When it comes to the way that Americans think about higher education, things are better than you think for universities. And also worse than you think. At least that’s how political scientist Ken Goldstein reads the data, and Goldstein is one of very few people who have made a deep study of public opinion about universities.
Goldstein is a former member of the UW–Madison faculty, and he currently is on the faculty at University of San Francisco. He’s also a senior fellow studying survey research and institutional policy at the Association of American Universities. On June 17, 2025, Goldstein will join a conversation about the political situation that American research universities confront — both public perception about them and the Trump administration’s policies that will affect them. He’ll speak with Craig Thompson ’91, the UW’s vice chancellor for university relations, and moderator Mike Knetter of the Wisconsin Foundation and Alumni Association.
My Chief Area of Research Is:
Public opinion research, public attitudes toward colleges and universities — research universities in particular. When I was at Wisconsin, I followed political advertising pretty closely. I am doing tens of thousands of interviews every year with the American people.
Tonight on the UW Now, I’ll Discuss:
I won’t be able to speak so much to particular findings in particular states, but I’ll be able to give broad strokes. This is a moment in American politics when, to state the obvious, it is not great for America’s leading research universities.
If There’s One Thing People Should Know, It’s:
It’s worse than people think, and in other ways it’s better than they think. At the end of the day, universities shouldn’t waste a crisis. Universities have to use this as an opportunity to change and get better, even if the attacks on us are pretty brutal and unfair.
To Get Smart Fast, See:
- The Pew Research Center
- The Upshot at the New York Times
