Happy summer, dear readers!

Our publishing break is ongoing—we’ll be back with new reporting next week—but I’m here in your inboxes for two important reasons: To tell you there are a few tickets left to our inaugural Newsmakers event with UNC System President Peter Hans next week, and to introduce our summer intern, Lucas Lin. 

And while I’m here, I figure we may as well share some of what we’ve been reading, right?

— Matt Hartman

📚 Today’s Syllabus

1. Last chance to buy tickets to our Newsmakers event
2. Meet the newest Quad team member
3. Baffling Big Beautiful Bill math and other reading

Last Chance for Hans

We’re kicking off our Newsmakers series with a conversation with Peter Hans about the future of higher education. Join us at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, July 16, in Raleigh for a small event with meaningful dialogue and valuable connections.

Tickets are $50, but Premium Subscribers get their first one free—just enter the promo code listed on the checkout page.

— Matt Hartman

Buy Your Tickets Now

Thanks for reading The Quad, a higher education newsletter written by Matt Hartman and Erin Gretzinger and edited by Emily Stephenson. Reach us with tips or ideas at highered@theassemblync.com.

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Meet Lucas Lin

As students, we are living through it all.

I am a rising junior at Duke and an international student hailing from Taiwan, and the past couple of months have been a roller coaster ride on campus. International students and faculty are bracing for an uncertain future regarding their legal status. DEI is no longer in the playbook, and Duke is scrambling to find a new language. Hundreds of employees may be on their way out as part of the university’s cost-cutting measures.

But before delving into all that stuff, here’s a little bit about myself. On campus, I wear several hats. I make documentary films and take photos. As a gallery guide, I invite audiences to find meaning in art. What’s common to all of my activities is my interest in storytelling, which naturally found an avenue in journalism.

That passion for journalism kindled during my first semester at Duke, where I stumbled upon The Duke Chronicle. College journalism has since taken me to unexpected corners of campus and beyond, from a Duke professor working undercover at Amazon to the difficulties of social integration for exchange students from China. As I take on a leadership role as managing editor at The Duke Chronicle this coming year, questions about Duke’s role in higher education have inevitably surfaced, from what “civil discourse” means to whether Duke should weigh in on political issues or adopt “institutional neutrality.”

As summer intern at The Assembly, I hope to zoom out and see the bigger picture. How are universities across North Carolina tightening their belts in response to the political climate? How are faculty and students adapting to the generative capabilities and potential of AI technologies?

As students, we bear the first witness to a rapidly changing higher education landscape. I hope to learn more about these issues and share them with you. Reach me at lucas@theassemblync.com for higher ed insights!

— Lucas Lin

Assigned Reading

Big, Beautiful, and Baffling: Now that the Republican spending and tax bill has cleared Congress, it’s time to take stock of the impact on higher ed. The New York Times has a handy round-up, but I also recommend Don Taylor’s newsletter, of which I’ve recently become an avid reader. The health policy scholar digs deep into what it all means for his employer, Duke University, and his latest post includes some fascinating tidbits about how Duke escaped an endowment tax hike.

Great, Good, Gone: It’s rare that we look outside of North Carolina at The Quad, but the Trump administration’s scrutiny and the eventual exit of University of Virginia President James Ryan is worth paying attention to. UVA wasn’t an obvious Trump target like Harvard or Columbia, but a combination of state and federal pressure prompted a popular president to resign. The question for us is: What lesson will other university leaders take from this? The Chronicle of Higher Education has more.

Nil Public Records on NIL: Hoping you can find out what your favorite school’s athletes are getting paid in name, image, and likeness deals? Too bad! Last week, Gov. Josh Stein signed a bill exempting NIL contracts from state public records laws. As The News & Observer reports, the bill originally concerned parental access to student records, and the NIL provision was added later. It’s not clear who was behind the addition.

— Matt Hartman

Let us know what’s on your radar at highered@theassemblync.com.

Matt Hartman is a higher education reporter for The Assembly and co-anchor of our weekly higher education newsletter, The Quad. He was previously a longtime freelance journalist and spent nearly a decade working in higher ed communications before joining The Assembly in 2024.