Most clicked story of the week:
Last week marked the one-year anniversary of President Donald Trump retaking office for a second term. Almost immediately, he and his administration unleashed chaos on the higher education world, along with many other sectors of the economy and American society. Higher Ed Dive took a look back at the first year of Trump 2.0, as told through eight especially significant numbers.
Number of the week: $79 billion
That’s how much the Senate and House Appropriations committees would allot to the Education Department in discretionary funding for fiscal 2026. The figure is a hair above the department’s 2025 levels and considerably larger than the $66.7 billion budget that the Trump administration requested. The House passed the bill with the agency’s budget on Thursday, while the Senate is expected to do so this week.
More pushback against Trump administration in the courts:
- The University of Pennsylvania rebuffed the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s demands for detailed records of Jewish employees amid the agency’s civil rights investigation into the Ivy League institution. The agency made the demand despite privacy concerns and employee objections, disregarding “the frightening and well-documented history of governmental entities that undertook efforts to identify and assemble information regarding persons of Jewish ancestry,” the university said in court documents.
- A federal judge blocked the Trump administration’s cancellation of TRIO grants, which provide support for middle school through college students from disadvantaged backgrounds. The Education Department must “take all necessary actions and steps to reconsider” grant cancellations and issue new determinations on whether the grants would continue, the judge wrote.
- Another federal judge concluded in a final ruling that U.S. State Secretary Marco Rubio and other administration officials chilled speech and discriminated based on viewpoint by detaining and deporting college students because of their political speech. The judge ordered that the original immigration status be reinstated for those affected unless it expired or the person committed a federal crime after September.
- The administration also abruptly dropped its appeal in a lawsuit against the Education Department’s controversial and sweeping Dear Colleague letter issued last year that threatened funding against education institutions over race-based equity programs. Abandoning the appeal signaled that the department is stepping back from trying to enforce the policy.
Quote of the week:
“Uncertainty around research funding, immigration and international engagement, academic freedom, and student aid policy are shaping institutional decision-making and straining long-term planning efforts.”
American Council on Education
That is the finding from a recent pulse survey of college leaders conducted by the American Council on Education. A full 98% of those leaders reported that federal policymaking has introduced uncertainty into institutional planning. Top among their most pressing concerns is state and federal interference with colleges’ autonomy and academic freedom.
