When New York University welcomes its class of 2020 next month, students will find the school in the midst of significant change. John Sexton, who served as president since 2002, retired at the beginning of this year.

His successor, Andrew Hamilton, arrived in January: just as student protestors across the country were demanding that their institutions address racial, economic, and other forms of exclusion, and the Democratic presidential candidates were debating the causes of and possible solutions for ballooning student debt.

Bernie Sanders gained traction among young voters in part by advocating taxpayer-funded tuition at public universities. Hillary Clinton has now embraced Sanders’s promise of “free college” — albeit with caveats. High costs and crippling loan payments have become flashpoints for popular anger, and NYU’s financial model has depended on both for decades.