Alliance for Higher Education

Posted by Inside Higher Ed on February 3, 2026

The freshly launched Alliance for Higher Education is working to stave off government overreach in higher ed, arguing it’s critical for democracy and college access.

The nonprofit’s mission is to protect higher ed’s role in fostering democracy by ensuring that colleges and universities have academic freedom, autonomy and opportunity for all students to learn and succeed, said Mike Gavin, the organization’s inaugural president and CEO.

“Our goal—the joke I’ve been making—is to make things less bad,” Gavin told Inside Higher Ed. “But in the long run, what we want to see is” higher ed making good on its “democratic promises.” He believes that involves ensuring college access and preserving a “healthy separation” between government and higher ed.

The plan is to tackle that goal through a multipronged attack. The alliance is providing “rapid-response” resources to counter and pre-empt the Trump administration’s political incursions into higher ed. For example, the organization’s site is already populated with reports and tool kits, including a template for how higher ed employees can respond to ICE actions as well as a guide for campus reflection and planning after the Trump administration dropped its appeal of the court order blocking its guidance to quash DEI efforts. The alliance has similarly been working on a resource to prepare higher ed institutions in case the Trump administration ever threatens to ax financial aid funding.

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