From Inside Higher Ed: A federal judge recommended Friday that the Trump administration issue a student visa to a Babson College freshman whom ICE agents wrongfully deported to Honduras as she was traveling home to Texas for Thanksgiving...
An assistant U.S. attorney for the Trump administration apologized last week for deporting Any Lucia Lopez Belloza on Nov. 22, despite a court order prohibiting such a move that had been issued the day before. “The United States, to its credit, apologized to Any and the court at a January 13, 2026 hearing for what it agrees was a tragic (and preventable) mistake,” district court judge Richard Stearns wrote in his ruling last week. However, “there remains the issue of a remedy.” Stearns suggested that the “simplest solution” would be for Secretary of State Marco Rubio to “exercise his considerable discretion” and grant Lopez Belloza a nonimmigrant student visa so she could continue her studies at Babson “while her immigration status plays out in due course in the appropriate courts of law.” ...
Full story at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2026/01/20/judge-urges-visa-wrongfully-deported-babson-student.
===
From The Guardian: ...At Portland State University, a public university in Oregon, the administration last year cited an $18m budget deficit when it laid off 17 non-tenure faculty members – 15 of them from the school’s college of liberal arts. While the university also laid off dozens of non-teaching staff, and is threatening the jobs of dozens more, it has contracted with Gray Decision Intelligence, a higher education analytics firm, to launch an overhaul of the university’s academic programs. The plan – dubbed “Pivot” – includes selecting academic programs to be “sunset” on the basis of “persistent low demand, weak financial contribution, and limited mission alignment”, according to a 45-page prospectus shared with the Guardian. The review includes “program vitality reports” based in part on an analysis by the software and consulting firm, which offers AI-generated reviews of “student demand, job market trends, and competitor activity” to clients that include more than two dozen private and public universities – including Montclair State – and technical schools.
The union representing Portland State’s faculty is fighting the cuts, and an independent arbitrator last month ordered the university to reinstate most of those laid off. The university initially refused to implement the binding decision but last week, after the Guardian reached out for comment, it reinstated 10 faculty members. Katy Swordfisk, a spokesperson for the university, wrote in a statement to the Guardian that “like universities across the country, PSU is facing a changed landscape for higher education. It is imperative that we review our programs and operations and optimize for the future so that we can continue to serve students and our region.” She added that the process is also responsive to “demand” from students.
Bob Atkins, Gray Decision Intelligence’s founder, said in an email that it does not make recommendations about cuts but rather gives clients “tools and training they use to make better-informed decisions”...
Full story at https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/20/universities-humanities-programs.
No comments:
Post a Comment