Most clicked story of the week:
Temple University in Philadelphia plans to lay off 50 staff members to reduce a previously projected deficit of $60 million down to $27 million. The layoffs represent nearly 1% of Temple’s workforce and are part of a larger reduction of 190 positions across the university that were largely eliminated through attrition and cutting vacant roles.
Number of the week
41,000
The number of Tennessee high school students set to receive automatic acceptance letters to two- and four-year colleges in the fall as part of a new state direct admissions pilot. The program will include financial aid information for about half the high school students to test whether that boosts their chances of enrolling.
Government pressure on universities:
- The U.S. Department of Justice announced a new probe into George Mason University, the fourth from the Trump administration in roughly three weeks. The latest investigation aims to conclude whether the Virginia public university discriminated in its admissions process and scholarships. It will also look at the university’s handling of campus antisemitism. The probe follows other investigations scrutinizing George Mason’s diversity efforts.
- Amid the investigations, George Mason’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors blasted the institution’s governing board, issuing a vote of no confidence over what it described as an “inadequate and deeply troubling” response to the Trump administration’s attacks on the university and its president.
- As the Trump administration applies pressure to a widening cohort of universities, the first to come under fire — Columbia University — struck a deal with the feds. Under the settlement, Columbia will pay $221 million to settle the government’s probes into the Ivy League institution, including claims that it didn’t do enough to protect Jewish students from harassment.
- Many in the higher education sector expressed dismay over the deal, with one Columbia professor saying it “legitimizes the federal administration’s extortionist tactics” and “erodes the academic autonomy that has made American universities the envy of the world.”
Campus antisemitism in the spotlight:
- An Israeli researcher sued Stanford University for allegedly being subjected to a hostile work environment and fired because he is Jewish and Israeli. A university spokesperson said Stanford found through a “thorough investigation” that the allegations the plaintiff reported directly to the institution were unsubstantiated.
- A new study from Brandeis University found that just 3% of non-Jewish faculty members hold views about Israel that would fit definitions of antisemitism put forward by Jewish groups. Less than 10% of faculty said in a survey that they actively taught about the Israel-Palestine conflict, despite intense media and government attention to campus protests.
