Straws in the Wind - Part 345

From George Washington University media relations: The university is aware of reports that at Israel Fest..., individuals dropped vials containing an unknown substance, in an apparent attempt to disrupt the festival.

At least one student was injured by this incident, which is now under an investigation that will examine among other things whether individuals were targeted based on their Jewish faith. The university condemns this reprehensible and criminal action. Acts like this have no place in our community, which is a safe and inclusive place for individuals of all backgrounds, perspectives and experiences.

The university, in cooperation with law enforcement as appropriate, will utilize all available avenues to investigate these concerning reports thoroughly and hold any perpetrators who are identified accountable to the fullest extent under university policies and applicable law.

Full release at https://mediarelations.gwu.edu/university-statement-israel-fest.

Straws in the Wind - Part 268

From the Chronicle of Higher Education: ...New York University will begin a new initiative aimed at getting students to spend less time on their phones. It’s called NYU IRL (short for “in real life”), and it spans the university’s Manhattan, Abu Dhabi, and Shanghai campuses, where students will be enticed to enter “device-free zones" ...NYU IRL, which Linda G. Mills, NYU’s president, announced earlier this year, includes new resources for faculty to try “device optimization” in their classrooms, such as making it a featured topic in the university’s faculty learning exchange week, which is happening now. NYU will also host in-person events like a “supper club” in its dining halls.

To mark the beginning of the effort, NYU professor and author Jonathan Haidt is hosting a “fireside chat” early next month to talk through his bestselling book, The Anxious Generation. The 2024 book argues that the rise in smartphone usage in childhood over the last decade has contributed directly to the rise in mental illness in younger generations. Mills cites Haidt’s findings as a major inspiration for the new program...

Full story at https://www.chronicle.com/article/nyu-wants-students-to-put-down-their-phones-will-they.

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From the NY Times: The Defense Department has decided to cut academic ties with nearly two dozen top universities and think tanks as part of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s campaign against what he calls anti-American values and “wokeness.” ...In a video published to social media* ...Mr. Hegseth denounced the institutions in blistering language, calling them politically liberal institutions with “wicked ideologies” that were indoctrinating U.S. service members. He said that, beginning in the new school year in September, the Defense Department would ban service members from attending those universities.

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*https://x.com/secwar/status/2027474502876070386.

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In addition to Harvard, which was banned earlier this month, the Defense Department said the banned institutions would include the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Princeton, Yale, Brown, Georgetown, Johns Hopkins, Columbia, George Washington, Tufts, St. Louis and Carnegie Mellon, as well as the College of William & Mary, Middlebury College and Queen’s University in Ontario.

When Mr. Hegseth cut ties with Harvard, it was seen as part of a wider pressure campaign by the Trump administration to force the university to cut a deal with the government. But some of the universities that were banned on Friday have already agreed to a laundry list of demands from the Trump administration as part of an effort to remake the culture of higher education. The Defense Department said it would also cut ties with seven high-profile think tanks in Washington known for their defense and national security analysis: the Center for Strategic and International Studies, New America, the Brookings Institution, the Atlantic Council, the Center for a New American Security, the Council on Foreign Relations and the Henry L. Stimson Center...

Mr. Hegseth, who served as an infantry officer with the National Guard, graduated from Harvard’s Kennedy School in 2013 with a master’s degree in public policy... The Defense Department said it was considering replacing the programs with those at institutions including state universities and conservative Christian schools like Liberty University and Hillsdale College...

Full story at https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/28/us/politics/pentagon-universities-think-tanks.html.

Straws in the Wind - Part 240

From Inside Higher Ed: George Washington University is pausing admissions to five Ph.D. programs for fall 2026, citing financial hardships. According to social media posts, applicants to the programs received emails last week alerting them that the programs “will not be reviewing applications for the 2026–2027 academic year.” The emails went on to say that their application fees would be refunded and offered them the opportunity to be considered for master’s programs instead. The Ph.D. programs affected are in clinical psychology, anthropology, human paleobiology, political science and mathematics. A university spokesperson attributed the pauses to financial difficulties.

