The Collegiate Marketplace Is Changing
A recent article in the New York Post revealed that despite being a historically well-regarded Ivy League school, prospective students are souring on Columbia University. The Post cited a college placement coach, who claimed, “If you were to compare Columbia with virtually any Ivy League, virtually any other Ivy League will win [in terms of desirability with students] — and even non-Ivies like Duke, Emory and Washington [University] in St. Louis.” The recent wave of protests and disruptions on Columbia’s campus, per the placement coach, has caused families to consider rival schools which represent a far more broad set of choices than in the past. The coach shared that the intense violence and disruptions have led to a situation for families where unless they have a very specific reason they want to go to Columbia, families will happily throw a Columbia acceptance letter aside for an alternative school.
Jewish families, in particular, are concerned about sending their kids to Columbia, recognizing that the last hate-filled school years are untenable. Citing the illegal protests that continued to ramp up, the Post notes that a potential Jewish student questioned, “How dangerous is it on campus? Will professors grade me differently if I’m outspoken about Israel?”
The weariness of Columbia applies to all potential students, not just potential Jewish students who have been under threat on campus since October 7th, 2023.
Many college students have had enough of the protests that disrupt the learning environment and want them to end; they want viewpoint diversity and are turning down schools with toxic environments. Students want to enroll in schools where they learn and may even have some fun along the way.
From Columbia to Stanford, students are pushing back on cancel culture and calling out those who disrupt their classes, lectures, and the exchange of ideas and are no longer willing to waste their time and tuition. When protestors took over buildings and prevented classes from happening next door to Columbia at Barnard College, students did not remain silent. The politics and the substance of the protests aside, students just want to take their classes and are no longer accepting missing their chance to learn and hear a diverse set of views.
Most incoming students to colleges and universities are not protesters and disruptors. Data from the almost six-decade-long Cooperative Institutional Research Program Freshman Survey has one survey item that is particularly revealing. The question captured that a decade ago, in 2014, 21 percent of incoming students reported that they had frequently or occasionally stood up for a cause such as a boycott, rally, protest and 44 percent reported that they had frequently or occasionally publicly communicated their opinion about a cause (e.g., blog, email, petition).
These protest numbers did rise in 2018, where 36 percent of incoming students demonstrated for a cause and 49 percent publicly communicated an opinion about a cause. However, a decade later, in 2024, the number of students who came to college having demonstrated in some form prior to college has moved back down to the number in 2014, with 24 percent of incoming students having demonstrated and 37 percent reporting frequently or occasionally publicly communicating their opinion about a cause.
Large numbers of students are not inclined to protest, but there are some active groups. The Cooperative Institutional Research Program Freshman Survey notes that nearly half (45 percent) of LGBTQ+ students reported frequently or occasionally demonstrated for a cause in the past year and more than half (55 percent) had frequently or occasionally publicly communicated their opinion about a cause—larger shares when compared with those of non LGBTQ+ students (20 and 34 percent). These groups are often seen on the front lines of the post-October 7th protests at Columbia and elsewhere. Albeit small in numbers, they are quite visible.
The learning environment is not being derailed by the majority of students. Globally coordinated, loud, and deliberately provocative, social media savvy minorities of students have set the agenda on many campuses and have created chaos at schools around the nation. These protests and disruptions lack the moral and ethical considerations and widespread support of the protests of past generations.
What is clear in the collegiate world is that when schools fail to explain to their communities how speech and expression works and then choose to selectively and inconsistently promote and punish behaviors around expression and on-the-ground actions, they are rightly being punished and facing severe consequences by student enrollment choices and government alike. This is good news for higher education and the marketplace of ideas. Schools like Columbia are not only seeing their funding dangerously cut, but potential students are also not interested in attending and professors are infighting. Student interest and government financial support will flow to the schools that protect speech and allow students to learn.
Originally published at AEI Ideas: https://www.aei.org/society-and-culture/the-collegiate-marketplace-is-changing/