Jack Stripling
Verified- Senior Writer, The Chronicle of Higher Education
- Host, College Matters from The Chronicle
Gainesville
Higher ed journalist | Host of College Matters from The Chronicle | Fan of Dylan, Kubrick, your secret documents | jack.stripling at chronicle.com
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Articles by Jack Stripling
A Blue Wave Won’t Wash Higher Ed Clean
In this episode After a decisive electoral victory on Tuesday, Democrats will assume majorities in the U.S House and Senate, placing a partisan check on a presidential administration that has put the screws to colleges and universities for nearly two years. But what will voters’ rebuke of President Trump mean for a sector that many Americans still view as overpriced, out of touch, and insufficiently responsive to work-force needs?
Do Students Think There’s a Learning Crisis?
In this episode Young college students are getting a bad rap lately. To hear it from professors, many are struggling to read, they’re glued to their phones, and they’ve become heavily reliant on AI to do their work. But what do students have to say about all of this? When is the last time they actually read a book? Are they cheating as much as people say? The answers might surprise you. Listen Guest Transcript This transcript was produced using a speech-recognition software.
How Bad is Higher Ed’s Budget Crisis?
In this episode Colleges across the country are cutting programs and slashing budgets on a grand scale. What began as a slow trickle from some seemingly unlikely places, like Princeton and MIT, has become a sector-wide deluge. Wealthy private colleges, major public research universities, and lower-resourced institutions alike are eliminating courses of study, laying off staff, and cutting some faculty jobs. How bad is it out there, really?
Frats Aren’t Higher Ed’s Only Third Rail
In this episode For weeks, the world has been reeling over allegations that multiple Cornell University students raped a woman at a fraternity house. The lurid case has renewed calls for banning fraternities, but pushback from alumni and fears of the groups going underground tend to scuttle these efforts. Fraternities, it seems, are a proverbial third rail in higher education.
Cornell’s Jane Doe Reignites Rage Over Campus Rape
In this episode The details of a lawsuit filed last month by a former Cornell University student, who says she was raped two years ago by multiple men at the Chi Phi fraternity house, are tough to stomach. Ketamine, alcohol, and misogyny figure prominently into the account laid out by the plaintiff, who is identified in the lawsuit only as Jane Doe. The suit has raised troubling questions about how the university and the county’s district attorney handled the case.
The AI Police Are Coming for Everybody
In this episode Nearly four years after the introduction of ChatGPT, colleges and universities have propagated plenty of rules related to students’ use of AI. But what about administrators and faculty? Can they live by the same standards they’ve handed down? Should they? As more faculty and even some college leaders admit to using AI in their writing, charges of hypocrisy abound.
How Race-Baiting and Football Fandom Collided in Texas
In this episode University of Texas at Austin football fans have good reason to be happy right now. After narrowly defeating the Ohio State University Buckeyes earlier this month, the Longhorns are sitting pretty at No. 1 in the college football rankings. But all is not well in Austin. The morning after the Longhorns’ big win, a Republican political candidate posted an inflammatory message on X, expressing dismay at a photo of students of South Asian descent celebrating in the stands.
College Students Are Anxious. Jodi Kantor Sees Reasons for Hope.
In this episode Jodi Kantor, whose reporting for The New York Times helped expose years of sexual-misconduct allegations against Harvey Weinstein, has been thinking a lot lately about the next generation. What will a fulfilling career look like a decade from now? How worried should college graduates be about AI gobbling up entry-level jobs? And how can employers, including universities, do a better job of stopping workplace harassment, which can derail careers before they even start?
‘Grit’ Guru Angela Duckworth Says Willpower is Overrated
In this episode Angela Duckworth, a psychology professor at the University of Pennsylvania, burst onto the scene more than a decade ago with a seemingly simple theory about successful people. They are incredibly determined, Duckworth argued, exhibiting that quintessentially American trait called “grit.” In her new book, Situated, Duckworth says that people have enormous power to change their “situations,” ensuring success by reducing distractions and bolstering connections with mentors.
College Matters Returns
In this episode Is the student reading crisis real? Is AI panic justified? What’s next for the partisan battles over higher education? Each week, The Chronicle of Higher Education’s podcast delves into the thorniest issues facing colleges and universities. Through interviews with newsmakers and conversations with Chronicle staff, College Matters delivers sharp insights and deep analysis of the biggest stories in higher ed.
Columbia’s President ‘Liked’ a Post About DEI. Officials Say It Was a Slip of the Thumb.
