The sociopolitical context around higher education has generated significant challenges for academic freedom and collegial governance. In the U.S. context, some universities have been compelled to establish systems of surveillance to detect when professors teach in ways that conflict with ideological restrictions imposed by the state (Pedota et al., 2025). Furthermore, at some institutions, faculty senates and other collegial governance structures have been dismantled, thus fostering top-down managerial control. Additionally, the U.S. federal government has sought to limit university autonomy and further control the research agendas pursued by academics. While the scope of these sociopolitical pressures has been described as unprecedented in the U.S. context, ideological intrusions into higher education have been long-standing and widespread around the world (Altbach & de Wit, 2025; Oleksiyenko, 2023).

This roundtable discussion provides an opportunity for scholars to envision new possibilities for informing and shaping university leadership, in a context where public trust in higher education has eroded, and where significant challenges to academic values and institutional autonomy have emerged. An overarching question for this roundtable relates to whether the prevailing global template of a research university driven by rankings and revenue generation has diminished public trust in higher education and rendered it vulnerable to ideological attacks.

Following this opening discussion, roundtable participants will examine a brief descriptive analysis of news reports regarding ideological intrusions in U.S. universities. This analysis examines intrusions that took place during the one-year period since the start of the second Trump Administration in January 2025. While the U.S. federal government cancelled funding for research programs that conflicted with the ideological preferences of the presidential administration, most intrusions were initiated by actors in state government or were directly implemented by university boards and presidents due to actual or expected political pressures. News reports for this analysis were selected based on the following criteria: intrusion was based on ideological or sociopolitical grounds; intrusion led to structural, policy, or programmatic changes at the university; and the enacted changes limited academic freedom and/or constrained collegial governance.

Following this discussion of ideological intrusions, the roundtable will focus on public trust in higher education. While ideological attacks on universities have contributed to an erosion of public trust in higher education, other behaviors and practices of universities themselves have likely diminished that trust. Specifically, institutional neglect toward the social responsibilities of universities to act as agents of positive social, economic, and environmental transformation, has also likely contributed to diminished public trust.

Roundtable participants will discuss two questions that relate to continuity and change in the context of enhancing public trust:

To what extent does restoring public trust in higher education depend on returning to core values of universities, such as their mission to serve society?

To what extent does restoring public trust in higher education depend on developing new organizational forms for higher education, through which access to knowledge is democratized?

Finally, roundtable participants will identify lines of research that could inform the work of university administrators and academics who seek to uphold and advance the core values of higher education. Initially, the discussion will focus on three possible research lines: university leadership, faculty governance, and advancing the public role of the academic profession.

Regarding university leadership, while top-level administrators might be highly constrained by external threats to the university, grassroots leaders within the university could preserve and advance the core values and social missions of higher education (Holcombe et al., 2025).

In terms of faculty governance, participants will consider a recent initiative by the American Association of Colleges and Universities (2026) to envision faculty governance as a mechanism for restoring public trust in higher education. Finally, participants will consider how research can inform and advance the public role of the academic profession.

As noted above, this roundtable will begin with a discussion of ideological attacks on higher education and a brief examination of the impact of these intrusions on U.S. universities. Next, in small groups, participants will address key questions about enhancing public trust. Finally, participants will work together to identify lines of research that can inform the work of university leaders and academics in relation to restoring public trust. The roundtable will conclude by exploring possible research collaborations to advance these lines of inquiry.