FIRE on Campus Leadership and the Defense of Open Inquiry
Release Date: 02/17/2026
The Purpose of Liberal Arts Education in the Age of AI
Changing Higher Ed
The same students who say college costs too much are overwhelmingly saying it was worth it, and that contradiction is the key to the entire public confidence debate. In Gallup-Lumina polling cited in this episode, 93 percent of bachelor's students called their degree a worthwhile investment. The doubt is about price, not the education, and generative AI has raised the stakes for confusing the two. In this episode of the , speaks with , where she is leading t, about the purpose of liberal arts education in the age of AI. Acampora argues that the purpose of higher education is human formation,...
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Building Fairleigh Dickinson’s Lifelong Learning Ecosystem Across Five Generations
Changing Higher Ed
Program discontinuation is usually the fight presidents avoid. Fairleigh Dickinson University put a significant slate of program discontinuations and consolidations to a faculty referendum, and roughly 88 percent of the faculty endorsed it. The vote reflects a larger redefinition underway at FDU: a shift from the four-year degree to a university built around lifelong learning. In this episode of the , Dr. Drumm McNaughton speaks with and the first FDU graduate to hold the office, about the four-P framework guiding that redefinition: programs, people, partnerships, and place. Avaltroni...
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Pairing Liberal Arts with Tech Readiness: Five Institutional Decisions from Manhattan University
Changing Higher Ed
At Manhattan University, the case for the liberal arts is being made with outcomes, not nostalgia. Its graduates rank in the top 2% nationally for mid-career salaries, and The Wall Street Journal ranked the university 73rd in the country for graduate salaries, social mobility, and cost-effectiveness. The more useful story for institutional leaders sits underneath those numbers: a set of deliberate decisions about , technology preparation, faculty adoption, hiring, and alumni engagement. In this episode of the , speaks with , President of , about how the institution pairs a liberal arts...
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Student Retention: Using AI to Spot Disengagement Before Dropout
Changing Higher Ed
Most retention systems flag struggling students through grades and attendance. By the time those indicators fire, many students are already halfway out the door. Elvee's survey of 1,050 U.S. college students shows why: 86% start college highly motivated, 42% come close to dropping out at some point, and only 17% of those who struggle ever request help. In this episode of the , speaks with , CEO of , whose work with U.S. colleges centers on reading behavioral data for early signals of student disengagement. Drawing on his background in commercial technology, Dar explains how patterns in...
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Higher Ed's Trust Problem Isn't a PR Problem: AAC&U's Trust Agenda
Changing Higher Ed
Half of college presidents worried about public trust are answering with a public relations campaign. According to the AAC&U report at the center of this episode, that is a reasonable instinct but the wrong one. Public confidence in colleges and universities has slid for more than a decade, and messaging alone will not turn it around. In this episode of the , speaks with , lead author of and he co-directs AAC&U’s Advancing Public Trust in Higher Education initiative, about why trust has eroded and what campus leaders can actually do about it. Their conversation moves past naming...
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Why Research Funding Cuts Are a Strategic Risk, Not a Budget Problem
Changing Higher Ed
When the federal government freezes research funding, leaders tend to treat it as a budget problem: a number that was cut and might later be restored. The harder truth in this conversation is that much of the damage cannot be undone. Halted studies, shuttered labs, and departed early-career researchers do not simply resume when the money comes back. Research funding cuts are a strategic risk, not a line item. In this episode of the , speaks with , President and CEO of the and former chancellor of UC Berkeley. Dirks , reflecting on the protests that had put Berkeley at the center of national...
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When AI Finds the Administrative Friction Higher Ed Leaders Miss
Changing Higher Ed
Most AI conversations in higher education focus on the academic side. The administrative side gets less attention and is producing the bigger near-term financial wins for institutions willing to govern the rollout. In this episode of the , speaks with , about how AI is being applied across enrollment and advancement at institutions including Empire State University, Florida Southwestern State College, and Boise State University. Drawing on his career across Blackboard, Instructure, Kaltura, and now Gravyty, Beck walks through the specific case studies behind administrative AI adoption: a...
