What might Biden’s withdrawal mean for higher education?

Today I’ve been finishing up a post about politics, scheduled for tomorrow.  But history has intervened, so I need to do a different politics post today.  I’m not a political commentator, generally, although I follow politics closely, so this is a bit of a stretch.

Question: what might Biden’s withdrawal from the 2024 presidential race mean for higher education?

To recap: as of this writing, president Biden announced on X/Twitter that he was withdrawing from the presidential campaign.

Then he followed up with a post endorsing current vice president Harris:

My fellow Democrats, I have decided not to accept the nomination and to focus all my energies on my duties as President for the remainder of my term. My very first decision as the party nominee in 2020 was to pick Kamala Harris as my Vice President. And it’s been the best decision I’ve made. Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year. Democrats — it’s time to come together and beat Trump. Let’s do this.

At this point some Democratic leaders have endorsed Harris. Others are trying to wrangle (or just explain) the process by which Harris becomes the candidate.  Some prominent Republicans are asking Biden to step down, not just from the race, but from the presidency itself.

Very interesting and chaotic times.  I can glimpse various forces that I think are shaping the national and global future here: the rise of people of color; the rise of women; our cultural rethinking of advanced age; opposing drives over globalization (extend or reduce it); continued rethinking of policing (Harris’ career as prosecutor); how we value economic reality.

But right now my focus is more narrow.  What might this electoral break mean for higher education?

We might see a contested fight to succeed Joe Biden.  No candidates have presented themselves with the Democratic party yet, and Harris has the presidential endorsement, yet it’s possible that some ambitious politicians could make a fast move for the crown.  We could also see party activists try drafting a noncommitted politician.  I don’t have time to create a list of possible competitors and suss out their higher education potential, but we can wonder

For now, let’s assume Kamala Harris becomes the candidate and launches an energetic campaign against the Republican Donald Trump.  We can consider the remaining election months and wonder if education will appear in the campaign.  Harris could run on Biden’s record, pointing to Title IX revision, efforts to forgive student debt (which she stumped for in April), supporting STEM education (especially within the CHIPS Act context), and supporting historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs).  The campaign could cast each of these as appealing to various constituencies.  Harris has already done a college campus speaking tour on behalf of the Biden-Harris team.

Or might Harris carve out a new path on education in the election?  She could target for-profit institutions, as she did as prosecutor in 2015. She could link her abortion rights focus to student life, as she has already done at least once, urging campuses to maintain womens’ access to contraceptives.  She could also call for more HBCU support, based on her own undergraduate experience. Or she could attack the Republican party’s published disdain for colleges and universities.  Perhaps she would link the Biden pro-science agenda to the Democratic claim that Republicans are anti-science or anti-intellectual.

Education events might prompt a different direction.  If Israel’s war in Gaza continues a month from now, then campus protests might arise again, which could empower the GOP to condemn academia as a dangerous hotbed of antisemitism and free speech quashing.

Of course, academia and education in general might play no role at all in a Harris-Trump contest.  After all, there is a huge amount of issues to argue over and higher ed is but one.

On something of a tangential note, I’m struck by the way Biden announced his decisions on social media – specifically, on X/Twitter, first and foremost.  For all that platform is supposed to be collapsing, irrelevant, or a right wing brutal cesspool, it seems the most powerful political figure in the world still uses it.  In fact, at least one Biden 2024 campaign site still has Joe as the nominee:

I’m honestly surprised Biden didn’t make the announcement first as a live video statement.

Let’s look ahead a little further.  After the election, what might a Harris administration look like?  (We’re already exploring what a second Trump term might present.) I’ve outlined some possibilities above, and they really depend on what Harris wants to do as president – specifically, to what extent she wants to continue Biden’s policies, versus the new ideas she’d like to implement.  Searching on the topic is a bit frustrating, as there hasn’t been much written on Harris and higher ed.

Let me pause for now. This post is a hasty one, written between plane flights (gah), meetings, and a conference presentation.  I’d really like to hear from you all.  What are you thinking of the impacts of Biden’s two decisions on higher education?  Any members of the K-Hive want to represent?