The Trust Brief: May 2026
"The Trust Agenda" Launches on June 16th
May was the month the APT team finally put down our pens (or, more accurately, closed our laptops) on The Trust Agenda: A Framework for Advancing Public Trust in Higher Education. After one final round of edits (Final. Truly final. We promise.), the report is launching on June 16th with a free virtual event.
Join us on June 16, 2026 from 4:00–5:00 PM ET for a conversation about what it will take to rebuild public confidence in higher education. APT team members will be joined by a panel of higher ed leaders to explore the report’s recommendations and strategies for accelerating institutional innovation, deepening community engagement, expanding opportunity and support for students, making a more compelling case for higher ed’s value, and mounting coordinated, mission-centered responses to external pressures.
We’d be glad if you could join us, and we’re especially looking forward to your questions.
Even with the report’s finish line in sight, the APT team didn’t spend the rest of May in quiet contemplation.
APT co-sponsored the “Higher Education at a Crossroads: Reckoning with the Rise of Illiberalism” conference in collaboration with the Democracy and the Politics of Higher Education project at Duke University’s Kenan Institute for Ethics. Held in Durham, North Carolina, on May 22nd and 23rd, the conference brought together university leaders, faculty, and experts from across the political spectrum to explore the problems of illiberalism and declining public trust in higher education. AAC&U’s President Lynn Pasquerella was a featured speaker and Jeremy C. Young, Senior Advisor for Strategic Initiatives and APT’s co-director, appeared on a panel on public trust.
Jeremy also attended the second annual Trust in Practice Summit on May 19th in Chicago. Hosted by the Aspen Institute’s Alliance for Social Trust, the Summit brought together hundreds of leaders in trust-building work across sectors, from both local and national organizations.
To round out the month of May, the APT team attended “A New Academic-Social Contract” conference sponsored by the American Enterprise Institute’s Center for the Future of The American University. The conference considered the overarching academic-social contract and how it is being rewritten under the current administration. Panels featured perspectives from across the political spectrum on topics spanning the role of the public in higher education, the professoriate, shared governance, the scientific enterprise, pluralism, and civic thought. The APT team found the conversations interesting, though perhaps a bit narrowly focused on elite institutions; a dialogue that thoughtfully considers the entire sector would be a welcome follow-up.
Don’t miss our forthcoming events! If you can attend any of the following, please say hello to our team.
On June 16 at 4:00 p.m. ET, we will launch The Trust Agenda: A Framework for Advancing Public Trust in Higher Education with a free virtual event. Register here!
On June 24, APT staff will speak at a plenary session at the Conference on Undergraduate Research’s ConnectUR conference in College Park, Maryland.