Most-clicked story of the week:

The leaders of two major educator unions — the American Association of University Professors and the American Federation of Teachers — made a case for overhauling the higher education system. Their vision includes making college free and accessible, putting graduates on the pathway to well-paying jobs, and giving fair pay and job security to higher education employees. 

Number of the week: 21

That’s the number of programs that the State University of New York at Fredonia is sunsetting as it grapples with an $8.1 million budget deficit. Enrollment in the programs, which span from minors to graduate degrees, represents less than 5% of the university’s headcount. 

The latest research funding policy developments: 

• The National Science Foundation’s Office of Award Management removed a designation from four high-profile institutions that put their new grant funding on hold after science journal Nature published a story about the situation. Nature obtained agency documents that revealed the note, which read “Future Awards to Organization on Hold,” had been applied to Duke, Harvard, Princeton and Yale universities. 

• The White House proposed new regulations that would create a process for President Donald Trump’s political appointees to cancel and approve federal research grants. The rule stems from an August executive order decried by scientific experts. 

• California’s state Senate passed a bill that would issue $12 billion in bonds to set up a fund for health and science research, including at colleges and universities. The bill aims to support research cut by the Trump administration. 

Yale returns to standardized testing, UC faculty urge system to do the same:

• Yale University, in Connecticut, will begin requiring undergraduate applicants to submit SAT or ACT scores again starting this fall. Yale went test-optional in 2020 and then reinstated some testing requirements in 2024, allowing applicants to submit Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate scores in lieu of SAT or ACT scores.

• Hundreds of University of California STEM faculty are calling on the system’s governing board to require undergraduate STEM applicants to submit SAT or ACT scores beginning in the 2027 admissions cycle. In an open letter, they argue that some students are entering college so unprepared that they have to be taught middle school math skills. UC’s governing board voted in 2020 to eliminate testing requirements. 

• The Washington Post’s editorial board argued that the letter from the UC faculty shows the test-optional movement has resulted in a “predictably disastrous collapse in standards.” The board added, “That experiment has failed badly, and so will other crusades for equity based on false pretenses.”