Jennifer L. Mnookin, president of Columbia U.Amber Arnold, AP For a few pregnant hours on Thursday, it appeared that Columbia University’s president had voluntarily waded into a politically charged debate on LinkedIn about race in higher education. According to university officials, however, Jennifer L. Mnookin, Columbia’s freshly minted leader, had done something far more pedestrian and human: She accidentally hit the like button.
Sixty Years On, Stoner Remains a Vital Portrait of Academe
In this episode More than 60 years after its publication, John Williams’s novel Stoner remains a revelatory portrait of higher education and the professoriate. Spanning much of the first half of the 20th century, the novel follows William Stoner from his undergraduate days at the University of Missouri through his career as an English professor at the same institution.
The SAT Feels So Back. Skeptics Are Groaning.
In this episode The pandemic prompted many universities to drop standardized-testing requirements for applicants, and a lot of institutions remain test-optional today. But some high-profile universities, including all of the members of the Ivy League, have since reinstated their testing requirements. Even the University of California, which has been a leader in the “test free” movement, now plans to revisit its policy.
Higher Ed is as American as Apple Pie
In this episode As the United States celebrates its 250th birthday, the nation’s colleges and universities are experiencing some growing pains. Older than the country itself, American higher education is a big, bold, polarizing enterprise that people don’t trust as much as they once did — but still can’t imagine living without. Sound like America? It is.
How Another U. of Florida Presidential Search Went Sideways
College Matters listeners, we want to hear from you. Please help us to improve our show by completing a brief audience survey at chronicle.com/podcastsurvey. In this episode The leadership carousel at the University of Florida has turned swiftly of late. Now on its second interim president in as many years, and fresh off of a failed presidential search last summer, the state’s flagship is desperate to install a permanent leader.
Inviting a Fight, U. of Florida Taps President with DEI Record
The University of Florida’s Board of Trustees voted unanimously on Wednesday to appoint Stuart R. Bell as the institution’s next president, advancing the former University of Alabama leader toward a state-level confirmation process that might get ugly. In a state where political fights over diversity, equity, and inclusion remain dominant, Bell has spent the past few weeks defending his past DEI record and fending off conservative critics who’ve labeled him unfit.
U. of Florida Plays Punching Bag — Again
The University of Florida’s Board of Trustees is expected on Wednesday to appoint Stuart R. Bell as UF’s next president, moving the former University of Alabama leader toward a state-level confirmation process that has become consumed of late by political fights over diversity, equity, and inclusion. Bell’s nomination for the UF presidency amounts to a do-over for the board. About a year ago, the university’s trustees selected Santa J.
The Ungovernable University
Last month, Kevin Guskiewicz took a pay cut to leave Michigan State University’s presidency for the top job at Clemson University. He lobbed a grenade on the way out by criticizing the institution’s trustees, a group of eight elected officials who in recent years have been accused of dysfunction and backbiting. It’s the latest example of how partisan governing boards, willing to throw their weight around in new ways, are making presidents uncomfortable. Are those boards overstepping their bounds?
The Ungovernable University
Last month, Kevin Guskiewicz took a pay cut to leave Michigan State University’s presidency for the top job at Clemson University. He lobbed a grenade on the way out by criticizing the institution’s trustees, a group of eight elected officials who in recent years have been accused of dysfunction and backbiting. It’s the latest example of how partisan governing boards, willing to throw their weight around in new ways, are making presidents uncomfortable. Are those boards overstepping their bounds?
Is Michigan State’s Board Broken?
College Matters listeners, we want to hear from you. Please help us to improve our show by completing a brief audience survey at chronicle.com/podcastsurvey. In this episode Last week, Kevin Guskiewicz took a pay cut to leave Michigan State University’s presidency for the top job at Clemson University. And he lobbed a grenade on the way out by criticizing the institution’s trustees, a group of eight elected officials who in recent years have been accused of dysfunction and backbiting.
Dan Ariely Emailed With Epstein for Years. He Has (Mostly) No Regrets.
College Matters listeners, we want to hear from you. Please help us to improve our show by completing a brief audience survey at chronicle.com/podcastsurvey. In this episode Dan Ariely has made a career of examining the dark side of humanity. As a social scientist and a Duke University professor, he has drawn attention — and some criticism — for his research into subjects like lying, cheating, and criminality.
Everybody Wants to Rule the University
In this episode In recent months, politicians from both sides of the aisle have been busy exerting influence on state universities. In Virginia, a newly elected Democratic governor has quickly put her stamp on higher ed, adding political allies to university governing boards and reportedly forcing out some members with whom she disagrees.
