www.chronicle.com/article/a-ro... Breaking News: Harvard/AAUP win summary judgment in federal district court

First on @chronicle.com: George Mason University's president just refused the Trump administration's demand to deliver a "personal apology" for supporting diversity efforts in hiring.

🙃🙃🙃

Most texts between me and my husband these days are just one of us saying "Schwarrrr..." and the other one replying "💣" #Phillies #MVP

SCOOP: The NIH is moving to prohibit funded scientists, inside and outside the agency, from collecting data about gender, according to a draft policy I obtained. It’s part of the NIH’s aggressive crackdown on gender-identity research. www.chronicle.com/article/gend...

Everyone wants to see the numbers — how selective colleges choose their classes. How they make sense of those numbers (especially now that the Trump administration is among those parties) could have major implications for higher ed.

At least some funding for federal TRIO programs — which support low-income students — is being awarded as planned this summer, per campus announcements. Hundreds of colleges rely on TRIO grants. (In the long run, though, Trump has proposed eliminating TRIO and dismantling ED, which administers it.)

THREAD: 1/ FWIW, @usedgov.bsky.social has sent a notice to @harvard.edu 's institutional accreditor, the New England Commission of Higher Education, alleging the university had violated Title VI and may be in violation of accreditation standards www.ed.gov/about/news/p...

Wisconsin just made 4/4 teaching loads the law for all full-time faculty members at the state's public universities (except the university system's two research universities, where everyone must teach a 2/2 load)

Updated Chronicle story on UVa President Jim Ryan's resignation: "Faculty members at every university should be worried that the federal government believes it has the right to decide who their leader should be."

UVa eliminated its central diversity office and moved staff to other roles back in March. But per the Chronicle's reporting last month, the Justice Department latched onto the idea (promoted by a small alumni group and then others) that President Jim Ryan hadn't done enough to root out "DEI."

UVa President Jim Ryan has just released his statement on his decision to resign. "To make a long story short, I am inclined to fight for what I believe in, and I believe deeply in this University. But I cannot make a unilateral decision to fight the federal government in order to save my own job."

Full transparency, I deleted a thread about the feds pushing out college presidents in the past due to alleged/substantiated wrongdoing. Of course we at the Chronicle are covering the UVa story as the unprecedented and big deal that it is.

The Trump administration said the departure of James E. Ryan, UVa's president, was necessary to resolve a federal investigation into the university's DEI programs. By @shenandoahkate.bsky.social:

I'm taking off a couple days to hike with my significant other, who has spent the past five weeks completing the New Mexico section of the Continental Divide Trail, and I'm really enjoying telling colleagues who ask what I'm doing that "I have to go find my husband in the woods"

Happy Friday, must-read dose of Chronicle narrative journalism coming right up

Just to be clear 1) Columbia has not lost its accreditation 2) the federal government cannot pull Columbia's accreditation, that's not how it works

BREAKING: Florida's statewide governing board for public colleges has ***rejected*** Santa Ono's confirmation as University of Florida president. www.chronicle.com/article/stat...

This is so important to read, but get your tissues out. Masterful storytelling about three families on the same North Carolina mountain and what happened to them during Hurricane Helene.

What's a protest allowed to look like these days? Colleges are wrestling with that question amid mounting political pressures.

In less than three years at the University of Michigan, Santa Ono turned into an opponent of colleges' DEI efforts. Now he's pursuing the University of Florida presidency.

Good reporting in today's Dean's List newsletter from @koriedean.bsky.social/@newsobserver.com. She details which UNC campuses have granted waivers to keep certain DEI courses + publishes the full list of keywords used to screen course content at East Carolina. Highly recommend this newsletter!

This is a really thoughtful piece on the substantial budget challenges facing Sonoma State University. Quite a few regional public and private universities are having similar--and difficult--conversations as enrollment has fallen over the last decade.

Media coverage of higher ed's budget cuts, including in @chronicle.com, can feel simplistic: Headline about cuts being announced, headline about how cuts are bad, repeat on loop. To be clear, we have to cover the news, some of which is about cuts. But when it's possible to go deeper, we should!

