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What Happened to College?
How Politics Broke Higher Education and What We Can Do to Fix It
By Neil Gross
Table of Contents
About The Book
A sociologist who has been tracking the polarization of higher education for twenty years reveals how students are navigating the campus culture wars, what they wish their professors would do differently, and why they’re actually afraid of saying what they think.
“Anyone who wants to understand the crisis in higher education—and help solve it—should read this book.” —Greg Lukianoff * “Everyone has an opinion about higher education, but ironically few scholars actually study it in a systematic way. What Happened to College? brings data and rigorous thinking to bear on the question of how a university system that is in many ways the envy of the world has lost the confidence of such a large share of the country.” —Matthew Yglesias
American universities are at the center of a political firestorm. Between attacks on DEI programming, dwindling enrollment in the humanities, questions about the value of a college education, funding cuts, and battles over woke activism and liberal indoctrination, the campus culture wars are raging. But the experience on campus is not quite what the culture warriors would have us believe.
A decade after his landmark book on faculty politics, Neil Gross decided it was time to give those with the most at stake a chance to speak for themselves. Beginning in the spring of 2024, he launched a massive investigation into how our polarized politics have remade the college experience, interviewing students across the country and polling thousands more. He looked at liberal arts colleges, state schools, faith-based institutions, and elite universities and combed through studies tracking everything from campus dating habits to changes in syllabi.
What he found was startling: Undergraduates today are choosing their schools, their friends, their partners, their activities—even their majors—on the basis of their political beliefs to a degree unimaginable ten years ago, with the goal of interacting as little as possible with anyone whose views don’t line up with their own. Popular campus dating apps invite you to swipe left if you don’t like someone’s political profile—a metaphor for today’s college experience writ large. Instead of resisting this trend, some faculty and administrators encouraged it, creating a cloistered environment where students could avoid uncomfortable disagreement.
What Happened to College? paints a picture of an educational system in crisis and ripe for change. Debunking overstated claims, Gross points to places where open debate and friendship across political lines still thrive. What are these campus communities doing right? Can we teach college students to disagree better? At a time of growing political stridency, nothing could be more necessary.
“Anyone who wants to understand the crisis in higher education—and help solve it—should read this book.” —Greg Lukianoff * “Everyone has an opinion about higher education, but ironically few scholars actually study it in a systematic way. What Happened to College? brings data and rigorous thinking to bear on the question of how a university system that is in many ways the envy of the world has lost the confidence of such a large share of the country.” —Matthew Yglesias
American universities are at the center of a political firestorm. Between attacks on DEI programming, dwindling enrollment in the humanities, questions about the value of a college education, funding cuts, and battles over woke activism and liberal indoctrination, the campus culture wars are raging. But the experience on campus is not quite what the culture warriors would have us believe.
A decade after his landmark book on faculty politics, Neil Gross decided it was time to give those with the most at stake a chance to speak for themselves. Beginning in the spring of 2024, he launched a massive investigation into how our polarized politics have remade the college experience, interviewing students across the country and polling thousands more. He looked at liberal arts colleges, state schools, faith-based institutions, and elite universities and combed through studies tracking everything from campus dating habits to changes in syllabi.
What he found was startling: Undergraduates today are choosing their schools, their friends, their partners, their activities—even their majors—on the basis of their political beliefs to a degree unimaginable ten years ago, with the goal of interacting as little as possible with anyone whose views don’t line up with their own. Popular campus dating apps invite you to swipe left if you don’t like someone’s political profile—a metaphor for today’s college experience writ large. Instead of resisting this trend, some faculty and administrators encouraged it, creating a cloistered environment where students could avoid uncomfortable disagreement.
What Happened to College? paints a picture of an educational system in crisis and ripe for change. Debunking overstated claims, Gross points to places where open debate and friendship across political lines still thrive. What are these campus communities doing right? Can we teach college students to disagree better? At a time of growing political stridency, nothing could be more necessary.
About The Author
Jessica Berger Gross
A sociologist known for his data-driven explorations of campus politics and American life, Neil Gross is the Charles A. Dana Professor of Sociology at Colby College. He is the author of Why are Professors Liberal and Why do Conservatives Care? which was based on the most comprehensive study of faculty politics since the 1960s. He has taught at Harvard, Princeton, Williams, and the University of Southern California and written for The Atlantic and The New York Times.
Product Details
- Publisher: Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster (August 25, 2026)
- Length: 288 pages
- ISBN13: 9781668200469
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Raves and Reviews
“Everyone has an opinion about higher education, but ironically few scholars actually study it in a systematic way. Neil Gross's What Happened to College? brings data and rigorous thinking to bear on the question of how a university system that is in many ways the envy of the world has lost the confidence of such a large share of the country. Anyone who cares about the future of our most important and influential institutions should read this book to understand what's actually happening.”
—Matthew Yglesias, cofounder of Vox and author of the Substack Slow Boring
“This is one of the most important books yet on the political transformation of American higher education. What Happened to College? is not just about classrooms, professors, or campus speech controversies. It shows how politics has become part of the entire ecosystem of modern college life—shaping admissions, friendships, dating, social life, majors, and the way students learn to speak or stay silent. Anyone who wants to understand the crisis in higher education—and help solve it—should read this book.”
—Greg Lukianoff, co-author of The Coddling of the American Mind
“If you want to understand how political polarization is transforming higher education in America, this book should be at the top of your list. What Happened to College? does a brilliant job of distinguishing fact from fiction. It also puts student voices at the heart of the story. An essential read for anyone who cares about the future of higher ed.”
—Julia Adams, Margaret H. Marshall Professor of Sociology and cochair of the Committee on Trust in Higher Education, Yale University
“Neil Gross has written the best account of the many ways that campus politics produce cynics and bullies, not inquisitive citizens. If you want to know how we got here—and how we can find our way out—you will have to read his indispensable book.”
—Jonathan Zimmerman, Judy and Howard Berkowitz Professor of History of Education, University of Pennsylvania and author of The Amateur Hour: A History of College Teaching in America
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What Happened to College?
How Politics Broke Higher Education and What We Can Do to Fix It
By Neil Gross
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