2026 All-Conference Session: Emmanual Guillory
American Council on Education’s Senior Director of Government Relations Emmanual Guillory offered a glimpse into the current state of higher education. The overview was followed by an ACUI panel discussion that included Guillory, along with Neela Patel (Rutgers University), Peter Bonfield (University of Westminster), Jeremy Schenk (Northwestern University), and the moderator for the panel, Kerry Spicer (Daemen University).
Guillory manages legislative and regulatory issues as a primary government relations resource for the broader higher education community to the U.S. Congress, White House, U.S. Department of Education, and other agencies as needed. He provided a look at the efforts to dismantle the Department of Education and move its departments into seven other federal departments, and what the effects of those agreements, if fulfilled, might be.
That included changes to Title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965 that would change how students receive federal loans, including the dismantling of some programs and the reduction of available funding in programs like the Parent Plus and Grad Plus Loan programs. Loan repayment plans are also being restructured, as has funding for minority-serving institutions, he said.
Guillory added that the current administration is using the availability of research dollars as a weapon in a way to force institutions to do what they want them to do to teach curriculum in a way that they believe it should be taught.
“It’s interesting when you say that you believe education should go back to the states, but then there seems to be a heavier hand at the federal government level with what can be done in on college and university campuses based on the thoughts and the ideas of the administration,” Guillory said.
