Daily Briefing

Good morning, and welcome to Thursday, February 13. Rick Seltzer wrote today’s Briefing. Julia Piper compiled Comings and Goings. Get in touch: dailybriefing@chronicle.com.

Very high research, redefined

The revamped Carnegie classifications of colleges have been hotly anticipated since the American Council on Education took on management duties and promised changes. Part of the wait is over.

New Carnegie classifications of research universities debut today with much clearer criteria. Gone is the complex system in place from 2005 to 2021, which evaluated 10 different variables and sorted institutions into equally sized groups. The new system has clear cutoffs:

• Research 1: Institutions that spend at least $50 million each year on research and development and award at least 70 doctorates.
• Research 2: Institutions that spend at least $5 million on R&D and award at least 20 doctorates.
• Research Colleges and Universities: This new group has been created to recognize institutions that don’t traditionally focus on Ph.D. production, such as tribal colleges and baccalaureate-only campuses. Those that make at least $2.5 million in R&D awards, but aren’t in the R1 or R2 groups, qualify.

“Before these updates, it was not clear what was required for institutions to earn a research designation,” Mushtaq Gunja, executive director of the Carnegie Classification systems and senior vice president at the American Council on Education, said in a statement. “This confusion created distractions and unproductive competition between colleges and universities.”

The changes also mean more institutions get recognized for their research, even as some drop out of status they previously held. There are now:

• 187 R1 institutions, compared to 146 under the 2021 classifications.
• 139 R2s, slightly outnumbering the 133 previously recognized.
• 218 RCUs receiving new recognition.

Stay tuned for more. New research designations are only part of what’s been promised. Due in April are much-teased classifications reflecting colleges’ impact on students’ economic mobility.

The bigger picture: For all of higher ed’s talk about student access and earning potential, the pursuit of R1 status drives many of the country’s wealthiest and most prominent institutions. Clearer R1 qualifications won’t stop colleges from competing with one another, but they could remove some perverse incentives caused by shifting criteria that left leaders constantly looking over their shoulders.

📈For more from The Chronicle: The Revamped Carnegie Rankings Are Out. Here’s How Universities Fared.

Trump news dump

• Now Title IX doesn’t cover NIL: The U.S. Department of Education on Wednesday yanked guidance the Biden administration published just before it left office that would have required colleges to evenly distribute their name, image, and likeness dollars between male and female athletes. Craig Trainor, acting assistant secretary for civil rights, called the Biden guidance burdensome and not supported by the law. (U.S. Department of Education)
• Trump picks under secretary for higher ed this time: In his first administration, President Trump never appointed an under secretary to oversee colleges. But now he’s chosen Nicholas Kent, a former deputy secretary of education in Virginia and chief policy officer at Career Education Colleges and Universities, which lobbies on behalf of for-profit colleges. The Senate would have to confirm Kent. (Inside Higher Ed, U.S. Department of Education)
• DOGE temporarily fenced out of student-loan data: The Education Department has agreed to keep Elon Musk’s government-efficiency effort from tapping into sensitive information including student-loan data until February 17. The deal gives a judge time to consider a temporary restraining order sought by the University of California Student Association. Similar cases challenging DOGE’s access to sensitive data in other federal agencies have so far resulted in a mixed record. (Politico)
• Rethink institutional neutrality? The American Association of University Professors urged colleges “not to hide behind the pretense of remaining neutral” in the face of the Trump administration’s sweeping changes. But the group also released a statement saying an institution’s decision on whether to speak up should be made with an eye toward “practical results, not to some empty conception of neutrality,” arguing academic freedom neither requires nor inherently conflicts with institutional neutrality. (AAUP)
• Republicans split on cuts hitting home states: Sen. Katie Britt, of Alabama, was among the first Republicans to raise concerns about the Trump administration’s budget-cutting, saying she doesn’t want to hinder research at institutions like the University of Alabama at Birmingham. On the other hand, Sen. Bernie Moreno, of Ohio, supports cutting the National Institutes of Health’s overhead-funding rates even though his state is receiving more than $1 billion in NIH research grants. Sen. Ted Budd, of North Carolina, has suggested colleges need time to adjust to federal-funding changes. (The New York Times)

Join us, catch up, and catch your breath

The Trump administration’s first weeks have been a whirlwind for the journalists whose job is to cover the news, let alone the professionals who have to keep up while juggling other duties.

