Diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility best practices are not illegal, said Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell and Illinois AG Kwame Raoul, in a multi-state DEIA at work guidance.
Andrew Gillen, a research fellow at the conservative Cato Instituteâs Center for Educational Freedom, wrote in a recent paper that âaccreditors too often abuse their power as gatekeepersâ to federal financial aid, including in areas such as pushing DEI standards.
âThe administrationâs cruel choice to cut off access to affordable repayment options passed by Congress and enshrined in millions of borrowersâ loan contracts comes at the same time as they are wreaking havoc on communities and families across our nation,â Persis Yu, SBPC deputy executive director, said in a statement Monday.
President Neeli Bendapudi wrote in a letter to the community that the seven largest Commonwealth Campuses (separate from the flagship at University Park) will remain open.
On Feb. 14, North Carolina State University Provost Warwick Arden announced a hiring freeze, citing budget concerns tied in part to the âuncertain impactsâ of Trump administration orders and guidance, according to a memo posted online by WRAL News.
âNegative experiences with credit transfer reinforce the perception that big institutions donât care about regular people, a key element of the challenge facing our democracy,â Andrew Seligsohn, president of Public Agenda, said in a press release.
Voice Administrator and IT Security Specialist Joni Leuthardt and her team were worried about the cost, flexibility and reliability of a phoneless system and potential problems with 911 access, she says.
As students gravitated to smartphones over flip phones, and increasingly relied on laptops and other connected technologies both inside and outside of the classroom, Lombardi brought together the universityâs leadership team to ask a pivotal question: What does it mean to be student-centered?
A college campus is not just its classrooms; itâs the dining halls, the student center, the dormitories, the quad, the football stadium, the parking facilities and the overall community that surrounds it.
Among the trends present: More interns are participating in paid internships and earning above minimum wage while doing so, and company culture can influence studentsâ willingness to return for a full-time position.
Bucher: One of the things that I think is so extraordinary, not only is it that we do have this dedication of truly not having classes that day, and our students know that is worked right into their academic schedule, but also that the career and success expo really reaches beyond just our doors here on campus as well.
The new letter declared all race-conscious student programming, resources and financial aid illegal and threatened to investigate and rescind federal funding for any institution that does not comply within 14 days.
In Teaching With AI: A Practical Guide to a New Era of Human Learning, authors JosĂ© Antonio Bowen and C. Edward Watson offer wisdom and guidance to those who donât know Claude from Gemini.
David Jackson, a professor of Bowling Green State Universityand president of its AAUP faculty chapter,said Ohio-AAUP had submitted a list of suggested amendments â including removing the strike ban â to the committee in early February.
The Education Department is considering terminating its contracts for thousands of call center employees hired to answer familiesâ questions about federal student aid, and may replace them with an artificial intelligenceâpowered chat bot, The New York Times reported Thursday.
Ten-year average annual returns stood at 6.8% for fiscal 2024,down slightly from last year but still robust enough to make spending with endowment money âpossible and prudent,â NACUBO and Commonfund said in a press release.
The Washington Post reported on Feb. 3 that some DOGE team members had in fact gained access to âmultiple sensitive internal systems,â including federal financial aid data, as part of larger plans to carry out Trumpâs goal to eventually eliminate the Education Department.
As President Donald Trump churned out more than 80 executive orders over the past three weeks, sending the higher education community into a panic, some students were surprised to see a lack of campus protestsâeven at institutions traditionally rife with activism.
âWe wanted to follow the model of the Jesup Wagon [a horse-drawn movable school designed by George Washington Carver in the 1900s] that would take university research-based information out to the communities,â says Terrence Wolfork, assistant administrator for communications, conferencing and technology at FVSU.
On Wednesday, 96 Democratic members of Congress sent a letter to Carter requesting an "urgent" meeting to discuss the Trump administration's plans for what they say is to "illegally dismantle or drastically reduce" the Education Department.
Given the array and complexity of presidential responsibilities, many of which require confidentiality, itâs not surprising that a campus community doesnât know all the ins and outs of how their presidents spend their time and the issues with which they deal.
The effect can be devastating: Research from Gallup-Lumina found nearly two-thirds (64%) of currently enrolled college students who recently considered stopping their studies said emotional stress or mental health concerns were a significant reason.
The decision âsabotages the decades-long partnership that has ensured U.S. global leadership in life-saving medical research,â American Council on Education President Ted Mitchell said in a statement on Friday.
Tracey Vitchers, executive director of Itâs On Us, a nonprofit dedicated to sexual assault prevention, echoed Bederaâs last point, noting that the Title IX landscape has become increasingly litigious in recent years, making colleges hesitant to share case findings.
Panel witness Johnny Taylor, Jr., president and CEO of the Society for Human Resource Management, said WIOA reauthorization would create a "generational opportunity" to find solutions to workforce gaps.
And the executive order directs private sporting bodies to convene at the White House to hear âstories of female athletes who suffer life-long injuries, who have been silenced and forced to shower with men, and whose hard work has been cast aside due to the biological advantage of males,â the fact sheet said.
At the University of South Florida, CIO Sidney Fernandes and Assistant Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning Timothy Henkel see a growing role for Microsoft Copilot across campus, from classroom applications to research environments and more.
The letter â signed by Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, Sen. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, Rep. Bobby Scott of Virginia and Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut â expresses concerns about a number of actions at the Education Department since Trump's inauguration on Jan. 20.
Beyond these professional impacts, universities taking the initiative to integrate AI into their curriculum will greatly appeal to prospective students looking for a place to kick-start their education and career preparedness.
âOverzealous enforcement could threaten free speech by, for example, indirectly chilling a professor from sharing their positive views of affirmative action policies or leading to investigation of a government grantee for a social media post expressing personal support for DEI initiatives,â the foundation wrote.
Or Hen, a physics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and co-founder of Kalaniyot, a faculty-led initiative focused on deepening ties between MIT and Israeli researchers, said that he has witnessed systemic failures in discipline for protesters and protection for Jewish students.
The rapid pace of the new Trump administration's efforts to abolish the U.S. Department of Education has caught many student advocates off guard and on the defensive while bringing praise from those supportive of less federal bureaucracy and more local control.
With cyberattacks on the rise, targeting individuals as well as institutions, campus IT managers have to be more vigilant than ever to protect their networks, especially given the physical and financial difficulties that shutdowns due to ransomware and other attacks can cause.
âThe previous administrationâs desire to cater to special interest groups has left women and girls vulnerable in the classroom,â said Representative Tim Walberg, a Michigan Republican and the chair of the education and workforce committee, in a statement.
From a deeper look at looming demographic changes to the U.S. Department of Education eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives throughout the agency, here are the top-line figures from some of our biggest stories of the week.
âWe want our first-generation students to know that they are just as capable, and sometimes that takes bringing the info to them in a designated space so that they donât have to navigate the large university and unfamiliar lingo or jargon for themselves,â Dempsey says.
