Trust in higher education isn’t shaped by a single issue. It’s built (or lost) across the student experience, campus leadership, and the connection between providers and career outcomes.

This year’s Chronicle Festival is also a FREE virtual event and brings together a range of voices thinking deeply about these challenges from different angles. You’ll hear from speakers including:

• Laurie Santos, Yale professor and host of The Happiness Lab, on why her course on well-being became one of the most popular in Yale’s history and what it reveals about what students need from higher education today
• Mónica Guzmán, the author of I Never Thought of It That Way, on how to help students engage in meaningful conversations across political divides
• Rebecca Winthrop, the co-author of The Disengaged Teen, on how to better engage today’s students and teach them to use AI in ways that support learning
• Michelle R. Weise, author of Long-Life Learning: Preparing for Jobs that Don’t Even Exist Yet, on the skills graduates will need for jobs that don’t yet exist

And more speakers and sessions will be announced closer to the dates.

Programme overview
Across three daily sessions, these conversations will explore how institutions can rebuild trust with students, strengthen leadership, and better connect education to work-force outcomes in a moment of change.

The Chronicle Festival 2026
September 10, 15, and 17
12:30–4:00 p.m. EDT each day
Register once to attend all three afternoons, to download the free report, and to be among the first to receive the full agenda when it’s released.