What movements are gaining momentum within higher education, and why?
This is what’s been on my mind since attending Ed Reformers Playbook: The Power of Movements at SXSW EDU. Moderated by the author of How Change Happens, it highlighted three strategies that winning movements (on the left, the right, and non-partisan) have employed to drive change in the twenty-first century.
- Use a grass roots approach (fueled from the bottom up) with a focus on states as the pathway to national change—not the other way around.
- Embrace the role of business: work with and through capitalist systems.
- Change hearts and minds (create a new normal), not just policy.
Higher education has excellent examples of the first two strategies, and a significant opportunity to lean into the third to meet our current moment.
Grass roots approach
A well-established grass roots strategy for U.S. movements is 10+10+10+20=50. It was leveraged with great success by the marriage equality movement at the beginning of this century, and works as follows.
- Work defensively in 10 states where good/ideal policies already exist.
- Make progress in 10 states to get to a better (but not yet best) position.
- Win basic protections in 10 states (bare minimum).
- In the remaining 20, remove barriers that may impede future progress.
Stan Jones, the founder of Complete College America (CCA), used this strategy to start a non-partisan college completion movement. CCA’s current CEO, Dr. Yolanda Watson Spiva, said on the SXSW EDU panel when referring to governors, “Leadership is temporal and doesn’t exist in perpetuity.” She highlighted the need for successful movements to continually learn and engage through both leadership and cultural shifts.
The CCA alliance now includes 53 members and works with 86% of U.S. public, degree-granting colleges. Learn more about their past successes and future plans in their newly released 2025–2027 strategic plan: Mobilizing the Boldest Innovation for Every Leader, Every Campus, Every System.
Embracing business
Working with and through capitalist systems is a particularly challenging strategy when working with the American Gen Zers, who are less likely than previous generations to embrace capitalism. The environmental movement has succeeded in this area, yet businesses still receive criticism for green washing in pursuit of profits.
A recent higher education example caught my eye. Miami University (OH) just launched a first-of-its kind partnership, becoming the Official University of the Cincinnati Bengals. Miami students will receive unique work-based learning opportunities in a well-loved industry, and the university will receive marketing exposure adjacent to a brand (the NFL) that 70% of American males engage with. This is highly valuable at a time when fewer men are enrolling in college than ever before.
Change hearts and minds
Successful movements change hearts and minds. In other words, they influence people. Over twenty years ago, I studied the six universal principles from Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Dr. Robert Cialdini. One is authority—people are more likely to follow the recommendations of those they perceive as authorities or experts. With all due respect to Dr. Cialdini, we can’t rely on authority to change hearts and minds any more. Society is too aggrieved to respond to authority. You may feel that in your gut; it’s also supported by data—61% of people hold a sense of grievance (i.e., feel a strong sense of resentment or injustice) against businesses, government, and the wealthy.
In 2025, influence is earned through compassion, not power.
That’s a headline in the 2025 Edelman Trust Barometer. It reflects the finding that two thirds of people (regardless of their sense of grievance) say legitimate influence is earned if you “understand what people like me need and want,” whereas less than half of highly aggrieved people say influence is earned by occupying a formal position of power.
To summarize:
Understand what people want and need
Earn influence
Change hearts and minds
Successfully drive change
If you don’t start with listening to understand what people want and need, your efforts to influence people or drive change will not be successful.
When you want to prioritize listening, think of Campus Sonar as your Chief Listening Officer. Every day, we collaborate with institutions, associations, nonprofits, and movement builders to understand what people need using social intelligence. Our partners are listening to understand first-generation students, lawmakers and politicians, alumni and donors, young leaders, non-degree-seeking learners, immigrants, community college students, and more.
