As it dawns over every area of industry that Donald Trump is now the U.S. president-elect, affecting the market (private prison stocks and oil stocks are up; gun stocks, down) and everything else, higher education is a critical sector that neither expected nor relished the idea of a Trump White House.
From frightening off international students to promoting anti-intellectualism, to encouraging campus discord, all these and more were concerns of the higher ed community, according to Inside Higher Ed.
Here’s an excerpt from an Inside Higher Ed article, “Trump Victory Jolts Higher Edâ€:
Donald Trump stunned the pundits and confounded the pollsters on Tuesday by being elected president of the United States. Many in higher education–including many college leaders who had long lists of objections to Hillary Clinton’s plan for free public higher education–were horrified by the prospect of a Trump presidency.
The Republican candidate regularly attacked colleges as politically correct, his comments about non-Americans in the United States worried many college leaders who depend on international students, and he rejected consensus science about climate change and other topics. His student supporters on campus–in many cases outnumbered, but active nonetheless–set off a series of conflicts and debates about free speech with in-your-face tactics such as building fake walls to symbolize the one Trump vowed to build on the border with Mexico.
Nobody really knows what a Trump administration will be like, given how unorthodox his campaign was, his desire to shake up Washington, his lack of policy details, and deep fissures between the president-elect and congressional leaders on both sides of the aisle.
UPDATE:Â On Wednesday morning, Molly Corbett Broad, president of the American Council on Education, issued this statement:
“The American Council on Education (ACE) congratulates Donald J. Trump on his election as the nation’s 45th president. I join more than 4,000 college and university presidents and other higher education leaders across the country in wishing President-elect Trump well as he prepares to embark on his term in January and address the many challenges facing our nation at home and abroad. The entire higher education community looks forward to working with the Trump administration on key issues such as expanding access to educational opportunity, increasing levels of attainment, and supporting cutting-edge research and innovation.â€
To read more, go to Inside Higher Ed.