More college presidents went to Capitol Hill today. Here are some moments that stood out:

Sec. McMahon’s letter — often using the kind of inflated rhetoric that appears in President Trump’s speeches and social-media posts — says that the government has a "sacred responsibility" to safeguard taxpayer dollars, and that Harvard has "made a mockery of this country’s higher education system."

NEW: DeSantis directed the University of Florida to cancel a nearly-complete search for its next dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences — because the governor believed the finalists were not in alignment with the state's opposition to DEI

"I find it difficult to tell people, 'You should come to America to study for your Ph.D.,' if I can’t guarantee they’re not going to be thrown out."

The lawsuit states the Trump administration has not identified “any rational connection between antisemitism concerns and the medical, scientific, and other research it has frozen.” From @brownepoints.bsky.social @chronicle.com

We've got the latest on what's happening with the National Science Foundation in @chronicle.com's Trump tracker:

Here's a copy of an NSF grant termination notice that went out today. "NSF is issuing this termination to protect the interests of the government pursuant...on the basis that they no longer effectuate the program goals or agency priorities." Not subject to appeal. #HigherEd #AcademicSky

I learned a lot today about colleges and tax-exempt status thanks to @erickelderman.bsky.social’s smart quick-turn analysis

Come for the vinyl and the typewriter, stay for "flip phone guy" By @mkhaw.bsky.social:

A college accreditor navigates the Trump era feat. a Dylan Thomas cameo (yes, really) @erickelderman.bsky.social

Ready to discuss the impact of activism on campus free speech with @brownepoints.bsky.social (@chronicle.com), SFSU’s Miguel Ángel Hernández & experts from @penamerica.bsky.social & University of North Carolina School of Law? We’re live!

As Cuts Pile Up, Can Scientists Win Back the Public? @mkhaw.bsky.social reports www.chronicle.com/article/as-c...

So proud of @shenandoahkate.bsky.social, a finalist for feature writing!!!

Jack Stripling and @brownepoints.bsky.social are great colleagues. @andyandy.bsky.social is my direct boss so I have to be careful, but I think all three missed the best scandal out there: Michigan president mark schlissel and his emails about a box of knishes.. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/c...

Here's the podcast episode no one asked for, but everyone needs: The College Matters Higher Ed Controversy Draft w/ @brownepoints.bsky.social and @andyandy.bsky.social podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/h...

Ok y'all, for today's @chronicle.com podcast ep we're dropping hot takes on the past couple decades of campus controversies. (Nothing tragic, only the zany stuff, verbal/written gaffes, financial flubs etc.) My colleagues are already skewering me for one of my picks!!

Today I dealt with a breaking news situation and also ate lunch and drank 2 liters of water, please clap

"Are we being New College-d?" Proud of Alissa, one @chronicle.com's interns, for this strong reporting on what's going on at the University of West Florida:

It resists characterization as a simple left-right divide. And it's a bit messy. Resignations, Disagreements With Dean Roil Chapel Hill Civics School

"I’ve had students tell me, 'I don’t know if I can afford to go to school.'" "They basically eviscerated the nation’s data-collection mechanism." “I really worry about the future training of education researchers.” Reflections on a world with a much, much smaller Education Department.

Offered my analysis of the Columbia situation — ICE raids, Trump demands, and more — in @chronicle.com's Daily Briefing today. This is one of those situations where we sorted through a LOT of noise so you didn't have to.

I had the cool opportunity of doing a brief (pretaped) interview for PBS NewsHour today, but I did have to start over halfway through my first answer because I said “professoriate” on a general interest program — I am, alas, a creature of higher ed

ED says that all of the recent layoffs won't affect the federal financial aid system. I agree with the great people quoted here that processing delays for students and colleges and tech issues will be much more common. August is going to be a mess.

We @chronicle.com just published the first interview that Columbia University's longtime president has done since leaving office in 2023. This conversation could not be more relevant right now.

Sitting in for Mary Harris today. I talked to @brownepoints.bsky.social from the @chronicle.com about Mahmoud Khalil's arrest at Columbia. "it feels like some of those actions have been designed to appease the Trump administration. And it so far it hasn't worked" open.spotify.com/episode/7a14...

It’s a wait and see game as to how universities position themselves in response to the Trump administration’s directives. @brownepoints.bsky.social re: higher education and Trump’s “approach” to DEI, research funding, free speech, immigration, and due process: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/w...