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CU Boulder has been awarded a $299,000 grant from the Mellon Foundation’s Higher Learning program to support a three-year initiative entitled Restoring Trust: Humanistic Perspectives on Academic Freedom, American Democracy, and Higher Education Leadership. This project—one of the foundation’s Sawyer Seminars—will explore how university administrators and humanities faculty can work together to foster free and open conversations about divisive issues and rebuild trust in higher education.

Why It Matters

Amid declining confidence in many institutions, Americans’ distrust of higher education has grown increasingly acute. However, alongside this external crisis of confidence, universities also face an internal one: an erosion of trust between faculty and administrators, especially when it comes to policies and practices regarding academic freedom. Recent years have seen a growing number of cases across North America where campus leaders and faculty members have clashed about what it looks like to promote the free and open conversations central to American democratic life.

This need not be the case: rather than being caught up in mutual suspicion, cycles of recriminations, and bureaucratic infighting, campus leaders and faculty members could be working together to promote substantive conversations about even the most controversial issues. To model this path forward—one where dialogue, not division, shapes the future of higher education—CU Boulder’s new Sawyer Seminar will convene a group of faculty, administrators, staff, and students for three primary activities:

• Seminars examining the democratic purposes of higher education
• Meetings with representatives from offices across campus to explore the details of university operations and build relationships across institutional divides
• Working groups charged with developing concrete proposals for promoting campus cultures—at CU and beyond—committed to academic freedom, collaboration, and shared governance

At the project’s conclusion, these proposals will be considered for adoption by CU Boulder leadership.

“At a time when higher education faces growing scrutiny and polarization, this initiative affirms CU Boulder’s commitment to academic freedom, shared governance, and the civic mission of the university,” said Ann Stevens, provost and executive vice chancellor for Academic Affairs. “By bringing scholars and leaders together from across disciplines, we aim to create space for conducting difficult dialogues, bridge deep divides, and reimagine how universities can work seamlessly to serve the public good. CU Boulder is proud to lead this national effort to restore trust in the transformative power of higher education," Stevens said.

Who’s Involved

The project is led by four CU Boulder humanities scholars and administrators:

• Elias Sacks, principal investigator (associate professor, Religious Studies and Jewish Studies; faculty director for public scholarship, Office of Faculty Affairs)
• Terri S. Wilson, co-principal investigator (associate professor and chair, Educational Foundations, Policy & Practice; faculty director of the MA in Higher Education Program)
• Jennifer Ho, co-principal investigator (professor, Ethnic Studies; director, Center for Humanities & the Arts)
• Michele S. Moses (professor, Educational Foundations, Policy & Practice; vice chancellor and senior vice provost for faculty affairs).

Managed by the Office of Faculty Affairs, this project is a partnership with the Center for Humanities & the Arts, the Office for Public & Community-Engaged Scholarship, Strategic Relations & Communications, the School of Education, and others.

This project is made possible by the support of the Mellon Foundation’s Sawyer Seminar program, which was established in 1994 to provide support for comparative research on the historical and cultural factors in current affairs. To mark the program’s 30th anniversary in 2024, the Mellon Foundation invited proposals for the study of academic freedom and democracy in the American university. CU Boulder was selected as a recipient of a Sawyer Seminar grant after a competitive nationwide application process.

“At a moment when universities seem to face new challenges nearly every day,” said Sacks, “we are honored for CU Boulder to be a laboratory for wrestling with questions about academic freedom, democratic life, and the future of higher education.”

What’s Ahead

This project will run through June 2028 and will include seminar sessions, public-facing programs, and collaborative working groups. In addition to faculty and administrator participants, a postdoctoral fellow and four graduate fellows will also join the effort, encouraging the representation of a broad range of voices and perspectives.

Recruitment for project participants will take place over spring 2026. Updates and additional details are available at the seminar’s webpage.

�Թ��� the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation is the nation’s largest supporter of the arts and humanities. Since 1969, the Foundation has been guided by its core belief that the humanities and arts are essential to human understanding. The Foundation believes that the arts and humanities are where we express our complex humanity, and that everyone deserves the beauty and empowerment that can be found there. Through its grants, the Foundation seeks to build just communities enriched by meaning and guided by critical thinking, where ideas and imagination can thrive. Learn more at .