Contemporary Challenges and Tensions of Conservatism in American Higher Education

Abstract

This reflective piece examines key tensions shaping American higher education in the current sociopolitical context, while leveraging the Bowman Role Strain and Adaptation Model (BRSAM) as a conceptual anchor. The authors discuss existing friction between preexisting efforts to expand educational opportunity and recent regressive policies and legislation designed to undo progress and maintain the status quo. Grounded in emerging research, policy developments, and public discourse, this chapter begins by mapping important changes in higher education with particular attention to policy and legislative levers advancing conservative ideologies, including anti-diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts, the dismantling of Affirmative Action, and the weaponization of access to federal funding. The authors then examine the consequences of these shifts through institutional case studies, highlighting the elimination of DEI infrastructures, the rhetorical reframing of institutional missions, and the retreat of academic freedom. Turning to students, the authors explore the complex relationship between conservative ideals, institutional environments, and student activism/advocacy/leadership. In doing so, the authors illuminate how the academic opportunity structure is being reshaped in ways that constrain political engagement. Despite these challenges, the authors close on a note of cautious optimism. Drawing on the concept of Black fugitivity, they imagine subversive and care-centered practices that create space for Black and other marginalized populations within and beyond oppressive institutional structures.