We’re often asked a version of this question: Why higher ed? Why does it matter if more local newsrooms cover the colleges in their own backyard?
It’s a topic that people sometimes assume is narrow or insidery — something that matters greatly to people who work at colleges or attend colleges but maybe not so much to everyone else.
We see it differently. At Open Campus, we take an expansive view of what it means to cover college for a community.
Yes, we work with our local reporters to shed more light on what’s happening at their colleges. That accountability is essential because, despite their public missions, colleges don’t always operate with full transparency or effectively serve their communities.
But what matters goes well beyond campuses. Higher ed shapes the future of entire communities. When universities’ missions are threatened, that can affect everyone, whether they’ve been to college or not.
Colleges and universities play large roles in cities and states — they help shape local economies and prepare people for new jobs, they facilitate social mobility, they drive research, innovation, and advancements in public health. They’re among the biggest employers.
As the Trump administration applies unprecedented political, financial, and regulatory pressure on America’s colleges and universities, a lot hangs in the balance for their neighbors, too. Layoffs, threats to research centers, cuts to scholarships, uncertainty around apprenticeship programs, they all reverberate beyond campus:
• Those professors and staff members losing jobs are local residents who contribute to the tax base.
• Research cuts could end clinical trials local residents participate in and curtail efforts to improve treatments of diseases that affect them and their families.
• Ending programs that support students who have long been underrepresented in college might change their paths and plans, reinforcing disparities across the country in who goes to college and who gets through.
• Local businesses might be counting on those apprenticeships and other on-the-job training programs to help them prepare more people to fill key jobs.
Beyond economic benefits, having more people with college degrees in a place also has been shown to produce healthier and more civic-minded citizens, leading to more connected communities. People with at least some college education, studies have shown, are significantly more likely to vote in local elections, volunteer, and donate to charities.
Finally, another point we often make: Most Americans go to college within 50 miles of home, so how well colleges serve the people in their own backyards makes a big difference. More expert local coverage can help more people in more communities understand just how well those local colleges are working for them — and what’s at stake in this current environment, when many of higher ed’s core functions are coming under attack.
We want to help journalists provide communities with fact-based reporting that seeks to cut through both political rhetoric and institutional spin. (Sign up here for our Higher Ed Under Pressure project.)