“The professors are the enemy”: J.D. Vance on higher education

[W]e have to honestly and aggressively attack the universities in this country.

-JD Vance

Greetings from a somewhat less infernal Virginia July day. A storm front broke through our heat last night, which is a relief to all of us, especially the cats.

I’m writing in a hurry, as I’ve got a stack of meetings today (including a Future Trends Forum community session!) and am hitting the road tomorrow (speaking to the NACUFS national conference in Louisville, then the SCUP annual conference in Philadelphia; I’m happy to meet with readers in those cities), but I wanted to share notes on a current event which might be significant for higher education.

This week the Republican party named Ohio senator J.D. Vance as its vice presidential candidate for the fall election.

What might this mean for higher education?

On the one hand, we can dismiss vice presidents as traditionally useless appendages on the presidency, famously not worth a warm bucket of spit, etc. On the other, we’re in a very intense election season and vice presidential selection is always a strategic move. The veep candidate signals many things to the electorate, from geographical importance to demographic representation.

Today I want to single out Vance’s documented attitude towards higher education. Again, he’s only the VP candidate, and Trump is famously egocentric, so this might not turn out to…