Most clicked story of the week:
By 2032, the U.S. labor force will need over 5 million additional workers with at least some postsecondary education, according to a new report from Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce. Of that group, 4.5 million will need a bachelor’s degree or beyond.
Number of the week
6
The number of academic programs the University of Nebraska-Lincoln would eliminate under a proposal from the institution's chancellor. If approved, the move would save UNL $7.7 million — as part of a wider effort to cut $27.5 million from the university's budget by the end of the year.
Consolidation in the sector
- Two North Carolina colleges — Elon University and Queens University of Charlotte — announced their intent to merge. Pending regulatory and accreditor approval, the plan would see the two private universities fully joined by summer 2026 and give Charlotte, the state's biggest city, access to a law school.
- In New Jersey, Kean University received $10 million in state funding to support its pending merger with New Jersey City University. The money, allocated to Kean as part of the state's fiscal 2026 budget, would need to be returned if the merger of the two public universities falls through.
Higher education in the courts
- A wide-ranging group of University of California employee unions and faculty associations sued the Trump administration over the federal government’s efforts to “exert ideological control” over the system through "financial coercion." The federal judge assigned to the case indicated Thursday evening that she was inclined to reverse, at least temporarily, the government's cancellation of hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding that is at the heart of the lawsuit, the Los Angeles Times reported.
- Indiana State University is facing a lawsuit from the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana over its leaders' decision to terminate funding that allowed students to work at a local LGBTQ+ nonprofit. The university said recent U.S. Department of Justice guidance required the move, but ACLU Indiana argued that the guidance was nonbinding and Indiana State had violated the First Amendment.
- Kent State University, in Ohio, scored a legal victory in a discrimination case brought by a transgender professor. A three-judge federal panel ruled that the professor lost out on career opportunities, like a leadership position, because of their “weeks-long, profanity-laden Twitter tirade," not because of bias or retaliation.
