Diversity visa program suspension over Brown shooter could put thousands of applicants in limbo
Dec 19, 2025 - Neves Valente, 48, was found dead Thursday evening from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in New Hampshire after a days-long manhunt.
Higher Ed Policy and Budget Announcements
Trump administration appeals ruling in Harvard University case
Dec 19, 2025 - The federal government seeks to overturn a decision against its previous roughly $2.2 billion freeze on Harvard University's research funding.
Trump administration checks off many Project 2025 education goals
Dec 18, 2025 - Last year, Project 2025 was a conservative wish list. Months later, many of those wishes have become reality, including the goal of doing away with the Education Department.
UNC cuts all six area studies research centers, effective 2026
Dec 17, 2025 - The Center for European Studies, the African Studies Center, the Carolina Asia Center, the Center for Middle East and Islamic Studies, the Institute for the Study of the Americas and the Center for Slavic, Eurasian and East European Studies are all slated to close, according to the impacted sources. These centers are the first of 14 total UNC centers and institutes to be cut.
DePaul University cuts nearly 8% of staff
Dec 16, 2025 - The Catholic institution is trying to plug an unplanned budget shortfall after a sharp decline of international students and other financial woes.
Gov. Newsom Taps Universities for State AI Council
Dec 16, 2025 - A 30-member California Innovation Council will include executives and leaders from the UC system, the Brookings Institute, Stanford University and the California Chamber of Commerce, among others.
Texas universities deploy AI for course audits
Dec 15, 2025 - Records obtained by The Texas Tribune show how universities are using the technology to reshape curriculum under political pressure, raising concerns about academic freedom.
NSF pares down grant-review process, reducing influence of outside scientists
Dec 15, 2025 - Memo cites overburdened staff, but some say move also aims to elevate White House priorities
What’s at stake as the Trump administration targets Harvard’s patents?
Dec 15, 2025 - Legal experts are watching whether the federal government will take the unprecedented step of seizing patents from federally funded research.
Trump calls for federal policy framework preempting state AI laws
Dec 12, 2025 - The executive order comes as Big Tech pushes back on local AI regulation while pouring billions into building out AI infrastructure and deploying new products.
College costs grew 3.6% in fiscal 2025, HEPI shows
Dec 12, 2025 - Faculty salaries rose 4.3%, the highest recorded rate since the Higher Education Price Index began tracking inflation in the category in 1998.
Without affirmative action, elite colleges are prioritizing economic diversity in admissions
Dec 11, 2025 - Some of the nation’s most prestigious colleges have been enrolling record numbers of low-income students as campuses prioritize economic diversity in the wake of a ban on affirmative action.
FY26 Appropriations Update: Senate Appropriators Provide Flat Funding for DOE Office of Science While ASCR Gets an Increase
Dec 11, 2025 - Analysis of the Fiscal Year 2026 Senate Appropriations Committee’s Energy and Water legislation.
EEOC opens claims process in $21M Columbia University settlement
Dec 10, 2025 - The agency alleged the university engaged in a pattern or practice of harassment against Jewish employees since at least Oct. 7, 2023.
Wisconsin public universities could start shedding programs more rapidly
Dec 10, 2025 - A committee developed a new metric based on enrollment that could increase the number of degrees that get flagged for review.
NIH shut out hundreds of young scientists from funding to start their own labs
Dec 8, 2025 - The MOSAIC program was terminated because it was seen as running afoul of Trump’s executive order to eliminate DEI initiatives.
Oklahoma regents vote to cut 41 ‘low-producing’ academic programs
Dec 8, 2025 - The state coordinating board also moved to suspend another 21 programs across Oklahoma's public institutions.
Yale expects layoffs as leaders brace for $300M in endowment taxes
Dec 5, 2025 - The Ivy League institution’s tax bill starting next year will be higher than what it spends on student aid, university officials said.
Harvard Departments Brace for Teaching Fellow Shortage After Ph.D. Cuts
Dec 4, 2025 - Harvard’s deep cuts to PhD admissions are on track to leave undergraduate courses short of teaching fellows within two years, a looming squeeze already pushing departments to prepare contingency plans.
FY26 Appropriations Update: House Appropriators Propose Difficult Budget Cuts for NSF, NIST, and NASA
Dec 4, 2025 - Analysis of the Fiscal Year 2026 House Appropriations Committee’s Commerce, Justice, Science legislation.
The U.S. Is Funding Fewer Grants in Every Area of Science and Medicine
Dec 2, 2025 - A quiet policy change means the government is making fewer bets on long-term science.
Here’s what to know about Calvin University’s 12.5% faculty reduction, program cuts
Dec 2, 2025 - The cuts were described in a letter as honoring Calvin’s “distinctive mission” and ensuring long-term sustainability.
Texas Tech System restricts race and gender teaching
Dec 1, 2025 - Tech, now the second Texas public university system to add similar teaching restrictions, had earlier directed faculty to follow state and federal guidance recognizing only two sexes.
White House Announces Genesis Mission with the Aim to Accelerate Scientific Discovery through AI
Dec 1, 2025 - This new effort is described as a “whole-of-government approach” creating, “a national discovery platform that unites the world’s most powerful supercomputers, AI systems, and emerging quantum technologies with the nation’s most advanced scientific instruments.”
University of Lynchburg offers faculty buyouts to address finances
Dec 1, 2025 - An administrator says no programs will be cut, and there's not a target figure for how faculty accept the offer.
What’s in Northwestern University’s deal with the Trump administration?
Dec 1, 2025 - The Illinois institution agreed to pay the federal government $75 million over three years and make key policy changes to have research funding restored.
University of Chicago nearly halves its budget deficit to $160M
Dec 1, 2025 - Revenue growth outpaced cost increases as the private nonprofit aims for a balanced budget by the decade’s end.
How Trump 2.0 upended education research and statistics in one year
Dec 1, 2025 - Decades of carefully built infrastructure aimed at improving and tracking how American children learn vanished in an ideological attack
Economic Data Dashboards Flourish to Track the Trump Effect
Nov 28, 2025 - Watch groups are on the alert for anything out of the ordinary in the official US government data.
Trump’s AI ‘Genesis Mission’: what are the risks and opportunities?
Nov 26, 2025 - National laboratories have been instructed to broaden access to their data sets to accelerate research as part of the federal government’s AI platform. But who stands to benefit?