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Most clicked story of the week:
The University of Chicago nearly slashed its fiscal 2025 budget deficit in half to about $160 million, its leaders recently announced. Earlier this year, the private nonprofit said it would cut from 100 to 150 staff positions and lower its number of doctoral students, among other measures.
Number of the week: 61.1%
The share of students who entered college in fall 2019 and graduated within six years, according to the latest data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. The national college completion rate has held steady above 61% for the past four cohorts.
The Trump administration’s financial impact:
- Northwestern University became the latest institution to cut a deal with the Trump administration to regain access to frozen federal research funding. The Chicago-area university agreed to pay $75 million to the federal government over three years and make key policy changes to have roughly $790 million in funding restored.
- S&P Ratings issued a negative outlook for nonprofit colleges in 2026, citing in part shifting federal policies, including moves to curtail research funding. “We believe that a continued contraction in funding could not only threaten the financial health of institutions across the country, but could also jeopardize graduate and postdoctoral programs, and overall research capabilities,” S&P analysts wrote.
- Meanwhile, Yale University is bracing for layoffs as its leaders expect to pay $300 million in endowment taxes going forward. The university will pay an 8% tax on its endowment’s investment income under the Republicans’ massive spending bill passed this summer, up from the 1.4% rate established in 2017.
What’s the latest in Florida?:
- The University of Central Florida announced it has obtained initial accreditation from the Higher Learning Commission, becoming the first in Florida’s university system to do so following a state law requiring public colleges to change accreditors each cycle.
- In Florida's college system, faculty and instructor unions are challenging a new state requirement that they post their course materials publicly, the Tallahassee Democrat reported last week. United Faculty of Florida President Robert Cassanello voiced concerns that the requirement, enacted in mid-November, would lead to faculty intimidation perpetuated by people looking for “out of context” information.
- The board of Miami Dade College has again voted to give away nearly 3 acres of land for President Donald Trump’s future presidential library. A judge had temporarily blocked the public college from formally transferring the land amid a lawsuit alleging the board broke an open meetings law when it first voted on the matter.
