (November 4, 2026)

The Chronicle of Higher Education – Here’s the Latest on Higher Ed and the Midterms (liveblog)

Inside Higher Ed – Can Democrats Make the Most of their Win? (November 6, 2026)

Inside Higher Ed – How Young Voters Fueled Democratic Victories (November 6, 2026)