Beyond Survival
Reporting From the Front Lines of Higher Education's War for Relevance
Elvin Freytes (Co-author), Brad D. Smith (Foreword)
Published 2026
Higher education leaders, trustees, and policymakers
Co-authored with Dr. Elvin Freytes and built on 240 interviews with sitting presidents conducted between April 2022 and December 2025. Foreword by Brad D. Smith, President of Marshall University.
Beyond Survival reports from the front lines of higher education's war for relevance. Co-authored with Dr. Elvin Freytes, it is built on 240 on-the-record interviews with sitting college and university presidents conducted between April 2022 and December 2025. The book argues that relevance is the one thing no institution gets to define for itself, and shows what the leaders gaining ground did differently. Foreword by Brad D. Smith, President of Marshall University.