Have Public Universities Failed Their Communities On Covid-19 And Racism?

National polls have found large and growing differences between Democrats and Republicans on the topic of higher education. In general, Republican voters have expressed more negative views in comparison to their Democratic counterparts when asked if colleges and universities were having a positive impact on the way things were going in our country. However, most of these polls were conducted prior to the coronavirus outbreak and more recent social unrest focused on racism.

Are these public health issues impacting how citizens evaluate our nation’s public universities? A recent mini-survey on higher education was conducted by the American Population Panel (full disclosure: I am one of the collaborators on this research project) and included the following two items:

1.      How strongly do you agree or disagree with the following statement: The public universities of my state have responded to the Covid-19 pandemic in ways that have directly benefitted my community.

2.      How strongly do you agree or disagree with the following statement: Currently, the public universities of my state are playing a helpful role in dealing with racism directed toward African Americans.

This effort resulted in a national sample of 4,967 participants who represented all regions of the continental United States (39% Midwest, 32% South, 15% West, 14% Northeast). Because this is an election year, participants were asked to report on their political party affiliation. A total of 48% of participants identified as Democrats in comparison to 31% Independent and 21% Republican. In addition, participants were asked to locate themselves on a continuum that ranged from “extremely liberal” to “extremely conservative” in their political orientation, with a midpoint anchored by the response of “moderate/middle of the road.” A total of 54% of respondents described themselves as liberal, 26% as conservative, and the remaining 20% as moderate.

In terms of results, around 40 percent of the sample agreed or strongly agreed with both statements in terms of seeing universities positively assisting communities dealing with Covid-19 and racism. In turn, approximately one-fifth of the respondents disagreed or strongly disagreed, another 25 percent neither agreed or disagreed, and the remainder selected “don’t know” as their response. Political party affiliation mattered in that significantly more Democratic participants agreed with both statements in comparison to Republican and Independent participants. The results regarding political ideology largely mirrored the political party findings, such that significantly more conservative respondents disagreed with both statements in comparison to liberal and moderate respondents.

What does this mean for public universities? On the surface, the differences regarding politically oriented variables reported here are not surprising given the national polls discussed earlier. What the findings of this newest survey make clear is that such generalized views are mirrored in much more specific sentiments regarding the ways that public universities are handling issues surrounding the Covid-19 pandemic and social justice.

Widening our lens to an observation of results reflecting the views of the entire sample provides further sobering information for higher education leaders to absorb. Regardless of political affiliation or ideology, less than half of all respondents agreed or strongly agreed that public universities are meeting the needs of communities regarding these twin public health issues. The genuinely bad news is that approximately 25 percent disagreed or strongly disagreed.

However, a slightly more hopeful reading of these results would indicate that the remaining 35 to 40 percent of citizens polled across our nation have yet to be convinced one way or the other about the effectiveness of actions taken by institutions of higher learning in both of these realms. As such, a considerable portion of these individuals – Democrat, Republican, Independent, liberal, moderate, and conservative alike – remain open to persuasion regarding the value of efforts undertaken by universities in terms of community needs related to Covid-19 and social justice issues.

Should higher education leaders care about public sentiment on these issues? During his first debate with Stephen Douglas, Abraham Lincoln stated that “with public sentiment, nothing can fail; without it, nothing can succeed.” The future president repeatedly emphasized the importance of finding out (and acting upon) what citizens think about the issues of the day. Power resides in the will of the people or, said slightly differently in the context of higher education, universities ignore public opinion at their own peril. It is time for the leaders of our public institutions of higher learning to pay attention to public sentiment and to become more responsive to the wants and needs of the very citizens they are supposed to be serving.