By Rev. Donald L. Perryman, Ph.D.
The Truth Contributor
There is no such thing as a neutral education. Education either functions as an instrument to bring about conformity or freedom.
Sit. Stay. Fetch. Roll over.
Like a well-trained pet dog, the University of Toledo has made it clear: it knows how to obey. Hiring James Holloway as its 19th president is just the latest command it has followed without question, signaling the completion of its ideological transformation.
The metaphor isn’t accidental. Holloway, a seasoned administrator from the University of New Mexico and former vice provost at the University of Michigan, arrives not simply as a university president but as a symbol of a new University of Toledo order: a public institution once committed to uplifting its community that has now become a university eager to heel and please at the sound of political pressure and roll over without even a growl.
Student leaders, especially from the Black Student Union and other multicultural groups, have been outspoken about their loss of advocacy and safety. One insider put it bluntly:
“Mr. Holloway is gonna face pushback over his recent handling of the pro-Palestinian encampment and unionization efforts at his former institution, and that’s who they (UT trustees) want. They want to take us backward into a buttoned-up university that doesn’t seem to value free speech or workers and grad students. —I mean, they made their choice.”
And that choice, the source continues, isn’t just administrative—it’s ideological:
“This is a Trump pick, trying to stay in line with the policies of the current administration. If you want federal money and do all that s**t, you’re gonna have to dance to the autocratic, misogynist tunes of Trump’s whim.”
Whew!
For certain, the choice to hire Holloway cannot be isolated from the larger political context. It follows Trump’s executive order declaring DEI policies presumptively illegal in federally funded institutions. At the state level, Ohio’s Senate Bill 1 bans DEI offices, mandates ideological neutrality and guts entire academic departments deemed too “controversial” or under-enrolled.
UT has responded accordingly.
It eliminated its Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. It fired the DEI vice president. It suspended entire majors in Africana Studies, Philosophy, Religious Studies, Women’s and Gender Studies, Disability Studies and others. More than mere administrative updates—these moves are likely “ideological purges dressed in the language of efficiency.”
UT rationalized the cuts as an issue of low enrollment, but this is more likely a fig leaf. Notably, the programs cut are the very ones that interrogate power, center marginalized communities, and challenge dominant narratives. “I highly doubt the eliminations are coincidental—they are strategic capitulation,” the insider said.
The Cost of Silence
UT’s Board touts Holloway’s success in boosting enrollment and research at the University of New Mexico. And yes, research matters. But let’s be clear: this is not about DEI alone. At the core, it’s about the soul of the university. Public education is a democratic pillar – a place where ordinary people can gain knowledge concerning truth-telling, justice and freedom.
As an alum, like many others across the globe, including a large number of Black and Brown Toledoans, it is truly disheartening to see the institution shift from academic freedom to ideological supervision, transition from community engagement to centralized control, and pivot away from equity in access to uniformity in outcomes. However, UT’s not-so-subtle strategic structural evolution is now complete with Holloway’s hiring. And, in doing so, it has abandoned its highest calling – to be a space where truth is pursued, not suppressed.
On paper, James Holloway is the ideal candidate: an R1 scholar, enrollment booster and research champion. But these credentials are only half the story.
In reality, the University of Toledo no longer leads. Instead, in an era demanding moral clarity, it has chosen to sit, to stay, to obey, to roll over, and surrender. Not just administratively but spiritually, morally, and intellectually.
The only question that remains is whether students, faculty, alumni, and community members will accept this transformation as inevitable or demand that our university be more than a compliant pet for its political master.
Contact Rev. Donald Perryman, PhD, at drdlperryman@enterofhopebaptist.org