Advertise on podcast: Reinventing U

Join us for conversation with Brian Soucek, Martin Luther King, Jr. Professor of Law at the University of California, Davis, on his new book, The Opinionated University: Academic Freedom, Diversity, and the Myth of Neutrality in American Higher Education (University of Chicago Press 2026). University leaders will be especially interested in Professor Soucek’s expert analysis as well as his classroom and campus experiences. Both richly inform The Opinionated University.

In this episode of Reinventing U, we are joined by Stephen Gavazzi, Director of the Center for Human Resource Research at The Ohio State University, to explore a blueprint for universities to meet the demands of the current moment by recommitting to the public good.  Drawing on his recent co‑authored piece, “Morrill Act 250: Reinterpreting the Public Research University Compact as Civic Trust in America’s Third Century,” Gavazzi outlines five priorities for regaining public trust, strengthening transparency, and preparing university systems for the future. He also makes the case for digital and AI fluency as a baseline civic and educational competency. This conversation provides a realistic yet hopeful vision of the future, along with concrete ideas for how public universities can recast their mission in ways that are visible, credible, and worthy of public trust in an era of rapid change.

Joshua Eyler, the author of Failing Our Future: How Grades Harm Students, And What We Can Do About It (JHUP 2024), is among the leading experts on grading reform. Praised by the likes of Cathy N. Davidson and Jeff Selingo, Eyler’s book is roughly divided between indictment of current practices and exploring practical solutions. In every case, however, the answer keeps coming back: fundamental reform is necessary. Join us for a lively and perhaps surprising conversation about a too often taken-for-granted core academic practice.

In 2025, University of Toronto Professor of Philosophy and Religion, Robert Gibbs, published What Could a University Be?: Revolutionary Ideas for the Future (University of British Columbia Press). Join us for a highly engaging conversation in which Dr. Gibbs recaps the main points of his argument and along the way explores the distinctive value of research university undergraduate educations, generally and in our times, highlights the vital role of the humanities, and offers practical advice as well as visionary insight concerning the institutions and the work to which UERU members devote themselves.

On this episode of Reinventing U, hear from Dr. Richard J. Reddick, Senior Vice Provost and Dean of the Undergraduate College and Distinguished Service Professor in Educational Leadership and Policy at The University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Reddick’s book Restorative Resistance in Higher Education: Leading in an Era of Racial Awakening and Reckoning (Harvard Education Press, 2023) shares the wisdom he has gained from over three decades of work on diversity, equity, and inclusion in educational settings. Positioning college campuses as “crucibles for social change,” Dr. Reddick challenges all of us to rethink how we show up as leaders, engaging all members of the university community in the task of creating more equitable learning environments while prioritizing joy, rest, and other restorative acts.

Brian Rosenberg discusses his new book “Whatever It Is, I’m Against It :Resistance to Change in Higher Education” Brian Rosenberg is currently visiting professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. From 2003 until 2020, he served as the 16th President of Macalester College. He is the author of Whatever It Is, I’m Against It:  Resistance to Change in Higher Education, published in 2023 by Harvard Education Press. His articles on higher education appear regularly in The Chronicle of Higher Education and have also appeared in publications including The New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times. He serves as senior advisor and director at the African Leadership University and as a member of the board of the Teagle Foundation.  Rosenberg received his B.A. from Cornell University and his Ph.D. in English from Columbia University. Prior to arriving at Macalester, he served as dean of the faculty at Lawrence University and as professor and chair of the English Department at Allegheny College. He is the author of two books and many articles on Victorian literature.

Is a college degree still the quickest path to a good-paying job? That is the question at the heart of Kathleen deLaski’s timely 2025 book, which is the focus of this episode of Reinventing U. As deLaski notes, headlines are dominated by the cost and ROI of a 4-year degree, and more families are asking themselves: Is college worth it? For many Americans, confused and stressed by mixed messages, the answer, deLaski contends, is increasingly: No. But, if college isn’t the guaranteed route to success it once was, what comes next? Who Needs College Anymore? describes the workarounds that could well become the “new normal” for how America prepares for work.