...The suspensions follow other instances of high-profile institutions slashing admissions to Ph.D. programs due to budget concerns, including Boston University, the University of Chicago and Harvard University. In a recent Faculty Senate meeting, GWU president Ellen Granberg asked the university’s schools and divisions to prepare “budget contingency plans” amid declines in applications from international students, the student newspaper, The GW Hatchet, reported. International students accounted for about 13 percent of the institution’s enrollment this fall, a decrease from the previous year...

Full story at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/students/graduate-students-and-postdocs/2026/01/26/george-washington-u-pauses-admissions-5-phd.

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From the Daily Princetonian: ...The University [has] released its annual Report of the Treasurer. Following a tumultuous year for higher education across the country, the report emphasizes the University’s lab partnerships with federal departments, close ties to active-duty soldiers and veterans, and involvement in AI and public service. The report, entitled “In the Nation’s Service,” comes after approximately $200 million in research-specific funding was suspended last year by the Trump administration, then partially reinstated over the summer... 

Princeton spent $283 million in total financial aid contributions in 2024–25 and saw its largest ever number of Pell Grant recipients. Most families that make less than $250,000 per year pay no tuition. The University is potentially facing a new 8 percent endowment tax from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which applies to universities with endowments of over $2 million per student and a tuition-paying population of at least 3,000. 

With a projected increase of financial aid spending to $327 million in 2025–26, there is a possibility that the University will avoid the endowment tax by having under 3,000 tuition-paying students. The University has previously declined to comment on the endowment tax and the number of students that pay tuition...

Full story at https://www.dailyprincetonian.com/article/2026/01/princeton-news-adpol-2025-treasurer-report-emphasizes-princeton-nations-service.

Straws in the Wind - Part 178

From the Columbia Daily Spectator: Columbia is absent from the list of 38 universities facing proposed suspensions from a Department of State federal research partnership program, according to an internal memo... The memo and an attached spreadsheet indicate that the department is looking to suspend institutions from partnering with its Diplomacy Lab program effective Jan. 1, 2026, because they “openly engage in DEI hiring practices.” Diplomacy Lab is an initiative between the federal government and over 60 universities that aims to harness “the expertise and fresh perspectives of students and faculty members to conduct research on key foreign policy topics,” according to an information sheet about the program.

A State Department spokesperson told Spectator that all agency programs are under review to ensure they are aligned with the priorities of President Donald Trump’s administration. The spreadsheet evaluated the hiring practices of 75 universities on a 4-point, color-coded scale... Universities showing “clear DEI hiring policy” were marked red for suspension from the program, whereas institutions showing “merit-based hiring with no evidence of DEI” were marked in green.

...In its July 23 $221 million settlement with the federal government, Columbia pledged not to consider “race, color, sex or national origin” as a factor in its hiring decisions. Columbia has also committed to submitting admissions data to the federal government, beginning with an initial October report...

Full story at https://www.columbiaspectator.com/news/2025/11/23/columbia-set-to-retain-embattled-state-department-research-partnership-as-other-universities-face-potential-suspensions-over-dei-hiring-practices/.

From The Guardian: More than three dozen universities including Harvard, Yale, Stanford and Duke have their participation in a federal research partnership on the chopping block after the state department proposed to suspend them over their diversity, equity and inclusion hiring practices. Last week, the Guardian obtained an internal memo and spreadsheet showing that the state department is moving to exclude 38 institutions from the Diplomacy Lab program, which pairs university researchers with state department policy offices on foreign policy projects. The suspensions would take effect on 1 January, and because the list is not finalized, the schools have not yet been informed.

The targeted schools include elite universities such as Stanford University, Yale University, Johns Hopkins University, Duke University and the University of Southern California, as well as American University, George Washington University, Syracuse University and several University of California campuses. 

Universities recommended to remain include Columbia University, MIT, the University of Michigan, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Virginia and the University of Texas at Austin. Several of these moved to comply with the administration’s anti-DEI demands earlier this year – Columbia agreed in July to pay more than $200m to the federal government and pledged not to use “race, color, sex or national origin” in hiring decisions, while the University of Virginia’s president resigned in June after the justice department demanded he step down over the school’s diversity practices...

Full story at https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/25/us-universities-cuts-dei-state-department.