The Chronicle is hosting an online discussion of Trump’s first weeks in office. Your Daily Briefing scribe will sit down with Sarah Brown, news editor, to field your questions, talk about the big trends, and help you make sense of it all.

Interested? Here’s what you can do:

• ✏️ Sign up to attend: Click here.
• 📋 Tell us what you’re seeing. Fill out the form here.
• 📧 Submit questions and comments: Do so when registering or by emailing dailybriefing@chronicle.com.

Quick hits

• U. of Utah president suggests faculty discussion broke state law: President Taylor Randall cut off professors who tried to raise concerns about the university’s provost at a virtual Academic Senate meeting last week, citing a state law that limits the faculty body to discussing issues like curricula and instruction. Some professors backed a resolution alleging that Provost Mitzi Montoya has deceived faculty members, threatened those who disagree with her, and overridden faculty decisions on retention, promotion, and tenure. Randall supported Montoya as “tackling some of the most critical and complicated issues” the university faces, but she did not speak during the meeting, despite being seen on camera. (The Salt Lake Tribune)
• University lawyer’s tenure legislation puts him at odds with board: Steven Lovett, a tenured business professor who is the general counsel of Emporia State University, in Kansas, came up with legislation lawmakers are considering that would limit tenure protections in the state. Emporia State’s board opposes the bill, which comes after laid-off professors sued university officials, including Lovett, arguing they were denied due-process rights afforded to them by their tenure status. A spokesperson for the institution said it “respects Mr. Lovett’s constitutional rights and freedom of expression.” (The Chronicle)
• HBCU swatter sentenced: Alan W. Filion, 18, of Lancaster, Calif., has been sentenced to four years in prison for making hundreds of threatening calls intended to send first responders to homes and institutions. Prosecutors detailed calls targeting a historically Black college in Florida in May 2023, as well as calls directed at a Florida religious institution, a public high school in Washington, and a federal law-enforcement officer in Texas. They alleged Filion advertised his swatting services as a business online and bragged about his calls. (U.S. Department of Justice)

Comings and goings

• Matt Wetstein, president of Cabrillo College, in California, will retire at the end of the year.
• Ande Durojaiye, vice president for regionals and dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Applied Science at Miami University, has been named vice president for strategy and partnerships.
• Jack Callahan, senior vice president for operations at Yale University, will retire this year.

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

Footnote

There was a time when people would tell you to go to college so you didn’t spend your life flipping burgers. But some researchers log a lot of time at the griddle anyway. Only they flip pancakes.

Washington State University food scientists have been searching for a healthier hotcake. They tried swapping out the standard refined flour with various portions of whole-grain buckwheat, quinoa, millet, and whole-wheat flours in hopes of finding more nutritious recipes that aren’t flavor flops.

It sounds like many flapjacks were harmed in these experiments. The team determined that millet flour had to be pre-cooked before it could be added, for example.

“We found that it basically just crumbles,” Girish Ganjyal, a professor and food-processing specialist in Washington State’s School of Food Science, told a university publication. “There was no binding.”

So is there a more perfect pancake recipe? Unmodified buckwheat, quinoa, and whole-wheat flour can be added to pancakes, according to a paper the researchers published in the journal Cereal Chemistry. But “further research on the optimization of the pancakes with alternative grains, based on their functional properties and pancake sensory assessment, is recommended.”

The hunt for a better breakfast continues.