Good morning, and welcome to Monday, February 10. Rick Seltzer wrote today’s Briefing. Julia Piper compiled Comings and Goings. Get in touch: dailybriefing@chronicle.com.

Kill the golden goose?

The Trump administration moved to cut billions from research funding, drawing howls from higher ed’s biggest names, as our Megan Zahneis reports.

The National Institutes of Health roiled higher ed with a cap on funding for indirect costs, also known as overhead. That’s money colleges, hospitals, and medical centers use to pay for research-related expenses like laboratories, equipment, and staff members.

Indirect funding will be capped at 15 percent of grants’ value, the NIH announced on Friday night, calling it “vital to ensure that as many funds as possible go towards direct scientific research costs rather than administrative overhead.”

• That’s about half of the current average rate. NIH grants average about a 28-percent indirect-cost rate.
• But some research powerhouses are well over 50 percent. Harvard, Yale, and the Johns Hopkins Universities each have indirect rates of more than 60 percent, according to the NIH. Harvard’s is 69 percent.
• The new cap applies to new and existing NIH grants, meaning the system is set to lose money without a chance to prepare.

Colleges have long negotiated their own indirect-cost rates, so their overhead reimbursements vary greatly based in part on what research is done and where. Animal studies and work in urban areas can be more expensive than other types of research, for example.

The NIH benchmarked its 15-percent cap against low rates paid by prominent private foundations. The Carnegie Corporation pays 15 percent, according to the agency. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation pays 12 percent, and the Gates Foundation pays 10 percent for higher-ed institutions.

NIH is only legally required to pay 10 percent, it said, though other federal agencies have a 15-percent minimum. “This rate will allow grant recipients a reasonable and realistic recovery of indirect costs,” the agency said in announcing the move.

The change is expected to save $4 billion for the government each year, the NIH said on X. Last year, indirect funding accounted for $9 billion of the $35 billion the NIH granted for research.

That’s $4 billion that won’t flow into institutions. College leaders have long maintained that the rates they negotiate with the government don’t cover research’s full costs. The even lower rates paid by private foundations are only possible because federal funding pays more, and because private philanthropy funds a relatively small amount of research, they’ve said.

• “It will put working people out of work and reduce healthcare access,” Alondra Nelson, former head of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, posted on BlueSky.
• “This is a surefire way to cripple lifesaving research and innovation,” the Council on Governmental Relations said in a statement. “America’s competitors will relish this self-inflicted wound.”

The depth and suddenness of the change was a surprise. That it was coming shouldn’t have been. Even before he was elected, Trump signaled a willingness to test the limits of executive power to try to realize long-pursued conservative goals.

Indirect costs have drawn scrutiny for decades. To summarize:

• The federal government imposed a 26 percent administrative-rate cap for colleges in 1994, after several institutions were found to have spent money outside of the purpose of grants, Science noted.
• President Obama’s administration discussed the idea of a flat rate to increase efficiency, though it never specified the rate it wanted.
• The first Trump administration proposed a 10-percent cap. Congress never bought into the cuts then, but some Republican lawmakers applauded higher-ed critics who pointed to the likes of shiny marble floors as a sign that wealthy research universities spend too much on unnecessary costs.
• The Project 2025 playbook for Trump’s second term suggested capping indirect costs at “the lowest rate a university accepts from a private organization to fund research efforts.”

Researchers were already reeling from changes at the NIH. Since Trump took office, the agency paused review panels, delaying a key step in grant approvals. It shut down over 20 grant programs for scholars from underrepresented backgrounds.

Expect legal challenges. Institutions that didn’t rush to court to defend diversity, equity, and inclusion work that’s been targeted by executive orders are talking about suing to protect their federal research funding.

The bigger questions: Is this poised to most hurt the wealthy private research universities that conservatives love to hate? Or would it be more damaging to public institutions, which critics fear are least able to perform research without higher indirect-funding rates?

📱The Chronicle listed the colleges most exposed to the cap: Research Universities Are Poised to Lose Billions Under Trump’s Sudden Cut

Trump news dump

• Students reconsider FAFSA: Education leaders say Chicago-area students with undocumented parents are thinking twice about giving the government personal information on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid in light of President Trump’s deportation threats. FAFSA data is shielded by law, and there are no documented cases of parents being targeted through FAFSA data, but college-access organizations are telling students to use extra caution. (WBEZ/Open Campus)
• Democrats locked out of Department of Education: Members of Congress were blocked from entering the department’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. on Friday, during the latest Democratic protest against Elon Musk’s government-efficiency effort gaining access to key federal agencies. An Education Department spokesperson said the lawmakers are at liberty to protest under the First Amendment, but did not have any scheduled appointments. (The Hill)
• Students sue Education Department over DOGE: The University of California Student Association on Friday sued the U.S. Department of Education, alleging it violated privacy laws in light of reports that it disclosed the sensitive personal information of students, their families, and student-loan borrowers by allowing Musk’s team to access federal financial-aid systems. (Public Citizen)
• Top Democrat asks for data-security investigation: Rep. Robert C. (Bobby) Scott, the ranking member of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, asked the Government Accountability Office to evaluate the security of information-technology systems at several federal agencies, including the Education Department, amid reports that sensitive systems were accessed by Musk’s group. (Education & Workforce Committee Democrats)

Quote of the day

“We have to maintain our values as it relates to diversity, equity, and inclusion.”