Straws in the Wind - Part 78

From the Houston Chronicle: The Texas State University System Board of Regents has approved new rules that will temporarily dissolve faculty senates and increase board members' oversight on curriculum and hiring decisions. A vote on Friday made Texas State the first of the state’s seven university systems to adopt changes stemming from Senate Bill 37. The law limits faculty influence and advances a fight against what some Republicans perceive to be a liberal bias in higher education. 

...Faculty members in the Texas State system won't have a formal mechanism for that input until their advisory groups, known as faculty senates, re-start under a new structure in line with the board's rules. The law stipulates that regents can affirm existing senates if they adopt SB 37 before Sept. 1, otherwise they will be abolished on the same date. Texas State did not affirm the existing senates.

...Texas State's board members approved the rules through a consent agenda, without any discussion...

SB 37 clarified that universities have the final say on curricula — though under the guidance of governing boards. The boards’ reviews could pinpoint courses they deem unnecessary for the workforce...

SB 37 puts faculty councils or senates under guidelines set by the board. Faculty will soon have less say in who serves on their senates: New groups will be smaller in many cases, capped at 60 members made up of at least two representatives from each college or school. The university president will appoint one member per school, with the ability to serve six consecutive one-year terms, and the remainder will be elected by a vote of that schools’ faculty. Those members can serve two-year terms, then they must step down from their positions...

Full story at https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/education/article/texas-state-sb37-20808973.php.

From the NY Times: The Justice Department on Tuesday found that George Washington University was “deliberately indifferent to antisemitic discrimination” on its campus, the latest allegation from the Trump administration over a college’s response to discrimination against Jewish students and faculty.

In a letter to GWU President Ellen Granberg, Harmeet K. Dhillon, the assistant attorney general for civil rights, said that the Justice Department would deploy “enforcement” measures against the school unless a voluntary resolution is reached. She requested a response by Aug. 22.

“No one is above the law, and universities that promulgate antisemitic discrimination will face legal consequences,” Dhillon said in a statement.

The Trump administration has sought to reform higher education through investigations into alleged civil rights violations, often relating to antisemitism or diversity, equity and inclusion programs. Critics have said the administration is using antisemitism probes as a pretext to pursue an unrelated conservative agenda. In recent weeks, prominent institutions reached settlements with the administration, including Columbia University, which agreed to pay more than $200 million as part of changes meant to claw back federal funding cut by the administration.

GWU, which was the center of region-wide encampment demonstrations during campus protests against the war in Gaza last year, confirmed that it is reviewing the letter and plans to respond in a “timely manner.” ...

Full story at https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2025/08/12/george-washington-university-justice-department-antisemitism/.

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From the Hechinger Report: ...An exodus appears to be under way of Ph.D.s and faculty generally, who are leaving academia in the face of political, financial and enrollment crises. It’s a trend federal data and other sources show began even before Trump returned to the White House. On top of everything else affecting higher education, this is likely to reduce the quality of education for undergraduates, experts say. Nearly 70 percent of people receiving doctorates were already leaving higher education for industry, government and other sectors, not including those without job offers or who opted to continue their studies, according to the most recent available figures from the National Science Foundation — up from fewer than 50 percent decades ago.

As for faculty, more than a third of provosts reported higher-than-usual turnover last year, in a survey by Hanover Research and the industry publication Inside Higher Ed. That was before the turmoil of this late winter and spring. “People who can get out will get out,” said L. Maren Wood, director and CEO of the Center for Graduate Career Success, which works with doctoral and other graduate students at 69 colleges and universities to provide career help. If the spree of general job-switching that followed Covid was dubbed “the Great Resignation,” Wood said, what she’s seeing now in higher education is “the Great Defection.”

Getting a Ph.D. is a traditional pipeline to an academic career. Now some of the brightest candidates — who have spent years doing cutting-edge research in their fields to prepare for faculty jobs — are leaving higher education or signing on with universities abroad, Wood said.