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Inside CSU’s ChatGPT Edu Rollout Across 22 Universities
Changing Higher Ed
AI implementation in higher education is often framed as a technology question. California State University treated it as with technology as the catalyst, rolling out ChatGPT Edu to 22 universities in 18 months while running the largest AI survey ever conducted at a single university system. In this episode of the , speaks with , about how the system designed and executed its generative AI implementation and what the of 94,060 respondents reveals about AI adoption, faculty engagement, and student behavior. Drawing on her work co-leading the academic side of CSU's GenAI initiative,...
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AI in Higher Education: Bias, Procurement, and Human Oversight
Changing Higher Ed
At sixteen, with straight A's in math and science, Dr. Karen Panetta's school career assessment told her to sell makeup or be a cook. A male friend with lower scores got engineer or politician. No AI was involved. Just a rules-based system applying gender and biographical filters to two teenagers. That same logic now sits inside AI tools landing in admissions offices and HR systems across higher ed, with one critical difference: AI does not eliminate human bias, it removes the human accountability that used to make bias correctable. In this episode of the , speaks with , Dean of Graduate...
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AI-First Business Education: How Kogod Transformed Culture, Curriculum, and Faculty Adoption
Changing Higher Ed
Most business schools are still forming committees to figure out what to do about AI. Kogod School of Business at American University formed a committee, but far from the typical higher ed standards. Leadership gave it six weeks and a five-page limit, and used the recommendation to integrate AI into every department, major, and minor. Three years later, undergraduate enrollment is up 40%, applications are up 50%, and more than 90% of faculty are using AI in the classroom. In this episode of the , speaks with returning guests , Dean of the Kogod School of Business at American University, and ,...
info_outlineFree speech on campus is not an abstract constitutional issue—it’s a governance challenge for presidents and boards.
In this episode of the Changing Higher Ed® podcast, Dr. Drumm McNaughton is joined by Dr. Sean Stevens, Chief Research Advisor at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), to examine the current state of campus free speech and what institutional leaders must do to protect open inquiry under increasing political and social pressure.
Drawing on FIRE’s national research and campus speech databases, Stevens outlines the sharp rise in government-involved attempts to sanction speech, the growing prevalence of self-censorship among faculty and students, and the structural pressures reshaping intellectual life on U.S. campuses.
The conversation moves beyond partisan framing and focuses on leadership responsibility: preserving disciplined pluralism, reinforcing institutional neutrality, and ensuring that students graduate prepared to engage competing ideas with rigor and intellectual humility.
Some of the key topics covered in this episode include:
- The increase in campus speech sanction attempts involving government actors
- Faculty and student self-censorship trends and what the data reveals
- Why exposure to competing perspectives is an educational obligation
- Institutional neutrality as protection for viewpoint diversity
- The distinction between protected speech and prudent speech in the social media era
- Practical steps presidents and boards can take to strengthen expressive rights policies
Three Takeaways for University Presidents and Boards:
- Defend expressive rights consistently—even when doing so is politically uncomfortable. Leadership credibility depends on principled application.
- Recognize that sustained political and social pressure can narrow intellectual culture—and counter that contraction intentionally.
- Preserve disciplined pluralism as a core academic value. Students must be able to hear, analyze, and argue competing perspectives without fear.
This episode provides a strategic lens for higher education leaders navigating campus speech controversies while protecting the fundamental mission of scholarship and inquiry.
Listen now or read the transcript:
https://changinghighered.com/free-speech-in-higher-education-fire-on-institutional-integrity-and-mission/
#HigherEducation #FreeSpeech #CampusLeadership #AcademicFreedom #BoardGovernance #ChangingHigherEdPodcast