Q and A with Alliance President Mike Gavin: Seeking Strength in Numbers

After Mike Gavin stepped down as president of Delta College in Michigan at the start of 2026, he stepped up as a leader of higher education resilience across the United States.

Gavin is the founder and president of the Alliance for Higher Education, a national coalition that launched in January to become a unified voice for democracy in higher education. The Alliance now has about 60 partner organizations representing distinct areas of interest in higher education, including the American Association of University Professors, National Association of Diversity Leaders in Higher Education, Campus Compact, Democracy Forward, Scholars at Risk, and PEN America.

The Alliance launched amid growing tension between higher education institutions and the federal government. The Trump administration has moved aggressively against the sector, leveraging federal funding at elite research universities, issuing executive orders targeting diversity programs, and pursuing what Gavin describes as a coordinated strategy to reshape what can be taught, researched, and even measured on American campuses. While some of the most public assaults occurred in 2025, Gavin says the administration is continuing to threaten these institutions through bureaucratic systems, like accreditation rulemaking, where changes affecting American colleges and universities are being advanced through processes designed to be invisible to the public.

Now, the Alliance is working to lift the hood on these changes, how they affect colleges and universities, and how these institutions can defend themselves.

CollegeWatch first spoke with Gavin in February to learn why he formed the Alliance and what it was setting out to do. In late April, we checked in with Gavin for updates on the Alliance’s work, which includes the development of Democracy’s Campus 2036, a ten-year blueprint for reimagining higher education’s role in American democracy.

Read the full interview:

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