...A Facebook group of dissatisfied academics, called The Professor Is Out, has swelled to nearly 35,000 members. It was started by Karen Kelsky, a former anthropology professor who previously helped people get jobs in academia and now coaches them on how to leave it. “It’s difficult to overcome the stereotype of a university professor, which is that they’re coddled, they’re overprivileged, they’re arrogant and just enjoying total job security that nobody else has,” said Kelsky, who also wrote “The Professor Is In: The Essential Guide to Turning Your Ph.D. Into a Job,” a second edition of which is due out this fall. Today, “they are overworked. They’re grossly underpaid. They are being called the enemy. And they’re bailing on academia,” she said...

Full story at https://hechingerreport.org/a-great-defection-threatens-to-empty-universities-and-colleges-of-top-teaching-talent/.

Terrell

From Politico: The head of the federal antisemitism task force that has helmed the controversial crackdown on universities in recent months says his team plans to intensify its actions in the wake of the shooting that left two Israeli Embassy staffers dead in downtown Washington. Leo Terrell, a former Democrat and Fox News contributor-turned Department of Justice senior counsel in the civil rights division, is the little-known figure behind the Trump administration’s efforts to target 10 academic institutions across the country over claims of antisemitism...

Harvard isn’t the only school facing the administration’s ire. Terrell’s task force in February announced a list of 10 institutions that it planned to investigate for allegedly allowing antisemitism on their campuses. In addition to Harvard, the universities include: Columbia; George Washington; Johns Hopkins; New York University; Northwestern; the University of California, Berkeley; the University of California, Los Angeles; the University of Minnesota; and the University of Southern California...

Full profile at https://www.politico.com/news/2025/05/23/leo-terrell-trump-universities-harvard-00368352.

More Cuts

From the NY Times: The Trump Administration’s abrupt withdrawal of $400 million in federal funding from Columbia University cast a pall over at least nine other campuses worried they could be next. The schools, a mix that includes both public universities and Ivy League institutions, have been placed on an official administration list of schools the Department of Justice said may have failed to protect Jewish students and faculty...

Harvard University, whose former president Claudine Gay resigned last year following a bruising appearance before a House committee, is also on the list. So are George Washington University; Johns Hopkins University; New York University; Northwestern University; the University of California, Los Angeles; the University of California, Berkeley; the University of Minnesota; and the University of Southern California...

Full story at https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/08/us/columbia-trump-colleges-antisemitism.html.

The Visit

From a DOJ news release of 2/28/25:

The Federal Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism announced that it will be visiting 10 university campuses that have experienced antisemitic incidents since October 2023. Created pursuant to President Trump’s Executive Order on Additional Measures to Combat Anti-Semitism, the Task Force set as its first priority to eradicate antisemitic harassment in schools and on college campuses...

The 10 universities identified by the Task Force are: Columbia University; George Washington University; Harvard University; Johns Hopkins University; New York University; Northwestern University; the University of California, Los Angeles; the University of California, Berkeley; the University of Minnesota; and the University of Southern California...

Full release at https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/federal-task-force-combat-antisemitism-announces-visits-10-college-campuses-experienced.

The 15% Cap - Part 5

From an email received earlier today:

To: Faculty, Graduate Students, Postdoctoral Scholars and Staff

Dear Colleagues:

As you may have already read, the Federal Court in Massachusetts acted quickly to issue a temporary restraining order in the lawsuit that California joined as one of 22 states seeking to stop the National Institutes of Health from reducing their Facilities and Administration (also known as Indirect Cost (IDC)) rates to 15%. The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) along with the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy, the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health, Conference of Boston Teaching Hospitals, and Greater New York Hospital Association took similar steps today and that restraining order was approved by the Massachusetts court as well.

To add to the chorus of institutions in opposition to the NIH reduction in F/A (IDC), the Association of American Universities (AAU), the American College of Education (ACE), and the Association of Public & Land-Grant Universities (APLU) have now filed their complaint and motion for a temporary restraining order. The University of California is a named plaintiff in the lawsuit, along with 12 other institutions (Brandeis, Brown, Caltech, Carnegie Mellon, University of Chicago, Cornell, George Washington, Johns Hopkins, MIT, Penn, Rochester, and Tufts).

It is heartening to see this degree of unity in the higher education sector, across so many different states. We know there is a longer road to travel before this issue is resolved, but we are working overtime on it. And, as you probably also realize, this is not the only issue the University faces. The recent announcement that grants from the Institute for Education Science have been cancelled represents another area of concern and we are tracking/responding there as well.