— Robert J. Jones, chancellor of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and incoming president of the University of Washington

The values behind DEI are sound, Jones told The Seattle Times. The language colleges use, and the ways they talk about those values, may have to change, he said.

The bigger question: Was that so hard? Whether or not you agree with what he said, credit Jones for speaking clearly about institutional values in light of President Trump’s DEI crackdown. Many top college leaders who aren’t changing jobs have been silent.

Quick hits

• Connecticut employees want chancellor out: The senate representing faculty and staff members at the state’s community colleges overwhelmingly passed a vote of no confidence in Terrence Cheng, specifically asking for the chancellor’s removal. Cheng has been accused of profligate spending on chauffeured rides, expensive meals, and housing across the border in New York, even as the system he leads faces large budget gaps. The community-college senate does not include employees at four state universities that Cheng also leads. (CT Insider)
• UNC-Chapel Hill board warned away from athletics: The University of North Carolina system’s president, Peter Hans, suspended some of the authority that the flagship’s Board of Trustees had over athletics. Hans said his office must approve hiring or salary adjustments for most athletic employees, that trustees shouldn’t be part of such negotiations, and that he’d need to sign off on large athletics purchases. The move follows reports that trustees sought to recruit Bill Belichick, the university’s new head football coach, separately from the athletic department’s search. (The Assembly, The Chronicle)
• Email accident gives med-school hopefuls false hope: University of Utah officials had to issue corrections after emails went out last week telling 1,200 prospective medical-school students to apply for financial aid. Most of the recipients weren’t actually accepted, and some had already been rejected. The university won’t finish accepting and rejecting students until March 15. (The Salt Lake Tribune)

Stat of the day

29

That’s the number of “large loss incidents” that cost colleges $2.5 million or more in 2024, according to the insurer United Educators. Top causes for claims include sexual misconduct, discrimination, Title IX violations, breach of contract, and accidents.

Institutions are facing a larger number of high-cost claims recently, United Educators found. Its annual large-loss report tallied claims worth $500,000 or more as recently as 2021, but it moved up the threshold to $1 million in 2023.

The cost of lawsuits has been rising faster than inflation rates, according to the insurer.

State of the states

• More punitive DEI rules floated in Texas: One bill would beef up the state’s ban on diversity, equity, and inclusion to remove exceptions that protect coursework and creative work, and it would require institutions to submit compliance reports. Another would bar universities from offering certificates and degrees in DEI or LGBTQ studies and fire and blacklist employees who teach such subjects. Meanwhile, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board wants to guarantee state grants for low-income students who graduate in the top quarter of their classes. (The Texas Tribune)
• Should lawmakers confirm college presidents? An Idaho bill that sought to give state Senators confirmation power over the presidents chosen to lead four-year public colleges drew flak from both Democrats and Republicans in a committee hearing, as lawmakers worried about logistical concerns and its potential to dissuade qualified applicants. It was returned to its sponsors, who can refile or rewrite it. (Idaho Education News)
• Arizona Republican pushes to cut presidents’ salaries: Presidents of the state’s public universities would have their salaries capped at $500,000, plus the potential for 15-percent performance bonuses, under a newly filed bill. Currently, the three universities that would be affected each pay more than $700,000, plus benefits and bonus. (The Arizona Republic)
• Pennsylvania governor seeks performance-based funding: Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, has proposed holding existing funding lines flat for the state’s most prominent public universities. But he’s calling for a new $60-million pot of performance-based funding that would award money in exchange for universities meeting goals like producing graduates in high-demand fields. (WPSU)
• Colorado YIMBYs suggest housing on college-owned land: State Democrats introduced legislation that would allow religious institutions, public schools, and public colleges to build housing on land they own, regardless of local zoning. The bill, in the spirit of the “yes in my backyard” movement that counters development opposition, comes amid high concern about housing shortages. (The Colorado Sun)

Comings and goings

• Elizabeth R. Cantwell, president of Utah State University, has been named president of Washington State University.
• Beong-Soo Kim, senior vice president and general counsel at the University of Southern California, has been named interim president after Carol Folt’s retirement.
• Andrew Rich, dean of the Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership at City College of New York, has been named president of Franklin & Marshall College.

To submit a new-hire announcement, email people@chronicle.com.

Footnote

Talk about a high-stakes test.

December 11 fell on finals week last year at Miami University of Ohio’s branch campus in Hamilton, outside of Cincinnati. An adjunct faculty member collapsed as he was about to enter a building for an exam. Two students performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation, or CPR, until first responders could arrive.

Reed Stewart, a junior nursing major, and Brayden Osborne, a sophomore pre-nursing major, didn’t know each other before the instructor collapsed. They performed chest compressions to the rhythm of the Bee Gees hit “Stayin’ Alive,” which is an oft-taught strategy for getting the timing right.

Osborne was left wondering whether he’d succeeded that day. He called area hospitals to try to check up on the instructor, but couldn’t find him. Osborne was struck that medical professionals help people in distress, only to be left wondering “if what they did will even save them,” according to a university write-up of the incident.

The instructor survived, emailing thanks several weeks later.

“After I read that in the email, it hit me what I had done,” Stewart told the university.

What an uplifting report card to receive.