Don’t be defensive. Accept criticism and then try to set your own narrative and vision.
Talk about how your institution brings value to local communities and to the state. Polling has found that while Americans may be skeptical about higher ed, they like their local colleges. “It’s my job to get you to love Missouri State,” says Clifton M. Smart III, the university’s president, “not Harvard.”
Stay connected. By getting out into the community, students, faculty members, and administrators can build reservoirs of good will. And bring lawmakers and members of the public to the campus. If they understand colleges’ challenges, they may be better advocates.
Don’t play favorites. In polarizing times, Smart works hard to stay out of the partisan fray. Missouri State alternated having the state’s two U.S. senators, until recently of opposite political parties, speak at commencement. And the university’s band committed to playing at the presidential inauguration — no matter who won.
Be proactive. Don’t wait for legislators to hold hearings or introduce bills. Take a good look at your own policies and outcomes and act when you think change is needed. After the protests at Berkeley, Carol T. Christ, the chancellor, created a commission of students and faculty and staff members to examine the campus’s policies on free speech. The panel, which recommended that student groups submit rationales for why they want to invite disruptive speakers and that more spots on campus be designated as free-speech zones, helped move the university from a position of reacting to events to setting its own approach to speech.
