On Hard Knock Radio, host Davey D spoke with critical media literacy scholar and author Nolan Higdon about his new book, MAG Academy, a sharp examination of the long running assault on higher education.
Higdon argued that the current attacks on universities did not begin with Donald Trump. Instead, he traced the crisis back decades to neoliberal policies that turned colleges into corporate operations. In his view, both major political parties helped create the conditions for today’s campus crackdowns by weakening faculty power, expanding student debt, and transforming education into a job training marketplace.
Davey D opened the conversation by pointing to recent restrictions at UC Berkeley, a campus long associated with free speech. He described how some students now see the university as restrictive and hostile to dissent. Higdon agreed, saying universities often sell students the mythology of 1960s activism while micromanaging them once they arrive.
A major focus of the interview was student debt. Higdon explained how public disinvestment, rising tuition, and federally backed private loans created a system where students are treated as customers. Colleges compete by selling an “experience” rather than prioritizing learning, while students take on mortgage sized debt before they even enter the workforce.
Higdon also discussed the rise of adjunct labor. He noted that tenure track faculty once made up the majority of professors, but now many instructors are part time or non tenure workers juggling multiple campuses. That weakens unions, isolates faculty, and makes it harder to resist administrative overreach.
The conversation also explored DEI, COVID, campus surveillance, and the political weaponization of higher education. Higdon distinguished between meaningful diversity and corporate DEI, arguing that universities often use inclusive language while maintaining exploitative structures.
As the interview closed, Higdon called for students and faculty to rebuild real community, not just online activism. He urged people to resist authoritarian policies, defend public education, and reimagine the university as a democratic space rooted in learning, knowledge production, and community accountability.
