Red states are taking over higher education, one board member at a time 

A new front has opened in the war on higher education. By controlling who sits on public college and university boards, red-state governors and legislators are shaping who is hired and what is taught.

In the past, trustees were generally chosen for their willingness and ability to support institutional missions and goals, not their fidelity to a particular ideology. Appointing partisans eager to pursue a political agenda undermines institutional autonomy, erodes shared governance and the norms that protect it, and imposes ideological filters on curricular and hiring decisions that should rest on academic expertise.

In 2023, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis replaced most members of the New College board of trustees with right-wing allies and activists. The board then fired the college president and installed a former Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives — a Republican — at twice the salary.  

The new leadership quickly remade the campus, firing the chief diversity officer, banning the use of personal pronouns in email signatures, rejecting all five faculty up for tenure, eliminating DEI and gender studies programs, tossing hundreds of books dealing with race, gender and sexual orientation in the trash, and hiring a host of conservative faculty and staff. More than one third of New College’s faculty resigned, and the institution plummeted in the U.S. News and World Report rankings.

DeSantis then appointed conservatives to the boards of the University of West Florida and other public schools. “Buckle up,” he proclaimed, “you’re going to see a lot of changes for the better.” 

In Virginia, Gov. Glenn Youngkin appointed a raft of Republican donors, activists and officials to public college and university boards, putting pressure on administrators and faculty who stray from conservative priorities. Soon after, the president of the University of Virginia, Jim Ryan, was forced to resign in the face of Trump administration demands and denunciations of instruction related to race and gender. Frustrated Democrats in the Virginia legislature have begun blocking confirmation of Youngkin’s nominees, leaving five open seats on the University of Virginia board and only six of 16 seats filled on the George Mason University board, well short of the quorum it needs to function. 

These are not isolated cases. GOP governors and legislators across the country are using board appointments and legislative mandates to undermine the faculty role in shared governance, weaken tenure, establish centers of conservative thought and transform campus culture.  

Earlier this year, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott declared that college professors pushing “woke agendas” have “too much influence over who is hired to educate our kids,” and proposed legislation stripping professors of any role in employment decisions. 

In a statute adopted in June, Texas conferred on the boards of its public institutions, whose members the governor appoints, the right to reverse any changes to the general education curriculum and to approve or reject hiring decisions for key positions, including the provost, vice presidents and deans. Texas also gave university boards exclusive authority to establish faculty senates or councils. Faculty “may provide recommendations on academic matters,” but “governing boards and institutional leadership retain clear and ultimate decision-making authority.” 

In what critics describe as a “hostile takeover,” recent Indiana legislation allows the governor to dispense with alumni-elected trustees at Indiana University, appoint all public university board members, and remove any of them at any time. Governing boards must refuse promotion or tenure to faculty who do not promote “intellectual diversity.” The legislation mandates post-tenure productivity reviews; permits the university to alter contractual rights, including faculty salaries, “to meet university operational and business needs”; requires termination or review of low-enrollment academic programs; and shifts decision-making authority from faculty to administrators. 

Legislation adopted this year in Ohio restricts discussion of “controversial” topics ranging from climate policy to immigration, mandates civics education, and prohibits faculty strikes. Board members, appointed by the Republican governor, gained increased authority to oversee faculty workloads, implement standardized performance reviews, and oversee the termination of low-enrollment programs. 

Under the banner of promoting civil discourse and viewpoint diversity, conservative politicians and governing boards in at least eight states established academic centers outside the usual faculty-governed processes and appointed conservatives to run them. Examples include the University of Florida’s Hamilton Center for Classical and Civic Education, the University of North Carolina’s School of Civic Life and Leadership, and Arizona State’s School of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership. Under pressure from the Trump administration, Harvard University is considering establishing a center for conservative scholarship, estimated to cost between $500 million and $1 billion.  

Unhappy with existing accreditating agencies for raising questions about shared governance, institutional quality and political interference, some red states have passed laws requiring colleges and universities to switch accreditors. Six states, all of which voted for Trump in 2024, have gone so far as to form their own accreditor. 

Although not as visible to the public, these initiatives may prove even more consequential than the executive orders and legislative mandates that have captured the headlines. Trustees oversee virtually all aspects of college and university operations, including appointments, finances, facilities, enrollment, communications and institutional priorities. 

Proponents of this shift insist it is necessary to combat what they decry as the extreme left orientation of most colleges and universities. Although this critique is not entirely unwarranted, the proposed cure is far worse than the disease.

America’s universities became the world’s gold standard in large part because they have been free to pursue knowledge independent of government control. For public institutions in red states today, that is no longer the case.

Glenn C. Altschuler is the Thomas and Dorothy Litwin Emeritus Professor of American Studies at Cornell University. David Wippman is emeritus president of Hamilton College.