Campus Docket

This week on Campus Docket, hosts Scott Schneider and Eric Kelderman welcome back repeat guest Neal Hutchens, a professor at the University of Kentucky, for a wide-ranging discussion on the legal battles currently reshaping higher education. From the Trump administration's "Compact 2.0" and intense new scrutiny over international student visas, to Title VI investigations at Duke and Harvard, the conversation explores the unprecedented tactics driving modern conservative policy shifts.

Are accreditors about to become the federal government's civil rights compliance cops? That's the tension running under the latest episode of Campus Docket, where hosts Scott Schneider and Eric Kelderman work through recent legal developments before sitting down with Maria Toyoda, President of the WASC Senior College and University Commission, to unpack what's really changing in higher ed accreditation. Together, they explore how robust due process, financial stability, and new federal civil rights mandates are redefining quality assurance in higher education.

For many small colleges, surviving today’s higher ed landscape feels like walking a tightrope in a windstorm—balancing shrinking enrollments, rising compliance costs, and cultural flashpoints that threaten to pull them off course. In this episode of Campus Docket, Marjorie Hass, president of the Council of Independent Colleges, joins hosts Scott D. Schneider and Eric Kelderman to unpack what’s keeping college presidents up at night.

When Walter Kimbrough says leading a college today is “like riding out a hurricane,” he means it—literally and figuratively. As a seasoned HBCU president and current interim leader at Talladega College, Kimbrough joins Campus Docket co-hosts Eric Kelderman and Scott Schneider to talk crisis leadership, navigating culture wars, and how higher ed can foster civic dialogue in a post-truth world.

Colleges are staring down federal funding cuts, DEI crackdowns, Title IX battles over transgender athletes, and a looming shake‑up in big‑time college sports. Attorney Scott D. Schneider and writer Eric Kelderman break down the legal storms reshaping higher ed and explain why the stakes have never been higher.