Ken Burns Names the ‘Greatest Danger’ Facing Higher Ed – The Chronicle of Higher Education
By Jack Stripling, May 6, 2026 Ken Burns, John McDonnell, AP Ken Burns Names the ‘Greatest Danger’ Facing Higher Ed | College Matters from The Chronicle Everything happening in the world converges in one place: higher education. On College Matters, we explore the world through the prism of the nation’s colleges and universities. Listen to College Matters wherever you get your podcasts.
The Canvas Hack Exposed Higher Ed’s Efficiency Obsession
College Matters listeners, we want to hear from you. Please help us to improve our show by completing a brief audience survey at chronicle.com/podcastsurvey. In this episode Last week’s shutdown of Canvas, an online learning-management system used by thousands of colleges and schools, provided a sharp illustration of higher education’s increasing reliance on technology. Students, too, are leaning on artificial intelligence and other tech tools to navigate schoolwork and campus life.
Ken Burns Names the ‘Greatest Danger’ Facing Higher Ed
In this episode Ken Burns, who has helped to tell the story of the nation’s history through celebrated documentaries, attributes much of his success to the education he received at Hampshire College. Faced with the recent news that his financially struggling alma mater will soon close its doors, Burns is reflecting on the larger forces that helped to seal the college’s fate.
Everybody Wants to Rule the University
In this episode In recent months, politicians from both sides of the aisle have been busy exerting influence on state universities. In Virginia, a newly elected Democratic governor has quickly put her stamp on higher ed, adding political allies to university governing boards and reportedly forcing out some members with whom she disagrees.
Frank Bruni is Trying Not to Terrify His Students
In this episode Frank Bruni’s classroom has gotten a bit bleak lately. As a professor of the practice of journalism and public policy at Duke University, the longtime New York Times writer often finds himself talking about grim trends: the decline of local news, threats against a free press, and the corrosive nature of political polarization.
A Gender-Studies Icon Strikes Back
In this episode In states across the country, conservative lawmakers and university governing boards are purging what they describe as gender ideology from college campuses. As part of a larger backlash against diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, several universities have in recent years shut down women’s and gender-studies programs and closed LGBTQ-focused campus spaces.
Are the Kids Alright? We Asked Ian Bogost.
In this episode As a professor of computer science and engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, Ian Bogost spends a lot of time trying to connect with his Gen Z students. He knows the stereotypes about this crop of young people: lazy, grade-grubbing, incapable of resolving problems without running to an administrator.
College Leaders Are Bashing Higher Ed. What Gives?
In this episode As public attitudes toward higher education sour, many college presidents are either staying mum or defending their institutions. But a handful of high-profile college leaders have taken a different tack of late, publicly conceding that the sector’s critics have a point. Concerns about rising tuition, the value of degrees, and higher education’s liberal tilt are all valid, these leaders argue. But what’s driving these self-critical administrators? Is this about principle? Branding?
Will the American University Ever Recover?
In this episode After about a year of battling with the Trump administration, higher-education leaders and analysts are collectively catching their breath. But this doesn’t feel like a break: The discourse around colleges and universities of late has taken on a dire tone. There’s open talk about the end of the great American research university as we know it. And no one feels fine.
Ohio State’s Juicy Leadership Scandal Feels Frustratingly Familiar
In this episode Ted Carter’s resignation this month as president of Ohio State University carries the hallmarks of a tabloid scandal.
Scott Galloway, Higher Education’s Useful Irritant
Scott Galloway is one of higher education’s most acerbic critics. He’s a marketing professor at New York University and a man of some nuanced contradictions. He’s deeply skeptical of elite colleges but desperately committed to his son attending one. He is living proof of higher education’s capacity to increase social mobility. But he’s pessimistic about how much colleges can really change the lives of students.
Race, Gender, and Plato: Inside Texas A&M’s Censorship Machine
In this episode What began as a controversy last September over a lesson on gender identity in a children’s-literature class at Texas A&M University has morphed into something altogether more substantial. In recent months, Texas A&M has set about purging from its catalog any courses that “advocate race or gender ideology.” Courses on religion and culture, and even readings from Plato, have all been singled out for scrutiny or elimination.
Scott Galloway Has a Big Megaphone. Is Higher Ed Listening?
In this episode Scott Galloway, a prolific podcaster and marketing professor at New York University, has had enough. For anyone who knows Galloway’s schtick, that’s not too surprising. On his popular podcast, Pivot, which he co-hosts with Kara Swisher, variations on the theme of Galloway reaching his limit are practically a recurring segment.
Unmasking Academe’s Gilded Boys’ Club
Within a trove of millions of pages of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein, a notorious sex offender whose wealth and connections proved alluring to academics in search of money, women in higher education are seeing evidence that supports a story they know all too well.
