SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
High tuition, fear of student debt, increased interest in the trades and changes to student visas. There is a lot going on in the world of higher education as fall classes get underway, and all of that combined with an emerging question - is a college degree even worth it? NPR's Elissa Nadworny, who covers higher ed, joins us from a college campus in Muncie, Indiana. Good morning, Elissa.
ELISSA NADWORNY, BYLINE: Good morning.
SIMON: Where are you? What are you seeing?
NADWORNY: I'm at Ball State. It's a public research university. And I'm outside Schmidt/Wilson Dorm, where students are moving in. So as we talk, I am seeing roommates meeting up. Families are unloading U-Hauls and SUVs. You can hear kind of the carts rolling. There's a cart right in front of me that is stacked with bags and TVs, extra shoes. You know, Scott, it's my favorite time of year. There is just so much energy and excitement here.
SIMON: There are questions being asked about the value of a degree. Now, trade degrees were advocated by the Obama administration. The Trump administration has had what I think we can fairly call an openly adversarial relationship with much of higher education. Do you see that sentiment carrying over into students?
NADWORNY: In terms of student behavior, you know, enrollment in college across the country is actually up. That's according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. It's driven by gains at public four-year programs, like here at Ball State, and community colleges, which - they're the places that most students in America actually go to college.
On Thursday, I was at a branch of Ivy Tech Community College. They have 19 campuses throughout Indiana, and many of those campuses have seen notable enrollment increases. At their campus in Columbus, I talked with Jennifer Englehart-Copeland, who oversees student affairs.
JESSICA ENGLERT-COPELAND: We're up, so we're feeling positive. I will check the numbers tomorrow morning, and then we'll hook on up. But we also never just rest on our laurels.
NADWORNY: Across the state, their enrollment is the highest it's been in the last five years. It speaks to rising demand for workforce training and career certification programs. Here's the school's chancellor, Steven Combs.
STEVEN COMBS: We provide programs that are everybody's first choices - nursing, flight, cyber, IT, industrial maintenance. So there are so many different opportunities that many community colleges offer that people just need to explore.
NADWORNY: And of course, community college is one of the cheapest options a lot of students have.
SIMON: Increasing enrollment is good news for colleges. But as you have reported, this is a difficult time to lead a college, isn't it?
NADWORNY: Yeah. And it's especially difficult if you're at a more selective institution that's really been going head-to-head with the Trump administration. I mean, we're talking about changes to foreign-student visas, cuts to research grants, potential changes to how the government gives those research grants. There's a number of ongoing investigations into colleges on their use of admissions, their use of DEI, civil rights violations. I mean, the administration has been quite critical of universities and their role.
SIMON: One of the latest attempts at higher ed reform from the Trump administration is for colleges to sign what the education secretary, Linda McMahon, calls a national call to action to university presidents and governing boards. What is it? What's the reaction been?
NADWORNY: Well, it was sent to colleges last month. It's being dubbed this Compact 2.0. And maybe you'll remember last year the administration asked colleges to sign another compact pledging changes to admissions, capping the number of international students - things like that. Federal funding was at stake. That one didn't really go anywhere. This new compact asks schools to state their mission and values. It's pitched kind of as a way to boost PR for colleges, but some scholars see it as just another way of the administration to exert control. I talked with Amanda Shanor. She's a law professor at the University of Pennsylvania.
AMANDA SHANOR: This is part of a broader campaign of the administration to try to shape American institutions in a certain type of vision with regard to all of these other things, like admissions and what's taught and who gets to teach and what they can say and what ideas are favored or disfavored.
NADWORNY: And right now the colleges I'm reaching out to are being pretty tight-lipped about what they'll do. They have until the end of 2026 to decide whether or not to sign on or to follow the administration's request.
SIMON: NPR's Elissa Nadworny, on campus for us at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. Thanks so much for being with us.
NADWORNY: You bet. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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