College graduation speeches say a lot about the state of higher education — sometimes without intending to. For every country singer who can "wow" the audience with a message rooted in gratitude, family, and purpose, there are two, perhaps three, speakers who are disinvited for speaking their minds or forced to endure student walkouts. Such is life on campus today: A few schools overperform and offer students a meaningful experience but far too many award young Americans with little more than expensive disappointment. Singer-songwriter Eric Church earned rave reviews this year for his speech at the University of North Carolina with his focus on family and the importance of deep relationships. His message was refreshing.Conservatives have spent decades warning that America’s universities were abandoning their responsibility to guide students toward maturity, virtue, meaning, and purpose. I LEAD A UNIVERSITY.
HIGHER EDUCATION IS FAILING STUDENTS — CONGRESS IS RIGHT TO ACTFor those who think that critique is overstated, consider the chaos surrounding graduation ceremonies in 2026. At New York University, students unironically booed and some walked out on Jonathan Haidt, the social psychologist whose work has exposed, among other things, the cancel culture entrenched in higher education. South Carolina State officials disinvited their own lieutenant governor, Pamela Everett, citing her prior comments criticizing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).The mob wins again.Similar withdrawals, either disinvitations or decisions to step aside after student outrage campaigns, occurred this year at Drexel's College of Computing and Infomatics, Rutgers and Georgetown's law school, to name a few.Shouldn’t college campuses be places where robust debate flourishes? As a distinguished cadre of researchers, professors, and college presidents explain in Higher Education in America: It’s Worse than You Think...