In this week’s rapid-response episode, Dr. Heather Shea is joined by Drs. Felecia Commodore and Brendan Cantwell to break down the latest developments in higher education policy and politics. They discuss the U.S. Department of Education’s historic layoffs, the detainment of Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil, and the federal government’s decision to withdraw funding from Columbia University and the University of Maine system. Correspondents discuss Why does this matter? And what can student affairs educators and higher ed leaders do to respond? Tune in for expert insights and actionable takeaways.

PlayCurrent Campus Context: Education Cuts, Student Detainment, and the Politics of Funding

Suggested APA Citation
Shea, H. (Host). (2025, March 14). Current Campus Context: Education Cuts, Student Detainment, and the Politics of Funding (No. 251) [Audio podcast episode]. In Student Affairs NOW. https://studentaffairsnow.com/currentcontext-mar14/

Transcript
Heather SheaHeather. Hello. Welcome back to current campus context brought to you by Student Affairs. Now the online learning community for 1000s of us who work in alongside and adjacent to higher education and student affairs, I'm your host, Heather Shea, and this episode was recorded at 5:11pm, Eastern Time on Thursday, March 13. As always, things might have changed by the time you listen, as I shared last week, this limited series is all about making sense of the moment. We're in higher ed is facing rapid changes, and each week we will bring in two experts to help us break down what's happening, why it matters, and what we can do within our spheres of influence. Our goal to provide not just news, but context, perspective and strategies for action. I also want to mention we have a rotating group of five experts contributing to this series, so you'll see some familiar faces over the next several weeks, and you can learn more about all of our correspondents on our website, Student Affairs now.com I'm excited today to introduce our two correspondents who will help us unpack the latest developments. First, Dr Felecia Commodore, an expert in leadership, governance and administrative practices in higher education, with a focus on HBCUs MSIs and black women in leadership. She is an associate professor in educational policy organization and leadership at the University of Illinois. Urbana Champaign, welcome Felecia.

Felecia CommodoreThank you. Excited to be here talking through this time. To be alive

Heather Sheaa lot. It's a time and joining us again this week. Thanks so much for coming back. Dr Brendan Cantwell, Brendan is an expert in higher education and Policy Governance and political economy of higher ed. He is a professor of higher adult and lifelong education at Michigan State University. Thanks for coming back and joining us for another day, for another episode. Brendan,

Brendan Cantwellhey, great to be here. It feels like a year in between the week,

Heather Shearight? Yeah, there this week is a lot of things have have happened, so I'm going to give a quick synopsis of three things that have kind of risen to the top of my list, and then we're going to unpack and discuss. So first of all, last week, we reported on Linda McMahon issuing a statement about the final mission. Now, earlier this week, the US Department of Education laid off over 1300 employees, really gutting the department, one of the largest cuts in history. I'm left with many questions, right? So what functions of the department remain? What responsibilities will shift to other agencies? What does this mean for federal financial aid, for education policy, for the office of civil rights enforcement, of the policies that the Dear Colleague letter laid out, which we discussed a little bit last week as well. That's issue number one. Second, I'm thinking about the detainment of Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil, a green card holder, in other words,