According to a new analysis from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), public confidence in colleges and universities is way down. This was already a problem for higher education last summer but has gotten worse as anti-Israel protests and encampments have grown on campuses across the country.
As we recently noted, Emerson College in Boston is already experiencing a drop in enrollment, leading to layoffs. There is probably more of that on the way.
FOX News reports:
Confidence in colleges, universities reaches all-time low, new poll indicatesConfidence in colleges and universities has reached a new all-time low, according to a recent poll commissioned by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) and conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago.”In two AmeriSpeak panels representative of the U.S. household population, we asked Americans: ‘How much confidence, if any, do you have in U.S. colleges and universities?’” a press release from FIRE reads.The question is similar to one asked by Gallup last year, which found that Americans who had a “great deal” of approval for institutions of higher education had plummeted from 57% in 2015 to 36% in 2023.By comparison, FIRE’s report indicated only 28% of Americans had “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in higher education as of May 2024.Thirty percent similarly said they have “very little” or no confidence at all in higher education.
The FIRE report highlights the encampments specifically:
Confidence drops further after encampment protestsNot only did American confidence in colleges and universities sink since last summer, but it also experienced pronounced drops since FIRE last asked this question four months ago. Such drops coincide with encampment protests that emerged across the country in April and May.In our February poll of 1,122 Americans, 31% reported having “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in colleges and universities, whereas 28% of the 1,309 Americans polled in May reported the same. While the percentage of those who reported “very little” confidence or “none at all” remained constant at 30%, there was a slight tick up in those who reported “none at all” from 7% in February to 10% in May.Indeed, since February, nearly every major subgroup — even political liberals and registered Democrats — experienced declines in the percent who reported “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence. Notably, in May no subgroup contained a majority that reported high levels of confidence.Compared to the February poll, in the May poll, the largest drops within subgroups occurred among Americans ages 18-34, registered Democrats, Americans with a college degree, registered Republicans, white Americans, and women.
There is a simple way to solve this problem. Simply get back to the business of real education and drop all of the progressive, social justice activism.
Many schools seem unwilling or unable to do this.
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