Are universities responding to reform demands?
By Renae Cowley, Frank Pignanelli
Republican Renae Cowley is a political consultant, lobbyist, social media influencer and professional rodeo athlete. Frank Pignanelli is a Salt Lake attorney, lobbyist and political adviser who served as a Democrat in the Utah State Legislature.
In previous columns, we analyzed political reforms in higher education. The attention continues, so your columnists must now opine on universities’ response and the impacts to students past, present and future.
After an intense legislative session, Utah’s institutions of higher education must reallocate millions of dollars. The University of Utah will grant credit for missionary and military service, while Utah State combines colleges and cancels programs. How are both being received?
Cowley: The Legislature intended to break things with their reforms, like traditions and conventionality. College campuses should be hotbeds of innovation, not institutional relics of the past. Change is hard. Utah’s universities have been handed a difficult task. It is now up to them to meet the challenge and reimagine what a 21st-century college education should be, or cling to outdated norms and lose funding permanently.
The University of Utah is “leaning into a moment of reinvention” by thinking outside the box to better serve students and taxpayers. The U’s landmark decision to award college credit for church missions and military service recognizes the merits of such transformative life experiences.
My alma mater, Utah State, is merging several colleges and eliminating 14 programs, degrees and certificates — one of which is the major I enrolled in as a plucky, young freshman. After explaining far too many times that, no, Agricultural Communications does not teach you how to speak to cows, I changed my major. For me, change was a good thing, and I believe it will be for my beloved Aggies, too. I eagerly await the selection of our next president (fingers crossed that it’s a Utahn) who will refocus on the great things happening in Logan: the new vet school, space dynamics lab and engineering program.
Pignanelli: “Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.” — John Dewey
Political operative G. Gordon Liddy personified everything wrong with the Watergate crisis, yet my friends and I eagerly read his biography detailing nefarious activities. As student leaders, we approved his appearance on campus so we could watch the much-heralded debate between him and liberal professors. (Liddy decimated all the lefties with little effort.)
Universities exist to challenge preconceived notions and facilitate rigorous arguments. However, the perception, and often the reality, is otherwise. Concerns exist that the diversity of opinion is struggling, and institutions have become bloated and unresponsive to the practical needs of graduates in the workplace.
These are difficult allegations. My alma mater, the University of Utah, has been remarkably adept in pivoting to safeguard traditional academic principles while restructuring to satisfy the demands of leaders and citizens. Credit for missionary and medical experience acknowledges that learning extends beyond the classroom. Although receiving criticism from several fronts, President Taylor Randall is demonstrating that creative solutions can still flourish in a collegiate environment.
The Trump administration is reinstating collections on defaulted student loans and eliminating grants to Harvard and other universities. The elite colleges are fighting back. How does this affect politics?
Cowley: Those who didn’t attend college should never have to pay for those who did. I’m aghast at those who, of their own free will, took out student loans, got meaningless degrees to nowhere, if they even graduated at all, and then have the audacity to act like they are victims deserving of restitution.
Our national debt is already in dire straits, and I’m grateful Americans rejected Biden’s pathetic campaign gimmick to buy votes by promising to cancel student loan debt.
Republicans are giving a side eye to conservative commentator Candace Owens for supporting Harvard’s First Amendment rights and criticizing Trump. Harvard released reports proving antisemitism on campus is even worse than imagined, proving Trump right, yet again.
Harvard is a private institution, and if it chooses to be mired by DEI policies or study llama spit causing earthquakes, be my guest. The billions in its endowments can fund such causes, not our tax dollars. I support free speech, but no university should promote bigotry.
Pignanelli: Student loans are funded by tax partners of all stripes, regardless of whether they have the benefits of a college education. So, to forgive borrowers is a transfer of wealth and plays to the characterization of Democrats as elitists. Many blue-collar workers never forgave the insult, especially in the 2024 election.
Trump picked another target of elitism, knowing that there would be few tears shed for Harvard. The reports of rampant antisemitism and Islamophobia at the 400-year-old institution will cripple its defenses. Harvard’s funding loss will benefit the more inclusive universities.
What is the future of higher education in America and Utah?
Cowley: Degrees are an economic calculation — consumers are purchasing knowledge, skills and experiences to improve their lives and earning potential. The benefit must match or outweigh the cost, which, for many, isn’t the case anymore. Politicians can keep triaging the impacts of skyrocketing tuition, or they can implement meaningful reforms, making the dream of a college education more attainable and beneficial without the crippling debt.
Pignanelli: Much of technological innovation and benefits to human lifestyles are due to higher education. The future is bright because so many, like our local colleges, are making the necessary changes while preserving essential principles.