Leading Generously with Kathleen Fitzpatrick, Interim Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies, Michigan State University

The University Unfettered Public Higher Education in an Age of Disruption Ian F. McNeely Columbia University Press The public university as we once knew it is gone and never coming back. After generations of fickle state support, public universities behave more and more like their private counterparts—charging what the market will bear, offering what consumers demand, competing relentlessly with peers, and managing their own priorities. But looking back on how we got here offers surprising reassurance. U.S. public universities emerged largely intact after a decade of disruption bookended by a financial crisis and a pandemic. Resisting widespread calls for corporate reinvention or “disruptive innovation,” they hewed to their core missions. If anything, exposure to the rigors of competition only enhanced their longstanding commitments to the public good.   READ MORE

We interview Mary Wright, Associate Provost for Teaching and Learning, Executive Director of the Sheridan Center for Teaching and Learning, and Professor (Research) Sociology, at Brown University. She is also a former president (2017-18) of the Professional and Organizational Development (POD) Network in Higher Education, the U.S. professional association for educational development. The conversation focuses on Wright's new book, Centers for Teaching and Learning: The New Landscape in Higher Education (2023), a study of aims, strategies, tactics, organization, and evaluation approaches for over 1,200 Centers for Teaching and Learning.  UERU members can access an extended version of this episode in MyUERU. A transcript for this episode can be found here.

This episode features an interview with Corbin Campbell, the Associate Dean of Academic Affairs and Associate Professor in the School of Education at American University, hosted by Steve Dandaneau, Executive Director, and Emma Hanson, Senior Student Coordinator. The topics include Campbell's newly published book: Great College Teaching: Where It Happens and How to Foster It Everywhere, published by Harvard Education Press.

In episode 10, we talk with Father Jim Heft, an Alton M. Brooks Professor of Religion at the University of Southern California and Founder and President Emeritus of the Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies (IACS). Father Heft was also honored with the Theodore Hesburgh Award for long and distinguished service to Catholic Higher Education in 2011.  He served on the board of the American Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities and chaired that board for two years. He spent many years at the University of Dayton, serving as chair of the Theology Department for six years, Provost of the university for eight years, and then Chancellor for 10 years. He left the University of Dayton in the summer of 2006 and founded the Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies (IACS) at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. Father Heft has written and edited numerous books and has written more than one hundred and fifty articles and book chapters. Most recently, he co-edited Empty Churches: Non-Affiliations in America with Jan Stets and wrote and published with Oxford University Press, The Future of Catholic Higher Education. Topics discussed in this episode include the challenges of Catholic Universities such as commercialism and secularism, communication between the disciplines, the idea of the open circle, identifying universal concerns, Catholic social teaching, traditions and traditionalism, and academic freedom and fidelity.

In episode 9, we talk with Colin Potts, the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education at Georgia Institute for Technology where he oversees offices and programs that effect undergraduate education such as the Georgia Tech Career Center, the Honors Program (HP), Academic Engagement Programs, Tutoring & Academic Support, Undergraduate Academic Advising, Pre-Graduate & Pre-Professional Advising, Summer Session Initiatives, and Serve-Learn-Sustain (SLS). Dr. Potts also sits on the President’s cabinet and represents Georgia Tech’s undergraduate academic affairs to the University System of Georgia Board of Regents and the Association of American Universities (AAU). Dr. Potts also serves as the President of the Reinvention Collaborative. Topics discussed include the role of “research” in research universities in strengthening undergraduate education, the scholarship of teaching and learning in reference to the Boyer report, university-wide reform efforts, adapting to Covid-19 as a paradigm shift in higher education, and the importance of entrepreneurship at research universities as a growth and creation of knowledge.

In episode 8, we talk with Deborah A. Santiago, the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Excelencia in Education. Before Excelencia, she was Vice President for data and Policy Analysis at the LA County Alliance for Student Achievement, a policy analyst at the Library of Congress’ Congressional Research Service on legislative issues in higher education, and informed programmatic and budgetary efforts in the Office of Post-secondary Education at the US Department of Education. She also served as the Deputy Director of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans. Topics discussed include the basic mission of Excelencia in Education and how to frame the proverbial big picture, the social mission of Excelencia, and how educators can prepare themselves for the Latino students of today and tomorrow.

In episode 7, we talk with Eric Waldo, Executive Director of Michelle Obama’s Reach Higher Initiative and Chief Access and Equity Officer at The Common Application. Before joining the White House, Waldo was Deputy Chief and Staff at the Department of Education, where he helped lead the initiatives for The Recovery Act under former president Barack Obama. Waldo also helped manage the Department of Defense global K-12 school system as the co-chair for the Advisory Council for Dependence Education and served as Deputy Staff Council for Obama’s presidential campaign. Through policy, advocacy, and community engagement, Waldo encourages all students to strive for a post-secondary education. Topics discussed include A Student’s Guide To Your First Year of College, the importance for colleges to be student-ready, the key to success is being a lifelong learner, higher education credentialing, making education the great equalizer, the role of socioeconomic status in equity and diversity, democratizing education, bettering teacher compensation, fixing a broken accrediting system in higher education, and popping the bubble of elitism. You can listen to Waldo’s educational podcast, SwampED, or follow him on twitter @ewwaldo or @swampEDpod