Most Americans believe universities should serve the public good. They’re meant to cultivate critical-thinking skills and equip young people with the knowledge, experience, and values to keep society moving along paths of progress. Today, though, other interests capture universities, steering them away from their promised broad social benefit. Allegations of improper influence due to the presence of corporations, donors, and politicians in higher education abound; we’ve seen claims of energy-sector donors biasing climate research and dogmatic politicians undermining anti-racism initiatives and academic freedoms. Meanwhile, the issues that students, faculty, and staff care about most — quality, affordable education, safe and equitable campuses, institutional sustainability — receive what we believe is lackluster attention from university governing boards.
At multiple institutions, including our alma mater Penn State, a number of board members are selected through low-turnout alumni elections. In 2022, when a mere 2.6% of eligible voters participated, more than half of voters graduated before 1989 and two-thirds were men.
But students can seize the power to make change. For the past two years, we have organized Penn State Forward, a campaign to put new voices and issues directly on the ballot — we won a seat each time. We proved that, if given the chance, many alumni will vote for a more democratic, just, and sustainable institution. Our success at Penn State is a testament to the possibilities of these elections: With resources from groups like The Boarding School, you can win institutional power and change policy at the highest level of your institution too.
Two years ago, Professor Asheesh Kapur Siddique wrote in Teen Vogue that university governing boards devalue core university objectives, instead importing “business models from the for-profit corporate world.” These boards are frequently stacked with special interests, corporate executives, and industry elites. At Penn State, where the board sets tuition rates, former trustees include the ex-CEO of Sallie Mae, who personally profited from skyrocketing tuition costs.
It’s difficult for us to believe that these trustees value building inclusive and equitable campuses. Several Penn State trustees reportedly gave thousands to politicians who sponsored anti-queer legislation. And at least some trustees questioned the need for certain anti-racism initiatives, saying that "the university should be dedicated to scholarship that celebrates the positive accomplishments of western civilization.”
Frustrated with our out-of-touch and nonrepresentative governing board, Nora, then a college junior, reached out to the organizers of Harvard Forward, a group that elected four pro-divestment from fossil fuel candidates onto its board of overseers. With the organizers’ advice, she worked across student groups to research, connect with, and ultimately select three alumni candidates — a former campus organizer, an atmospheric scientist, and a sexual violence expert — to run on a platform based off of recent Penn State community demands.
The trio challenged three incumbents who had been on the board since 2013. Nevertheless, our grassroots, student-led, small-dollar campaign won a seat. In a groundbreaking victory for student organizing, alumni elected Penn State Forward’s Christa Hasenkopf, PhD. Within her first year as a trustee, Dr. Hasenkopf successfully advocated for the board to amend the university’s investment strategy for its $6 billion in assets so social and environmental factors can be considered.
But, as feminist writer Sara Ahmed explained, “when you expose a problem, you pose a problem.” When confronted with successful democratic movements, scared institutional decision-makers seek to stifle the power of these coalitions. After we brought forth our vision for the university with Penn State Forward in our second year, an incumbent, worried about losing their seat, characterized current students and recent alumni as “outside influences” bringing “‘macro-political’ battles and culture wars” to Penn State.
This backlash has been consistent across universities. After Yale alumni successfully petitioned to get a leading climate policy-maker onto their 2021 ballot, the Yale Corporation ended the petition process altogether, instead requiring all candidates be selected by a small, insular committee. After Harvard Forward won three board seats in its inaugural campaign, Harvard changed its election rules to limit future victories by petition candidates.
University leaders love “change makers” and “engaged citizens” but only insofar as they are marketable. When students ask to be seen as equal democratic actors, leaders often change their tune. This spring, the University of South Florida’s police violently arrested USF students protesting Governor Ron DeSantis’s attacks on academic and curricular freedom. And in 2018, graduate union organizers accused Penn State of using "misinformation" about strikes and visa statuses as a "scare tactic" against international student workers, just weeks before a union election.
Administrators insist certain types of advocacy are illegitimate and instead direct students to voice concerns via institutionally sanctioned bodies like faculty senates and student governments. But it’s obvious to us that they do this to placate students and impede progress. Even when community members successfully navigate these entities' arduous processes and win their support, we’ve still seen administrators reject their proposals.
We’re tired of these dynamics. We’re tired of sexual violence victims and survivors being treated as what one faculty member referred to as “collateral damage”; of parents having to fight for university leaders to compassionately acknowledge their child’s death; of graduate students suffering on a less-than-livable wage; of unmet university “commitments” — and so much more.
Students are more than potential tuition checks. We want universities that reflect the priorities of our communities, where climate action and student safety receive institutional investments, academic labor is valued fairly, and educational excellence and equity are fundamental values. If administrators won’t hear our pleas to be seen as equal partners in realizing universities' futures, it’s time we claim institutional power ourselves.
Academic workers and students nationwide are organizing to ensure universities contribute to the common good and a livable future. From Rutgers in New Jersey to the University of California system, faculty, staff, graduate workers, and even undergrads are winning higher wages, job security, and quality health care. Michigan’s graduate workers, with undergraduate and faculty support, spent weeks on strike for increased stipends and investments in public safety that don’t depend on armed police.
As labor movements build on our campuses, students and alumni can aid the fight by electing leaders who will bargain fairly with union workers and implement their proposals for more just universities. And by organizing on the ground and fighting for movement-accountable leaders at the top, students can counter the right’s exclusionary agenda with a vision that centers education, services, and research for the benefit of all.
For us at Penn State, there’s more to fight for. Last year, Penn State executives controversially scrapped community-proposed and university-endorsed plans for a research center on racial justice. Now, recently elected Penn State Forward candidate Ali Krieger will provide critical support to faculty, students, and staff who advocate for its completion. We know that this top-down pressure can be pivotal for grassroots movements. After Harvard Forward’s successful elections, the university finally agreed to the demands of fossil fuel divestment organizers.
We deserve leadership with the courage and moral clarity to keep universities committed to their fundamental mission: educating and serving the public. But electing fresh voices on governing boards isn’t enough, and compounding social and moral crises call for an all-hands-on-deck approach. Corporate executives and ideological politicians seek to make universities serve their private, personal interests over the needs of our communities and our future. It’s time for students, faculty, staff, and young alumni — those who know our universities best — to organize, take the wheel, and steer us forward.
Stay up-to-date with the politics team. Sign up for the Teen Vogue Take
