Straws in the Wind - Part 233

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.

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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.

Straws in the Wind - Part 164

From Inside Higher Ed: An independent arbitrator ordered Portland State University to reinstate 10 faculty members after determining the university violated its collective bargaining agreement with the Portland State University American Association of University Professors, Oregon Public Broadcasting reported.  The faculty senate in April voted no confidence in the administration’s “Bridge to the Future” plan to address an $18 million budget deficit, and the vote “underscores the fact that the university made its layoff decisions before it had sufficient evidence to support them. That is a violation of the collective bargaining agreement,” the arbitrator wrote in her decision. 

PSU-AAUP filed a labor grievance after the university laid off 17 non-tenure-track professors at the end of the 2024–25 academic year as part of its plan to close the deficit before the end of the spring term. The remaining seven employees declined to grieve their layoffs... 

The union contract requires university officials to follow a specific, lengthy process to lay off faculty members for economic reasons—as opposed to eliminating courses or programs—which the arbitrator determined they did not do. Portland State is considering an appeal...

Full story at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2025/11/13/portland-state-ordered-reinstate-some-laid-faculty.

From the LA Times: The University of Southern California is in the throes of its most aggressive cost-cutting drive in memory — a grinding period of financial austerity that has shaken the university’s moneyed reputation and raised doubts among faculty and staff about the school’s ability to sustain itself as a top-tier institution. Aiming to eliminate a budget deficit that ballooned to more than $200 million, the private school has cut nearly 1,000 positions, or almost 4% of its workforce.

Faculty and staff said that the layoffs have been especially stressful because they have been ongoing for months, although the university said last week that they are nearly complete — and that as many as 200 of those who lost their jobs could find new positions at the school. Other cost-saving measures have included restrictions on discretionary spending, such as travel for conferences...

Full story at https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-11-12/usc-layoffs-cuts-deficit.