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College Matters from The Chronicle

College Matters from The Chronicle

By: The Chronicle of Higher Education
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 Higher education is at the center of the biggest stories in the country today, and College Matters is here to make sense of it all. This podcast is a production of The Chronicle of Higher Education, the nation's leading independent newsroom covering colleges.The Chronicle of Higher Education Politics & Government
Episodes
  • Trump’s ‘Compact’ Is Freaking People Out

    Trump’s ‘Compact’ Is Freaking People Out
    Oct 8 2025
    After months of skirmishes with colleges, the Trump administration has proposed a treaty of sorts with nine high-profile institutions. By signing the “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education,” participating colleges would essentially co-sign the president’s sprawling higher-education agenda. Under a draft agreement, signatories would explicitly ban considerations of race in admissions or in the awarding of scholarships, abolish departments that “belittle” conservative views, and strictly limit the percentage of international students enrolled in undergraduate programs. Many higher-education associations and analysts rushed to blast the proposal, which has been described as “horrifying” and reminiscent of a Mafia-style ultimatum. But what does this compact say about the historic relationship between the federal government and higher education, and how might that relationship be changing no matter what?Related Reading Trump’s Proposed ‘Compact’ Asks Colleges to Show They’re ‘Pursuing Federal Priorities’ (The Chronicle) Trump Says Signing a New ‘Compact’ Will Benefit Colleges’ Finances. It Could Also Do the Opposite. (The Chronicle) Trump’s Imperfect Compact Is a Perfect Opportunity (The Chronicle Review) A Deal That Would End Universities’ Independence (The Atlantic) GuestSarah Brown, senior editor at The Chronicle of Higher Education
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    40 mins
  • Princeton President Talks Kirk, Trump, ‘Civic Crisis’

    Princeton President Talks Kirk, Trump, ‘Civic Crisis’
    Oct 1 2025
    As president of Princeton University, Christopher Eisgruber is among the highest-profile college leaders to publicly criticize the Trump administration for its attacks on higher education. He is a defender of the sector, arguing that colleges are far better at upholding free speech and more welcoming of diverse viewpoints than critics would suggest. The recent killing of Charlie Kirk, a conservative activist, has energized a national debate about the state of free speech on college campuses — both for conservatives like Kirk, and for faculty who have been sanctioned for speaking ill of Kirk in the wake of his death. None of this, though, changes Eisgruber’s fundamental view that colleges, for the most part, are actually quite good at facilitating tough conversations at a particularly polarized moment. It’s an argument Eisgruber lays out methodically in a new book, Terms of Respect: How Colleges Get Free Speech Right.Related Reading Terms of Respect: How Colleges Get Free Speech Right, by Christopher Eisgruber (Basic Books) With Charlie Kirk’s Killing, a New Chapter of the Campus Speech Wars Has Begun (The Chronicle) The Elite-University Presidents Who Despise One Another (The Atlantic) At Yale, Painful Rifts Emerge Over Diversity and Free Speech (The Chronicle)
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    41 mins
  • The Research Trump Hates

    The Research Trump Hates
    Sep 24 2025
    The Trump administration is hitting universities where it hurts, terminating thousands of research grants in areas it deems wasteful or ideologically driven. Many scientists who study vaccine hesitancy, gender identity, and climate change, have either lost grant money or been put on notice that their federal funding could soon disappear. What does this mean for the U.S. academic-research enterprise, which seeks to cure diseases, understand societal problems, and even save the planet? And how might a highly politicized approach to doling out federal research money change the nature of science itself? Related Reading: The Scientists Who Got Ghosted by the NIH (The Chronicle) An NIH Grant Is Restored, With a Catch: Cut a Study on Trans Youth (The Chronicle) The NIH is Requiring Grantees to Follow Trump’s Anti-Trans Executive Order (The Chronicle) Their NIH Grants are Back. But Nothing is Back to Normal. (The Chronicle) Guest Stephanie M. Lee, senior writer at The Chronicle of Higher Education. For more on today’s episode, visit chronicle.com/collegematters. We aim to make transcripts available within a day of an episode’s publication.
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    35 mins
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