Opinion | College is in crisis. What crisis? Depends on who you ask.

The question spoke to the chilling effect the Republican governor’s “Stop WOKE Act” has had on campuses. So did professors’ requests to remain anonymous after talking with Christine. And so did the many Post-It notes and index cards students filled with their concerns:

“Our education is being restricted for political gain.”

“They feel threatened by the change we are trying to bring to the world.”

The university community sees a crisis, Christine realized, that could end in Florida “dumbing things down” and becoming an educational laughingstock that struggles to attract and retain students.

Columnist George Will sees a college crisis, too, but his take on “politicized, hysterical and administratively bloated academia” is a little different. He hopes the annual 1 percent drop in nationwide enrollment over the past several years might occasion a little introspection.

Of course, George is, as ever, healthily skeptical. Will hard-pressed colleges actually work to make the humanities not insufferable again? Or will they just, as he writes, install more “Mongolian barbecues in the food courts, etc.”?

Chaser: The DeSantis Method could be coming to a university near you! Columnist Henry Olsen explains the governor’s path to beating Donald Trump in a GOP presidential primary.

Everyone has gotten into a fight once or twice or 17 times where they realize — with horror — they are very wrong but have simply committed too much to pull out with dignity. (This usually involves a spouse and how the dishwasher is loaded.)

If only there were always an Editorial Board around for such times.

The fight over the debt ceiling seems pretty intractable, and Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) must realize he can’t manage a win; his party can’t even decide on what it wants cut from the budget.

The Board knows the situation is hard (“We understand how difficult it is to come up with concrete proposals, because we are doing it.” Okay, flex.), but it explains in an editorial how the right exit strategy involves thinking bigger, not smaller.

Whichever way the impasse resolves (or doesn’t), Republicans will probably claim a victory for “small government.” Don’t believe them, Paul Waldman writes. His column chronicles the ways the GOP has embraced big government within the debt limit fight and beyond it, regardless of whether there’s any money being spent.

From Peggy O’Donnell Heffington’s op-ed explaining humanity’s long history of choosing not to have kids during moments of crisis. In the United States, we saw it among Native Americans during the brutal Manifest Destiny era, and among Black Americans during Jim Crow.

Even environmentalism’s hand in the childbearing decision goes back further than you might think: Heffington traces it to the 1960s. Today, she writes, it’s a sensible decision — but a sad one. Her piece charts a better path.

Chaser: Former columnist Elizabeth Bruenig wrestled with this question back in 2018. Her piece is a celebration of bringing a child into the world, no matter how threatened it might be.

More politics, indeed — where they have no business being! Namely, in the approval of pharmaceuticals.

Columnist Leana Wen recently interviewed Jane E. Henney, who, as commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration in 2000, approved mifepristone for medication abortions. She knew at the time that the decision would be controversial; she did not anticipate a judge’s nonmedical meddling nearly a quarter-century later.

But this case is much bigger than just mifepristone. The FDA, Henney explained, has cachet across the whole world. Other countries look to it as a gold standard when determining their own approvals. Henney warned Leana that if the Supreme Court doesn’t ultimately decide to stay the (baldly political) decision revoking its approval, that standard could shatter.

• Erik Wemple, as promised, reacts to the Fox News/Dominion Voting Systems settlement: Its size is staggering, but it all feels a bit empty.
• Columnist Theodore Johnson writes that a very pastoral Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) is still struggling to find a sermon that will work for the 2024 presidential race.
• Jason Rezaian, himself imprisoned once for his journalism, applauds detained reporter Evan Gershkovich for refusing to play the part Russia assigned him.
• The key to deconflicting the Middle East is filthy lucre, columnist David Ignatius writes. But ugly peace is better than ugly war.

It’s a goodbye. It’s a haiku. It’s… The Bye-Ku.

For the non-parenting crowd

Have your own newsy haiku? Email it to me, along with any questions/comments/ambiguities. See you tomorrow!