NEW! ACTA’s Policymaker’s Toolkit
Higher education across the nation is under scrutiny. Publicly funded colleges and universities are particularly vulnerable, as they represent a massive investment by state taxpayers. Many concerned Americans question the return on this investment, and public confidence in higher education has fallen every year since 2015. The diversity of institutions means that no single policy can apply everywhere. State legislators must work together with trustees and local stakeholders to assess the issues their colleges and universities are facing. This guide outlines steps that state policymakers can take to strengthen fiscal accountability, support trustees, and generate better outcomes for students, taxpayers, and the nation.
ACTA Participates in the Second Annual Ohio Public Trustee Governance Symposium
In October, the Ohio legislature, led by Senate President Matt Huffman and Senator Jerry Cirino, invited ACTA to present at the second annual Ohio Public Trustee Governance Symposium. The symposium brought together lawmakers and over 75 governing board members from Ohio’s 14 public universities to ensure that tax dollars are supporting high-quality, affordable education. Topics discussed included the 2023 Supreme Court decision on affirmative action, the value of adopting a policy of institutional neutrality in the wake of recent campus protests, and the importance of civic education. To read more or to watch the event, click here.
ACTA’s Institute for Effective Governance® offers several different seminars for higher education leaders, including Governance for a New Era, Emerging Issues in Higher Education, National Trends, and Principles for Higher Education Leadership, as well as customizable seminars. To find out more about how ACTA can assist trustees in your state, please contact Nick Down, ACTA’s associate director of external affairs.
2024 Annual State Rankings Are Live!
Check out ACTA’s annual state rankings of higher education performance. The rankings show policymakers and trustees how universities in their state stack up on administrative spending, graduation rates, speech code policies, and other key performance metrics. Click here to see how your state ranks among the rest of the nation.
Leading the Way in Revitalizing Civic Education
On July 8, ACTA released Losing America’s Memory 2.0, a civic literacy assessment of over 3,000 U.S. college students. Among the alarming results, we found that majorities of college students cannot identify the chief justice of the Supreme Court, the speaker of the House, or term lengths for members of Congress. To explore our findings, read ACTA President Michael Poliakoff and Vice President of Policy Bradley Jackson’s article in RealClearEducation and this article published in Forbes.
To address the civic literacy crisis, ACTA recently launched its National Commission on American History and Civic Education. The commission, comprised of 22 distinguished historians, political scientists, and education leaders, will identify the key elements of a required course in U.S. history and government and determine an implementation strategy for policymakers. Its recommendations will be published in a white paper, entitled A Broadside to the Nation, and distributed to thousands of college trustees and civic leaders. For more information, please contact ACTA Vice President of Communications Leslie Paige.
Two New Guides for Governing Boards
This summer, ACTA released two new guides to equip college trustees as they navigate what is widely anticipated to be a volatile academic year on American college campuses. Danger in Divestment. The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions Movement: What Trustees Need to Know provides clear recommendations for how to address the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement, which aggressively calls on universities across the country to divest from whatever holdings they have in Israel.
An Equal Space for All: A Trustee Guide to Preventing Encampments and Occupations on Campus urges college governing boards to enact clear, content-neutral time, place, and manner restrictions so that students and faculty understand in advance which protest activities are acceptable and which are not. ACTA recommends ensuring that the penalties for violating these restrictions are clear and enforcing them consistently.
A Bipartisan Call to Action for Trustees
In October, ACTA Policy Research Fellow Kyle Beltramini released an analysis of the work of the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL)—a bipartisan nonprofit that serves state lawmakers and their staff. NCSL recently released a report on enhancing the value of college degrees. The report emphasizes the importance of state-level action to evaluate spending and ensure that degree programs are serving the needs of students and taxpayers. Read Mr. Beltramini’s analysis here.
ACTA Testifies before Texas Senate
On November 11, ACTA Associate Director of External Affairs Nick Down testified before Texas’s Senate Subcommittee on Higher Education. Mr. Down discussed why college governing boards should reappropriate administrative funding for diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives and adopt new policies that promote free expression, viewpoint diversity, and institutional neutrality. To view Mr. Down’s testimony, click here.
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Launched in 1995, we are the only organization that works with alumni, donors, trustees, and education leaders across the United States to support liberal arts education, uphold high academic standards, safeguard the free exchange of ideas on campus, and ensure that the next generation receives an intellectually rich, high-quality college education at an affordable price.
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