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Accreditation-Reform Hopes for the Second Trump Administration
James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal ^ | January 31, 2025 | Samuel Negus

Posted on 02/01/2025 3:50:49 PM PST by karpov

Higher education seemingly played an important if largely negative role in the recent presidential election. Exit polls showed that non-college-educated voters overwhelmingly favored Donald Trump. Many voters associated Kamala Harris unfavorably with progressive trends and ideas prevalent on elite campuses, such as pro-Hamas protests and gender ideology.

The election’s outcome has sparked introspection in some typically left-leaning publications, such as the Chronicle of Higher Education, where William Deresiewicz opined bluntly, “The politics of the academy have been defeated. Its ideas … have been rejected.” But what any of this means for likely post-election policy is unclear.

Trump’s lengthiest statement on the subject came in a two-minute video released in July 2023, which Elon Musk recently reposted to a viral reception. Then-candidate Trump vowed to “fire the radical left accreditors that have allowed our colleges to become dominated by Marxist maniacs and lunatics.” Policies outlined for achieving that end included “accepting applications for new accreditors who will impose real standards on colleges,” such as requiring them to “defend the American tradition and Western civilization, protect free speech, and eliminate wasteful administrative positions that drive up costs.” Trump further promised to eliminate colleges’ “diversity, equity, and inclusion bureaucrats” and incentivize the adoption of “accelerated … low-cost degrees [with] meaningful job placement.”

Campaign statements are seldom a reliable guide to future events. All policy reforms cost time, attention, and effort, all of which will be scarce for the new Congress’s slender Republican majority. But Trump’s concise video statement is a surprisingly complete summary of the conservative-leaning higher-education policy wonk’s accreditation-reform wish list. If it is any indication, decades’ worth of think-tank policy proposals may find a receptive audience in the White House.

(Excerpt) Read more at jamesgmartin.center ...


TOPICS: Education
KEYWORDS: academia; college; education; reform

1 posted on 02/01/2025 3:50:49 PM PST by karpov
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To: karpov

“... progressive trends and ideas prevalent on elite campuses, such as pro-Hamas protests and gender ideology.”

If that sounds incoherent and weird, that’s because it is.


2 posted on 02/01/2025 3:55:13 PM PST by cdcdawg (The Left should cry harder.)
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To: karpov
"Accreditation-Reform Hopes for the Second Trump Administration"

What became of all that student loan money demRATs tried to buy votes with last year?
3 posted on 02/01/2025 4:04:58 PM PST by clearcarbon (Fraudulent elections have consequences.)
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To: cdcdawg
If that sounds incoherent and weird, that’s because it is.

Not at all. If one's purpose is to destroy Western European Civilization (and particularly Christianity with it), then it is entirely rational.

4 posted on 02/01/2025 4:05:43 PM PST by Carry_Okie (The tree of liberty needs a rope.)
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To: karpov

These kind of comments always piss me off!
I have a BS degree and some graduate credits.
The stupidest people on campus or at work had
BA degrees. “Highly educated” idiots!
They may have a PhD in English, but can they
deal with designing a laminar flow wing for an
aircraft?

Just because you don’t have a degree doesn’t mean
you are stupid. In my family it was mandatory to learn a trade in addition to “upper education”.

I don’t have any respect for “educated” people that
can’t fend for themselves, outside their
political bubbles.

I don’t like all his actions but I voted for
Trump.


5 posted on 02/01/2025 4:14:32 PM PST by rellic (No such thing as a moderate Moslem or Democrat )
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To: Carry_Okie

Maybe so, but Hamas is actually a lot closer to correct on many issues than the Left.


6 posted on 02/01/2025 6:24:20 PM PST by cdcdawg (The Left should cry harder.)
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To: cdcdawg
Maybe so, but Hamas is actually a lot closer to correct on many issues than the Left.

It is interesting to go to a lunch counter/buffet at Stanford University and find a section for Halal food, but nothing for Kashrut (Kosher) food.

7 posted on 02/01/2025 6:46:28 PM PST by Carry_Okie (The tree of liberty needs a rope.)
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