Inside the Epstein Files
In this episode The Justice Department’s recent release of millions of pages of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sex offender who died by suicide in 2019, shines a harsh light on a privileged network of scholars who had entered his orbit.
Can Ted Mitchell Marshal Higher Ed Against Trump?
In this episode As president of the American Council on Education, Ted Mitchell is at the tip of the spear. A year ago, when the Trump administration moved to slash federal research funding, ACE joined a lawsuit to stop the cuts. This was a major departure for the influential higher-ed advocacy group, which is hardly ever a plaintiff in litigation. In Trump’s second term, ACE has taken a notably pugilistic approach.
Unfashionable and Under Fire, Tenure Needs a New Defense
In this episode In its long and often tortured history, the faculty-job-protection status known as tenure has been defended as an essential safeguard for academic freedom. Professors, the argument goes, need to know that they won’t get fired for researching and teaching about controversial topics. In theory, tenure provides that necessary security. But critics of the system, who balk at the idea of a “job for life,” are unmoved by this defense.
Is Trump’s Higher-Ed Attack Legal?
Outcome-driven investigations. Threats of dizzying fines. Broad claims of rampant, unchecked antisemitism. The Trump administration’s playbook against higher education is familiar by now, and it always presents universities with the same stark choice: Pay up or face a potentially yearslong legal battle with an extremely powerful adversary. Washington insiders and judges say Trump’s tactics are legally dubious at best, breaking with procedural rules and even violating the U.S. Constitution.
Inside Minnesota’s Upended Semester
In this episode The fatal shooting of Alex Pretti, who was killed on Saturday during an encounter with federal immigration agents in Minneapolis, has further escalated tensions in a metropolitan area dotted with college campuses. As the region reels with civil unrest, area universities are grappling with how to maintain safe operations. They’re also facing pressure to exert stronger moral leadership as their institutions’ values are tested in real time.
College Matters Returns
In this episode Politics. Culture. Affordability. The biggest issues facing the country are playing out in higher education, and College Matters from The Chronicle is here to make sense of it all. Beginning January 28, tune in for all new weekly episodes of To continue reading for FREE, please sign in. Or subscribe now to read with unlimited access for as low as $10/month. Don’t have an account? Sign up now.
Jan. 2, 2026
The Quarter-Century Project
As 2025 comes to a close, The Chronicle’s podcast, College Matters, is taking stock of higher education’s quarter century. The 2000s thus far have tested colleges, their leaders, and their faculty members in ways large and small.
How Tech, Politics, and Cost Dominated Higher Ed’s Quarter Century
As 2025 comes to a close, higher education is at an inflection point. Political pressure, rising costs, and the dizzying pace of technological change are putting new stress on an already beleaguered system. It’s tempting at a time like this to obsess over the precarious present, but it’s worth pausing for a moment to consider the past. With the benefit of hindsight, what trends and developments of the past 25 years have proved to be the most consequential for higher education?
The Year in Teaching Was …
It’s been a pivotal year for higher education, and that’s particularly true for college professors. The ubiquity of artificial intelligence, the enormity of political pressure, and the severity of financial constraints on many college campuses have conspired to create learning environments of profound unease and uncertainty.
Using AI Without (Really) Cheating
In this episode Nearly three years after ChatGPT first came on the scene, college students are using generative AI to help with myriad tasks. Outlining and brainstorming are a breeze. A tough concept, skimmed over by a professor during a lecture, can probably be explained succinctly by a chatbot. This kind of AI use is happening on college campuses across the country, and much of it wouldn’t be considered unethical.
The Plot Against Jim Ryan
James E. Ryan had four hours. Having led the University of Virginia for nearly seven years as its president, it all came down to this: walk away from the job, acceding to political pressure, or risk inviting hellfire on the university he loved. For the then-58-year-old administrator the choice was excruciating. And time was running out.
How Virginia Became Higher Ed’s Battlefield
In this episode One university president has resigned. Another is on the ropes. A new governor is heading into office, flipping party control to the Democrats. It’s all happening in Virginia, which has become a key battleground in a larger political war over higher education. This past summer, Jim Ryan resigned as president of the University of Virginia, hoping to stave off federal investigations of the university’s diversity efforts.
We Need to Talk About Harvard’s Grade-Inflation Report
In our latest episode of College Matters from The Chronicle, we dive into a fascinating new report on grade inflation at Harvard College, which houses the university’s undergraduate program. Prepared by Amanda Claybaugh, Harvard University’s dean of undergraduate education, the report lays out in stark detail how the awarding of A’s has skyrocketed at Harvard over the past two decades. You can listen to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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