“Leading and Teaching, Today and Tomorrow: How will the Anti-DEI movement reshape leadership in higher education?”

Introduction by series curator Laura Morgan Roberts, Associate Professor of Business Administration at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business

Higher education administrators in 2026 face extraordinary leadership challenges due to the intensifying Anti-Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) movement, marked by prohibitive federal and state government policies and guidance, judicial rulings, budget cuts, leadership turnover and growing discontent with higher education’s inaccessibility and value. Unlike those who have advanced diversity, equity and inclusion through focused programs and policies for at least fifty years, leaders at over 400 institutions of higher education are now ignoring or actively suppressing DEI-related needs and actions. This moment presents a cross-roads where, in order to lead with effectiveness and integrity, higher education administrators will need to grow and adapt. The essays in this series detail varied examples of leading at all levels of higher education in this era by building a robust infrastructure for communal learning, anchored in multi-disciplinary scholarship, collaboration, courage, and institutional accountability.

The essays in this collection emphasize the importance of understanding legal directives and their implications for their state and institutions, and to lead across roles and titles with urgency and without fear, to advance more just and equitable alternatives.