So as not to take up additional space in your inbox, I recommend that you consult this site for weekly updates on issues in Washington, DC developed by our Federal Relations colleagues: UC Federal Updates website:

https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/federal-updates

Going forward, that will be the best place to find updates.

Thank you, once again, for all that you do for UC. It has never been more important.

Cordially,

Katherine S. Newman

UC System Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs

UC Berkeley Chancellor’s Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Public Policy

Uh Oh Omicron! Are We Going Back to the Future? - Part 3

More universities are reporting outbreaks and changing plans:

Georgetown, GW, NYU and Princeton Change Course

Universities switch final exams and cancel most in-person events.

By Scott Jaschik, December 16, 2021, Inside Higher Ed

Georgetown, New York and Princeton Universities on Wednesday all announced changes in their plans for the close of the semester due to surges of COVID-19 infections on their campuses. The decisions followed Cornell University, which this week made all final exams online because of 496 active COVID cases among students.

Increase in Cases at Georgetown

A statement from Georgetown said, “We are experiencing a notable and concerning increase in COVID-19 cases on our campuses this week, and we are taking several immediate steps to help protect the Georgetown University community. Yesterday marked the largest one-day total for COVID-19 cases within our community, with 34 Georgetown community members testing positive, and the positivity rate on our campuses this week to date, 2.36 percent, is the highest we have seen.” The university is not changing plans for final exams. But it is closing the campus fitness center and requiring all eating to be done in dormitories. “All indoor university-sponsored events on campus, including holiday parties, need to be moved outdoors or canceled, and all other events and social gatherings should be held virtually, ” the letter said.

George Washington University announced that all final exams scheduled for Friday and after would be online only. In addition, it said that faculty members have the right to switch exams today to online only. A letter from the university's president, Thomas J. LeBlanc, and other officials also said that “all in-person social gatherings and events are cancelled.”

“We understand that this news comes at an already stressful time during finals and other scheduled end-of-semester activities. At this time, we have not made any changes regarding spring semester. We will continue to monitor COVID-19 transmission among our community members and in the region and will update you with more information soon,” the letter said.

Source: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2021/12/16/georgetown-nyu-princeton-adopt-changes-because-covid-19.

UC is considering what GWU is abandoning

As blog readers will know, UC is considering a version of the fixed tuition idea.* However, George Washington U seems to be abandoning it. See below:

University to Phase Out Fixed Tuition for Students Entering GW in Fall 2020: Returning undergraduate students and incoming students beginning this fall are unaffected.

August 19, 2019, GW Today

The university announced Monday that it will phase out its fixed tuition program for incoming on-campus undergraduate students beginning in fall 2020.  Returning GW undergraduate students and those entering this fall or spring are unaffected.

“The university is reviewing all aspects of the undergraduate student experience to identify areas for improvement. As part of this process, fixed tuition emerged as a program that is not realizing the potential envisioned, and it has an associated cost that can be put to better use,” said GW President Thomas LeBlanc. “While there will be no immediate impact, phasing out fixed tuition will create discretion in future budgets for the university to continue to improve the student experience.”

During the past few years, GW has worked to incorporate more discretion into its budget, which helps the university better respond to the evolving needs of its community. This flexibility recently allowed the university to, for example, invest an additional $10 million in campus improvements to support a community-oriented culture and benefit the student, faculty and staff experience.

The fixed tuition change will bring the university in line with the vast majority of other institutions when it comes to setting tuition. GW is the only school in its market basket with a fixed tuition program.

GW will be moving to the model of pricing that most other universities are using, with tuition rates set on an annual basis. Housing and dining rates will continue to be set on an annual basis.

The university also will continue to review financial aid packages every year for students receiving need-based financial aid, taking into account any changes in the cost of attendance and adjusting need-based aid yearly. Last year, the university also began setting tuition rates in October for the following year to allow students and families more time to plan for education expenses. The university also will continue its commitment to moderating the overall cost of attendance and limiting tuition increases.

Source: https://gwtoday.gwu.edu/university-phase-out-fixed-tuition-students-entering-gw-fall-2020
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*http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2019/07/predictable-tuition-to-be-mulled-at.html