Longtime university administrator Holden Thorp spoke about a range of challenges facing higher education at Academic Council’s Thursday meeting.
Thorp served as chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill from 2008 to 2013, after which he was the provost of Washington University in St. Louis from 2013 to 2019. He currently serves as editor-in-chief of the Science family of journals at the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Thorp drew on his experience as a university administrator to field questions about uncertainty in today’s higher education landscape amid a slew of Trump administration policies threatening to reduce federal funding for universities and a broader trend of declining trust in educational institutions. The conversation was moderated by Council Chair Trina Jones, Jerome M. Culp distinguished professor of law.
“There's no question that it is a moment of concern that is the largest of my career in higher education and one of the largest ever,” Thorp said in his initial remarks.
Responding to Trump’s policies
According to Thorp, administrators will face tough decisions in the coming months in response to the Trump administration’s proposed funding cuts, which include capping reimbursement of indirect costs on awarded National Institutes of Health grants at 15%. The policy, which has been temporarily blocked by a federal judge, would directly target shared facilities, administrative support staff and other infrastructure.
Thorp asserted that the potential for such cuts creates “a massive financial challenge,” which he compared to the scale of the COVID-19 pandemic or the 2008 financial crisis. He explained that universities would lose a crucial pillar of support for the research enterprise, which he warned could put other programs at risk as institutions look to compensate for that loss by pulling from existing sources.
“These are all bad choices, and the worst choice would be to stop doing research or to ration who gets to put a grant in and who doesn't,” Thorp said.
In advocating against these funding cuts, he contended that saying they will negatively impact schools is not a “winning political argument” in today’s climate, pointing out that “there’s so little sympathy for universities right now.”
Instead, Thorp suggested that university proponents in states that voted red in the recent election but also have “large academic medical centers,” such as North Carolina and Pennsylvania, could emphasize that such cuts will likely lead to unemployment and impact residents’ access to critical health care services.
Speaking from his experience as a former administrator, Thorp said that universities cannot be expected “to just go full on resistance,” and he encouraged the faculty in attendance to “cut [administrators] some slack” regarding their response to fast-evolving federal directives.
“[T]hey've got so many bad choices in front of them,” Thorp said. “… They are going to have to pick the things that they want to fight and to take stands on and try to preserve, and it's going to be a very difficult challenge.”
Facing criticism of higher education
Thorp acknowledged a decline in trust in higher education but noted that many of the critiques raised today are not new.
“The playbook for the attacks [on higher education] is 50 years old — we're just seeing it at a much higher level of intensity now,” he said. “… Recognizing [that] is an important part of how you figure out how to climb out of this.”
He pointed to 1980 as the period when “a lot of things started going sideways,” arguing that many universities shifted from a “public good model” to something closer to a “neoliberal model” that focuses more on financial growth than value-driven work.
Thorp encouraged university administrators to be more transparent about operational processes, including how policy decisions are made, faculty members are given tenure and endowment funds are spent.
“These are all awkward things that are hard to explain, and the fact that we haven’t done more ahead of time to get people to understand it is something that we’re paying the price for,” he said.
He also advocated for minimizing what he termed “self-inflicted wounds” — instances when institutions act counter to their stated values — and owning up to those shortfalls when they occur to increase public trust through transparency.
Thorp discussed the concepts of academic freedom and institutional neutrality, which have been subjects of ongoing debate on Duke’s campus and trending more broadly in today’s higher education space.
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He criticized institutional neutrality, asserting that decisions like granting tenure, evaluating class content and hiring are inherently not neutral.
Still, he believes that universities should occasionally refrain from commenting on certain matters “because they have higher priorities,” such as preserving faculty members and students’ freedom of speech. Thorp emphasized the difference between intentionally choosing not to engage in debates that do not pertain to an institution’s values, and maintaining a sweeping “neutrality shield” that can seem like a false excuse for universities to avoid engaging in contentious matters.
In other business
Jones announced that Mark Anthony Neal, James B. Duke distinguished professor of African and African American studies and professor of English, was elected to be the council’s new chair. He will begin his tenure July 1 and serve a two-year term through June 30, 2027.
Jones also shared a statement from the Executive Committee of the Academic Council (ECAC) regarding an ongoing investigation into faculty who reportedly violated the University’s Protests, Pickets and Demonstrations policy. The faculty in question are due to appear before the University Judicial Board regarding the alleged violations.
“Because ECAC is not in possession of all of the relevant facts and because we are not a fact-finding body, ECAC does not think it prudent to comment on the substantive allegations in these cases and whether any violations of University policy have occurred,” Jones said. “ECAC, however, recognizes that some members of the University community have requested greater clarity, notice and communication about relevant criteria and standards of conduct, as well as greater clarity concerning process — including who has jurisdictional authority over faculty in these matters.”
Jones noted that ECAC “welcomes the opportunity” to work with the administration on improving policy and procedural clarity “as part of our shared governance tradition.”
President Vincent Price will deliver his annual address to faculty at the council’s next meeting, March 20.
Samanyu Gangappa is a Trinity sophomore and local/national news editor for the news department.